A Twist of Fate - Larry Stylinson

Part VII

Harry woke up on Friday morning, just as the sun was rising. He had forgotten to draw the curtains in the room. Sitting up groggily, he looked out the window, and realized, with a sinking feeling in his stomach, that this was the second last Australian sunrise he would see, (even though the sun was the same everywhere) and this was the last proper day he was spending here.

As much as Harry hated to admit it, and as big of a nonchalant front he tried to put up in front of Louis, the truth was that he wished they had more time too. But there was no use in two people brooding about it and spending precious time moaning over the lack of it, so he pretended, and acted like it was okay.

He loved Louis' company; basked in it, actually. But as much as Harry would love to curl up and stay forever in the sunshine that was Louis, it was impossible to squeeze seven years of lost time into the span of one week. The reality was that he was leaving the next day and never coming back.

Later that day, Louis invited Zayn, Liam and Niall along to play paintball with them after school. "It's not fun to play paintball with only two people!" Louis had complained, and eventually successfully dragged his three friends along.

They took to Harry quite quickly, their interest heightened when they found out he was part of the group of exchange students, and they kicked off with some sort of question and answer session on the bus as they made their way to the paintball arena, asking Harry about anything and everything under the sun about his home.

"Oh, come on, don't hog my best friend!" Louis complained sourly, squeezing into the seat beside Harry, possibly a little too close than Harry would have thought possible...for friends. Louis looked like the sort to not have many boundaries anyway; he never really did, even when they were younger. He always had the wildest ideas, was the most daring one.

That was proven again to Harry later during their paintball game, where they teamed up and Louis had the ridiculous idea of abandoning all strategy at all and head straight to capture the flag. "They're going to think we have a strategy, so they're going to try and counter it, but the fact is that we don't! So they won't be expecting it at all, and we can go straight for the win!" His voice was low, hushed but excited as they huddled behind their 'fort'.

Harry tried to argue back weakly, that no matter how much nobody expected the enemy to go straight for the flag, they wouldn't leave it unguarded either.

"Don't always stay on the safe side, Haz! What's life without some fun?" Louis grinned, just as Zayn's voice called to them, followed by the sound of firing pellets. "What the hell are you both doing that's taking so long?!"

Everything about Louis was infectious, and even though their plan of going straight for the flag hadn't worked out that well - in fact, they got 'attacked' so relentlessly - they took it all in good spirit, and emerged after their paintball game stinging from the paintball pellets fired at each other and spatters of multicoloured paint all over their clothes.

And maybe that was when Harry realized just how much he missed Louis, because nobody could ever match up to him and the bond they had made all those years ago. He brooded over it on the way to Louis' house, after they went their separate ways from Zayn, Niall and Liam.

"Hey." Louis bumped his shoulder into Harry's. "Are you alright?"