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“Lou.” Louis pulled his head off of Liam's shoulder and turned to look at Harry, frowning. They were in the middle of an interview; Harry shouldn't be calling for Louis that loudly. His brows furrowed as he looked at Harry, seeing his eyes widen and look down at himself like he couldn't believe he'd said something. Louis notes that none of the other boys notice. Or the interviewer, apparently.
“Louis.” He hears Harry say, more insistently. Louis whips his head up at that.
“What, Harry?” Louis accidentally snaps, turning once again to look at Harry. The other boys are all looking at Louis like he's insane. Harry just looks at Lou, his eyes the size of discs and his face slightly flushed.
“Harry didn't say anything, Lou...” Liam tries, tentatively. Louis looks at Liam, incredulous.
“What? He was calling me.” Louis insists.
“Louis, nobody called you.” Zayn said, slightly annoyed. Louis flicks his eyes over to Niall, who just nods, wanting to stay out of it for the most part. Louis narrows his eyes, before looking back at Harry again.
“Whatever.” He says, letting it drop.
- - -
Shit, Harry thought, standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom. He knew he shouldn't be getting jealous of Louis cuddling the other boys. But he didn't know that his heart apparently had a fucking voice. He turns the water on, cold, in preparation to splash his face in an attempt to clear his head. He doesn't get very far when the door to the bathroom flies open, with Louis stomping in.
“The fuck was that, Haz?” Louis demands, pushing Harry away from the tap and turning it off before turning to face Harry, his hands on his hips.
“N-nothing.” Harry stutters out, avoiding looking at Lou. He knows he's a terrible liar, but he's got to try this time, he thinks. He doesn't want to ruin their relationship. Louis just looks back at him.
“Really?” He asks, his eyebrows raising.
“R-really.” Harry coughs. “Really.” He says again, hoping that not stuttering will make him seem more truthful. Louis narrows his eyes, looking Harry over.
“I don't believe you.” Louis says. Fuckfuckfuck, Harry thinks, hoping his face doesn't show the panic he feels on the inside. Louis must notice anyways because he backs up a bit.
“I'll leave it be for now, but I will find out, Haz. You know I will.” Louis decides, turning and leaving the bathroom. Harry scrubs a hand over his face with a groan. Of course Louis will find out.
- - -
It's another week or two before it happens again. Louis has forgotten about figuring out what Harry was up to, but is reminded in their hotel room. Louis is sprawled out on his stomach on one of the beds, texting Eleanor. Harry's laying on the bed next to him, with an arm slung over his eyes. Zayn is scrolling through his phone in the chair sitting in the corner.
“Lou.” He hears Harry mumble. Louis hums in response, waiting for Harry to say something. After a minute of silence, he looks up at Harry, seeing him still laying on the bed in the same position. The only difference is his face is a little flushed. Louis eyes him suspiciously, before turning to look at Zayn. Zayn doesn't seem to have noticed anything, still scrolling through his phone in silence. Lou wonders if he's just hearing things and shrugs, letting it go.
“Louis.” He hears from Harry again a few minutes later, louder this time. Louis snaps his head up in response, looking carefully at Harry. His face is beet red, but other than that he hasn't moved.
“What, Harry?” He asks, careful not to snap. Zayn looks up, confusion coming over his face.
“I didn't say anything, Louis.” Harry says, determined to lie better this time, hoping his heart doesn't just decide to speak over him. Or for him.
“No, I heard you. You called me. You heard him, right, Zayn?” Louis turns to Zayn, expecting him to have his back. He's surprised when Zayn shakes his head.
“He didn't say anything, Lou. He's been sitting there for a while. I thought he'd fallen asleep.” Zayn replies honestly. Louis huffs, frustrated. Why didn't anyone else hear it? He goes back to texting and tries to come up with a way to get out of Harry what he's on about.
- - -
As soon as Zayn leaves, Louis shoots out of his bed and climbs on top of Harry. Harry feels his eyes snap open and widen as his brain registers what's going on. He tries to move out from under Louis before he can be pinned down, but its too late. Louis' already got him trapped. Louis has his head down by Harry's, prepared to speak into his ear when he hears it.
“Louis.” He hears Harry moan out, only its not Harry. Louis freezes. The voice came from slightly lower. Harry wiggles under him and turns red again, wishing his heart would shut up and not sound so fucking aroused. Now was definitely not the time.
“Lou.” He hears again. This time he lifts his body up slightly and snaps his head down. That definitely came from his chest. He looks up at Harry, who's only turning more and more red. He has his lip trapped between his teeth, chewing furiously.
The second Louis loosens his grip on Harry's arms, he's being pulled off of the younger boy and thrown onto the bed in shock. He watches, shocked, as Harry runs off to the bathroom, hearing the lock turn behind him.
- - -
When Harry comes out of the bathroom, its almost an hour later. He'd tried to stay in as long as he could, hoping Louis would get the message and leave. He didn't (and still doesn't) want to have to explain this to Louis; he didn't want things to be awkward between them. As he turns the corner of their hotel room, he's a little freaked to see Louis still sitting on his bed.
“What the fuck was that?” Louis asks calmly, looking at Harry.
“I, uh. I went to the bathroom.” Harry deflects.
“Bullshit.” Harry flinches in his mind at that.
“I wasn't feeling good.” He tries again. “I had to, you know, go.”
“Harry.” Louis begins sternly, cocking his head slightly. “You did not have to go. Now tell me what's really going on.”
“I can't.” Harry almost whispers, shaking his head. Louis sighs.
“Fine.” Louis decides, getting up and reaching for a few of his things. Harry watches him, a little panicked.
“Where are you going?” He asks, hoping his voice doesn't show his worry.
“Gonna see if Liam will let me sleep with him tonight.” Louis replies, ignoring the way Harry's shoulders drop in disappointment.
- - -
Louis regrets rooming with Liam the minute he climbs in bed. He's used to hearing Harry's soft snores, not Liam's monstrous ones. He's not used to someone being so still, either. He's used to hearing sheets rustle all night because Harry moves around a lot in his sleep. The noisy snoring ends up keeping him up all night and he doesn't even have the comfort of hearing random mumbling from the person he's sharing with.
Around four in the morning, Louis is still staring up at the ceiling of the hotel room, trying not to miss rooming with Harry too much and trying to sleep when he hears it.
“Harry.” He hears, barely a whisper. He sits up slowly and looks around, making sure Liam is still asleep, before looking down at himself. The voice sounded exactly like him, catching him off guard a little.
“Hazza.” There it was again, he thinks, hearing it come from himself. Louis' a bit confused, since he is pretty sure his lips didn't move and his throat didn't make any sound. He looks down again, wondering if its coming from his chest like Harry's was. He doesn't have time to find out before the alarm on Liam's phone is going off and he's getting up for his early morning jog.
- - -
Harry avoids Louis like the plague for the next few weeks, hoping that he'll forget about what happened in their hotel room. Harry even wants to forget it and makes sure that every opportunity he does end up near Louis that their conversations are short and to the point.
Louis has definitely noticed Harry avoiding him, but doesn't make a move to try and fix it. He hasn't been sleeping well and doesn't have the energy to deal with Harry, regardless of how much he wants to. His sleep as been off since he started rooming with Liam. He's gotten used to his snores, but still wakes up a few times in the middle of the night to hear Harry's name whispered into the darkness. On the nights he hears Harry's name, he doesn't end up falling back asleep.
He's also not too concerned about talking to Harry, either, considering his stomach begins knotting up whenever he's close. Louis' not sure when that starts happening, but he's not sure he likes it. It seems to pull the image of Eleanor from the back of his mind and distracts him during interviews. He feels like he's cheating on her somehow and he's not sure why.
Harry's heart or whatever keeps calling for him in interviews, though, and Louis can feel Harry's eyes boring into him each time it happens. He's started to ignore Harry during interviews; the idea of him saying his name had started to make him feel uncomfortable.
Harry, despite ignoring Louis, misses his best friend. He's taken to cuddling the other boys more and they're happy to receive and reciprocate his affection. Until they realize that Harry and Louis are avoiding each other, that is. They don't say anything, but they're all a bit more wary about cuddling either of them while they're in this weird in-between.
- - -
One night, Harry is cuddled up against Zayn on the couch, enjoying the feel of his fingers raking through his curly hair. Liam and Niall are on the floor playing FIFA, while Louis sits on the arm of the sofa and waits to play the winner. Harry is about to fall asleep to the feel of Zayn's fingers and the sound of Niall and Liam getting competitive when he thinks he hears his name. He's not sure because it's so quiet, but he lifts his head and opens his eyes anyways, looking around the room. His eyes fall on Louis, who is not only turning pink, but pointedly ignoring Harry. That's when he hears it again, but louder.
“Hazza.” Harry stares at Louis, watching as he goes from pink to red. None of the other boys seem to notice, he realizes. Zayn seems to think he's trying to get a better look at the screen, not realizing he'd been about to fall asleep.
Louis gets up to leave, needing an escape from Harry. He tells the boys he's tired, hoping Harry doesn't follow him and try to talk. As he leaves, he thinks he hears Harry call after him, but he ignores it and walks a little faster. He rushes into the room he shares with Liam and throws himself face first on the bed, trying to figure out what just happened.
By this point, he'd been sure that the voice was coming from his chest, but he hadn't been able to figure out why something inside of him seemed to be calling after Harry. He also had never had it happen during the day; only during the wee hours of the morning. Louis was so lost in thought, he didn't hear anyone enter their hotel room.
“Lou.” Harry says tentatively. Louis jumps about a foot off the bed, nearly falling off at the surprise.
“H-Harry! When did you get here!?” Louis responds, his voice about an octave higher than it normally was. He could feel his stomach knotting again.
“Few minutes ago.” Harry says, hoping he sounds casual. He didn't want to scare Louis off.
“Oh.” Louis mumbles. The two stare at each other for a while, a slightly uncomfortable silence falling over them.
“Um.” Harry begins, not quite sure how to continue. He thinks about it for a moment, before deciding to just spit it out. “I heard you out there. Your, um, heart.” Harry sticks his hands in his pocket and watches Louis for a reaction, seeing his eyes bug out.
“My what?” Louis spits out. Fuck, Louis thinks. Hearts didn't speak, did they?
“Your heart?” Harry tries again. Louis just stares at him, panic rising in the pit of his stomach.
“Just... Leave, yeah?” Louis whispers. Harry nods and leaves, running his hands through his hair as he heads back to his own room.
- - -
His heart, Louis thinks. It makes sense, considering he'd heard the voice coming from his chest. Does this mean he's got romantic feelings for Harry? His best mate, Harry? It didn't seem right or logical, but it wasn't wrong, Louis realizes. That in itself was a weird thing to admit to himself, let alone the idea that his heart was speaking. Thinking about it a little, he understands now why he feels like he's cheating on Eleanor. Maybe he does have a bit of a crush on Harry.
Louis rolls over and falls asleep thinking of Harry. This time when he wakes up to hear “Harry” being whispered in the room, he falls back asleep with a small smile on his face.
- - -
The relationship between Louis and Harry returns to normal the next day, save for ignoring when each others heart decides to speak up. They're back to hanging all over each other, cuddling constantly, whispering to each other, and giggling at stupid inside jokes they have between themselves. The other boys notice, relieved that the tension between the two is seemingly gone.
Harry doesn't quite understand what had changed, though. He knows things have gone back to normal, but he wasn't sure if he's realized what his heart speaking could actually mean. Harry knew in the interview when this all had started why his heart had started speaking. He knew it was because he had feelings for Lou and was unhappy that he wasn't first choice for cuddles. He also knew that Louis' heart was speaking for similar, if not the same, reasons.
He knows he can't just confront Lou about it, though. That would probably just cause him to either shut down or get angry and Harry doesn't want either of those things. He was happy things had returned to normal; he had gotten sick of missing Louis. Harry thinks about it a bit more, coming up with a plan to find out if Louis had developed feelings for him.
- - -
A few days pass to find Louis and Harry in the middle of the floor, wrestling, when something changes. Louis can feel Harry's emotion change underneath him, going from playful to serious in a tenth of a second. He stops trying to tickle Harry and looks down, trying not to think about how he's straddling Harry. He finds himself staring into Harry's eyes, when he realizes he hasn't told Harry yet.
“Harry, I broke up with Elea -” Louis voice is muffled with Harry's lips on his own. He's a bit surprised, not expecting Harry to just kiss him like that, but he catches on half a beat later and kisses him back. Harry is the first to pull back, realizing Louis was trying to tell him something.
“Wait. You said you broke up with Eleanor?” Harry asks, his eyes widening. He didn't expect Louis to say that. Louis just nods, smiling, as he leans in to kiss Harry again.
“I'm pretty sure I'd fallen in love with you without realizing it.” Louis responds, punctuating each word with a peck on Harry's face, ending on his mouth. “Sorry.” He adds, placing another kiss on Harry's lips.
“S'alright.” Harry mumbles, smiling. “We can figure this out later, yeah?” He asks, lifting a hand to Louis' cheek, bringing him back in for another kiss.