Brave Love (Larry Stylinson)

six

Despite the free dessert, Louis was still hungry after dinner. The food was good but the portion sizes were so small. He considered bringing it up with Harry but didn't want to upset him; going to that specific restaurant was Harry's idea after all.

"Where to next?" Louis wondered, once they were back outside in the cold.

"Um, there's a play at the state theater? It's just down the street."

"Oh?" Louis hadn't been to the theater in a long time. He used to go sometimes with his mom when he was younger but hadn't been since middle school, probably.

"Yeah. I won tickets from a raffle at work. I dunno what it's called or anything, but I looked it up and it seemed cool I think."

Louis shrugged and folded his arms over his chest, wishing he had brought a jacket with him. It was the middle of February and he wasn't even wearing layers.

He looked out, down the street at all the people milling about like normal. Aside from the storefront decorations, the only indication that it was Valentine's Day was they there were more couples out than usual, holding hands, or hugging, or carrying bouquets of roses. For once Louis was one of them. Kind of. At least outwardly, externally. It was a weird feeling.

He looked back at Harry who was biting his thumbnail. He always did that when he was feeling anxious—Louis knew this because he was Harry's best friend and best friends knew these things about each other.

Why would he be anxious? Maybe because he thought Louis was going to reject his idea and ditch him. Or say he had his fun and all but he was tired and wanted to go home. Which would then leave Harry here, standing in the middle of the city, on Valentine's Day, looking lost even though he lived here practically his whole life.

Louis almost laughed. The idea of denying Harry anything was preposterous; it had never even crossed his mind to give up this game of following him along on all the date activities he planned for David.

He reached out and grabbed Harry by the wrist to pull his thumb away from his teeth. He secured the stuffed animal under Harry's arm and then grabbed his other hand too and held them together, encompassing them with his own. Harry's hands were cold and so were Louis', but they warmed up together. He rubbed his thumbs back and forth absentmindedly, and in that moment a sense of understanding surrounded them.

Louis squeezed Harry's hands before dropping them, confident know that he was too distracted to go back to biting his nails. He shrugged again and gestured forward. "Lead the way."

The next hour was a rush of getting to the venue, finding their seats, and realizing the play was in French. Neither of them spoke a word of French beyond bonjour .

At first, Louis diligently tried to figure out what was going on. He presumed the plot would be difficult to follow even if he understood the language, which he didn't. At the half-hour mark he gave up all hope and just pretended to know what was happening. He snuck secretive glances at Harry's face to see if he was just as confused, but Harry was watching the actors and it seemed like he was at least hanging on to some semblance of understanding.

Then, after an hour of Louis having absolutely no idea what was happening, Harry leaned over so close his breath tickled his ear and whispered, "What the fuck is going on?"

A giggle escaped Louis before he could filter out the noise and a few people in the row in front of them turned around in their seats just to glare at him. Snobs, all of them. Louis was just about to make a snarky comment when Harry beat him to it.

"Oh, come off it. Like you have any idea what's happening."

Louis clamped his hand hard over his mouth to keep himself from bursting into shocked laughter. He felt Harry shift beside him, still tense from the confrontation.

They watched the rest of the next act. When the audience applauded, Harry grabbed Louis' hand and pulled him down the aisle, both of them clambering over the knees of the other audience members who were baffled by their haste. He had the teddy bear hooked under his arm still so it was quite the sight. It wasn't until they were finally to the lobby of the playhouse that Louis finally let himself laugh unbridledly.

Harry stood there for a second, staring at Louis before he burst out into laughter too.

"God, that was fucking awful."

"It was hilarious," Louis cried, quite literally, wiping away the wetness from the corner of his eyes with his thumbs. "I can't believe you did that."

It was true: Harry wasn't the kind of person to leave halfway through a performance, nor was he likely to tell off a couple of rude strangers. Louis was impressed, and strangely proud of him.

"Those people were awful. And so was that play!"

His indignance made Louis laugh even harder, doubled over since his ribs were sore and his breathing was all out of whack. "Shut up," Harry huffed, throwing his hands up, but then he made eye contact with Louis and started chuckling too.

"Sorry, sorry-" Louis gasped. "It's just- it's so-"

He rolled his eyes and shook his head, hugging the stuffed animal to his chest and walking away. As if he would leave Louis here.

Louis ran to catch up and set his hand on Harry's arm, apologetic but mirthful. "I'm sorry all your plans went to shit."

"They didn't go to- Okay, fine, maybe they did. Whatever."

"Do you wanna go home?"

Harry shrugged and looked down at the bear in his arms, its soft fur and cute face.

And- okay. Louis felt a little bad because Harry put all this effort into planning an elaborate romantic day, and it didn't work out at all. Not only did he find out his boyfriend was literally married , but all the activities he planned went poorly, and would've gone poorly no matter who he was with.

"Hey." Louis stopped him with a hand on his bicep, the silky material of Harry's blouse beneath the light graze of his fingers. "The night's still young. Like, we could do something else, if you want."

He turned his face away and didn't say anything, a little bit stroppy and pouting. Okay, so Harry could be a bit moody when he was upset. Louis knew that. He also knew how to deal with it.

"Okay, listen. Let's go back home and change into comfy clothes. Then we'll do something fun."

"Like what?"

Louis already had a few ideas. He rocked back on his heels, a grin overtaking his features. Harry was adorable always, but right now especially, with his shimmery pink shirt and his dark curls which he tucked behind his ears to keep the wind from blowing them into his face. Only to some success. His cheeks were red in the wind and his eyes were sharp despite his overall sulkiness.

"It'd ruin the surprise if I told you, don't you think?"

Harry squinted at him. Louis linked their arms and tugged him in the direction of their home.

♡