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Liam Payne has met his soulmate.
He knows he has, because he woke up with his power this morning.
Problem one: he has no idea who his soulmate is. He saw a ton of people last night, because it was the introduction party for the uni he is now attending. He’d talked to at least a dozen people, and he’s unsure on what counts as ‘meeting’ your soulmate, because it might just be someone he’d bumped into on his way to the loo.
Problem two: his power seems to be that he can read minds.
💭💭💭
Harry is the first one to notice, because he’s Liam’s assigned roommate and he’s in his first class. He watches Liam rub at his temples in the morning, watches him shake his head before he’s even asked the question. “No,” Liam says, “it’s not a headache.”
Harry blinks and then thinks oh shit, except Liam only realises that he’s thought it and not said it when he sees that Harry’s mouth hasn’t moved.
“Did you just think oh shit?” He asks, and there’s a flurry of thoughts then, before Harry very deliberately thinks about kittens.
“Oh shit,” Liam says. “I can read minds.”
💭💭💭
The first person he tells is Niall, because he’s known Niall for years now, and Niall would tell him if he thinks that he’s going crazy. Or he would think it loud enough for Liam to pick up on, at least. Niall cracks a grin and a joke, asks him “what am I thinking of now,” and Liam makes a face.
“Don’t ever think about that again when you’re near me,” he warns, and Niall cackles loud enough for the entire class to hear.
💭💭💭
They are meeting up with Zayn and Louis for lunch, and Liam does have a headache at this point, because people are loud. Not outwardly, though some definitely are, but they have so many thoughts. Thoughts about failure and fear, of wanting to fit in, and so much sex. Oh my God, there’s so much sex in people’s thoughts.
It’s weird, because that’s not Liam. He doesn’t spend a lot of his time thinking about sex, so he knows that it must be someone else’s thoughts when he finds himself in the middle of class and he’s suddenly thinking of bending the cute TA over the desk. Which, gross. Because first of all, she’s their TA and second of all, Liam is not into women, and third of all, objectifying women like that, fantasizing about fucking her when she’s just there in a professional capacity, is making him feel all kinds of dirty.
It’s Zayn who sits next to him, cocking his head. “You okay?” he asks, and Liam feels a little warmth in his stomach, because he only met Zayn yesterday and already he asks, already he feels concerned. It’s sweet, and Liam knows that he was right to like him last night. They’d had a long conversation about superheroes and comics, spending their time on the fringe of the festivities, and it had felt natural, like he’d known Zayn before.
He wonders if that means Zayn is his soulmate. “I got my power last night,” he says quietly, watching Zayn’s face for any kind of recognition, for joy or maybe even sadness. Not that he thinks Zayn would be upset if he turned out to be his soulmate, but he can’t be sure. He doesn’t even know if Zayn is into men.
“You did?” Louis butts in, sitting on the other side of Zayn. He’s Zayn’s best mate from back home, Liam remembers, though they hadn’t talked much last night. “That’s cool. What’s your power?”
Liam makes a face. “I think I can read minds.”
There’s silence for a moment, Louis appraising him. “Oh, wicked,” he says, but Liam can hear his voice saying something else in his head. A clear and distinct Damn. He’s going to know exactly how everyone feels about him. This is going to end up being a nightmare.
“I’m sorry,” Liam says quietly. “I hope I get the hang of it, if there’s a hang to get. It sort of feels like I’m violating everyone, because I can’t help it.” He makes another face. “Though with the things that some people in here are thinking, I’m the one that should feel violated.” He shudders, and Zayn laughs.
But Louis doesn’t. He just looks at him, and then at Zayn, and frowns deeply.
And Liam hears it again. Clear as day.
God, I really don’t like that guy.
💭💭💭
Everyone is careful around Liam.
Except Niall, who just delights in asking Liam what am I thinking about now, as if it’s some party trick. Liam humours him, because at least Niall doesn’t seem worried about the private thoughts he might have access to. He seems to be the way he’s always been, an open book. He’ll still cuddle Liam and let him share their thoughts, and sometimes, when Liam is overwhelmed, he will think of songs and let Liam listen to the music in his head.
Harry tries to teach him yoga, tells him about mindfulness and clearing his brain. It doesn’t work for Liam, but it works for Harry, so Liam likes spending time in their room with him. For hours on end, there’ll be quiet, only his own thoughts in his head, and Liam thinks he really lucked out with his roommate.
Zayn tends to read a lot when they spend time together, and Liam will close his eyes and listen to the voice in Zayn’s head, that sometimes mixes with his actual voice when he reads a certain passage out loud. He likes spending time with him too, and even though he sometimes still wonders if he’s his soulmate, Zayn doesn’t say anything about having developed a power.
So Liam is lucky, with his new group of friends.
Well, bar one.
Because Louis has made it very clear that he does not like Liam. Not by saying the actual words, no, but he thinks them, very loudly, whenever Liam is around. Almost like he does it on purpose, like he wants Liam to know, to make a scene about it when he’s being so friendly to him. Liam is almost tempted to, but he doesn’t want to give Louis the satisfaction, nor the chance to tell him that he’s being invasive, gaining access to his private thoughts.
So he just mostly tolerates him, he will act nice but not try to develop a friendship with him, which is a little awkward when him and Zayn are so close, and him and Harry seem to get on so well, but all in all, it’s a lot better than he expected uni to be. Even if he still has headaches and he still gets overwhelmed in class, to the point where he’s so grateful that people will share their notes with him. He gets teased a bit about having ADHD, and he wishes it were that simple, that he could just take some medication and it would be fixed.
💭💭💭
“That’s fucking rad,” Zayn says, and Liam can hear Niall’s voice before he even enters the common room.
“Do me next!”
“Who’s doing who?” Liam says, as he walks in, and Niall looks up, beaming at him. Louis looks up too, but he looks mildly impressed and Liam just catches the tail end of a thought: why can’t I get a break from him?
“Lou’s got his power,” Niall exclaims, showing him a drawing of a dragon that’s clambering up his arm, settling somewhere around his elbow, its tail wrapped around the bone. “His drawings move.”
Liam hovers a bit by the door, wanting to come in and inspect, but not wanting to be there at the same time, when Louis makes it so obvious that he’d rather see him go. “That’s sick,” he says softly, managing to make it sound sincere.
Louis’ eyes meet his, and suddenly Liam hears his voice in his head, quietly whispering something, muting the “thanks” that Louis actually says.
God I wish I could kiss him.
“What-” he stutters, taking a step back, rocking on his heels. “What did you say?”
Louis blinks, and Zayn frowns, looking from one to the other. “I just said thanks,” Louis says, a little hurried and snippy, but there’s a flush staining his cheeks, and he looks away quickly. Fuck, Louis thinks loudly in Liam’s head. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
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“Louis, can we talk?”
No, Louis thinks, loud and clear and panicked. “Sure,” he says, casual in a way that Liam would believe if he hadn’t heard the thoughts in his head. And he hates that. He hates that he’s intruding on private thoughts, that he wants to step away and excuse himself because he doesn’t want to make Louis uncomfortable, and it’s clear now, that he has.
“Do you really dislike me that much?” Liam says, when they’re alone in his room and Louis is pacing the floor, counting his steps very loudly and deliberately in his head.
One, two, three, four- does he really not know? - fuck. Five. Six.
“I’ve only ever been nice to you,” Louis says.
Liam snorts. “Out loud, sure.” He says, and Louis falters in his steps, whirls around to look at him, and there’s anger there, yes, but Liam can sense the underlying panic, even without having to listen to the thoughts in his head. The frantic counting, that’s interspersed with snippets of thoughts. Look at him and so stupid and Jesus he’s so pretty, and he almost wants to smile but he also feels like crying.
“I’m sorry,” Liam says. “I don’t know how to turn it off. I know that it’s horrible and invasive.”
“You know Zayn got his powers the same night you did, right?” Louis interrupts him, and Liam frowns for a moment, wondering why Louis is bringing up Zayn when oh. “Yeah,” Louis continues. “He didn’t tell me for the longest time, but I knew. I’ve been his best mate for years. Of course I knew. All of a sudden he’s really good at Math? Not the Zayn I knew. Like, don’t get me wrong, as far as superpowers go, it’s a bit lame, but, he got his powers. You know what that means.”
Liam bites down on his lip. “You think Zayn’s my soulmate.”
Of course he’s your soulmate. Look at you, Louis thinks, and Liam waits for him to say something, even though they both know that Liam has heard the thoughts. “It makes sense,” Louis says, and Liam catches the unfortunately that Louis can’t quite force down.
“I don’t think Zayn’s my soulmate,” Liam says, and it’s only when he says the words out loud that he realises how true they feel. He likes Zayn, yeah, gets along well with him, but it’s just as mates. There’s no big feeling of coming home that he’s heard you’re supposed to feel when you meet your soulmate. “I mean, I got my powers after that big event. It could be any one of the people I ran into that night. It could be you.” He doesn’t really mean that, but he’s not prepared for the huge flicker of hope he can feel radiating off of Louis, before his thoughts just turn sad and wordless.
“I didn’t get my powers until later,” Louis says. I think, he adds on, looking away guiltily from Liam, as though that will prevent him from knowing.
“You’re not sure,” Liam says, and Louis makes a frustrated noise.
“I hate when you do that.”
“Is that why you’ve been thinking all those mean things about me? They really hurt, you know. Especially because I thought you were nice, when we met that night.” Liam sits down on his bed and Louis finally gives up on pacing, as though he knows the jig is up.
“I don’t like you being in my head.” Louis says.
“Is that a reason to dislike me? It’s not like I’ve asked for this. It’s not like I like it. I hate it. It’s invasive and wrong and I’d give anything to turn it back off, but I can’t.” Liam says, feeling himself get a little heated. It’s only the look of contrition on Louis’ face that makes him lower his voice. “Listen, I’m not asking you to like me. You either do or you don’t. But you don’t have to be mean about it. You can try to keep your thoughts to yourself, and I will try my hardest not to listen to them. Our friends are friends now, and I don’t want anything to fuck that up. So if we can just be civil, that’d be great.”
Louis looks at him. “You’re so stupid,” he says, and Liam almost laughs at that.
“Well, at least your thoughts matched your words for once,” he says bitterly. “I’ll give you that. Not exactly what I asked for, but if that’s the road you wanna take, it’s fine by me.”
The eyeroll he gets from Louis is impressive. “Jesus,” he says. “I was sure that you caught on to what I was really thinking, but maybe I was wrong,” he looks at him, pensively. “Why’d you come and talk to me?”
It had been so quiet, that thought. Almost missable, if it weren’t for the words. If it weren’t for the voice he’d heard those words in. He’d have been less surprised if it was Niall, and Niall’s as straight as an arrow. He looks at Louis, and Louis looks back at him, almost challenging. “You thought about wanting to kiss me,” Liam says, and he cringes because what if Louis laughs at him, what if he says that Liam is insane and he’d never-
“So why are you talking about how we don’t have to like each other, we just have to be civil?” Louis asks, almost dryly, though there’s a nervous buzzing to his head, his fingers fidgeting with Harry’s bedspread when he’s finally sat down. “While at the same time talking about how maybe I’m your soulmate. I mean, jeez, mate, I know I’m being confusing, but talk about conflicting messages here.”
“You really do my head in,” Liam says.
Louis snorts. “Well, same.” He challenges, before deflating a little bit. “You’re not my soulmate. Soulmates are supposed to feel all lovey dovey, and half the time I’m around you I just want to strangle you.”
“I’m pretty sure soulmates are at least supposed to like each other,” Liam agrees. “That’s like, a base requirement.”
But Louis just huffs at that. “Oh my God, do I really have to say it? Or can I just think it? Of course I like you, you - you watermelon.”
The insult takes Liam by surprise, and he can’t help the giggle that escapes him, and there’s a small smile on Louis’ lips, something soft and warm that never quite makes it into a fully fledged thought in his head.
“I just thought you liked Zayn. And I thought Zayn liked you.” Louis admits, chewing on a fingernail. “And with both of you getting your powers that night, well, I wasn’t going to stand in the way of true love, was I? So yeah, I thought bad things on purpose. I didn’t want to make it awkward by thinking about how much I’d like to kiss you, especially when you said that the thoughts some people had made you feel violated.” He glances up at him through his lashes. “Like, you’re well fit, of course people are going to think about how much they want to kiss you, and probably other things too, and like, that sounds awful to have to deal with, and I would feel violated too, hearing people think those things about me, so I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t do that. That I didn’t like, I don’t know. Sexually abused you in some weird, fucked up way.” He shrugs. “Especially if you liked my best mate.”
“Which I don’t,” Liam says numbly, because the rest is a lot to deal with, a lot to process.
“Which you don’t, but I didn’t know that. It wasn’t until after you walked out this afternoon, when Zayn called me on it, asked me when I got my power, and I really don’t know. Like, I don’t go around drawing on people, or myself, or even on paper. So it could’ve been at that party, I don’t know. I didn’t want to talk about it, not with Z, but he made me, and then he told me that I was a goddamn idiot, and that I should just talk to you and let you know that I’m into you, because, he said, even if we aren’t soulmates, we could be something.”
Liam hums. “But you said that you still want to strangle me half the time. How does that work?” He tilts his head. “Have you been forcing yourself to think rude thoughts for so long that they’ve actually started to feel real? Did you gaslight yourself into disliking me?”
Louis chuckles at that. “God, I don’t know. I just know that you do my head in. Like, you’re so kind, and you’ve been so kind to me, even though you knew what I was thinking, you never let that on, you always took the high road, and it’s just been infuriating.” He makes a face at himself. “Maybe I’m just the kind of guy that still reverts to playground rules, and I pulled your pigtails hoping you’d finally snap, and then at least I’d get your attention. I don’t know, Li, I just- you confuse me.”
“Well, I think that’s at least mutual,” Liam says, and he notes, with perfect clarity, how warm he feels inside at Louis calling him Li. “What does this mean though? Like, I think we’re pretty clear on the fact that me and Z aren’t soulmates. Or if we are, it’s the platonic kind. Because there’s love there, yeah, but not romantic love. Is this, are you, would you want to be my soulmate? Because you’ve been pretty dismissive of it so far, but what if you are?”
Louis gives him a tired smile. “Well, either way, it’d be nice to have to stop safeguarding my thoughts every time I’m around you.” He says. “I mean, I don’t know about anything else. Like, you haven’t even said what you think about me.”
“Well, up until earlier today, I mostly just thought you were a dickhead.” Liam says, and he’s surprised when it comes out a little teasingly. “And I didn’t know what I’d done wrong to deserve you thinking those thoughts about me. So I can’t say that I really liked you all that much, mostly because you didn’t give me a chance to like you.” He gives him a small smile. “So maybe we can just start over?”
Louis swallows. “Yeah?” He waits for Liam to nod and nods too. “Yeah, I’d like that. Hi, I’m Louis, and I can be a bit of a dickhead.”
Liam chuckles. “Hi, I’m Liam, and apparently I can be a real watermelon.”
💭💭💭
God, I wish I could kiss him.
It’s months later, and Liam pulls Louis in against him, the two of them cuddling on his bed. He places a featherlight kiss behind his ear. “Y’know,” he whispers. “You don’t need to think those thoughts anymore.” He tangles their fingers, brushes his thumbs over his boyfriend’s knuckles. “You can just ask me instead.”
Louis chuckles and turns around in his arms. “Kiss me,” he murmurs, a mischievous smile on his face. Liam doesn’t realise why, until he hears Louis’ thoughts, loud and deliberate. You big watermelon.
Liam snorts. “Rude,” he mutters, but he leans in to kiss Louis all the same.
-fin-