me, him, and the moon ☾ l.s.

nine - confessions

Louis kept his promise and stayed with Harry until he woke up, cradling the younger boy gently in his arms. But as soon as Harry tried to bring up what had happened, the older boy had quickly changed the subject, leaving Harry even more confused and dejected than before.

If that was even possible, because he had realistically spent the past four years in a constant state of confusion when it came to his feelings for Louis and Louis's feelings for him.

For the next few days, they didn't even mention the kiss. In fact, Louis avoided Harry like the plague, barely speaking to him even when they sat with all of their friends at dinner. By the end of the week, Harry thought his head might explode -- because honestly, as he kept reminding himself, Louis was the one who kissed him, not the other way around. The older boy had no room to act upset with him for something that he initiated.

Harry remained deep in thought at work that afternoon -- after just the first hour of his shift, he had already ruined two batches of Niall's newest medicine by combining the ingredients in the wrong order and accidentally chopping the plants he was supposed to grind. As hard as he tried, thoughts of Louis consumed his mind, and he just couldn't forget those beautiful blue eyes.

"I still can't believe he kissed you," Liam commented casually from where he sat lounging in a chair across the room, tossing a handheld ball up and down to pass the time. Harry groaned loudly, cursing Liam for his annoying ability to always know exactly what he was thinking.

Niall grinned, glancing smugly at Harry as he continued stirring his mixture. "I can."

"We are not talking about this again," Harry stated firmly, keeping his attention fully focused on preparing the remaining ingredients correctly this time.

"Yes, we are," Niall shot back. "Because he's acting like a complete asshole."

"Yeah, I've noticed," Harry grumbled. "If he's just going to be a dick to me, why'd he kiss me?"

"It's not just you!" Liam pointed out. "He nearly ripped Zayn's arm off during training yesterday, and he barely had an ounce of regret about it."

"Well, that's none of my business. Maybe he should just learn to control his fucking emotions."

"Oh, give him a break. It's hard for alphas to show any emotion without feeling weak, or out of control. And you've seen what happens when Louis loses control."

"Big, scary alpha," Niall teased, laughing as Liam rolled his eyes. "Honestly, I think I could take him. You all are just wimps."

"Oh, as if."

"Afternoon, lads!" Zayn's voice suddenly filled the small room. The door banged against the wall as he pushed it open, making Harry jump in surprise. The dark-haired boy didn't seem to notice as he moved across the room to sit down beside Liam, Louis trailing along behind him.

"Could you be any louder?" Niall exclaimed, wrinkling his nose in disapproval. He peered down at his mixture, trying to see if he needed to move the pot away from the flames. "This is a delicate operation, in case you weren't aware."

Zayn just shrugged. "As long as you can stitch me up if Louis here tries to rip me to pieces again tomorrow, I don't particularly care how you do it."

The conversation quieted for a moment as all four boys waited for Louis's sassy retort. To their surprise, the older boy kept his mouth shut. Silence was far from Louis's normal temperament, but no one particularly wanted to call him out for it.

Or to ask him what was wrong, because they all already knew.

"Oi! Not so small," Niall scolded Harry gently, tapping the edge of his knife against his cutting board. "The pieces should be the size of your fingernail."