Sometime mid-week of the 2nd week of December
“Louis? Why do you have a rubber chicken taped to your head?” Harry asked, attempting to sound nonchalant rather than incredulous.
“I’m trying to engage with my inner spirituality,” Louis replied calmly, cracking one eye open. He was sitting on the floor in the middle of the living-room with his legs crossed, eyes closed and hands in some kind of Buddhist prayer position. His bare feet were almost purple so God knows how long the idiot had been sitting there.
Harry’s eyebrow rose even higher, nearly touching his hairline, “By taping a rubber chicken to your head?”
“I didn’t have a feather,” Louis shrugged, as though this was an obvious explanation, “Now shush, you’re harshing my mellow.”
“Harshing your mellow…?” Harry repeated faintly, wondering if his friend had finally cracked, “Louis, you have been watching way too much TV. Get up; I’m taking you out before you do something that’s crazy even for you.”
Louis’s eyes snapped open and he suddenly grinned, like a maniac, “Okay!” Then he was up on his feet and dashing for his shoes, leaving Harry standing there feeling like he had just been conned.
~*~
Twenty minutes later…
It was the first time Louis had really been out of the house in three weeks. In fact, it was probably the first time since the kidney infection that he had been out for anything other than official business (not including the walk that ended with him back in hospital or the trip to the hairdressers). The sheer joy on his face made Harry feel a little guilty. Louis must have been feeling some level of cabin fever what with being housebound for so long – but he had never complained. Then again, Louis didn’t like to complain and, if he did, you knew it was something worth complaining about. His positive shield was one of the things Harry both loved and found incredibly irritating about his best friend.
Harry had insisted that Louis wear a coat and boots. It was the middle of December now and icy cold outside. Louis, for some reason, always seemed to dress as if it was the height of summer with rolled up trousers and colourful espadrilles. Thankfully, he had given in very quickly to Harry’s demands, probably just so Harry didn’t revoke the invitation of going out. He’d even pulled on a black beanie and a set of gloves and the Liam part of Harry’s head had nodded in approval. They weren’t going anywhere special – just out for a walk through the nearby woods. It would be a taste of freedom for them both as it was one of the few places they could go without fans turning up. They could relax and enjoy something as simple as a walk in privacy and just chat, something they really hadn’t done much of recently despite Louis being housebound.
Harry had pulled on his charcoal G-Star parker and his favourite Chullo and locked the front door behind them, jogging to catch up with his friend. Then they had set off down their drive, nearly losing their footing on the icy paving stones in their haste. Giggling like idiots, they had hurried along the street, occasionally ducking behind parked cars, James Bond style, to avoid being spotted by the locals. The next road was a main one, which they couldn’t avoid, with a reasonably heavy flow of traffic. However, it wasn’t a main walking route, as such, so they kept their faces away from the cars as they walked along. Their pace, set by Louis, was too fast for any talking and, although it was only a 700m stretch, they were a little out of breath by the time they reached the secluded shelter of Stable Lane. The lane was a long, narrow road, winding past some large farms and down through typical English countryside into the woods. Around them the hedgerows and trees were barren and glistening with frost. Underfoot, the potholes were frozen over and crunched noisily under their boots. It was only about eleven in the morning but the sky hung overcast and wintry dull. They slowed down to a more sedate amble, now that they were alone and walked side by side – their sleeves occasionally brushing. Louis was the one to start up a conversation - about Pandas of all things. He’d been fixated on Pandas for around six months now, ever since they had all visited Edinburgh Zoo, while on tour, and saw the two new Pandas on loan from China. For some reason, Louis had been absolutely fascinated with them and it had taken Liam and Harry over forty-five minutes to drag him away from their enclosure. In recompense, Zayn had bought Louis a Panda hat from the gift shop. Louis had worn it everyday for two months until Liam had thrown it in the washing machine, declaring it hazardous to human health. Unfortunately, the panda hat didn’t take too kindly to being washed at 60°C and disintegrated upon removal. Louis had made a small funeral pyre out in the back garden, cremating it like it was once a living thing – because that was just the way Louis was – and he didn’t speak to Liam again for a week. Four months later and Louis was still talking about Pandas, this time about a documentary he’d watched yesterday on the Discovery Channel. Harry listened indulgently, occasionally making a comment or a confirmative noise. Sometimes he just liked to listen to Louis talk away – about anything really – Louis had a way of making even the most boring of topics entertaining.
They paused for five minutes - so that Louis could pet some of the cows by one of the field gates. Most people would stop to pet a horse but not Louis – he liked cows. The cows didn’t seem to mind the attention and Harry was half tempted to take a snapshot to post to Twitter. However, he found he was too distracted watching his friend to search for his mobile. His heart grew warm as he listened to Louis coo to the cattle like they were babies and feed them handfuls of semi-frozen grass. Somehow Louis managed to convince him to feed the cows too and as the nearest one tickled his palm with it’s mouth, he wondered if he would have ever fed a cow like this if he hadn’t had auditioned for The X Factor. Probably not. He wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of cow drool on his hands.
Eventually Louis was distracted by a friendly robin and they continued their amble up the lane, finally reaching the edge of the woods. They took the southeast trail, which would take them on a loop through the trees. It was surprisingly noisy in the woods; with the tree branches creaking, birds tweeting and the cacophony of other odd sounds you seem to find in a forest.
Their conversation moved from Pandas (thankfully) to acts of stupid logic. Again, it was Louis who brought it up,
“Have you ever wondered why when someone tells you that there are billions of stars in the universe you believe them but if they tell you there’s wet paint somewhere you have to touch it?”
“And by you, you mean yourself,” Harry teased.
“Hey, that was one time,” Louis protested, stopping and turning around to face Harry. The movement swept his fringe into his eyes and Louis blew it out again with a quick puff from his lips. “That sign had been there for three days. How was I to know someone had been doing a fresh coat every day? I thought the sign had been forgotten about.”
Harry laughed as he remembered the three blue lines of paint Louis had sported after standing up. Niall still had the photograph somewhere. It had made Twitter’s top ten dumbest pictures of the week. Liam had been so gleeful as he had been the raining champion out of the five of them with two previous pictures, including one with a rampant seagull and the other with a peeing dog. Liam liked to pretend that those incidents had never happened – complete denial – so the rest of them liked to remind him occasionally, just for a laugh.
“You had to sit through a whole signing with that paint on your arse,” Harry chuckled, “and the press were everywhere taking pictures.”
“Don’t remind me,” Louis groaned, shaking his head mournfully and knocking his fringe back into his eyes. He fumbled with it with his gloved hands but did little more than flatten it against his forehead. Harry shook his own head with a fond smile and pulled his hands out from the comfortable warmth of his coat pockets.
“Hold still,” he said, stepping forward, right into Louis’s space, and tucked his friend’s fringe back under his hat. Louis’s hair was long now, almost the same length as when he had first auditioned for the X-Factor and the layered ends poked up from under the back of his hat. They were silky soft and Harry wondered if his friend had been ‘borrowing’ Zayn’s conditioner again.
“Thanks,” said Louis quietly, breaking Harry out of his musings.
Harry froze as he realised they were standing really, really close and he could actually feel the heat from his friend’s body. It made his senses shiver and, as he took in a deep breath, he got a whiff of Louis’s aftershave, Armani Code. It was surprisingly sweet and Harry’s heart skipped a beat. Wow, he thought, Louis really did have a smattering of freckles on his nose and really long eyelashes and very delicate features.
“Oh,” said Louis softly, making Harry blink. He stared as Louis’s gaze lifted up, catching his breath when those bright blue orbs met his but rose up further and further, Louis tilting his head back… Harry looked up too.
“Oh,” he breathed as a speck of white floated down and melted against his forehead. It was initially cold but quickly warmed up on his skin and evaporated. The next one hit his eyelash, the third into his right eye. He blinked the cold wetness away and lowered his head. Louis was still looking up and now had his mouth open – his tongue trying to catch a flake of snow. It was the most adorable thing Harry had ever seen and whoa, where had that come from?
Louis suddenly lowered his head too, tongue back in his mouth, and he looked back at Harry with the toothiest grin possible. His face was just lit up in wonder and it was kind of breath-taking. Harry was mesmerised; Louis was so…so… pretty. He really was and oh… Harry stared, almost cross-eyed, as a large snowflake landed on the tip of Louis’s nose and slowly melted. He couldn’t help himself, not with Louis looking so adorable and smelling so sweet and feeling so warm, he dipped forward and rubbed their noses together.
Louis breathed in quietly at the contact but didn’t move and Harry, stuttering internally at how soft and silky it felt to rub noses with him – and cold – did it again and again. Yes, Louis’s nose was cold. And his breath smelled like sweet coffee. And this felt way too nice to be normal… and that was when Harry realised it wasn’t normal – at least for him – to be rubbing noses with another guy. He pulled back, slowly. Louis’s eyes were wide.
“Uh…” Harry said, his heart suddenly jack-hammering in his ribcage. Holy shit, what the hell had he just done? Why had he just done that? And was there anything close at hand that he could just crawl into and die of embarrassment?
“Did…?” Louis stuttered, still gaping incredulously, “Did you just give me an… Eskimo kiss?”
“Uh…” Harry wanted to say ‘No! That’s just a figment of your warped imagination. I would never do a thing like that!’ but what came out was, “Yeah?”
“Uh huh,” Louis said faintly and Harry wanted his friend to blink. The wide-eyed staring was starting to make him nervous.
“Okay?” asked Harry, starting to fidget with his coat pockets.
“Um… yeah,” Louis replied, sounding a little dazed, “it was… interesting…” he swallowed loudly, “you’ve never done that before.”
Harry shrugged, “I like to keep you guessing. Come on, let’s keep walking.”
~*~
They fell through the front door, giggling and dripping melted snow everywhere, about two hours later. As they crossed the threshold, Harry staggered under the weight of Louis on his back and carefully let him slide to the ground. The encrusted snow under Louis’s boots skittered across the wooden floor and his sodden hat finally slipped off and dropped into one of their wet footprints. What had started as a few tiny flakes of snow had turned quickly into a blizzard and they’d taken full advantage of it. Snowball fights, snow angels and bum-sledging down embankments had been their enjoyment – and at one point Louis had tackled Harry to the ground in a field by jumping on his back. Harry had received a face full of snow and retaliated by rolling over and starting a wrestling match, which morphed into trying to shove snow down each other’s backs. They were now soaking wet, frozen to the bone but completely and utterly exhilarated. It was to be short lived though…
“Where the hell have you two been?” Liam appeared in the living room looking incredibly angry.
“Out for a walk,” Harry replied, the smile falling from his face. Liam didn’t just look angry, he looked livid.
“For three hours?!” He shouted. Harry checked his watch,
“Four actually,” he shrugged, “why? What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?!” Liam was now almost vibrating with his fury and Harry was growing quite alarmed. Surely he hadn’t forgotten something… like a meeting or a signing? “Oh, I don’t know,” Liam spat, “how about us coming home to find the house empty, no note? You weren’t at any of our friend’s and no one we asked had seen or heard from either of you. Neither of you answered your phones and, oh, what else? It’s snowing a fucking blizzard outside!”
Louis pulled out his mobile, as did Harry, and both saw they had quite a lot of missed calls. They both felt instantly guilty - yeah, maybe that had been a little of an oversight leaving their phones on silent.
“We thought something might have happened!” Liam snarled, “We thought Louis could have been taken ill again and we phoned around every hospital in the London area! We even called the one in Doncaster and near Holmes Chapel! Steve, Rick and Pete have been driving around looking for you too! Everyone’s been worried sick!”
Harry winced, oh yeah, they were in for a right chewing-out by their bodyguards and probably quite rightly. But a part of him was irritated too. “Okay, I’m sorry; we should probably have left a note to let you know where we were. But Liam, we,” he indicated himself and Louis, who was now divesting himself of his sodden boots, “are adults and we have the right to come and go as we please. We’re not kids who have to tell their parents where they’re going, with whom and at what time we should be back. Anyway, if something was wrong one of us would have got in touch – we’re not stupid.”
The end of his words were punctuated with the slamming of the living room door. Both Louis and Harry winced, especially when there was an echoing bang ten seconds later upstairs.
“Oops,” said Harry, starting to slide his soaking wet jacket off his shoulders. It was cold and uncomfortable now. “I guess I better go and speak to him.”
“Nah,” said Louis, straightening up and shaking his head, “I will.” He pulled off his gloves, dropping them on the radiator and then turned to pull Harry into a surprise hug. Their clothes were as equally cold and damp as their coats and, as Louis wrapped his arms around Harry’s neck, their faces brushed and he felt how Louis’s skin was like ice. It sent a shiver down his spine. But any hug from Louis, no matter how damp or uncomfortable, was something to be enjoyed. Harry wrapped his arms around his friend’s waist and hugged him back. The sharp scent of fresh air had now replaced the aroma of Armani Code. It was equally nice.
“Thank you,” Louis said simply, “that was the best fun I’ve had in ages.” He pulled back and pressed a sweet kiss against Harry’s cheek.
Harry blushed and grinned, “Anytime,” he said and then watched as Louis made his way through the living room towards the stairwell, leaving a trail of wet sock prints behind him.
~*~
Louis knocked on Liam’s bedroom door and waited. There was no reply. Rolling his eyes, he tapped the door again and slowly pushed it open. Liam was sitting back on his bed, propped against the headboard and staring determinedly at his laptop.
“Go away Harry, I’m not interested,” he said without looking up.
“Firstly, it’s not Harry, it’s Louis and secondly, I don’t care whether you’re interested or not. You’re going to suffer my company for a few minutes.”
Liam looked up, genuinely surprised. Louis wasn’t normally the one to come knocking to smooth over a row. Then again, normally Louis didn’t row with any one – especially him. Then again, Louis wasn’t really the one Liam was angry with this time either – it was Harry, for taking Louis out without telling anyone and for not seeming at all genuinely sorry for putting them all through a hell of a scare.
“Louis?” he said as he put his laptop to the side.
Louis closed the door and wandered over to take a seat on the edge of the bed. His expression was apologetic but his eyes said so much more… he was happy. Very happy – like he’d just had the time of his life. Liam felt the angry ball in his chest start to melt. Seeing a happy Louis was like watching a deprived child receive a toy they’d only ever dreamed of owning. It brought out every ounce of paternal care and human compassion he possessed.
“I’m sorry,” Louis said, and his eyes told Liam he was genuinely so, “we should have let you all know where we were going. We had no intention to make you so worried and, normally I would agree with Harry that we are adults and therefore are free to come and go as we please, but, considering the recent situation with myself, we should have made an exception this time.”
“Harry’s the one who,” Liam began but Louis held up his hand.
“I suggest you think long and hard about finishing that thought,” he wasn’t angry but sounded firm, “I am not a child or an invalid Liam, I am an adult who, yes has been very ill recently, but who still has the right to take the consequences of his own actions. I tricked Harry into taking me out today because I was climbing the walls with boredom. It may have escaped your notice but I’ve been stuck indoors for almost two months. If I stayed inside for any longer I would probably have had a psychotic breakdown or something.
If Harry is guilty of anything, it’s for being too nice for his own good. Yes, we didn’t leave a note, and yes, if I had been in your shoes I would have been worried too but, Liam, you’re going to have to learn not to panic if one of us is gone for a few hours without telling you. We all have separate lives out-with the band – even if we live together.”
“I get that, I do and I’m sorry for worrying-”
Louis laughed hoarsely and patted Liam’s knee, “Don’t ever be sorry for worrying. It’s nice that you care for us that much. As I said, I would probably have been worried if I was in your shoes too. All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t get so worked up in future until one of us has been missing more than six hours without getting in touch. I just don’t want to fall into the trap of having to report everything I do to you guys. Same way as I know the rest of you don’t want to give everyone all the details of what you get up to either. Trust me, if one of us is getting lucky, the last thing we’ll be thinking about is whether you’re worried we’re not at home – and I think we’d all be pissed if we were interrupted by a concerned phone call during something like that.”
Liam sighed and hugged his knees, “I get what you’re saying and I know we over-reacted – and I do mean ‘we’ by the way.” He flapped a hand weakly, “Zayn and Niall were probably freaking out more than me. It’s just…”
“I get it,” Louis said quietly, “and I’m sorry too. Friends?” He held out his arms.
Liam’s mouth quirked into a smile and he shuffled forward, moving in to hug his friend.
“Always,” he replied. Louis grinned and held the taller boy tight – there hadn’t been as many Liam-Louis hugs as there had Niall-Louis hugs or Harry-Louis hugs but that just made their hugs feel all the more special when they did happen.
Liam was the first to pull away, rather quickly in fact, “Jesus,” he swore, “you’re soaking wet. Were you rolling about in the snow or something?” It was a rhetorical question but Louis wanted to say ‘yes’ anyway. “Go get your arse in the bath and put on some dry clothes. Do you want to get sick again?! Jesus.”
Louis grinned, hopping off the bed, “Okay mum.” Crisis averted, mission complete. A bath sounded damn good too.
~*~
It wasn’t until he had seen to the other two worried boys and then closed the bathroom door behind him that Louis gripped his cheeks with his hands and sank slowly to the floor. He let out a shaky breath and finally allowed himself to react to the day’s proceedings. At once his heart started pounding. That moment in the woods, that wonderful, gorgeous moment when Harry had leaned in, Louis had momentarily had the insane notion the boy was going to kiss him and… he hadn’t found it objectionable in the slightest. In fact, it had felt like missing a step when Harry hadn’t. Still, the Eskimo kiss thing had been… his heart skipped a beat… maybe even more intimate than a proper kiss… He blushed just thinking about it. Since when had Harry been evoking these kinds of feelings in him? Feelings that made him blush and shiver nervously… Okay, so they had always been close, joked about bromances and played up to the camera with overly-affectionate demonstrations of fondness but it had been exactly that; an act. Yes he loved Harry, he loved Harry a lot, would do anything for him, but in the same way as he loved and would do anything for his sisters!
Didn’t he…? Louis rubbed his temples.
He would never consider, for a moment, wanting one of his sisters to kiss him because EWWWW! That was beyond gross and completely illegal, ugh. The thought of Liam, Niall or Zayn kissing him was just as bad and he screwed his eyes up to get rid of those images. So why, in that moment, had he been more than happy to let Harry kiss him, if he wanted? And why now, did the idea of Harry kissing him send a fluttering to stomach.
He squeezed his eyes shut tighter and whined; this could potentially be a huge disaster in the making.