Play Pretend, Find a Friend? (Larry Stylinson)

9

IX.

They ended up at the corner shop of a small, unnamed town, padding through the aisles under the fluorescent lights without a clear goal in mind. The Halloween decorations and costumes were out, which meant they spent at least twenty minutes trying on ridiculous masks and wigs and holding a mini fashion show. Harry was wrapped up in a rainbow feather boa with a sparkly purple children's cowboy on his hat by the time they moved onto the candy aisle. Louis was wearing two pairs of heart-shaped sunglasses and a black cape.

"I'm deadass gonna buy this scarf."

"Oh, absolutely, you'd be absolutely crazy not to," Louis drawled, fluttering his hand in the air and readjusting one of his pairs of glasses.

A heated debate about the best Halloween candy took place in the next aisle. Louis chucked a full bag of individually wrapped KitKats at Harry and was satisfied when it smacked him in the chest. Harry retaliated by whacking him with a stray Twizzlers. They finally settled on Hershey's and picked up the seasonal bag of kisses.

Louis was quickly coming to the realization that hanging out with Harry was fun. He was laid back and lowkey, but he also always had something weird and funny to say, and nearly everything that came out of his mouth made Louis laugh. It also helped that Harry cackled at Louis' jokes like they were the funniest things in the world, sometimes literally laughing so loud that Louis felt the need to cover his mouth with the palm of his hand and shush him through giggles. They were both being so disruptive.

The shopkeeper glared at them as Harry attempted to do a cartwheel by the school supplies display. Louis had no idea how they'd even gotten here in the first place, but it might've had something to do with Louis doubting Harry's abilities to complete a successful cartwheel.

"Oh my god, stop, stop," Louis hissed, tugging on Harry's arm and stifling his laughter as best as he could. "You're gonna get us kicked out."

"Then don't doubt my abilities."

"You have no abilities. Your attempt at a cartwheel was just you flopping on the ground."

"Shut up, it was good, I should be a gymnast."

"I mean, sure, if that's what you want."

They picked up a bottle of wine from the feeble array of choices. Louis was more of a beer person, but Harry was really insistent about this one brand, so he went with it. They were walking past the makeup section to get to the check-out when Louis noticed Harry's eyes lingering.

"What is it?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing." Harry quickly looked away, but Louis could recognize that longing gaze anywhere. He looked in the direction where Harry had been staring and his eyes landed on the wall of nail polish.

"Oh," he said, a little surprised. We can look, if you want, he wanted to offer, but knew it probably wouldn't go very well. So he just grabbed Harry by the elbow and dragged him over there, not giving him a choice to chicken out.

"Louis, stop-"

Louis dropped his arm and gave him a look before meaningfully shifting his gaze to the display. There were bottles of nail polish in every color of the rainbow, some sparkly or metallic, some shimmery, some normal. He'd been makeup shopping with his sisters before, so this wasn't too foreign, and besides, nail polish was easy; all you had to do was select a color that pleased you.

"Come on," he encouraged gently. "Pick something out. How about this one?"

"Louis," Harry whined, his eyes flitting to the display, then to the cherry red bottle in his hand, then decidedly in the other direction, settling there.