Louis bursts through the door and jumps on top of the human shaped pile of blankets, which lets out a human like groan. Louis starts to slowly peel down the covers and kisses the other boy's cheek.
"Time to wake up Zayn! We have about seven hours until we meet up with the boys for lunch. That is seven hours to get our work done."
Louis grins and Zayn groans, only opening one eye to narrow it at Louis, before turning onto his stomach and flinging the older boy off of him. Louis lands with a thud onto Zayn's navy-blue carpet.
"Ow! Zayn! You fucker, get up!" And with that, Louis rips off the covers and pushes Zayn off the bed. Zayn grumbles to himself and stands up, reaching out to Louis for a hug.
Louis bounds over to Zayn and embraces him, grinning at him.
"Good morning!" Louis sticks his tongue out at Zayn.
"What time is it?"
Louis looks over at the clock as Zayn rubs his eyes, and Louis smirks.
"It's five in the morning."
Louis flies backwards into the bed, as Zayn beats him with a pillow.
"You woke me up at five in the morning! I'm going to kill you, Louis."
Louis grabs the pillow from Zayn's hand and promptly hits him over the head with it once, throwing it across the room before pulling Zayn to sit down next to him.
"Zayn, it's February first. It's my boy's birthday!" He says it with a shit eating smile. "We have to get all of the decorations set up so it's all ready before everyone comes to my house after lunch, and it has to be perfect." He emphasizes the fact that it absolutely has to be perfect, staring at Zayn intensely.
"You understand how important this is right? Harry is going to be sixteen!" Louis says it with a sweet sigh, his eyes wandering off as his mind is consumed with thoughts of Harry.
Zayn lets a sly smile cover his face as he looks over at Louis. "Yeah, yeah, your boyfriend is sixteen." He pauses, wiggles his eyebrows, and leans into Louis, whispering in his ear. "Maybe you should give him his first blowjob as a birthday gift."
Louis turns bright red at the thought, and quickly shoves Zayn off of the bed.
"He's not my boyfriend."
"Well fuck, he might as well be! Every time one of you looks at the other, you both turn into literal goop. It makes me sick." Zayn pauses and looks up at the same spot Louis is staring at on the ceiling. "Do you remember the first time we met?"
Louis stifles a laugh and nods, breathing out a soft agreement. He still feels a little guilty for the way he treated Zayn, and Zayn reminds him of it constantly, but mostly as a joke.
"If looks could kill, I would have been down under before you even came over and introduced yourself. I mean I swear I could feel your stare through the window." Both boys laugh, and Zayn continues on with his statement while trying to make his point. "The whole time you were there you just looked." Zayn pauses, looks at Louis, and looks back at the ceiling. "You looked so sad. Like I had taken away your sun and buckets of rain was pouring down on you, but you didn't have an umbrella. So, you just stood there and let it rain."
At that, Louis whips his head over to Zayn and raises an eyebrow. "What the fuck kind of analogy is that?" Zayn waves a dismissive hand at Louis and ignores him.
"What I'm saying is, Harry is your sun, basically. Like, okay, you and I have a lot of fun together and you're my best friend. Harry is also your best friend, and you guys have a lot of fun together, but in a different way. The way you look at him compared to me and the other lads. Well, I'll just say it's pretty obvious how you feel. How you both feel."
Louis and Zayn suck in a sharp breath at the same time, but Louis doesn't walk out like he usually does when this conversation comes up. Zayn realizes this might be his only chance to bring up the thoughts that have been laying heavy on his mind.
"Harry is, well I think Harry is confused."
Louis purses his lips and finally looks at Zayn, as if giving him the go ahead to continue.
"I don't want to say too much because it isn't my place but him and I have talked about this before Lou. You still haven't come out to him, even though you and Eleanor 'broke up' months ago. Like way before you and I even met." Zayn sends Louis a questioning gaze, hoping he understands where Zayn is headed. Louis stays frozen on the bed.
"Li figured it out a long time ago, and I knew as soon as I met you. Harry knows Lou, he's just waiting for you to tell him. Niall is just Niall so of course he's going to be a little bit stupid about it but I'm sure even he knows. He suspects, at least." Zayn stands up and hesitantly walks over to Lou, trying to figure out how to wrap up his thoughts. "I just don't know why you're waiting Lou. What are you waiting for? Why are you being so hesitant about this? We are your friends. We love and support you no matter what. you know that this wouldn't change the way we feel about you, the way Harry feels about you. I mean Louis, four out of five of us are gay. I just don't understand why you can't admit out loud what we all know. You don't have to be scared."
And Zayn sees Louis' face break. He thinks maybe, finally, he's gotten through to Louis. Louis is going to say it, he's going to tell Zayn he's gay, and then he'll tell Harry and everyone else. He'll finally be him. He'll finally be happy.
"We've wasted an hour of decorating time. This has to be perfect." And with that, Louis grabs his bag and storms out of the room, leaving the door wide open.
Louis glances at the time. 11:50. Zayn and Louis spent hours decorating Louis' living room, completely in silence other than when his siblings came down and helped out for a few minutes. Then they got bored and ran off to play with barbies or something, buzzing about what they all got Harry for his birthday.
They had ten minutes to spare before they had to get to lunch, before Harry made his way over here himself to drag Louis out and saw the surprise. Wordlessly, Louis puts his shoes on and walks over to the door, waiting for Zayn to follow.
Zayn sulks but walks behind Louis as they head to the car and drive over to the cafe. When they get there, the other three boys are sat down chatting with a cup of tea. Harry immediately stands up with a glowing smile and grabs onto Louis, pulling him into a longer than necessary hug. Louis' mood is fixed. He smiles up at Harry and holds onto him as he nuzzles his head into Harry's neck.
"Happy birthday Hazza." He whispers it through his smile, and feels Harry's smile widen, if possible. Louis always warns that Harry's cheeks are going to rip off his face, but Harry is always too happy to care.
The boys all sit down, and Harry scoots a teacup over to Lou. "I ordered for you already, got your favorite." Louis grins and pulls the cup to his lips, taking a sip while humming in delight. Harry watches him intently, lips parted and eyes shining. Zayn clears his throat and smiles knowingly at the two of them.
"Happy birthday Harry! You're sixteen you old bugger." Zayn laughs and Harry throws a napkin at him, pulling his eyes off of Louis.
"Says you! You just turned eighteen, and so did Louis! You guys are the old ones." Harry furrows his eyebrows and pulls his lips into a pout, trying to look angry. There's a smile peeking through his lips and he starts giggling when Louis pinches his side.
All of the boys get their food and swap through different topics as they eat. Once they finish, A worker brings out a cake with 'Happy Birthday Haz' written on it. Harry's eyes go wide, and he grins. Louis smiles and smears a glob of icing on his nose after he blows out the candles.
Pretending to look shocked, Harry does the same exact thing to Louis. The rest of the boys watch the two in awe.
"How did they know it was my birthday?" Harry sticks his icing covered finger into Louis' mouth, and Louis slowly licks the icing off, slightly sucking, then jokingly bites his finger. Harry's eyes go a tiny bit dark, and he moves around in his seat to readjust as he pulls his finger away. Louis doesn't think anything of it, but Zayn sees the look on Harry's face and knowingly smirks.
"I called ahead to let them know when we would be coming in, and then asked them to bring a cake and write happy birthday on it." Louis smiles as if he's a genius, content with how happy his gesture made Harry.
Harry giggles and then looks down at the cake. He looks back up at Louis, tilts his head, and leans forward.
Harry licks the icing off of Louis' nose. Louis' freezes but let's Harry do it, blushing furiously. He doesn't know why he's reacting this way; the boys are even more touchy than this all the time. But he can't think, because Harry's tongue is touching Louis' face and suddenly Louis is warm and nervous. Harry laughs, and grabs a napkin to wipe his nose, then wipes Louis' nose as well.
Once they've cut the cake and eaten most of it, which the boys are coming to regret, they all head off back to Louis' house. As soon as they open the door, they are met with bright blue decorations all over the house, and all of their families gathered in the living room.
Harry immediately turns to Louis and throws his arms around him, muttering a very tiny thank you before he goes off to greet everyone, including his mom and sister. As Louis let's his eyes follow Harry around the room, Zayn comes up behind him and lays a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry about this morning." He leans close and makes his voice low enough that only the two of them could hear. "I shouldn't have pushed you. I know this shit is hard, and personal. Take your time. And I-"
Louis turns around, looking Zayn in the eyes as he lets out a deep breath. It sounds like he had been holding it in for a long time. He smiles, puts his hand on Zayn's shoulder, the opposite side of the one Zayn is holding, and smiles.
"You don't have to apologize Zayn, because you're right."
And with that, he beckons Zayn to follow him before he can even get a word in as they walk over to a very eager Harry, ready to open his gifts. Zayn has to keep his jaw tight, so he doesn't accidentally catch flies.