the spaces between us ➳ larry stylinson

chapter three

published on march 28, 2021

i apologize for this chapter, it literally gives me second hand embarrassment to read it again.

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What the hell was Louis freaking Tomlinson doing in the library? He seemed too smart to need a tutor, and the absolute last thing Harry needed was for this beautiful boy to see him blubbering like an idiot, trying to figure out the square root of 83.

Harry tried to shut the library doors as quietly as possible behind him, to try and prevent Louis from hearing him. Although, this didn't work out too well since Harry was, well, quite clumsy. He ended up getting his backpack zipper stuck in the door, and when he tried to open the door to get it out, his finger got stuck. His eyes were watering because the doors were very heavy on his little finger, and he tried to pry the door open with his left hand, which was a difficult task. He let out a strangled sort of pained squeak and turned around when he heard a chair moving. Louis was walking towards him. Harry wondered why Louis' cheeks were tinted pink, although it was sort of warm in the library and Louis was wearing a huge sweatshirt that made him look so soft and cuddly. Louis strode towards Harry and opened the doors to the library, freeing Harry.

"U-um, there you g-go, Harry," Louis said, not quite meeting Harry's eyes. Could this boy get any more precious? Harry resisted the strong urge to coo.

"Thanks Louis! Sorry I'm really, really clumsy and I guess I'm, uh, just nervous since I came in her for my tutoring session and my tutor doesn't seem to be here yet," Harry said, more confidently then he felt. He looked around the library. It was only him and Louis.

"O-oh!" Louis looked surprised. "That's f-funny, cuz I actually am a tutor, b-but the person t-that I was supposed to t-tutor isn't here y-yet, either." He looked up at Harry with wide eyes.

Oh no. Harry put two and two together, and looked at Louis in alarm when he realized.

"Y-you're my tutor!" Harry exclaimed just as Louis gasped "I'm tutoring y-you?!"

The boys both blushed and looked down. Harry tried to look like he was somewhat calm, but his insides were doing cartwheels and the butterflies in his stomach were flying up a storm. Louis was his tutor. Louis Tomlinson, this beautiful, blue-eyed angel was going to be his tutor until his grades got better, which might take a while, considering he's failing every subject except PE. Harry's grades have been rubbish since 7th year, when he started to focus more on sports. He had always managed to scrape through and pass, but this year was different. Football practices were more demanding, and his teachers were piling so much work on the students that they barely had time to do anything else. 'It will take a lot of effort to bring my grade up,' Harry thought, 'but maybe Louis will make it easy for me...'

•••••

His tutoring session went better than expected, though that's not to say it went good, necessarily... Harry's expectations were pretty low, what with the whole library door incident.

After the two processed the fact that they would be working together to improve Harry's grade, they awkwardly stumbled to a table and sat down. Well, Louis sat down at least. Harry grabbed the chair to try and pull it out, but didn't realize he grabbed it too hard, and it fell, crashing down on Harry's toes. He had winced, more from the fact that Louis was trying to hide his laughter than the actual pain in his toes.

After he picked up his chair, everything went relatively smoothly. Louis
reviewed Harry's grades and made a template that showed areas where Harry needed improvement, while Harry tried to look useful by sharpening his pencil and occasionally answering Louis when he asked him things like "Is maths your hardest subject?" Or "What class is your strongest?" Mostly though, Harry was just staring at Louis' perfect, ocean-blue eyes and his amazingly hot cheekbones. He noticed that Louis would push his glasses up his nose and run a hair through his hair when he was stressed or working hard. That was another thing that made it hard to focus. Louis' hair. Oh God, that hair would be the death of Harry. How it always looked so soft and clean, and bounced up and down when Louis walked. When Louis was picking up his pencil once, Harry could smell a slight hint of strawberry in his hair, which made him want to ask what shampoo Louis uses, so Harry could smell like Louis whenever he wanted. He ended up thinking better of it and went back to sharpening his pencil.

So after more minutes passed without anything going horribly wrong, Harry was starting to get more confident. He was talking to Louis more, trying to warm up to him. He was his tutor after all!

"So Louis...Er- you must have pretty grade grades to be a tutor, huh?" Harry asked, trying not to blush. Obviously Louis was smart! Why did Harry even feel the need to say that?

Louis looked up from the schedule he was making for Harry and half-smiled. It was quite possibly the most perfect moment ever and Harry wanted so badly to get out his phone and snap a quick picture of Louis' adorable baby face.

"Oh...haha. W-well I mean m-my lowest g-grade is u-um an, ahem, A- I think.... Err let me double check," Louis mumbled quietly, cheeks slowly getting pinker. He pulled out his phone and Harry instantly died when he saw the wallpaper. It was an adorable little black and white collage of selfies of Louis and what looked to be lots of little girls. Harry had an instant surge of jealousy until he realized that the girls looked almost exactly like Louis. Same warm, blue eyes and blinding white smiles. They must be his sisters, Harry thought, and before he could stop himself he asked Louis.

"Hey, Louis, who are those people on your wallpaper?" Thinking that sounded too creepy, like he was spying on Louis, Harry added "Er, I just looked over and happened to see your screen... I wasn't spying or anything." Harry didn't think his face could get any redder.

Louis looked at his screen and smiled softly. "Oh, y-yeah. Those are my s-sisters." He pointed to a beautiful blonde girl. "That's Lottie." He moved his finger to an equally beautiful, brown haired sister with green-brown eyes.

"That's Fizzy." Finally, his finger moved to two little girls, smiling up at the camera and hugging each other. Harry smiled. They sure were cute. "And those are my twin sisters, Phoebe and Daisy." Louis smiled again.

"Wow, they're all so cute!" Harry squealed, despite his efforts to remain calm to save him from embarrassment. "And they all look like each other." Louis smiled and laughed a little, taking one last look at his screen before he shut it off and put it in his bag.

Seeing Louis so happy talking about his family made Harry want to be apart of it. Harry mentally slapped himself again. What was he thinking? Firstly, Louis and him have only talked about the bare minimum: school and football and just recently, Louis' sisters. Secondly, Harry doesn't even know if Louis is into boys. Thirdly, Harry doesn't know anything about Louis besides he's gorgeous, smart, and has four sisters. Harry frowned. Usually couples know more about each other than Louis and Harry know about each other. Harry decided that it was going to be his mission to force Louis to open up to him - what was the point of being tutored by THE Louis Tomlinson if they weren't going to become for friendly, anyway?

"O-oh Harry? I just wanted to s-say that my lowest g-grade isn't an A-," Louis said quietly.

Oh? Was it possible that Mr. Perfect Tomlinson had something less than an A?

"My lowest grade is a-actually an A," Louis finished shyly.

Of course it was.

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