The Fires of Spring (Larry AU)

t w o

Arriving home had been awkward for Louis.

His mum had this thing, this motherly thing. She could determine any of her children's moods just by looking at their face.

Louis was smiling, and his cheeks were red. He knew it, too. He just didn't know his mum would point it out to the rest of the family, claiming he had a crush.

Louis knew he had to admit it, because if he didn't, they would all assume his crush was on Liam. So, he told his mum and his sisters that he just watched a magnificent band play, and the lead singer was hot.

His mum had immediately demanded to know everything about this boy, but Louis told her nothing. Louis knew his mum would never like a guy like Harry. If she knew that Louis liked Harry, well, let's just say it wouldn't be pretty.

But, Louis did play a song from their soundtrack for them to listen to.

"He's got a great voice," she commented on the first punk song, "but it's hardly music. Just loud noise."

Louis had given his mother a skeptical look. "How would you know anything about music?"

She shrugged. "It's just loud, deafeningly loud."

Louis rolled his eyes. "That's an oxymoron." Louis snatched the CD from the player and headed up to his room without another word.

~

The next morning, Liam ran to Louis' house. Louis lived right down the street, so Liam probably could have walked, but he ran. He always ran.

Louis woke to someone pounding on his bedroom door. "Did you know," he said, lifting his head from the pillow, "that thirty percent of people have hearing problems from people knocking on doors like that?"

Liam opened Louis' door and stepped in. "That's not true."

Louis sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked at his alarm clock, it told him it was around ten in the morning. Louis could live with that, it was a decent time to be woken up.

"Why are you here? I just saw you last night."

"Ooh," Liam pretended to look hurt. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." Liam walked over to Louis' bed and sat on it. "I was wondering if you wanted to go the fair with me and Niall and Josh and the rest of the crew."

Louis groaned and flopped back onto his bed. "Liam. I just moved here. Give me some time to settle in, besides my mum probably wants me to stay and help unpack the rest of the kitchen."

"Harry and his band are playing there," Liam said, a smile playing on his lips.

Louis sat up immediately. "Maybe I can go."

Liam rolled his eyes. "So, the boy who you've known for what, thirteen hours? Wait, no, you don't even know him. So, the boy who you think you've known for thirteen hours comes before the boy you've known your whole life?"

Louis hummed. "Basically."

Louis had never been afraid to show affection, especially to people he had an interest in. Louis was never scared of being rejected, in fact, he was used to it. But something about Harry literally frightened him. But nothing excited him more.

Liam rolled his eyes and stood up. "Get dressed, princess. I'll be down stairs."

As Liam left, Louis sighed and thought for a second.

If he wore something casual, it wouldn't necessarily catch Harry's attention, and that was his goal for the day. But if he wore something that stood out, he might catch attention of people he didn't want. Louis knew it was a small town, and he knew that almost everyone knew of the Tomlinson's arrival, so surely Louis knew about him.