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Louis turned the key and opened the door to the flat. He carried a few bags stuffed with things and food he thought that could be useful for what he had planned to do and he got slowly aware of the mass he had bought and that he could never use it all. He carefully put them on the floor and stepped out of his shoes. One of the little packets on the top of one of the bags was about to fall because the bag wasn't well balanced on the ground and Louis reached out to save the flowers from hitting the floor and braking their necks. Still caught up by the thought that the string of colourful, bright flowers was nearly the only thing he couldn't replace by another item of his shopping tour and that it was all the same with every important and meaningful thing in life, he heard the sound of a closing cabinet door.
“Harry, are you here?”, he asked into the silent corridor.
There was another wooden sound like doors only sounded when Harry tidied up or when ghosts played jokes on him and as the ghosts had stopped it after he had asked them once kindly, he was almost sure that his husband had changed his plans for the day and had decided to stay in the flat, trying to relax and finally giving up when doing nothing and watching the mess growing even without Louis' presence, although he had sworn once again and for the very last time that he wouldn't care any more if these rooms were to sink in chaos, just had become too much to stand, so that he was cleaning and tidying up for an hour and he had just finished it by putting some clean and not used clothes back into the cabinet from where they had been laying on the floor for the last four days.
Louis heard a dump sounding sigh mixed up with a small smile that Harry failed to cut out of his voice.
“No, I'm not.”
The answer was quite ironical and the man still standing in the corridor could have easily responded in a teasing way. Actually he had won the unspoken bet between the boys that Harry couldn't deliver on his threat this time as he couldn't every single time before. Unfortunately everyone had been sure about that so that it wasn't a big success for Louis. Even Harry could never have denied it properly if someone would had asked him, though he had certainly tried to give his face a very serious expression that would not have been convincing at all.
Well it was damage that the ghosts seemed to be back again but if Harry told him he wouldn't be there, Louis had to believe him even though it meant he needed to convince the ghosts again to be quiet and not to make the mess all over the flat grow without a reason. He was the one being punished by threats like the one Harry had uttered about one and a half day ago. He also was the one being punished by Harry but that was a completely different thing that he wouldn't concentrate on now. Not with ghosts in the flat, it was none of their business and he didn't intend to ever let it get theirs.
At least it meant he could prepare everything without ruffle and excitement and he would be ready until Harry came back from doing whatever he had told him he'd do today when Louis had been too tired to listen properly or to even understand the meaning of silently yawned words.
“Alright. Have fun then”, Louis called back and carried the bags into the kitchen to sort all the stuff he had bought.
When he had finally taken the last piece out and there was barely no space on the counter any more, he sighed and tried to imagine what he should do or with what he should at least start. The flowers caught his eye again because he wanted them to look perfect and to give them water would probably be a good idea since they couldn't get some by their own. It was also good to put the food he had brought out of the fridge and into the oven. The takeaway should be warm not cold. But Louis didn't turn the oven on because he had promised to Niall that he would asked him about everything he wanted to do concerning the kitchen before he did it and especially the oven was strictly forbidden.
Humming a melody that stuck in his mind since the morning, he started working.
~
In the meanwhile Harry stayed in the bedroom and was confused.
Louis hadn't come to say hello yet and that was definitely not usual. Maybe he just didn't get what was going on, that would be possible as well. He patted on the bed and stood up.
When he made his way out into the corridor, he heard Louis humming something random that wasn't even a song and Harry loved these little melodies that he hummed absently without even noticing that they slowly turned into something very different than what it had been before. His melodies were beautiful. But beside the sound of Louis' voice, Harry's brain was occupied by thinking of possible reasons why he didn't get a proper hello by his husband.
When he made his way to the kitchen, Louis came out of the room just at that moment. He noticed Harry who looked at him expectantly but all he received was a non-binding smile and a short blink before he passed by without hesitation, without giving the impression he would stop to bring that stupid farce to an end.
Harry's face dropped.
He couldn't remember to have done anything wrong. Why did Louis ignore him? He didn't get it. What had happened without him knowing about it? What was happening here? Was he just too dump to understand the joke? A joke that was certainly not really funny.
After resting a few second motionlessly, he slowly started walking after Louis into the dining room.
“Louis?”, he asked hesitantly.
Harry saw a kind of amusement shining in Louis' eyes.
“Didn't you want to go to the city today?”, he asked kindly but without any real interest in his voice.
“Yeah...”, he answered but Louis was out of the room before he could even think about what he wanted to say.
Harry stared at the table his view lost on the little boxes Louis obviously had just put down. He appeared again, just a few seconds after the young man was frozen again in his movement trying to understand what he didn't get.
“Please get out of here, yeah?”, Louis asked, “that would be nice.”
Again, his voice sounded kindly but a bit reserved as he wouldn't really know him.
Harry nodded without a word and stepped out of the room and back into their bedroom where he lowered himself slowly and thoughtfully onto the bed. He searched frantically for the reason of Louis' strange behaviour towards him and tried to ignore the slight feeling of hurt in his chest.
He was frustrated.
~
Louis smiled.
The table looked wonderful.
He was excited what Harry would say if he could see that. He would see it when he came back from the city. And hopefully it would be a perfect surprise.
~
“Niall?”, Harry asked when he got his call. He wasn't in the mood to talk. He just wanted to lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling and wait until something changed. That means until Louis came in and cuddled him and stopped his confusing and incomprehensible behaviour.
“Hey Harry”, Niall answered cheerfully, “How are you?”
“Yeah, I'm fine.”
“That's great. How's the shopping?”
Did they seriously want to play jokes on him?
“I'm not in the city”, Harry replied slowly and emphatically. Maybe he wasn't speaking clearly enough today.
“You're not?” Niall sounded surprised. “Lou just told me you had wanted to go there.”
Harry could have screamed. What was their problem? What was his problem? Why seemed nobody to get him today? He breathed in and out to gulp the urge to shout out at his friend who couldn't help it, actually.
“Are you alright? Do you've got a cold? You shouldn't go shopping then. It's still very cold outside and seriously Harry, if one of you gets ill that will pass between the two of you like a ping-pong ball. We had it so often and in the end you're fine again and Liam or I will have to go around with it for weeks. That's not fair, don't you think? You should really think more about us!”
Harry covered his face in his hands. He simply couldn't believe that.
“No, thank you but I'm fine”, he said dully from beneath his hands.
“Well you don't sound very healthy though”, Niall said. “Anyway, have fun. See you, Haz.”
Harry just nodded in response, too exhausted to give a real answer but Niall had already hung up without waiting for what Harry had perhaps wanted to say. Obviously he wasn't really important today.
Where had been the sense in that phone call? Another thing he didn't get today. Not important, it was just not important.
How beautiful the ceiling was. Maybe, if he just watched it long enough he would see what apparently everyone saw.
He liked the bright white of the ceiling. What an exhilarative colour.
Harry sighed.
~
“Hey Ni?”
“Yeah, what's up Louis?”, came the slightly annoyed answer, the sound a bit blurred by the phone.
“What are you doing? Am I disturbing you?” Louis was not sure about it. Niall had promised his help and he could almost fully remember himself telling Niall that today was the day of the big surprise. He hoped Harry would like it. Sometimes he thought that his husband liked almost everything he did but thinking of that made him realize again how unrealistic and impossible it was.
He heard Niall letting out a small huff like something had fallen onto his feet.
“Niall?” he asked a bit worried about his best friend. But not too much. It was Niall at least.
“Yeah, wait a second,” he said and after some time while Louis listened to Niall's very communicative breathing, he heard definitely the clank of something that sounded like masses of dishes that had just fallen to the ground, followed by a few murmured Irish words that sounded like cursing but Louis wasn't sure about that. To him, nearly everything that Niall said when he was speaking Irish sounded like cursing.
Suddenly there was Liam's voice, very low through the phone.
“Guys, this can't be too hard. Why can't we just find this thing without anyone of you killing himself by boxes falling onto his pretty head? Niall?”
“Oh, maybe cause the great Mr. Payne doesn't even know himself what he's looking for in this stupid cellar! It's hard to look for a phantom, you know?” Niall shot back.
“Come on. That's mean. It's just this room we have to look through. Zayn, why are you sitting again? I asked for your help!”
Louis sat down on the couch, he decided to just enjoy the show until there was the right moment to step in before they would start fighting in earnest. They had shows to do, they couldn't bother with someone having to sew his head back onto his neck. Scars on necks don't look too nice and Louis knew how hard they are to cover up.
He heard Zayn answer then, closer to the phone than Liam was.
“Because I'm trying to ignore the other three rooms full of boxes we would have to go through if you really asked us to help you looking for... a thing. Things are nice, you know. But those rooms feel just so heavy on my shoulders.”
“For God's sake!”, Liam spat, “Why are you so damn ignorant! I'm looking for it. I need your help!”
“Nini,” Louis interrupted them quietly.
“Oh, yeah, sorry. What's up?”
“Take Liam and Zayn with you. They can go with Harry to the city and keep looking for a new one of that mysterious something. And you help me with the oven.”
“The oven!”, Niall sounded like he had just slapped himself for forgetting that he had planned to come over today. “Boys, get your asses up. We're going.”
“Niall!” Liam said indignantly and disbelievingly and like he wanted to go on in this tone about how he had asked them to help him and how he had counted on them and that he didn't want to be always let down.
“Liam”, Niall said warningly and then, towards Louis as his happy normal self: “We're coming.”
Louis sighed in contentment. The table was set. He just had to send Zayn and Liam to bring Harry back home while Niall helped him warming up the food.
~
Harry was tired of waiting. He was annoyed and he was confused so much and he was a bit sad as well but he didn't allow himself to be because he just didn't want to. This all was so illogical. He was pretty sure that this one was one of the bad days only because people don't communicate enough and there seemed to be only mismatches today.
Harry was even more confused when he heard Louis' cheerful voice saying hello to his too loud three best friends. He heard only Zayn and Niall but he was sure that Liam was with them. There had to be something good about it. He prayed that Liam was with them.
A smile started to lighten up his dark facial features as he had heard Liam's warm and soothingly vibrating voice under the bright, smiling ones of Niall and Louis and Zayn's sounding like honey and smoking. But his face fell again when he heard Louis rambling about that they had to bring back Harry cause he had wanted to go to town and he didn't know where he was. He heard him saying goodbye to Liam and Zayn and he wondered how he could not have known what a confusing and bad day it would become when he had gotten up this morning with a smile on his face because of the sun drawing pattern in Louis' soft hair, just like she had wanted to feel its softness as Harry could feel it whenever he'd touch it. Before he could get lost in his memory and probably become happy again, the door opened and Zayn and Liam stepped inside with wide grins on their faces that meant nothing good.
“Come on, Hazza”, Zayn smirked at him, “Niall told us that you'd planned to go in town today. You can help Liam and me looking for a thing.” He shot Liam a look whose face showed a frown again because he seriously was looking for that thing. It was not his fault that he had forgotten the name.
“A thing”, Harry repeated slowly. He was not aggressive, not at all. But it were times like this when he felt the urgent need to shout at someone or something. Anything would be enough. If he could just shout.
“Yes,” Liam stepped in. “I'm sorry, I forgot the name but I'm sure we'll find it.”
Harry sighed. He felt old. When had he sighed so much during one day for the last time?
When they were passing the open kitchen, Harry in line between Liam and Zayn like a children in between its parents, he looked at Louis, trying to tell him that he wasn't buying the trick he tried to play on him. But Louis just turned his back towards him, gesticulating about anything he couldn't see and Niall had the courage to wink at him.
The idea of wanting to pay it back to them started forming in his mind when they sat him in the car and turned on the music, loud like they'd all be enjoying this trip. He wasn't. And they knew it.
~
One and half an hour later Liam dragged Harry and Zayn into a shop for kitchen supplies what earned him a dumbfounded look from both equally like they wanted to ask him why he couldn't tell them earlier that he was looking for something to use in a kitchen. While they were looking around for the thing Liam had seen twice already on their way through town, he dialled Niall's number and waited for him to accept the call.
“Yes please, Horan here, how can I help you?”, he said in a mocking voice.
“Hey babe. I just wanted to ask how long you'll need? I found the thing but wanted to wait until you text me to come back. Are there any problems?”
“You're great, you know that? Yes, a few. Like. We have a new plan but we're nearly ready so you could probably head back. Just pick me up around the corner. I'm afraid that Harry will kill me if he gets near to me today again.”
“Okay. But you're alright?” Liam asked again. He wanted to make sure. You couldn't do that enough if it came to Louis being in the kitchen. And a new plan sounded close to a burned house.
Niall catched his thought but calmed him immediately: “Yes, we're alright and the house is as well. The food Lou has bought tasted gross, don't know where it's from so we decided to cook. He cooked.”
Liam wanted to laugh out loud so hard because... Louis cooked? But he couldn't, Harry was already staring at him with a death glare. “Okay. See you in fifteen minutes then.”
Liam went to a shelf and grabbed a cheese grater.
“I've found it!”, he exclaimed happily.
Zayn looked at him with inscrutable eyes like he knew exactly what all this was about. He knew it, for sure. But had it been really necessary to make such a big deal out of it?
Harry just looked at him. Like he wanted to jump on him. Like he imagined a very delicious way to make Liam regret this. To make all of them regret this.
“Liam”, he said in a low voice, his deep timbre being on the edge of threatening.
Liam gave him an innocent look though he felt as it wouldn't work properly. He was not made for this like the other boys were.
“Liam”, Harry repeated, even darker now, “Liam, we have exactly this fucking cheese grater twice. Why didn't you just ask me to give you one?”
“I didn't know you have one -”
“Two!”, Harry said, anger making his jaw look even sharper.
“Yeah, two. I forgot the name Harry. I couldn't help it. And I didn't know you had one.. two of that.” Liam said pleadingly.
Harry just snorted. He didn't believe him. Of course he didn't. “Let's go home”, he said and they headed back to the car, Liam and Zayn following this time like scolded children, while on Zayn's lips played a faint smile. When they stopped in front of Louis' and Harry's flat he climbed out of the car and said a short good bye but at least he sounded not that angry any more.
Liam drove around the next corner where Niall was waiting, grinning and completely careless. When he got in next to Zayn they shared one glance and knew that they had to make Harry angry and bothered like that again. It was too much fun.
~
Harry opened the door and was met with silence. He watched himself in the mirror for a minute. He would talk to Louis now. He had no will to let him play jokes on him any further. He just wanted to know what he had missed or why the whole world seemed to be against him today.
“Louis?”, he called out quietly while walking towards the dining room. He pushed the door open and was met with a beaming Louis.
“You're home. How was your day? Did you have fun?”, he asked with a shit eating grin on his face. Harry frowned. But before he could letting out his confusion or even better, run straight to Louis and let him cuddle him happy again, his eyes took in the room which was lighted up by candles on the table and a beautiful dimmed lamp they had bought cause it made the room so wonderful comforting and warm. On the table waited some pasta and he saw the flowers that Louis had bought.
“Lou”, he breathed and looked at him with shining eyes. “You did that for me?”
“Yes”, Louis answered and looked secretly proud of himself.
“Oh god that's so amazing, you're so so lovely. Thank you!” Harry exclaimed and went to Louis, hugged him long and tight and when Louis leaned up for a kiss he beamed and kissed him, lips caressing Louis' carefully but barely holding back the joy he was feeling.
When they were laying in bed that night, Harry nuzzled into Louis' chest and Louis stroking over his bare back, over his arms, dancing his fingers over Harry's stomach now and then, just to feel his heartbeat flutter when his breath caught in his throat due to the sudden, feather light contact, making up for the loss of love he had given his favourite boy in the world today, Harry sighed and looked up at him.
“It's been a perfect surprise. Thank you so much, Lou”, he mumbled.
“Of course it was perfect, I did it.”
Harry smiled heavily, his eyes shining and his cheeks getting a bit pink because he was so happy and content and comfortable and he loved that boy so much. “You're right”, he said.
Louis looked a him a bit taken aback. “It was a joke”, he stated, unsure about himself as he always was. Harry only hummed and this smile that Louis loved so much on him didn't leave his face when he leaned up and kissed him, still smiling and Louis loved it, loved that he was the reason for this smile and loved the feeling of being kissed when he could feel it settling down deep in his stomach, filling him up with love and happiness and a warmth he'd never want to miss again in his life.