When We Collide - Harry/Louis - Chapter 2
Title: When We Collide
Pairings: Harry/Louis
Part: Chapter 2 of ?
Genre: AU, Romance
Rating: R
Summary: Harry and Louis live parallel lives where nothing much happens, but when the lines begin to intersect, they find themselves in situations bigger than either of them have ever bargained for.
♔ PROLOGUE || CHAPTER ONE
Chapter two
Harry is lost.
He's never claimed to be the best when it comes to directions-although he did manage to get himself and a friend home from a house party a few cities away and did it all with what he call's “nature's navigation system,” meaning his extraordinary ability to read signs-but really, how on earth can he lose track of all the street names he's passed in the last half hour?
He scratches his head and stops in front of a bench advertising a real estate company to gather his thoughts, which, at the moment, seem to be hell-bent on splitting his head in half. His initial goal of taking the walk to clear his mind is pushed out of the way and he's now wrestling with his lack of job and more second-guessing if this is really what he wants. He sighs and sits down.
What was he doing? He never expected everything to fall into place the moment he steps into the city but he can't help but feel like he's blindly grasping at straws hoping he'll at least be able to touch one. As he watches people pass by, he feels naked, vulnerable, like a little kid waiting for his mother to come back and take him home because the big world scares him, and it makes everything all the more harder to take in.
He exhales and rubs his hands together, trying to calm the blood rushing to his head. It doesn't really work, but doing something makes the thoughts slow down, and he gets up and sticks his hand in his pocket, ready to fish out his mobile.
When he brings it out, he considers calling Liam so he doesn't have to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out his way back, but as he looks at the numbers on the screen, he decides against it, and he turns it off and stashes it back in his pocket. Liam's probably doing something important at work, and Harry's always had an innate ability to call at the worst possible times, like when he called his father during an important business meeting asking him if he could bring home poster paper and some colored markers for a presentation. Harry doesn't think he's ever completely forgiven him for that.
Adding to the storm raging in his brain, he can hear his father saying, “You're not ready for this-for independence; all you need to do is keep your head in those books and stop chasing this nonsense,” back when he first pitched him the idea, and for a second, he did believe him, but now that he's come this far, he's determined to tell him he's wrong, to come back home with something to show for it.
Lifting his head up, he searches for the nearest street sign and makes a note, and he resolutely makes his way down the sidewalk feeling better than he did now that he has something to prove.
A few blocks in, he starts to feel confident, and he's already remembering places he can use as landmarks: a gas station, a fast-food restaurant with a large burger hovering just above the name in fluorescent letters, Goldberger's, and a pet shop. He steps into the pet shop for a second and looks at the animals through the bars, and he suddenly gets the urge to purchase a thin, young terrier bounding up and down his cage and watching him, eyes burning with excitement, because he can't bear to see him stuck in such a small space. He decides not to, however, after considering what Liam would think had he brought a puppy his first day in the flat and, really, how much a mess he would cause. He pulls out his mobile instead and takes a picture, silently promising to buy him if he'd still be there when he comes back.
He continues down the sidewalk and he hears his stomach rumbling. Fast-food for breakfast never did settle in well with him, especially because he always overestimates the hunger and buys more than his stomach can handle. He opts to go further, eyes peeled, looking every which way for a sandwich place or deli, something small but filling, when he comes across a modest café on the other side of the road, One Way, sitting between a flat complex and an art store, quite busy this early in the morning with people filing in and out the doors with oversized sketchbooks and canvases, dropping paintbrushes and pencils everywhere. There must be an art school nearby, and Harry punches in the name and address of the store in his mobile so he can buy more music sheets.
Looking both ways and ignoring the rumbling, he runs across the road and pushes through the doors to One Way, and he hears the distant tinkling of the bell as he steps into the cool air inside.
::
There really should have been a mirror in the closet so Louis can see just how ridiculous he looks.
Taking a deep breath, he makes his grand entrance and flings the door open. He glides out into the room, arms outstretched like a bird and legs spread apart as far as his trousers can let him, decked in a green sequined suit, sparkling, red pants that end just above his ankles, blue-striped knee-high socks, particularly noisy tap shoes that sound like they emit gunshots with each step, and a pink fedora hat tipped with a flimsy, white feather broken off at the top.
When his eyes land on Jess, who has a leg up in the air, cleaning herself, he tips his hat to her and does five quick steps before jumping onto one knee and throwing his hands in the air. The little show goes unnoticed because Jess has decided that clawing a pillow is far more interesting than the odd one-man show, and Louis resigns and sits on the floor with a sigh.
“Come on you stupid cat, it took me at least half an hour to put this together and you can't even look me in the face,” Louis says, grabbing a sock nearby and throwing it at Jess, who turns around, hisses sharply, and resumes clawing the fabric until he can hear it tearing. He stands up, grabs her by the skin on her neck, and pulls her off the bed and onto the floor. “Okay, I don't know what's with you and destroying everything that belongs to Niall but you have got to stop. I don't even know why he keeps you, seriously.”
Jess gives a loud mewl and slinks under the bed, and Louis scratches his arm and turns to go back into the closet to change, but not before seeing someone standing in the doorway, and he nearly jumps out of his skin and he takes a step back with a sharp breath. A good, long look revealed the person to be Mrs. Horan, her hair up in pink rollers, sporting a bright, red lipstick, and Louis sighs in relief.
“I didn't see you there, Mrs. Horan,” Louis says, straightening out his suit before realizing what he's wearing, and he quickly snatches the fedora hat from his head and hides it behind him. “How are you?”
“Just fine, thank you, Louis,” Mrs. Horan replies with a smile, although her eyes clearly show her confusion, and Louis grins back before saying, “Thank you so much for letting me stay here with Niall. It means a lot, really.”
Mrs. Horan shakes her head and waves a hand. “Oh, you're always welcome here, you should know that by now. Why, I still remember when I tried to teach you how to bake apple pie and we burned it to a crisp.”
Louis remembers too, back when he was thirteen and his Home Economics class had got him interested in cooking for a while. When he opened the oven door, black smoke billowed out and nearly suffocated him, and the pie was an almost unrecognizable black heap in the center of the grate.
“I've had better results since then,” he assures with a laugh. “I can make you one tonight, if you'd like. I'll even add vanilla ice cream. I know how much you love vanilla.”
“Oh, that would be delightful, Louis, thank you,” she says with a smile, and Louis grins back for the final time before she excuses herself with a soft goodbye. Louis scratches his head with a yawn and makes his way back to the closet.
“By the way,” he hears Mrs. Horan say just as he takes a step inside, and he wheels back around and turns back to the doorway. “Has Niall left already?”
“About an hour ago,” Liam answers with a nod.
“Alright, then. Just tell him I'll be out until much later tonight and that his father won't be back until tomorrow from the business meeting.”
Louis nods again and waves goodbye as she disappears into the hallway. This time, he runs into the closet and closes the door behind him before she comes back, feeling more and more uncomfortable with each second he's inside the suit, and he rips it off along with the pants and hangs them back into place. He kicks the shoes back in Niall's shoe compartment and hangs the hat on the shelf next to his sport caps. He keeps the socks, however, and he slides back out into the room where Jess has reclaimed her position on the bed, focused on finishing what she started. He shakes his head, walks back into the closet, and goes through Niall's collection of suglasses in the far corner where the theater clothes are.
They're all mounted on a rotating cylinder, and Louis can see that they're organized by size, going from the smallest lens to the largest. There are red ones, blues, even deep greens, but one pair catch his eyes: pure black with one of the biggest lenses. While they can't completely cover the bruise, they can easily shadow over it so it won't be as noticeable. They're perfect.
He closes the door behind him and puts them on. He strides over to Jess, whose claws seem to have glued themselves to the pillow, and attempts to pry her off. Failing that, which isn't really a surprise at this point, he grabs the pillow instead and wraps his arms around it until Jess is firmly pressed against his chest, and he carries her out into the hallway.
“You can rip this pillow for all I care but you're not coming back inside until you behave, you hear?” Louis scolds, tapping a finger to Jess's nose. Jess doesn't make a move to turn away and Louis smiles. “Alright, then, now that we've come to an agreement, I'm just going to visit Niall and buy some things, and if you behave, I'll get you some shoes to scratch. Sound good?”
Louis doesn't wait for a response and the next second, he's back inside the room grabbing the keys on the bedside table. He stops in front of the mirror next to the door and checks himself before going out: a white shirt with red and blue stripes, a pair of khaki shorts, and Niall's blue-striped socks. He ruffles his hair and repositions the sunglasses and he's out the door, locking it behind him and giving Jess a kiss on the top of her head as she buries herself in the fluff inside the pillow.
He goes over the list in his head of things he's going to buy as he sprints down the stairs: shoes and pizza for Niall, cheap shoes for Jess, and a new pillow.
And maybe a new haircut, just to change things up a bit.
::
Harry sticks his hands in his pockets and ambles past the chairs in front of the bar, looking at the framed photos of flowers and sepia-toned buildings showing what he assumes as the evolution of One Way over the years. The walls are a light red, almost pinkish hue, and the entire floor is covered with round tables for twos and fours, except for the back wall, where a small wooden stage is set up with a microphone stand in the center. He stops and stares. Stands can only mean one of two things: stand up comedy or musical performances. His heart begins to speed up. He hopes it's the latter.
Turning around, he makes his way to one of the chairs on the bar and sits down, hands folded on the smooth wooden surface, and waits for the blond employee whose back is turned to him, operating the coffee machine with a hand on his hip and a foot tapping with the soft music playing in the background. When he turns around with a mug of coffee, he jumps a bit when he sees Harry, and Harry smiles and looks at his name tag: NIALL.
“Hello,” Niall says with a smile, putting the mug on the table behind him, pushing it further out of Harry's line of vison. “Welcome to One Way. What would you like today?”
“Hi, erm,” Harry starts, and he looks at the menu board behind Niall, the items scrawled in pink and blue chalk. “I'd like a ham and cheese sandwich and a hot chocolate, please.”
“Coming right up.” Niall rings up his order in the cash register and after Harry pays, his eyes are back on the stage. The red curtains at the top are drawn up with gold ropes, and even from the distance, he can see chair marks on the wood, right behind the stand.
“Pretty cool, innit?” Niall's voice brings him back to the bar and Niall's back is turned to him again, and when Harry looks down at the counter, there's a sandwich on a napkin, warm and invigorating. Harry looks back at Niall and laughs.
“Very cool,” he agrees and Niall places the hot chocolate next to the sandwich. Harry takes a sip and wraps his fingers around the warm cup, feeling the steam rising up under his chin. “Do you do musical performances here?”
Niall nods as he wipes the space next to Harry with a damp towel. “Almost on a weekly basis, actually. Anyone's free to sign up, and we take as much as ten people per night. Most we did was twenty. You don't see many cafés having stages anymore. A shame, really, the performances are always fun to watch. You new here?”
“Yeah, just moved into my flat this morning,” Harry says with a grin, taking a bite of the sandwich and washing it down with the chocolate. Niall folds the towel and stuffs it under the counter.
“Oh yeah? Where at?”
“Down at Cheshire Street. It's really nice.”
“Oh, I know where that is. My friend lived there once, used to visit him all the time 'fore he left for uni.”
Harry smiles and shifts in his seat, hands coming back to the cup. “It's a pretty far walk, to be honest, and quite confusing. I just happened to pass through here after getting lost for half an hour. I had no idea where I was going”
“Ah, you took the long way, didn't you? Yeah, there's a shortcut right next to the bus stop, in the alley behind the shoe shop, you can't miss it.”
“Thanks, I'll be sure to keep that in mind,” Harry says, grinning. Niall smiles back.
“At least you got to see the area, yeah?” Niall turns to the back table and dips his head to take a sip of the coffee.
“Yeah, definitely. I'm glad I came across this place, I didn't think I'd ever find somewhere to play.”
Niall's ears perk up and he turns around. “You play? An instrument?”
Harry nods with a smile. “The guitar. And I sing a little.”
Niall's smile is getting wider and the next second, he's digging under the counter and Harry's looking at him with eyebrows drawn together. Niall resurfaces with a clipboard, which he promptly slams down on the counter, and he follows up by offering Harry a pen, eyes flashing with excitement. Harry backs up a bit in surprise.
“That's wonderful! Would you like to sign up for the lineup, then? I've only got about three people on this list and I've been trying to get more people to play this whole week!”
Harry laughs and happily slides the pen from Niall's fingers. “Sure, no problem. I'd love to.”
“Thank you so much!” Niall exclaims as Harry scribbles his name in the line, and when Harry hands him back the clipboard, Niall's beaming. “To tell you the truth, we haven't been getting much names this past month. Last week, we only had two people sign up. Two people! Can you believe that? So thank you! I know, I'll get you another sandwich on the house, what do you say?”
Harry shakes his head and waves his hands. “No, you don't have to, really. I'm trying to get into the business myself and this is going to be a wonderful opportunity to start from, so if anything I should be thanking you.”
“I'll get you the sandwich anyway, you can just eat it later if you want,” Niall says with a laugh, and when he turns back to the table, he downs the entire mug and goes on to fix Harry another sandwich before Harry can utter another protest.
Harry sits back down and swirls the chocolate, and it's then that he hears the bell ring. He turns his head just in time to see a young man with large sunglasses walking in, lugging plastic bags of different sizes and a red helmet on his head.
::
Louis sighs and hoists up the bags when he takes the first few steps in the café.
Who knew a pillow, two pairs of shoes, and two boxes of pizza could be so heavy? Or maybe, he thinks as he makes his way across the tiled floor, he's really just out of shape and he should consider the gym membership Niall's been offering him for a while.
Passing the bar, he sees a young man sitting and swirling the contents of his cup. He had a big mess of brown hair, and Louis wonders to himself how he ever got his head through the door.
“Ni, can you help me before Mike sees this?” Louis calls out to Niall, who's just placed a sandwich in front of the customer, and Niall looks up and grins when his eyes fall on the pizza boxes. Of course, they're what he goes for first, and Louis shuffles behind the counter and pushes the rest of the boxes and his helmet into the corner. When he comes back up, he sees Niall hiding the boxes in a drawer behind them, and he laughs when Niall rips a piece off and quickly pops it in his mouth.
Louis's eyes fall back on the customer, who's stopped playing with his cup and is now looking at them with a smile, and Louis can see dimples poking themselves in his cheeks. For a second, their eyes meet, and Louis swears he had the greenest eyes he's ever seen. In a flash, they're gone and back to the cup, nearly emptied, and Louis feels his stomach drop and his heart race. He bites the inside of his cheek and goes back to Niall, who has just taken another piece and is now wiping his lips with a napkin.
“Oh, you had your hair cut, too,” Niall says, balling up the napkin and reaching a hand to touch Louis's hair. It isn't terribly short, but his head feels lighter and his fringe isn't poking at his eyes anymore when it decided to fall over his face. “It's nice.”
“Thanks,” Louis grins, and he gets up from behind the counter and sits himself down next to the young man, who downs the entire cup and takes a large bite of his sandwich. “Ni, you'd never believe what just happened.”
“What happened?” Niall asks, closing the pizza drawer for the third time and Louis leans his elbows on the counter.
“I was being stupid with your theater clothes, right? Well, you know that one green suit with the sequins? I was putting on a show for Jess and I paired it up with those red glitter pants you had and your mum, out of nowhere, appears in the doorway. You should have seen the look on her face, Ni! She probably thought I looked like a watermelon, I was so embarrassed! A watermelon!”
Niall laughs and from beside him, Louis hears the man utter a small giggle. He looks up and gives Louis an apologetic smile after seeing Louis staring back.
“Oh, I'm sorry. I was just imagining you dressed as a watermelon. Don't-don't mind me.”
Louis shoots him a grin and the man smiles back, and that feeling at the pit of his stomach is back again. The biggest hair, the greenest eyes, the widest smile-who is he?
“By the way, Lou, this guy here signed up for Friday,” Niall says, snapping Louis's attention back to him, and Louis draws his brows together and blinks, waiting for Niall to elaborate.
“Signed up for what?”
“For the lineup, stupid. Have you forgotten?”
It comes rushing back to Louis in a second and he's scratching his head. “Oh, God, I'm sorry. I completely forgot. Mike hasn't given me that job since last month.”
Niall nods. “Obviously, because I've been killing myself over getting more names in.” He leans in and Louis all but gets up from his chair to hear Niall whisper, “And I heard Mike talking to someone about considering to close down the performances for good because we haven't been getting much volunteers.”
“How come you didn't tell me? I would've helped, you know that,” Louis whispers back, and Niall shakes his head.
“You had your own problems and I didn't want to bother you with any more, really. But I'm planning changing his mind so don't worry. I did get a name in today, didn't I? It's all going to get better from here, I know it.”
Louis smiles and agrees. In more ways than one, that's for sure.
He turns back to the man and extends his hand. “Hello, I'm Louis.”
Green eyes drop to the hand and he takes it with his own. “Nice to meet you, Louis. I'm Harry.”
Harry's hands are warm and Louis feels his skin tingling, and he lingers for a moment before sliding his hand out and saying, “So, you're a singer? Of course, you're a singer, what a stupid question to ask, or else you wouldn't have signed up. I, er, I don't really know where I'm going with this but...”
Harry laughs. “Well, trying to be. I'm just trying to get my foot in the door and, you know, take all the opportunities I can get while I can. I really want to make it in the business.”
Louis smiles and silently berates himself for tripping over his words like an idiot. “I'm sure you will. Café performances are really in right now, I think it's great that you're doing it.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Harry says, grabbing his neglected sandwich and taking another large bite. Louis nods and folds his hands over the counter.
“Can you get me a hot chocolate, Ni?” Louis asks, and when he looks at Harry's cup from the corners of his eyes, he adds, “And some more for Harry, too.”
::
Harry puts the sandwich back on the napkin and drops his hands to his lap. He picks at his fingernails and watches Louis drumming his fingers on the counter from the corners of his eyes as he waits for his hot chocolate.
Louis is an interesting guy, he thinks. Someone who smiles just as much as he does. But there's a sadness there, he can see it in his smile, and Harry doesn't have to wonder too long why that is because when he lifts his eyes to Louis's face, he can just see under the glasses the unmistakable purple hue of a fresh bruise.
His stomach drops and he turns his attention back to his fingers.
For a moment, he considers asking him about it because he's curious, really curious, but he thinks better of it and keeps quiet. Just what kind of person would he be to bring attention to something Louis is obviously trying to hide?
“So, you work here?” Harry opts instead, lifting his head and looking at Louis a quarter of the way.
Louis stops drumming and nods. “Yeah, I work with Niall here, but I've taken the day off and I wanted to keep him company.”
Niall strides over to fill Harry's cup and, leaning in with a smile, tells Harry, “That's not true. He's only here for the free food.”
Louis scoffs with a laugh and punches Niall on his arm. “Shut up and give me my chocolate, Horan.”
“Sure, it's coming out of your pay anyway,” Niall responds, and Harry watches them with enthusiasm, thoroughly entertained. He's forgotten the last time he's joked with his friends like this, and as much as he's enjoying his time in the new city, he can't help but feel alone.
“Anyway,” Louis says when Niall finally gives him his cup of chocolate after a few seconds of keeping it out of his reach. He turns back to Harry with a smile. “You look quite young to be pursuing a career in music. Was it always-”
Harry feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he sees Louis's face twisting into terror, and before Harry could ask what's wrong, Louis is on his feet in a blur and he sprints and hides behind the counter.
“He-hey! What's wrong?” Harry calls out, and he looks at Niall with questioning eyes, but Niall's face tells him he's just as confused about the whole thing as he is.
::
The only thing Louis is thankful for in that moment is that Zayn didn't turn his head and look through the mirror as he made his way down the street.
His heart is pounding, about to tear his ribcage in two, and he pushes himself back as far into the corner of the counter as he can. He pushes the boxes to make room and he can see Niall backing up, gripping the back table and dropping his eyes to mouth, “What is it?”
“Zayn! Zayn!” Louis mouths back, pointing out the window, and he tenses up immediately when he hears the bell ring, and he shrinks further back into the corner, hugging his knees close to his body, when Zayn's voice rings through the café.
“Louis, where are you?”
← chapter one ♕ chapter two ♕ chapter three →
Pairings: Harry/Louis
Part: Chapter 2 of ?
Genre: AU, Romance
Rating: R
Summary: Harry and Louis live parallel lives where nothing much happens, but when the lines begin to intersect, they find themselves in situations bigger than either of them have ever bargained for.
♔ PROLOGUE || CHAPTER ONE
Chapter two
Harry is lost.
He's never claimed to be the best when it comes to directions-although he did manage to get himself and a friend home from a house party a few cities away and did it all with what he call's “nature's navigation system,” meaning his extraordinary ability to read signs-but really, how on earth can he lose track of all the street names he's passed in the last half hour?
He scratches his head and stops in front of a bench advertising a real estate company to gather his thoughts, which, at the moment, seem to be hell-bent on splitting his head in half. His initial goal of taking the walk to clear his mind is pushed out of the way and he's now wrestling with his lack of job and more second-guessing if this is really what he wants. He sighs and sits down.
What was he doing? He never expected everything to fall into place the moment he steps into the city but he can't help but feel like he's blindly grasping at straws hoping he'll at least be able to touch one. As he watches people pass by, he feels naked, vulnerable, like a little kid waiting for his mother to come back and take him home because the big world scares him, and it makes everything all the more harder to take in.
He exhales and rubs his hands together, trying to calm the blood rushing to his head. It doesn't really work, but doing something makes the thoughts slow down, and he gets up and sticks his hand in his pocket, ready to fish out his mobile.
When he brings it out, he considers calling Liam so he doesn't have to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out his way back, but as he looks at the numbers on the screen, he decides against it, and he turns it off and stashes it back in his pocket. Liam's probably doing something important at work, and Harry's always had an innate ability to call at the worst possible times, like when he called his father during an important business meeting asking him if he could bring home poster paper and some colored markers for a presentation. Harry doesn't think he's ever completely forgiven him for that.
Adding to the storm raging in his brain, he can hear his father saying, “You're not ready for this-for independence; all you need to do is keep your head in those books and stop chasing this nonsense,” back when he first pitched him the idea, and for a second, he did believe him, but now that he's come this far, he's determined to tell him he's wrong, to come back home with something to show for it.
Lifting his head up, he searches for the nearest street sign and makes a note, and he resolutely makes his way down the sidewalk feeling better than he did now that he has something to prove.
A few blocks in, he starts to feel confident, and he's already remembering places he can use as landmarks: a gas station, a fast-food restaurant with a large burger hovering just above the name in fluorescent letters, Goldberger's, and a pet shop. He steps into the pet shop for a second and looks at the animals through the bars, and he suddenly gets the urge to purchase a thin, young terrier bounding up and down his cage and watching him, eyes burning with excitement, because he can't bear to see him stuck in such a small space. He decides not to, however, after considering what Liam would think had he brought a puppy his first day in the flat and, really, how much a mess he would cause. He pulls out his mobile instead and takes a picture, silently promising to buy him if he'd still be there when he comes back.
He continues down the sidewalk and he hears his stomach rumbling. Fast-food for breakfast never did settle in well with him, especially because he always overestimates the hunger and buys more than his stomach can handle. He opts to go further, eyes peeled, looking every which way for a sandwich place or deli, something small but filling, when he comes across a modest café on the other side of the road, One Way, sitting between a flat complex and an art store, quite busy this early in the morning with people filing in and out the doors with oversized sketchbooks and canvases, dropping paintbrushes and pencils everywhere. There must be an art school nearby, and Harry punches in the name and address of the store in his mobile so he can buy more music sheets.
Looking both ways and ignoring the rumbling, he runs across the road and pushes through the doors to One Way, and he hears the distant tinkling of the bell as he steps into the cool air inside.
::
There really should have been a mirror in the closet so Louis can see just how ridiculous he looks.
Taking a deep breath, he makes his grand entrance and flings the door open. He glides out into the room, arms outstretched like a bird and legs spread apart as far as his trousers can let him, decked in a green sequined suit, sparkling, red pants that end just above his ankles, blue-striped knee-high socks, particularly noisy tap shoes that sound like they emit gunshots with each step, and a pink fedora hat tipped with a flimsy, white feather broken off at the top.
When his eyes land on Jess, who has a leg up in the air, cleaning herself, he tips his hat to her and does five quick steps before jumping onto one knee and throwing his hands in the air. The little show goes unnoticed because Jess has decided that clawing a pillow is far more interesting than the odd one-man show, and Louis resigns and sits on the floor with a sigh.
“Come on you stupid cat, it took me at least half an hour to put this together and you can't even look me in the face,” Louis says, grabbing a sock nearby and throwing it at Jess, who turns around, hisses sharply, and resumes clawing the fabric until he can hear it tearing. He stands up, grabs her by the skin on her neck, and pulls her off the bed and onto the floor. “Okay, I don't know what's with you and destroying everything that belongs to Niall but you have got to stop. I don't even know why he keeps you, seriously.”
Jess gives a loud mewl and slinks under the bed, and Louis scratches his arm and turns to go back into the closet to change, but not before seeing someone standing in the doorway, and he nearly jumps out of his skin and he takes a step back with a sharp breath. A good, long look revealed the person to be Mrs. Horan, her hair up in pink rollers, sporting a bright, red lipstick, and Louis sighs in relief.
“I didn't see you there, Mrs. Horan,” Louis says, straightening out his suit before realizing what he's wearing, and he quickly snatches the fedora hat from his head and hides it behind him. “How are you?”
“Just fine, thank you, Louis,” Mrs. Horan replies with a smile, although her eyes clearly show her confusion, and Louis grins back before saying, “Thank you so much for letting me stay here with Niall. It means a lot, really.”
Mrs. Horan shakes her head and waves a hand. “Oh, you're always welcome here, you should know that by now. Why, I still remember when I tried to teach you how to bake apple pie and we burned it to a crisp.”
Louis remembers too, back when he was thirteen and his Home Economics class had got him interested in cooking for a while. When he opened the oven door, black smoke billowed out and nearly suffocated him, and the pie was an almost unrecognizable black heap in the center of the grate.
“I've had better results since then,” he assures with a laugh. “I can make you one tonight, if you'd like. I'll even add vanilla ice cream. I know how much you love vanilla.”
“Oh, that would be delightful, Louis, thank you,” she says with a smile, and Louis grins back for the final time before she excuses herself with a soft goodbye. Louis scratches his head with a yawn and makes his way back to the closet.
“By the way,” he hears Mrs. Horan say just as he takes a step inside, and he wheels back around and turns back to the doorway. “Has Niall left already?”
“About an hour ago,” Liam answers with a nod.
“Alright, then. Just tell him I'll be out until much later tonight and that his father won't be back until tomorrow from the business meeting.”
Louis nods again and waves goodbye as she disappears into the hallway. This time, he runs into the closet and closes the door behind him before she comes back, feeling more and more uncomfortable with each second he's inside the suit, and he rips it off along with the pants and hangs them back into place. He kicks the shoes back in Niall's shoe compartment and hangs the hat on the shelf next to his sport caps. He keeps the socks, however, and he slides back out into the room where Jess has reclaimed her position on the bed, focused on finishing what she started. He shakes his head, walks back into the closet, and goes through Niall's collection of suglasses in the far corner where the theater clothes are.
They're all mounted on a rotating cylinder, and Louis can see that they're organized by size, going from the smallest lens to the largest. There are red ones, blues, even deep greens, but one pair catch his eyes: pure black with one of the biggest lenses. While they can't completely cover the bruise, they can easily shadow over it so it won't be as noticeable. They're perfect.
He closes the door behind him and puts them on. He strides over to Jess, whose claws seem to have glued themselves to the pillow, and attempts to pry her off. Failing that, which isn't really a surprise at this point, he grabs the pillow instead and wraps his arms around it until Jess is firmly pressed against his chest, and he carries her out into the hallway.
“You can rip this pillow for all I care but you're not coming back inside until you behave, you hear?” Louis scolds, tapping a finger to Jess's nose. Jess doesn't make a move to turn away and Louis smiles. “Alright, then, now that we've come to an agreement, I'm just going to visit Niall and buy some things, and if you behave, I'll get you some shoes to scratch. Sound good?”
Louis doesn't wait for a response and the next second, he's back inside the room grabbing the keys on the bedside table. He stops in front of the mirror next to the door and checks himself before going out: a white shirt with red and blue stripes, a pair of khaki shorts, and Niall's blue-striped socks. He ruffles his hair and repositions the sunglasses and he's out the door, locking it behind him and giving Jess a kiss on the top of her head as she buries herself in the fluff inside the pillow.
He goes over the list in his head of things he's going to buy as he sprints down the stairs: shoes and pizza for Niall, cheap shoes for Jess, and a new pillow.
And maybe a new haircut, just to change things up a bit.
::
Harry sticks his hands in his pockets and ambles past the chairs in front of the bar, looking at the framed photos of flowers and sepia-toned buildings showing what he assumes as the evolution of One Way over the years. The walls are a light red, almost pinkish hue, and the entire floor is covered with round tables for twos and fours, except for the back wall, where a small wooden stage is set up with a microphone stand in the center. He stops and stares. Stands can only mean one of two things: stand up comedy or musical performances. His heart begins to speed up. He hopes it's the latter.
Turning around, he makes his way to one of the chairs on the bar and sits down, hands folded on the smooth wooden surface, and waits for the blond employee whose back is turned to him, operating the coffee machine with a hand on his hip and a foot tapping with the soft music playing in the background. When he turns around with a mug of coffee, he jumps a bit when he sees Harry, and Harry smiles and looks at his name tag: NIALL.
“Hello,” Niall says with a smile, putting the mug on the table behind him, pushing it further out of Harry's line of vison. “Welcome to One Way. What would you like today?”
“Hi, erm,” Harry starts, and he looks at the menu board behind Niall, the items scrawled in pink and blue chalk. “I'd like a ham and cheese sandwich and a hot chocolate, please.”
“Coming right up.” Niall rings up his order in the cash register and after Harry pays, his eyes are back on the stage. The red curtains at the top are drawn up with gold ropes, and even from the distance, he can see chair marks on the wood, right behind the stand.
“Pretty cool, innit?” Niall's voice brings him back to the bar and Niall's back is turned to him again, and when Harry looks down at the counter, there's a sandwich on a napkin, warm and invigorating. Harry looks back at Niall and laughs.
“Very cool,” he agrees and Niall places the hot chocolate next to the sandwich. Harry takes a sip and wraps his fingers around the warm cup, feeling the steam rising up under his chin. “Do you do musical performances here?”
Niall nods as he wipes the space next to Harry with a damp towel. “Almost on a weekly basis, actually. Anyone's free to sign up, and we take as much as ten people per night. Most we did was twenty. You don't see many cafés having stages anymore. A shame, really, the performances are always fun to watch. You new here?”
“Yeah, just moved into my flat this morning,” Harry says with a grin, taking a bite of the sandwich and washing it down with the chocolate. Niall folds the towel and stuffs it under the counter.
“Oh yeah? Where at?”
“Down at Cheshire Street. It's really nice.”
“Oh, I know where that is. My friend lived there once, used to visit him all the time 'fore he left for uni.”
Harry smiles and shifts in his seat, hands coming back to the cup. “It's a pretty far walk, to be honest, and quite confusing. I just happened to pass through here after getting lost for half an hour. I had no idea where I was going”
“Ah, you took the long way, didn't you? Yeah, there's a shortcut right next to the bus stop, in the alley behind the shoe shop, you can't miss it.”
“Thanks, I'll be sure to keep that in mind,” Harry says, grinning. Niall smiles back.
“At least you got to see the area, yeah?” Niall turns to the back table and dips his head to take a sip of the coffee.
“Yeah, definitely. I'm glad I came across this place, I didn't think I'd ever find somewhere to play.”
Niall's ears perk up and he turns around. “You play? An instrument?”
Harry nods with a smile. “The guitar. And I sing a little.”
Niall's smile is getting wider and the next second, he's digging under the counter and Harry's looking at him with eyebrows drawn together. Niall resurfaces with a clipboard, which he promptly slams down on the counter, and he follows up by offering Harry a pen, eyes flashing with excitement. Harry backs up a bit in surprise.
“That's wonderful! Would you like to sign up for the lineup, then? I've only got about three people on this list and I've been trying to get more people to play this whole week!”
Harry laughs and happily slides the pen from Niall's fingers. “Sure, no problem. I'd love to.”
“Thank you so much!” Niall exclaims as Harry scribbles his name in the line, and when Harry hands him back the clipboard, Niall's beaming. “To tell you the truth, we haven't been getting much names this past month. Last week, we only had two people sign up. Two people! Can you believe that? So thank you! I know, I'll get you another sandwich on the house, what do you say?”
Harry shakes his head and waves his hands. “No, you don't have to, really. I'm trying to get into the business myself and this is going to be a wonderful opportunity to start from, so if anything I should be thanking you.”
“I'll get you the sandwich anyway, you can just eat it later if you want,” Niall says with a laugh, and when he turns back to the table, he downs the entire mug and goes on to fix Harry another sandwich before Harry can utter another protest.
Harry sits back down and swirls the chocolate, and it's then that he hears the bell ring. He turns his head just in time to see a young man with large sunglasses walking in, lugging plastic bags of different sizes and a red helmet on his head.
::
Louis sighs and hoists up the bags when he takes the first few steps in the café.
Who knew a pillow, two pairs of shoes, and two boxes of pizza could be so heavy? Or maybe, he thinks as he makes his way across the tiled floor, he's really just out of shape and he should consider the gym membership Niall's been offering him for a while.
Passing the bar, he sees a young man sitting and swirling the contents of his cup. He had a big mess of brown hair, and Louis wonders to himself how he ever got his head through the door.
“Ni, can you help me before Mike sees this?” Louis calls out to Niall, who's just placed a sandwich in front of the customer, and Niall looks up and grins when his eyes fall on the pizza boxes. Of course, they're what he goes for first, and Louis shuffles behind the counter and pushes the rest of the boxes and his helmet into the corner. When he comes back up, he sees Niall hiding the boxes in a drawer behind them, and he laughs when Niall rips a piece off and quickly pops it in his mouth.
Louis's eyes fall back on the customer, who's stopped playing with his cup and is now looking at them with a smile, and Louis can see dimples poking themselves in his cheeks. For a second, their eyes meet, and Louis swears he had the greenest eyes he's ever seen. In a flash, they're gone and back to the cup, nearly emptied, and Louis feels his stomach drop and his heart race. He bites the inside of his cheek and goes back to Niall, who has just taken another piece and is now wiping his lips with a napkin.
“Oh, you had your hair cut, too,” Niall says, balling up the napkin and reaching a hand to touch Louis's hair. It isn't terribly short, but his head feels lighter and his fringe isn't poking at his eyes anymore when it decided to fall over his face. “It's nice.”
“Thanks,” Louis grins, and he gets up from behind the counter and sits himself down next to the young man, who downs the entire cup and takes a large bite of his sandwich. “Ni, you'd never believe what just happened.”
“What happened?” Niall asks, closing the pizza drawer for the third time and Louis leans his elbows on the counter.
“I was being stupid with your theater clothes, right? Well, you know that one green suit with the sequins? I was putting on a show for Jess and I paired it up with those red glitter pants you had and your mum, out of nowhere, appears in the doorway. You should have seen the look on her face, Ni! She probably thought I looked like a watermelon, I was so embarrassed! A watermelon!”
Niall laughs and from beside him, Louis hears the man utter a small giggle. He looks up and gives Louis an apologetic smile after seeing Louis staring back.
“Oh, I'm sorry. I was just imagining you dressed as a watermelon. Don't-don't mind me.”
Louis shoots him a grin and the man smiles back, and that feeling at the pit of his stomach is back again. The biggest hair, the greenest eyes, the widest smile-who is he?
“By the way, Lou, this guy here signed up for Friday,” Niall says, snapping Louis's attention back to him, and Louis draws his brows together and blinks, waiting for Niall to elaborate.
“Signed up for what?”
“For the lineup, stupid. Have you forgotten?”
It comes rushing back to Louis in a second and he's scratching his head. “Oh, God, I'm sorry. I completely forgot. Mike hasn't given me that job since last month.”
Niall nods. “Obviously, because I've been killing myself over getting more names in.” He leans in and Louis all but gets up from his chair to hear Niall whisper, “And I heard Mike talking to someone about considering to close down the performances for good because we haven't been getting much volunteers.”
“How come you didn't tell me? I would've helped, you know that,” Louis whispers back, and Niall shakes his head.
“You had your own problems and I didn't want to bother you with any more, really. But I'm planning changing his mind so don't worry. I did get a name in today, didn't I? It's all going to get better from here, I know it.”
Louis smiles and agrees. In more ways than one, that's for sure.
He turns back to the man and extends his hand. “Hello, I'm Louis.”
Green eyes drop to the hand and he takes it with his own. “Nice to meet you, Louis. I'm Harry.”
Harry's hands are warm and Louis feels his skin tingling, and he lingers for a moment before sliding his hand out and saying, “So, you're a singer? Of course, you're a singer, what a stupid question to ask, or else you wouldn't have signed up. I, er, I don't really know where I'm going with this but...”
Harry laughs. “Well, trying to be. I'm just trying to get my foot in the door and, you know, take all the opportunities I can get while I can. I really want to make it in the business.”
Louis smiles and silently berates himself for tripping over his words like an idiot. “I'm sure you will. Café performances are really in right now, I think it's great that you're doing it.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” Harry says, grabbing his neglected sandwich and taking another large bite. Louis nods and folds his hands over the counter.
“Can you get me a hot chocolate, Ni?” Louis asks, and when he looks at Harry's cup from the corners of his eyes, he adds, “And some more for Harry, too.”
::
Harry puts the sandwich back on the napkin and drops his hands to his lap. He picks at his fingernails and watches Louis drumming his fingers on the counter from the corners of his eyes as he waits for his hot chocolate.
Louis is an interesting guy, he thinks. Someone who smiles just as much as he does. But there's a sadness there, he can see it in his smile, and Harry doesn't have to wonder too long why that is because when he lifts his eyes to Louis's face, he can just see under the glasses the unmistakable purple hue of a fresh bruise.
His stomach drops and he turns his attention back to his fingers.
For a moment, he considers asking him about it because he's curious, really curious, but he thinks better of it and keeps quiet. Just what kind of person would he be to bring attention to something Louis is obviously trying to hide?
“So, you work here?” Harry opts instead, lifting his head and looking at Louis a quarter of the way.
Louis stops drumming and nods. “Yeah, I work with Niall here, but I've taken the day off and I wanted to keep him company.”
Niall strides over to fill Harry's cup and, leaning in with a smile, tells Harry, “That's not true. He's only here for the free food.”
Louis scoffs with a laugh and punches Niall on his arm. “Shut up and give me my chocolate, Horan.”
“Sure, it's coming out of your pay anyway,” Niall responds, and Harry watches them with enthusiasm, thoroughly entertained. He's forgotten the last time he's joked with his friends like this, and as much as he's enjoying his time in the new city, he can't help but feel alone.
“Anyway,” Louis says when Niall finally gives him his cup of chocolate after a few seconds of keeping it out of his reach. He turns back to Harry with a smile. “You look quite young to be pursuing a career in music. Was it always-”
Harry feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up when he sees Louis's face twisting into terror, and before Harry could ask what's wrong, Louis is on his feet in a blur and he sprints and hides behind the counter.
“He-hey! What's wrong?” Harry calls out, and he looks at Niall with questioning eyes, but Niall's face tells him he's just as confused about the whole thing as he is.
::
The only thing Louis is thankful for in that moment is that Zayn didn't turn his head and look through the mirror as he made his way down the street.
His heart is pounding, about to tear his ribcage in two, and he pushes himself back as far into the corner of the counter as he can. He pushes the boxes to make room and he can see Niall backing up, gripping the back table and dropping his eyes to mouth, “What is it?”
“Zayn! Zayn!” Louis mouths back, pointing out the window, and he tenses up immediately when he hears the bell ring, and he shrinks further back into the corner, hugging his knees close to his body, when Zayn's voice rings through the café.
“Louis, where are you?”
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