Chances - Larry Stylinson

Part IV

The next morning Harry woke up, feeling a lot more comfortable than he had the previous morning. But yet, even with blankets tucked around him snugly, he still felt cold and maybe a bit lonely too. Then again, he was back to wishing that he’d woken up to find a warm body by his side, keeping him warm. 

Harry really wanted to find Louis by his side, or at least be the first person that Louis would talk to every morning. And then he realized that whatever he was thinking about definitely was not normal. He realized that he probably felt something more than a friend would towards Louis. To be honest, he hadn’t felt this happy since he’d been in New South Wales. By now Harry probably should’ve known that the tingly feeling he got when Louis rested his head on his shoulder was not something someone would get when his platonic friend rested his head on his shoulder. 

Sighing to himself, he pushed the covers off himself and sat down at his desk, where the bottle from Louis caught his eye, sunlight glancing off the coloured glass. Picking up the bottle, he spun it in his hands, observing every side of it; all the different shells in the sand. They were beautiful; the bottle was beautiful, in a weird, roughed up way, the label and the mouth of the bottle eaten away from years of being in the sea.

Harry briefly wondered if maybe Louis had spent a lot of his time picking the prettiest shells to put in their bottle for him. Perhaps Louis did, and the thought made Harry wonder if Louis did that for a reason, and if so, why? A spark of hope inside him was screaming that it was because Louis felt like things between them were changing too. 

And then suddenly something in the bottle caught his eye, something that looked too thin and smooth, and too…soft to be a shell. He shook the bottle carefully, trying to dislodge some of the sand to get a better look, and when he did, he saw it was a piece of paper which was previously hidden in the sand. It brought up a memory of another piece of paper, still tucked carefully inside Harry’s wallet. Was it another note from Louis, or was it just a piece of litter that Louis picked up inadvertently? A part of him wished it was the latter, because then it'd save them both a lot of trouble and awkwardness, but the other part of him pushed dominantly at the idea of it being another note. 

So Harry sat there, debating whether to pour out the sand of the bottle to get the piece of paper out, or to pass it off as something he never saw at all. In the end, Harry gave in to his curiosity, and poured some of the sand out into a random cardboard box he found by the side of his table. He picked up the piece of paper from the box. It was carefully folded into a small rectangle, neat edges and corners and far too clean to be a piece of beach litter.

It was a note.

He sucked in a nervous breath as he unfolded the paper once, twice. He didn't even know why he was so nervous, but he just was. And then as he looked at the contents of the message, he seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. 

"Dear Harry, 

We've been friends practically since we were born, and we still are. But now I think I like you in a different way. No, I love you, I really do, and you know what I mean. If you don't feel the same then that's okay, just pretend that I never wrote this stupid note and we'll keep being best friends okay?

Love always,
Lou."

Harry let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding in, his heart racing. So Louis felt the same way after all, right? Harry blinked, rereading the note, until the letters didn’t seem to form proper words and they all looked like a mess of looping lines and squiggles. And then he convinced himself it was real, he hadn’t misread, and yes Louis loved him, loved-loved him, was in love with him.

Under normal circumstances Harry would have probably panicked and freaked out about the fact that he’d just received a love letter, but this wasn’t a normal circumstance. This was about him and Louis, Louis his childhood best friend and crush now. Everything seemed less confusing to Harry now, but then he realized there was still the problem of approaching the subject.
 
~*~
"I'm serious Lou, stay here forever, please. Breakfast is amazing when you're here!" Harry gestured to the table of pancakes and bacon and eggs. He made it seem as if he was just kidding, as if he only wanted Louis to stay so he could have good breakfast. But yet, he actually just wanted Louis to stay longer, he really did. Anne laughed and shook her head. "Harry Styles, don't you make it seem like I don't feed you enough!" 

"Yes Harry, be good or you won't get a present from Santa next year!" Louis teased, and Harry stuck his tongue out at his best friend before cutting a slice of his pancake and gobbling it down.

"So, Louis, where are you and Harry going today? I'm surprised you still agreed to go sightseeing with him after he made you wear that shirt!" Anne laughed, and Harry smirked. 

"He liked that shirt very much, mum. Right Louis?" Harry winked. "Yes, of course I do! I'm very patriotic towards England even if I live in Australia now. And after all, Harry bought it for me." Louis grinned, "But anyway, I don't know what we're going to do in the afternoon. We're going to see the fireworks at the Big Ben tonight though, and have the countdown there."

Louis’ words kept ringing through Harry’s mind. And after all, Harry bought it for me. What did that mean? Could it mean that Louis only agreed to wear the shirt because of Harry? Could it mean that that was how much Harry meant to him? And with all those questions in his mind, Harry and Louis were done with their scrumptious breakfast and headed back upstairs. This time, Louis suggested they hang out in his room. 

"Wow, I can't believe your room, well for now at least, is actually neat!" Harry commented, putting those confusing thoughts at the back of his mind.
"Well yeah, I was up early today so I decided to tidy things up. After all, this isn't even my own home, so I'd feel bad, for messing everything up," Louis grinned sheepishly. 

Harry sat himself down on Louis' bed and nodded, glad that Louis had some common sense. The blue-eyed boy happily sat beside Harry, mind running back to when they fell asleep in that same position two nights ago. And he wondered if Harry had noticed the note in the bottle yet. But seeing as Harry was still talking to him like that, Louis believed that Harry hadn't discovered it and probably wouldn't for a long time. 

Louis pulled out his phone and logged on to his MSN account, wanting to see if Zayn was online. It had barely been three days since they last saw each other, but Louis missed Zayn. They used to spend every single day together in their dorm, just studying and chatting with the other. It was a little bit strange for Louis to think that they’d gone their separate ways, for now at least.

"Hey, Zayn's online!" Louis exclaimed, suddenly realising that he'd probably never see the Bradford boy again. He quickly typed a message to Zayn, with Harry peering over his shoulder. 

10:37AM Louis says:
Zaaaaynieeee! Missed me? ;) 

"Say hi for me, Lou!” Harry grinned enthusiastically, but Louis hesitated. His dark-haired friend already thought that Louis had a crush on Harry (which he did), so if Zayn found out that Louis with Harry right at that moment, Louis would no doubt get teased to no end. But with Harry looking over his shoulder like that, Louis couldn't tell him "Oh, I don't think that's a good idea because I have a crush on you and Zayn already suspects that," right?

10:38AM Louis says: 
Harry says "hi" by the way. 

10:38AM Zayn says:
Louuuuuuu! Of course I missed you! Oh, you're in London, at Harry's? ;) HI HARRY! How’ve you been!

Louis panicked. What if Harry picked up that little winky face as some kind of a secret that Zayn and Louis shared? Like perhaps the secret that Louis had a not-so-secret crush on Harry. 

So that was how Louis and Zayn spent the entire conversation; just talking about what they were doing, or how they were doing and things like that. Harry couldn't help but feel a bit left out. He just felt as if he had not a single inkling as to what they were talking about.

"Louuuuuu, what shall we do today? I'm bored!" Harry whined, and Louis looked at him, amused. “Alright, I’ll say bye to Zayn because my cheeky curly-haired friend is bored.”

11:16AM Louis says:
I have to go, Zayn, Harry says he’s bored. I’ll talk to you soon! :)

Without waiting for a reply, Louis logged out. “Where to?” Harry asked, because he honestly had to idea where to go. London was pretty boring.

 "Aren't you the Londoner? I'm the tourist, you're supposed to take me out and stuff!" Louis chuckled. "Right, you're the tourist. How could I forget the 'I <3 London' shirt you wore yesterday?" 

"Indeed, so you, my personal tour guide, bring this London-loving tourist somewhere good."

~*~ 
An hour later, they found themselves strolling aimlessly around London's city centre, surrounded by shops and bridges and towers. Honestly, Harry wasn't really sure of what to do. He wasn't interested in all those bridges or war monuments and whatnot, and neither was he interested in art museums. 

"Harry, lets visit Buckingham palace!" Louis exclaimed. How could one come to London without visiting the palace that Queen Elizabeth II lived in? Louis still considered himself British, for some strange reason, and he still felt patriotic towards this place and to the Queen.

"What. You're serious?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, well I don't see why not," Louis argued, shooting Harry an indignant glare. How was Harry to say no? 

"Okay fine, we'll go to the Palace, your highness," Harry raised his hands in mock surrender.

"That's more like it, peasant,” Louis chuckled.

So that was how the two of them ended up at Buckingham Palace, paying for an audio tour. The tour brought them all around the Palace; all nineteen State Rooms, one of which was the Picture Gallery. 

The Picture Gallery had some of the greatest paintings in the Royal Collection on display, and the commentary provided them with a lively guide of each painting. But Harry didn’t understand a single thing; he just couldn’t get what was so beautiful about any piece of art there. He didn’t even know that those artists’ names mentioned belonged to artists. When they said “Rembrandt”, the first thing he thought of was The Rembrandts, the band, and not an artist.

Sure, he could tell that the pictures were really well-drawn, but that was only because he knew he couldn’t ever draw anything like that. So Harry just ended up staring at the paintings and getting through the tour really quickly since he only saw how well the colours went together. 

But for Louis, Harry could see that he was in awe of every single painting. Louis’ mouth literally became an “O” whenever he came to a new painting. He must have been able to see the story behind each work, and he must have been able to appreciate each stroke of the brush used to create the painting. 

Harry envied Louis, because he knew everything. Even if he was a literature-drama student, he knew about art, and he could appreciate such lovely things. But for Harry, he only knew about case studies and practically every single law in England; he only knew what was right and wrong. 

When they were done with the tour of the Picture Gallery, Harry couldn’t feel gladder that that segment of the tour was finally over.

“You know, I’m jealous of you.”

“Why are you jealous of me?” Louis asked, genuinely surprised. What was there about him for Harry to be jealous about?  

“It’s like you know everything there is to know about literature and drama and art. I don’t know anything about all that; all I know is how to win a case. Then it’s as if I have nothing to say to you when you’re talking about art and all that. And I just want to like, understand you, you know? That’s why I took you to the theatre and ended up falling asleep through it.” Harry admitted sheepishly. 

“Yeah but at least you’ll make big money. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with all this useless knowledge about art anyway. And we have endless topics to talk about, so you really don’t have to make yourself like art for my sake or anything you know?” Louis smiled softly, appreciative of the fact that Harry put himself all that just for him. 

“Yeah, I know, but I want to though. Let’s continue with the tour now yeah? I want to take you somewhere after this,” Harry grinned and began walking off, wanting to continue the tour. Louis didn’t want to make things awkward between them, so he didn’t comment on the use of the word “want”. But after Harry admitted that he chose to watch the Twelfth Night purely because of Louis, the latter knew that there was just a little bit of chance Harry felt the same way as he did. 

“Wait,” Louis called out, grabbing Harry’s arm to pull him back. Harry’s eyes briefly travelled to where Louis’ hand was on his arm. “If you want to, I could always teach you how to read paintings?” Louis offered. He didn’t want to make Harry’s time here useless and wasted on him. 

Even though Harry wasn’t interested in art a single bit, butall he wanted to do was accompany Louis so he agreed. “Okay.” 

“Well you see, a good piece of art must always grab your attention, and obviously it has to look pretty…” Louis began explaining, and Harry found himself getting lost. As cheesy as that sounded, it was true. There was just something about Louis that grabbed his attention, and Harry honestly just thought that Louis was gorgeous. Not just in the way he looked, but him as a person. 

Louis was so talented, and Harry was mesmerized just by the way Louis looked while he explained; the way his lips would shape the words perfectly to be enunciated. And then the curly-haired boy thought maybe Louis could make the most boring topics come alive and appeal to him, so he listened. 

“… And then you think about what the painting tells you. No, you just think about what it says to you, not what the artist was trying to say. After you get an idea of that, you look more closely at it, like observe the colours used and all that, because they could have been used to convey that message to you. Like red could mean passion or fury, and blue could convey melancholy, that kind of thing.”

Harry nodded in understanding. He was right; Louis could make the most boring things entertaining and he could make the seemingly complicated things easy. Harry actually understood how to appreciate art, and it actually made him feel like he could be in the same “league” as Louis now.

“Okay, I feel like I’m boring you. Let’s go. We’ve been on the tour for more than an hour now,” said Louis, as if sensing that Harry wasn’t listening. But he was though. 

“You weren’t boring me. I listened, and I got it. Thank you Lou.” 

“You’re welcome,” Louis replied sincerely. Harry was always welcome. 

“Now since you deprived me of lunch with this visit to the Palace, allow me to take you to the most amazing café ever, will you?” Harry stretched out his arm in the direction of the exit, and Louis chuckled.

So that was how they ended up seated in “the most amazing café” ever, with Harry ordering the café’s specialties for Louis. Both of them had little cups of Earl Grey tea, some scones, and different kinds of cakes. Then Louis decided that Harry was right; this café was amazing. 

“Wow, this place is good. The cheesecake is just delicious, my god,” Louis praised. 

“Of course it’s good! If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have taken you here.”

“Oh god, I’m in love with this cake!” Louis cried, as he speared another little piece of the cheesecake into his mouth. When the cake hit his taste buds once more, Louis made a really exaggerated blissful face. Louis had always loved cheesecake. The combination of it and Earl Grey tea was literally just gorgeous. 

“You choose cake over me? I’m shattered, Lou,” Harry clutched a hand to his chest dramatically. “But anyway, I know you’ve always loved cheesecake,” he added.

“Yeah, I can’t believe you remember.” Louis smiled and then added, “No, of course I choose you over cake! Without you I wouldn’t have been introduced to this heavenly piece of heaven!” Louis gestured to the plate in front of him before ruffling Harry’s curls, and the both of them dissolved into laughter.

Since there were still several hours to go before midnight, they went home. Louis decided to take a shower and a nap while Harry sat in his room, pondering about things. He slipped the note into his wallet, in that same compartment as the note from two years ago. If he’d written two notes with the same contents, surely it meant something right? 

When Harry had received the first note two years ago, he honestly wasn’t sure what it meant at all. But now he knew that Louis meant it literally; he meant that he loved Harry. Harry was going to try and approach that topic tonight, while they were at the Big Ben. 

Little did he know that Louis was planning to do the same. 

~*~
At forty-five past eight, Harry knocked on Louis’ door and told him to get changed. “Where are we going?” Louis asked, looking up from his phone. “You’ll see, now just get changed, Lou, I’m not a very patient person.”

Without further argument, Louis pulled on a grey jumper and some jeans. He hoped Harry was taking him out for dinner, because he most definitely was hungry. But since this wasn't his house, he didn't think walking into the kitchen and rummaging through the refrigerator was polite at all. When Louis was done, off they went, with Harry practically pulling Louis along while the latter stumbled along behind. “Where are you taking me? Are you kidnapping me?” Louis asked in mock horror. 

“Yes Your Highness, yes I am. I’m kidnapping you to heaven. You’ll love it there,” Harry grinned. 

Before Louis could ask what Harry meant, they stopped in front of an Italian restaurant. Louis remembered walking past it earlier in the day. It was just a block away from Harry’s home. “Oh god, are you out to make me fatter than I already am, Harry Styles?! I love Italian food!” 

“You’re not fat, Lou! You’re just chubby!” Harry chuckled, and Louis’ eyes widened in shock. Was he really that fat? “Okay okay, I’m just kidding!” Harry grabbed Louis’ hand and pulled him into the warm and cozy restaurant. 

After minutes of staring at the menu, Louis decided to go with a simple aglio olio while Harry went with beef lasagna. 

“Do you want some of my lasagna? It’s goooooood,” Harry winked as he cut a slice of it and put it into Louis’ plate. Since they were children, their parents already told them that sharing food was unhygienic and rude, but they never cared. “Why can’t I share my food with Louis? We’re best friends!” Harry had asked, confused, and Louis would exclaim “Yeah! Why can’t he, mum?” And so they’d just get their way. 

“And now you, can have some of my pasta!” Louis twirled a forkful of his pasta onto Harry’s plate. So that was how they ate, passing their food to the other and the other back to him. 

“Would you like more cake, Lou?” 

Louis gasped. “No! Your sinister plan of making me fat will not work! I won’t let you get your way!” He cried, louder than usual, before suddenly returning back to his normal volume, as if he’d had a moment of split personality. “I think I might have some tea though. Tea is slimming,” Louis wiggled his eyebrows, and Harry chuckled. “Okay.” 

When they were done with their meal, it was already half past ten. “Let’s make our way to the city centre now, shall we? We need to get good spots to see the fireworks!” Harry said excitedly, grinning. The number of times he grinned when he was around Louis was to be the death of him.

“Harry, darling,” Louis started as he swung his arm around Harry’s shoulder. “The fireworks are above our head. Not on the buildings. We’ll see it no matter where we are,” Louis teased, and the dimpled grin became a pout.

“Well fine then! Don’t blame me if you don’t see the fireworks! They’re pretty amazing!” Harry huffed indignantly, and Louis laughed. Harry was such a child sometimes, and the blue-eyed boy briefly wondered how someone like that could possibly be a lawyer; he just couldn’t see Harry in court. But he supposed that was good, since it meant that Harry wouldn’t be all stuck up and mean. 

“Okay fine, we’ll go now. I’ll freeze my toes off just so you can have a good view of the fireworks, Styles, just for you.” 

At that moment, Harry could’ve sworn his stomach did a swoop. Just for him? And then he mentally chided himself. Did he really just have a mini heart attack because of Louis’ words? You’re such a teenage girl, Harry. 

“Harry? Why are you all dazed all of a sudden? Are you alright?” Louis asked, concern evident in his tone. “Y-yeah, ‘m fine,” Harry croaked, hoping he sounded convincing. He wasn’t sure he was fine at all, not after that. And then he made up his mind, he really was going to take that chance later and tell Louis how he really felt. 

~*~