Fireproof | L.S. AU ⚓

Six.

My baby :')

“Ready to go?” Harry asks as Louis walks up to his car.

“Of course,” Louis smiles as Harry opens his door for him. Louis gets in and takes in the sweet smell of vanilla bean, the smell of Harry.

Harry gets in and smiles faintly at Louis as he starts his car. “Where would you like to go, Tommo?” He asks turning on the radio and sitting back in his seat, waiting for Louis’ response.

“Tommo?” Louis chuckles.

“Er- Yeah haha,” Harry says scratching the back of his neck nervously. “Sorry.”

“No, I like it. It has a nice ring to it, yeah?

“Yeah,” Harry simply replies, dimples prominent.

“So, I think maybe we should go to Nandos.” Louis says breaking the beautiful silence.

“Good idea. What would you like to listen to?” Harry says backing the car out if the lot and driving towards Nandos.

Louis smirks and turns the radio to some pop station. Harry listens as Louis stares out the window, humming along with the familiar song playing. Even his humming sounds beautiful.

Walking into Nandos, Harry opens the door for his mate and makes him go get a seat. He knows exactly what he’s going to get for Louis. He orders and after a while they give him his food, and he takes his seat across from Louis.

“Try this, Tommo.” Harry says sliding the food over to Louis. Louis takes a bite and Harry can tell by his face he loves it. “Good eh?”

“Hell yes!” Louis says with a mouthful.

“Classy lad huh?” Harry says laughing, handing Louis a napkin.

“Sorry,” Louis says wiping the food off of his chin. “It is really good though. I’ve never been here before.”

“What! I’ve been eating here since I was little. I always loved it. We stopped coming here after..” He pauses, “Never mind. I’m glad you like it Tommo.” Louis gives Harry a confused and sad look. Harry shrugs it off and changes the subject as Louis finishes his last couple bites of food.

“Do you want to hang at your place? My place is… kind of crazy.” Harry says.

“Yeah sure. My mum is not home yet and my sisters are probably at their friends. We could hang for a little while.” Louis smiles, making Harry’s face lite up.

“Perfect,” Harry says before they leave their tip and make their way to Louis’ house.

.

.

“Harry, you seem down. Are you feeling alright?” Louis asks the green eyed lad as they set their bags on Louis’ floor before sitting criss cross across from each other on the bed.

“Yeah I’m fine.” Harry lies. Louis can see right past it.

“Harry, I’ve already proved I’m a good listener. You can tell me anything.”

“I know it’s just… this is so personal.”

Louis places his hand on top of Harry’s and squeezes gently and comfortingly. “If you don’t want to, you absolutely don’t have to. But if you do, I’m always here. We may not be very close friends, but I just know that we will be someday. You are always welcome here, if you ever have any troubles. Just know I’m here, Har.”

“You’re such a good friend, Louis.” Harry replies and Louis’ face drops at the word ‘friend’. How he longs to be so much more. He wanted to hug and kiss Harry and hold him tightly in his arms, forever. But he knew that would never happen.

“I know what you did, Lou.” Harry suddenly says, making Louis eyes shoot up and look at Harry.

“What-“

“I know you and Niall set up the whole Zayn thing.”

“Oh. I understand if you hate me. It was wrong and I’m so-“

“Thank you.” Harry says suddenly.

“What?”

“Thank you for getting me out of that fucked up thing we had going on. You lads made me realize that I really didn’t want Zayn. Maybe, I didn’t love him after all. He always yelled at me, for the tiniest of things. I was afraid he was going to start to get abusive soon enough. It’s a horrible thought to have about someone, but I couldn’t help it. He was slowly getting more and more violent.” Harry explained, becoming teary eyed.

“Harry, I’m just glad you’re not in any more danger and that you’re happy. You deserve to be happy, Har. Is that what’s bothering you?” Louis asks.

“Well, I’ts a part of it. The other part is that…” Harry hesitates, focused on Louis’ facial expression for if he should go on or not.

Louis smiled and said, “Go one then, love.”

“Well, six months ago, my dad died from lung cancer from smoking. It made my mum so angry and she would take her anger out on Gemma and myself. She didn't abuse us physically, just mentally. I never got any sleep and would always miss school.”

“Oh, Har, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. But about my behavior, she has been acting up a lot lately, kind of like how she used to have her episodes after my dad died. I’m scared of what she might do. She’s almost killed herself in front of Gemma and I once. Who’s to say she won’t try again? Only Gemma is at Uni and isn't here to get through it with me..."

“Don’t worry, Harry. I’ll always be here for you, and even Gemma.” Louis says rubbing Harry’s back in comfort.

“Thank you so much, Lou. I better get going, mum will be worrying.”

“Thanks for today. I had fun.” Louis says smiling as Harry gets up from him bed. “Want me to walk you out?”

“No, no I’ll be fine. Thank you for cheering me up. Bye babe.” Harry says winking before exiting the older boys’ room.

As soon as Louis hears the front door shut he immediately gets up and starts running around the house. He was so happy that he and Harry had finally hung out. What could possibly break his mood right now? NOTHING.

Louis then stops running when he hears a knock at the door. He runs down the stair and opens it, slowly. Before him, stand the curly haired crush, smiling blankly.

“I forgot to give you my phone number.” Harry says, and instantly, Harry puts his name under Har. Then Louis puts his name under Tommo. Perfect.

“Alright, I’ll see you in class and footy tomorrow. Bye Tommo.”

“Bye, Har.”

Louis watched his crush leave. He couldn’t help but feel something was off…

He shrugged it off and did some chores while he waited for his family to arrive home.