Collision // Larry Stylinson - itjustkindahappened

chapter 17

"I don't mean to be that person, but I've dealt with that kind of company since Louis and I fell into the first portal. We'll be fine."

Louis gasps sharply, elbowing Harry's side to make sure Harry knows his dig didn't go unnoticed. Harry holds back a grin.

"That's going to burn on your final niceness grade," Louis mutters.

"Oh no," Harry deadpans right back. "How will I live."

Speaking of grades, the thought of his final university grade randomly hits him. Considering how much time they're spending away, that one's really going to sting when they get back. Not that he himself cares an exaggerated amount—he just wanted to go to uni because it'd be fun to fuck with other creatures, really—but if he knows Louis as well as he likes to think, the fairy will probably not take bad grades as lightly as Harry.

He makes a mental note to mention this to Louis some time, just to see his reaction. The fairy tends to purse his lips and widen his eyes in such a delightfully excessive way. He'll look like a tiny cartoon character, all wound up and rambling. It's sweet. Louis is sweet. Harry doesn't hate Louis.

(At first Harry was extremely ashamed over the fact that he couldn't seem to keep his dislike up, but as time goes along he can't help but wonder, doesn't everyone fall in love with Louis just a little bit? Like, a tiny fragment. He wonders if something doesn't happen, when you meet Louis the first time, that just makes you want to give away the very best pieces of yourself to him. Harry wonders if Louis keeps all those pieces of other people's goodness locked up and close to his heart, if that's how Louis always stays so pure, if that's how he manages to still be so adamant that there's good in everyone. Even in Harry.

Not that Harry's fallen in love with Louis a little bit or anything, though. Surely the tug of breathlessness when the boy smiles at him or compliments him is about Louis being the first person to genuinely show him kindness, and nothing else. Of course that'll feel good. Of course Harry will want more of it. Of course Harry's going to think Louis' eyes are beautiful, if they look at him like that.)

Niall purses his lips in thought, obviously having some kind of light internal battle with himself, before he finally sighs, shoulders sinking with defeat.

"Fine. Let's do it," he nods. "Shouldn't be that hard to find one. I'll try to convince one to talk to you."

Harry subtly raises his fist as trumpets play victoriously in his head, and Louis sighs in relief next to him.

"Thank you," the fairy says earnestly. "I love you, Niall. You are an important creature and you should be appreciated more."

"Damn straight I should," Niall mutters.

~

Their spirit is called Danielle Campbell, and she looks like summer and bubbly giggles.

Her beauty is the first thing Harry notices. Her dark hair is thick and seems to always be moving or whirling around and tugged along by wind, just the tiniest bit, even as she walks in through the door of the mildly crowded Starbucks where they're supposed to meet, immediately spotting Harry and Louis with a knowing smile. She's all pastel colors—icy blue eyes and cotton candy pink lips that stands in blatant but pleasant contrast to the darkness of her hair and long, black eyelashes. She moves like she floats through life, with gracious steps and her back straight. She reminds Harry a little bit of Eleanor, only less tense and, despite her being, probably a little more tolerable.

She looks like a dream. Which would be very suiting given who she is.

She sits—drifts, really—down in her chair opposite Harry and Louis, and as a silence settles in-between them for a couple of seconds, she raises an expectant eyebrow.