Best For Last

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by: drunkniall

Summary:

AU where Harry is on a date that is not going very well and when he tells his date a joke, the boy doesn't laugh but the guy sitting alone at the table next to them does.

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"Isn't your date tonight?" Louis asks from where he's lounging on the couch, feet dangling over the edge and the remote lying on his tummy.

"Why do you think I'm getting all dressed up? To take out the garbage?" Harry asks, raising an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Why would you take out yourself?" Louis replies, a sly grin spreading on his face. His hands fly up to cover his face from the pillow Harry throws in his direction.

"Oh, sod off," Harry rolls his eyes, putting on a bit of aftershave and grabbing his leather jacket. He reaches out to open the door.

"Have fun. Use a condom," Louis teases, eyes fixed on the screen of the television.

Harry flips him off before walking through the door, closing it with a satisfyingly loud bang.

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"- and that's how you know you have a lung infection," is what Samuel ends his five minute monologue with.

"Good to know for the future," Harry says, a stiff smile on his face. He hopes he sounds genuine.

"Did I tell you yet that I'm allergic to lots of stuff? Like chest nuts, cashew nuts, peanuts, walnuts-"

Harry tunes out then, leaning his chin on the palm of his hand and trying to keep his eyes focused on Samuel. He gives the occasional hum to indicate he's listening, but his eyes keep roaming around the room.

He sees couples leaning towards each other to talk, friends ordering beer and laughing their arses off, a cute blonde sitting a few tables away from them, focused on eating his hamburger. Harry sighs, feeling sorry for himself that his first date in months is such a disaster.

His mum always told him laughter is the best medicin, so-

"What do you call a peanut in a spacesuit?" Harry asks abruptly, interrupting Samuel's endless explanation.

Samuel closes his mouth suddenly, looking offended that he had got interrupted without a warning.

"I don't know. Is it relevant? Because I'd like to continue," Samuel says, rolling his eyes.

Harry ignores Samuel's question and instead says, "An astronut."

A smirk breaks through on his face, because let's be honest, that joke was great. But Samuel looks at Harry kind of weirdly, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"A spacesuit is way too big for a peanut," Samuel comments dryly.

Harry sighs, but refuses to give up, "Okay, okay. You wear glasses, right? What's your eyesight?" He asks, biting his lip to contain his grin.

Samuel narrows his eyes in confusion and annoyance, "Minus two and a half, why?"

"That must be cold," an expectant grin spreads easily on his face, proud of his own joke.

His head whips up when he hears someone chuckle and he expects to see Samuel with a grin on his face, but the lad only sighs and shakes his head, "You're really immature," he comments, but Harry doesn't hear it.

He's looking around, curious to see who was laughing. He looks at the barista, who's focused on cleaning a couple of glasses. The older couple in the corner is too into each other to even see Harry. But then-

Blue eyes meet green for only a split second before the blonde haired lad ducks his head down to hide his smile into his shoulder. Harry cocks his head to the side, feeling intrigued. He decides to tell another joke to see if it was really the blonde cutie who found his joke funny.

"Yesterday I accidentally swallowed some food colouring. The doctor says I'm okay, but I feel like I've dyed a little inside."

The sweetest of giggles reaches Harry's ear and his eyes immediately flick towards the boy, who is trying his best to hide his laughter. Harry feels a pulse of proudness and eagerly tells another pun, not even caring that Samuel didn't react.

"My friend needed an organ transplantion, but the doctor couldn't transfer the organs, because he didn't have the guts to do it."

This time, Harry keeps his eyes on the blonde lad. He watches as the boy snorts, his fizzy drink coming out of his nose, making him laugh only harder. He throws his head back, guffawing loudly, hand clutching his tummy. It makes Harry's tummy tingle and before he knows it, he's standing up.

"I need to go. I'd say I had a nice time, but I didn't. Hope I don't see you again," Harry says quickly, not even looking at Samuel as he can't keep his eyes off of the other boy. He throws some money onto the table, grabs his jacket and walks towards the table the boy is sitting at.

"Hi," he says, smiling so widely a dimple appears in his cheek.

The blonde takes a deep breath to calm himself down, bits of laughter still escaping his lips as he wipes his eyes.

"Hi there. Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt your date or anything. I'll be a bit more quiet. My apologies," the blonde tries to explain, but Harry shakes his head, holding out his hand.

"I'm Harry."

"Niall," Niall smiles as he shakes Harry's hand, fingers lingering a little longer than they should. Harry sees Samuel leave from the corner of his eye, the sour look still on his face. Harry couldn't care less..

Harry looks at Niall with sparkles in his eyes. "Knock, knock."

Niall's grin comes back full force, eyeing Harry with amusement in his eyes. "Who's there?"

"Hula."

"Hula who?"

"P."

Niall blinks in confusion before groaning and smacking his hand against his forehead. Laughter takes over quickly, though, making people look at them in amusement.

"Can I take a seat?"

Niall nods right away, gesturing to the chair in front of him.

"Why are you all alone here?" Harry asks, not understanding how someone as handsome and cute as Niall is alone on a Friday night.

Niall shrugs, "I was waiting for someone to make me laugh with stupid jokes while they are on a date, then stand up their date to come talk to me and tell more stupid jokes."

"Heyyy," Harry says, mock offended, jutting out his bottom lip.

"Was just a joke," Niall assures him.

"Or is iiiit," Harry tries to say right when Niall says the exact same thing.

They both grin at each other widely, Harry kicking Niall's foot under the table, which makes the boy blush a little. He recovers quickly, leaning close to Harry.

"Why can't the flower ride his bike?" Harry wiggles his eyebrows.

"Um," Niall replies, trying to keep a straight face but a soft giggle escapes his lips.

"Because his petals fell off."

Niall lifts up the collar of his T-shirt to hide his face into it, eyes crinkling because of the force of his smile. Harry can see Niall genuinely finds his jokes funny and it makes Harry's chest expand with adoration. He kind of wants to tell every joke he has ever read or heard, if only Niall kept laughing like that. He's kind of in love with it.

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Word Count: 1 169

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