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“Oh God, not again,” Louis groaned as his iPhone scanned and found yet another Evee standing a foot away from him. As if he needed another one, Louis’d already caught four of them in the last ten minutes alone. After scanning his general vicinity for another Pokemon that he hadn't already caught numerous times, he gave up with a sigh and decided that he'd better incubate some eggs in his down time. He sighed- wondering if the distance was worth it. What's a mile or two if it means a hatched egg though, really? Selecting the egg he wanted, Louis mounted his skateboard and took off.. He could walk, but...Patience was a virtue that Louis certainly did not feel like accessing at the moment, and he could use the exercise, anyways. Skating down the sidewalk, Louis alternated between checking his phone and looking up to make sure he wasn't about to run into a pole or a human or something. Pokemon Go was fun, but maybe not worth a broken limb (Maybe…). However, just as he was coming around a little bend in the pavement, a buzz came from his phone, alerting him that a Pokemon was nearby. Obviously Louis had to check it- he didn't clear his whole day so he could not catch ‘em all. In the three or so seconds it took for Louis to find the creature he needed to catch, a tall, broad-shouldered noodle of a man appeared right in front of Louis, seemingly out of thin air. Swerving did virtually nothing, seeing as the guy was about six inches away from Louis’s board. With a scraping noise and a great huff Louis sailed off his skateboard, knocking the tall man to the ground as well. “Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't even looking,” the man said to Louis as they had started to pick them selves up from the ground. “You're sorry? I was on my phone and I was the one riding the board,” Louis replied, picking his flower-printed SnapBack from the sidewalk and putting it back on. The lanky man-noodle stood up, shook out his hair, and reached a hand out for Louis to help him up. “Really though, I could have moved but I was too busy looking at this weird Pokemon thing…”
Louis’s head shot up to make eye contact with the man who… Had truly gorgeous green eyes. Like emeralds or something, really. Simply an observation. “Wait, you're playing Pokemon Go, too? Mate, I've been playing for like three or four hours today.” A brilliant smile slowly slid onto the stranger’s face, exposing a dimple on each cheek, which, well- all right then. Whatever. “Yeah,” he laughed and held up his phone to show the Pokemon map scanning the street corner the stood on. “I've been playing for like twenty minutes, but like- I'm kind of confused and I don't really know what's going on.” A scrunchy confused face made an appearance and made Louis sort of want to scream. “Do you know what team you're on?” Louis asked. “I'm just on level two so I haven't picked yet, but that guy over there told me to choose Yellow team,” he responded, pointing at a blonde guy cracking up on the opposite side of the street while enthusiastically trying to catch a water Pokemon. “Yellow?” Louis spat incredulously. “How on earth are you supposed to have any dignity while being on team Yellow? C’mon now, you've got to choose Red if you're gonna get anywhere in life.” The other man laughed bashfully, turning a little red (ha) himself. “I don't really know what I'm doing, um, sorry- what's your name?” It was then that Louis realized that he had actually asked the man what Pokemon team he was on before his name. He was such a nerd. “’M Louis,” he said quickly. “You?”
“Harry,” the other man, Harry, replied simply. “Do you know what to do when you get the animal’s power-ups, or whatever? Like, I know you throw the ball at them but”- it was at this exact moment that Louis realized that when Harry said he didn't know much about the game, he really meant that he literally knew nothing at all about Pokemon in general. Which, honestly, how? But, no matter how much of a disgrace to the name of Pokemon this boy was, he was also bloody gorgeous (and had dimples, for Lord’s sake) , so Louis decided he'd better mentor him in the ways of Pokemon. For his own good, not just because Louis could see little bits of tattoo through his light yellow, half-buttoned button down shirt. “Here, let me show you. You see this pinkish snake looking thing? That's called Ekans. Now tap on it, see…”
After a successful tutorial on Pokemon 101 by Louis, Harry had blossomed with his new knowledge. Not only did he actually understand what he was doing, but he actually thrived on it- repeatedly shouting “I wanna catch ‘em all!” whenever he found a new Pokemon. Basically nothing could distract him from his noble quest to catch ‘em all, except, well- Louis. The problem was that every time Louis caught another Pokemon or leveled up, tiny crinkles appeared by his eyes and he would get overly excited, his smile seeming to make the already lit-up air around them extra sunny. When he talked to Harry, he kept using his left hand to push up the little bits of soft fringe that would slide out of his hat. Oh, and also- the absolute worst- whenever Louis’s phone would vibrate to alert him that another Pokemon was nearby, his would stick out a hand to notify Harry and softly bump him in the arm.
But sometimes it would go a little too much to the side and Louis’d hit his chest or something, and it just sort of felt like a little angel dressed in vans with a skateboard in his backpack had kissed him right where Louis had bumped him. And it's like, get a grip, Harry, you're not still a fifteen year old who's never been touched before. But also like, oh my god he's so pretty. Because Louis was so pretty, and there's no one in the whole world who could blame Harry for thinking it because it was true.
So, anyways. Pokemon.
About two and a half hours had passed since Louis first skated into Harry, but it felt like years. Harry’d already found out that Louis was just two years older than him (thank God), preferred cats over dogs, was the oldest of a huge family, and had not voluntarily worn socks and shoes at the same time since he was in grade school, which honestly was so cute that Harry was in physical pain trying stop himself from crying, or petting Louis, or both.
“Okay, for real though,” Louis said while throwing the Pokeball at Rattata. “How've you never seen Pokemon OR ridden a skateboard before? What did you even do when you were ten?” A small noise of victory hissed out of him when he leveled up as he turned to look at Harry. (Harry turned into a pile of purple mush on the floor, but Louis didn't seem to notice.) “I don't know, I ran around? Played with my cat? Not everyone can be as cool as you obviously were, Louis. Some people are clumsy so their mom doesn't let them ride a skateboard when they're little…” Harry said, purposefully teasing, but being truthful all the same. “Oh, my God,” Louis laughed at him. Harry knew that if he looked, he'd see the little eye crinkles again. “That's absolutely adorable, I'm gonna cry.” A dimpling smile made it to Harry’s face and he looked over- sure enough, the eye crinkles were on display!
“Well then, since I've already taught you all there is to know about Pokemon, I suppose the next step is to do the same for skateboarding.” Harry stopped walking. “Um, yeah, the thing is that my mom truly had good reason not to let me on a board when I was little, and I really haven't improved that much coordination wise over the years,” Harry tried to reason. “Nonsense,” Louis scoffed. “You'll be completely safe, you've got to try it. I'll make sure you don't hurt yourself, I promise.” Louis held out his tiny pinky, Harry taking hold of it with his own. (At least, he thought he took hold of it. He couldn't quite tell through the loud sobbing that was going on in his subconscious about how damn cute Louis was.) “Here,” Louis showed him on his phone where a close Pokemon gym was located. “We should go here next. How ‘bout you skate there, right? It can be slow as you want…”
And that's how Louis found himself grasping Harry’s hands with his own and pulling him down the sidewalk. They were barely going two miles per hour, but the look on Harry’s face made it seem as if they were sailing down at freeway-speed. Honestly, Louis could totally see where Harry’s mom was coming from. If this is how adult Harry was acting on a skateboard, he couldn't imagine how child Harry would be.
His legs were awkwardly spread out on the board in his worn out brown boots, torso trying to face completely forward despite the obvious discomfort it was putting Harry in. All in all, a grown man so helpless and looking like a scared Bambi should not be all that endearing nor arousing- but unfortunately for Louis, he seemed to find it both of those things. Tightly gripping both of Harry’s hands, Louis started to pick up the pace slightly and watched as Harry's eyes turned from concentration to mild panic. “Harry, it's fine, you're fine,” Louis laughed as a portion of Harry's shoulder-length curls flopped into his eyes. “Oh God, I'm blind,” Harry groaned warily. “Luckily we've made it,” Louis said as Harry tried to shake the curls out of his eyes without letting go of Louis’s hands. And Louis didn’t feel as if a cage of butterflies had gotten loose in his stomach when he watched him, he really didn't.
About forty minutes after, just as the setting sun was starting to rob the day of light, the Pokemon Go server crashed, and an ERROR! message blared across both Harry and Louis’s phone screens. Small groans and murmurs could be heard from surrounding pedestrians who had been searching for their Pokemons separately from the two boys. “I cannot believe this,” Louis stated blankly while staring incredulously at his blank screen. “It can't just end like this.” Louis looked up at Harry as if it was a joke and Harry would say “haha, gotcha!”
“Well, obviously this sucks,” Harry said, causing Louis to throw an ‘obviously’ look at him. “But like, we don't have to necessarily end the night here, you know?” Harry slowly said. After a moment, Louis nodded and, taking Harry’s hand, headed down the sidewalk towards town.
Half an hour and two ice cream cones later, the sun had officially gone to bed, and Louis and Harry were still out. Most of the other Pokemon players had found entertainment doing other things in town, or had gone back home to most likely play the kind of Pokemon where you don't have a need for human interaction.
Harry was sitting on a half-wall with his toes resting on the pavement, Louis standing in front of him, thoroughly enjoying being able to see over Harry's head. “I completely disagree,” Harry told Louis, brow furrowed, shaking his head. “No matter how much he loved Lily, Snape still had no reason to lash out at Neville, or any of the students for that matter.”
“But how would you feel if you were him, honestly? You watch the love of your life repeatedly friend zone you and then marry your arch nemesis? I feel like his bitterness is quite justified,” Louis playfully argued back (but meaning every word).
“I know, but I'm just saying. I really don't see how the sadness in his life should make it okay for him to make others sad as well?”
“Well, of course you don't,” Louis replied softly. “You're like the fuzziest, nicest little peach in the whole world, aren't you?”
Harry looked up at him with his ridiculous green eyes, looking more like Bambi then ever before. “And what's wrong with that? You should always be nice to nice.”
An exasperated yet fond sigh huffed it's way out of Louis. “Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable,” he said, taking his hat off, fluffing his hair and putting his hat back on, a seemingly nervous gesture.
“What's unbeliev”- however, Harry's words were cut short by Louis coming between his parted legs, softly grabbing his chin, and pulling Harry into an incredibly soft kiss. Harry's eyes widened for a split second before he grabbed Louis’s white adidas jumper and, pulling him closer, kissed him back.
They stayed like that for what was probably just a few minutes, but felt like an hour. Or maybe it was the other way around?
They only pulled apart when a buzz sounded in both of their pockets and they reluctantly took their phones out, glancing at them while still tangled together. The buzz signaled that Pokemon Go had rebooted- and there was five Pokemons just a street down from where they were standing. “Well,” Louis said, placing a lingering kiss onto Harry’s soft lips. “We've gotta catch ‘em all, don't we?”