Young & Beautiful

Louis smiles at that and nods, genuinely surprised. Wasn’t Zayn supposed to be this terrifying
force of beauty and power? For the most part he seems like a gentle soul, mild mannered and
observant. He also has a brain.
Then again, Louis still doesn’t really know the boy at all.
But, no matter, because Louis currently has far more pressing issues at hand.
“Fuck, he’s coming over,” Louis breathes, watching as Harry spots them and begins sauntering
forward, falcon in tow. A sentence Louis had never thought he would say in his life.
“Louis Tomlinson,” a deep, husky voice purrs, and the words spread over the trio like molasses,
catching under Louis’ nails and clogging his ears. “Hi,” he greets cheekily, dragging out the word
in lilting tones. All the while as the beady eyes of the falcon peer nervously into Louis’ soul.
“Hello,” Louis greets distastefully, and gives the bird a once over.
“Lads,” Harry nods to Liam and Zayn, before returning his cutting stare back to Louis, his fake,
toothy grin in place. “And how are you this afternoon?”
“You know what, I would be a lot better if you didn’t have an endangered species sat on your
arm.”
“They’re not endangered anymore. His species is well on its way to recovery.”
“Even so, you’ve still got a fucking bird sitting on you.”
“Cleopatrick.”
“Sorry?”
“His name is Cleopatrick,” Harry clarifies, and his grin is so wide and goofy, Louis could almost
believe it to be genuine if it weren’t for the emptiness in his gaze.
“Cleopatrick? Are you serious?” Louis deadpans, staring him--and Cleo-fucking-patrick--straight
in the eye.
“He’s thought of worse names,” Zayn says mildly with a bemused smile, hand on Liam’s back.
“He named a cactus ‘Chlamydia’ one time,” Liam explains, and Harry’s grin widens, teeth
glinting under the rays of sunlight streaming through the skylights.
“It’s a beautiful name,” he says softly, turning to stroke Cleopatrick on the head. Its wide, black
eyes blink momentarily in contentment, apparently accustomed to human touch, and it almost
actually looks to be enjoying the caress.
Even so, it’s a fucked up situation, so Louis just glares. “It’s still a ridiculous name.”
“Really? I quite like it,” Harry says absentmindedly, still stroking the bird. And fuck, does it take
him all day to carry on a full conversation? Each word is said so painfully slow, Louis could run
verbal laps around the git. “A girl over there named him.”
“So you just agreed straight away and named it that? You couldn’t have taken any more
suggestions?”
Liam giggles, and Zayn smirks.