Work Text:
You Won't Leave My Mind
"Louis. Stop fidgeting with it," Zayn said with a stern tone. He made a sharp right turn, making both boys slide a bit to the left. Louis grunted.
"But it's stupid. And how the fuck am I supposed to impress Harry with a fucking eye patch." Louis looked out the window (with only one fucking eye) and sighed. It was sunny and beautiful. The birds were chirping and the sun rays shining though the small clouds made everything look so pretty and Louis felt like Mother Nature was mocking him because he was upset and the world was so happy and cheerful and that made him mad.
"Mate, you brought this upon yourself. Because c'mon who the hell pokes themselves in the eye?"
Zayn snorted and pushed the gear shift into park. He got out of the car, waited for Louis to do the same and groaned. "Louis, you don't look bad. Just get out the fucking car."
Louis, of course, didn't reply.
"I will literally drag you out of this car and up all those stairs." And when Louis didn't make any effort to move, that's exactly what he did.
+
"You look like a pirate. All you need is a parrot. We should go to the pet store tomorrow and get you one. Are they expensive? I hope not. Oo! We should get you a wooden peg too, like the one they put to replace the foot. And if you're gonna get that, you should get the hand hook thing! And a pirate hat with the skull thing on it. And might as well get you a pirate ship. Then I can be your first mate or like the co-pirate or whatever you call it. And we can tell other people to walk the plank and stuff. Like stuff that pirates say. Oh my god someone should make one of those YouTube videos for that. Shit that pirates say. Swop the poop deck! Shiver me timbers! Arrrgg-"
"Shut up Niall."
"Aye, aye captain."
+
Louis blamed Harry for his eye patch, even though he wasn't there when it happened. And he probably doesn't even know that Louis exists. But he still blamed him because technically it was his fault.
When he walked into the coffee shop that day, how was he supposed to know a cute curly headed boy worked there? A tall curly headed boy who was a bit hunched from leaning down to hear the customer's order. A happy curly headed boy who smiled so bright (the whole world stopped and stared for a while) the whole room lit up from just seeing it. A pretty curly headed boy who had the greenest emerald eyes Louis had ever seen.
Louis went to that coffee shop everyday just to look at the boy, he was nice and funny and smart and a really good baker so really to Louis he was the full package.
One day (after a month of 'observing') Louis went home with a cup of Yorkshire tea (bought from a coffee shop), a bagel for Niall and coffee for Zayn, he sat on the coffee table conveniently placed in front of the couch (sense the irony there). He finally decided that he wanted Harry and the only reasonable thing he could think of was to make a wish and hope for it to come true because Louis loved fairy tales and magic and he really was a child at heart. He loved 11:11 wishes although they never came true, he did it anyway because he believed. But there was too much time until 11:11 (it was 13:07) and Louis couldn't wait a full night. And there was no wishing well near his and Zayn's (and technically Niall's cause he basically lived there) flat. So he started pulling some eyelashes out because those suckers always worked. And well, right at that exact moment, Zayn entered the flat, Louis got scared and poked his eye, very hard may he add, and screamed and Zayn laughed.
Then Zayn took him to the eye doctor person and she gave him an eye patch and some eye drops and a red lollipop for good measures.
So that was how Louis ended up with his eye patch and he blamed harry.
+
Two days after the eye poking incident, Zayn decided to take Louis out for coffee and talk about shit, because they hadn't done that in a while. He chose a small little coffee shop on the corner of their block because it was nice and cozy, and made delicious coffee plus Niall wanted one of their bagels so he thought might as well.
Zayn came to a stop in front of the little shop and opened the door for Louis because fuck his bad boy image, on the inside he was a motherfucking gentlemen. Louis looked up from the ground where he was staring at his shoes and gasped.
"Zayn, how the hell did you know he works here?"
"What are you going on about?"
"Zayn," Louis said in a serious tone, "Harry works here!" he half shouted, backing away from the door. "No, no, no, no, no. I’m not entering that door. He’ll take one look at me and laugh 'cause who in God’s name wears an eye patch!"
"Lou. C’mon it's not all that bad; it can be like the next trend. And plus Niall thought it was cool!" that was Zayn's lame attempt to higher Louis' self-esteem, but he knew Louis didn't care because it was Niall and Niall thought everything was cool.
"Why don't you wear a fucking eye patch for a week, I’m sure Niall would love it. He probably has a kink for it or something," Louis grumbled.
Zayn rolled his eyes and pushed Louis into the cozy little coffee shop. He stumbled in, murmuring curses under his breathe. The door chimes tinkled, which was weird because of all the times Louis had entered the shop this is the first time he heard it, and the tall, green eyed boy looked up from his lap.
"Hey, cool eye patch."
And Louis thinks he might have fainted if it weren't for Zayn, elbowing him in the rib.
"Uh.. I.. erm." Louis stuttered and oh god he was such an embarrassment.
"He means to say thank you." Louis let out a breath of relief and thanked Zayn under his breathe. He was shoved into a booth, but he couldn't stop looking at Harry. He was wearing a plain black shirt from what he could see, with the green apron covering his torso. He was basically covered in flour, like a kid messing around in the kitchen, but he made no effort to dust any of it off. "So I’m assuming he's Harry." Louis nodded. "It suits him."
"Zayn look. He’s so pretty."
"Yeah okay Lou," Zayn raised his hand and give it a little flick, summoning the flour covered boy to walk over to their booth. That was weird because Harry never took orders, he was usually in the back making the pastries and stuff.
"Hello lads, what can I get you?"
His voice was deep and raspy and Louis wanted to record it and play it on replay all day.
"I’ll have coffee, two sugars, one milk," Zayn said without hesitation, "and my friend will have a um..?"
"Yorkshire tea, please. No milk, no sugar." Because Louis didn't believe in ruining good tea.
Harry smiled, "So you're the one who orders tea at a coffee shop. It’s an honour to meet you, good sir," he said, bowing down. Louis smiled. "Don’t mean to sound creepy or anything but you've been the talk of the shop for the past month. That doesn't say much but you're the first to order tea here and everyone got a bit like," Harry wiggled his arms around trying to demonstrate the weird emotions running through everyone's veins.
"That’s weird."
"Shut up Zayn."
And with that Harry nodded and walked off to behind the counter to make their drinks.
Zayn mindlessly pulled out a tissue from the dispenser and ripped it into bits.
"So, I’ve been thinkin-"
"Mm. That's never good."
"Thinking and I’ve decided to ask Niall to move in with us," he said looking at the pile of crumpled tissue balls on the table.
"Oh. You didn't already?" Louis asked sarcastically and Zayn threw a tissue ball at his face. "I’m kidding. You should ask him to move in-"
"Thanks, mate," Zayn said with an appreciative smile.
"Wait, you didn't let me finish." Zayn groaned. "You should ask him to move in but only if promise to never fuck on the couch 'cause it was expensive and if I see something that even resembles your fucking cum on it, I will kick you out of the house."
"But Looouuuu! It’s one of his fantasies to fuck on that couch!"
Louis gave him the death stare. "Gosh, I’m kidding, I’m kidding."
"Coffee and tea," Harry said rushing out to their booth. "If you need anything else don't hesitate to ask." he placed both mugs in front of their respective owners and walked back to behind the counter.
+
to: liam
from: harry
li! he's here! omg what do i do?
to: harry
from: liam
who? lou?
to: liam
from: harry
YESSS! he orders tea. how cute is that?
to: harry
from: liam
wiat. y r u at teh rgstr?
to: liam
from: harry
because eleanors lazy and shes texting danny cause he's got one of his rare breaks or something
to: harry
from: liam
oh
to: liam
from: harry
yeah. but what should i do with lou?
to: harry
from: liam
do smtg col. lik pt a nte in hs cup
to: liam
from: harry
he'll think I'm weird
to: harry
from: liam
shtup haz. its romnatic.
+
"Lou. There’s something under your cup."
"What?"
"It’s like a piece of paper or something. Here." Zayn said, reaching out to grab the little note. He snatched it off the cup and gave it to Louis. "What’s it say?"
"'You've got a beautiful smile.'"
"Aww. Lou’s got a secret admirer! There are only five people that work here L. Who can it be?"
"Harry and Barbara and that girl with the big brown hair-"
"Danielle."
"And that elor girl and..?"
"Her name is Eleanor and that last one is Liam."
"Who?"
"The one guy that looks like a puppy?"
"Ahh. Gotcha'. How come you know these guys better than me? I come like every day."
"Because I actually pay attention to the people besides Harry."
"Shut up." Louis grunted.
"Okay, so that's how you get me to help you eh?"
"Oh Zaynie baby. I love you so much. I’ll do your laundry for a year. Okay actually not that long. I’ll do it for like a week but please?!"
"Barbara is old and married; she's the one who owns this shop-"
"I know that Z."
"Okay. Danielle and Liam are dating each other and also neither are here today. So it's either Harry or Eleanor because I know harry is bi but El's just an option."
"Oh god. So Harry likes me?" he was internally hyperventilating.
"Maybe."
And then Louis fainted.
+
"Is he okay?"
"He will be. Don’t worry."
"Does this happen a lot?"
"Yeah, usually when he’s overexcited or something."
"Oh."
"Tell me Harry. Did you put the note under his cup?"
"Was it really that easy to guess?"
"Well there weren't many options. Your only competition was Eleanor but I have a slight suspicion that she's gay."
"She’s not. But she has a long distance boyfriend."
"Then you were our only option."
"Does he...”
"Yeah he really does. That eye patch is because of you. He was scared to come in here because of it."
"He’s very cute."
"I’m not the one you should be telling that to."
+
It felt like the Earth’s weight was lying on his head. His eyes were glued shut and he felt like he couldn't move.
"C’mon Lou. Open your eyes. Squeeze my hand. Move your lips. Do something."
He felt it. The enormous hand entwined with his. It felt right. Like two puzzle pieces (and apple pie).
"You can do it Louis. Please. For me?" The voice sounded scratchy and desperate. Like his life depended on Louis.
With all the strength left in his body, he squeezed the hand laced in his and he could feel the smile radiating off the boy’s face. He slowly opened his eyes and smiled.
"You’ve got a beautiful smile."
"Thank you, harry," Louis said, grinning wider, "Say, where's Zayn?"
"Said he had some 'important business' to get to."
"That son of a bitch left me at my most vulnerable time."
"He said it happens a lot and that you should be fine." He reached over to the side and grabbed a glass of water. "He said you have to drink it all."
"Can I have tea instead?"
"I don't know. Can you?"
"Yeah. I can."
"Okay." Harry got up from his kneeled position and let go of Louis' hand. Louis didn’t like that.
He moved to the back of the shop and gathered the ingredients. His hands moved in a familiar way. Like he was born to work in this shop. His lips were parted and his tongue stuck out in concentration. His eyebrows were furrowed together and oh god Louis just wanted to kiss his face.
"Actually, Harry?" Harry looked up from the making the tea to Louis. He raised his eyebrow in question. "Uh. Can I have something else instead?"
"Yeah. Anything." he said, wiping his hands on a cloth and walking slowly back to Louis. He kneeled back down and laced his fingers with Louis'. Much better. "What to do you want Lou?"
"Can you.. erm.. kiss me?"
"I don't know. Can I?" Harry whispered, with a smile. He leaned in closer.
Louis leaned up and slowly connected his lips with Harry’s. It felt magical. It felt like Louis was in a Disney princess movie and Harry was the prince and when they kiss, fireworks would explode in the background and form the letters of the end and everything would end perfectly. Louis smiled into the kiss and moved his head back. His hand up to cup Harry’s cheek, his eyes were glittering like someone brought a star and placed it in Harry’s eyes just cause he could.
Harry leaned forward his to press his forehead against Louis' and giggled.
"That eye patch makes you look sexy."
And at that moment poking his eye and getting that stupid eye patch was kinda’ worth it.