Lilac || l.s. ✔︎

Chapter twenty-seven

"Don't you want to buy anything else from the market?" Louis questioned after a few seconds, voice heavy and tentative. Harry simply shook his head in response, a lip-quivering moue making its way on his face as he thought of how flowerless his backyard would look since the plants he had sown before had died due to vermin contaminating them. "Are you sure?" Louis pressed, turning around to gaze at him fleetingly before diverting his attention back to the road ahead of them. He nodded his head in affirmation, turning to look at the side of Louis' head in bemusement as the alpha turned to a left arch instead of going straight ahead and to the city locality as he had expected.

The thoroughfare transmuted into a boulevard as they entered the small village adjoining the pack lands. Harry had heard plenty of folklores about how this small village was all the Tomlinson pack had initially before they had proliferated their lands by fighting off trivial rivals which had equally small lands as them.

The village still held its traditional architecture, the deep-rooted and longstanding trees acting more like shields as they stood tall in front of the ancient edifices. The Victorian architecture was blatant in the houses by its unremorseful dedication to flourish and its baroque maximalist design albeit of having different styles encompassed into it. He watched the gaudy houses pass, barely making out the ornate gables and tipped bay windows of the buildings.

He had always passed the small village whenever he would go shopping in the city but had never thought of visiting it and exploring its insides. What a shame, he reflected. He turned around from where he had his face pressed against the window, confused gaze meeting Louis' amused one. "We are here, c'mon." The blue-eyed alpha murmured softly, collecting his phone and wallet from the glove compartment. Harry followed his actions, hastily exiting the car. He squinted his eyes at the sudden sunlight that seemed to attack his eyes as soon as he closed the door behind him, craning his neck to catch Louis smiling at him.

"We are going ring shopping," Louis announced, lifting his aviators up to his head before gesticulating towards the askew three-story building behind him. The building had mix-matched, red-colored bricks along with sliding sash windows covering its exterior. Harry could make out the touches of Folk Victorian and Romanesque Revival mixed into the style of the structure. It had strongly pitched roofs, a small cobblestone path leading to a large wraparound porch which made it look more like a house that someone resided in rather than a commercial edifice used to sell jewelry.

"C'mon, Zayn knows the owner. He buys his gothic rings from here." Louis spoke up, gesturing him to walk ahead of him as he put his aviators back to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun. The omega nodded softly, observing the painted iron railings circumnavigating the whole house with awe present in his eyes. To his right-hand side was a small bed of flowers, all blooming and permeating the air around them with a saccharine, florid scent.

"The house feels so jammed, doesn't it?" Louis commented from behind him, ambling down the path with his hands shoved inside the pockets of his trousers nonchalantly. He turned around with a scandalized look coating his features, eyes wide in incredulity as he stilled in his steps, just a step away from the porch steps of the magnificent house. "You haven't even been inside it," he responded, his eyes squinted in faux disgust to display his utter disapproval for what must have been Louis' attempt at initiating a small talk between them.

"Well, yes but there are so many bushes of flowers and they all smell like shit—"

"You can never have enough flower bushes!" He interrupted, appalled. He chose to ignore the squeakiness in his voice for the sake of his own dignity. Louis looked nothing short of surprised at the sudden outburst but shrugged nonetheless, his eyes squinted in mild amusement before he nodded his defeat, "yeah, I guess. Let's just go inside, now." He stayed still as the alpha brushed past him to ascend the three porch steps before ringing the doorbell.