Young & Beautiful

meeting Liam’s eyes with a firm grin on his face. “My bad if I was displaying bad manners,
Payne. But you know the old saying—love the one you’re with?” He smirks, finishing the rest of
the wine with a flourish and a wink, and that alone is enough to satisfy Liam, sending him into
delighted laughter and easing his face back into pleasant expectance.
“We’ve missed you,” Liam smiles brightly, and beside him Zayn nods, though he’s still observing
in that unnerving way. Which simply will not do. It’s the first day of term. Louis is not about to
get stressed out. Especially by his mates.
So instead, he turns around to face Harry again as soon as Liam refocuses his attention on Zayn,
clasping his hand and murmuring sweet questions, causing Zayn’s eyes to find a better home.
Thank fuck.
Somehow, Harry seems to be expecting Louis, merely raising an eyebrow the second he spins to
look at him, their shoulders bumping, their chairs clustered closely—probably too closely, how did
that happen?—together. He’s smirking, but amiably, and gazing down at Louis in a manner that
suggests unlimited patience and amusement, which….?
Or is that fondness? It’s either patience or amusement or fondness.
“Good holiday?” Louis asks him, his smile breathy.
Harry nods, that alien warmth pooling in his eyes and casting away any shadow or emptiness that
Louis had once associated so fiercely with him.
“I’d say so. It treated me as well as I deserve.”
“So, wonderfully then?” Louis finds himself asking, just on this side of coy and this other side of
shy, and Harry’s eyes imperceptibly widen as he stares at Louis.
“I don’t deserve ‘wonderful,’ Louis,” he says quietly, but his eyes leak a pleased sort of affection
and Louis can tell that he’s touched, if a bit guarded.
“I think you do,” is what Louis says back.
And then it feels silent again.
“So tonight!” Niall suddenly booms, straightening in his chair and taking his feet off of the table.
He’s grinning, phone in hand, and his cheeks are rosy red and blotchy, matching his lips which
match the wine. “Anybody in the mood for a party tonight?”
“Where at?” Zayn immediately asks.
Niall grins wickedly.
“Here, of course.”
Zayn returns the exact same smile.
“I’m in.”
“Excellent!” Liam exclaims happily, “So am I!” He turns to Louis and Harry, wide eyed and
beaming. “And you?”
Louis glances at Harry whose already nodding.
“A little party never killed nobody,” Harry smiles pleasantly before bringing a teacup to his lips