Archive of Our Own

CHAPTER 1

Ah... This...

This was the best moment of every shift at the coffee shop, no single doubt about it.

Mostly because it was the little moment immediately after the worst moment of every shift. The morning rush hour was always insufferable for Louis. Absolutely horrible.

The shop, owned by a one of his former high school mate’s father, was located in the worst possible place a coffee shop can be located at if you’re a pretty lazy person like Louis. It was right in the center of the busiest part of the city, surrounded by office buildings, shops and restaurants.

Even though it was a pretty small and secluded shop, it was always full every morning until at least 10 am, like, please-kill-me full. All the busy, serious business men and women in their expensive suits and dresses stopped by the shop every morning before running to their respective offices, desperate for caffeine and something greasy and sugary to eat, sleepy and cranky and rude. Always so rude, oh god, it was a miracle to get a smile or a thank you from these people.

It was torture. Utter torture.

Louis, clumsy as he was, completely refused to spend those mornings preparing the beverages. A couple of burns and a lot of jumbled up orders were enough to make him beg his boss to let him man the cash register, which wasn’t really the best of deals, considering he had to deal with the customers.

Right by his side was his best friend since forever. Good ol’ Liam, efficient and fast as ever, dealt with all the hot drinks because of course he did. He looked like an automaton during those few hours, completely focused and scarily accurate with every order Louis threw at him.

Niall, the guy he met as soon as he started working at the shop three years ago, took care of the sandwiches and croissants and everything that had anything to do with food because it was his passion, his calling he always said, and to be honest, he was amazing at it. Louis could attest to that, and the face of pure bliss of their customers as they bit into the food Niall made was pretty good evidence.

The new guy, Mark, (well, not that new, he started working with them like a year ago but he was still the newest one so he would be “the new guy” forever, or until someone newer came along) took care of the floor, cleaning tables and taking a few orders from lazy customers that didn’t feel like approaching the cash register.

That was it. That was their small army, facing the hordes of insufferable office snobs morning after morning, and then sharing the slow hours the rest of the day until the evening shift came in to relieve them.

And, according to Louis, this was it. This was the best moment of the day. When the crowd thinned out, when all of the sleepy customers finally left for work and they had a freaking break at last, taking turns to rest for a bit, have some coffee themselves or maybe a smoke (in Louis case) or a sandwich (in Niall’s case).

Louis usually took those breaks with Liam, maybe the only one that could endure Louis’ bitchy mood after rush hour. Liam was used to it, after years and years of dealing with his dramatic antics, mood swings and eternal rants.

They had met in elementary school, when their teacher paired them up for the class’ first school trip of the year. Liam spent the whole journey back to school listening patiently while Louis complained about how boring the museum was and how the only cool thing was the dinosaur skeletons, nodding at all the right parts and offering Louis half of his apple to make him happy again. They had followed each other around since then, all through elementary school, high school, college, and work, because by some kind of miracle, the owner of the place decided to hire them both three years ago.

It was a blessing, honestly, the job was pretty decently paid and it got them through all of their expenses while they finished their last year of college. Now, two years after graduation, between Louis’ incessant job hunting that never had good results and Liam juggling two jobs while he waited for the promotion he was promised at the production company, these moments seemed even more precious.

Life was too hectic and who knew what would happen after this? Maybe they would end up working in different cities one day. Liam had a degree in music production and he was brilliant at it. Louis was certain Liam would get a fucking amazing job somewhere else if the company he worked for now didn’t give him a better position than intern. And Louis… well, once upon a time he thought he would have a successful career as a football player and he would travel the world but whatever. He would probably stay in the city and keep working at the same place, but still…

These moments were precious, and Louis loved them. Smoking a cigarette, holding his huge cup of coffee tight between his hands even though the days were getting warmer, and talking with Liam about anything and everything.

Liam rolled his shoulders laying against the brick wall by his side, groaning. “Mate, you need to take it easier during rush hour, you’re a human being, you know? Your body needs a break,” Louis warned him for the hundredth time that month alone, raising his eyebrows a bit, blowing the smoke from the cigarette in the opposite direction so it wouldn’t bother Liam.

Liam shrugged, chuckling, like he always did. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. You know I have a perfectly good masseuse waiting for me at home, ready to relax my body,” he reminded Louis, waggling his eyebrows like an idiot. Ugh. Ew.

“Do you really need to remind me every ten seconds how gross you and Zayn are? Stop it. It’s annoying. And disgusting. Please,” Louis begged, faking a shudder.

It was annoying, it was. But Louis wasn’t bitter, at all. He was happy for Liam. Very happy actually. The guy had spent practically the entirety of their first two years of college pining after Zayn like a lost puppy, desperately, from the very first time he saw the other guy, and it took one fortuitous meeting at a random party for Zayn to end up actually talking to Liam and falling head over heels for him too. The rest is history.

They were disgusting, just as handsy and sweet as the first day. For that reason only Louis was almost glad Liam moved into Zayn’s flat two years ago. The noises were the worst. That did mean Louis felt lonelier than ever, but whatever. He wasn’t made to be in relationships anyways, so really, whatever. He was happy for Liam, he just didn’t need the PDAs all up in his face.

Liam laughed that laugh that made his eyes disappear, looking at the disgusting floor of the alley behind the shop, his face going red. Ah, yes, his 'Zayn smile'. No matter how long they’ve been together, Liam was still that completely smitten kid he was when he first saw Zayn. It was kind of lovely, but yeah, annoying.

“Sorry…” Liam hid the apology behind another sip of his coffee. Maybe Liam was the only one that actually understood Louis’ head enough to know Louis wasn’t actually trying to be mean with that comment, but that it still came from kind of dark place in his head.

Louis’ history with romance and relationships was a rocky one. It’s not that he didn’t like being with someone, it’s just that all the someones he met in the past were idiots that broke his heart, and after some time of the history repeating itself again and again Louis just gave up. There was no point. So yeah, he met guys, he had short relationships that never lasted more than a few months and then he ditched them before they had the chance to fuck him up. He still felt lonely, and he hadn’t been with anyone for more than two weeks in… well, almost two years… but that was better than the alternative.

Liam was lucky. Most guys were shit. So yeah, Louis had a right to be a bit snippy when it came to lovey-dovey stuff, and thankfully Liam understood that.

After a short silence, Liam pushed himself off the wall and spoke again. “Oh, speaking of Zayn…” Louis rolled his eyes at him, like please, not again, but Liam raised his free hand defensively. “No, you donut, it’s not about that. I was going to say, remember his Scrabble group?” Liam asked.

Oh yeah. Louis remembered. “Yeah, I do remember your boyfriend’s boring Scrabble group,” Louis said. He did remember it existed, and not much more than that, because when Zayn started talking about it, Louis tried to pay attention but he ended up tuning him out, apologizing later as politely as he could because Scrabble was on his list of most-boring-activities-in-the-world, right along with golf and encyclopedias and watching snails run a marathon.

Of course Zayn loved Scrabble. He was studying to become an English major when they were in college, and now he was an English teacher and a complete nerd. He was one of those people that always included long complicated words into everyday sentences, making Louis side-eye him all the time and strongly suspect they weren’t even real words and Zayn just said them to appear more intelligent than he was, because god, the guy was a complete dork, even worse than Liam.

But yeah, Scrabble was Zayn’s passion, and he met some other Scrabble nerds in his class back in college and they formed a group that still met every week to play. Zayn told him about that a long time ago, all excitedly, while Liam looked at him all heart-eyed and Louis got so bored he changed the subject almost immediately, but yeah, he remembered.

“What about it?” Louis asked, a bit wary.

“Well…” Liam started, and oh no… Liam turned his puppy eyes on. It was bad news, the worst. The puppy eyes only meant one thing. He was about to ask Louis a favor. “…they used to meet at one of the guy’s houses, but the guy moved away and his new place is really small and they’re twelve people, you know? They don’t fit in his living room, soooo… Zayn asked me if they could meet here?"

Louis eyebrows reached his hairline. “What?” he asked. Oh god, no.

“Hey, it’s just once a week! Saturdays at 5pm, the last hour of the shift… It’s pretty quiet, right? And of course they’ll pay for everything they drink and eat. All we have to do is reserve the three tables at the back for them and serve them, that’s all, just like regular customers, no big deal, I promise,” Liam explained, puppy eyes in full force, talking like extra work on a Saturday was a walk in the park. It wasn’t, and that was the reason for the puppy eyes.

Louis didn’t own the shop so Liam didn’t really need his permission, but Saturdays were so slow in this part of town that they were Louis’ lazy days, an excuse to make money doing barely any work in return. This was not good. Liam was saying there was going to be a mob of nerds to serve every Saturday.

“Liam… Please tell me you haven’t said yes…” Louis asked, because Liam eyes looked more apologetic than pleading and fuck, he already did it, didn’t he?

“Maybe?” Liam replied, shrugging a bit. Fuck.

Louis rolled his eyes, slumping against the wall, taking a last pull of his cigarette in annoyed silence, then blowing out the smoke with a sigh. He threw the butt of the cigarette to the floor, stomping on it to add it to the growing cigarette butt graveyard that was forming in their corner of the alley. “You’re the worst, Liam. I love you but you’re the worst. You’re gonna make me work on a Saturday, serving a bunch of boring condescending nerds,” he complained.

“Hey, they’re not boring nerds, and they’re not condescending. You don’t even know them, don’t be judgey. And you like Zayn, don’t you? He’s not all those things.” Louis rolled his eyes, because yes, he did like Zayn. Zayn had singlehandedly shattered all misconceptions Louis had about him within a week of having met and now they pretty much loved each other in a brotherly way which was amazing because Louis had a million sisters, but no brother, so it was cool.

“They’re just like him, they’re good people, I promise,” Liam offered. And Louis considered it. Having to work Saturday afternoon shifts was awful and he mostly got away with spending them not moving a finger, but if Liam crammed twelve people for a few hours in the shop, he was bound to work and that was unacceptable. However… If he could find a way to get away with not moving from his spot behind the register all day, maybe he could deal with it just fine.

“Fuck… Okay, but one condition. They’re all yours, okay? I won’t move a finger, I need my rest on Saturdays. You bring your nerds, but you take care of them, deal?” Louis asked. He was not about to actually work on a weekend, it was preposterous.

“You’re such a lazy twat, man, god… But okay, deal,” Liam accepted, rolling his eyes. “Thank you, Lou,” Liam smiled because that's what he always did, so polite and adorable even when he was being forced to serve twelve people at once on a Saturday, getting closer to Louis to wrap his free arm around him, tight. Fuck, the fucker was strong.

“Get off me, asshole, you’re choking me,” Louis complained with a groan, but returned the hug anyway because he had to, because he adored Liam and because Liam had been there for him for much more serious things than having to endure a Scrabble group in the coffee shop. After his family, Liam was the person he loved the most, and it was almost second nature for Louis to cling to Liam when he hugged him.

Liam planted a kiss on Louis’ temple, making the both of them giggle until Louis finally broke free, pretending to be upset about it, cleaning the side of his face with his free hand, rubbing it like it was disgustingly dirty. “Let’s go back inside, you slobber. Niall and Mark are gonna kill us for taking so long,” he said, cocking his head in the direction of the door, thinking that he would most likely survive the Scrabble meetings pretty much unscathed.

CHAPTER 2

The rest of the week went pretty decently, according to Louis standards.

He had his weekly dinner with his family, at his mom’s house. He was pretty grateful they still lived close together, for the most part, because when their older sisters or his mum’s husband started pestering him about his love live or his future, he always regretted his decision of even visiting them at all. It was hard making them understand that he was better off alone than with any of the jerks that crossed paths with him lately.

At least he got to enjoy a little game of footie with old childhood friends, and his mum made pasta for him, so he figured he could ignore the stupid comments about his personal life.

Work was decent too, to the point of almost forgetting about the deal he had made with Liam.

At least until that same Saturday, when exactly five minutes before 5 pm, he saw Zayn walking into the store with a group of people he didn’t even know behind him, giving them indications to go seat at the three tables at the back of the shop.

Dammit.

He rolled his eyes, busying himself with his phone, while Zayn let his friends make themselves comfortable and then walked behind the counter to surprise a very distracted Liam, holding him from behind, tickling his sides and whispering who knows what in his ear. Liam giggled and blushed and that was Louis cue to look away with an exasperated sigh.

Louis diverted his eyes and paused his game. He had been stuck on the same Candy Crush level for a week and it was starting to be too frustrating. He took a minute to study the group of people that had invaded the shop for a bit.

It was mostly people their age, a pretty even mix of girls and guys, but there were a couple of older ones, maybe other teachers. Others looked pretty young, maybe Zayn’s students. Some did look like huge nerds, duh, but others were surprisingly normal. Nothing really caught his eye, though. His hopes for at least some eye candy to make this whole ordeal a little bit less dull were crushed.

Zayn finally finished making Liam blush and came to say hi to Louis. “Hey mate… Sorry to invade the place like this, we really didn’t have any other place to go,” he said, giving Louis a small hug.

“It’s ok, man, whatever. As long as you don’t break anything so our boss doesn’t kill us, we’ll be fine. Also your loving boyfriend over there offered to serve all of you, so it won’t be much of a hassle for me. I’ll be over here, just, you know… yawning in your general direction,” Louis joked, shrugging. They had enough conversations about how boring Louis thought Scrabble was, he was not about to explain himself again. Words, letters, points, bleh. He just didn’t get the appeal.

Someone from the group called Zayn’s name and he directed a small laugh at Louis, slowly walking away from him and towards his friends, shaking his head. “Good to know we won’t be interrupting your lazy Saturday, Your Highness,” he threw over his shoulder, smiling at Louis. Louis snorted. He was not lazy. He was just… not friends with working on Saturdays. It was his thing. He dealt with all of the annoying customers and their ridiculous orders during the week, and that was for sure the most stressful job in the world, he could have this one thing.

After that, while the group found their places and got their boards out while Liam chatted with Niall in the kitchen, Louis assumed his usual position. He sat on his little stool behind the register, legs crossed one over the other, and proceeded to do nothing while he kept trying to beat that stupid level.

God bless slow Saturdays. His game-playing was only interrupted every now and then because he got annoyed every time he lost, again. The sole source of actual entertainment in the whole shop other than his phone were Zayn’s friends, so he occasionally watched as they formed groups of four, or well, two groups of four and one of three because maybe someone was late or missing or something. Or maybe they were just eleven people, whatever.

He watched Liam finally walk towards them and take all their orders, one by one, smiling patiently, jotting them down on his little notepad. Louis only moved his fingers to do anything similar to work when Liam came back to him, taking note of the orders to be able to charge them later, and then he went back to his game to try (and fail) to beat it.

Just as he was considering moving from his comfy spot just to change the music that was playing (He could deal with the noise of the nerds fighting over words and points but combining that with Mariah Carey was preposterous, Niall was crazy), the front door of the shop opened.

Louis was already halfway down the stool but he stopped right in his tracks. At first he just stopped because if someone came in the shop it meant he had to take their order so moving was not really an option, but then it was because wow. The Greek god that came through the door was not real. He just wasn’t. Louis couldn’t even help the way his jaw dropped. Long beautiful brown hair that fell in waves over his shoulders, green luminous eyes that looked soft but fiery with a glint of mischievousness, lips the most ridiculous shade of pink Louis had ever seen on anyone, making his mouth water, and the rest… shit…

Once Louis managed to move past the face he pretty much died. The guy was wearing a black shirt with way too many buttons undone considering the weather wasn’t all that warm yet. Louis’ first thought was how warm that man must be to button his shirt so carelessly. His second was that he wanted to crawl on that chest, right on the little spot between his pecs and die there. Maybe explore the ink he saw peeking from under the shirt a bit first, but yes, he would die after that.

Of course at that point pretending he was not ogling was not an option. Louis’ eyes went downwards and found jeans so tight it was a miracle the guy was still breathing. He found strong thick thighs, the hint of a bulge that made a flash of want hit Louis’ lower belly. Suede boots stomped all over whatever was left of his sanity all over the floor.

Was Louis asleep? Was he dreaming this man? Was he about to be woken up by a very annoying Liam, because he fell asleep at work once again? Could he just stay in this wet dream a bit longer? Please? Just five more minutes?

Louis tried to function like a normal person. He really tried, as he watched the guy approach him. He stood from the stool and planted himself at the register, clearing his voice and trying to force a calm smile on his face that must have looked like a ridiculous grimace. He prepared himself for the onslaught on his senses that was surely going to happen when this glorious stranger approached him.

Only it never happened, because the man completely skipped him and went… Oh… Oh no…

He went straight to the tables at the back with a big smile on those impossible lips and a look of recognition and friendliness on his gorgeous face. Louis eyebrows knotted together on his forehead, fuck… He didn’t even get to enjoy watching the stranger walk away from him because he was forced to witness him saying hello to every single person on the Scrabble group, kissing and hugging them and apologizing for being late.

Louis stood there, dumbfounded, watching the scene unfold, while those sinful legs carried the man to the empty chair in the group of three people. One of them was Zayn. Shit. Apparently they decided to restart the game to include the newcomer, and Louis watched as they mixed all the letters again and started over. Fuck.

That was… The weirdest thing Louis had ever seen. Such an incredibly hot guy looking still incredibly hot while doing something as boring as getting ready to play Scrabble. It was infuriating. Louis wanted to see even more. His entire body asked him for more. Which was probably the stupidest idea ever, but, well... what was Louis without his stupid ideas?

So when Liam walked past Louis to take the new guy’s order, Louis stopped him, grabbing his wrist, forcing Liam to spin around. “I’ve got this one, Li.” He didn’t even bother looking at Liam’s face because he absolutely knew what he was going to see. A whole lot of confusion at first and then probably understanding as soon as he took a second look at the guy. Surely a whole lot of teasing would follow, and Louis really didn’t need that right now.

He just ignored Liam’s questioning face and left him behind, trying to straighten his uniform a bit with his hands and hoping it did a good job of covering the disastrous clothes he always wore for his Saturday shifts, joggers and a ratty Ramones t-shirt. He didn’t even bother with his hair, the beanie covering it was going to have to be enough. Fuck. How could this happen on a Saturday?

He put on his best smile as soon as he got to the table, directing all of his attention to the new guy. “Hi, welcome to The Bean, what can I offer you?” he asked, pulling a notepad and a pen from his apron’s pocket. He tried to ignore Zayn snorting from the other side of the table; he focused instead on green, beautiful eyes looking at him. Zayn could go fuck himself.

“I thought you were too busy doing noth—“ Louis abandoned those green eyes for a fraction of a second to look at Zayn with all the hatred he could muster. Louis knew very well he could be terrifying if he really wanted to, so he focused on looking as menacing as possible to get Zayn to shut his mouth. He was successful. Zayn stopped talking but he still laughed, making the beautiful curly boy tear his eyes away from Louis to look at Zayn with an adorably curious and confused expression on his face. That face, good lord…

“Is this your infamous boyfriend, Zee? Liam, was it?” Oh, his voice… Louis had a hard time focusing on the words for a moment there because that deep, deep voice made him almost melt on the spot. Rough and rumbling and beautiful, oh god, Louis was really fucked. Was there anything about this man that wasn’t a turn on?

It took him a moment to regain his senses and actually process what the guy had asked, but as soon as he did, he reacted in an instant, before Zayn could finish laughing, because he was terrified of what his friend would say to mortify him. “Oh, no, no no no, Zayn’s boyfriend is that busy bee making drinks over there,” Louis clarified with a little laugh, pointing at Liam behind the counter, who was preparing the group’s drinks with a stupid knowing grin on his face because of course he understood what was happening and he was having fun already, the traitor.

“I’m Louis,” he said, pointing with his pen to the pin on his apron, clearly stating his name, adorned with a little smiley face. “And I’m not anyone’s boyfriend, if you must know.” That bit was very important information, and maybe he sounded like an idiot because there was no way this guy would even look at him twice but still, it had to be said. “Can I interest you in anything?” Louis offered, talking fast and honestly feeling a bit nervous (not that he would ever admit that), basking in the glory of those green eyes that stared at him again, gorgeous and so intense it was pretty hard to even think straight.

“What?” the guy asked, smirking, and only when he heard Zayn snicker Louis realized how his words could have been misconstrued and fuck, he was a master at detecting and manipulating innuendo, how did he not notice?

“Coffee. Pastries. That. I meant that. Of course. Pfft,” Louis clarified, rolling his eyes and waving a hand, sure that the blush he could feel creeping up his face was the least sexy thing in the world. He was behaving like a complete moron, but still, all of a sudden the guy smiled big and oh god, Louis lost all train of thought, blinded by what he saw. Dimples. Whoever this god was, he had dimples, and Louis’ life was ruined forever. That smile was too much, too fucking much and now he was sure he was absolutely red and most likely sweating and grinning like an idiot and doing a really poor job of not thinking of a million ways to ruin that mouth.

He had no idea if the dimpled god even noticed his disastrous state, because he kept smiling like nothing weird was happening, looking at Louis, maybe annoyed, maybe amused, maybe mischievous, no way to know. “Well, boyfriendless Louis, then yes, I am interested in what you offer,” he said, and Louis thought this would be the perfect opening scene for a porno if the shop were a bit emptier. What a shame. “I’ll have the biggest cup of latte you can make me, and a banana muffin, please.” So polite, so precious. Louis was totally dying inside.

“Absolutely, I’ll be right back,” he promised with a smile and a wink. A wink, he actually winked at some guy and he was losing his mind and he refused to acknowledge Zayn’s snort as he walked away, going back behind the counter where Liam was waiting for him with the same stupid smirk his boyfriend was sporting a moment ago.

“So you are willing to work after all…” Liam said, smiling to himself, not even looking at Louis, busy with the group’s drinks. “All it took was some hot guy to get you moving. Look at you, all flustered over some nerd.”

“Shut up, Liam. The only reason I’m not murdering you right now is because having your blood all over me would not be attractive and because I need you to make a large latte for my future husband, please,” Louis asked, as politely as he could but not bothering with trying to hide the annoyance in his voice. Yes, okay, he made enough fun of Liam when he was pining after Zayn so he probably deserved all the teasing Liam threw at him every time he liked someone, but now was not the time.

“Don’t forget Zayn will probably avenge me and kill you very slowly and painfully if you murder me,” Liam said, like it was a valid reason for Louis not to hurt him, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh please, you should have chosen a gym freak instead of a nerd if you wanted to scare me. I’m not afraid of your scrawny little boyfriend,” Louis laughed, propping his hip against the counter while Liam prepared the latte.

“First of all, ew. Zayn is perfect, I don’t need muscles. He’s strong enough, believe me. And second of all, shut up, Louis. Don’t forget you’re actually moving your ass on a Saturday because you have the hots for, oh surprise, a nerd,” Liam threw at Louis, pointing a finger at him like he could look menacing instead of like a cute little growling puppy.

Louis rolled his eyes and walked away from him to grab the muffin from the display. “First of all, you and your boyfriend are gross, and second of all, I told you to shut the hell up, Liam,” Louis countered, snatching the tray where Liam put the latte from him. “I’m taking care of that table, it’s whatever.” He announced, and Liam actually had the nerve to pout at him.

“But that’s Zayn’s table!” he complained, looking like that was more important than Louis trying to, I don’t know, seduce that nerdy god or whatever.

“I don’t care, man, you see him all the time,” Louis complained, and at that, Liam raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms like waiting for something. “Please?” Louis added making an exasperated face, just to appease Liam, just because he didn’t need him as an enemy right now.

“Okay,” Liam granted, rolling his eyes and placing all the orders for that table in the same tray. Louis celebrated with a silly whoop and a big smile before finally grabbing the tray from the counter and walking to the table.

When he got there, he stood by the guy’s side, and grabbing the drinks from the tray one by one, he started distributing them, guided by the names Liam wrote on the cups. “Coffee for you, dear Zayn…” he mumbled, rolling his eyes while handing him the cup. “Mocha frap for… Leon? Chai for Anna, and the biggest latte ever for…” He offered the cup to him and waited. It was a fair way of finding out his name without having to ask Zayn, right?

“Harry,” answered the god, grabbing the cup from him with a little smile like he knew Louis’ intentions. Louis just smiled even bigger, innocently. Yay, victory.

“Here’s your muffin, Harry,” he added, taking it from his tray and placing it carefully on the table in front of Harry. He earned another smile and yeah, it was definitely the best smile in the universe, wide and beautiful and did Louis mention the fucking dimples? “If you need anything else, please let me know,” he announced for the whole table in the politest voice he could muster, completely unable to move his eyes from Harry’s, who was still looking at him.

“I will,” Harry replied, and that simple promise made Louis shiver. Like, literally shiver, thinking about all the things it could mean, all the things he wanted it to mean. Maybe it didn’t mean anything, maybe he was just talking about coffee and pastries, but it was enough to make Louis’ legs weak.

Clearly anything else that could come from Louis mouth would be way too compromising, so he just made a ridiculous little curtsy and walked away, hating himself all the way back to his spot behind the counter.

Fuck.

What did he just do?

Did he just curtsy in front of the hottest guy in the world? Oh god, that was… He was never going to hear the end of that. Louis was sure Zayn was going to tell Liam and they were going to laugh at him for years. But… It was not Louis fault this Harry guy was so incredibly beautiful. No one could blame him for having his brain turned into mush, making him do stupid things.

“I am fucked.” He declared when Liam approached him. “So fucked. He made me work, Liam. I am utterly fucked.” Louis complained, looking longingly at Harry from his spot behind the register, where he stayed the rest of the shift, safely away from everything that Harry did to him.

CHAPTER 3

Louis did not think about Harry at all after that Saturday. He absolutely did not.

He didn’t turn around on his way to work on Monday morning so fast he got whiplash just because he saw a head of beautiful brown curls in the distance. He didn’t almost break his laptop when he found no Harrys while stalking Zayn’s Facebook friends on Wednesday. He didn’t spend his Friday night on Google researching Scrabble for scientific purposes. He didn’t go violently red every time Liam or Zayn teased him about it.

He absolutely, one hundred percent did NOT touch himself every stupid night of the week thinking about those massive hands and that voice whispering dirty words in his ear and those legs and that tiny perky ass and the skin and the tattoos and even those eyes. He did not.

Also he didn’t spend the week counting down every day before Saturday like a prisoner.

And on Saturday, he didn’t actually shower before going to work and he didn’t choose to wear his tightest jeans, those that made his ass look fantastic. He didn’t spend half an hour making his hair look perfect in front of the mirror.

He just didn’t.

It was just like any other Saturday at work. Nothing different at all. There was no reason for the nervous pacing, or the incessant tapping of his fingers on the counter, or the furtive looks he threw at the huge clock on the wall. He was not that pathetic or delusional, come on. A guy that perfect surely had a girlfriend, or a thousand He surely didn’t even like dick. Harry most likely thought Louis was some ridiculous barista with zero sense of proper customer service, but still, Louis was fucked.

When the time finally came and Zayn and his friends started walking into the shop, Louis tried to convince himself that the smile he plastered on his face was nothing but a sudden desire of being polite to customers. It was his job, right? Of course Liam laughed at him when he told him his reasons to be smiling like a maniac. “You look creepy. Also, you’re gonna break you neck if you don’t stop turning to look at the door like that every time it opens,” Liam warned him with that same teasing tone he had been using with Louis for a whole week now. 

Louis rolled his eyes so hard he was sure he saw the back of his own head. “Leave me alone, Liam. Go talk to Zayn, yeah? I’m busy.” Louis sent him away with a wave of his hand. Liam laughed and obeyed, because even with all the teasing Liam was still Louis’ best friend and he just knew when to stop.

Finally alone, Louis fixed his hair one last time, looking at his reflection on the huge stainless steel coffee machine, and just when he got that rebel strand of hair back in its rightful place, the door opened one more time and there he was.

Harry.

Louis straightened so fast he almost fell to the ground on a dizzy spell, or maybe that was Harry’s fault. Because he had skinny blue jeans on, leaving nothing to the imagination, just like last time, and because the white t-shirt he was wearing was so thin it was almost see-through. Fuck, there were hints of more ink under the offending garment. Also because he was smiling, big, and especially because he was wearing a stupid hat.

A hat. No, not a beanie, not a fedora, no. A freaking hat, and it was too much, and Louis watched completely transfixed while Harry approached his friends and started saying hello to all of them, trying to understand how in the world he made that hat work. A hat…

Was it the smile? Was it the curls, poking out of the hat and falling on his broad shoulders? Was it the goddamn dimples? Louis was very confused and utterly fucked.

He watched and waited, while Harry said hello to every single person in the group because apparently he was polite and sweet too, and when he finally sat down with a group, setting up a board, Louis sprinted from his spot, not wasting a second to warn Liam. He should already know. Harry’s table was his.

Louis smiled, even more nervous than before, wondering if Harry could sense Louis desperation, if he could smell it on him, wondering if that would be a good thing or a bad thing. And then he just stood in front of him, notepad and pen in hand. “Hi, welcome to The Bean, what can I offer you?” He repeated the spiel, taking only a second to look at the rest of the people in the table, all girls (no Zayn this time, thank fuck) and then his eyes stayed on Harry’s. Those green, big, gorgeous eyes. God.

And Harry, bless him, took one quick look at him, and then turned to his friends, probably to let them make their order first, but… oh lord. But then he immediately looked at Louis again. Really looked. Head to toe and back up again and it made Louis cheeks burn while he did a little celebratory dance in his mind congratulating himself on his choice for outfit and hairstyle.

Harry’s eyes did not move away from him, not for a second, while Susan ordered an orange juice and a bagel, Lucy ordered tea and a scone and Daisy ordered coffee and a sandwich. Louis tried to keep his eyes on his notepad while he wrote, but it was a difficult task. Of course he failed a few times, and every one of those times Harry was looking at him, smiling, every single one.

In part it made him feel like his skin was catching on fire, and in part it was making him nervous. So much attention, from such a hot guy, it was not something he was used to. Maybe he had something on his face?

“I’ll have the same as last time.” Harry ordered when it was his turn, and Louis finally lowered his notepad to actually look at him and discretely rub his face with a hand to get rid of any possible embarrassing dirty spot. He was probably going to end up looking like a real creep (or someone with a freakishly good memory) but yeah, he actually remembered the order, so he didn’t ask about it.

“I’ll be right back.” No curtsy this time, please, god…

After Louis shoved the order at Liam’s chest to stop his stupid giggling and waited for him to prepare it, he went back to the table with his tray, distributing the drinks and the food, trying to be as polite as possible, mentioning everyone by name. “And for you, Harry… the usual,” Louis declared, putting the huge latte and the banana muffin on the table in front of Harry, trying not to knock over the game pieces. Or chips, or whatever they were called. His research proved to be so boring he didn’t really learn anything.

Harry smiled a big smile at him, grabbing the latte and holding it between his huge hands. “Thank you, Louis.” Louis almost fainted at the sound of his name on Harry’s mouth. Harry remembered his name. He wasn’t reading the name tag, so he had to remember, right?

“You’re welcome, Harry,” he replied, smiling back at him, then turning around to leave after winking at him. He walked back to the counter, hearing little giggles behind him. It was the girls laughing. At least he hoped so. He didn’t want Harry to giggle. He wanted Harry to forget the game and drag him to the bathroom.

Sadly, that wasn’t in the cards. Louis sat on his stool, taking orders from the occasional clients that walked in, spending the rest of the time watching Harry and the adorable focused faces he made while playing. It was ridiculous. Something so nerdy shouldn’t be so hot and endearing. It was annoying.

He tried ignoring him from time to time, and that didn’t really work for more than five minutes. If he couldn’t watch, and he couldn’t ignore him, maybe he had to try another approach. So, he hopped off his stool and walked slowly to the table. No one really paid much attention to him, which was good, he just wanted to observe. He stood not too close to the table, behind one of the girls (Lucy, was it?), pretending to inspect a muffin display until he just couldn’t pretend anymore, there was no point.

He was fixated on Harry, and his eyes, and the way his brow furrowed and his nose scrunched in concentration every time it was his turn. It was fascinating. Louis watched the board for a bit, trying to understand what was happening, why Harry made all of a sudden amused or annoyed little faces. He saw words already on the board, crossing one another. Some he knew, some he didn’t. Then, he looked at the girls’ letters, and Louis clearly had no idea really what Scrabble was about, but he knew it had to do with forming words and earning points and probably the bigger the word, the higher the points, right?

So that meant that if Lucy put that A and that N that were sitting one next to the other on her rack before the I that was already on the board at the beginning of “ICING”, and then she put the M and the A and the L that were also together, like she already had them ready to go, then… that was a long word, right? Longish. Whatever.

But it wasn’t her turn yet, it was Susan’s, and she was putting letters somewhere else on the other side on the board. It would be Harry’s turn now, before Lucy’s, so maybe Harry could thwart her plans… only Harry of course didn’t know them, so Louis did what was probably a really stupid thing. He moved a few steps, and stood behind Harry, and looked at his letters. He remembered the I on the board. He saw a jumble of letters on Harry’s side, all out of order and just… nothing came at him. No word that could use that I on the board to ruin Lucy’s plan…

Still, he could help Harry cheat by telling him about her plans, right? Louis didn’t even think before leaning down. “She’s gonna use the I and do ‘ANIMAL’, you should do something about that,” Louis whispered in his ear, making Harry turn his head all of a sudden, leaving his huge green eyes and his ridiculous mouth so close to Louis’ face he almost fainted. Or maybe it was the fact that being this close to Harry meant feeling his body heat and smelling the fresh scent of his cologne, and yeah, Louis was dizzy, so dizzy it took him a moment to register the fact that Harry was laughing softly.

“That’s not how Scrabble works, Louis. I don’t need to cheat,” Harry said in a low voice, amused but keeping his eyes on Louis’, looking at him with such intensity and for so long that Louis almost missed the slight smug tone of his voice. Those eyes… It didn’t even matter if Harry decided not to pay attention to his warning, this opportunity to see his eyes up close was enough reward.

“You gonna play, Haz?” Lucy interrupted, clearly annoyed, and Harry smiled one more little smile for Louis before looking away from him. Louis, still bent towards Harry, was too shaken to move. Louis used the back of the chair for support, not really wanting to move from behind Harry, and he watched as Harry grabbed random letters from his rack and placed them on the board. He wrote ‘FIXED’, using that I Louis warned him about, earning himself an annoyed sigh from a very frustrated Lucy, and a groan from the other girls because apparently that word was worth a shitload of points, something about multipliers and who knows what else.

“You’re welcome,” Louis whispered, getting close to his ear again, and now he was the one with the inevitable smugness in his voice, even if Harry rolled his eyes like he didn’t even need his help. Please.

After that, Louis stayed right there, standing behind Harry all the rest of the game, trying to think of words to help him from time to time, or trying to follow what was happening. Mostly, he was just enjoying himself, enjoying Harry’s laugh and the little smiles he dedicated only to Louis, the fresh scent that filled Louis’ lungs every time he breathed close to Harry, every silly joke Harry made (apparently he was very fond of bad puns), just… Everything Harry did was pretty maddening and intoxicating and Louis had to force himself to walk away from the group when they finished the games and got ready to leave.

He was not their friend, just Zayn’s. To the rest of them, including Harry, he was just a meddling barista that needed to learn a lesson or two about privacy. So yeah, he walked away, going back to his spot behind the counter, pretending to check his nails while Zayn looked for Liam and probably dragged him away for a quick make out session in the employee’s room before leaving, and the rest of the group said their goodbyes and left. All of them, of course, ignored Louis. Who says goodbye to their barista, anyway? Harry did, apparently.

“See you next Saturday, Louis,” Harry said with a little wave of his hand and a smile on his lips before joining the few people that were still talking outside.

“Bye…” mumbled Louis when Harry was definitely too far away to hear him. Shit. This week was going to suck.

CHAPTER 4

Another long insufferable week later, Louis was finally watching Harry play Scrabble again.

It wasn’t really creepy, was it? No, of course not, or at least Louis tried to tell that to himself. He just had an unstoppable sense of curiosity. He always did, and his interest was purely on the game, and well, if he happened to stand close to Harry while watching it wasn’t really his fault. If he ended up getting distracted by the way Harry laughed or by the little pout he did when he wasn’t really happy with one of his words, no one could really blame him.

Harry was simply hypnotic. There was just… something about him, something Louis couldn’t name, something that went beyond how obviously hot he was, something in the way he carried himself, always so confident, so different from anyone else in the group, something about that incredibly expressive face, or the little smirk on his lips whenever he talked to Louis. Something that just made his stupid knees buckle every time Harry showed up, every time he simply thought about him.

He was not obsessed. Or well, maybe… no, not obsessed, just fascinated, that was it. He just wasn’t used to meeting guys like this one. This one was special.  

And that’s why he, of course, spent actual energy on always taking care of his table’s orders, why he lurked around the group just to watch, why he scolded himself every now and then because okay, maybe it was a little creepy, watching Harry like that. Maybe the serious looks Harry threw him occasionally meant he was annoyed, and maybe Harry was right, he was distracting him, so Louis ended up running back behind the counter only to sulk and watch from afar, knowing his will would break sooner or later and he’d be back by Harry’s side eventually.

Louis tried to be strong, but no. He was weak. So very weak.

Liam found him like that, barely thirty minutes after the group started playing. Louis was practically slumped on top of the counter, his head in his hands, watching Harry laugh about something Ed said, another one of his friends. That laugh was magnificent. Yes, it was kinda ridiculous, his huge mouth open, the incomprehensible sounds he made, one stupid hand trying to cover his face while he doubled over, the other slapping his thigh… It was so ridiculous of course it was absolutely endearing and Louis was in actual pain.

His feet refused to support him, he needed to rest for a bit, throwing his entire torso on top of the counter, wanting to watch Harry laugh from up close, but maybe Harry ran out of patience for today because he had looked truly annoyed the last time Louis got close to him to share a little laugh at Ed’s attempt at playing a word that didn’t exist. Maybe he earned that look, but it still hurt, so now he was licking his wounds, alone.

Until Liam showed up.

“Are you okay?” Liam, oblivious Liam asked, standing by Louis’ side and probably looking all worried. Poor thing was surely actually concerned about Louis’ wellbeing, having no idea whatsoever about the real reason behind Louis’ state.

“No, I’m not,” Louis groaned, rolling his eyes and not moving from his position, not really wasting energy on sparing Liam a look, because Harry was doing that thing he did to fix his hair, throwing it all to the front and ruffling it with a hand before finally throwing it back and combing it with his fingers, leaving it like a bloody sculpture. It was awful. It was amazing, simply mesmerizing.

“Is it your stomach? I told you those fajitas you had for dinner last night smelled funny… D’you wanna go home? I can take care of everything,” Liam offered, adorable as ever, moving closer to Louis to rub a hand on his back because that was Liam, the touchy one. He always demonstrated love and concern like that, and always needed physical contact when he was upset, while Louis would only demand cuddles when he was really really desperate, choosing mostly words to express his feelings.

Which was why it should have been kind of alarming that he didn’t move to bat Liam’s hand away. He just stayed in his place, letting his best friend console him like whatever was wrong was actually really serious. Louis had no time to worry about how telling that was, though. “I’m not sick,” he still clarified, because it was necessary and maybe in some other occasion Louis would even laugh at Liam for his unnecessary concern, but not now. Now he needed the reassurance of Liam touch. “No, no, come back here, I didn’t say you could stop petting me,” he of course had to ask because as soon as Liam thought maybe Louis was taking the piss, he moved to get away from him, taking his hand with him.

“What’s wrong, then?” Liam asked, getting closer to Louis again, resuming his comforting back-rubbing, probably with that suspicious look on his face Louis knew so well, the one that scrunched up his eyebrows.

“I think I finally annoyed Harry. He told me I’m distracting. So I’m trying not to be,” Louis muttered, because he was not about to admit out loud that he was actually giving a fuck about what anyone thought about him.

Liam’s hand stopped on his back. “Excuse me, are you seriously telling me that he thinks you’re annoying and instead of not caring about it, you actually listened and stopped bugging him?” Liam asked, and even though the question could have been a dig at Louis, he actually sounded concerned, like he noticed how out of character that was. Fuck. Yeah, it was not really like Louis. Actually worrying about being annoying? Since when?

“Shut up…” Louis ordered, rolling his eyes, and right at that second Harry’s booming laugh invaded the coffee shop again, making Louis groan in unison. He dragged himself off the counter, straightening up, sitting on his stool, his back to the Scrabble group because he refused to be that weak. He was done. “I just… He’s everything a nerd shouldn’t be, okay? He’s stupidly hot and funny and dorky but in this really cool way, and on top of that he’s smart, like, so smart, and fuck me but I find that so endearing. But, he probably thinks I’m just an ignorant, annoying little shit. I kinda wanna die, so stop looking at me like that and just kill me please,” Louis threw his head back, closing his eyes and opening his arms, welcoming death in whatever form it might come to him.

Liam didn’t kill him. He just laughed. “I can push you off your stool if you want. I bet the fall would be long enough to kill you…” Louis opened his eyes to throw daggers at him with his glare. He was asking for death but having Liam call him short was worse than that. He was not short, dammit. Before he could tell Liam that for the thousandth time, however, Liam interrupted him, lifting a finger. “…but! But… I think you’re wrong. I don’t think he thinks you’re annoying. I think you distract him because he likes you too.”

Wait, what?

Louis cocked his head to the side, confused. “I… That doesn’t even make any sense. Why would he look at me twice? I’m just an annoying creepy barista that won’t stop watching him and he’s like, this ridiculous hot guy that can have anyone he wants, why would he like me?” Louis complained, throwing Liam a pointed look because clearly he was right. Harry was obviously too much, too much for anyone. For everyone, actually, but specially too much for him. He just was, and that wasn’t something Louis thought about people in general.

Harry had this confidence about him that made Louis think he clearly had the world at his feet and guys like that didn’t ever really paid attention to Louis. He was never that lucky. He was usually stuck with the twats and the cheaters and the assholes, never the good guys, never guys like Harry. That just was not the way Louis’ world worked. “I bet he doesn’t even like dick. I bet he has a girlfriend. I bet he has ten girlfriends. I bet every one of his nerd friends is in love with him, including Zayn,” Louis sighed, defeated.

“If I wasn’t absolutely sure about what Zayn feels for me, I would probably believe you, you know?” Liam said, crossing his arms. Was Liam actually agreeing with him? “He does seem to be an amazing guy, but I bet all of his ten girlfriends would be jealous of you, because he’s looking at you right now with the most ridiculous pout on his face,” Liam was looking over Louis shoulder and Louis probably actually risked his life considering how fast he turned around to look at Harry, almost losing balance and falling off the damn stool.

Of course as soon as Louis looked, Harry turned around and Louis only caught a glimpse of a dimple before Harry’s face disappeared from view. Was he smiling? Was it a good smile, or a mocking smile? Fuck… “Shut up, Liam. He probably only wants a refill,” Louis complained, hopping off the stool with a sigh, pulling his pen and notepad from his pocket. “I’ll be right back.”

He walked to the table, trying not to look so eager about being close to Harry again, standing by his chair when he approached the group but keeping a little distance. “Need anything?” Louis asked, making an effort not to look like an infatuated idiot when Harry looked at him with a smile.

“Why did you leave?” Harry asked, still smiling but with those stupid expressive eyebrows all bunched up in his forehead like he was actually worried.

“What?” Louis asked, honestly confused. Harry had looked utterly annoyed, eyebrows knotted together and practically pouting every time Louis hovered. Of course he left. He was being a nuisance, and probably making him lose the game and okay, he wasn’t going to get Harry’s attention but at least he didn’t want him to hate him.

“I know you have nothing to do back there,” Harry declared, pointing at the counter with his thumb. “Stay here. You’re distracting me a lot but apparently you’re also my lucky charm.” That ridiculous smile widened, and Louis was dumbstruck.

“I… um…” He was probably staring at Harry like he grew a second set of eyes or something, but he was simply confused. So he was distracting and annoying but Harry still wanted him to stay? He gave him good luck? What the fuck did that even mean? “Luck? I thought this game was all about skill?” Louis asked, tilting his head to the side and crossing his arms, ignoring the annoyed sigh that came from… who was she again? Karen or something. She was rude.

“It is, yeah, but a little bit of luck always helps, right?” Harry said, winking at Louis. Oh. God. Louis had to cover his face with one hand so Harry didn’t see the embarrassing shade of red his skin decided to turn all of a sudden.

Louis was doing a little happy dance in his head and he kinda wanted to squeal but he was still very skeptical and confused, so instead he put on his best serious expression as soon as he removed his hand from his face and he shrugged noncommittally. “Well, I do have a lot of work to do, I’ll have you know, it’s kind of offensive that you think I’m just doing nothing during my work hours. But, since our policy is ‘the costumer is always right’, I suppose I can spare a few minutes of my time to help you win your game, Harold,” Louis conceded, rolling his eyes a bit like staying by Harry’s side was going to take an enormous amount of effort.

“It’s Harry, not Harold.” The rude girl clarified, making Louis break the look he was sharing with Harry to look at her. She probably was a bit annoyed because they were stalling the game, right? Or maybe she was just annoyed at Louis. Or maybe she was in love with Harry, like everyone else in the world surely was. Ugh.

Only before Louis could actually open his mouth and regret his decision to stay because there was no way he was going to actually let some girl talk to him like that, Harry spoke up. “It’s okay, he can call me whatever he wants,” he said, looking at the girl, who of course rolled her eyes, throwing Louis an awful scowl. What the fuck. “Come on, sit with me,” Harry said, actually reaching out to pull a chair from another table, placing it by his side and patting it to offer the seat to Louis.

It took Louis a bit to even react. Harry not only defended him and let him call him whatever he wanted, he actually made him sit down by his side. Wow. What the fuck. “Um… Thank you?” he muttered, lowering himself on the chair carefully, like someone was going to suddenly rip it out from under his ass.

“You’re welcome.” Harry replied, looking pretty pleased with himself, finally going back to the game.

Louis was dumbfounded. It took him several turns to actually try to pay attention to anything but Harry’s presence by his side, because the warm feeling in his chest refused to recede, refused to let him breathe. He had no idea what just happened and he was pretty sure it meant absolutely nothing, but it still felt nice. Harry’s attention felt nice, having someone want him around for whatever reason, it was nice and even if it was futile, he still tried to enjoy it.

When he finally caught his breath, he paid as much attention as he could, considering he was sitting so close to Harry he could smell his perfume every time he moved. If he leaned just a bit closer he could even feel the precious warmth irradiating from Harry’s body. He was surrounded by his voice and his laughter, by his cheeky little comments and his horrible puns.

Even if Harry didn’t pay him much attention and barely spoke to him, as focused as he was on the game, he still found time to look sideways at Louis, to smile at him and even celebrate with him when he played a good word. It was without a doubt the worst half hour of Louis’ life, because by the end of it, he was absolutely enamoured by Harry, and Harry was absolutely oblivious and maybe annoyed again, considering he ended up losing the game.

Louis, however, felt like he was floating by the time the group finally started gathering their game boards and leaving the coffee shop, Harry gifting him with one of his silly little waves and another dimpled smile before leaving the store with his friends.

“Better?” Liam asked from his place in Zayn’s arms when Louis returned behind the counter, arms crossed and shoulders slumped.

“Worse,” Louis replied, rolling his eyes.

CHAPTER 5

The next week was probably the worst of the year for Louis.

On Monday he miscalculated when he closed the register and for ten miserable bucks his boss gave him a huge lecture that pissed him off for the entire week.

On Tuesday one of the assholes from the morning rush actually threw an entire frappuccino on his head because she said it wasn’t skinny, completely ruining his mood for the entire day.

He had dinner with his family on Wednesday and they decided it was a great time to ask about his love life, again, which was a lovely conversation that included a lot of worried looks from his mum and a lot of silence from her husband and a lot of silly useless jokes from his sisters who thank god didn’t really understand a word, and of course a bunch of stupid sadness from Louis. It was the last thing he wanted to talk about, thank you very much, but apparently his family failed to understand that, pestering him about it every time, telling him how he was so lonely and how he needed someone in his life, and fuck! He knew that! It wasn’t his fault that every person that even approached him was just plain shitty.

The food his mum cooked ended up fucking up his stomach (or maybe it was the argument about his private life, or lack thereof), so he spent a couple of days in bed, refusing to go to work, just waiting for Saturday to come, hoping he would feel better by then because lately Saturdays were the best part of every week.

Saturdays were good. They always were. He got to sleep in because the coffee shop opened a bit later on the weekend, and then he usually had a very relaxing shift at work, the customers from the office buildings completely gone. After work he would most likely go out with Liam and Zayn and Niall, have fun, and forget all about his week, finally relaxing.

But no, not this Saturday. Because the gods decided he didn’t deserve it or something, so it rained and rained, all day long. It just wouldn’t let up, and of course it shouldn’t really matter because it wasn’t like rain was a bad thing, but well… his plans of actually trying to look presentable were thrown out the window the second he realized it just wasn’t gonna stop raining at all.

He thought about maybe skipping work again, but it wasn’t really a possibility, sadly. Mark was sick too, a horrible disgusting cold that kept him in bed, and Louis had already skipped a few shifts that week so he really had to show up, especially because otherwise Liam and Niall would kill him if he left them alone, again. So, Louis got out of bed and went to work, braving the storm, wearing the worst clothes he owned because there was no way the Scrabble group would show up with the storm, right? It was probably going to be the slowest most boring shift ever, no one would care if he wore his pajamas to work.

By the time he arrived at the shop, he was completely drenched from just the two blocks walk from the bus stop, the joggers, t-shirt and hoodie he was wearing clinging to his skin, his hair definitely a mess he didn’t even dare checking out on the shop’s bathroom mirror, covered by a beanie. He dried himself off as well as he could considering the circumstances, and then he put his apron on, getting ready to work.

Or, well, not work, because of course there was not a soul on the streets. Not one client. Nothing. Time dragged on so slowly it was maddening, and even cheery Liam and sunny Niall seemed to be in a pretty bad mood because of the rain, sitting on the kitchen munching on muffins, talking to each other in bored voices. So, Louis spent most of the shift just playing Candy Crush on his phone, sitting with them in silence, hoping time would move faster.

Hours went by and by 5 pm, Louis’ mood was definitely not improving. He just needed this stupid shift to end so he could go back home and sulk in the loneliness of his flat. Only five minutes later, the door to the shop opened, letting in a cold draft of wind, and when Louis looked up through the kitchen window from his phone, not having moved from his spot, there was Harry.

Louis’ mouth opened of its own accord and it was impossible to know if it was because of the way Harry looked, all wet with his clothes sticking to his skin and his hair a soppy mess, or because of the simple fact that Harry was there. Not even Zayn showed up. There was no one. Just him, just amazing Harry, with a smile plastered on his stupid dimpled face, clutching a plastic bag with his scrabble box in it.

Louis was dumbfounded. He watched Harry completely unable to close his mouth, while the guy walked in the shop like nothing was wrong, headed towards the back tables. Louis got up from his chair, not saying a word to Liam and Niall. He just walked out of the kitchen, watching as Harry opened the plastic bag he brought the game in and proceeded to set the board on a table.

Was he serious? Louis proceeded to gape at him with his heart beating hard in his chest, confused and overwhelmed by a ridiculous need of running towards him with towels to dry him off and maybe to give him a hug because he was probably going to be pretty sad when he noticed it was very unlikely anyone from his group would show up.

Harry didn’t seem too bothered at all, he just shrugged his coat off, soaking wet, hung it on the back of a chair to dry, and then proceeded to sit down on his own chair, taking his phone from his pocket and turning his head all of a sudden to look at Louis expectantly.

Oh, right.

He was supposed to go take his order.

Louis spurred into action, pocketing his phone and straightening his apron, hoping it would hide his ugly clothes. He tried to fix his hair with his fingers before remembering he had thrown a beanie on to hide the mess the rain did with it. Yeah, ok, he needed to stop acting like a crazy person and move. He walked towards Harry, plastering a smile on his face.

“Hello, welcome to the Bean,” he greeted when he reached Harry’s chair, because it was his job and because he was an idiot and he was nervous for some reason, other than the obvious. Wet-Harry was even hotter than dry-Harry, fuck. The way his wet eyelashes framed his green eyes was ridiculous, and Louis was sure his skin would be warm even if it was still damp from the rain.

“Hi, Louis. I’ll have the usual, please,” Harry said, still smiling like nothing was wrong, like this was just any other ordinary Saturday, like he didn’t even notice they were practically alone and he was sitting in front of a game board when no one else was there to play with him.

“Huge latte and banana muffin, got it,” Louis nodded and walked away, still too shaken to say anything else, and maybe also thinking it wasn’t his place to say anything? Maybe someone else was coming, maybe Harry had a valid reason to brave the storm like that to come to the shop, right? Louis’ only job was to serve him coffee, nothing else, even if he felt the urge to stand closer to him to run a hand through his hair and give him a cuddle to soften the blow, because certainly Harry was going to be sad when he realized no one was coming, right?  

He walked behind the counter and prepared Harry’s order himself. He wasn’t the best at handling the coffee machine but he had enough experience to make a decent latte and besides, he preferred having to wrestle the machine than asking Liam for help. Liam was still in the kitchen, sharing conspiratory looks and laughs with Niall about who knows what, and Louis didn’t want to interrupt them.

Or maybe he didn’t want them to interrupt him.

This little moment alone with Harry, whatever it was, felt too precious to waste.

When the latte was ready, he grabbed a freshly baked muffin from the display, and putting everything on a tray, he went back to Harry. He was still alone, trying futilely to dry his arms with paper napkins, sporting a little frown between his eyebrows that made Louis feel an almost uncontrollable impulse to kiss it away. He didn’t, of course. He just put the latte and the muffin down on Harry’s table and hoped maybe the caffeine and the sugar he was providing would help erase that frown, like a long distance cuddle or something.

Harry looked up at him before he could walk away, smiling again while he balled the wet napkins in his hands, leaving them on the table. “Apparently my friends considered it was ‘obvious’ Scrabble was cancelled today, can you believe that?” he asked. Louis lifted an eyebrow, looking out the window for a second. Well, yeah, it should be kind of obvious that the storm meant not going anywhere, but… “They could have sent me a message anyways, just in case, you know…” Harry added, shrugging a little and it was so endearing... It made him look so vulnerable for a second that Louis swallowed his words and nodded.

“They could’ve, yeah. Polite thing to do, and all that…” Louis said, biting his lower lip. It was actually kind of shitty, assuming he would just know. It still didn’t make any sense that he would go out with this kind of rain just to play Scrabble, but he didn’t say that. Maybe Harry just was a very dedicated nerd. A little voice in his brain suggested maybe Harry came anyways because he wanted to see him. He almost laughed out loud at that thought.

Yeah, right.

Harry stayed silent for a bit, but just before Louis could decide that the conversation was over and that he had to leave him alone, Harry spoke again. “Hey, if you’re not too busy, do you wanna play with me since I’m already here?” He was smiling like it was the most natural thing to ask your barista, and Louis was dumbstruck, again. That little voice grew louder.

“Um, I…” Scrabble was hard. The rules were too complicated, and he had the worst vocabulary ever. Harry was a pro and Louis was an idiot that struggled with basic courses back in college and got awful grades and he was most likely going to make a fool out of himself. “I can’t, I mean… I don’t even know how to play, I’m sorry,” he apologized, shrugging. It was kind of a valid excuse, right? It still felt shitty to leave Harry all alone with no one to play with, but Louis' fear of ending up looking like a complete moron in front of Harry was too strong.

Harry laughed a little adorable laugh and pointed at the other chair across the table. “You’ve watched me play a lot, of course you know how to play, Louis,” Harry noted like it was an obvious point and Louis was being an idiot. Well, yes, he was an idiot, that’s precisely why he didn’t want to play. Harry wasn’t having that, though. “Come on, sit down, Lou. I’ll keep score,” Harry encouraged him, reaching into the box to grab the notepad and the pen he used to write the points.

Louis fumbled for a second, trying to clear his head enough to find a valid excuse to run away from this, trying to ignore the fact that Harry called him Lou. It was all too much. One thing was watching him play, maybe help him occasionally, and another was playing against him. He knew he didn’t have many things he could use to impress someone like Harry but this was definitely going to make him look worse.

Harry was completely oblivious to his panic and confusion, though, setting the board and taking letters for himself and talking to Louis animatedly, telling him how he had to choose letters and then replace them after he played them. “…are you gonna sit down?” Harry asked when he finished summarizing the rules, looking at Louis with a mix of hope and confusion on his face that made any kind of resolve Louis had crumble to the ground. He just couldn’t say no to those eyes.

Louis nodded, moving to drop his tray on a nearby table with a sigh, then sitting down in front of Harry, trying not to look at him directly because Harry made his brain short-circuit and he was going to need all the mental clarity he could find not to make a complete idiot out of himself.

He looked at the letters Harry had chosen for him, all neatly set on his rack, while Harry spoke. “I’ll play the first word so you have something to work with, okay?” he offered, and Louis nodded again, eyes fixed on the mess of letters in front of him, trying to make them make sense. He lifted his eyes only when he noticed Harry was moving, setting letters on the board. ‘HANDS’, he wrote on the center of the board, downwards. Louis eyed the word, and then the little notepad in which Harry was writing the points, explaining how much each letter was worth and how the multipliers worked, all with a little amused smile on his face that made Louis feel hot all over.

“Okay, your turn now,” Harry encouraged him while he grabbed more letters from the bag to replace the ones he had used, looking at Louis expectantly. Louis held his gaze for a second before finally looking at his letters again. They were still a nonsensical jumble, but at least now he knew he had to use one of the letters Harry had set on the board, right? He had a P, and an E and an N, and he could play ‘PENS’ with Harry’s S, right? He grabbed the necessary letters and he moved them to the board but before he could finish placing them, he noticed he had an I too. Oh. Louis pressed his lips in a little smile because hell would freeze over the day he missed a chance like this one. He moved his letters back a square and put the I between the N and Harry’s S. ‘PENIS’.

Good work, brain.

He looked up at Harry, proud of himself and expecting to see either an uncomfortable or an annoyed look on Harry’s face, at most an amused one. Instead, he found Harry looking at him intently, with an expression he hadn’t seen before. A dark one. For a second, Louis was sure he broke a rule or he was being stupid and annoying again, maybe dirty words were not allowed or something because Harry looked almost angry, but before he could even ask if that was okay, Harry looked away, going to grab his little notepad to jot down the points, in silence, his face red.

Louis watched him, still worried, biting his lip and grabbing more letters like Harry had taught him, until finally Harry looked back at his own letters, with a hint of a tiny smile on his lips. Louis frowned, confused. Harry grabbed only two letters, and taking all the time on the world, he put an O after the H on the board, and then a T.

‘HOT’.

Louis ripped his eyes from the board to look at Harry, a thousand inappropriate thoughts running through his head. Was that on purpose? Was that just a way to show that he could play dirty too? Was that a message? A joke? Was it an accident? Completely coincidental?

Harry was smirking. He was actually smirking, an amused little smile, tilted to one side of those lips, looking at Louis intensely, almost like challenging him, like it was definitely on purpose. Fuck. Louis couldn’t even try to help the shiver that went through his body, that had nothing to do with his still clammy skin or with the cool air that came in through the windows of the shop. What was even happening here?

Shit, he was probably just making things up, seeing what he wanted to see. It was stupid, it didn’t make any sense, and Harry wouldn’t send him messages through the board. Maybe he was just playing, messing with Louis, being his usual silly, playful self. The best course of action was to pay attention to his letters again and try to come up with another word. A normal word. A safe word to get back on track.

Only the Scrabble gods were not on board with that plan, because after looking at his letters for a moment, the only word that came to his mind was another dirty one. Fuck. He tried to find another one, tried to convince himself that it was a very bad idea to keep doing this, but he was weak, okay? Louis was weak, and something inside him told him to keep going, to test Harry, to try to figure out what the hell was happening.

So he listened to the little devil on his shoulder, and grabbed the letters he needed to spell his word. He placed the M and the O and the A all next to the N from HANDS. ‘MOAN’. Now it was Louis the one with the smirk on his lips as he looked up like nothing was happening, reaching to grab more letters from the bag.

Harry was silent. Unmoving. When Louis finally looked up at him, Harry looked back, that darkness in his green eyes was even deeper than before, and he was licking his lips. He looked hungry. Louis felt a bit faint, a wave of arousal suddenly twisting in his belly. Was this actually happening? Was he still in his bed, having a wet dream? He was usually kind of slow to notice when someone was hitting on him, he usually needed a neon sign with clear words on it before actually acknowledging what was happening, and this… this felt like a neon sign. This felt so obvious, but it was so impossible he just had to be misreading it. Harry was surely just taking the piss.

Or maybe not, because Harry smiled all of a sudden, looking at his letters again and a few seconds later, an amused grin decorated his lips as he moved to write on the board. Using the T from HOT, he wrote ‘TOUCH’, smirking all the time, not even looking at Louis while he picked more letters, one by one. Louis eyes stayed fixed on the word for a moment, unable to process it, maybe because it was suddenly too hot in the shop or maybe because oxygen was having a hard time reaching his lungs. Fuck.

He figured he had to make a choice. Stop this madness immediately, or run with it. The little devil on his shoulder was practically screaming at him, taunting him, reminding him that he never ever backed down from a teasing contest in his life, and he should not start now, right? Fuck…

He looked at his letters again for a minute and realized he was probably going to have no choice but to misbehave, again, because only one word jumped at him. Using the H, he wrote ‘HERE’, and as soon as Harry’s curious eyes flew to him, he removed his hands from the table top and hid them under the table, over his thighs, the movement calculated and pointed, sending a message, asking a silent question, while his heart beat so loud in his chest he could almost hear it over the noise the rain was making against the windows.

Harry smirked, again, licking his lips, again. A little laugh rumbled in his throat, and Louis was done. So fucking done. There was no escaping this anymore. This, whatever this was, was happening. He didn’t understand why, but it was happening. Apparently Harry agreed, because his next word was ‘TONGUE’, ending with the E from the ‘HERE’ Louis had just played. The sigh that escaped Louis lips was pathetic, high pitched and soft, more like a whine.

He just had to close his eyes for a second, the image of Harry’s tongue licking the soft skin on his inner thigh from his knee to his balls made him shiver, searing itself in his brain. Fuck, Harry didn’t even touch him, he hadn’t even spoken out loud for long minutes now, and yet he was managing to turn Louis on with fucking words on a Scrabble board. 

The problem was that Louis refused to give up first, he refused to let go and throw himself at Harry because that little voice in his head kept whispering that maybe this was a joke. Men like Harry rarely wanted someone like Louis, so he just had to keep playing, right? He had to keep throwing words on the board, hoping that Harry would say something eventually. Something the likes of ‘please let me take you to my bed’ preferably, but probably it was going to be something like ‘haha, that was hilarious’.

So that’s what he did. He kept playing. And apparently some kind of deity was enjoying this little battle of theirs because it kept giving him weapons. When he looked at his letters again, he grabbed one and placed it on the board after the O from TOUCH, spelling ‘OK’. He didn’t really move, he just looked up at Harry from under his eyelashes.

Harry was a bit flustered. His skin was a shade pinker than it was before, and he was biting his lip raw. Louis smiled to himself. Maybe Harry was on the same page. Maybe Louis was turning him on too. Or maybe it had all been a coincidence so far, right?

Wrong. Because after what felt like an eternity, like he was unsure of what to do, Harry finally moved to play again, with a conflicted look in his face that contradicted that hunger that refused to disappear from his eyes. And using the M from ‘MOAN’, he spelled ‘CUM’.

It was a good thing the chairs of the shop were sturdy because Louis almost fell from his seat. He could feel his face getting hot and red because that was a clear message. That was clear as day. That was… “That…” Louis mumbled before clearing his throat. “That’s not how you spell that.” It just wasn’t, he had a right to complain, and he also needed a distraction from the fact that he was doing this bizarre Scrabble version of sexting or whatever it was with Harry. He needed to clear his mind before he ended up going crazy.

The problem was that Harry just smiled at him, replacing the letters on his rack grabbing fresh ones from the bag. “I know…” was his answer, shrugging a little.

He knew. He actually played a word he was forbidden from playing, just to tell Louis what? Oh god. “Didn’t know you played dirty,” Louis commented, tearing his gaze from Harry because Harry was looking at him again with that fire in his eyes and Louis was starting to lose his mind and he would’ve probably ran away from all this if it weren’t for the fact that his joggers would do an awful job at hiding his erection.

“You have no idea,” Harry almost whispered, loud enough for Louis to hear. That was an invitation. That had to be. Louis looked at the blur that were his letters, trying to clear his mind and failing, breathing hard, two seconds away from doing something crazy. All he could think about was Harry, Harry and his innuendo and his challenges and his fiery eyes, Harry and his long legs folded under the table and his skin still damp from the rain and his stupid mouth. Harry and his words. Harry and the possibility of having him all for himself.

He dreamed of it. He fantasized like a mad man about it. And now Harry was offering it, Harry was actually seducing him; there was no mistaking his intentions now. And yes, Louis still had the option of walking away, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to. The lovely boy across the table was offering him something too sweet to deny, and there was nothing Louis wanted more than to give in to it.

So he refused to keep playing the game by the rules, the game was not important anymore, and Harry broke the rules first, Louis was just done. He just grabbed letters that were already on the board and repositioned them away from the others and spelled ‘PLEASE’ on a free space on the board.

He heard Harry’s little squeak as he was moving the letters, like he was about to complain because Louis fucked the game up, but he shut up as soon as the word was formed. Louis looked up at him, and he was smiling. Big. And somehow his foot reached Louis’ ankle while he grabbed letters from his own rack and wrote ‘YES’ underneath Louis’ ‘PLEASE’.

Louis looked at the word and then at Harry, who was already looking at him, eyes full of desire and expectation, like he wanted Louis to make a move, do something about it, leaning back on his chair with his hands on his thighs, making the shirt he was wearing reveal more skin, more little places Louis was dying to taste, like Harry knew exactly how to make Louis’ life hell.

Two seconds later, Louis gave up.

He muttered a little “Fuck it…” under his breath and stood from his chair, making it skid across the floor disrupting the silence of the coffee shop with the noise it made. He reached forward to grab Harry’s wrist from his thigh, and pulling him to his feet, Louis dragged Harry behind him, almost running back behind the counter, desperate to have Harry all to himself.

“What are you…” Liam’s confused voice came from the kitchen, along with Niall’s laughter.

“Shut up, Liam!” Louis called before disappearing from his sight. He caught Liam making out with Zayn in the back room way to many times to be willing to let Liam scold him.

Louis didn’t stop moving until he was finally behind the closed door of the employee’s room. It was a small office, way too small, just a desk and two chairs and a cabinet with employee files and other important documents. He had little space to maneuver, but he managed to turn Harry around and push him against the door, one hand on his chest, the other reaching behind Harry’s back to turn the lock, the satisfying sound resounding in the room, making his heart beat even faster.

Only then Louis became actually aware of everything that was happening. He was so close to Harry, too close, but there was still an inch of space between them, and the only point of contact was his hand on Harry’s chest, right on the center, right on that patch of skin that his half unbuttoned shirt refused to cover. His skin was so warm, and Louis could feel the fast beating of Harry’s heart.

He forced himself to tear his eyes from the beautiful image of his own hand on that smooth ridiculous chest to look up at Harry’s face with a frown. Harry was smiling, and the green of his eyes was even deeper from up close like this. “What do you want from me?” Louis asked because even if it was pretty obvious, he needed to hear it. He needed to know.

“Everything,” was Harry’s easy reply, like he didn’t even need to think about it, at the same time that he took advantage of his strength and size and grabbed Louis’ shoulders, spinning them around until Louis was the one pinned against the door. Harry clearly didn’t give a fuck about space because that inch of air between them disappeared as his entire body pressed against Louis’, engulfing him in a cloud of heat and skin and want.

Louis’ brain simply stopped working, because Harry’s hands moved lower and lower until they were grabbing his hips, and looking at Louis straight in the eyes he moved his own hips, rolling them slowly, letting Louis feel he was hard. Fuck. Harry was hard, for him, because of him. Louis short-circuited, letting his head fall back against the door with a groan, the thudding sound loud in the silent room. He closed his eyes for a second, melting, enjoying the feeling of Harry softly rubbing his hard on against his own hardening cock and then all of a sudden Louis reacted.

If Harry wanted everything then he was going to get it because it was exactly the same thing Louis wanted to give him, from the first time he saw him.

Louis lifted his head from the door and his arms snaked around Harry’s neck and he pressed forward with his body, trying to find more friction at the same time that his mouth finally, fucking finally, collided with Harry’s. Harry responded with a low moan that made Louis tremble, his lips parting to receive Louis’ hungry kiss.

Fuck, Harry was an amazing kisser. Ten seconds in and Louis legs were jelly, shaking with the effort he was making to keep rubbing against Harry at the same time that his mouth kissed those sinful lips desperately, tasting the coffee on his tongue, savoring the need he could feel in that kiss, the relief, that feeling of finally getting lost in someone you wanted so much, and it drove Louis crazy, thinking that maybe Harry felt the same, that this hunger was not a spur of the moment, a momentary need, but something all-consuming and maddening like Louis felt from the very first second he laid eyes on Harry. Maybe Harry’s little desperate moans meant that, maybe the way he grabbed Louis’ hips meant that.

Louis’ legs moved too, opening a bit to make more room for Harry’s shallow thrusts against his cock, making more room for Harry’s hips, and fuck, the little change in position made everything ten times better. The friction was so good Louis moaned louder between Harry’s lips, tightening the hold his arms had on Harry’s neck, and maybe that sent an accidental message to Harry because he reached down with his stupidly big hands until they were grabbing Louis’ ass and all of a sudden he was in the air.

Louis’s surprised squeak got lost in Harry’s mouth, because he never stopped the kiss, he never let go of Louis lips, he just lifted him up and Louis’ legs simply parted to hold onto Harry for dear life, locking his ankles behind Harry’s back, using the door behind him for support as he tried not to fall, which was probably never going to happen, considering the firm grip Harry had on his ass.

It was all too much for Louis, having his legs open like that, with Harry between them, even if they were both fully clothed. His joggers were thin enough to let him feel every damn thing as Harry moved, desperate for more friction as they kissed and moaned and fuck… It was all too erotic, too hot, too amazing, and of course it wasn’t enough.

Louis carefully freed one of his arms when he saw it was safe to do so without falling, and he used his now free hand to shove it between them and undo the rest of Harry’s buttons. The shirt fell from Harry’s shoulders, pooling at his elbows, but it was enough, god. Louis broke the kiss just to take a second to look at all the skin and the ink and how was Harry even a real person? He grabbed Harry’s still damp hair with one hand to make room, drunk from the view and the pleasure and the need. “Fuck, you’re so hot…” he moaned before finally letting his mouth latch onto Harry’s skin, kissing and licking his neck, his shoulder, making Harry’s moans sound deeper, louder.

That was when Harry decided to kill him, supporting all of Louis’ weight on just one arm, shoving his free hand inside Louis’ joggers. Louis bit Harry’s shoulder, he didn’t even mean to but the sudden jolt of anticipation that overtook him when he understood what Harry was about to do was too much, so he sunk his teeth in, making Harry moan again, loud. “Fuck…” God, Harry cursing was way too hot.

Louis groaned, licking Harry’s skin like an apology for biting, but then Harry finally enveloped his cock with those long fingers and Louis had to bite his own tongue to keep from biting Harry again. It just felt too good, and he hadn’t been touched in forever, and Harry seemed to just know how he liked it, just enough pressure to drive him crazy and slow movements of his hand and his thumb taking care of the head and the precome and fuck, if Harry kept that up for too long Louis was going to come too soon like a fucking hormonal teenager. He was just melting in Harry’s arms, dizzy from the waves of pleasure, dying because Harry kept moving and somehow the angle changed and he could feel Harry’s bulge against his ass, making him want more, so much more.

“Please…” Louis begged, searching Harry’s lips again, having a hard time keeping his eyes open long enough to look at Harry, but he needed to beg, he needed to let Harry know he had him, completely. The smirk Harry gave him made him shiver, it was so full of promises it was maddening and it unleashed another wave of need in Louis’ belly.

Harry slowed his hand, capturing Louis’ lips again, kissing him slow and deep, a kiss full of intention and need. “Tell me… Tell me what you want…” Harry asked and it was unfair because earlier he said he wanted everything from Louis and Louis had no idea what that even meant, but maybe it meant he could ask for whatever he wanted and Harry would give it to him.

Louis tightened his hold on Harry’s hair, looking for the words he wanted to say, for the strength to say them, to ask exactly what he wanted. “Want you… deep inside me… please…” Louis didn’t even know how, didn’t even know if that’s what Harry wanted, but he had to beg. He needed exactly that, it had been too long since the last time and since the moment he met Harry he just wanted him closer and closer and he never thought this was going to happen, and now he just couldn’t get enough.

Harry’s hand gripped his cock tighter, and this time it was his mouth on Louis neck, biting and licking and kissing until his lips reached that little sensitive spot behind his ear, like he knew exactly where it was. “Anything for you, baby…” Harry whispered in a low moan that shook Louis body to the core.

All of a sudden Harry removed his hand from Louis’ pants and moved from the door, carrying Louis all the way to the shitty desk in the middle of the tiny room, putting him down on top of it. Only then he moved his mouth from Louis’ neck to look at him, using his clean hand to take Louis’ beanie off, running his fingers through his hair. “So beautiful…” he whispered, kissing Louis’ lips softly, making Louis feel grateful there was a desk under him, otherwise he would probably faint and end up on the floor. “Turn around and bend over for me, yeah?” Harry asked, and the simple words made Louis drown a moan in his throat, looking at Harry. He nodded, slowly hopping off the desk, turning around once he was standing on shaky legs on the floor. Receiving orders was just too much of a turn on for him, fuck…

Once he was standing with his back to Harry, Harry put his hands on his hips, sliding them upwards, lifting his t-shirt with them. Louis lifted his arms, letting him get rid of the t-shirt, a deep sigh escaping his lips when Harry’s hands went to his now naked chest, pressing his body back until Louis’ back hit Harry’s warm chest and Harry’s lips kissed his shoulder. “God… I’ve wanted you since I first saw you…” Harry whispered against his skin, making him shiver again and swallow a moan. How was this even happening? How was this real?

Louis was losing his mind, so turned on he knew trying to understand this was going to have to wait. Because slowly Harry pushed him forward, and Louis planted his hands on the faded wood of the desk, sliding them forward until he almost reached the far end, arching his back, with Harry’s body still plastered to his. Harry’s mouth on his skin moved down his spine, lower and lower, kissing and touching his back until he reached the dip just before his ass and he lowered Louis’ jogger along with his underwear.

And never in a million years Louis would have expected what happened next, because one second Harry was peppering little wet kisses on his ass cheeks and the next his hands were grabbing them, spreading them apart, and his tongue… his fucking tongue… was licking between them. “Oh god…” Louis almost shouted, sliding forward until his hands grabbed the edge of the desk, tight, because the wave of pleasure and surprise that invaded him was too much. Too fucking much.

Was Harry… Was he going to…? Oh yes, he was. He definitely was. Fuck… Harry was definitely going to use his mouth to open Louis up. And it was too much. Too good. He couldn’t even remember the last time someone did this too him and he loved it, so much, so he just bent lower and opened up his legs as much as his jogger still around his knees left him, until he was exposed, practically begging for more, surrendering completely to the magic Harry was doing with his tongue, slowly licking his hole, adding more and more pressure until he could feel it entering him, the little pressure driving him crazy.

It was unbelievable, how Harry didn’t even ask, how he seemed to just know Louis loved this, how he even knew exactly how to do it to transform Louis into a pile of bones and need and nothing more, breathless moans escaping his mouth and cock leaking between his legs and eyes closed hard because it was so good. Harry made it so good, better than any fantasy, kissing and sucking around his rim and using his fingers to help his tongue, never teasing, just going for it, opening Louis up slowly but surely, using one, then two, then three fingers, licking Louis’ rim stretched around them, doing everything Louis liked, never touching his cock like he knew that would send Louis over the edge in a second.

Only when he was three fingers deep he crooked them just a bit, rubbing Louis’ prostate for just a second, making Louis see stars and almost scream because of the sudden pleasure, before removing his fingers, leaving Louis feeling empty and torn apart, and it was just the beginning. “Fuck… Come on… fuck me, please…” Louis begged, no energy left to look at Harry but he knew Harry was getting naked, he could hear the sound of his zipper and then the crinkly sound of a condom wrapper being opened. Louis waited, impatiently, not releasing his tight grip on the desk, already completely slumped on it, ass in the air, legs open, ready, so ready. And then he felt Harry draping himself over his back again, kissing the back of his neck, hard cock big and lubed up sliding between his cheeks. “Oh god…” Louis moaned, moving his hips, bucking them back to feel more, to have more.

Harry moved slowly, dragging his cock against Louis’ ass, teasing a bit until he pulled his hips back enough to line himself up, letting Louis feel the head of his cock against him, slowly entering him. Fuck. “Oh fuck…” Louis bit his lip, hard, because either Harry was huge, or it had been way too long. He didn’t know, all he knew was that he couldn’t breathe as Harry entered him, slow but steady, tearing him apart, the invasion too much for a moment, stretching him and filling him up, making his mind go blank.

All he could focus on was the feeling of Harry inside him, big and hard and hot and too much but perfect at the same time, the perfect combination of pain and pleasure, erasing all of his thoughts, everything, reducing the universe to what his body was feeling.

Harry never stopped kissing his skin, staying still inside him once he bottomed out, and Louis tried to breathe, he really tried even if he felt his lungs collapsing, completely overwhelmed. “Okay?” Harry asked in a broken whisper in his ear, making Louis smile. He took a moment to answer, trying to relax.

“Yeah, just… Been a while… let me just…” the words left his mouth in a rush, breathless, and Harry’s kisses on his skin became sweeter, softer, his hands on Louis hips gripping him softly, his thumbs drawing little circles on his skin, helping him relax.

“It’s okay, take your time…” Harry said, voice low and broken. “You feel so good, baby… so tight, so hot… perfect…” Fuck, the words hit Louis like a ton of bricks, making his heart go faster and his body react, needing more, accepting the invasion, relaxing to welcome Harry’s cock.

Louis moved his hips to test the sensations, to see if he was ready. He barely rolled his hips a bit and the spark of pure pleasure that made his blood boil was all he needed. “Move… please…” he begged once he was ready, bracing himself against the desk, preparing for what was coming.

Harry moved, slow, a little grunt escaping his lips as he dragged his cock slowly out, until only the head remained inside, and the he moved back in, a bit faster, burying himself inside Louis, making him see stars and making his legs tremble. Harry didn’t stop, moving just a bit faster every time, finding a rhythm that drove Louis crazy, Harry’s grip on his hips tightening, just the way Louis liked.

It was maddening, it was so delicious, it was the most amazing fuck of his life and Louis was losing his mind, fast, feeling the glorious drag of Harry’s cock inside him, the silence of the room suddenly replaced with moans and groans and whimpers and the sound of skin hitting skin once Harry gained momentum. Just a moment later Louis was there, right there, so close, the pleasure was too much and he had wanted Harry so much, he dreamed about this way too many times and reality was infinitely more amazing than any of his fantasies.

“Harry…” Louis called his name, he didn’t even know what for, maybe to let him know he was about to come, or just like a prayer, like a chant, and Harry responded moving a hand to wrap it around Louis cock, making the pleasure built up in his belly finally explode, the orgasm tearing through his body, tensing his muscles, arching his back, calling Harry’s name.

And Harry kept moving, making Louis’ orgasm feel eternal, and one, two, three hard thrusts later he orgasmed too, exploding inside of Louis, stilling himself deep inside him, letting Louis feel each pulsing throb of his cock as he came, gripping Louis’ hip so hard it was sure to leave marks, still moving his other hand along Louis’ cock, until every drop of come was finally out of his body.

Gasping, still draped on top of his back, Harry barely moved to remove himself from Louis, leaving little kisses across his shoulders, his hand on Louis’ hip now caressing him softly again, wiping away the remaining pain from how hard he was grasping him before. Louis tried to catch his breath, feeling the pleasure slowly receding from his body, his muscles finally relaxing, still burning deliciously from the effort. “That was…” Louis could barely speak, too exhausted.

“Astonishing…” Harry whispered from behind him, his kisses stopping while his arm snaked around Louis’ torso to help him up. “Bewildering… breathtaking…” he added, and yeah, Louis could agree even if those were big ridiculous words, especially when he finally turned around and found Harry licking Louis’ come from his long fingers. Fuck. Louis would probably be coming again if he weren’t so depleted and exhausted, just from that sight alone.

Louis’ words died in his throat and it took him at least a minute to react, just watching Harry’s tongue and lips working around his fingers, his eyebrows knotting in concentration. “You’re too fucking hot for being such a nerd,” Louis muttered, unable to deal with everything he had in front of him, Harry simple eating his come like it was candy, all flushed, with his hair a complete mess, half naked with what now Louis was seeing was a huge cock between his legs, still wrapped in a condom. Holy fuck. He felt a mixture of pride for having taken that and anticipation for the possibility of doing it again.

And he couldn’t shake that feeling, that need, the need of having this mean something more than a one-time hook up, and maybe that same need drove him to move, to put his arms on top of Harry’s shoulders to bring him closer, forgetting for a moment their ridiculous state, just staring at Harry’s face while Harry removed the condom and tossed it in the little bin in the corner of the room.

Louis smiled as soon as Harry looked at him again, because Harry’s hands went straight to pull up Louis’ clothes carefully. “I’m not returning the favor, you know,” Louis joked. “I have no idea how you fit into those skinny jeans…” he said, still too shaken to say what he really wanted to say.

Harry laughed, pulling up his own clothes, shimmying a little to make them finally fit, making Louis laugh again because fuck, hot and adorable? That was too much, way too much and yeah, he needed to ask, he needed to know, because yes, even if this was the hottest fuck of his life and he didn’t regret it, he wanted more. A lot more. More sex and more Harry. “So… What did you mean by everything?” Louis asked when Harry finally finished buttoning his jeans and wrapped his arms around Louis’ waist.

Harry’s reply was a little confident smile that terrified Louis for a second, until he finally opened that ridiculous mouth of his to speak. “I meant this,” he started, actually blushing. “And everything else. Like, for example, would you like to get out of this place and go have dinner with me?” Louis’ heart picked up the pace again, racing. “…and maybe then we can go back to mine, and I can let you have your way with me. Again and again, however many times you want… And then we’ll see where we can go from there?”

Louis jaw dropped. He was definitely dreaming. Harry was asking him out on a date, was basically telling him he wanted more than a hook up, it felt unreal. “Are you serious?” Louis asked, his eternal pessimism when it came to men crushing his heart and preventing it from filling up with hope.

“Very serious. I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I met you. I just braved a storm just to see you again and in case I haven’t made myself clear, what we just did is not nearly enough for me. So, what do you say?” Harry asked, big smile on his face, pulling Louis a bit closer.

Louis didn’t reply. He just got rid of the distance between them and kissed Harry, hard.

EPILOGUE  

When Louis woke up, it took him a moment to become aware of where he was. For a bit, all the knew was that he felt pleasantly sore and that his body ached all over, that he felt warm and comfy, that it was probably morning because light tried to force its way past his eyelids, and that something was tickling his tummy.

He sighed, refusing to move, at least for now. Because reality slowly came back to him, and he remembered exactly where he was, and the reason behind most of the beautiful things his body was feeling.

He was on Harry’s bed. It was Monday, and he probably should be worrying about the time because he had to go to work, but he had no energy for that. All of his energy was focused on the little memories that popped in his brain. Memories of everything that happened since Harry walked in the coffee shop on Saturday, soaked from the rain with his Scrabble board under his arm and a smile on his face.

Louis smiled to himself with his eyes still closed, getting lost in the lingering feeling of Harry’s lips on his, remembering how they laughed and talked and then laughed some more at the pizza place, sitting almost one on top of the other on a bench while having dinner.

God, the way they fucked again when they got to Harry’s place, how it took them less than five minutes to be completely naked and grinding on Harry’s bed, how Harry’s low voice begged him to fuck him this time… It was so amazing, feeling that, feeling himself inside of another man for the first time, but not any man, oh no. Harry was not any man, he was simply amazing.

They just kept going, again and again, between showers and beers and snuggling and talking, and then they fell asleep, cuddled up on Harry’s bed. And then Louis simply never found the will to leave, to go back home. He forgot any plan he had for the weekend, he just hid in Harry’s flat.

Harry welcomed him with open arms, and Louis honestly felt like he was never going to find in himself enough energy to just leave if Harry kept letting him in like this. Then Sunday night came, and Louis stayed the night again, going to sleep in Harry’s arm with his chest full of something big and terrifying that felt a lot like love.

Monday morning meant he had to leave eventually, but he didn’t want to, he really didn’t, so he prolonged that little precious moment of waking up in Harry’s bed for as long as he could before it all had to end. Only the tickling he was still feeling on his belly was just odd and unexplainable, so he couldn’t resist peeking to see what was happening.

Louis opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Harry, looking at his belly, his face scrunched up in concentration, his hair a mess all over the place, surrounded by a halo of light that came from the window. Louis smiled bigger. “Mornin’,” he croaked, throwing an arm up to pillow it under his head, unable to look away from Harry.

“Morning, baby,” Harry replied, beaming a smile at him, before looking at his belly again. Louis tried to sit up a bit to look down to try to figure out what was happening but Harry planted a firm hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place. “No, stay still.”

“Why?” Louis asked, and looked down as best as he could without moving much. He had to bite his lower lip as soon as his still sleepy eyes processed what he saw. There was a single line of Scrabble letters, going down from the center of his chest, almost reaching his bellybutton, spelling BEAUTIFUL, Harry positioning the last letter carefully, a bunch of letters scattered on the mattress by his side.

Louis could feel his cheeks heating up, that feeling in his chest growing exponentially, constricting his heart because he spent the last two days trying to find out if maybe Harry could feel the same, some day, eventually, if they kept this up. “God, so cheesy…” Louis laughed a bit, the letters shaking over his chest, making Harry press his hand harder on his shoulder to keep him still.

“You like me cheesy,” Harry said, smiling, like he was absolutely right about it. He was.

“I do.” Louis confessed, because it was the truth, because he couldn’t even help the way he blushed like an idiot every time Harry threw him some compliment or said something sweet about him or called him 'baby'.

And probably because Harry noticed that and he enjoyed torturing Louis a lot, he grabbed two more letters from the ones that were face up all over the bed. He put them after the B, spelling ‘BUM’. Louis had to make a great effort not to laugh, or melt, maybe. “Yeah, I kinda noticed you enjoy my bum a lot,” he replied, his eyes leaving the words on his chest to look at Harry. And now Harry was blushing something fierce, while he grabbed more letters to spell ‘SMILE’ ending on the E from ‘BEAUTIFUL’.

Louis smiled without even thinking about it, and Harry’s eyes flew to his face, like making Louis smile was the plan all along. “Yeah, there it is…” Harry whispered to himself, looking very pleased with himself.

“Smartass…” Louis scolded, trying not to die from how cute this was, how lovely Harry was, writing words on his chest with that bashful look on his face. So endearing it hurt.

Harry didn’t really react, he just shrugged his shoulders a bit, grabbing more letters and placing them after the F, spelling ‘FUN’. “Really? Everyone says I’m just annoying,” Louis was never really good at taking compliments and always used humor to deflect, and this time his response came out even more self-deprecating than he intended.

Harry just chuckled, shaking his head. “The only thing annoying about you is that you’re so pretty I can’t focus on anything when you’re close to me,” Harry drawled, smiling and biting his tongue in concentration while he kept looking for more letters, like what he said didn’t have the power to make Louis melt on the spot.

Louis just laughed a bit, pursing his lips. “You only say that because, as you stated, you like my bum,” he replied, raising an eyebrow like he was making a very valid point.

“Not true…” Harry retorted, placing more letters on Louis’ chest, spelling ‘ART’ starting with the only A available.

At that Louis snorted, rolling his eyes. Harry couldn’t possibly be talking about him, right? He was just playing, exaggerating. “What does art have to do with this conversation?” Louis asked, nonchalantly, trying to deflect, or make Harry laugh or something.

Harry didn’t laugh, though, he just placed more letters, an O, a V and an E, following the L with which BEAUTIFUL ended. And Louis stopped breathing. They only spent two days together, they met not even two months ago, they only saw each other for a few hours each time, and it was just… not possible. And yeah, maybe that ridiculous word had appeared on Louis’ mind more than a few times during the weekend, like an undeniable neon sign burning his mind, but it made sense, right?

Harry was just the most amazing man on planet earth, so beautiful it hurt to look at him, so smart and articulate and incredibly sweet and fun and a deadly combination of a huge dork and smoking hot that Louis just couldn’t resist. Louis was pretty sure every human being that spent ten minutes in Harry’s presence would fall in love with him. But there was no way Harry felt the same way about Louis, right? It was just not possible, because yeah, maybe Louis was funny and he had a great ass, but other than that he was just… plain.

Louis was just Louis.

Louis was as lonely as he was for good reasons, right?

So keeping all those things in mind, Louis looked at Harry like he grew a second head, a confused expression on his face, scolding himself, repressing anything even resembling hope before it even dared appearing in his chest. Everything was pretty playful and lovely and silly, until Harry used those letters. Everything turned serious all of a sudden, like Louis’ sanity and heart hanged on whatever words Harry would say next. “What do you love?” Louis asked with a small voice, taking in Harry’s little relaxed smile, like he wasn’t even aware he was holding Louis’ soul in his hands.

Harry rolled his eyes, looking a bit annoyed. Louis stopped breathing, waiting for him to do something. And of course, instead of talking like a normal person, Harry grabbed two more letters from the mattress, letting a deep sigh escape from those lips. Louis left his eyes on Harry’s all the time, terrified of what he might see as Harry placed two more letters on his chest. Harry bit his lip, all of a sudden looking nervous, vulnerable, and maybe that was what made Louis finally get over his own fear and look down.

There were two letters right before the U on the center of his chest. A Y and an O. The deep shaky sigh Louis let out made the letters move a bit on his skin, trembling. Louis couldn’t remember the last time someone used that word with him. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually had enough energy left in his heart to believe it. He couldn’t remember the last time he wanted to believe it, or the last time he wanted this much to actually have those words mean something, something real.

He bit his lip raw, trying to control the burning feeling in his chest, the emotions flooding through him. He tried to keep himself grounded but fuck, it was so hard, because when he looked at Harry again, Harry had the biggest, dumbest smile on his face, and there was not a drop of deceit there, there was no sign of him using that word to get something from Louis, not a hint of a lie, no matter how hard Louis looked.

The sudden knot tied around his throat kept him from speaking. He just frowned, trying to ask the question with whatever ridiculous expression his face was doing. He was terrified and he knew how pathetic it would sound if he actually asked the question out loud, how needy and sad it would sound if he actually asked Harry if he actually meant that.

And apparently Harry was getting pretty good at reading Louis’ mind, because he just nodded, earnest and bright, looking so honest and open, and Louis just… He just found himself believing him. He just did, it took practically no effort, he just believed Harry because he was there that entire weekend, he felt Harry’s honesty in every laugh, every touch, every kiss, every moment. The instincts that made him flee in fear every time were nowhere to be found, there was only hope and a weird giddiness and a lot of confusion because it would probably take him a long long time to process how someone like Harry could look at him twice, much less have feelings for him.

However, that hope and that little flame of happiness in his chest were much stronger than that confusion, so Louis threw all caution to the wind. That fear that kept him from letting anyone close to his heart in a long time just crumbled under the weight of what he felt for Harry, and he sat on the bed suddenly, letting all the letters fall on his lap except for the few that stayed stuck to his skin. He grabbed Harry, throwing his arms around his neck to pull him close and he kissed him, hard. He kissed him with all that he had, with all that love he felt growing and growing, with all the hope that refused to leave his heart, sighing little contented sighs between Harry’s lips.

“Me too…” he whispered, barely opening his eyes to look at Harry. Harry that held him in his arms, Harry that was smiling so big it was blinding, Harry that was running his fingers through Louis’ hair, Harry that was welcoming him in his life and letting Louis know he wanted him to stay for good.

Louis smiled at him against his lips, secretly thanking Liam and Zayn for letting this incredible nerd walk into his life.