branching out l.s.

nine

"What- Why are you back there?"

Niall had purposefully avoided the bar ever since he'd been promoted to assistant chef just before Thanksgiving. He claimed, 'that area's for the peasants now.'

"Just feeling nostalgic, is all," Niall explained.

"Why is your eye twitching? What's happening?"

"Nothing. Sparkling cider?"

Harry examined Niall's expression. The eye twitch gave it away that something was going on. But he knew Niall wouldn't tell him, so he just answered, "Sure."

He took the champagne flute from his former roommate and turned to find Amy waiting to lead him to his table.

He followed her over to one near the middle of the room that had two seats right next to each other, and sat down in one of the comfortable seats.

With one last smirk, Amy walked over to the bar and sat with Niall.

Setting his glass down, Harry looked around the room, trying to figure out what was going on.

There was literally no one else around except for Niall and Amy. If he listened closely enough, he could hear the sound of the wind blowing by the windows.

It was quiet; too quiet.

And then the door to the kitchen opened and out walked Louis, wearing his best black pants and blue button down shirt.

He was lightly rubbing his hands together as he moved, his hesitant eyes trained directly on Harry.

Of course, the first thing that the younger man said upon seeing his boyfriend was, "You must be sweating in that. It was like, ninety degrees out today."

Louis stopped just short of the table to look down at his outfit.

"Well you're in jeans so tight, you probably can't even breathe," Louis shot back.

"Of course I can breathe. And they're just jeans. But what's with the button down? Why so fancy? I thought we weren't doing anything big."

"What? I can't look nice for you?"

"Well sure you can; I just feel underdressed."

"You know you look perfect in anything you wear," Louis complimented.

Harry watched Louis as he sat down. He was a little apprehensive of what exactly was going on.

"Are you hungry?" Louis asked with a smile.

"Not really."

"Oh, OK, um-"

"What's going on, Lou?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you invited me out to dinner. We're the only customers in the restaurant. You're dressed nicely, you're acting very sweet and most importantly, I see that gleam in your eyes like when you're trying to hide something from me."

"Maybe it's a different kind of gleam."

"I don't know. I mean, based on how tonight is going so far, you're either here to kill me, propose to me or break up with me. And," he leaned in closer so Amy and Niall wouldn't hear, "judging by how well you fucked me this morning, I don't think we're breaking up."

"Well you're right about that," Louis confirmed. "I'm not here to break up with you. And I definitely don't want to kill you, either."

"So then wh-"