ficlet: a conspiracy of fanfiction (lourry)
i was getting super emotional over the late late show interview and then all the engagement rumors (1, 2) so this is what happened, bear with me
The boys arrive at their hotel room and Louis peels off his jumper, tossing it to Harry. “Here, have it back.” He plops face-down onto their bed and fights the urge to scream into his pillow.
Harry joins him and rubs small circles on his back. “Lou- ” he starts, but Louis is already shaking his head and turning over.
“Don’t say it. Just- don’t right now.”
“How d’you know what I’m going to say?”
Louis raises his brows, challenging him. “Haz, I know you better than anyone. I know exactly what you want to say.” Harry waves his hand for him to continue. “You’re going to tell me that everything is fine. That you love me and you know I love you. That this is just bullshit we need to deal with. That soon enough everything will be set right. That everything is going to be fucking perfect, but it’s not!”
“Well, you got that last bit wrong.” He kisses his boyfriend’s forehead. “But I do love you and, okay, that interview was a bit shit, but it’s over now. No more worrying about it, yeah?”
“I’m not through talking about it, though.”
Harry settles next to Louis, pulling his head onto his chest. He slides his fingers through Louis’s hair. “Tell me.”
“I just can’t believe he fucking brought it up.” Harry had been upset about it, too. He’d thought management told him not to mention all the ‘Larry’ shit, but apparently no one got the memo. So, as usual, Louis had to save the day and sweep the all-too-true rumors under the rug.
“It could’ve been worse though, I s’pose,” Harry remarks. Louis trails his hand along Harry’s taut stomach, resting it his hip.
He shakes his head. “And as if that wouldn’t’ve been bad enough... What was all that about you ‘settling down’? Since when exactly has that been the plan?”
“I dunno, Lous. No one told me about it either, just kind of went with it.”
“Well, it was awful.” Harry’s hand stills in Louis’s hair, and he seems to sense he’s upset him. “Not your answers, I mean. I just meant the whole thing.”
Harry resumes running his fingers through Louis’s hair. “What did you say then, anyway?” Louis mumbles a confused noise into Harry’s chest. “I said I wasn’t looking for anyone, just if I met someone who I liked... You know? When you coughed as loudly as humanly possible?” He laughs into Louis’s hair.
“Oh.” He pauses. “Ryan said he didn’t know why everyone was laughing because it was a fair question, you know, wondering if you were settling down, but I said it wasn’t.”
“Oh, Lou, I’m so sorry.”
“S’okay. Isn’t your fault.”
Harry tilts Louis’s chin up and kisses him softly. “I’m still sorry that I had to say it. And that you had to...you know.”
“Thank you for lending me your jumper; it still smelled like you. Think that made the whole thing a bit worse, to be honest.”
“Lou?”
“Hm?”
“I love you. Let’s just sleep.”
“Not yet.” Harry looks down at him, confused. “First, I need to make love to my boyfriend,” he says, pulling him down for another more heated kiss. And yeah, okay, maybe they don’t need to sleep yet.
He glances over at the clock: it reads midnight. Tomorrow is looking better already, he thinks.