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Something Like This

Summary:

After leaving his boyfriend, Louis is a little sore emotionally and is ready for a fresh start in a new city. When a coworker tells him about a couple friends looking for a new flatmate, he decides to go for it. Little does he know, that one of his new flatmates is the gorgeous, captivating guy he met at a party a few weeks ago. A New Girl/Grey’s Anatomy/Relief Next To Me inspired AU.

Harry bit his lip. “Um, I didn’t mention us meeting to Niall, and now that you’re here–”

“Pretend we just met?” Louis finished.

“Yeah,” Harry gave him a half-hearted smile. “If we’re going to be flatmates, it’s probably best to… just forget it, I guess? Have a ‘no dating flatmates’ rule?”

“Yeah,” Louis echoed. “I mean, you seem great, but–”

“It would get so messy–”

“Exactly,” Louis pointed at him in agreement. “Just friends?”

“Absolutely.”

“Great.”

Louis sighed in relief. At least that was settled. They were both in agreement: Friends only. Piece of cake.

Notes:

Hello! Welcome to my first fic in years and the first one I've actually finished! Last July (2021) I started reading Larry fics simply because I needed something new and it seemed like a fandom I could read in with no previous context and I was bored with what I usually read. Then I started wondering, why are all the 1D fics always Harry/Louis? You can imagine the rabbit how that search took me on. I was inspired by all the fantastic writing in this fandom, and here we are 11 months and about 100k words later! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Please let me know what you think!

I'll post on a semi-regular schedule, but of course I'm posting this first chapter before going out of town for a few days...

Chapter 1: Prologue - Night Changes

Chapter Text

Louis lost sight of Ed nearly the moment they walked into the party.

It was the type of house party he thought only existed in movies. Music, lights, people everywhere. There was even an office converted into a karaoke room. Ed barely had a chance to introduce Louis to anyone before he was whisked away by drunk friends.

At first it’d been fine. Louis didn’t know anyone else there, but he was pretty good at the whole ‘small talk at parties’ thing. Some might even go as far to say he could be right charismatic when he wanted to be. Not to mention, drunk people loved making friends with the guy that looked totally lost.

So he wasn’t surprised that the moment he found his way to where all the drinks were in the backyard, he’d been simultaneously adopted by a group of girls and dragged onto the dance floor. Later, he talked to a bunch of the people he immediately forgot the name of, and he even ran into another friend from work, Perrie, who introduced him to some of her friends. Eventually though, he was tired of the somewhat superficial conversation.

The joys of trying to make new friends outside of work as an adult.

It sucked.

Starting over in a new city was exhausting, even if he did have Ed and Lottie to help him out. Ed was doing a pretty shit job at the moment though; he still hadn’t seen his friend all night. He was sure Ed would be in the karaoke room, but the man singing was a brunette with a bit of an Irish accent coming through the song.

By the time Louis found his way to the kitchen for a glass of water, he was pretty fed up with Ed for ditching him and was considering skipping the drink and just leaving.

That was, until he saw the most beautiful man he’d ever seen sitting on the counter.

The man looked effortlessly cool, leaning his back against the cabinets and sipping a beer by himself. Louis observed him in a buzzed daze. He had long legs in tight skinny jeans, an aggressively unbuttoned paisley patterned shirt in bottle green that revealed the corners of tattoos hidden on his chest, rings on every finger, tattoos going up his arm disappearing under the rolled sleeve of his shirt… Then Louis’ eyes made it to his face where curly brown hair that just barely brushed the tops of his shoulders framed a sharp jawline and clear green eyes that had definitely caught Louis looking.

“Hi,” the man said with a smirk. His voice was soft, a little husky. “Are you alright?”

Louis blinked and immediately looked away from the man’s jawline so that he could attempt a coherent thought. The man looked like a rock-star Disney prince. “Yeah,” he said in a hopefully casual way. “Just wanted a breather.”

The curly haired man bobbed his head in agreement, “Me too. Want to join me?” He patted the space on the counter next to him.

“You sure? I might not be the best company,” Louis took a step forward to give him an out. “I’m in a shit mood.”

“I’m sure you’ll be perfect company,” the man graced Louis with a smile that revealed dimples in both of his cheeks. Holy fuck.

Louis was an absolute goner.

Well, how could he turn down a two-dimple smile from a beautiful man? He was definitely sitting on that countertop.

“What are your thoughts on time travel?” Curly asked the moment Louis was up on the counter.

It was not even close to anything Louis thought he would ask, but he appreciated that it was more interesting than more small talk about what they did for a living. “Sounds cool in theory, but I probably wouldn’t live long in most other time periods with all the diseases and stuff. There’s something to be said for modern medicine.”

“Hmm, practical answer,” curly nodded. “I appreciated that.”

“Maybe sometimes too practical,” Louis gave him a wry smile that he was sure didn’t meet his eyes.

“Oh?” curly tilted his head, giving Louis his undivided attention.

Louis shrugged, “Not much of a risk taker, I guess. I’m a bit boring.”

He looked at Louis carefully before slowly shaking his head, “Don’t seem boring to me.”

“You’ve known me for all of five minutes,” Louis laughed with a hint of disbelief.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m good at reading people.”

“Like a psychic or like Sherlock Holms?”

The dimples appeared as the man grinned widely, “I’m definitely not a psychic, but I guess I am good at observing and figuring out what’s unsaid.”

“What can you tell about me, then?” Louis couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hmm,” he squinted his eyes and tapped his chin dramatically. “Well, you answered my weird question right away without laughing or asking why. So I think you’re probably trusting and giving.”

Louis titled his head to take in the man relaxed next to him. “I don’t think you’re weird. I think you’re interesting.”

Louis’ heart fluttered when his comment was rewarded with another bright dimpled grin. “And that tells me you’re sweet,” his smile faded a bit, “but uncomfortable with receiving compliments. It makes me wonder if someone hurt your trust along the way. Give me your hand.”

Louis did without question, wanting to know what the captivating man wanted his hand for. He took Louis hand in both of his, turning his palm to face up. Louis shivered at the contrast between his warm hands and the cold metal of the rings on his long fingers. He also noticed for the first time that his thumb nails were painted black. Then, he used one of his hands to delicately trace along the lines of his palm. “Your heart line is very deep. That means you care deeply, so I was right.”

Louis felt himself blush; this guy was spot on with him not knowing how to take a compliment. “So you’re not a psychic, but you do palm reading?” Louis asked in response.

“Not really, I just read a book about it once and wanted to hold your hand.” The curly haired man bit his lip, clearly hiding a smile, and looked down to hide a blush that was forming on his cheeks.

Louis was sure his blush was crimson at that point. “Oh,” he breathed. Everything about this man was throwing him off balance. It had been awhile since he was interested in a guy. Or had a guy interested in him. Dating hadn’t been on his radar at all since he moved to Lamsted to start over a few months ago. He cleared his throat, “What are your thoughts on time travel? You never said.”

It was deflecting a bit, he could admit, but he also didn’t take his hand back. That had to count for something.

“I think the Doctor Who way would be the most fun.”

Louis considered, “Also seems to have the least amount of consequences. No stepping on a butterfly and turning the human race into fish people.”

“There you go talking practical to me again,” curly teased. “And with references to literature.”

“Impressed? Or bored?”

“Definitely impressed,” he said seriously. “I maintain that you could never be boring.”

Louis decided to not bring up that that wasn’t what his ex-boyfriend had said. Instead he changed the subject, again, “If you could have a super power, what would it be?”

That question got him the biggest dimpled smile yet. “I always thought being able to control the weather like Storm in the X-Men would be really cool. Especially because she can use it to fly too. Though Warren’s wings would be lovely too. Or Jubilee’s energy fireworks.”

Louis couldn’t help the giggle that burst from his lips. This man that looked so sexy and cool when Louis first saw him, and still did, was also a nerd for Doctor Who and the X-Men comics. If that wasn’t the most endearing combination, Louis wasn’t sure what was.

“What?” curly said, sounding a little cautious all of a sudden.

“It’s just that, if my answers tell you so much about me, I think yours say just as much about you.”

He seemed to relax again, eyes bright. “Oh? Tell me.”

“You’re…” Louis searched for the right word. “Vibrant. I was going to say something like teleportation or super speed, the basics. Your responses are much more interesting.”

From the look he was getting, Louis was pretty sure he chose the right word. The man shifted on the counter so that he was fully sitting sideways, one leg dangling down and the other bent up under him, head resting on the cabinet. He still hadn’t let go of Louis’ hand.

“I’m Harry,” he said softly.

“Louis,” he grinned.

“Well Louis, what is on your travel bucket list?”

Before he could answer, his phone started vibrating in his pocket. “Hold that thought,” he said, fishing the phone out. It was his sister Fizzy, he frowned. “Hello? Fiz?” He said into the phone, eyes still on Harry who seemed to have noticed his frown and looked concerned.

“Lou?” Was all he could make out before it sounded like she was trying to talk through crying.

He sat up straighter as if that would help, “Fiz, what’s wrong? Why are you crying? I can’t understand you. Are you hurt?”

Harry looked as alarmed as he felt.

Finally, Fizzy calmed down enough to understand. “Jason broke up with me,” she wailed.

Louis sighed in relief, he hated that little shit. “I’m so sorry Fiz.”

“I don’t understand? He said he loved me!”

“I know sweetie,” he soothed. “Is mum home?”

“No, she and Dan are on a date night. The little ones are at their grandparents’ and Daisy and Phoebe are at a sleepover party. It’s just me.”

Louis felt gutted by how sad she sounded. He closed his eyes for a moment trying to think. “I’m at a party right now Fiz, can I call you back in about an hour once I’m home?”

“Yeah, okay,” her voice was thick with tears.

“Get that fancy bubble bath mum keeps under the sink and take a bath, okay? Maybe with some ice cream if there is any. I know mum keeps some behind the frozen vegetables.”

She agreed and they hung up. Louis rubbed his hands over his face, not sure when he had taken his hand back from Harry. Oh, Harry.

He looked at the lovely man who hadn’t stopped watching him. “My little sister, Fizzy,” he explained. “She’s sixteen. Apparently her boyfriend just broke up with her. Her first one.”

“Ah,” Harry winced empathetically. “That hurts. It’s sweet that you’re the one she wanted to talk to though.”

“It might be because she knows I’m normally free to talk,” Louis pursed his lips. “I’m boring, remember?”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Sure.”

“I have to go though, I told her I’d call her to talk and I don’t live particularly close.” He decided to leave out that he lived with another of his sisters. He slid off the counter, Harry mirroring his actions.

“Of course,” Harry said. “Your sister needs you.”

“Can I have your number?” Louis blurted out suddenly. It was not smooth. Not at all. Luckily, Harry didn’t seem to mind.

“Give me your phone.”

He was smiling softly as he entered his number into Louis’ phone. When he passed it back, Louis saw he named himself “Harry ⏰⛈🌈⭐️,” which made him smile.

“I look forward to hearing from you, Louis,” he said almost shyly.

“Me too.”

At that moment, Louis felt lighter than he had in months.

***

Louis was an idiot. A specific kind of idiot. The kind of idiot that didn’t back up his phone automatically so when it crashed before he could call Harry, he lost Harry’s phone number.

Fuck.

He was at the Apple store trying to get everything fixed, but the kid helping him out said anything that wasn’t on the backup was gone.

The universe was obviously telling him that he and Harry weren’t meant to be.