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Harry needed three tries, a healthy kick and a lot of wiggling the key around to get the door open. Zayn had warned her when she’d shown up at his and Liam’s door before sunrise this morning to pick up the keys and wave them off on their honeymoon. “The landlord said you gotta push the upper right corner while turning the key and lift it up a bit”, which had sounded far easier than it actually turned out to be. But after a lot of huffing and puffing Harry finally managed to get it to unlock and pushed it open, stepping into the unfamiliar flat. Behind her she could hear Louis mutter a faint “finally!”
“Um so”, she said, turning around to see Louis struggling with three stacked buckets of paint and an assortment of brushes and paint rollers dangling precariously on top of them. “I think we’ll just put everything in the living room and then decide where to begin?” Without waiting for an answer she took off down the narrow hallway and into what was going to be the living room when Liam and Zayn came back from their honeymoon on Lanzarote and moved out of their old flat and into this new one. The kitchen and bathroom wouldn’t need to be painted as they had tiled walls but in the remaining three rooms the walls had turned from what must have been white once to a dull light grey. It was a nice flat though, not very big, but with high windows the warm spring sun was shining through and polished smooth hardwood flooring that was just perfect for sliding across it in fuzzy socks.
“You know when I said to pass me your share of the buckets I meant for while you unlocked the door, not for the rest of my life.” Louis had followed her into the room and was disposing of her heavy load, complaining a lot more than necessary.
“Last week when I didn’t want to go for a run with you, you physically dragged me out of bed and carried me around the block three times, babe.”
“Exactly, that was a week ago when I was still young and agile, plus carrying you oaf permanently damaged my spine. My back just isn’t made for heavy lifting anymore.”
“Alright nan, I’m very sorry for thinking you were still fit. Wanna help me with the drop cloths, then you can go on a coffee run while I do the tape?”
Louis nodded and went over to grab one of the corners of the drop cloth from Harry which was really just a tattered old bedsheet they had got for a pound from a charity shop. They spread it over one corner of the room, repeating the process a few times until the floor was covered and Harry dismissed Louis. “Iced, yeah? And can you get me a second straw?”
Louis sent her a judgmental look. “One day I’ll break up with you just to get away from your weird coffee preferences”, she said before leaving the flat.
*
By the time Louis got back Harry had finished securing the bed sheets and covering the skirting boards and window frames with painter’s tape.
“Here, alien girl, your iced poison.” She handed over the drink with a grin, wiping the condensation that had transferred from the cup onto her hands on her jeans. “Even got you two straws and everything, I’m really quite thoughtful.”
“Cheers. Right let’s get started then. Just pick whichever wall you like”, Harry ordered and walked over to their supplies to pick out a large paint roller. When no reply came from Louis she turned around again and only just managed not to drop her drink. Louis was in the middle of changing out of her jeans, one honey coloured leg already bare, the other still stuck in the tight fabric. It wasn’t like Harry had never seen her like this, in fact she’d seen her in much less this morning in the shower (she was a big believer of saving water by showering together) but give a girl a warning. In the time it took her to close her mouth where it was hanging wide open Louis had exchanged her skinny jeans for a pair of paint splattered track bottoms.
“Sorry, forgot to change earlier and didn’t want to ruin these”, Louis offered as an explanation for her impromptu striptease, her face the picture of innocent if it hadn’t been for the small sparkle of her eyes. “I’ll start by the door, you start by the window?”
Harry only nodded, grabbed her paint and got to work, her mind an endless loop of why is my girlfriend so hot and why does she want me dead .
“You know”, Louis began again, she had never been a fan of working in silence. “We always said we’d do this together in our own flat, remember? We were drunk off our tits after hooking up at some boring freshers thing. You had known me for about an hour and promised we’d move in together one day and paint one wall in rainbow colours.”
“Well, was I wrong?” Harry thought back to her first year, first week even, of uni with a fond smile on her face. Back to the messy tequila flavoured kisses and how Louis had just laughed when she had drunkenly rambled on about their future.
“Don’t know, maybe I’ve got memory issues but I distinctly remember our kitchen walls being a very boring white when you made me burn the bacon this morning because you wouldn’t stop pestering me.”
“Yes but you still moved in with me!”
“After you lured me into your bed with false promises, sweetheart. This relationship is built on nothing but lies and depressingly colourless walls.”
And that was their banter done with because Harry erupted into giggles, as she always did when Louis was joking with her. At least she didn’t bark out her weird seal laugh this time, as everyone who had ever heard it liked to refer to it, that counted as a success. What wasn’t a success though, was when she bent over still giggling and put her hand on the freshly painted wall beside her, coming away with her palm white all over. It was in that moment Louis chose to bend in a particularly delicious way, her black t-shirt pulling tight over her chest and Harry came up with a genius idea. She put her other hand on the wall too after she had made sure Louis wasn’t looking and moved it around a bit until her palms and fingers were all well covered in white paint. As quietly as she could she snuck across the room, right up to where Louis was still rolling her paint roller up and down the wall.
“Hey Lou”, she leant forward and whispered into Louis’ ear who spun around immediately and found herself with two big paint covered hands on her boobs.
“Harry, you absolute tit!” Louis shrieked and tried to get away.
“No, a tit is what I’m currently holding in my hands.”
Harry barely had time to react before Louis reached for the wall behind her, dragging her fingertips through the paint and smearing them right across Harry’s face. But before she could do any more damage Harry had drawn her in moving her hands to the small of her back. She rubbed their cheeks together and they made a squelching sound with the paint between them. Louis’ hands instantly came up to her hair and oh Harry was so going to kill her if she got paint in there but Louis seemed to be aware of that when she dropped her hands again, rose up on her toes a bit and fitted their mouths together. The kiss barely lasted long enough to enjoy before it turned into an attack because Louis dropped her hands and dug in, tickling like her life depended on it.
“I swear to God Louis- I swear to fucking God if you don’t- stop that right now I’m sleeping on the couch for the rest of my life.”
*
When dinner time rolled around Harry could barely keep her eyes open as the early morning start began to take its toll on her, while Louis seemed chipper as ever, chatting nonstop while they moved around the room. Like the adults they were they had let a very serious game of rock, paper, scissors make the decision who had to pick up the keys from Zayn and Liam’s before they left for the airport at a quite frankly brutal time but in retrospect Harry maybe should have brought out her best pouty puppy face and convinced Louis to go instead. As it was, she hadn’t and now she was almost falling asleep still standing up, the fact that they had spent a solid eight hours painting with only a quick break for more coffee and sandwiches which Louis had gone to get not really helping. The mind reader that she was Louis seemed to have noticed and put her paint roller down on a bucket lid decisively.
“Want to call it quits for today, love? There’s only two walls left and we can easily do those tomorrow, they should still be dry in time for us to do a second coat sometime this week.”
Harry only nodded and let the roller be pried from her hands and put away wrapped in cling film, while she looked on, mind blank and body tired. It only took a few minutes until everything was sufficiently prepared to leave it overnight, so Harry shuffled towards the front door and put on her shoes but Louis called after her.
“Um can you…can you like, hang back a second? I just need to uh…go and check something, I’ll be back in just a moment, ok?”
Without waiting for an answer Louis took off down the stairs, her fast steps echoing loudly in the stairwell as Harry stood by the door with a confused expression on her face. She had just closed her eyes leaning her head against the doorframe when the loud steps returned and startled her out of her thirty second snooze. Louis came back with a large sports bag under one arm and a picnic basket under the other, and a smile so wide her eyes were crinkling around the corners.
“Surprise! We’re having a dinner and sleepover date night right here, right now!”
“Lou”, the name came out so soft it had a reverent sound to it. “You remembered date night?” It was a tradition they had, on each Wednesday of the first week every month they would go on a date, be it dinner or seeing a play or going to the seaside for a walk on the beach and today was that Wednesday but with first Zayn and Liam’s wedding on the weekend, the long day and now the painting Harry had completely forgot about it.
“God, you’re perfect, I love you”, she breathed and closed the gap between them, pulling Louis in by her shoulders and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “The very best girlfriend in the world, the galaxy even, I love you and your brilliant brain. But how did you get all this? I would’ve seen it on the bus this morning if you’d had it then, I’m sure!”
“I had Niall bring it over, promised I’d buy him a pint next time we go to watch the football and he is as reliable as he is predictable. Shower then dinner then sleep?”
Louis being Louis didn’t wait for her answer again and simply steered her towards the bathroom but Harry didn’t mind, enjoying being taken care of in her sleepy state. They both rid themselves of their paint stained clothes outside the bathroom, leaving them on one of the bedsheets that were still spread out on the floor and stepped into the shower at the same time. The water was the perfect temperature right away, not like at their own place where it sometimes took a good few minutes for it to stop fluctuating between icy cold and boiling hot. Before the water could get it wet Louis rose up on her tip toes and tied up Harry’s hair in a small bun with one of the hair ties she always kept on her wrist to do just that.
They had already had a shower this morning so there wasn’t much need for another one if it hadn’t been to the spots of paint on their faces and all up their arms. There was nothing sexual about it when Louis asked Harry to turn around and began soaping up her shoulders, giving her a gentle massage and then scrubbing the paint off her skin as gently as possible. “Shut your eyes, love”, she instructed and Harry obliged, soon feeling soft fingers trying to free her face of the dots of white and blue.
*
“Alright, where do you want to sleep? The kitchen is a bit small but the other rooms stink of paint.”
They had both dried off and were back in the living room, standing over their little pile of supplies when Harry had an idea. “There’s a balcony isn’t there?”
She could see the cogs turning in Louis’ head, knew exactly what she was thinking: Wouldn’t it be cold? Well it was May so probably not. Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable? No more than on the floor inside. What about rain? Nope, nothing on the weather forecast this morning. Definitely the better alternative to sleeping inside and getting a headache from the paint fumes.
“Now who’s the brilliant brain?” Louis beamed at her and tugged her closer against her where she had an arm around her waist. “My sleepy genius”, she added, her voice carrying an attempt at mocking but laced with endless fond.
It didn’t take long to turn the small balcony into something resembling a pillow fort, one blanket on the stone tiles, the other strung up between the railing and the door, and the two sleeping bags unzipped and arranged with a bunch of pillows on one side. Louis sat down first, scooting back until she was propped up against the railing, and making a small hand motion for Harry to come sit between her legs. For a moment they just sat like that, Louis’ arms around her, pressing soft kisses to her neck and hair, when Harry’s stomach grumbled loudly and Louis laughed into her ear.
“Alright sleepy, let’s get some food in you then. Grab the basket?”
She did as she was told, unbuckled the leather strap that was holding the two halves of the cover together, opened it up and gasped. “Lou!” Inside was a small mountain of food consisting entirely of Harry’s favourite things; salad with pieces of grilled chicken on top, fresh bread, chocolate cake and a massive Tupperware of cubed fruit. “I know I just told you but you’re the best, honestly”, she squealed with delight and immediately set to work on the food.
When the food was gone and their bellies full Harry once again felt like she could fall asleep on the spot. With a yawn she nestled into Louis’ chest and pulled one of the sleeping bags over her shoulders. The ground was softened enough by the layer of blankets to be comfortable, the warm breeze carried the smell of the magnolia trees up to the balcony and the sounds of the city slowly grew quieter as Harry inched closer and closer to sleep.
“Love, we need to brush our teeth. Come one, it’ll only take a minute.”
“No, you love me enough to deal with my morning breath just once. Sleep.” Her voice was barely above a whisper at this point, the words slurred just the tiniest amount.
“We’ll see about that but alright, sleep tight, I love you.”
The reply was entirely unintelligible at this point but Louis knew what it was supposed to convey.
*
Harry woke up to the sound of cars passing by on the street below, bright sunlight shining directly into her eyes. Squinting, she turned over to see if Louis was awake but the sleeping bag on that side had no one inside it and was neatly rolled up and stuffed into its little bag already. Inside the flat she could hear movement, so she pushed herself up from her cosy nest to investigate. Louis was just stepping out of the bathroom, dressed in normal clothes not suitable for painting and with her hair freshly washed.
“Did you really get up early so I couldn’t attack you with my morning breath?”
“That and I finished the last room, washed out the paint rollers, cleaned up our dishes from last night and then made brunch reservations for that café in Notting Hill you love so much. If you get dressed while I take down our nest on the balcony we can get going right away.”
“I love you, I love you, Lou, I love you”, Harry squealed and threw herself into Louis’ arms that were already waiting for her. Morning breath be damned she pushed their lips together in a kiss that might have turned heated if Louis hadn’t stopped her with a soft chuckle.
“Love you too but brunch reservations, remember? We have the whole day afterwards for love declarations and whatever else you have in mind.”
As perhaps the biggest brunch enthusiast in all of England Harry didn’t need a lot of convincing to quickly put on the clothes she had arrived in yesterday, tame her curls into looking at least somewhat presentable and brush her teeth. Louis met her in the hallway with her hand outstretched and together they stepped out of the flat.
“Hey Lou? When we get married I want to paint our flat ourselves and I want that rainbow wall we talked about.”
“You haven’t even proposed to me yet.”
“I will though!”
“I know you will and you know I’ll say yes.”