Brave Love (Larry Stylinson)

seven

"Lou..."

"Just trust me."

Harry stood there, his arms hanging limp at his sides. He was still wearing the pink blouse, but his dress pants had been traded for a pair of joggers with reluctance. He was protesting Louis' quest to take him on an adventure. Supposedly he just wanted to stay home and go to sleep.

"I'm not letting you wallow here all alone, because I'm going out whether you like it or not. You had your half of the day to follow your schedule, and now it's my turn, yeah? I promise, I promise it'll be fun."

He was skeptical, obviously. Very skeptical. As someone who always lived by plans and schedules and rules, everything meticulously recorded in his two-year planner using colorful pens, it was difficult for him to let go. Louis knew this. Louis was trying to fix this.

"C'mon, H. When've I ever let you down?"

Harry shrugged in defeat, unable to come up with an occasion. He looked silly with the conglomeration of clothes, half comfortable and half dressy. It was unfairly adorable.

Louis tried to control his smugness. "That's right. It's gonna be okay. We're gonna have fun. Come on."

Harry got dressed the rest of the way with utter reluctance. There was no way Louis was going to let him mope about and feel sorry for himself the rest of the day. They'd had fun so far and there was no reason for them to go their separate ways, as much as was possible when they lived in the same apartment and their bedrooms were right next to each other.

So Louis tugged him along on his Valentine's Day adventure which was really just something he was making up as he went along. Harry didn't need to know that. In fact, if he knew that, he would've flipped out and run back home.

He still carried the bear with him which made Louis smile; it was just ridiculous. Harry was too cute, too lovable. Sometimes being around him made it hard to breathe.

"Valentine's Day is so overrated," Louis mused as he dragged Harry around the city, pulling him by the wrist. He was lying, partly at least. Of course he believed it to be one of the most commercialized, not real holidays of the modern world, but that didn't mean he failed to understand why Harry valued it so much. There was something so idealistic and even utopian about an entire day dedicated to romantic love.

Not that romantic love was the only kind of love that could be celebrated on Valentine's Day, anyway. When Louis was younger, he would come home from school on February 14th and his mom would greet him with a small gift bag full of chocolates and candy hearts. There was always a card tucked in the bag too, with ridiculous frills and hearts all over it as the inside reaffirmed her love for her son.

"I disagree," Harry grumbled, pulling Louis back to reality. "Just because you've never..." He trailed off, seeming to catch himself before saying something rude.

Louis wasn't going to let it slide. He felt like Harry had a fair amount of misconceptions about him, even though they'd been friends for years and they knew each other better than anyone else on earth.

"Just because I've never what, Harold?"

"You just- Like. I mean. A real relationship?"

Louis felt indignant and he would've liked to deny it but it was true. He hadn't been in a real relationship since high school, and high school relationships hardly counted as real.

"I like being single," Louis announced, pulling Harry down the sidewalk. They were heading in the direction of Louis' favorite part of town. It was cold and the wind was biting but they would be inside soon enough.

"Do you actually?" The questions wasn't hostile; it was curious.

"Yeah, for the most part. It's fun, it's liberating, there's never any stress or pressure."

"But doesn't it... I mean, don't you ever feel lonely?"

"Not really, no." It was a lie but he didn't feel like having this conversation while walking in a crowded part of town. It was much more of a late night conversation, preferably after consuming some sort of alcohol. It was not a sober conversation.

Besides, the loneliness he felt in his life had less to do with the fact that he was never in a serious relationship and more to do with the fact that the one person he really wanted was completely oblivious to Louis' near constant torment. It was fine; everything was fine.

"Here, look."

Harry squinted at the bright neon sign decorated with colorful cartoon characters.

They finally arrived at the destination Louis had been thinking about. None of this was planned, but now that there were in a good part of town full of things that could entertain them this evening, he knew for certain that they were going to have a lot of fun.

♡