Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Part One:

Harry keeps an eye on the clock in the corner of his screen as he types, frowning when he realizes it’s a whole minute faster than the giant clock hanging on the wall several yards away. Regardless of which clock he’s going by, he’s got around five minutes left to end this thing and finally send it off. That’s plenty of time.

‘As previously stated, your facilities are inadequate and so are all your excuses. Why don’t you stop with the bullshit and actually listen to what millions of people are telling you?’

He sits back to admire the closing lines of the letter he’s been working on for a couple of days now, feeling like something is still missing from it.

Take two, then.  

‘And so, to conclude, SeaWorld are a bunch of greedy, selfish, lowly hypocrites. How can you claim to love your animals when you continue ripping them away from their homes and families like FUCKING IDIOTS who – ‘

Okay, too much. They’re never going to listen if he comes at them with anger. Granted, they don’t listen whenever Harry comes at them with reason, logic, or basic human morality either, but kind words and compassion can still go a long way. Yelling isn’t going to help anyone, least of all the whales they keep locked up like prisoners. And plus, he swore again. Fuck.

With a heavy sigh, Harry deletes his tirade for a second time and stares at his laptop until more calm and diplomatic words come to him.

‘While traditions at your park which have spanned nearly forty years may seem hard to abandon, they are much more difficult on the animals forced by the hands of SeaWorld to live their lives in captivity. I again invite you to reconsider calf Mai’s placement in your facilities and also her immediate release into a sea sanctuary. – Harry Styles’

“Much better,” he grins to himself, eyes flicking up to the person curiously poking his head into Harry’s work cubicle.  

“What’s much better?” Liam asks.

“My newest letter to Satan’s employees,” Harry jokes as he quickly proofreads his email before proudly hitting send. His best friend looks proud of him too as he assures Harry that this letter will be the one that finally gets their attention, though his dark caramel eyes are slightly less enthusiastic after a quick glance at the clock across their office and past a dozen other cubicles which could only mean one thing. “Excited for another one of our fun team meetings?” Harry teases.

“Oh, thrilled,” he mutters back.

Harry follows the path Liam’s gaze takes across their office to the small group of Alphas chatting around their usual cubicle. They’re obnoxious as hell whenever they’re all grouped together in their own little self-proclaimed club like that, though they are harmless; relatively anyway. Their egos often get so big that they seem to think their work here at The Green Switch Project counts more than everyone else’s effort to make the planet a cleaner, better place. As far as Harry’s aware, this assumption is based on the principle of their rank alone, which, in Harry’s opinion of course, is complete and utter bullshit.

As an Omega himself, perhaps Harry should be more intimidated by Alphas as nature would have it, but that’s never been the case. It’s also never been the case with Liam who at times looks quite intimidating and rugged behind all his facial hair and muscles and the sleeve of tattoos he keeps covered at work, but happens to be one of the sweetest Alphas Harry’s ever known. It’s the kindness in his eyes that give him away as a true softy; always has been.

“You’re telling everyone how brilliant you are today, right, Li?” Harry checks when he can see his best friend actively ignoring their co-workers across the room. And also, Harry. “Li,” he chastises his best friend but all that gets him is a huff of annoyance.

“You and I both know team meetings always turn into the Alpha showoff hour,” Liam rolls his eyes. “People are lucky to get a word in edgewise from all the bloody self-congratulating.”

He’s got a point there. Doesn’t mean Liam can’t join in on all the obnoxious bragging today. Or right this second.

“Wait, what’d you just say?” Harry frowns at his friend. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you very well over all the money you raised to install solar panels in two dozen schools!” he yells. “That’s two dozen. As in twenty-four.”

Harry’s very loud announcement makes the entire office look their way including the group of Alphas who often glower at the pair of them due to Liam’s close friendship with an Omega rather than with them. Today, however, their glaring is purely envy-induced as they walk past in a cloud of pheromones so strong it practically stings Harry’s nose. They head to the team meeting room without so much as congratulating their fellow Alpha on how amazing he is. A couple of them even roll their eyes which isn’t new, but it is quite rude.

“Maybe it was something I shouted?” Harry wonders aloud, laughing when he narrowly avoids getting hit with the biodegradable pen cap Liam picks up from Harry’s desk and flicks at him.

“I hate you,” Liam insists though the big smile he’s wearing is at odds with that statement. “And, not that it matters… but, it was actually twenty-five schools,” he corrects as modestly as possible but his adorably overly-satisfied expression ruins it. “Don’t,” he laughs with a hand over Harry’s mouth to stop him from screaming again like a lunatic.

Eventually, slowly, the hand is removed from Harry’s mouth giving him approximately two seconds to amend his previous announcement before getting the rest of his pen flicked at him. “IT WAS TWENTY-FIVE!”

“Idiot,” Liam snorts before falling in line with the rest of their co-workers making their way across the office.

Harry gets a taste of his own embarrassing medicine halfway through their meeting when people start spotlighting the great achievements they’ve pulled-off in the last month. Apparently, Liam was afraid that Harry wouldn’t get to brag about his feat of finally getting Mr. and Mrs. Coleman from Renew Manufacturing to agree to lowering their greenhouse gas emissions after over fifteen years of others trying to accomplish the same thing with no luck. And so, to be sure that Harry’s achievement is recognized, Liam blurts it out just as loudly as Harry shouted about him earlier, except it’s ten times as loud because they’re all sitting within centimeters of each other.

Harry bites down on a grin when he feels everyone’s eyes on them, none more than all the Alpha’s sitting further down the big meeting table. They don’t generally appreciate being shown up by anyone whether they’re Omega, Beta, or even another Alpha. They also don’t tend to like when Harry proves that none of those labels matter or define people and their brilliance in this world so he’s not at all surprised by the snark. However, he does find it spectacularly annoying that he’s oftentimes underestimated and judged based purely on his biology rather than the hard work he does and the change he enacts as a devoted environmentalist.

“You actually got them to agree?! Harry, that’s wonderful news! Congratulations!” their boss, Audrey, exclaims. She starts a quick round of applause in his honor that the Alphas grudgingly join in on while Liam whistles next to him.

“Idiot,” Harry snorts under his breath, blinking up at his boss when she addresses him again.

“Tell us everything! How much did you get the Coleman’s to agree to?”

Again, Harry can feel eyes boring into him from the end of the table which just makes saying it out loud even better. “They vowed for a fifty percent reduction within the year and they’re open to reducing even more after that,” he reports proudly. “They both signed the pledge yesterday.”

That earns another round of applause and also an elbow into Harry’s side courtesy of his best friend who just heard that last part for the first time too.

“You didn’t say anything about a pledge,” he grumbles under his breath.

“Sorry,” Harry chuckles. He got so distracted by SeaWorld again he forgot to mention it. He knows Liam won’t hold it against him though. The most important thing here besides pissing off the other Alphas is that the Coleman’s finally agreed to start doing their part in reversing climate change, and the planet’s going to be exceedingly better for it.

“Oh, Harry, we just knew if anyone could do it, it was you,” Audrey smiles, making Harry smile too and blush a bit from the praise.

Harry’s pretty sure he didn’t say or do anything special or different than all the other people who have tried to get the Coleman’s to see reason and help the environment; this time they just so happened to be ready to listen.

“A fifty percent reduction is beyond incredible,” she continues. “Which is why I can’t wait to see what you can achieve with the next company I’m assigning you! It just got a brand new CEO a couple of months ago which we all know means this is the perfect time to try and push for change!”

After dealing with the Colemans and their infamous stubbornness, Harry’s convinced he can take on anything; save the world and everything living in it one toxic corporation at a time.

“Alright then, challenge accepted. Who’s next?” Harry grins, feeling it fall right off of his face when Audrey reveals that his next target is TSI; otherwise known as Tomlinson Steelworks Inc., and coincidentally, the very company that ripped Harry’s world apart seven years ago. Even now, Harry’s skin burns and he’s near paralyzed just thinking about it. About him.

It’s been years since Harry’s heard the name Tomlinson mentioned. It’s been almost as long since he’s allowed himself to even think it, and for good reason since now, he’s having a hard time focusing his mind on anything else.

Distantly, he registers his name being called, blinking away from his work area to find Liam watching him with his thick eyebrows scrunched together in concern.

“Haz?” he repeats carefully. “You seem a bit off. You alright?”

Harry’s not entirely sure, but no seems pretty fitting in this scenario.

“Yeah, Li, I’m fine,” Harry assures his friend. “Why do you ask?” One of Liam’s eyebrows arcs in surprise of the question.

“Oh, no reason,” he shrugs. “Just that you’ve been sitting here silently brooding into the dark abyss of your laptop screen that went to sleep fifteen minutes ago?”

Harry looks down to find his laptop every bit as dead as his best friend described. “Oh. Sorry. I hadn’t realized.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Liam frowns. “You’ve been acting weird ever since you got that new assignment. What’s up with you?”

“I can’t do it,” Harry suddenly blurts out making Liam’s eyebrows scrunch up again.

“What can’t you do, exactly?”

“It. This assignment,” Harry reiterates. “I have to turn it down. Tell Audrey someone else should take it.”

“And why the hell would you do that?”

“Because he’s my ex, Li!” In Harry’s mind, that statement was going to come out much softer and less panicked so that the entire office wouldn’t gawk at him like they are right now.

“Oi!” Liam barks in a rare flexing of his Alpha authority that makes even Harry jump. “Don’t you all have a bloody planet to save? There’s nothing to see over here.” Heads immediately whip back to the work in front of them as Liam pulls a second chair into Harry’s cubicle and takes a seat.

“Now, back up and slow down. Who’s your ex?”

“The new CEO at TSI that Audrey mentioned. He took over the company after his grandfather died a few months ago. He now owns it all down to the last iron ore.” That’s about all the information Harry got on Tomlinson Steelworks Inc. before his stomach dropped, his brain checked out, and Liam caught him staring into the abyss. He wakes up his laptop to the news article holding all the dirty details about the transition that he was reading and starts in again with Liam reading over his shoulder.

It goes through everything from the founding of Tomlinson Steelworks to its steady rise making it one of the most successful companies to boom out of the steel industry and maintain its lead position through the decades. TSI has been around forever and is thought to be one of the main contributors to the climate crisis. And yet, all Liam seems to glean from this information is a tiny note above a photo at the bottom of the article about the Senior Tomlinson’s Alpha grandson who has vowed to uphold and further his grandfather’s legacy. Everything just as planned, Harry thinks bitterly to himself.

“Wait a second, you dated an Alpha?” Liam gasps. “You hate Alphas. Well, except for me of course,” he amends.

“I do not hate Alphas. I just hate some of them and their bullshit opinions about supremacy, dominance, and people like me,” he explains rather bitterly. “Louis was never like that,” he clarifies when Liam’s eyes grow even more concerned.

“But, you were his Omega? Even though you’ve always been against that sort of thing.”

That’s the thing. He wasn’t always against it.

It grows silent after Harry sighs rather than giving Liam an answer. Perhaps his best friend realizes that Harry doesn’t really have an answer, so he swiftly changes the topic.

“Look… obviously, there’s a bit of history here.”

“Yeah,” Harry scoffs. “A bit.”

“And, I don’t know what happened between you, but it sounds like you two were pretty serious at one time.” Harry almost laughs at the observation. Defining their past relationship as pretty serious is the biggest understatement in the world. “And I’m a little mad you’ve never once mentioned your hot Alpha ex-boyfriend to me, but that’s a discussion for another time,” Liam continues. “Right now, we have to focus on what really matters here which is this massive assignment you’re undertaking.”

“But I’m not undertaking it though. Didn’t you hear any of what I just said?”

“Yes, I heard you say that you personally know the new CEO for Tomlinson Steelworks. And what better person to get the new CEO of a company to listen than someone who knows him inside and out?” Liam grins. “You’re seeing this situation as a disaster, but all I see is you having a head start.”

It’s true. A large part of what Harry does involves him getting to know the CEOs like the Colemans to be able to talk to them and hopefully educate them on how small changes in their company policies and practices could make a huge difference. He and Louis don’t really know each other anymore. Hell, it’s been years, but from what Harry remembers he was always a fairly reasonable person.

He does a quick Google search of TSI’s greenhouse stats and cringes realizing all three branches of the company are estimated to have contributed to a sizeable chunk of the global emissions since it was founded back in 1942.

“There are definitely more eco-friendly alternatives to TSI conducting its business,” Liam says after he too glances over the numbers.

“I’d say so,” Harry agrees.

“Good. That means someone just has to present those alternatives to TSI in a way that’s accessible and manageable and overall, better for everyone,” Liam encourages him with a smile. “And that someone, my friend, is you.”

Harry was afraid of that.

Somehow, and completely against his better judgement, Harry shows up at Tomlinson Steelworks Inc. the next day.

Getting here was no easy task. Multiple attempts to schedule a time to come and talk to his ex resulted in Harry receiving the runaround from everyone on his staff. He was transferred from person to person until he finally got to someone who said he could come visit headquarters. But, even with the okay, Harry almost didn’t come. In fact, as soon as he woke up this morning he decided he wasn’t going to, and yet here he is gawking up at the twenty-story glass building towering over him and everything else. Why a building of offices needed to be so bloody grandiose in the first place is a mystery to him, but also predictable considering the man whose legacy built it. Louis now has to fill those shoes. Vaguely, Harry wonders how Louis feels about that because the Louis that Harry knew would’ve hated it.

Not really knowing Louis anymore is something he’s been trying to remind himself of ever since he got this assignment. It’s been seven years since they’ve spoken. They were already becoming different people when they broke up and time has probably made that divide even wider. Harry tried to do a bit more research last night after work but didn’t come up with much. Louis went to uni after all; the same one his pushy grandfather attended rather than the one Louis had originally chosen for himself. After he graduated, he worked for his grandfather as an apprentice. And now that his grandfather is gone, he’s succeeded him. All according to the master plan that had been there all along, Harry now realizes. They were just so young and blinded seven years ago that they couldn’t see it.

Regardless of what happened back then between the two of them (well, the three of them really including his grandfather) Harry and the important job he’s been given is all that matters. Tomlinson Steelworks Inc is causing harm to the Earth, no matter which Tomlinson is in charge of it. It’s up to someone to try and change that, and like Liam said, that someone just so happens to be him.

He walks into the lobby of TSI and immediately feels overwhelmed by the marble walls and floors so glossy Harry can see his reflection in them. All the people bustling around move quickly through the room. So quickly that Harry can’t even get one to stop and give him directions to Louis’ office; wherever the hell that is in this giant place.

There’s a directory on the far wall near the elevators that lists every floor and who can be found on it. Harry starts reading from the bottom, not at all surprised to find the name of the late Kenneth W. Tomlinson sitting at the very top under CEO. Perhaps it’s still too soon for Louis’ marble nameplate to be put there in its place. Assuming he has a marble nameplate. Surely, Louis has one around here somewhere. Knowing Louis’ grandfather, it was probably made the same day Louis presented as an Alpha so that no matter when the time came, it’d be ready.

It’s a long ride up to the twentieth floor with Harry crowded into an elevator with half a dozen other people and some Alpha not-so-discreetly breathing in Harry’s scent next to him. 

Just like when the Alphas at work get a bit too friendly, Harry cuts his eyes at the grey-haired man. Harry’s reaction just makes him grin. “Hello. I’m Charles,” the Alpha says just as they reach his office’s floor and the bell dings.

“Goodbye, Charles,” Harry quips back, standing aside so the man and his pungent scent can exit the elevator with everyone else who works on the ninth floor.

The doors close on Charles’ miffed expression leaving Harry to travel the rest of the way up by himself.

The bell dings again at the top floor to let Harry out. When the elevator doors open, he finds tall windows rather than marble, but they’re no less grand or beautiful. The view of the skyline and city gets larger and clearer and more breathtaking as Harry walks toward the far glass wall. Maybe Louis fulfilling his grandfather’s wishes by stepping into his shoes wasn’t so bad after all. Not if this is what he gets to see every day.

“Pretty impressive, isn’t it?” someone says. Harry turns from the view outside to the man sitting behind the reception kiosk just a couple of yards away to his left. At first, the man’s dark hair and shadowed jawline remind Harry a lot of Liam. But then, he notices his faint, almost odorless Beta scent, the much lighter color of his eyes, and the same happy lilt in his voice that Harry heard yesterday during his ten-millionth phone transfer to find somebody in this giant glass tower who could put him in contact with Louis. “Can I help you?”

“Uh, the view’s lovely,” Harry agrees as he starts towards the man; Niall Horan, Personal Assistant to the CEO, as his desk placard reads. “And, yes, I think you’re just the person to help me! I’m Harry Styles,” he introduces himself, his grin going a bit stale after Louis’ assistant introduces himself too and then merely blinks at Harry and his ‘heart the Earth’ t-shirt. “Er- We spoke on the phone yesterday.”

“Oh, right,” Niall nods, reviving Harry’s grin until the initial spark of familiarity begins to fade from Niall’s eyes. “So, is this about the Forbes piece? Because I thought that was next week. Or are you from one of the local papers?”

Harry can feel his brow furrowing at the questions. “Um, neither?” he says, digging through his bag to hold up the informational pamphlets he brings with him to every company he’s trying to convert. “I’m from The Green Switch Project.”

Niall raises a skeptical brow at the pamphlets, but otherwise, looks quite relieved to hear that. “Oh, okay, good. Because now’s not really a good time for an interview anyway. Mr. Tomlinson’s day is pretty full.”

Now, Harry is the one blinking at Niall. The whole point of him showing up here today was to talk to Louis.

“Well, I’m not here to take up much of Mr. Tomlinson’s time,” he says, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the title. “I’d just like to speak with him for a few minutes about TSI and climate change. I promise I’ll be in and out in a flash so I’ll just-”

“Woah, hang on. You can’t just go back there,” Niall says stopping Harry and his pamphlets in their tracks in front of the door that leads to a corridor of offices that presumably lead to Louis. “I just told you, his day is pretty packed so maybe try tomorrow?”

“That’s what you said yesterday on the phone,” Harry snips, only growing more impatient from having his time wasted in a place where the air carries trace scents of somebody he spent a long time trying to erase from his memory.

“Shit. Mate, I’m sorry about that. It’s been a bit crazy with people calling for interviews and partners trying to set up meetings since Mr. Tomlinson came into his new position as CEO,” he explains. “I’m sure you can understand.” Harry understands. He was on the bloody phone for almost half an hour trying to speak to Louis and just ended up with his personal assistant who doesn’t even remember their conversation. “Listen, I apologize for the confusion on mine and Mr. Tomlinson’s behalf. Truly,” he says, and Harry believes it’s sincere; on Niall’s side anyway. Sorry was always a favorite broken record of Louis’, but it no longer has the same effect that it did when they were teenagers. It also doesn’t change the fact that Harry biked all the way across town to talk with the CEO of a company that could make a real difference in the world regardless if he’s Harry’s ex or not.

“I accept that apology,” Harry tells his ex’s assistant before glancing at the row of chairs along the opposite wall. “I will also wait.”

“…Wait?” Niall repeats.

“Sure. Who knows? Maybe a time slot will magically come available after all.”

Harry has occupied worse places in the name of environmental justice. Niall watches him settle into a seat, looking a bit surprised by this sudden turn of events.

“Um. You do know it might be a while, right?”

“Oh, I know,” Harry grins. “Don’t worry. I made plans to be here today anyway and patience is a virtue.”

Harry’s answer doesn’t seem to quell any of Niall’s fears. “And you know there’s no guarantee any of his appointments will cancel,” he warns.

Harry just shrugs, placing his pamphlets back into his canvas bag for now and pulling out a reusable container of crackers and vegan cheese instead. “I know. But I’ve got nowhere else to be,” Harry grins again as he holds up his snack. “Care for some gouda? It’s vegan.”

Niall’s lips give a hint of a twitch as he politely declines the offer and gets up from his desk.

“Er- I’ll just, uh, go and pop my head into his office to see if he’s free.”

That’s more like it.

“Okay. I’ll just be here!” Harry beams after him.

*

It is amazing to Louis that no matter how many emails he answers from the mountain of emails he receives each day, that somehow, he never reaches the fucking end of them.

“How are there still so many?” he whines aloud to himself. With each email he opens, it’s like clawing his way through quicksand before another email comes flying into his inbox to drag him down all over again. Out of all his new responsibilities as CEO, emails are the fucking worst, and that’s with Niall screening the majority of them beforehand so Louis only receives the important ones. He’d shudder to see all the rest.

With a sigh, Louis opens an email from Mr. Nishi, one of TSI’s energy partners, who apparently wants to renew their business contract early this year in light of TSI’s change in leadership. That sounds like quite the lengthy discussion; one that Louis is happy to avoid for the moment when he notices the door to his office opening over the top of his computer.

Thank god for small miracles he thinks as his assistant waltzes into the room and plops down in the plush armchair in front of Louis desk.

“You know, I’ve heard that in some countries, people actually knock before opening doors,” Louis greets his Beta friend who ignores everything he says to steal a few chocolates from the jar on Louis’ desk. Louis wishes more people around here were like him- unintimidated and frankly, completely unbothered by Louis’ Alpha boss status.

“Knocking? Gross. Why would anybody do a crazy thing like that?” Niall mumbles through his mouthful of chocolate, grinning when Louis fondly rolls his eyes at him.

“I have no idea,” Louis deadpans. “So, what’s up?”

Niall gives a noncommittal shrug. “Not much. Same old. Phone calls, emails, and that sort of thing.” Emails and that sort of thing have become the bane of Louis’ existence lately. He doesn’t know how the hell his grandfather did this for over fifty years when Louis’ nearly burnt out after two months. “Should be ordering lunch soon,” Niall continues. “I’m thinking pizza today. You?”

Now that Niall mentions it, Louis is getting pretty hungry. The work phone calls started before he even left his flat this morning, so breakfast ended up not being a thing. And, strangely enough, for the past ten minutes Louis’ nose has been picking up on some faint and vaguely familiar scent in the building that Louis can’t quite place, but his stomach curls in on itself each time he catches a whiff of it.

“Pizza sounds perfect. Whatever you decide on, I want my side covered with bacon.”

“Delicious and also noted,” Niall assures him.

“Cool. Thanks, mate.” Louis grins back at his friend, raising an eyebrow when he notices Niall isn’t getting up to head back to his desk and his expression is nowhere near as excited as it should be regarding food. “What?”

Niall begins with the little sigh that means Louis’ probably not going to like what follows.

“So… there’s this person in the lobby.”

Louis blinks at this new information that isn’t new at all. “Well, considering the amount of appointments I have scheduled for today, I imagine there’s probably lots of people in the lobby.”

“Yeah, but it’s still early, so not yet,” Niall informs him. “This one’s from some non-profit. He’s wearing this t-shirt with hearts and Earths all over it and says he wants to talk to you about pollution or something? He brought pamphlets. And cheese,” Niall adds as an afterthought.  “Apparently, it’s vegan, which makes no fucking sense to me because the whole point of cheese is cheese, you know?”

As annoyed as Niall sounds about the absence of dairy in one of his favorite foods, Louis feels the same way regarding all the eco-friendly bullshit his grandfather’s company gets. Well, Louis’ company now. Somehow he keeps forgetting despite the giant CEO sign on his office door and desk.

“Oh, terrific,” Louis mutters. Just what he needs; another bright-eyed, bleeding-heart activist promoting something ridiculous like organic water and some unrealistic emissions venture that costs millions and takes up more time than Louis is willing to spare. And, Niall is one-hundred percent right. Cheese is fucking cheese; dairy in. Full stop.

“He doesn’t have an appointment, but he seems pretty determined to speak with you. You want me to send him back?” Niall asks.

“I’d prefer to not hear about how I’m drowning all the seals and bloody polar bears or whatever it is we’re meant to be allegedly destroying this time,” Louis rolls his eyes. “Just tell him I’m really busy and can’t talk.”

“Already tried that.”

Louis simply blinks at his assistant, unsure he heard that correctly since ‘already tried that’ would imply that the man was politely told to get lost and somehow didn't get the message. “What do you mean? What did he say?” Louis frowns, catching a whiff of whatever the hell is in this building today that usually isn’t. “And for the love of god, what is that smell? Can you smell that? You can, right?”

Niall’s eyes scan Louis’ office. They eventually settle on the empty bins next to Louis’ desk. “I was going to guess garbage, but it’s taken out every night, so.”

“No, no, it’s not that. It’s not a bad smell, it’s- it’s sweet almost; rich and Earthy like soil, but also warm like cinnamon. And honey, fuck.” There’s a sharpness to it; one that has Louis imagining rubbing his face into the skin of whoever smells so fucking good. It kind of reminds Louis of the way his ex used to smell, but different somehow.

Fuck, he needs to get laid.

His assistant raises an eyebrow at him. Clearly, whatever is in the air isn’t hitting him the same way it’s hitting Louis. Maybe he’s just making it up.

“I’m not sure what’s up with you and your Alpha senses right now, but me and my Beta senses don’t smell any of the shit you were just drooling over.”

“Shut up. I was not drooling.” He kind of was, but it’s not like he can help it. He didn’t ask for his sense of smell to be assaulted this way. Though, he can’t say he really minds it either.

“What do you want me to do about Captain Planet?”

“Oh, right. Him,” Louis rolls his eyes.

“He’s just sitting there. Says he’ll wait if he has to.”

He’s persistent as well whoever he is, Louis will give him that. But even strong will wears off after a while. 

“Okay, then. Let him wait,” Louis shrugs before returning to his mountain of emails. Whoever he is will probably crack before their pizza arrives.

*

“Mrs. Armitage?” Harry’s head pops up at the same speed as the woman sitting next to him. “Er- Mr. Tomlinson will see you now,” Niall says to the person he was actually addressing.

The silver-haired woman he’s been chatting with the last five minutes turns to offer Harry a hopeful grin. “He’ll be calling your name soon, love,” Mrs. Armitage assures him before clicking away in her tall stilettos with her briefcase in hand for her appointment.

The same thing has happened about a dozen other times today. Importantly dressed people come in, wait for their name to be called, and then disappear through the door behind beside Niall’s desk for their appointments with the CEO. If only Harry had one of those today. Maybe then he wouldn’t be still sitting here hours after he arrived.

Time ticks on as people come and go. Besides getting to see the sheer volume of food Niall Horan can order and consume in one work day, Harry also has the view from the twentieth floor as entertainment as the sun moves lower and lower in the sky.

Harry starts to give up on his strategy to talk with Louis around the time the sun begins to set. Louis isn’t going to meet with him today and he accepts that, but the sunset is so beautiful to watch from this high up that he can’t bring himself to leave just yet. The top floor changes from yellow to orange to a deep purple that eventually becomes night, and even then Harry finds himself still staring out of the large windows where every star is visible and twinkling.

The time reads eight when Harry glances at his phone to find half a dozen missed calls from Liam and a text asking how did it go. Harry sighs, knowing that eventually he’ll have to tell his best friend that it didn’t go well. Maybe Harry can tell him how he accomplished nothing over a drink tonight. And maybe complain about the fact that despite his protestations about having to be here, he was kind of starting to look forward to seeing Louis again.

It’s a dumb thing to feel. They broke up seven years ago for a reason. It was clear they were becoming different people who had started moving in opposite directions. Being in this place today just affirmed it more.

“Heading for the bathrooms again?” Louis’ assistant grins tiredly from behind his desk. Harry quite likes him. Any food that he ordered throughout the day was understood to be just as much Harry’s as it was Niall’s. Hardly any of that food was vegan of course, but it was the thought that counted. As kind-hearted as Niall clearly is, unfortunately, he never did bump someone else’s meeting with Louis so that Harry could take their place, but that wouldn’t have been very fair anyway, so Harry’s not upset at having spent his whole day here waiting his turn.

“Nope. Heading home to finally get out of your hair,” Harry grins back from where he’s double-checking that all of his belongings are in his bag.

“Nah, it was nice having company,” Niall assures him. “Sorry nobody cancelled like we were hoping.”

“Aw, that’s alright. It’s not your fault. And besides, there’s always tomorr-” Harry begins, the last of his words fading into air when Louis rushes out of the door next to Niall’s desk.

At first, Louis doesn’t notice him, too distracted talking into the phone shouldered to his ear as he juggles his work bag and the stack of papers he leaves at Niall’s desk with apologetic eyes that Harry knows all too well. Louis takes a thick business folder from his assistant’s hands and quietly wishes him a good night, only realizing he and his assistant aren’t alone when he turns to leave and freezes at the sight of Harry standing just as still and stunned.

For the longest time, neither of them says a word. Vaguely, Harry notices Niall looking between the two of them with interest as it’s clear they know one another by the way they’re both rooted to the spot. However, it’s the familiar and beautiful blue of Louis’ eyes that hold most of Harry’s attention. They’ve hardly changed in seven years apart from a couple of faint laugh lines starting to take shape; those, and every memory the two of them have ever shared, the good and even the inevitable bad, playing behind them.

Seeing Louis standing before him is so different than he thought it would be. There’s so many things between them left unspoken; unfelt. Seeing him just brings it all back.

Eventually, the initial shock that Harry’s presence caused wears off and Louis recovers. He realizes someone is still deep in conversation with him on the phone and that he hasn’t been responding. “Uh- Y-Yes, Mr. Nishi, I’m still on my way,” he answers absently as his legs start working again to put him back into motion.

The man on the other end of the phone continues talking at length but Louis still isn’t listening, lowering his phone once he’s close enough to Harry for the familiar warmth of his scent to flood Harry’s lungs and wake every butterfly that stilled the day he made himself forget about Louis Tomlinson.

“Um, I’m sorry for rushing out on you like this. I- I didn’t realize…” he apologizes. Harry’s not sure what he means by that. Even if Louis had known his ex was out here this whole time, Harry doubts their meeting would be any less awkward than it is now. “Listen, I’m running late for a meeting, but talk to my assistant, yeah? He’ll make sure we get a chance to talk sometime. Properly,” he promises, his gaze giving him away when it briefly scans over Harry’s face. “You… you look really good, Haz.”

Harry can’t respond or even say it back, he’s so dumbfounded.

“I’m so sorry,” Louis mouths again before taking off towards the elevators for his business meeting with Mr. Nishi. He holds Harry’s gaze until the doors open to let him in and then he’s gone, leaving Harry standing in his glass lobby just as still and speechless as before.

Chapter Text

Slightly shell-shocked is a good way to sum up what Harry feels once he’s back home where the air smells like him and nobody else. Slightly defeated is how he’d describe having accomplished nothing today besides openly gawking at his CEO Alpha ex-boyfriend who’s somehow even more gorgeous than Harry remembers. Funny that.

He suspects his own brain has been playing tricks on him this whole time; making Louis out to seem less than he really is to allow Harry to move on. And he did move on. Harry has survived the last seven years without Louis Tomlinson and will continue doing so, but he can’t pretend to be blind, or oblivious to the fact that their time apart has done very little to their connection that he still feels. Despite the heartache that Louis’ decision to not choose them when it mattered put them both through.

That’s all irrelevant though. In the grand scheme of things, Louis has the life he chose, Harry has his own, and they both have jobs to do. Harry has a job to do and no Alpha, regardless of his connection to Harry or not, is going to get in the way of that.

Harry sits back against his pillows in bed after a shower quick enough to avoid wasting much water, yet hot enough to scorch away any residual ex feelings that might still be clinging to him from TSI. Though, he knows he’ll never truly scrub away the hold Louis has over him; he’s been trying for years. Regardless, he tucks the longest pieces of his damp hair behind his ears and takes a couple of deep cleansing breaths before diving headfirst back into research.

Most of the information he finds is stuff he found out yesterday at work. A simple Google search is all anybody would need to know how bad TSI is for the environment. Scientists and journalists alike came to that conclusion decades ago from all the smog it produces, but it’s the yearly emissions reports that Harry needs in order to make a plan for a full systems evaluation; yearly emissions reports obviously kept under lock and key so people like Harry can’t access them.

Harry closes his laptop, more frustrated now than he was before because he’s getting nowhere. When he finally saw Louis today, he told Harry to speak to his assistant about meeting with him which Harry had already fucking done. According to Niall, the soonest Harry can sit down with Louis is next Thursday. That isn’t going to work for Harry. So, he has to come up with a plan B.

Just like the previous morning, Harry shows back up at TSI the next day. This time, he doesn’t waste time consulting directories and admiring his grand surroundings. He takes the elevator up to the twentieth floor and ignores the onslaught of the warm scent that Harry has always associated with summer, sunshine, and of course, Louis. He ignores Gatekeeper Niall too, along with his wide eyes and the protestations his mouth is poised to make before a half-dozen box of fresh doughnuts from the shop people rave about and the tallest coffee Harry could find are both placed before Niall in offering; purchases Harry would never make for himself, but desperate times and all that.

“Half cream-filled, half glazed, and a mocha latte with a double shot; dairy in,” Harry announces to the slack-jawed Beta.

“…Er—”

Harry gauges his reaction as it unfolds across his face, unsure if food is really the way to Niall Horan’s heart or if he was just particularly hungry the day before but he’s practically salivating at the scent of sugar and coffee permeating the air, so Harry must’ve done something right. 

“Don’t mention it! Be right back!” Harry grins as he breezes on past his desk, feeling stupidly triumphant when Niall accepts his bribes with a solemn nod and pretends to not see Harry disappearing through the door beside them.

He can’t believe that actually fucking worked.

*

After Louis’ meeting last night with Mr. Nishi where he expressed genuine concerns about their partnership moving forward without Louis’ grandfather, properly thanking him for his time and the new business contact he’s agreed to sign is Louis’ top priority on his list of things to do today; a list that’s getting longer by the second he realizes when a loud knock at his office door completely breaks his focus. Mostly because Louis can count on one hand the times Niall Horan has announced himself before barging in.

Louis raises an eyebrow at the door, wondering what has sparked such courteous and bizarre behavior for his assistant.

“Will you get your arse in here already?” he calls loud enough for Niall to push open the door and reveal that he is not at all who Louis was expecting. Harry’s scent enters the room before he does, affirming that Louis was not crazy or imagining things five minutes ago when he could’ve sworn the air was filled with the same sweet aroma as yesterday. The same one that haunted Louis’ dreams last night whenever he was lucky enough to sleep more than a few minutes at a time.

He stands in the doorway looking every bit as beautiful in his mid-twenties as he did as a teenager, just taller with broader shoulders, a much sharper jawline, silkier curls, and the same forest green eyes Louis fell in love with long before he was ready to admit it or say it out loud. The lack of passion that green holds from across the room reminds Louis that physical differences aren’t the only changes between the past and present. What they had before they fucked up a long time ago, but that can’t be why Harry’s here now. Again.

“Haz,” Louis addresses him. ...And the t-shirt he’s wearing that reads ‘Don’t be trashy; Recycle’ in glittery green letters. It’s reminiscent of the shirt he wore yesterday that Louis paid little attention to in the face of the ex love of his life suddenly reappearing. Interesting choices for outfits; odd, really, but they work for him. He has always looked great in anything.

“Haz, about yesterday. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were here.”

“It’s fine. Wasn’t your fault,” Harry shrugs easily, his words causing Louis’ heart to do weird things as a result of hearing a voice that he hasn’t in so long; the only voice that has ever made his heart race or sent chills down Louis’ spine. Not that those details are particularly important right now with Harry still awkwardly standing in the threshold like he’s wary of coming in.

“Look, Haz-”

“Harry, please,” he says, rejecting the nickname he must no longer go by as he steps further into the room. Or, perhaps he does still go by Haz and just doesn’t want Louis using it anymore. Louis can’t decide which stings more.

“Okay then. Harry,” Louis corrects, the formal version of his ex’s name rolling off his tongue with a bit more bite than Louis intended. Not that Harry seems to notice.  

“We don’t have to talk about anything that requires either of us apologizing to the other for things we can’t change. We can just get straight to business, which is why I’m here. In case you were wondering,” he adds like an extra slap in the face.

“Right.”

Suddenly, Louis is reminded of the random urges he used to get to strangle his best friend slash Omega boyfriend for being an annoying, bossy little shit. He’s the one who has showed up out of nowhere twice this week. He’s also the one who just sneaked past Niall and barged into Louis’ office like he owns the place, and yet he’s acting as if he’s the one being inconvenienced.

Nevertheless, Louis forces himself to paste on a polite grin, willing himself to appear as unbothered as Harry is trying to if that’s how he wants to play it.

“So. Harry,” he reiterates. “Is there any way I can help you during this unscheduled meeting?”

His ex narrows his eyes at Louis slightly, indicating he didn’t miss the sass in that question. However, he chooses not to comment on it as he takes a seat across from Louis’ desk with a courteous grin.

“Well, yes. Now that you mention it, there is something actually,” he affirms as he rummages around in the canvas bag he’s holding that reads Earth Ambassador. Whatever the hell that means. “But, keep in mind, it’s not really me you’d be helping,” he explains before a suspenseful pause. “It’s the planet!”

“Er- Oh,” Louis frowns at the fan of pamphlets from something called The Green Switch Project that Harry’s now holding up.

Instantly, Louis connects them with all the quirky t-shirts, reusable bags, and vegan cheese Niall was going on about yesterday. Dear God, he’s one of those. Not that Harry hasn’t always had a soft spot for nature and the like. He’s always been caring and mindful with a love for kids, animals, flower crowns, and that sort of thing. But, this? This is a whole new fucking level.

For ten whole minutes, Louis half-listens to the spiel he’s heard several times by now and he’s only been CEO of TSI for a couple of months. Everyone knows his grandfather’s company is neither the cleanest, greenest, or most energy efficient. Tomlinson Steelworks Inc has certainly never won any awards for being a help to the environment, and it isn’t going to suddenly start doing so now. Mostly, because Louis has bigger things to worry about like not crashing his grandfather’s life’s work into the ground. Also, because Louis has barely heard a thing his ex has said over the memory reel playing in the back of his head of the last night they spent together before their lives took them in totally different directions and everything they’d built came tumbling down around them. …All the while Harry advocates for the penguins or the bees or the whatever the hell he’s on about.

“So, Louis,” the version of Harry outside of Louis’ brain says once he’s all done with his rehearsed pitch. “What do you think about making a change? A real difference? …Louis? Did you hear me?”

“Uh-” Pretending he wasn’t just thinking about the last heat/rut they went through together is difficult with Harry’s green eyes boring into him with similar intensity. Granted, the intense look Harry’s giving him now is more annoyed due to Louis not listening than it is erotic or sexy. 

Frankly speaking, TSI’s emissions are bad. Louis gets that. Everyone with a working pair of lungs probably gets that, but that doesn’t mean Louis has the time to waste trying to appease the masses to make things marginally better when other companies are just as responsible if not more so. Not to mention Mr. Nishi and his energy company with an even worse reputation for the environment are mere days away from signing a new contract with TSI. No energy means no steel production, and that is simply unacceptable. Though, explaining that to Harry probably isn’t going to be so simple as he recalls the highly inconvenient truth of his ex being virtually impossible to say no to.

“Wow. That all sounds very, uh, interesting,” Louis decides after stalling with a few sips of water and reminding himself it is absolutely none of his business who helps Harry through his heats now that Louis doesn’t… even though he is rather curious. In a completely unbothered kind of way. Fuck. He really does need to get laid. “Well, you’ve definitely given me a lot to think about.” That’s the understatement of the century. Louis’ brain is on overload just having Harry’s scent in the building the last two days. 

“Yeah? Really?” Harry frowns looking half-suspicious and half-hopeful hearing that. “So, you’re saying you think making the green switch is something TSI could commit to?”

Absolutely not.

“Uh, maybe…” Louis answers vaguely which is apparently just as good as yes from the big dimpled smile that gets him. Jesus, Louis’ not sure how the hell he used to accomplish anything being with someone so fucking gorgeous. And to think, he once believed himself indifferent to Harry when they were kids; like he wasn’t half in love with his best friend from the very fucking start.

“That’s fantastic news, Lou!” Harry beams, clearing his throat when Louis raises a smug brow at him. “Uh, Louis. Sorry,” he amends with his cheeks going warm from his slip-up. “Er- Well, anyway. This really is great. I can have a pledge drawn up and emailed to you as soon as possible. Today even.”

That is… one quick turnaround for drafting a whole contractual document. Jesus.

“That’s- Er- Great! Perfect. I’ll, uh, look that over and get back to you as soon as possible,” Louis tells him, certain that Harry will have moved on to pestering some other CEO by then. “Is there anything else I can help you with today?”

Harry hardly pauses to think it over long before answering. “Nope! That was already more than I had dared to hope for this early in the game. I mean, a single pledge doesn’t exactly save the world but it’s a start in the right direction, you know?” he grins. “I’m proud of you, Louis. Being new to the corporate world can’t be easy, but you’ve made the right choice.”

“Um. R-Right,” Louis nods, feeling guilt begin to churn away at him with those green eyes still on him. He needs to escape or better yet, for Harry to leave. Preferably now. “Well, Harry, thanks so much for dropping by. I kind of have some things to do before a thing in a few minutes, so.”

“Meetings on top of meetings, huh?” Not really. Louis doesn’t have anything scheduled for the next fifteen minutes but he’ll need every one of them for the existential crisis he’ll be needing the moment Harry walks out of his office. “The busy life of a CEO,” Harry grins to himself, watching as Louis chokes down the last of his water before tossing the bottle into the bin next to his desk; a perfectly-aimed triumph that Harry doesn’t seem quite as impressed with.

“What?” Louis furrows his brow at him because he has seen that ‘I’m going to say something annoying disguised as a helpful little hint’ look many, many times before.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he claims before continuing and proving that there is in fact something. “It’s just… well, it looks like there’s a recycling bin right there…” Louis follows Harry’s gaze to the green bin next to the black one Louis actually uses. “It looks pretty empty is all,” he shrugs at Louis in that innocent yet insistent way of his that says ‘I’m waiting’.

It’s been a while since Louis was exposed to his charms. He’d forgotten how effective Harry’s various means of leverage and persuasion can be. They used to work on Louis all the time. Honestly, they still kind of do, but Louis refuses to give in on the principle of stubbornness alone. This is his building, his office, he’s the oldest, the Alpha, and he’s the bloody CEO. Plastics be damned. 

“So there is, and so it does,” Louis counters. “Truthfully, there are probably recycling bins all through the building but no one around here ever- wait- what are you doing?” Louis frowns after Harry listens to about one second of that before suddenly standing up from his seat.

It only takes him and his long legs a few steps to reach the side of Louis’ desk, but it’s all Louis needs to have his familiar scent wrap itself around Louis’ lungs in a gridlock he hasn’t felt in years. He’s hardly even breathing when Harry bends down to move all the plastic from the black bin to the green one; minus the water bottle Harry holds out for him to reclaim.

Carefully, Louis takes back the bottle and the spark he feels when their fingers overlap sends chills up his arms, stirring every craving that had been lying dormant in him all this time. He suspects Harry felt the same jolt when he goes completely still at the touch, however, he quickly recovers by taking a step back and pasting on his kind grin again.

They stare at one another for a long time until eventually, Louis realizes he’s supposed to be doing something with the bottle he was just given. Harry’s expression relaxes when Louis finally gets the hint and tosses the bottle into the correct bin.

“Not so bad, was it?” Harry says after a silent stare-off between them, the heat from which leaves Louis’ skin burning. For a moment, Harry’s eyes fall to the left side of Louis’ chest just beneath his collarbone as if he can see through his button up right to the very spot that’s ablaze beneath it; that’s always ablaze anytime Louis so much as thinks about Harry. “Change is all about baby steps…” Harry explains with a tiny roll of his left shoulder that anybody besides Louis would’ve missed. “Everything after the first one is easy.”

“Baby steps. Easy,” Louis gulps once he’s able to fucking breathe again. “Right.”

He could really use that scheduled crisis right about now.

Louis blinks up from the blackened screen of his laptop when his assistant clears his throat in the doorway. He moves to stand right in front of Louis’ desk with his arms crossed over his chest and his right eyebrow arched high at Louis’ office phone blinking with a shitload of missed calls from somebody. That somebody presumably being Niall since he looks so exasperated.

“Alright. I wasn’t going to ask because frankly, it’s none of my business and if you wanted me to know what’s going on between you and Harry, you probably would’ve told me. But, this is getting ridiculous. You both looked like you’d seen ghosts last night when he was here and you look like that right now even though he’s been gone for nearly an hour.” 

Louis eyes go wide and his heart races realizing how much fucking time he’s wasted. “An hour? Shit, I had that meeting starting at nine.”

“Oh, you mean, the one you missed because you were too busy staring at your dead laptop instead of answering my calls?”

“It is not dead,” Louis rolls his eyes, abruptly ending his attempts to wake up his laptop when he realizes Niall is actually right. “Okay, fine. It’s dead. Shut up.”

“That’s it. I’m sitting down, you’re sitting up, and then you’re going to explain to me what the hell is going on here.”

Louis wishes he fucking knew.

With a long sigh, Louis tries his best to give Niall the answers he wants, but he hardly even knows where to begin. “So, long story short is Harry and I… we sort of know each other.” He’d argue they once knew each other better than anyone else ever could; inside and out.

“Well, considering you look like you slept a total of five seconds last night and Harry bribed me with breakfast this morning just to get back here to reduce you to mush, I’d say that’s a given,” Niall quips. 

So that’s how Harry managed to get past Niall. Jesus, he really is impossible to say no to. Louis’ convinced he’d be unstoppable as an Alpha. He supposes that’s why the universe saw fit to make him an Omega instead; too much authority, power, and influence in one obnoxiously gorgeous being probably makes one hell of a recipe for world domination. Not that it matters since even as an Omega he’s a fucking force to be reckoned with.

“So, you know each other how again?” Niall frowns when Louis groans and presses the palms of his hands into his eyes.

“Harry is- Well, he was- He’s…” It’s difficult to explain exactly what they were to one another when they used to be everything. “…We were best friends,” he finally manages. “Ever since we were kids, around eleven and twelve.” That was the year that Louis and his family moved away from his hometown and he thought his whole world had ended. He had no idea it was just about to start.

“And… I’m guessing something happened between you?”

Something happened alright. Louis quickly realized that friends don’t usually get butterflies whenever they hang out together or wonder if Harry’s lips would feel as soft as they always looked. For the longest time, Louis thought those feelings were normal until he looked around at other people and realized the things he wanted from Harry weren’t necessarily platonic. He had fallen in love and he was so sure he was the only one who felt that way. That is, until the amazing and fateful day that Harry admitted to loving him too.

“So, what happened next?” Niall asks after letting that information soak in.

“Nothing. Everything. We became just more obnoxious and inseparable than ever really,” Louis grins to himself. They spent most of that first year just learning to be with each other. “Back then, neither of us had presented yet so we worried a lot about how things might change once we did. Then, we each turned sixteen and Harry presented as an Omega and me as an Alpha...” They realized they had been nervous for nothing. “It kind of just confirmed everything we already knew and felt.” That they were meant to be together.

That knowledge was the best high Louis’ ever felt. The two of them were so in love they couldn’t imagine anything ever coming between them to change that. They were going to go off to uni together once they were both out of school and build this huge life. Get married someday… have kids. They were each other’s forever; full stop. Except, it’s a lot easier to fall in love sometimes than it is to keep that love. Especially when they were becoming such different people in the midst of it all; people who turned out to want very different things in the end.

“Haz and I- We had every intention of following through with everything we’d planned.” But then it came time for Louis to apply to uni which seemed to change everything. “My grandfather and I had never been close, but suddenly, he was in my life and he really cared and it was so great. I’d always wanted that with him and Harry was so happy for me that it was finally happening.” Though, that was before Louis introduced the two of them and shit immediately hit the fan.

Louis’ grandfather hadn’t outright said that Louis was meant to follow in his footsteps and attend his Alma Mater because he was an Alpha, but it was obvious that’s what he was hoping for. That never did sit well with Harry. And to be fair, Louis’ grandfather wasn’t that big a fan of Harry’s either, though at the time Louis could never exactly understand why. And even though Louis’ relationship with his grandfather was still pretty new, and technically Louis didn’t owe him a thing, he didn’t want to let him down; almost as much as he didn’t want to disappoint Harry.

“So, my grandfather wanted me to go to his uni... follow in his footsteps.” Harry claimed his grandfather was just using him; that he was merely a pawn in a game, but Louis didn’t see it that way. “And I, of course, was dead set on waiting for Harry to finish his last year of school and following him wherever.“ But things didn’t happen that way. Looking back, Louis should’ve known things had gotten too complicated to turn out alright. He is the first Alpha in his family since his grandfather. And like Harry, his grandfather was almost impossible to deny.

“I honestly don’t know what happened,” he sighs, making his friend look at him with empathy. “It became this huge mess over me and my future and which bloody school I was going to end up at that somehow turned into me having to choose fucking sides and hurt someone in the process. Everything just… fell apart.”

Perhaps it was more of an implosion from how dumbfounded Niall looks hearing all this for the first time.

“So, Harry is more than just some old boyfriend you’ve never mentioned. He was your Omega once,” Niall summarizes with understanding in his light blue eyes... that quickly morphs back into confusion. “But- That still doesn’t explain it though,” he frowns. “You two act like being in the same room together physically pains you when people break up literally all the time.”

Yes, people do break up all the time, and for all sorts of reasons. Though most people also probably don’t go and do stupid, reckless shit like he and Harry did.

“What?” Niall’s brow furrows when Louis drops his gaze, takes a deep breath, and then releases it in one rush of air.

With shaky hands, Louis unbuttons the top half of his shirt, only adding to his friend’s confusion until he pulls the fabric down on the left side to reveal the shiny white bond mark over his chest that Harry put there with his own mouth; the mark he’s shown to very few people in his lifetime, mostly due to the reaction it receives. Kind of like the one Niall’s having right now.

“Holy shit,” Niall says after several seconds pass in complete silence. “You soulbonded with someone? At sixteen?!”

“We got bored. Seemed like a good idea at the time,” Louis tries to joke but it falls flat.  

“Isn’t that shit permanent as in, like, permanent?”

Considering the lengths Louis has gone to over the years to try and break that bond to no avail, he would say so.

*

Nearly a week passes after Harry’s impromptu meeting with Louis and there’s been nothing but radio silence ever since.

Harry had suspected opening Louis’ eyes had been far too easy that day. He was too agreeable, too compliant with the idea of Harry doing a complete overhaul of his company’s operations and yet he never really gave an opinion on TSI going green. All clear signs of him intending to blow Harry off, he now realizes. Signs that Harry should’ve noticed but failed to due to the state of absolute frenzy he was in over the one person he thought he had trained himself to ignore after all this time. Clearly, Harry’s brain still hasn’t quite gotten the message and his body is even more of a fucking lost cause.

He really needs to find a way to get a handle on the urges Louis brings out of him. Either that, or he just really, really needs to get laid.

Harry pulls up his email for the thousandth time in the last few days and still finds no answer to the green pledge Harry took the time to draft days ago. Louis is officially avoiding him now, however, his inbox isn’t completely bare. When he refreshes the page again, he finds a new email from his friends at SeaWorld telling him no yet again about ending their ‘rescuing’ practices and/or moving the recently rescued calf Mai to a sea sanctuary. The bullshit reason is money and resources as per usual even though it costs a hell of a lot more to put animals in captivity than it does to just leave them alone.

By now, Harry knows better than to hope for any real transformation on their part. He and lots of other people are fighting a battle that won’t be easily won, but Harry won’t give up on SeaWorld. He also won’t give up on convincing TSI and its infuriatingly gorgeous yet stubborn CEO to get their shit together. Which is why Harry decides to stop wasting time waiting around for an answer that’ll never come by taking matters into his own hands. He’ll just go straight to the source. Sorted.

He storms into TSI headquarters an hour later, channeling all his frustration into determination as he makes his way up to the twentieth floor of the building.

Niall is obviously surprised yet happy to see him there when he steps out of the elevator, blinking back at the Nando’s order Harry tosses onto the Beta’s desk before breezing on past it.

“Er- I love chicken, but you can’t go back there right now,” Niall warns, standing up from his chair when he’s promptly ignored. “Oi! Didn’t you just hear me?” he shouts after him. “He’s in a meeting!”

Harry steps into the corridor with Niall struggling to catch up, bypassing Louis’ empty office for one a few feet away where multiple voices can be heard.

“Are you trying to get us both killed?” Niall hisses from too far away to stop Harry barging into a room filled with way more people than Harry had anticipated.

Several gazes swing from Louis standing at the head of the table in the room to the door now standing wide open. However, it’s the pair of confused blue eyes that Harry notices the most that are somehow still able to make Harry’s stomach flutter despite them belonging to a first-rate liar.

“…Haz. Harry,” Louis quickly corrects himself. Several seconds pass without anybody saying anything before Louis speaks up. “What are you doing?”

Now that Harry’s here and everybody is staring at him like he’s insane, he’s not too sure what he’s doing. But, it’s too late to back down now.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but I need to speak with you. Privately,” he says, the tone of his demand making several eyebrows shoot up.

Louis certainly doesn’t look as impressed, though he manages to keep his demeanor passive when he quips back a response. “Well, as you can probably see, the Board of Directors are here, so I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible.”

“Well, that’s okay. I was thinking this could be solved with just the two of us, but I don’t mind sitting in if that’s easier for you.”

His sarcasm isn’t lost on Louis whose jaw tenses at the mere suggestion.

“This is a board meeting, meaning you have to be a member of the board to attend, which you are not. Now, Niall, if you’d please show Mr. Styles out...”

“But I’m sure the esteemed members of the board here would just love to hear what I have to say,” Harry says, stepping away from Niall who winces as Harry walks further into the room. “I’m sure they’d be delighted to know of opportunities to lower TSI’s yearly production costs by almost half.” Though, with a company worth millions, it’s unlikely they ever miss the money but the multiple looks of interest around the table say that maybe they do. “Or, maybe I’m wrong and they prefer wasting valuable resources and paying out almost double the amount as Steel Tech Ltd. because they’re just as close-minded and stubborn as-”

“Alright everyone! I think that’s quite enough,” Louis exclaims over Harry to regain the attention in the room. “I am so sorry to have to end our meeting early, but something’s come up that I can’t seem to get rid of,” he says bitterly with a pointed look over at Harry.

The next few seconds are filled with murmurs and shuffling as people gather their things and Louis kindly escorts everyone out of the room while promising to reschedule as soon as possible.

“Again, I’m so sorry. Please speak with my assistant. He’ll be happy to set up a new time for this week,” Louis assures the last of his board members on their way out. He rounds on Harry as soon as they’re gone, slamming the door so hard that the sound reverberates off the tall glass windows. “What the hell is your problem?!” he barks. “Are you insane?!”

Harry shrinks back but with his shoulders already against the wall, there’s only so far he can go. And with Louis as close as he is, there’s nowhere else to look besides straight into the fiery gaze of the Alpha who has Harry’s heart racing and every hair on his body standing on end. His Alpha.

Their faces are mere centimeters apart and Harry can practically feel Louis’ anger, taste every heated breath Louis takes as his chest rises and falls against his. It’s a side to Louis he’s never really seen before, but must always be there waiting just beneath the surface; all the innate power and dominance of his Alpha genes that’s rarely exerted due to Louis’ warm and kind-hearted nature. Clearly, that doesn’t mean all that warmth can’t fan itself into a fiery blaze whenever necessary.

Harry doesn’t mean for his body to react to it due to his own nature, to respond to the person he’s tethered to for life, but he’s burning up in his own skin regardless. His left shoulder blade feels like it’s on fire.

“What do you want from me? Are you trying to sabotage my career? Are you still angry with me for leaving that summer and this is revenge?” Louis demands. “Or, is this just the same old bullshit as always about my grandfather and how much you always hated him?”

None of that is even remotely true. And, it wasn’t Harry who hated Louis’ grandfather, it was Louis’ grandfather who hated him, but Harry can’t say so under the haze of Louis’ scent drowning him. In fact, it’s so powerful Harry’s having trouble thinking clearly enough to even answer Louis’ multiple questions. His throat is arrested by the smell of fresh rainfall and the dark soil it sinks into, rich with all the blossoms and fruit that grow just beneath the surface. So much of that scent all at once causes a persistent aching in Harry’s chest from only having memories of it for so long.

“No- I- I just wanted us to talk,” Harry manages to pick out of his foggy brain and actually articulate. “That’s all.”

Louis’ eyes, though still captivating from their electric color, lose some of their intensity at Harry’s completely non-malicious answer. Slowly, his angry expression melts to one of almost guilt realizing their close proximity because of him and the rate at which Harry’s pulse is jumping on the side of his neck.

He swallows hard from the effort of stepping back from Harry, almost as if he doesn’t quite want to. But, if Louis’ body feels their loss in closeness as much as Harry’s then he can’t blame him for taking his time.

Louis still looks a bit embarrassed a minute later, hardly even meeting Harry’s eyes once there’s some space between them and Harry’s able to stand up from the wall.

“I- I’m sorry. I try not to let my temper get the best of me, but- I’m not usually like that.”

Any other Alpha exploding like that, besides Liam of course, might have actually scared Harry, but neither of them would ever hurt a soul.

“I know. I remember,” Harry assures him, the hint of fondness in Harry’s voice encouraging Louis to meet his gaze once again. “It’s okay. And, it’s mostly my fault. I was angry with you too, but I shouldn’t have barged in here like that. I had no right.”

“No,” Louis shakes his head. “You only did that because of me. I was being a dick and I should’ve answered your emails. Sorry I didn’t.”

“Me too,” Harry nods. “Sorry, I mean.”

The air feels much thinner than before as they each stare at the floor in search for something more to say.

“So. Now that no one’s busting up board meetings or shouting like an arsehole,” Louis jokes humorlessly, “What brought you here, Harry? Earlier, you said you wanted to talk about something?”

In the midst of all the commotion they both caused, Harry almost forgot there was a point to him storming into TSI unannounced.

“Uh, yes. There is actually.” Here goes. “I know you’re busy. And I know you’ve probably got a billion things to do today so not now of course... but at some point, I’d like us to sit down together and have a discussion about a potential partnership between The Green Switch Project and TSI,” Harry explains before introducing his caveat. “A real discussion this time. One where you actually listen to me and my thoughts and hear them, and I do the same for you in return.”

The two of them certainly have their differences, but a few minutes of mutual respect should be possible. It’s all Harry’s after, really.

He can tell that some part of what he just said resonated with Louis who nods. Harry can see it in his eyes along with the new respect for Harry visible in their blue depths. However, the impact of his words becomes slightly less assuring when Louis suddenly turns and walks away from him without so much as a backwards glance.

His heart sinks. His frustration from before is already beginning to bubble back up into his chest when Louis crosses the conference room, picks up the phone near the end of the table, and dials a quick succession of numbers he knows by heart. He leans against the table waiting patiently for someone to answer. And finally, someone does.

“Hey, Niall? Yes, everything’s fine. No, I’m not lying,” Louis chuckles at his assistant. “I just need you to do me a quick favor. I need you to cancel all my meetings for the rest of today.” Harry makes a sound in protest of Louis dropping everything, only for him to politely wave him off with a mouthed, “It’s the least I can do.”

Harry… did not expect that. Clearly, neither did Niall based on the way Louis snorts into the phone a few seconds later. “No, I didn’t kill him. No bodies anywhere. He’s fine. I think we’ll both be alright actually,” he explains with a glance across the room at Harry that makes his stomach go wobbly for a moment. “Just reschedule everything as best you can. This week or early next week, yeah? Okay, great. Thanks, mate. Cheers.”

They hang up and Louis retraces his steps through the room back to Harry, surprising him yet again by taking a seat at the end of the table and kindly gesturing for Harry to take the seat across from him.

“Sit down. Please,” Louis says, his soft grin flickers when his offer is met with silence. “O-Or, we can talk in my office if that’s better. It’s just next door. I’m fine with either so whatever’s most comfortable for you.”

“Uh, no. I’m comfortable…” Just surprised is all. Ten minutes ago, they were practically at each other’s throats, but, even when they were kids, they could never stay mad at each other for long. “This is great, Louis,” Harry assures him, feeling newly hopeful that they might actually get somewhere this time as he takes the seat next to Louis rather than across from him. After all, the goal by the end of all this is for the two of them to be on the same team. Might as well start with being on the same side of the table. This time, it’s Louis who’s taken off guard. “Thanks so much for meeting with me. Means a lot.”

“It’s no problem, Haz- Harry. Jesus,” he berates himself yet again with a chuckle. “I keep doing that for some reason. Sorry.”

“Old habits die hard,” Harry jokes. “Sometimes they’re even harder to kill than the actual relationship.” Louis doesn’t really laugh at that last bit making Harry awkwardly clear his throat.

They’re back to silence after that disastrous detour to their past. Harry’s not sure what to say to bring back the precarious lightheartedness they had achieved aside from moving on to the whole reason Harry came here.

Louis starts chewing at his bottom lip as he watches Harry pull out his laptop and all the informational tools Louis dismissed without consideration the first time they did this. But, at least they’re both willing to try again.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t really know much about all this,” he warns.

Truthfully, Harry figured as much. With this job, he finds that most CEOs’ resistance to change is down to going green sounding a lot scarier than it actually is.

“That’s okay,” Harry chuckles. “I know plenty. And, if going green is what you ultimately decide for TSI after you’ve learned everything you need to know, I’ll be here to help every step of the way. You’re not alone in this.”

Just that small amount of reassurance seems to relax Louis and ease his concerns. Harry can feel it in the deep breath he releases that practically loosens Harry’s chest as well as if they share the same one. “Let’s get started,” Harry grins, blaming the sudden sense of calm he feels being next to Louis on their little truce rather than his body finally feeling at home again after years of being kept from it. 

Chapter Text

Part Two

Two Weeks Later

After twenty minutes of fighting traffic and the urge to say fuck work and just turn around and go home, Louis makes it to TSI. His car slows to a stop in the spot reserved for him as indicated by the sign with his grandfather’s initials etched into it. As if anyone could miss the giant CEO sign next to it, also left over from all the years his grandfather parked here. Louis keeps meaning to have both removed. It’s weird enough in the first place taking over the position of CEO without constantly reminding everyone that he’s first in the chain of command. It goes without saying that Louis’ grandfather was a great man. He built an entire empire and he taught Louis a lot in his long life, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t without his faults. He could be a hard man, at times even a bit cruel. His perpetual need to remind everyone of their place in this world and his place above them is just one of the many things Louis won’t miss about him. But, luckily, Louis is now in a position to change that.

When he walks into his building, he takes comfort in the way people offer him small waves and grins. It’s a stark contrast from two months ago when people would avoid his eyes completely, fearful that the Alpha grandson of Kenneth Tomlinson would be just as intimidating as the man himself now that he was in charge. It wasn’t easy proving them wrong. It took weeks of Louis smiling at each person he passed and stopping to chat and get to know them before they stopped fearing him so much and saw him as more than just some ruthless Alpha.

There were only a few people that Louis didn’t have to convince he wasn’t a monster. Niall was one of those people. Prior to being promoted to assistant of the CEO he was a receptionist in the finance department on the sixteenth floor where Louis was often banished for months at a time as an apprentice. They became friends years ago, way before Louis even had a title. And when it came time for Louis to move to the twentieth floor, he couldn’t imagine taking anyone else with him. He likes to think it was one of the best decisions he’s made as CEO thus far.

“Morning,” Niall greets Louis from his desk as he steps out of the elevator.

“Hey, Ni,” Louis says back, dubiously eyeing the stacks of envelopes and papers Niall has lined up at the edge of his desk like always. There’s still a giant stack of papers in Louis’ office from yesterday that he never got to, but he grabs the new ones anyway.

“We received the contract from Nishi’s office a few minutes ago. I already sent it to legal. Your ten o’clock was moved to ten-thirty, and your noon cancelled. Oh, and Harry’s already here. He’s in your office, I think,” his assistant informs Louis, causing an involuntary thudding of his heart at the mention of Harry’s name. Funny how that reflex never fully went away even after all this time. It’s also the reason Louis never got to all his work from yesterday.

It’s been a recurring theme as of late.

“That’s great news about Nishi. Great work,” Louis tells him before biting the bullet and asking the thing he really wishes he didn’t have to so Niall won’t give him shit. “Um, Ni, how’s that other office coming?”

“You mean the one you had set up for Harry yesterday after he came in wearing a tank top with the recycle symbol on it?” he smirks. That’s the fucking one. “It’s done as far as I know, but he wanted to review some old emissions reports or something, and those are filed in your office, so.”

That is unfortunate as Louis can’t focus for shit on a good day and having his gorgeous ex prancing around his office just makes it that much harder. Sometimes, in more ways than one.

“Er-Right. Of course,” Louis nods, mentally gearing up to accomplish not a damn thing today besides trying not to breathe too deeply or wonder if Harry’s curls are still as silky as he remembers now that they’re shorter.

“I mean, I can have the files moved if you want,” he offers. “That way you both have your own space and nobody’s biceps are bulging around anyone.” That would probably be the best for the future of TSI and Louis’ sanity, and yet, he shakes his head.

“Uh, no, no. That won’t be necessary. We’re both adults here. Harry and I can just work around each other. No need to go to any special trouble, right? Right. It’ll be fine,” Louis assures himself and his assistant at the same time.

“Uh huh.” Niall raises an unconvinced eyebrow at him which Louis promptly ignores. “Need anything else?”

“Nope,” Louis says as he leaves the lobby to go face his fate, pausing when he remembers the other thing he needed to talk to Niall about. “Actually, there is something,” he begins. “So, you know my parking spot down in the lot?”

“The one with all the giant signs that satellites can see from space? Oh, yeah. Everyone knows it,” his friend snorts. “Why? What’s up?”

“Have them removed? The signs, I mean,” he clarifies. “I just want it to look like any other spot. There’s plenty of room out there for everybody to park in a spot. I don’t need a special one.”

Under his grandfather’s authority, Betas and Omegas were often made to feel like they were lesser, but Niall has assured Louis dozens of times that he’s made things a million times better. Since then, Louis has made it his personal mission to keep that trend going.

Niall’s grin doesn’t really go anywhere upon Louis’ request. If anything, it just gets wider and extremely proud of Louis in a way that makes Louis feel proud of himself too. He should’ve had those signs taken down on day one. He just kept fucking forgetting.

“Sure thing, boss,” his friend tells him. “I’ll have it taken care of immediately.”

“Thanks, Ni,” Louis says before disappearing through the lobby door.

As has become custom, Harry’s scent hits him the moment he steps into the corridor. It grows stronger with every step Louis takes towards his office, causing his stomach to hungrily curl in on itself as if he hasn’t eaten in years. Not letting the feeling consume him takes a lot of effort on his part. Ignoring the soulbond he shares with Harry and the way his skin calls to him goes against every fiber of Louis’ being, but it is possible. Somehow, Louis did it before seven years ago and he has been doing it ever since. And so, with his body screaming at him for denying it the one thing it desperately wants, Louis willingly walks into the room that’s absolutely filled with the scent, intensifying the torture. And yet, Louis can’t bring himself to actually mind the agony.

Harry pops his head up from the work table a few yards from Louis’ desk, sporting his usual bright and dimply smile when he sees Louis come in. Honestly, it’s a miracle Louis has accomplished anything at all these past two weeks.

“Good morning, Louis,” Harry chirps at him from behind his laptop, his green eyes following Louis’ path from the door to his desk.

“Good morning,” Louis says back, trying not to notice how intently Harry is watching him as he drops his new stack of papers onto the stack from yesterday and sits down. Eventually, Harry looks away and goes back to consulting all the reports splashed across the table he has taken over as his own. However, he still peeks up at Louis every now and then to check on him. Louis knows because he keeps peeking over at Harry too. The great mystery as to why Louis gets nothing done these days finally fucking solved.

“Hi,” Louis says the next time their gazes lock making Harry’s cheeks warm from being caught.

“Hi,” Harry says back, only letting a few seconds of silence pass between them before bringing up whatever is clearly on his mind this morning. “So, uh… I hope you don’t mind me being in your office for a bit. I sort of needed to look at some things that are filed in here and Niall said it was alright. Sorry if I’m intruding.”

His ex ends his apology with a tiny wince Louis finds adorable for various reasons that will probably keep him up half the night overanalyzing because even though the two of them aren’t together romantically anymore, he still feels Harry’s pull like a magnet. And even though they’ve become friendly with one another again, Louis wouldn’t exactly call them friends since work is what reunited them. They’re somewhere in the middle; some in-between, grey area that Louis is totally ill-equipped to navigate.

“No, Harry. You’re not intruding at all,” Louis assures him, and he means it. Sure, Louis has mistyped the password to unlock his laptop about a dozen times in the past few seconds and sure he’s distracted by the way Harry’s green ‘Bitch, Peas’ shirt (with fucking sleeves, thank god) perfectly matches his eyes today making them appear even brighter than usual, but none of that is Harry’s fault per se. Probably. “I hardly even notice when you’re in here,” he lies.

“Really? Well, that’s good. Because I don’t want to distract you from your work, you know?”

Too late.

“Oh, no worries,” Louis beams at him. “I am completely focused over here. One-hundred percent.”

“Okay,” Harry chuckles. “Me too. Totally and completely focused on saving the planet starting right now.”

True to his word, Harry goes quiet after that, carefully examining his reports and typing away at his laptop. It gives Louis the chance to actually pay attention to what the hell he’s doing with his laptop to finally type in the correct password.

He pulls up his email first thing and finds there are thirty-three fresh ones waiting for him. With a weary sigh and a silent prayer that the wifi will crash so he doesn’t have to do anything, Louis opens the first one, starts reading, and then promptly stops when Harry clears his throat and starts up with more small talk. So much for all that planet-saving focus he was on about earlier.

“So, how was your evening?”

“Alright. Went home, had dinner, pretty much went straight to bed,” he recounts. “Yours?”

“Mmm. Alright too,” Harry answers with a little shrug before going back to his work now that his curiosity has been satisfied.

Louis does the same, starting over reading at the very top of the email he had opened but only getting about halfway through it before Harry pipes up again with a gentle, ‘So, what did you have?’

This is going to be an incredibly long day.

Clearly, zero work will be taking place until Harry drags every last detail out of him about his time away from TSI so Louis gives up all pretense of answering emails to meet Harry’s inquiring gaze.

Chatting with Harry is always a million times more interesting than emails anyway.

“You mean what did I have for dinner?” Louis asks.

“Yeah,” Harry grins. “You mentioned it just now, so I figured you must’ve had something pretty good.”

“If by good you mean leftover chicken kebobs and naan from the Indian restaurant near my flat, then sure,” he reveals though he can’t imagine why on Earth Harry would care. “What’d you have?” Louis asks.

“Oh, me?” Harry furrows his brow as if the question comes as a surprise. “Uh, I tried out this recipe for Vegan pulled-pork tacos.”

“Vegan pulled-pork...” Louis repeats in as neutral a tone as possible. That sounds like a train wreck warmed up. “Wow. Interesting.”

“Well, it’s not really meat obviously,” Harry laughs. “It’s just tofu that’s shredded and seasoned to resemble pulled pork. An optical illusion of sorts.” Sounds like it. Sounds fucking awful too. “But, it was pretty good, if I do say so myself,” he continues. “Liam came over and had some too. He gave it very high marks.”

“Mmm. You don’t say,” Louis grins tightly after Harry’s story.

Liam. He’s mentioned a lot; daily, really. Louis can’t help but notice due to the way Harry’s voice goes all fond each time his name crops up in conversation. He can’t quite figure out what’s up with that, or if anything is up with that at all. Not that Louis cares or anything. Because he doesn’t.

“So, Liam…” Louis says, noting the aforementioned fondness now visible on Harry’s face. “He’s the best mate, right?”

“That is correct. Meaning he is probably a little biased to my cooking,” Harry chuckles, “But he’s also not one to lie about the quality of meat substitutes. He takes his food very seriously. Actually, he and Niall would probably get along great,” he jokingly muses aloud. Niall would get along well with anybody so long as food is involved. That’s not exactly a revelation or what truly matters right now in Louis’ ongoing innocent snooping about his ex’s life.

Over the past couple of weeks, the two of them have fallen into a tentative sort of coexistence that’s easy and open for the most part, yet at the same time, very controlled so as not to overstep. The two of them have gone from once knowing literally everything about one another to knowing almost nothing at all in the span of just a few years. It’s like being introduced to one another all over again except now they’re adults instead of kids so there are boundaries about what is and isn’t appropriate. Relationships and sex have somehow fallen onto the side of the latter. And, of course Louis wants to know about those things. Harry is his Omega whether they acknowledge it or not. Louis’ brain is simply wired to care way more than he should. He can’t help it.

“Not that it’s any of my business,” he begins after a pause. “Seriously, feel free to tell me to fuck off if I’m over the line,” Louis shrugs nonchalantly as if he isn’t dying to fucking know. “No pressure. It’s just uh- you and Liam…”

A little crease forms between Harry’s eyebrows as he listens to the semi-question. “…Me and Liam, what?”

Louis rolls his eyes at Harry’s innocent little frown. Jesus, he’s really going to make Louis spell it out.

“Well, nothing. I just get the feeling he’s an Alpha and obviously you’re an Omega so... I was just wondering if you two are friends as in friends, or like... friends,” he says with a suggestive raise of his eyebrows.

Louis knew he was pushing the limits by asking, but they are adults. Well, one of them is anyway, Louis realizes when Harry lets out a cackle so loud Louis’ sure the whole building just heard it.

“Absolutely not,” he reveals with a grimace as if he just licked a cactus. “Like, never ever.”  That knowledge is oddly comforting to Louis though he refuses to acknowledge the reasons why. “Why on Earth would you think that?” he snorts making Louis roll his eyes.  

“I don’t know. Maybe because you’re friends and you seem really close.”

“Oh, so how about you and Niall then? Any sexy late-night work sessions or Alpha/Beta office role playing you’re not sharing?” he teases letting out a fresh cackle when Louis makes a gagging sound around the lump in his throat imagining any of the above.

“Okay, fine. Point taken. No more small talk. Or best friend sex talk,” he grimaces when the image of him and Niall creeps back into his mind.

“Fine by me,” Harry snorts. “And for the record, you started it.”

And now Louis must live with the horrible mental consequences for the rest of his life. He has never regretted anything more. Except perhaps the speed with which he and Harry both sit upright when Niall suddenly pokes his head into the office to investigate.

“What the hell is going on back here? What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” they answer in unison with the straightest faces they can manage with Niall’s eyes narrowing at them in suspicion.

“Uh- Sorry, Niall. We’ll keep it down so you can work. Won’t happen again,” Harry promises with a smile convincing enough for Niall to drop the inquisition and fondly roll his eyes.

“Well, good. You’re scaring the folks in the lobby. It sounds like someone’s torturing hyenas,” he says before going back the way he came.

The two of them hold it together until he’s gone, laughing again albeit much quieter this time.

“Oh my god. Did you see his face when he looked in here?” Harry says pressing a hand against his mouth to stifle his laughter. When he removes it, it’s the rich color and soft lines of Harry’s face that Louis can’t stop looking at.

Harry catches him staring before he can pretend that he wasn’t, the bright amusement in his eyes morphing to something else when he blinks down at the floor with his cheeks a soft pink. It’s moments like this that remind Louis that no matter what, they’re connected to one another; like a rope linking each of their hearts that’s been stretched and torn and frayed over the years, and yet the core of it remains intact. It’s that single thread left in the middle that keeps Louis up at night wondering if Harry feels it too.

“Um… we should probably get back to work,” he suggests after a few beats of silence between them where Louis finally manages to tear his gaze away.

“Er- Sure, Haz- Harry. I- I meant Harry,” he apologizes with a wince. Though, his slip-up doesn’t seem to have upset his ex very much when he goes back to working almost immediately as if the nickname or the past fifteen minutes never happened.

Strange.

Chapter Text

It’s mid-afternoon the next day when Louis finally reaches the bottom of his inbox. He takes great pride in the little zero next to his inbox rather than the forty-three that had been there earlier, though his inbox doesn’t stay empty for long. He hardly even blinks before there’s a fresh message waiting for him; one that Louis pretends he didn’t see as he closes his laptop for the time being. It’s not like his email is going anywhere.

He lets out a little sigh, rubbing at his eyes that always start to grow tired around this point in the day. Some of that is due to the amount of time he spends looking at a screen, but most of it is down to the amount of sleep he’s been getting at night, or not getting in his case. For the length of time Harry’s been working on his big proposed plan of action for Louis to consider instead of signing a new contract with Nishi and his energy company, he expected to be a bit more desensitized to his presence, but no. Louis still dreams about him; still wakes up expecting to find Harry curled in his arms the way he used to, and he still feels his stomach fluttering each time they so much as lock eyes across the room. Though that last one has actually been much better today as Harry now has his own office half a corridor away from Louis’. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was the best option Louis could come up with. Not that it matters since Louis still makes up excuses to go see Harry, making his idea of separate offices futile.

After the hours Louis spent going through emails, he would rather eat vegan cheese than answer more, but he has a bit of time to kill before his upcoming meeting. Fifteen minutes isn’t long enough to do much before his guest arrives. He can’t even properly pester Niall under such constraints, but there is one person he could visit. Just to check in on how things are progressing.

The warm scent of cinnamon and honey grows stronger as Louis makes his way down the corridor. Harry’s office is only four doors down from his own so he doesn’t have to go far to have his lungs burning from the sweetness of it.  For a moment, he simply stands by the door breathing him in and fueling the next round of dreams that will undoubtedly plague him tonight before gently knocking.

“Come in,” says a deep voice on the other side of the door. When Louis opens it, Harry doesn’t look at all surprised to see him there.

“Hey.”

“Hello,” Harry grins from his desk that’s almost identical to the one in Louis’ office and stood in the same spot. This could be Louis’ office if he didn’t know any better. Except of course, Louis’ workspace has never felt so homey. Though he suspects that has nothing to do with the furniture.

“So, what are you working on?” Louis asks.

“Since you asked fifteen minutes ago? Pretty much the same thing,” he chuckles, but he doesn’t seem to mind all the little interruptions.

“May I come in?”

“I said that already. And plus, it’s your office. They’re all your offices technically,” Harry laughs.

“Are not,” Louis insists with a petulant roll of his eyes.

“Says the millionaire who owns the entire building and several more on other continents.”

Most of the time, Louis forgets he inherited more than just a successful career from his grandfather, but also the money that went along with it. Lucky for him, he has his lovely ex-boyfriend here to remind and tease him about it.

“Says the- the… shut up.”

Louis’ comeback wasn’t his greatest work, made clear by the way Harry bites down on a shit-eating grin. “Wow. Good one.” What’s annoying is Louis can’t even find him annoying when he’s smiling so hard. That always was a problem. Even when they were kids.

“Alright, alright. Enough about me.”

“You and your Scrooge McDuck fortune?” Harry snorts.

“My comfortable living...” Louis grins stubbornly. “And, yes. I want to hear more about you. Like… like uni for instance.” That’s one topic besides sex that the two of them have been avoiding like the fucking plague. You know, besides their everlasting blood connection with one another.

Leeds was such a sore topic even before Louis decided to apprentice with his Grandfather in London during the last half of his gap year and then eventually forgoing his and Harry’s original plan of doing uni together. That whole situation was a disaster. It destroyed them, but time heals all wounds. That was forever ago, so they should be able to talk openly about it now. Or at least attempt to.

“So, how was it? As amazing as we thought?” Louis asks when Harry doesn’t immediately begin detailing all the incredible things he did in Leeds.

“Er- I don’t know. Maybe. Probably…” Harry answers with a little shrug that makes Louis’ brow furrow. “I wouldn’t really know since I never actually went,” he explains.

“But- You got in. We both did and we were going to go in the Fall.” That was the main reason for all the fallout when Louis chose a summer in London over a summer with Harry on holiday, and now, seven years later, Louis finds out that neither of them even went?

The time he spent in London working with his grandfather was only supposed to be for a couple of months, but after that time passed and not a word spoken between him and Harry, Louis realized the uni he had originally chosen wasn’t even worth it anymore; not if they couldn’t be together. And so, he went with his next best choice though Harry would probably still argue that Louis’ decision was never really his own to make. Each day that Louis sits behind his big important desk, in this huge, privileged life that his grandfather practically groomed him for, he can’t help wondering if Harry was right all along.

“So… if not uni in Leeds, what did you do? What led you here to all this?” Louis asks, curious as to how the happy and blissfully undecided eighteen-year-old Louis once knew came to be the devoted, and honestly, remarkable activist now sitting before him.

“Well, I don’t know,” he grins to himself. “Lots of little things got me here, I suppose. Things I never would’ve expected.”

“Really? Like what?”

“Well, that summer we were meant to go to Australia on holiday pretty much changed everything for me. I went to Ghana instead. Helped build schools.”

“Wow. You always talked about doing that one day.”

“Yeah, I know. I always thought it was something I’d like to try and I turned out to love it. I was only supposed to be there for two months, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I was there almost half a year. Then, I heard about another project for clean water systems in Cambodia, so I went there. Guatemala after that to learn about Eco-Conservation… that one was over a year.”

“No fucking way,” Louis almost yells across from Harry even though he’s sitting less than a yard away. “Oh my God. I had no idea you’ve been to all those places! Done all those incredible things!” he continues gushing making Harry’s face go a bit pink.

“Well, I didn’t plan on it; all my ‘passion projects’ as my mum called them,” he fondly rolls his eyes. “Helping people just felt good and it was such a great distraction from… uh, from other things,” Harry says, blinking down at his hands and clearing his throat with a discomfort that Louis can feel in his chest because that’s ultimately what London was for Louis after they broke up; a desperately needed distraction.

“Well…” Louis says to break the silence. “Whatever the reason, you helped so many people. You changed lives. That’s incredible, Haz. You’re incredible,” Louis beams at him, only catching his mistake after he runs that last sentence back in his mind. “H- Harry,” he shakes his head at himself, blinking up at his ex when he’s softly corrected.

“Haz,” he says with his grin back at full power even with his cheeks still holding color in them. “O-Only if you’re comfortable, of course. It’s completely up to you.”

The name Haz has rolled off of Louis’ tongue as natural as breathing since the day they met. Nothing else could ever hope to measure up.

“Okay then. Haz,” Louis smiles. “And, that goes both ways, you know. Whatever you want to call me is fine.”

“Okay. Good,” Harry smirks. “Mr. McDuck, it is.”

Harry is only able to keep the smug look on his face a few seconds before Louis swipes a paperclip from the desk and flings it at him. However, Louis’ plan backfires when Harry picks the paperclip out of his hair and combines it with a dozen more to retaliate.

“How are you so much better at aiming!?” Louis shrieks, uselessly shielding himself with his arms.

“Maybe because I’m no longer twelve?!” Harry cackles just as something in the doorway makes him freeze.

“What the hell are you- Oh, it’s just you, Ni,” Louis laughs realizing they’re not in danger of being grounded as Harry’s innocent expression would suggest as he points right at Louis.

“It was him. Louis started it.”

“Wha-? You called me McDuck, you McLiar,” Louis snorts, aiming another rogue paperclip across the desk. For a moment, Niall seems lost for words looking between the two of them which is odd considering Niall never shuts up. “So, what’s up, Ni?”

“Uh… not much,” he says after a few beats of silence where he still looks massively confused. “I just came to let you know your one o’clock is here. I just showed her to your office.”

“Shit. I forgot about that meeting,” Louis hisses, standing up to prepare to sprint back down the corridor where he belongs and feeling a pair of green eyes on him the whole time. “Er- Sorry I’ve got to go, but rematch for our next office supply war, yeah?”

Harry cracks a new smile at that, nodding as if he’s looking forward to it as much as Louis. “Sure thing, Louis. Lou,” he quietly corrects himself. “See you.”

Louis half-expected Harry to call him Scrooge again, more than happy with the nickname status he’s reclaimed as he leaves Harry’s office.

“What was that all about?” Niall asks under his breath as soon as Louis’ in the corridor with him.

“What was what about?” Louis counters, finding himself unable to stop grinning the longer his friend stares him down like there’s something he’s not saying. “What?” Louis snorts, watching Niall sigh before finally cracking and revealing what’s on his mind.

“Alright, what I’m going to say might sound a little crazy to you…”

“As opposed to everything else you’ve ever said?” Louis teases, clearing his throat and schooling his features into seriousness when Niall gives him a flat look.

“I’m just saying, it might sound crazy because I know you and Harry broke up a long, long time ago and it was awful and you’re just working together professionally for the moment, but...”

“But, what?”

“Maybe once all this is done, you two can try it again.”

His best friend was right. That does sound crazy.

“Yeah, no. You’re out of your mind,” Louis laughs, blinking back when his attempt to enter his own office is blocked by Niall now standing in his path.

“And why not?” he scoffs. “From what I’ve seen, you’re already ten steps in that direction anyway. For all you know, this could be a second chance for you both.”

“Niall,” Louis sighs. “Harry and I are nothing like what you’re thinking. We’re just- I don’t know. Learning to understand each other again. As friends,” he clarifies before Niall can jump to conclusions like he does two seconds later anyway.

“You can’t stand here and deny that there’s still something there. I can feel it just watching you two,” Niall claims. “You said before that you loved him. I know that’s true because I can tell just by the way you look at him, but I can tell the same thing with him, Louis. There’s more there than you think.”

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Louis mutters remembering on day one how quickly Harry made the distinction that he is here for planet-saving purposes only. “This is all just work for him, Ni. Trust me, Harry’s not interested in more than that. At least, not with me.” Not anymore anyway.

Almost as soon as Louis thinks the words, his phone vibrates in his back pocket. Louis has a meeting to get to, but he commits to being a couple more seconds late when he glances at the screen and finds his first message from Harry Styles in over seven years.

They exchanged numbers over email two weeks ago just in case, but neither of them had utilized them until now. ‘Good luck in your meeting.’

Louis realizes Niall is reading over his shoulder around the same time Louis realizes that feeling in the pit of his stomach is butterflies.

“He’s not interested,” Niall parrots in a voice that sounds nothing like Louis’. “You sure about that?” he smirks, taking note of the stupid grin Louis can feel stretching across his face.

“Oh, shut up.”

“Wow. Good one,” his best friend mutters on his way back to the lobby.

*

From the very first time Harry was ever in heat, he could always tell it was coming long before it actually hit him. Just before, there’s always something about his skin that feels tighter than usual; pulled taut over his muscles like a drum over the tension he can feel building inside of him. The rate with which his blood heats up and courses through his veins makes him feel restless; heart racing in anticipation like it’s about to burst right through his chest. Kind of like Harry feels right now, panting against the coolness of his sheets as every inch of him flushes with heat. 

He groans into his pillow, feeling the force of everything washing over him at once. Harry’s sheets, already damp with sweat from the fever trapped under his skin, start to soak even more with the wetness spilling out of him and slipping down his thighs. He’s so hard that lying against his erection is painful, but not quite as unbearable as the arousal that suddenly rips through him leaving him open and raw with a sudden, desperate need to be filled.

For days, Harry could feel it coming; that lust for someone inside of him to stop the ache he feels each time his body clenches around nothing. He’s been in heat a total of five minutes now and it’s already too much, but that feeling starts to wane when he feels the bed dip on the other side and a pair of familiar hands carding through his damp hair and traveling the length of his spine.

“Babe? Lou?” Harry breathes, his voice breaking when he whines into his pillow from yet another spasm of his muscles contracting around emptiness.

A pair of lips brush against the shell of Harry’s ear causing him to shiver despite the warmth. “Shhh, love. I’m right here for you, Haz. I’m not leaving you.”

Just hearing those words come from his boyfriend’s mouth reassures him. Somewhere in his brain, past the thick haze of his heat, Harry knows every bit of what Louis said to be true. Louis loves him. They’ve loved each other since they were kids and that love has grown with them. Louis would never ever leave him. Especially with this being the first time that their heat and rut cycles have synched up since they both presented.

“Lou, please. I need you,” he whines. He sounds so desperate to keep his Alpha close, but that’s only because he is. The tiny hairs on the back of Harry’s arms and neck stood up the moment Louis entered the room bringing with him the thick, sweet haze of his scent that puts Harry’s entire body on edge even when he’s not in heat.

He can feel the tip of Louis’ nose against his skin; just behind his ear at first and then along his neck as Louis scents him with bated breaths. Arms tighten around Harry’s waist bringing Louis’ naked chest and hips flush with Harry’s back. The temperature in the room spikes along with Harry’s heart rate as Louis hardens between them, his knot getting slathered in the slick that Harry can’t stop from slipping out of him in anticipation.

Harry shoots up in bed at the sound of his morning alarm blaring somewhere under his duvet damp with sweat from the dream still playing behind his eyelids no matter how hard he squeezes them together. His skin is flushed and his heart is hammering against his chest. And although he’s not in heat and there’s absolutely no one in the room with Harry, he was so turned on that he can feel the little puddle of slick he’s now sitting in as a result, the aged bondmark over his left shoulder blade burning as much as it did the night Louis first put it there.

Harry can’t even remember the last time he had a dream as vivid and intense as that. Hell, he’d venture to say he’s never had a dream like that in his entire fucking life.

“Shit.” He pulls back his duvet, locating the source of the alarm still blaring. Harry grabs his phone and silences it, but it does nothing to stop the sound of his own teenage voice in his head begging Louis to knot him and Louis’ teenage, rut-heavy voice promising to do it.

He buries his face in his hands and groans before flopping back against his pillows. He can’t believe he’s having wet dreams at age twenty-five. What’s most insane is he can’t believe he’s having wet dreams about Louis. Still. Usually, that only happens when he’s about to be in heat which happens so rarely now that he’s been without his Alpha for so long. However, it’s not too hard to understand why his sleepy brain was stuck on his ex when Harry unlocks his phone to find the unfinished conversation the two of them were having late last night before they both fell asleep.

Their texts to one another are pretty standard; filled with jokes and dumb gifs that make Harry grin. Though not quite as much as he grins when he gets a new message wishing him good morning complete with a photo of Louis looking grumpier than ever running off about five hours of sleep.

‘I’m going to have to bathe in caffeine. I hope you’re happy.’

‘Oh, delighted. Make sure to scrub between your toes,’ Harry sends back.

And, speaking of caffeine and delight, at that moment, Harry receives another morning text from Liam asking if he wants soy, almond, or coconut milk in his ‘thank you’ latte. Harry almost forgot he’s spending the morning helping Liam plan his big nature conservation project for kids instead of heading straight to TSI. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing considering the dream he just had and the puddle he’s still sitting in.

‘Almond, please! And, thank you!’ Harry texts his best friends before hopping out of bed to go meet him. And shower of course because he’s fucking disgusting.  

Harry has to act fast a few hours later when he receives a series of pictures of Louis pretending to sleep in different places around his office that makes him laugh to himself… and also stumble over a raised tree root that he probably would’ve seen coming had he not been distracted by the sharp cut of Louis’ jaw or how good his skin looks against the shirt he’s wearing today.

“Ow,” a deep voice says in front of Harry after his little misstep causes him to step all over the backs of Liam’s shoes.

His best friend stops detailing the history of the shallow, litter-filed creek they’re walking along to face him, brow furrowing even further when he notices the phone in Harry’s hand and the dumb grin stuck on his face as he pretends he wasn’t looking at it.

“What are you doing back here?” Liam narrows his eyes at him.

“Hm? Me?” Harry frowns. “Nothing. Just walking. Surveying the creek just like you,” Harry assures him, but Liam’s eyes remain suspicious and locked on Harry’s phone. Of course, Harry trying to angle the phone out of Liam’s sight probably doesn’t help matters.

“Were you recording me again?” he demands, only growing more suspicious when Harry rapidly shakes his head.

“What? No,” Harry snorts. “Why on Earth would I do that?”

Liam can’t seem to think of any good reason, but that doesn’t really convince him otherwise. “Well, I don’t know why you think it’s funny to record me rambling about litter, but you were giggling at something behind my back. Let me see.”

“No way. There’s nothing here to see. It’s not you!” Harry exclaims, letting out a squawk when Liam lunges toward him to wedge the phone out of his hand. It’s at that exact moment that a new string of pictures comes through of the new CEO of TSI fake sleeping in what looks to be Harry’s office which should be empty today considering he’s not currently there.

 “I, uh... told you it wasn’t you,” Harry jokes as pictures of Louis continue to flood his phone.

The tone of it falls slightly flat when Liam looks up from the phone to look at Harry instead with a shit-eating ‘care-to-explain-how-you-and-the-ex-you-wanted-nothing-to-do-with-got-so-friendly’ smirk.

“Shut up,” Harry says as he makes a swipe for his phone, which Liam expertly yanks out of his reach.

“I didn’t say anything, but I think your ex just did,” Liam snorts, his expression becoming even more smug when Harry’s phone vibrates with a new text. “He says it’s boring there without you. Wants to know when you’re coming in so you two can finish up the invites for your wedding.”

“Fuck off. He did not,” Harry cackles. Liam finally relinquishes his phone and tosses it back to Harry. He catches it and immediately scrolls to find Louis’ new message that does not propose marriage of any sort, just as Harry suspected. However, the part about Louis missing him today seems to be true.

“My God, the smile you’re wearing right now,” Liam teases. “What’s all that about? You’re blushing.”

“I am not,” Harry quips back even though he can feel the blood rushing to his cheeks the longer Liam stares. “It’s not what you’re thinking, Li. It’s just work. And it’s been a long time since we’ve seen one another is all. It’s nice to chat a bit.”

“Nice to shamelessly flirt a bit, you mean,” his best friend says under his breath though Harry still catches it.  “But don’t worry. I’m not judging. Old flames are hard to kill sometimes.” It was supposed to be a joke, however it contained more truth than Liam realizes.

“Um, yeah. Flames... soulbonds. Both are relatively similar, I suppose,” Harry mutters back just as quietly. He can tell the exact moment Liam’s brain registers what he said because the dumb smirk falls right off his face.

“Wait. What?” he exclaims so loudly that a few birds in the trees above them flit away. “How the hell did I not know this? Who just casually forgets to mention they’re bonded to someone for life?”

Liam’s questioning makes Harry wince. He knew Liam finding out was going to be interesting.

“Uh... surprise?”

Liam sure looks surprised underneath the confusion slowly morphing to understanding the longer he stares at Harry. “So that’s why you were being so weird about seeing him again,” he surmises. “It’s not that you two are done, it’s because you two couldn’t ignore each other even if you tried.”

And, God, has Harry tried.

Their bond was their secret, but Harry’s mother realized what they’d done when their break up nearly killed him. Being apart from his bonded mate after knowing nothing else but him was like being ripped down the middle with his other half misplaced. He couldn’t go to uni like that. He could hardly even breathe which is why he practically ran to Ghana when he got the chance. He needed a break; a reprieve from the agony. He had to train his body to live without Louis despite his efforts to outrun the pain being futile. The bond that they share can’t be broken. That’s why they did it in the first place.

“How the hell do you do it? How have you done it?”

“Not very well, obviously,” he jokes with a half-hearted laugh. Harry feels whispers of their memories all the time. “Mostly, I just learned to ignore it.” Though, a few ghosts from the past still manage to seep in past the walls he built up around his heart to keep Louis out.

“But, do you want to ignore it? It sure doesn’t seem like it,” Liam says after a pause that leaves Harry’s brow even more furrowed than his best friend’s.

“Lou and I aren’t together like that anymore, Li. That ship sailed a long, long time ago,” Harry snorts. His amusement fizzles out when he realizes Liam’s not laughing with him.

“I know it’s over and for good reason it sounds like, but like you said, all that stuff that happened between you two was a long time ago. To me, it seems like it’s all in the past and maybe what you both needed was time?”

“I don’t think so. Trust me, there’s nothing between us. He doesn’t even feel that way about me.” Not anymore at least, he thinks just as a final picture arrives to his phone of Niall glaring at the camera that Louis obviously gave him no warning of before shoving it in his face. ‘Niall can’t smile without you. Also, that rhymes.’

Harry quickly texts back, promising to be there around lunchtime to continue building TSI’s Green plan which Harry plans to finalize and present to Louis any day now. Harry also promises to come in bearing both vegan and non-vegan snacks for everyone. When he looks up from his phone he’s met with a knowing smirk.

“Well, you might think there’s nothing there, but the messages, and the flirting, and the smile say differently,” Liam insists.

The smile?

Harry raises his hand to his lips, surprised the find them stretched so far across his face that his cheeks feel tight. He wonders how long he’s been doing that.

Chapter Text

It’s barely even nine o’clock when Louis gets home from work, and yet he’s so tired he practically drags himself through the door.

All he wants once he locks himself inside his flat is a good sleep, a hot shower, and some food; not necessarily in that order. He kicks off his shoes and loosens his tie until he’s able to pull it over his head. It lands somewhere on the floor near his other ties from the week; ties he’ll pick up sometime that he’s not starving to death.

His kitchen is dark when he steps inside of it, but even without the lights on he’s able to locate the fridge and the beer he’s been longing for ever since his last meeting today with TSI’s legal team that ran over nearly an hour. The coolness of it feels good as it flows down his throat; almost good enough to make Louis smile, though, not quite as much as he smiles feeling his phone vibrate in his back pocket.

It could be anybody; Niall telling him he forgot something or somebody from legal who had a last point to bring up in the meeting that wouldn’t end. Luckily, it’s Harry just as Louis suspected. And the picture he sends Louis of him grocery shopping for meatless meats makes him laugh just as much as he anticipated. He’s holding up a package of vegan steak reading ‘Discover the ‘OH!’ in faux’. That slogan is hilarious (also incredibly concerning), however it’s the half interested, half bewildered expression on Harry’s face that makes Louis splutter into his beer.

‘Sounds promising,’ Louis texts back. ‘Use Niall as a guinea pig. You have my full support.’

Louis can still feel himself grinning as he waits for the witty response Harry’s sure to send his way, however the text never comes. His phone starts vibrating with a call instead making his stomach do a little flip.

“Er- Hello?” Louis answers cautiously, certain the call from his ex was an accident until his amused voice comes through the line.

“I thought we wanted Niall to actually like me?”

It’s a little weird hearing Harry’s laugh over the phone after all these years, but he falls back into their old bantering rhythm as if they’re kids all over again.

“Well, he’s been particularly crabby lately. Discovering the OH! might do him some good,” Louis jokes, taking another sip of his beer as he continues rummaging through his kitchen for something that could count as dinner.

Harry finds him funny, snorting quietly into the phone since he’s still around people. After that, he goes silent and Louis can’t hear much besides background noise.

“What are you doing? Are you actually buying the orgasm meat?”

A cackle erupts from Harry’s end of the line, but it’s not quiet or polite like the snort from earlier.

“No! Of course not,” Harry says. “I’m buying things to make a nice respectable salad. No orgasms shall be discovered as a result.”

“Well, I don’t know. I think it depends on the size and girth of the cucumber.”

Harry walked right into that one. And Louis walked right into the ear-splitting laugh Harry makes in his ear.

“Oh my god.”

“Haz, you’re in public. Step away from the produce,” Louis playfully chastises him.

“Why on Earth did I call you of all people? I should’ve known better,” Harry teases through another laugh. Louis was kind of wondering why Harry chose him to talk to as well, but he’s glad that he did. “So, what are you having for dinner?” he casually segues away from penis jokes.

Louis raises a brow at the contents of his refrigerator which mostly consists of leftovers that have been there so long they’re in danger of growing legs.

“Erm... I’ll probably just make something quick,” Louis lies, pulling up his delivery app as he speaks.

“Huh,” Harry says thoughtfully, making Louis pause.

“What?”

“Nothing. I just remember how cooking wasn’t always your favorite thing,” Harry fondly chuckles. “Hey, do you remember that time-?”

“I nearly burned down my mum’s kitchen?” Louis still has a scar to prove it.

“She pretended to be so mad, but she thought it was hilarious,” he snorts. “She called my mum and I could hear them both laughing from my room.”

Louis remembers. Vividly. “How was I supposed to know that water makes grease fires worse? That makes no sense!”

“That’s common knowledge, Cooking 101!”

Louis fights his own laughter at Harry cackling his head off at his expense. “Yeah, yeah. Go on and laugh, though I’ve probably done stupider things.”

“Probably,” Harry agrees with a little too much confidence. “But, I doubt you’ve ever done something sweeter,” he says making Louis’ stomach flutter unexpectedly.

“Well, if memory serves, the food wasn’t even that great,” Louis chuckles at himself. That night was his first attempt at cooking an entire meal, let alone the romantic dinner for two he was aiming for. He ended up burning everything and had to resort to plan B, so he’s glad it was the effort behind it all that counted more for Harry than anything else.

“Nonsense. Those grilled cheeses were amazing. Five out of five stars, easily.”

“Liar,” Louis snorts, making an indignant sound when Harry fires back with ‘kitchen arsonist’.

They both erupt into laughter with Louis hardly able to finish off his beer before absentmindedly tossing the bottle into the recycling bin under the sink he now uses for real rather than as storage. It’s a fairly new development which he knows is the direct influence of the person he’s on the phone with right now; a habit that has bled over from work where Harry strives to be the change he wants to see. Louis admires him and his commitment to leave as little negative impact on the planet as possible while he’s on it and also his commitment to educating others to do the same. Louis has even taken tiny but significant steps to lessening his own economic footprint like using reusable Keurig cups for his morning coffee and walking to places rather than driving whenever appropriate.

He’s pretty sure Harry has even taken notice of his efforts to do better. He grinned to himself for nearly half an hour the day Louis came into work with a reusable water bottle. Harry had claimed that Louis was imagining the proud, sparkly-eyed way he was looking at him and it was nothing, however, it sure looked like something to Louis. It felt like something too. His stomach has hardly settled down since.

Louis’ back to zombie status the next day after spending the night before wondering how on Earth it kept getting so late without him or Harry saying goodnight. Louis fell asleep with his phone pressed to his ear, which he attributes one-hundred percent to the dream he had about his ex that left him lying in a pool of sweat and cum. The last time that happened, Louis was practically still a kid, but the star of his wet dreams hasn’t changed. It’s still Harry; has always been him, which was never a problem back then since they were together. They aren’t anymore. Louis knows this, however, his body has always had a hard time fully accepting it. Like a record stuck on loop, he dreams about all the ruts and heats they went through together. None more so than the one that left them bonded forever and always.

Even now the mark over Louis’ chest tingles, making it impossible for Louis to stop thinking about it. To stop thinking about him; his ex Omega who’s back in Louis’ life for professional purposes only. But, it’s difficult to remember that fact when most thoughts in Louis’ mind insist on being anything but.  

Niall comes into Louis’ office the next day to give him an update on the partnership negotiation TSI is still in with Mr. Nishi and his energy company. Louis needs to make a decision about that at some point as energy is kind of a necessity for his company to operate, however, he also promised Harry that he’d hold off on signing another contract agreement with one of the largest emission’s companies there is so he can consider the alternative to further destroying the Earth and everything on it. A month ago, he would’ve called complete bullshit on all of that, however it’s hard to call bullshit on someone who’s so cute taking up half of Louis’ desk with all his papers and reports as if he doesn’t have his own office to take over.

Louis stops scrolling through emails he doesn’t currently have the attention span to answer to watch Harry work across from him instead. He’s so beautiful even when he’s muttering to himself and frowning from concentration. His hair keeps falling down into his face even though he’s swept it back about a million times, but Louis likes it better that way. It reminds him of Harry’s unruly curls from the past that Louis couldn’t keep his fingers out of even as a kid. He has even more of an urge to touch it now. He grins just looking at Harry. Grins even more at his quirky t-shirt of the day that simply states ‘Don’t go to SeaWorld’ in giant red letters.

Harry glances up from whatever he’s scribbling. He catches Louis staring but he doesn’t seem to mind it, his dimples appearing from all the attention.

“Yes? May I help you?” he grins.

“Maybe,” Louis grins back. “What’s the story with your shirt? Is there a problem with SeaWorld?” Louis blinks in surprise when Harry rolls his eyes with disdain.

“A problem?” he snorts.

For as long as Louis has known Harry, he’s been on a crusade to make the world a better place. It started with a school assignment about recycling when he was eleven, then vegetarianism, and world activism instead of uni. Louis isn’t at all surprised as Harry tells him all about SeaWorld and the new calf they ‘rescued’ only to put it in captivity, and his never-ending quest to get them to see reason. Louis grows more impressed with him by the day. He’s never seen someone more passionate. Or more beautiful.

“There’s nothing you can’t do, is there?” he asks after Harry tells him about all the calls and the letters he’s written to try and make a change.

“Well, obviously it hasn’t made much of a difference,” he mutters. “Mai is still at SeaWorld and as far as I can tell, they have no intention of moving her like me and hundreds of others have asked.”

He looks disappointed by this. Like the things he has done don’t matter when they do because Harry cares. Most importantly, he tries. That’s way more than most people can say.

"You really are something,” Louis grins. When Harry meets his gaze, his whole face is hot. Lately, he blushes whenever Louis so much as smiles at him, but it doesn’t usually last as long as it has today, or force Harry to gently rotate his left shoulder as if it’s tingling the same way that Louis’ chest has been ever since he woke up.

The next day, Louis waltzes into work early with a tray of lattes in his hand. Niall’s face lights up when Louis sets one down on his desk.

“Ooh, treats? For me, the best assistant in the world?” his friend beams. “You totally should have.” Louis fondly rolls his eyes as he drops a breakfast burrito onto Niall’s desk as well. “I love you. Have I told you that lately?”

“Not nearly enough,” Louis teases. “Hey, I got some stuff for Haz too so I’m just going to run back and-”

“Uh, he’s not here. Didn’t he tell you? He said he’s not coming in for a few days. Something about working from home.”

“Er- Oh.” Louis blinks down at the vegan latte and breakfast he picked up especially for him, certain he probably looks as disappointed as he feels finding out Harry won’t be around to keep them company. Louis has gotten so used to Harry being here first thing to annoy him that he’s a bit taken aback by his absence. “Right. I... guess I missed that.”

“Well, he just let me know about an hour ago. He sent an email. I’ll forward it to you.”

Louis accepts the offer, thanking Niall before heading back to his office with both his and Harry’s orders in hand. He sits down behind his desk with the mountain of paperwork he guesses he’ll have plenty of attention to dedicate to finishing today without Harry here.

He can’t believe Harry didn’t tell him he wasn’t coming in. Not that he has to of course, but Louis thought they had gotten to a point where they could tell each other little things again. He checks his phone just to make sure there’s not an unread message or missed call but finds nothing. All that does is make Louis worry so he checks his email next which is flooded with unread messages, however the only one Louis pays any attention to is the very first one sent by Harry and forwarded by Niall.

‘Hey, just wanted to let you know I’m not coming in today and probably the next few days. I’ll be working from home if you need anything. See you next week,’ –H

It would seem from his email that Harry is at least alive, so that’s a huge relief. He’s probably just not feeling well or maybe he’s taking some time off to relax. Which would make sense, however, Harry seemed perfectly fine yesterday. He certainly wasn’t ill enough to warrant being gone the rest of the week, but his heat definitely could. 

That has to be it. It would explain his absence today, the flushed look of his skin the past few days, and also the heady, more potent quality to his scent lately that Louis thought he was imagining.

Louis squeezes his eyes shut and feels his heart begin to race at the mere thought of his Omega in heat. His body responds immediately, which is exactly why Louis has always tried his best to not think about it; about him and Harry and the way their bodies yearn for one another regardless of the distance they put between them. But with the way his bondmark is currently burning with the knowledge that somewhere out there Harry needs him, it’s nearly impossible for him to think about anything else.

‘Hey. I was worried when I got here this morning. Are you alright? Do you need anything? Is there something I can do?’

Louis sends the text with the hope that Harry will answer him, but he knows he probably won’t. They’ve been broken up a long time. They’ve been going through ruts and heats on their own for years at this point, but during those times, they weren’t friends like they are now; they weren’t so close that Louis could contact him in the moments where they need each other the most. He’s not sure how the hell he’s supposed to make it through the week without him, and it pains him to think of Harry trying to do the same thing right now because of decisions they made years ago. All he wants is to be with him.

*

‘Hey. I was worried when I got here this morning. Are you alright? Do you need anything? Is there something I can do?’

Harry’s grip tightens around his phone each time he reads the message Louis sent asking Harry three of the most frustrating questions in the world. Is he alright? Harry is literally drenched in sweat right now and writhing on his bed so hard that the sheets have gotten all twisted up. Louis asked if he needs anything when there’s only one thing Harry can think of that would give him some relief from his body painfully clenching in on itself in vain; that would ease the ache he feels every second that he’s not being filled in the way he so desperately needs but can’t achieve on his own. And as for the last thing Louis asked him, it’s a dangerous question because all Harry wants more than to feel alright again, and even more than to be knotted, is the desire to have an Alpha here with him; his Alpha who feels better than any toy ever could and who knows Harry and his body better than any other soul on this Earth because theirs share a bond that can’t be broken.

He reads the message again and even though his first instinct is to respond to Louis, he doesn’t do it. He won’t talk to Louis during his heat; he can’t for the simple reason that his desperation has destroyed every last drop of his willpower he’s built up for the past seven years.

With a whine into his pillow, Harry forces himself to ignore the questions his Alpha asked him for fear of calling and begging Louis to come to him. With his blood so hot and coursing through his veins, it’s hard to remember why that would be such a bad thing. To give in. To allow their bodies to do what they’re meant to do and to finally have the closeness they’ve been denied all these years. Harry can feel slick running down his thighs at the mere thought of it, and even though his body is screaming at him to make it happen, he resists.

With great difficulty, Harry abandons his phone by tossing somewhere it can’t tempt him. It lands across the room with a soft thud meaning Harry would have to go digging through the piles of clothes on his floor to find it; something he doesn’t have a chance in hell of actually doing while his heat keeps him preoccupied.

Another wave of arousal washes over him leaving him trembling from head to toe against his mattress despite the heat emanating from him. It hits him a second time with more force, his body demanding what it wants. The only thing that will make it stop is yielding so Harry grabs the dildo lying next to him and slides it through his own slick before pushing it inside of himself. His muscles contract and release around it and Harry’s first thought is mild relief. However, he can’t shake the thought that crosses his mind immediately afterwards; it’s not Louis. Though he really, really wishes it could be.

It’s days later when Harry cracks open his eyes and notices that his skin is no longer a million degrees hotter than usual and that his seemingly permanent erection that had been so painfully tender has finally gone away. Thank God.

He groans as he slowly sits up in bed and his muscles throb all over; the inevitable aftermath of spending nearly a week getting himself off. He’s drenched in the stale scent of dried sweat and cum, he’s starving, and frankly, he’s exhausted. But, even as gross, shaky, and worn out as he is, he can still feel a little bit proud of himself because no matter how desperate he was or how much he fucking wanted to, he did not call Louis. It’s a miracle he made it through the week alive.

Generally, Harry aims to cut down on his water usage by keeping his showers short, however, given the circumstances, he allows himself an extremely long and extremely thorough shower. Afterwards, and after a recuperation meal big enough to feed a small army, he starts to feel like himself again rather than the insatiable beast that he was.

His work email makes him cringe when he looks at it because in just a few short days his inbox has become mountain-sized. Thanks to his impromptu heat, he’s severely behind on TSI’s clean energy plan that he’s been working on so hard. The ideal situation would be for Louis to love it and to choose that over his pending re-sign deal with Nishi Energy; a deal that would just perpetuate the harmful way things have been done at TSI for the past fifty years. Things could be so different with a new CEO like Louis if only he’s willing. Technically, Harry’s presentation should be finished and ready to present any day now. But, at this rate, he’ll need at least an extra week. And then on top of all that there’s the Coleman’s green energy progress that Harry needs to check up on, and Audrey, Harry’s boss, who's eager to get him started on yet another big project as soon as possible.

He’s working against time, Mr. Nishi, and his own hormones that have the worst timing ever.

Harry’s phone is bursting with unread texts as well, though nobody seemed to be overly worried about him going off grid for a few days. As an Omega that happens sometimes so people like his boss and also Liam know what to expect, however Louis must have forgotten what it’s like because he checked on Harry more than anyone.  

Harry rereads Louis’ first message that had him contemplating showing up at TSI in the middle of his heat just so he could be knotted the right way. Somehow, he resisted and got his phone out of his own sight, meaning he missed all the small, daily messages Louis sent.

‘Hey. I hope you’re alright. Work sucked without you in case you were wondering.’

‘Morning. I picked up three coffees again. I’m an idiot.’

‘Oh my God. I know you probably won’t see this, but I just had the most awkward meeting ever I wish I could tell you about. Also, Niall’s annoying.’

‘I saved one and a half polar bears today by biking to work instead of driving and it’s all your fault.’

‘Wish it would be next week already. What am I supposed to do with my entire desk all to myself?’

‘I’m bored.’

And finally, ‘I lied. I just miss you, Haz.’

Harry rereads the last text again and again, causing butterflies to erupt from the pit of his stomach because the truth is, Harry missed him too. He wants nothing more than to see Louis and hear all about his awkward meeting, what Niall did to annoy him this time, and who ended up drinking all the extra coffees Louis bought each morning. Harry wants to hear about it all and he wants to be there with Louis when he does. He’d go right now if he could. It just sucks that all his work and life responsibilities have pretty much been at a standstill for the past five days so emails and things with his boss need to be taken care of first.

It’s nearly sundown when Harry looks up from his desk at The Green Switch to find his best friend standing in front of his desk with empathetic eyes.

“Still going?” he asks.

“Unfortunately,” Harry sighs. When he got to work this morning, he thought he’d be here a few hours tops before heading to TSI. Somehow those few hours have turned into a whole day and from the looks of it, it’s not ending anytime soon.

“Here,” Liam says as he drops a hot drink and a bag of something that smells delicious onto his desk. “I got you some coffee. Also, some food. You’ve barely eaten since you got here.”

That’s because Harry hasn’t had the time to, but he appreciates Liam checking in on him.

“Thanks, Li. I’ll take a break in a few minutes.”

“You realize you said that about two hours ago, right?”

“I know, I know,” Harry says before routinely opening, reading, and responding to yet another email. He moves on to the next while his best friend continues chastising him for his lack of time management. However, Harry stops listening the moment he opens a letter from SeaWorld that begins with ‘Thank you’ instead of a gentle letdown or rejection.

He frowns at the letter informing him of the large, anonymous contribution made in his name towards a sea sanctuary near SeaWorld, and also their decision to finally honor Harry’s requests to release Mai the calf from captivity.

“They- They’re actually moving her,” he breathes in disbelief.

It’s the one thing Harry has wanted all this time, but it doesn’t even sound real.

Liam realizes Harry is no longer listening to his lecture on the importance of balanced mealtimes and comes to read over his shoulder. “Who’s moving? And who’s they? What are you talking a- holy shit.”

“I know,” Harry says as the letter answers all of Liam’s questions for him.

“You did it. Holy shit,” he repeats when he’s done.

“I know!” Harry grins, hardly able to contain it.

“And where the hell did all that money come from? Like, what super rich, socially-informed contacts do you have that just so happen to have 1.5 million lying around?” Liam asks, brow unfurrowing when he seems to think of a person who might fit that description. “Wait. You don’t think this was-?”

“Louis?” It must have been. Who else?

Liam seems to come to the same conclusion, but he still sounds a bit skeptical. “I mean, everyone knows he could, but there’s no way that he actually would though... right?”

Wrong. Because, he did.

“I- I can’t believe it.” Harry talks about his beliefs and his passions a lot. He told Louis about all the letters he’s written and all the rejections he’s received in return, and sure, he thought Louis listened. Harry just hadn’t realized that he genuinely cared too; cares. “This is insane,” he laughs, still half in shock from how incredible this is. “I... I have to thank him. I need to find him and tell him how much this means.”

“Something tells me he already knows,” Liam smiles knowingly, turning Harry’s stomach to butterflies just thinking about it.

“Shit. It’s getting late though,” he notes after a quick glance at the time. But, if he hurries, he might be able to catch him. “You think he’s still there?” Harry asks, heart racing as he happily shuts his laptop and stands up from his desk after his best friend’s chuckled, ‘Only one way to find out.’

*

For Louis to have come into work early and to be leaving so late, he didn’t get very much done. Even as he’s closing his office door behind him, he’s doing so while balancing the million things he needs to take home to work on there, though it’s unlikely that a change in location will improve Louis’ ability to focus. He’s been taking things home for the past week and he has felt lost for just as long.

He spots Niall still working at his desk in the lobby and wishes him a good night. His friend gives him an empathetic grin in return that makes Louis acutely aware that he hasn’t been doing that as much lately.

“See you tomorrow,” Louis says with a grin that probably looks as tight as it feels.

“See you tomorrow,” Niall replies. “And, you never know... maybe Harry will be back then too,” he offers with a shrug. Louis hopes so. Every morning that he walks into TSI he hopes it will be the day that Harry returns, but so far it hasn’t been. He’ll be back at some point. Louis knows that. He just wasn’t prepared to miss him for this long. If he’s honest, he’s not sure how he managed it for the past seven years or how he let the greatest man in the world walk right out of his life. Louis was a young and stupid idiot who should’ve fought harder for him; for them. He now realizes they should’ve never broken up, but he can’t change it. He can only try to be better moving forward, and that starts with admitting when he misses his Omega more than words can say whenever he’s gone.

He could say all that to Niall, but something tells him that his best friend is already aware when his soft grey eyes go even softer in the silence between the two of them.

“Don’t stay here too late, yeah?” Louis says, grinning a bit when Niall quips back with a joking, ‘Be more bossy, yeah?’ as Louis continues on through the lobby.

He makes it to the elevator across the room, however it takes forever to arrive, which is odd given the late hour. Most everyone has usually gone home by now so there’s no wait. But, he finds that the small delay in Louis’ plan to leave is well worth it when the elevator finally does arrive at his floor, bringing with it the person who fills his stomach with butterflies and his heart with warmth the moment they lock eyes.

“Haz. You’re back,” he grins, so relieved to have Harry standing before him that he releases the deep breath he feels like he’s been holding since Harry left.

Harry nods at Louis’ observation, his dimples punctuating his beautiful smile when he steps out of the elevator and makes a similar observation. “And you’re still here. It’s late so I thought I might’ve missed you,” he explains, causing Louis’ heart to skip several beats when he continues with, “I’m really glad I didn’t.”

For a long time, neither of them says anything which is strange considering Louis had so much he wanted to tell him this past week. He even had a list so he wouldn’t forget the things Harry would find most interesting and the funniest things to make him laugh. But, now that he’s finally here, all Louis can focus on his how completely gorgeous he is and how good it feels to be standing in his light.

“Long day?” Harry asks to break the silence.

“Sort of,” Louis nods in answers. “You?”

“Yeah. Same. I was in my other office. I had planned to come by earlier, but-” he begins apologetically.

“No, Haz. I understand you’re busy with other things.” Harry has many projects. Transforming Tomlinson Steelworks is just one of them. “I’m sure your other commitments are just as important to you as what you’re doing here.” 

“They are,” Harry agrees stepping forward with a soft smile that nearly turns Louis’ legs to jelly. “However, they’re not as important to me as thanking you.”

For a moment, Louis can’t even think of anything that he’s done worth thanking him for with his lungs running off a constant supply of Harry’s scent. He can still smell traces of Heat rolling off his skin, sending chills up and down Louis’ limbs with each breath.

“What you did, Lou... I can’t thank you enough,” his ex continues by gently taking Louis’ hand in his and giving it a squeeze. “I don’t think I can ever repay you.”

Slowly he begins to recall the letter he wrote to try and nudge SeaWorld into listening to his ex. Also, the money he sent along with it to nudge them a little more. Clearly, one of the two worked.

“D-Don’t. I don’t want you to pay me back... that’s not why I did it,” Louis manages between the rush of their fingers lacing together as effortlessly as before and the growing urge he has to kiss the pink lips before him.

“Then why did you do it?” he implores with his emerald eyes fixed right on Louis’ blue ones.

There were lots of reasons why Louis wanted to help Harry’s cause; the main one being Louis’ hatred of not being able to help him when he needed it the most. All this time Harry’s been away, Louis wanted nothing more than to go to him and be with him during his heat. Knowing that he couldn’t and that he shouldn’t was agonizing, but still. He wanted to be able to do something for him. 

Louis doesn’t know where to begin explaining that or if Harry would be okay knowing just how difficult it was for him to stay away. And he opens his mouth to let the jumble of confusing thoughts come out, but thankfully, he’s stopped by Harry releasing his hand to smile at someone over Louis’ shoulder.

“Hey, Ni!”

Louis turns to see his assistant approaching the exit with his belongings all packed. “Welcome back, H,” he beams back, his expression turning amused when he notices how nervous Louis looks. “Mate, breathe. He’s right here,” he chuckles. “Have some food. Better yet, have some food with each other. I’m sure you’ve got loads to catch up on after a week of not being conjoined pains in my arse.” Harry at least finds Niall hilarious, snorting as he steps into the elevator he doesn’t even have to wait for thanks to them. “Goodnight,” his friend salutes them, making Louis roll his eyes. When the elevator door closes on him, Louis doesn’t miss him.

“Sorry about him. Told you he’s been a wreck without you.”

“That’s okay,” Harry laughs. “I missed him too. Both of you,” he admits bringing back the butterflies from before. 

With Niall gone and apologized for, they fall into another silence that feels charged with nerves and the knowledge that they’re the only people here.

“So, unsurprisingly, Niall mentioned food... Are you hungry? We could grab some dinner like he said,” Louis suggests after he becomes hyper aware of Harry seeming to wait for Louis to say something first.

“Yes!” he answers almost before Louis can even finish asking, but he quickly backtracks, sheepishly biting down on his grin. “I mean, I’d like that a lot. Us having dinner together.”

Louis would like that too. They haven’t shared a meal outside of work since they were eighteen. He’s excited for a second chance at it.

“Alright then. We’ll go to dinner together,” Louis smiles back, noting the similarly excited yet slightly concerned light in Harry’s eyes. “And I don’t want to worry about having vegan options,” Louis adds to reassure him. “I know a place we can walk to. It’s really good.”

Harry’s eyebrows raise a couple of centimeters as he fights an amused grin. “You know a place with great vegan? You’re afraid of chickpeas,” he snorts making Louis fight a laugh of his own.

“For the last time, I am not afraid of them I just choose to avoid them,” he clarifies with a grimace. “They look slimy.”

“Right. That explains the way you gasped when some accidentally got added to your salad a few weeks ago.”

That was a perfectly good chicken salad ruined and he was starving. Harry’s lucky he didn’t cry. Niall’s lucky he didn’t swipe his instead.

“Alright, alright. I may have a slightly above average aversion to chickpeas. Do you want to laugh at me or go to The Green Plate?”

That shuts Harry right up, his expression going serious at the mere mention of the restaurant.

“The Green Plate? Seriously?”

“Yep,” Louis answers proudly. “Five-star reviews across the board. The best vegan in the city.” Louis presses the button for the elevator to return, spluttering a laugh at the look of disbelief on Harry’s face.

“You actually read reviews for vegan restaurants and remembered all the good ones?” Harry chuckles, as he and Louis step into the returned elevator.

“Well, I couldn’t be completely unprepared for an evening like this with you, now could I?”

Harry looks more impressed with Louis than ever, asking one more question before the elevator doors close.

“So... does that mean you were expecting a night like this?”

“Nope. Course not,” Louis shrugs. And it’s true he thinks as the plunge from the elevator sends his stomach into an even deeper frenzy. No, he wasn’t expecting anything like this to happen, but he was really, really hoping.

*

Ever since the ride down from Louis’ office on the twentieth floor, Harry has been on pins and needles; his stomach so fluttery he hardly even touched the giant plate of spaghetti and vegan meatballs he ordered. He was too distracted by Louis and the color of his eyes, and how comically wide they grew when he tried roasted chickpeas for the first time and realized he’s been missing out. It felt like they’d stepped into a time machine and they were teenagers again. Things were just that easy and the night was perfect. Even a couple of hours later when they stepped out of The Green Plate to find it pouring rain.

“Want to make a run for it?”

Harry’s heart makes a lurch when Louis turns to him beneath the small awning they’re crowded under so close that Harry can count the freckles at the apples of his cheeks that generally go unnoticed by people, but Harry has been absolutely obsessed with them since he was a child. He’s so engrossed in the faint pattern of them stretched across Louis’ nose that he nearly misses everything he says next. 

“Alright, so, it took us about ten minutes to get here, if we run back we could probably make it in half the time,” Louis strategizes as he gestures at the now rain-soaked street that led them here. “Or, if you hate that hastily thought up plan, we could just get an Uber and then I could drop you off wherever you need to go; also known as the boring way.”

The non-boring way sounds pretty good to Harry given the short distance they’d have to go to get back to TSI. However, having to end their night before they’re ready due to a bit of rain once they get there makes Harry suggest an alternative.

“So, is your place close?” he asks over the mighty rumbling from above that makes them both jump.

“Er- Yeah, I live pretty close. Closer to here than TSI,” Louis answers once they both stop laughing at themselves for letting thunder startle them. “Um... do you think we should go there instead?” Louis poses his question as a decision for Harry to make for the two of them, but he can’t help but notice the anxious yet hopeful way he bites at his bottom lip as he awaits Harry’s answer.

“I think we should wait out the storm there if you do,” Harry shrugs as if he’s not already completely sold on the idea of spending more time with Louis. He kind of doesn’t want this night to end. 

“Alright, then,” Louis grins just as another clap of thunder rattles the ground beneath their feet. “My place it is. Try to keep up,” he teases before placing his workbag over his head and charging into the downpour as if he has a chance in hell of beating Harry who hasn’t lost a foot race to Louis Tomlinson since hitting his first growth spurt at thirteen.

They arrive at Louis’ flat dripping wet, laughing, and in the midst of an age-old debate on how Harry’s win is only conditional because he touched base first and Louis is the actual winner because he had to tell Harry where base was in the first place. They’ve been having this argument for years; ever since Louis learned what the hell conditional means and decided it was a great way to preserve his ego as the fastest between the two of them despite his legs being the shortest. 

“You know I won!” Harry exclaims inside the corridor. “I got here first!”

“Yeah, right,” Louis scoffs back. “On a technicality. There was a puddle!”

“That you chose to run through!” Harry snorts. “Oh, I’m sorry. It was probably a ‘conditional’ puddle so you didn’t see it. Makes perfect sense.” Louis tries his best not to laugh at his own logic being thrown back at him and fails. However, when he meets Harry’s gaze again his expression is suspiciously mischievous instead of amused. “Now what?” Harry fondly rolls his eyes. “Was there conditional quick-sand that also slowed you down? Perhaps a conditional anvil that dropped from the sky?”

His ex only continues to smirk, blue eyes filling with mirth the way they do when he knows something that others don’t.

“What if I told you this door we're standing in front of is only a conditional base?”

At first, Harry laughs at Louis’ latest attempt to steal his victory, but then he looks at the numbers 132 above the door and the smug expression on Louis’ face and starts to question if he touched base after all.

“You didn’t. You wouldn’t,” Harry accuses as Louis gives a nonchalant shrug.

“Why else would we still be standing out here?”

He’s right. Louis hasn’t even tried to unlock the door yet, and the reason why is obvious when he suddenly lunges for the door beside it and touches it before Harry can even get there.

“WHAT?! In what universe is that fair?! That’s cheating!”

“No, that’s called outsmarting my long-legged opponent. Blaming a puddle is cheating.”

Sounds like complete and utter bullshit, but at this point in their lives, Harry’s used to it. Not that it matters. They both know who really won.

Now that they’re at Louis’ actual flat, he unlocks the door and kindly holds it open for Harry to walk through. The place is enormous from what Harry can see, though he doesn’t go too far from fear of wetting anything else with rain still dripping from his hair and clothes.

“Uh- I’ll go grab us some towels. I’ll be right back,” Louis promises as he toes off his shoes. He shuffles away leaving behind a trail of watery footprints on the hardwood.

Harry’s left alone in the entrance of Louis’ living room and also next to the kitchen where there’s a used mug on the counter for every night of the week that Louis needed tea before bed or first thing in the morning. Not much has changed there. Or in the amount of take-away Louis eats on a daily basis, but the way he’s disposing of it definitely takes Harry by surprise.

His old garbage bin has been emptied, overturned, and replaced with some fancy bin with receptacles for paper, plastic, glass, cans, regular garbage, and compost. There’s a recycling cheat sheet next to it that makes Harry smile

 when he moves closer to investigate. All of the bins seem to be in use except for the compost one at the end which Harry would assume is the most foreign to Louis. He also seems confused about what to do with all the tea bags he’s yet to dispose of as they’re just lying on the countertop, but he’s so proud of Louis for trying even this much. 

The sound of footsteps alerts Harry to someone else in the room, but it’s Louis’ scent tinged with fresh rain that makes Harry turn around. This whole place smells like him; everything from the air to the clean, white towel Louis hands him. Harry’s heart thuds a little faster in his chest from the familiarity of it, but Louis’ soft, towel-dried hair and the lazy outfit he’s now wearing instead of his work clothes aren’t really helping to steady it.

“So, I got you a towel. Also, a change of clothes for now. I figured I can just throw your things in the dryer so they’ll be ready by the time you leave.”

Louis’ scent doubles in potency when Harry accepts the joggers and t-shirt that came straight from his bedroom. His skin tingles just imagining wearing them.

“Thanks,” Harry grins, wondering if he’s imagining the way Louis’ eyes seem to follow each movement of his lips.

“Er- Of course. Don’t mention it,” Louis says a couple of beats late, forcing himself to take a step back and meet Harry’s gaze.

It falls quiet between them again as Harry becomes more and more aware of the water rolling down his back. “So, to get out of these clothes, is there somewhere you’d like for me to...”

“Oh, right. Shit,” Louis laughs with a shake of his head. “You’re still soaking wet. I’m sorry. Um, either of the guestrooms is fine. You can also use my room if you want. I don’t mind.”

“You’re sure?” Harry checks since Louis looks a bit flushed post-suggestion.

“Y-Yeah. I’m sure. Go ahead,” he assures Harry with an easy shrug. “First room on the right.” Louis appears to hold his breath when Harry sidesteps him in the kitchen and heads in the direction Louis just came from, his stomach fluttering like mad from the pair of dark blue eyes on him the entire time.

*

Louis has to steady his hands later that evening as he pours himself and his guest another round of wine that ends up on the countertop more than inside the glasses.

“Shit,” he hisses under his breath as he grabs a handful of napkins to do damage control. He already fucked up once tonight by giving Harry wine in the first place not realizing that a drink made from fucking grapes apparently isn’t vegan. Luckily, Harry seems to be feeling a bit rebellious tonight and responded with a mischievous, ‘I won’t tell, if you won’t’.

“Lou?” Harry calls from the living room. “Everything okay? I can come help if you need,” he offers making Louis’ heartrate kick up another notch.

“No, don’t!” Louis shouts before realizing how panicked he sounds. “Er- I mean I’m okay! Thank you!”

That response wasn’t much better, but at least now Harry will stay put instead of coming into the kitchen with Louis where there’s nowhere to hide from those dark green eyes of his that make Louis’ heart race like he’s a teenager again.

He doesn’t know why he’s so nervous all of a sudden. It’s just Harry; just a couple of drinks between friends. Nothing about the situation or tonight should be a big deal, and yet it’s all Louis can think about. Kissing his ex is all he can think about which is confusing and problematic for all sorts of reasons that become less and less important to Louis the longer they spend time together. That urge is even worse with Harry in his flat, wearing his clothes, and looking at Louis like perhaps all the good things in their history have started to outweigh the bad.

With a deep calming breath, Louis heads back into the fray. The temperature changes the moment Louis steps into his living room due to the small fire roaring beneath his mantel. When Louis left, his guest had been sitting pretty near it but he has moved even closer now.

“Still cold?” Louis asks, making Harry turn his smile from the flames to Louis.

“Eh. Not really,” he shrugs misplacing a few damp curls that fall from behind his ear. “I just like how it feels. I also love the smell. There’s nothing like it.” Louis assumes he means the wood cracking and charring before them, but it’s hard for Louis to discern the warm scent of the firewood from the scent of Harry’s skin that only flourishes in the heat.

“You always did love a fire. Used to practically smoke everyone out of your house the moment it turned September,” Louis chuckles as he carefully hands off one of the drinks to Harry who makes an offended noise.

“September gets kind of chilly sometimes,” he tries in own defense which just makes them both laugh. “Oh, shut up,” Harry counters over the rim of his glass. “You used to start singing Christmas songs the day after Halloween.”

Louis merely shrugs at the accusation.

“It’s basically Christmas by then anyway.”

“Yeah, after the two whole months in between,” Harry cackles. It’s the same argument Harry’s always used when Louis got over-excited about Christmas and his birthday which is just one day before. His enthusiasm for the holidays drives most people insane; most of all, Louis’ grandfather once he got to know Louis and witnessed his excitement for Christmas in person.

He grins as his gaze falls on his old watch drying near the fireplace. His grandfather disliked sentiment almost as much as Mariah Carey belting out All I Want For Christmas so Louis wasn’t gifted the watch, however he was told by his grandfather to find somebody who would make use of it. Louis figured his wrist would be as good a home for it as any.

“Do you remember lunch with the three of us?” Harry asks when he notices the watch too. And, yet his voice isn’t filled with resentment like Louis would’ve expected for the day that he now realizes was the beginning of the end for them. He sounds almost fond of the memory.

“Remember?” Louis smirks. “How could I ever forget a teenage Omega fearlessly telling off the most intimidating Alpha ever for being a- what was it again? An elitist, pompous, controlling dick.”

“Prick,” Harry corrects with a chuckle. “I’d never call your grandfather a dick. What kind of person do you think I am?”

The kind who stands up for himself and what he believes in, even in the toughest of situations. Lunch didn’t go at all the way Louis had planned, but he couldn’t have been prouder of Harry that day.

“I did apologize later,” Harry adds after a long sip of wine that stains his lip even into an even more beautiful shade of pink.

“I know you did. Several times,” Louis grins at his ex. “You shouldn’t have, because you were right.” And yet, he apologized anyway. Harry tried his best to make amends with a man who didn’t even like him and who saw no future for his grandson with Harry in it.

They each take another sip of wine in the silence that follows, Louis’ heart melting when he glances at Harry to find his green eyes serious and full of compassion.

“I’m sorry he died,” he whispers. “We didn’t get along, but-”

“That wasn’t your fault, Haz. To him, you were a threat and he just wanted to make sure everything he built would survive him.” Louis couldn’t understand that back then, but he gets it now. “He would’ve had an issue with anybody who got in the way of that.” Unfortunately, that somebody at the time was Louis' Omega and love of his life.

“Do you regret any of it?”

Lately, Louis has regretted the way things turned out every second of every day, but no one can say for sure that going back would change anything.

“I took over my grandfather’s company because it’s the one thing he ever asked of me. He chose me and he believed in me.” And Louis didn’t want to let him down. He could’ve easily let someone else do this job. Tomlinson Steelworks could have easily been sold to the highest bidder after his grandfather died, but that’s not what he wanted. “I wanted to preserve his legacy. I wanted to try and do it the right way.”

The tiny grin Harry’s wearing stirs the butterflies in Louis’ stomach that had settled somewhat from the wine. They become a whirlwind when Harry reaches over to give his hand a tight squeeze, heating up Louis’ skin like the flames before them.

“He chose the best person in the world, Lou. I think you’re doing an amazing job. And, the fact that you’re open to potential change and making a difference shows that you’re doing way more than just preserving your grandfather’s legacy. You’re making it even better.”

Louis hears the words, but all he can focus on is the mouth that makes them. He’s staring openly now and he’s certain he’s been caught when Harry releases a shaky breath, however he seems to lean in towards Louis rather than away; a movement Louis doesn’t have time to reciprocate before a soft beeping sound from somewhere in his flat steals the silence and the moment Louis was just about to meet Harry halfway.

“I- Um... I think that’s the dryer,” Harry says looking as disheartened as Louis feels realizing how close they were.

Another series of beeps forces Louis to blink away from his ex’s lips to the window no longer being splattered with raindrops.

“Good timing... It's stopped raining.”

Harry nods quietly at the observation. “Yeah. The stars are out again.”

Louis feels oddly disappointed by that fact. Even more so when he realizes clear weather and dry clothes mean he’s all out of excuses for Harry to be here. Fuck.

“I’ll... go get your things. Be right back,” Louis promises, resenting every step he has to take to leave.

In his laundry room, Louis rolls eyes at the incessant beeping letting him know his impromptu date night is over. However, all isn’t lost when he pulls Harry’s clothes from the dryer and finds that miraculously, his jeans are still a little damp.

“That’s more like it,” Louis grins at the appliance before shoving the jeans in for another quick tumble.

Louis enters his living room to find Harry still sitting in the same spot, peacefully watching the fire like he’s not quite ready to give it up. For a moment, Louis just stands there admiring how the light from the embers flicker over his face. He stares for a moment too long though, blushing when Harry turns to look right at him.

“I got everything except the jeans,” Louis explains as he crosses the room. “They’re still a little wet so I tossed them back in.”

“Okay. Thanks,” Harry grins up at him as he accepts his dry clothes. “How much longer do you think they need?”

“Just a few minutes; five at the most. We’ll hear the beep again when they’re all done and then you can go change... right- right here,” Louis gulps, watching Harry stand up from the fireplace to swap out his borrowed shirt for his own.

The gentlemen in Louis tries to avert his gaze from the inches of toned torso and skin that become visible to him, but he can’t. He can’t make himself look away and the idea of doing so becomes impossible after Harry turns, displaying the bond mark over his left shoulder that Louis hasn’t seen in years.

Louis doesn’t mean to startle Harry when he reaches out to feel it. Harry gasps at the touch, his tense shoulders slowly relaxing as Louis’ fingers trace the shape his mouth made almost a decade ago. And yet, he remembers putting it there like it was yesterday.

The matching mark on Louis’ chest feels electrified when Harry turns to face him. There’s no way he can see through Louis’ shirt to the raised scar hiding underneath but he finds it without hesitation, his palm radiating heat that spreads through Louis’ chest like wildfire. It’s an all-consuming pang that he’s gotten used to for the last seven years; his body longing for the person it’s meant to be with. That all ends the moment he and Harry both surge forward and their lips finally find their way to each other.

The press of their mouths is too hard at first; desperate after being starved of the taste of one another for so long and clumsy from simply being out of practice. It isn’t long before everything comes rushing back to them and they’re kissing each other like they never stopped.

Time has made the way they touch one another so different. The curls Louis’ fingers tangle into are much shorter than he remembers; the muscles beneath his long torso more chiseled than they ever were when they were younger and yet holding him feels exactly the same.

Each brush of their lips makes Louis’ heart race a little faster and his spine tingle with chills that grow stronger when Harry breaks their kiss to run his nose along Louis’ neck. His Omega breathes him in like oxygen which only intensifies Louis’ urge to do the same. Harry’s scent has been driving him mad since the day he showed up at his office. Louis had forgotten the earthy richness of it; how the sweetness fills the lungs until there’s no room for anything else, so he recommits every hint and note of it to memory.

The shirt Harry had been holding in his hands fell to their feet minutes ago when Louis first licked into his mouth. Soon enough, Louis’ shirt is being worked up and over his head too. It lands somewhere Louis doesn’t see with all his focus on walking them to the sofa and kissing Harry as deeply as possible while laying him back against it.

Louis slides himself into place above him, his eyelids fluttering closed as Harry’s hips grind up against his. His heart skips a few beats each time he’s teased that way and Louis’ imagination runs wild. All he wants is the feeling of being deep inside of Harry; of knotting him properly. And although Harry technically just came out of a heat, he’s rock hard against Louis like he wants the same thing, his borrowed joggers becoming damp with the mouthwatering slick Louis can smell trickling down his thighs. It’s intoxicating. Harry’s eyes are blown wider than Louis’ ever seen them with that same pleading desperation that led them to bond with one another for life all those years ago. He wants Louis so badly he’s trembling as they search each other’s eyes.

“Are you sure?”

Louis only asks because he can’t tell if the things Harry’s feeling right now are a matter of biology and pent-up tension, or a matter of the heart. He’s pretty sure it’s the latter when Harry nods in answer before pulling Louis into a kiss that’s softer and gentler than all the others they’ve shared tonight. There’s an emotion in it that leaves them both breathless, letting Louis know this goes beyond just the physical for them. However, the speed and urgency with which they strip each other out of their remaining clothes says it’s about the excruciatingly long wait they’ve both endured to finally have this back. 

None of the other people Louis has been with to pass the time whether Beta or Omega has ever felt as good or as right as Harry does when he slides into him. He’s met with hardly any resistance besides the sharp breaths they make from his knot stretching Harry open, though they quickly morph into soft sighs of relief.

“Ready?” Louis checks, finding the hint of a smirk tugging at Harry’s lips when he nods. “What?”

“Nothing. Just excited to see what I’ve been missing all this time.”

Likewise.

When Louis wakes up the next morning, it’s to the sound of his alarm coming from somewhere other than his bedroom which Louis doesn’t remember walking to last night, but he must have at some point. And, whenever that was, clearly Louis wasn’t alone as indicated by the very naked man curled up next to him wearing the cutest frown ever in his sleep.

Somewhere in Louis’ living room where their night began, his phone is very upset that he’s overslept. The sound is accompanied by the persistent beeping coming from the laundry room which Louis also forgot all about, but who could blame him when his night turned out so wonderfully perfect?

Harry’s grumpy expression deepens as the annoying sounds of the morning seep in past the veil of sleep he’s still trying to hold onto. It’s a battle that he loses a few seconds later when his phone suddenly joins the symphony of irritating noises going on around them. Watching Harry wake up is a privilege Louis hasn’t had in quite some time, but it’s still just as lovely to see from the confused, green of Harry’s eyes slowly opening and adjusting in the light to the grin he sports the moment he sees Louis lying beside him.

Louis doesn’t know how he has made it every other morning by not starting his day this way.

“Hey,” he croaks in the early morning voice that makes Louis’ stomach flutter like mad.

“Hey,” Louis says back, watching Harry have a similar reaction to the heaviness softening his words.

For a moment, the two of them just stare at one another while fighting dopey smiles. However, eventually, Harry lets out a long sigh that sounds like the makings of goodbye.

“I should go. I still owe you a presentation on all my ideas for TSI, and I’m already so behind,” he explains, his voice sounding way more stressed than it should as he rattles off a list of all the things he still needs to do before TSI recommits to harmful energy practices; things that are important to Harry and that he’s been working so hard on, but shouldn’t be bothering him this much because he has nothing to worry about.

“I’ll do it,” Louis blurts in the middle of Harry talking, making his brow furrow the way it does while he sleeps.

“Do what?”

“Your clean energy plan for TSI,” Louis explains, taking Harry’s hand in his. “I’ll do it.”

Harry’s expression changes from one of confusion to disbelief as Louis grins to assure him. “But- You haven’t even seen the plan yet. I-I haven’t finished it.”

What Harry said is true. Louis has no idea what’s in the plan he created, how much it’ll cost him, or how long it will take. But, what he does know is that Harry’s brilliant and passionate about what he does so the future of TSI couldn’t be in better hands.

“I don’t need to see it,” Louis shrugs, completely confident in Harry’s judgement. “I know you, I trust you, and I love you, Haz,” he says, dropping a kiss to the back of Harry’s hand. “That’s all I need.”

Harry’s stunned into silence after Louis’ little confession which shouldn’t have been some big secret. TSI has needed to make some major changes for years now, Harry is the perfect person for the job, and Louis has loved him since he was twelve years old. Still, waiting for a response has Louis on pins and needles wondering if it was okay for him to say those things out loud. And more importantly, if Harry feels them too.

“...Haz?”

He never does answer Louis, making Louis laugh when he forgoes words completely to straddle Louis and kiss him into the pillows.

“We have to go to work!” Louis snorts when their kiss deepens and Harry’s hands begin wandering over his bare skin, however he too goes silent when Harry pulls the sheets over them and dips down below Louis’ hips with a wicked grin.

So, they’re going to be late to work today. Very late, Louis realizes when Harry elicits a throaty moan from him with nothing but his tongue. He’ll just have to message Niall to let him know.

Chapter Text

Part Three:

One Week Later

“Oi! Are you grabbing us more gloves or what?” Liam calls to Harry from further down the creek.

Harry pockets his phone to turn and look at his best friend surrounded by a dozen kids excitedly running around with giant litter bags, ready to go. Liam’s been planning the details of his kids conservation project for weeks so he’s been just as eager to get started. It’s just funny watching one of the sweetest and non-domineering Alphas ever try to rein in a group of eight-year-olds. A few of them still need gloves so Harry digs through the supplies to find some, sporting the dopiest grin possible when his back pocket suddenly vibrates.

‘Finally got Niall in the car so we’ll be there soon! #Kids, am I right?’ Louis sends along with a picture of himself and a petulant-looking Niall wearing the blue volunteer shirts Harry left for them. Niall does look quite annoyed at being forced from his bed to clean up litter for the afternoon, but Louis on the other hand looks thrilled to be helping and frankly, adorable.

‘Can’t wait to see you both! xx’ Harry sends back before pocketing his phone again and grabbing two more pairs of gloves from the supply box.

“Got the gloves!” Harry shouts to Liam, leaving the best news for last. “And they’re on their way!”

After fifteen minutes, which included a child-friendly mini-lecture on water safety and the importance of protecting the Earth, Louis and Niall make it to the clean-up site just as promised. Harry tries not to look too excited as they approach but he realizes he’s doing a shitty job of it when his best friend playfully elbows him.

“Jesus, H. You’re worse than the kids,” he teases under his breath.

“Shut up,” Harry mutters through a smile that only grows when Louis greets him with a hug. “You made it!” he beams, sneaking a whiff of his Alpha’s scent since it’s been a whole twelve hours since Harry last smelled him.

“Of course we made it,” Louis tells him. “I’m so happy you invited us along.”

When Louis pulls back, he’s smiling from ear-to-ear too which doesn’t go unnoticed by Liam or Niall who decide to introduce themselves.

“Well, they’re useless now, so I’m Liam,” his best friend says with a tattooed hand extended towards Louis’ best friend. “Thanks for giving up part of your Saturday to help us out.”

Harry expects for Niall to say something in response to that, but he can’t seem to find his words as his eyes travel from Liam’s large outstretched hand he’s yet to shake to his kind smile and caramel eyes.

“Er... Hi. I’m, uh... I’m Niall,” is all he manages after nearly thirty seconds go by without him saying a word. Harry and Louis raise an eyebrow at one another when Liam finds something about Niall’s babbled self-intro quite humorous. Harry’s never seen him smile harder than he does when Niall finally meets him halfway to shake his hand.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Niall.”

“S-Same here,” Niall says in the softest voice Harry’s ever heard from him. It’s weird because usually Niall never shuts up and Liam’s attention has been split between a million things all morning, but he’s only focused on one right now.

“Uh, Li?” Harry speaks up after a few beats. “I hate to interrupt the flirty staring thing you two have going on, but I think there’s a kid over there in that tree...”

Liam follows the direction of Harry’s gaze to the little girl several yards higher than she should be with two boys attempting to follow.

“Shit. Her parents are going to kill me,” Liam hisses, already headed that way when he remembers his manners and doubles back.

“Um, I need to go scale a giant oak really quick and then get everyone started with the cleanup, but I’ll see you around?” he asks Niall who adds a nod to accompany his grin. “Harry will get you set up with gloves and all that. Glad you’re both here! And nice to finally meet you, Louis!”

“Uh, same?” Louis snorts after Liam takes off at a jog to go save the day.

“Sorry about that,” Harry laughs, watching his best friend try to ‘rescue’ a kid who’s having a complete blast. “He’s usually not this preoccupied.”

“You’re telling me,” Louis smirks at his own best friend whose cheeks go a bit pink when he’s caught still gawking.

“Fuck off,” Niall grumbles, pulling his sunglasses down over his eyes before grabbing himself a pair of gloves and a bag.

“Oi. There’s children out here, you know,” Louis tuts, spluttering a laugh when Niall quips back with ‘You’re one of them.’

“So, ready to go fight pollution one bag of litter at time?” Harry asks him once Niall is gone.

“Oh, I was born ready,” Louis smiles, his blue eyes darkening a few shades when they shamelessly zero in on Harry’s lips.

“There’s children out here,” Harry parrots back at him making Louis give a fond roll of his eyes.

“I really, really regret saying that now,” he jokingly sighs but his expression perks right up when Harry leans in close to his ear.

“Don’t,” Harry whispers. “Waiting a bit just makes it better later,” he smirks, pressing a quick kiss to Louis’ jaw like a promise that he’s sure they’ll make good on as soon as they’re free.

The two of them burst through Harry’s door hours later, leaving a trail of sweaty clothes behind them on their way to the shower. Harry’s heart feels like it’s beating overtime when Louis crowds him against the cool shower tile to clean every inch of his skin before fucking him right then and there.

Harry’s breath is stolen from him the moment Louis slips inside of him from behind, the heat from the water turning their skin pink. Every time Louis’ lips brush over his shoulder his bondmark scorches hotter than the steam surrounding them. That crazy mixture of calm and ecstasy that comes from having his Alpha so close is all Harry has wanted all day. It’s all he has wanted for most of his life from the moment he presented as a perfect fit for his best friend in the whole world.

Sex with other people isn’t like sex with Louis. Its been like trying on a pair of shoes or a jacket that isn’t his. In the past, Harry has tried to get that same rush from others, but with everyone else and even with toys it was all just physical; letting his heat and random bouts of loneliness run their course. With Louis it’s so different. It’s more like baring his soul because being with him feels like coming home.

The last rays of sunshine paint Harry’s bedroom in a mess of oranges and deep golds later on. In his opinion, sunsets are one of the most beautiful parts of the day because they make everything seem more gorgeous from ocean waves to the duvet he’s currently lying on. But he thinks he should maybe include himself in that, as Louis hasn’t stopped staring at him or running his hands over Harry’s skin since the sun dipped down.

He shivers feeling a pair of familiar hands traveling up the back of his thighs and over his bum just to go back and do it all over again. Once Louis’ hands have learned all those peaks and valleys they move to the small of Harry’s back, his fingers leaving goosebumps in their wake as they walk up Harry’s spine. The exploring continues to the nape of Harry’s neck and his shoulders; the one on the left piquing Louis’ interest more than any other stretch of skin he’s found.

Harry holds his breath in anticipation of his bondmark being touched, getting chills when his Alpha’s fingers skate over the raised skin, still sensitive to this day.

There’s a fond grin on Louis’ face when Harry turns his head to see him admiring the mark that he made; the one that Harry asked him to put there all those years ago.

“God, can you believe us when we were younger?” he smiles, waking the butterflies in Harry’s stomach. “The two of us barely even presented and bonding without a second thought. Without knowing the full consequences or even what it really meant. I mean, how crazy was that?” He gives a fond shake of his head, his eyes crinkling from the brash choice they made one night when all they wanted was to belong to one another forever. Given their ages at the time and the rush of hormones they were experiencing, forever might sound silly but it wasn’t to them. It still isn’t to Harry whose heart has recently started considering it again.

“We were really young,” Harry agrees, sitting up to take Louis’ hand in his. “And, it might’ve happened fast, but… I don’t think that matters. I don’t think we got it wrong.”

After all they’ve been through together and then apart, regretting them has never crossed Harry’s mind. Louis is and always will be forever branded across his life, and that’s no mistake.

Harry moves closer, kissing Louis’ lips with all the emotion he feels stirring in his chest each moment they’re together. “And... I love you too,” he tells Louis after he pulls back. He didn’t say it back a week ago when Louis said it, but he should have. “I know it’s technically a little late, but. I figured you already knew.”

“You’re right. I did know you’re completely obsessed with me since you have been our whole lives. I’m amazing so it’s completely understandable,” Louis teases making Harry roll his eyes and start to pull away. They’ve loved eachother since they were children. “But, it’s still really nice to hear it. Especially now,” he whispers, pulling Harry even closer than before.

If the long kiss Louis locks him in wasn’t so damn good, Harry would smack him for being a smug little shit.

It’s Tuesday afternoon when Harry looks up from his laptop to find his best friend smirking at him over the edge of his cubicle.

“Now what?” Harry snorts. This is the fifth time Liam has come over to bother him since he got here this morning. He supposes that’s what he gets for spending so much time away from his main office and his best friend who clearly missed him.

“On a scale of one to SeaWorld, how much do you hate those fancy flower shops who realistically can never sell all of their product meaning most of it gets tossed in a bin, landfill, or wilts without even being appreciated?” Liam asks making Harry sport a deep frown.

“SeaWorld,” Harry deadpans, imagining the hundreds of thousands of flowers that go to waste every year thanks to commercial shit like Valentine’s Day.

“Great! Then you’ll love this,” Liam chirps as he reveals a small flower pot containing nothing but soil and a skinny green seedling the size of Harry’s pinky. “It was just delivered for you. I have a small hunch who it’s from.”

So does Harry, grabbing at his gift and going straight for the card attached.

‘I was thinking of you and remembered how much you always loved flowers. Then, I remembered that you probably wouldn’t be into romantic gestures or enterprises that rip perfectly good ones from the earth for profit, so I went for something in between. Hope I got it right. To new beginnings.’ – Lou

Harry finishes reading and loves it so much that he starts from the top and reads it again. How could he not when Louis does things that are so fucking sweet and thoughtful he can’t stand it.

“And here comes the disgustingly sappy ‘Louis Smile’ in three, two, one...”

“You’re one to talk,” Harry smirks as clears a temporary space on his desk for his new seedling to grow and bloom into something amazing. “I heard Niall rushed out of work as fast as he could again last night. I have a small hunch as to why since you’ve been doing the same thing lately.”  

Liam tries to play it cool, but the faint color in his cheeks immediately gives him away. “Oh, fuck off. It’s not like it’s some big secret,” he mumbles.

It’s not, but it does make Harry incredibly happy to know his best friend is finally falling for someone. The fact that it’s Louis’ best friend makes him even happier.  

“You know, I never pictured you falling for a Beta in the end,” Harry grins. He hadn’t pictured Niall as the waiting-for-my-Alpha-to-come type either, but if it works it works.

“Niall doesn’t care about that stuff and you know I don’t either,” his best friend says with a bitter glance at the office’s Alpha club crowded around one cubicle as per usual. “I want to be with somebody who likes me for me, not because their body tells them they have to. When I fall in love, I want to do it without all that dumb biology stuff in the way.”

To each his own because Harry loves all that dumb biology stuff that ties him and Louis together, body and soul. Also, he and Louis fell in love long before they presented. Their bodies didn’t tell them to do anything that wasn’t already meant to be.

“So, you really do like him then. For him.” Harry asks when he notices Liam grinning to himself.

“Yeah. I really do,” he admits, but Harry can see uncertainty building in his eyes when Liam looks at him.

Harry makes sure to kill all traces of it before it has the chance to take root.

“He likes you back, you idiot. Lou says all he does now is smile and he’s so head-over-heels that nothing Louis tries bothers him.”

And that’s saying a lot considering Louis and Niall usually annoy the living shit out of one another.

*

It’s late by the time Louis shuts his laptop for the day. He knew this was going to be a long day when he arrived this morning because he’s been leaving work early every day since he and Harry put the past behind them to start again. The other reason this day was doomed to be never-ending is the absence of his ex turned boyfriend who’s been dodging some of his work duties too. They had to make up for those hours somewhere and it definitely sucks, but the bright side is that Louis gets to go home now and as soon as Harry’s done, he’ll be there with him. Hopefully, with his baby lily he has already taken half a dozen pictures of.

It seems Louis isn’t the only one playing catch up when he enters the main lobby to his office to find Niall sitting behind his desk. Like Louis, he has practically ran out of the building every day for what Louis suspects is a similar reason; new love. Or, in his and Harry’s case, a rekindled love.

“Should I send for some pjs for you? A duvet perhaps?” Louis teases his assistant still engrossed in his computer despite the time.

“I’m ignoring you,” he quips back making Louis smirk in victory because Niall’s doing a terrible job at it.

“But seriously, don’t stay here all night. Go home and get some sleep.” The corner of Niall’s mouth turns up into a smirk which tells Louis that isn’t at all Niall’s plan tonight. Good for him. “So, what’s keeping you?”

“Not much. Just some loose ends,” he shrugs. “Legal contacted Nishi a few days ago to let him know TSI is going with clean energy from now on so we’re still waiting for confirmation from him. Your legal team is already moving to terminate the new contract you two had pending, so basically it’s his move,” he explains.

The process seems relatively uncomplicated and smooth which sounds good to Louis. Much better than he anticipated with a change this big.   

“Great,” Louis nods approvingly. “So, what happens next?”

“Well, you’ve already signed Harry’s pledge with The Green Switch Project, so next we get him set up with everything he needs to initiate phase one of the plan, we transition to one-hundred percent clean energy over the next few years to help save the penguins from destruction, and we all live happily ever after.”

Sounds good.

“Admirable plan. Except, isn’t it the polar bears that need saving?” Louis corrects him.

“Well, yes, however both species and many others depend on glaciers and ice caps to survive,” the Beta says matter-of-factly. He turns his attention back to his computer after parroting what must be something Liam said so he misses the smug grin on Louis’ face.

“Interesting. Your Alpha boyfriend been educating you about the ice caps?”

What happens next is nothing short of miraculous because Louis has never seen his best friend blush before. He didn’t realize Niall was capable of feeling bashful or shy. Or liking someone so much he has a physical reaction from the mention of him.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Niall insists with as straight of a face as he can manage with the dumb grin he’s trying to hold back. What Niall should’ve said is Liam isn’t’ his boyfriend yet. He and Niall may not officially be together yet, but Louis’ almost certain it’s coming.

“Alright, well. I’m off to eat vegan shit and watch Planet Earth with my super hot boyfriend and hopefully get laid. You have fun doing the same,” he tells his friend catching sight of the smug, tell-tale grin Niall Horan can’t wipe off his smug little face. He knew it. Those two are totally fucking. Harry owes him money.

“God, this is nice,” Louis sighs up at his ceiling. Dark curls tickle his bare skin when Harry moves from their pillow to Louis’ chest.

“Mmm? What is?” he asks, pressing his warm lips to the bondmark right under them and sending the sensitive skin there into a frenzy.

“This,” Louis gestures at the two of them with his free arm before elaborating. “Lying here with you. Having someone to come home to at the end of a long day... having that same someone try to convince me vegan ice cream tastes just like the regular kind.”

“Um, that’s because it does,” Harry snorts. “It’s more the texture you’re not familiar with.”

“You’re right. Frozen chalk is weird against the tongue. Who knew?”

Louis is already braced for the attack his teasing earns him when Harry pounces, determined to kill Louis by tickling him to death. “Take it back!”

“You take your frozen chalk back!” Louis cackles, the two of them freezing at the soft hum of one of their phones vibrating in the kitchen for the millionth time tonight.

“It has to be yours,” Harry smirks from where he’s straddled over Louis’ hips. “The only calls I get this late are from you and Li. You’re currently being pinned to a mattress... I assume he is too.”

Knowing Niall, Harry’s guess probably isn’t far off. He’s probably also right about it being Louis’ phone receiving the call right now since he has been receiving calls all night, but Louis has no intention of getting out of bed to answer it no matter who the hell’s calling.

“I’m ignoring it,” Louis decides, taking advantage of the intermission in tickling to flip their positions and pin Harry down by the arms. The cackle he lets out while claiming Louis cheated is so loud that they almost miss the sound of Louis’ phone vibrating again and again. “Oh my God. Make it stop,” he groans.

“Maybe you should just answer it,” Harry chuckles. “Whatever it is must be important. It’s nearly midnight.”

All the more reason to not answer, Louis thinks. “Nope. Don’t care. I officially can’t hear it anymore.”

“You’re the CEO!” Harry snorts, breaking free to give Louis a chastising poke to the side. “You have to care.”

“But I don’t wanna,” he whines, yelping when he’s suddenly displaced from Harry’s lap and gets a pinch to his right thigh for good measure. As well as a kiss.

“Go.”

Louis hates every second that he’s forced to slide out of bed and stand up, but he does it. “Alright, alright. I’m going,” he rolls his eyes at his Omega looking annoyingly smug. And naked which makes leaving him that much harder.  

“Good. Go be a good corporate professional,” Harry grins. “And when you’re done be a dear and bring the ice cream?”

“One order of frozen chalk, coming right up!” he promises over his shoulder, ducking just in time to miss the pillow Harry throws his way, once again impressed with how much better his aim has gotten.

His phone isn’t hard to find as the vibrating from before never stopped. He rolls his eyes after he turns it over and sees that it’s Niall being as annoying as ever after Louis specifically told him to go have a life.

“TSI better be under alien attack,” Louis mutters as a greeting. He leans against his counter as he waits for Niall to quip back something just as sarcastic, but there’s a seriousness in his assistant’s voice that makes Louis stand up straight.

“Lou? Fuck. Finally.”

Perhaps Louis should’ve answered sooner like his Omega said.

“Er- Yeah, Ni. What’s up?” he asks, knowing that whatever it is, it can’t be good.

“Sorry to bother you this late, but everyone’s been trying to find you. You need to check your email right now.” Niall tells him. “You should probably Google your name as well.”

Strange request. Even stranger is the feeling of dread solidifying in Louis’ stomach. He hurries to the front door in search of his work bag he dropped there as soon as he got home while Niall tells him what the hell is going on.

“It’s Nishi. He’s upset you’re cutting ties with his company so he’s retaliating.”

Louis figured he wouldn’t be thrilled about TSI moving on. Tomlinson Steelworks and Nishi Energy have been partners since before Louis was even born, but that was his grandfather’s doing. Louis had nothing to do with it. And besides that, it’s not like TSI is Nishi’s only partner. His empire is worth millions.

“He’s suing you,” Niall continues. “He talked to the press and claimed you’re betraying him;  that you’re committing a breach of contract that would fold his company. The story just broke, but it’s already everywhere. All the major outlets have it, so it must’ve been a set up.”

Louis sees that for himself once he opens his laptop and searches his own name. Before, he’d get dozens of publications about his grandfather and legacy. Now, all that comes up are pages and pages of publications about Louis driving that legacy into the ground.

“It says here that he’s contacted all our other partners to warn them what a clean energy campaign will do to hurt them as well,” Louis scoffs in disbelief. “He’s also calling for me to be removed as CEO and replaced with someone more experienced and trustworthy.”

That one stings because Louis has done his best to prove to his grandfather and to himself that he can do this and here’s somebody who knew his grandfather personally already telling the world that he can’t. Louis does his best to not let it get to him, but he’s still angry.  

“Well, legal probably won’t have a fun time making this all go away, but we’ve got the best,” Louis continues. “We’ll have them shut it down as soon as possible since everyone knows it’s all a load of bullshit anyway.”

“Yeah,” Niall says quietly, “Except, I’m not so sure everybody knows. It looks like some of your equipment suppliers have started shopping around for other clients. You know, just in case.”

Louis finds that to be accurate when Niall forwards him evidence of two of his partners already trying to flee along with half a dozen concerned messages from his Board of Directors wondering if this is the beginning of the end.

“Fuck. What should we do?” It’s a question he knows his best friend probably doesn’t have an answer to but, neither does Louis.

“I think maybe you have a couple of options...” Niall answers. “Neither of them is particularly good.”

Keep Nishi and his other partners happy by yielding, inadvertently hurting the person who means the most to him, or putting everything his grandfather built at risk. His options do suck.

“I don’t want to have to choose,” Louis whispers, feeling his stomach churn the way it did seven years ago when Louis was put in a similar position.

“I know you don’t, Lou, but... I think you kind of have to,” Niall sighs confirming everything Louis was afraid of. “Listen, I’ve got Liam here. He was asleep when I snuck away to call you but-”

“Right, right. Of course. Go back to bed. Don’t worry and uh, thanks for calling. Sorry I didn’t answer sooner.”

“That’s alright, mate. Try to have a good night, yeah?”

Louis doubts that’s possible anymore. He couldn’t sleep if he tried.

The line goes silent and suddenly Louis is left alone with nothing but the flood of missed calls, messages, and emails now displayed on his screen and his thoughts racing so fast he can feel a headache brewing just behind his eyes. He pinches the bridge of his nose to help relieve some of the tension, jumping at the sound of a deep voice leaden with worry behind him.

“What’s wrong?”

So much that Louis doesn’t even know where to start.

“Haz. How long have you been there?” Louis grins, turning around to find Harry leaning in the doorway of the corridor not smiling back.

“Long enough to know something’s really wrong and you’re avoiding telling me by pretending it isn’t,” his boyfriend quips back.

Louis raises an unsurprised eyebrow at Harry’s accuracy about the situation. He always was good at calling people out on their shit. Louis in particular.

“So, how much did you hear?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he shrugs. “I want to hear it all from you.”

“You sure about that?” Louis jokes with a dark laugh that Harry doesn’t find humorous either. Harry also isn’t very receptive to the kiss Louis leaves on his lips when he approaches, his green eyes growing more apprehensive the longer Louis puts off telling him how fucked things are. “It’s Nishi,” Louis finally says watching Harry’s brow furrow at the admission.

“Okay. What does he want?”

The one thing Louis doesn’t want to give him, but he’s not sure he has much choice in the matter.

Louis takes a deep breath, letting the warm honey scent radiating off his Omega’s skin give him the courage and strength to say the thing that’s probably going to change everything.

“What he wants... is for me to change my mind about clean energy and stay with Nishi Energy instead.”

Harry blinks at him, seemingly searching Louis’ face for something more and raising an eyebrow when nothing else comes. “Well, that is unfortunate. It also makes sense,” he says carefully as if placating someone who’s just scraped his knee after falling down and needs help understanding why it hurts.

“It makes sense that Nishi is angry and essentially trying to ruin me,” he repeats slowly.

“Yes?” Harry shrugs as if that should be obvious. “Your companies have been tied to one another for years. His business thrives off of yours and now that’s going to change,” he reasons. “This generally happens whenever a company decides to go green, Lou. I told you before that it might ruffle some feathers, but in the end, that’s not what matters here.”

Louis breathes a laugh to himself, shaking his head in disbelief. Harry doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation or that this person isn’t simply upset because things are changing. He’s out for fucking blood because he thinks Louis screwed him over.

“He’s suing me, Haz. He’s trying to bring down the whole company.”

That seems to carry a bit more weight when Harry blinks in surprise, however his initial shock soon fades as he takes Louis’ hands in his and squeezes them in empathy.

“I’m sorry to hear that. I am, but I also know you have one of the best legal teams in the industry and they’ll handle everyth- What?” he demands when Louis suddenly pulls his hands out of his grip. “Now what’s wrong?”

“Um, everything? Nishi is somewhere out there making my life a living hell by destroying everything my grandfather built, and my boyfriend is right here in front of me acting like none of it matters!” Louis says with more bite than he intended, feeling his Alpha blood start to boil the more he thinks about the situation. Not that Harry is intimidated in the slightest, biting back at Louis in the same snippy tone.

“Well, I hate to say it, but frankly, it doesn’t matter. I get that this is stressful for you, but as I said before, your legal team will handle it. Nishi can throw a tantrum if he likes. It’s not like you’re actually going to yield and do what he wants.” Harry waits for confirmation of this from Louis, the fire in his gaze growing dull the longer the silence between them drags on with Louis barely able to look at him. “You’re thinking of doing what he wants.” Harry doesn’t even pose it as a question. It’s a statement; a fact, as if Louis has already made up his mind to go back on his word. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

“No, because nothing has been decided yet,” Louis explains through gritted teeth.

“What’s there to decide?!” he demands. “You already made a choice and it was the right one, Louis! You can’t just back out because it turned out to not be the easy road! This is important!”

Louis’ temper flares up at the accusations being hurled at him when Harry doesn’t know the half of it.

“This isn’t about just me,” Louis spits. “It’s about my grandfather and his life’s work going down the fucking drain. Haz, I promised him. It’s what he wanted.”

Harry blinks back at that as if Louis just slapped him across the face.

“You also promised me,” he reminds Louis, his features so hurt that Louis’ chest tightens past the point of discomfort. “What about the pledge you signed and what’s right? What about everything we’ve been through together and what I want? Or does my opinion still not count for shit?” he spits. It’s like stabbing Louis in the heart and twisting the fucking blade. “I don’t even know why you give a damn what your grandfather wanted. You weren’t that close. Jesus, you didn’t even like him.”

“He was my grandfather,” Louis explains in as measured of a voice as he can manage with Harry pushing them into dangerous territory. “None of this would even exist if it weren’t for him!” Louis says looking around his posh flat that his grandfather’s empire bought along with everything else he owns. No, Louis probably wouldn’t have chosen this life for himself. And yes, Louis did sacrifice the love of his life to have it, but it is what it is. They can’t go back.

“And we’d probably still be together if it weren’t for him too,” Harry whispers. “Did you ever think about that?”

There’s something final and broken in his boyfriend’s tone that makes Louis feel sick to his stomach.

“St-Still be together?” he repeats quietly. As if they aren’t together now. “Wh- What does that mean? What are you saying?” As far as Louis knows they are together. He’s not sure now why Harry would be implying otherwise, unless...

Louis can’t breathe. The feeling only worsens as Harry’s eyes soften in defeat before him.

“I’m saying you choosing him feels even worse than the first time you did it. I’m saying that I shouldn’t have expected you to pick me because you never have. And... I’m also saying I can’t do this anymore. Because it always ends the same way.”

Time seems to move in slow motion and Louis’ tongue feels stuck; too heavy to move or speak as Harry leaves him momentarily and then returns dressed with all his belongings. It’s not until Harry walks past him without looking at him or saying a word, that Louis’ able to make his mouth work again.

“H-Haz. Please,” he breathes, his lungs struggling at the mere thought of Harry walking out that door and never coming back. “We can- We can talk about this. We’re having a fight, but you don’t have to leave. You- You don’t have to go.”

For a moment, Louis breathes a little easier watching Harry’s fist tremble around the door knob gripped in it. He doesn’t want to leave. He can’t even look at Louis as he tries to do so, and yet his resolve is unshakable when he musters the strength to walk out taking half of Louis’ soul with him.

Chapter Text

The moment Harry left, Louis could feel his body protesting the loss of his presence; the loss of his scent that lingers in every room. Louis spent most of that first night curled up on his sofa and shaking, unsure if the sick feeling churning in his gut was the result of work going to shit or if it was his heart shattering into a million pieces the way it did seven years ago. It became obvious pretty quickly that it was the latter when Louis couldn’t even drag himself to bed from the weight in his chest making it impossible to move. It also made it impossible to forget the person whom it physically pains Louis to be without.

It’s been days since then and that heaviness in his heart has yet to subside. Much like the guilt that returns each time he pictures that final look of disappointment on Harry’s face before he left. The pain Louis feels because of it is so overwhelming he can hardly think straight, and then to make matters worse, he can’t shake the agonizing rut his body has slipped into to torture him further. Most likely induced by having his Omega so close and then having him ripped away once again.

His rut is the most intense and painful he’s ever experienced and lasts longer than Louis is able to keep track of; days and nights filled with the desire to have the one person he drove away. All he wants is to have Harry back; the chance to let him know that he is loved despite what he left thinking. Louis’ body yearns for him just as much as his soul, but he refuses to do anything about it. He refuses to touch himself and give in to his urges no matter how strong they may be, because if he can’t be with Harry, then he doesn’t want it all.

Louis can’t tell what time of day it is or even which day it is when he wakes up to golden light streaming in through his window that’s standing open somehow. The breeze ruffles the curtains that Louis doesn’t remember getting up to pull back either, but someone must have.

His heart lurches with hope, realizing someone did those things for him; someone who must’ve come back at some point despite the terrible goodbye they shared, but when Louis sits up at the sound of someone entering his bedroom, his heart drops realizing that someone is just Niall.

“You’re up. Good,” his best friend says with a relieved grin tugging at his lips as the room fills with his near odorless Beta scent that just makes Louis crave the delicate sweetness of Harry’s that much more. Even his sheets have lost most of it, overpowered by Louis’ own scent that’s so much stronger.

Niall comes to stand next to Louis in bed, handing him a giant glass of water that Louis chokes down so fast he chokes around every gulp. “Jesus, you already look like hell without drowning yourself too,” he teases. “Slow down.”

“Where is he?” Louis asks seconds later without preamble. There’s no point pretending neither of them knows things went to shit. Otherwise, Niall would probably still be with Liam right now rather than here taking care of Louis.

“Wow. It’s nice to see you too,” Niall mutters in mock offense. A valiant attempt to distract Louis from the fact that he is here in Harry’s place.

“Ni, please,” Louis breathes. “Just tell me if he’s alright.” He’d hate for Harry to feel even half what he currently does being away from him.

“He’s with Li,” his friend reveals after a long stare-off that finally wears him down. “He still wasn’t doing too well last time I asked, but Li says he’ll get there. He’s not an Alpha so things like this hit him a little harder.”

All the water Louis drank feels like it may come back up knowing Harry is somewhere feeling even worse than Louis does when he didn’t think that was possible.

“Where’s my phone? I have to talk to him,” he says, filled with the sudden need to hear his Omega’s voice and make sure he’s okay. However, his hopes are dashed when Niall drops his gaze. “What?” Louis demands harshly. “First I can’t run a fucking steel company on my own and now I can’t call my own boyfriend?”

He’s not even sure why he’s yelling. It’s not Niall’s fault everything is so fucked up.

“Of course you can call him if you want to, Lou,” Niall sighs, forcing himself to meet his gaze again. “...I’m just not sure he’ll answer.”

The truth of Niall’s words hit Louis like a punch to the gut, though he doesn’t know why. Of course Harry doesn’t want to fucking talk to him. Who could blame him after what Louis did to him; what Louis keeps doing to them. He wouldn’t be surprised if Harry chose to never speak to him again.

He has nothing to say back to Niall, the two of them falling into a long silence that lifts at the sound of Louis’ stomach violently rumbling beneath his duvet. The fever from his rut had raged on and on before it slowly burned itself out, leaving Louis feeling hollow and emptier than ever before in more ways than one.

“I figured you’d be starving,” his best friend grins, obviously trying to lighten the mood with a subject change. Food is the least of Louis’ concerns right now. “I’ll get you some food and maybe a drink before we start working on a statement.”

“Statement?” Louis frowns.

“Yeah. About the future TSI,” Niall explains on his way to the kitchen. “You never officially said anything so nobody knows if you’re staying with Nishi or not. Legal has been on standby so they can get to work as soon as you say the word.”

“Oh. Right.” With his and Harry’s relationship in flames and his body adamantly rejecting the fallout from it, Louis almost forgot about the impossible decision he’s being faced with.  

Louis feels like he’s eighteen all over again, choosing between the love of his life and a man whose approval Louis wanted so badly that he couldn’t say no to him. Not even when it mattered the most.

If his grandfather were here right now, Louis already knows what he’d say. He’d tell Louis to stop thinking like a child and act like an adult. He’d tell Louis to honor his responsibilities and to stop wasting energy on things and people who are merely distractions because in the long run, they aren’t nearly as important as his success. Put yourself first; everything and everyone else comes after. That’s how his grandfather lived his life and he tried to teach Louis to do the same, but his aren’t the only philosophies about life that Louis’ brain has held onto.

Harry isn’t here either, but if he were, he’d tell Louis the exact opposite of everything his grandfather would. He’d tell Louis to be true to himself and try thinking with his heart sometimes instead of his brain because the heart’s always more honest. He’d tell Louis to do what makes him happy and proud of himself, because at the end of the day how Louis feels about his impact during his time on this planet is what matters; the people who Louis loves on this planet matter the most.

Louis often wonders which of them is right. He guesses they both are in their own way.

All things considered, Louis’ life turned out alright so he never could tell if choosing his grandfather’s way really was a mistake. His life is pretty good, he got to know his grandfather in the way he’d always wanted, he has everything he needs, and he is successful. However, in getting all of those things he lost the person who matters more to him than all of it combined, so really, how right could his decision have been?

There’s really no use in continually going over what happened seven years ago. What’s done is done, it’s too late to change it, and even if he could, Louis’ not sure he’d choose any differently because he and Harry have both ended up okay. All that was lost was each other, and even then, they found one another again.

Second chances don’t happen every day, but somehow, they got one. And right now, Louis feels as though being presented with yet another second chance; a decision that’s probably even more important this time around since he knows what’s at stake for everybody who’s involved. He just wishes he had more time to figure out what the hell he’s to do with it so he doesn’t fuck it up.

*

Harry sips at the last half of the potato soup he’s been working on for the past few minutes, knowing that it’s filling him up with each mouthful, despite the empty feeling in his stomach; in his whole body really. Even so, he needs to eat something and keep it down since lately he hasn’t been able to.

His bowl clatters a bit when he places it in the sink along with the multiple glasses of water he’s forced down today as well. Unfortunately, the sound of Harry finishing his lunch doesn’t go unnoticed.

“How was it?” a voice calls to him from a few rooms away.

“Really good, Li. Thanks,” Harry yells back, rolling his eyes when his best friend’s curiosity isn’t quite quenched by the news.

“Did you finish it?”

“Yes,” Harry answers, sighing when Liam checks his story with a skeptical ‘ALL of it?’ that reminds Harry an awful lot of his mother.

“Yes, mum, I ate all my veggies like a good boy,” Harry mutters, reminded of his mother once again when Liam suddenly pokes his head into the kitchen.

“I heard that.”

“Good. Meant for you to,” Harry smirks on his way through Liam’s flat back to the safety of the guest room where the curtains are drawn shut, the mattress is soft, nothing smells like Louis Tomlinson, and nobody expects anything at all from Harry including his ability to finish a meal. Or shower. Which Liam also made him do today.

As soon as Harry steps into the guest room, he allows the extreme exhaustion he’s been fighting for the past twenty minutes he spent in the kitchen to take over. The forced grin he wears every now and then to convince his best friend he’s okay fades away, the small amount of energy he conjured to get out of bed disappears, and suddenly the aching in his chest is more noticeable than ever. He often wonders if it’ll ever stop, the persistent stinging engulfing his left shoulder reminding him every second of every day that it won’t.

“Haz, you don’t have to run back in here. It’s not healthy to shut yourself away like this and you were just feeling so much better.”

It’s all just words to Harry. He’s not feeling better, he’s just good at pretending after going nearly a decade without Louis the first time they called it quits. It made him an exquisite actor. Hell, Liam didn’t even know Louis existed until a couple of months ago and they’re best friends.

“I know, I... I just don’t feel well,” he says as he crawls into bed with his limbs feeling like lead and his nausea starting to return in full force.

He feels weak and sick all the time like withdrawal symptoms of the soul because he’s tied to Louis forever. That bond will last forever and there’s not one thing either of them can do about it. They made sure of that a long time ago and now the result is a heartbreak that never ends.

“Haz. You can’t stay in here anymore. I won’t allow it,” Liam warns with all his Alpha vibrato that doesn’t scare Harry. It just makes his best friend sound like a giant human teddy bear who’s slightly annoyed. “Fuck. Haz, come on. At least give it a try, yeah?” he sighs from the doorway, sounding more like his gentle and caring self. “Please, H? For me?” he whispers and Harry relents because the only thing worse than an annoyed human teddy bear is one who’s genuinely worried about him.

Grudgingly, and with much effort, Harry agrees to leave the shadows of the guest room. But, he doesn’t go far. Just to Liam’s living room where the sun is streaming in and there are a dozen house plants that remind Harry of the ‘new beginnings’ plant Louis gave him barely a week ago. And for that reason alone, Harry hates them all when he’s never met a plant he didn’t think was spectacular.

“Is... there a reason you’re glaring at my gardenias?” Liam asks when Harry flops onto his sofa with his unimpressed gaze fixed on the dainty white blooms.

“No. No reason,” Harry shrugs. “I guess they remind me of someone. But, that’s okay. With any luck, in a few decades there’ll be no gardenias or flowers or living things at all left on the planet thanks to TSI’s brand new CEO and his particular brand of fucked up selfishness that strangely enough leaves him without a fucking backbone when it counts.”

Harry glances away from the flowers to find Liam blinking at him like an undetonated grenade.

“...O-Or not,” he amends, feeling guilty for taking his anger out on Liam and his green thumb so he tries a different approach. “Your gardenias look great. Sorry.”

Liam lets out a sigh as he takes a seat next to Harry, his brown eyes harboring more than just an unconditional fondness for him when he gently squeezes Harry’s hand and then his left shoulder, unintentionally worsening the pain resonating beneath his shirt.

“...He’s doing better now too, you know,” Liam reveals.

Harry shrugs his shoulder out of Liam’s grasp, annoyed by this unsolicited attack of information but also a little relieved to know Louis is at least alive. Even if he is a lying arsehole.  

“Oh, the big CEO feels better after going back on every word he’s ever said to me. Again. Great,” Harry deadpans. “Remind me why you’re telling me this again?” he asks, growing more annoyed by the idea of Louis with his Alpha genes being absolutely fine while Harry’s practically dying inside.

“I’m telling you because you care about him,” he says and Harry’s breath catches painfully in his throat. “You also love him. Even when you’re fighting,” Liam says simply making Harry’s heart thud in his chest from the truth of it. “You love each other.”

They do. Harry loves him so much it literally hurts and he knows for a fact that love is reciprocated, but that doesn’t mean they have to like each other all the time or agree with one another. They hardly ever do wherever Louis’ grandfather is concerned.

“I didn’t want to leave...” Harry admits quietly, leaning into the squeeze Liam gives his shoulder despite the pain. Walking away from Louis was one of the hardest things he’s ever done. “I- I didn’t want to walk away from him, but I couldn’t stay either.”

Harry wouldn’t have been able to look himself in the mirror if he abandoned everything he believes in just because Louis could.

Even as he was leaving, he kept hoping. Harry ended up in Ghana the first time they split because his hope finally ran out, but this time is different. Even as terrible as their first break-up was, Harry didn’t necessarily blame Louis so much as everything around him. He was young and faced with a seemingly impossible choice; Harry or the grandfather Harry encouraged him to get to know better. It hurt like hell when Louis didn’t choose the way Harry wanted him to, but deep down, he understood it. On some level, Louis’ decision made sense especially with Kenneth Tomlinson whispering in his ear. But this? His grandfather isn’t even here anymore. There’s no one whispering in his ear or telling him what to do at all. Going back on his word this time is all Louis, and that’s what hurts more than everything else combined.

Harry tries to find the words to explain all that to Liam, but the moment he tries he’s interrupted by his best friend’s phone vibrating on the coffee table.

Niall’s name appears on the screen and Liam’s eyes are immediately drawn to it.

“Go ahead. Answer him,” Harry grins at his friend who has the weirdest mix of apology and excitement on his face when he reaches for his phone without being told twice.

It’s a brief conversation. The two of them talk less than a minute but right away Harry can tell whatever’s going on is serious. And, it also involves him in some way from the way Liam looks at him.

“Li? What is it?” Harry asks after they hang up and Liam starts chewing at his bottom lip. “What?” he demands when Liam drops his gaze.

“...Niall called to let me know that Louis’ going to make an official statement. To let us know,” he corrects himself, but it’s all the same to Harry whose stomach still turns a bit at the news. “There’s a press conference and he’s going to be on any minute. He says we should watch,” he says, hurriedly trading his phone for the t.v. remote.

“Well... I don’t want to,” Harry says after a long pause that makes Liam stop trying to find the right channel.

His best friend pauses and suddenly the apprehensive expression on his face makes sense. “Haz,” he tries before he’s shut down with a shake of Harry’s head.

“I don’t want to watch him, Li,” Harry repeats to make himself even clearer. “I- I can’t.”

It was bad enough that Harry was with Louis in person days ago when he was weighing his priorities; none of which included the two of them. Putting himself through that again would just be further torture.

“Well... if you aren’t watching then I won’t either. Not if it’s going to hurt you,” Liam agrees in solidarity, even going as far as to turn the t.v. off.

It’s a lovely gesture; one which Harry waves off, shaking his head again with a small yet appreciative grin.

“You watch, Li. Or- Or don’t. It’s your choice. I’ll just go make the bed or... shower again until it’s over,” Harry jokes as he stands from the sofa and walks toward the corridor as quickly as he can without running.

He hears the television turn on again after he leaves the room, hearing Liam search through channels until he finally finds the one he needs. The volume gets lowered, most likely a courtesy to Harry, but the gist of what’s happening is still audible. There’s a reporter speaking about Nishi and TSI and Louis’ silence on the matter ever since the story broke. That’s already more than Harry cared to hear so he walks faster toward the guest room, the sound of Louis being introduced stopping Harry dead in his tracks just before he’s able to get there.

The next voice he hears is one that Harry has known most of his life; thoughtful, charismatic, and full of confidence that Harry couldn’t dream of having if it were him standing in front of the world to speak.

He shouldn’t listen. His heart is already skipping beats and it’s not likely to stop any time soon. He should go in the guest room and continue the extremely long journey to forgetting Louis Tomlinson. And yet, Harry doesn’t move, rooted to the spot while listening to Louis address the press before him.

“Everyone here knew and respected my grandfather for the great businessman he was, and so did I,” he begins after a deep breath to calm the slight nerves probably only audible to Harry.

He continues by highlighting some of his grandfather’s greatest accomplishments that made Tomlinson Steelworks Inc one of the biggest successes in the industry including his reputation for being a trustworthy and loyal business partner; especially, to Nishi Energy.  

“He built a steel empire from the ground up and brought many other businesses into that amazing success. He wanted that empire to continue flourishing even after he was gone. And so, when he died he searched for someone whom he could trust to make that dream happen. He searched for someone who would make decisions to uphold his commitments and beliefs as his empire is led into the future. He searched for someone to make him proud. That someone he found, was me,” he tells the world. “He chose me as CEO of TSI. He chose me to preserve his legacy and run his company the same way that he would if he were still here...” Louis says causing the press to murmur amongst themselves. “But he’s not.”

All this time, Harry has been straining his ears over his own pounding heartbeat to hang onto every word Louis says, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. For some reason, it hasn’t happened yet, and because of that Harry finds himself slowly walking back the way he came to listen more closely.

“TSI got its start in using fossil fuels and at the time, that was perfectly alright because most companies did,” he continues, making Harry’s heart rate pick up pace. “Fifty years ago, all the greenhouse gases being produced as a result of using coal and oil seemed inconsequential because we didn’t know enough about it to be concerned. We didn’t understand the harm we were causing. We didn’t realize the effects our choices would have on future generations of life on this planet. And although the methods employed by my grandfather used to build TSI worked beautifully for his dream, they won’t continue to be used in the future...”

Harry turns the corner into the living room, hardly even breathing when Liam notices him standing in the doorway and excitedly waves him over.

“Holy shit. Haz, he hasn’t said anything so far about staying with Nishi! I think he’s actually-”

“I- I know. I heard,” Harry breathes, taking a seat to finally see the man behind the voice all dressed up, handsome, and proudly wearing his grandfather’s watch to hopefully tell Nishi Energy to go fuck themselves.

“I’ve heard the grievances made by Nishi Energy and other companies who would prefer to stick with tradition and TSI as a partner, but I’m here today to ask those companies to try embracing change instead. Someone I love and trust very much once told me that sometimes doing the right thing means ruffling a few feathers, but that it’s okay. Feathers should be ruffled when great change occurs. And so, to those companies I’ve upset, I apologize. Tomlinson Steelworks Inc also thanks you all for your decades of dedication and partnership, but as of this moment, TSI’s future is headed in a new direction with clean, renewable energy sources led by The Green Switch Project, and I encourage others to please consider doing the same.”

Louis’ speech ends in a cacophony of voices both congratulating and scandalized, and Louis interrupts them to add one more thing to his statement.

“And also, don’t go to SeaWorld. And also, recycle. Thank you.”

Harry snorts a laugh for the first time in days, realizing that he’s also beaming from ear-to-ear when Liam turns to him like he can’t believe his own ears as Louis starts taking questions from the press, standing his ground on everything he just said.

“He just blasted SeaWorld on national television,” Liam laughs. “They’re going to be so pissed!”

Helping people realize the evils of SeaWorld is great and incredibly important to Harry, but not quite as important as Louis making the right decision in choosing change; in choosing them.

“And he just name dropped our non-profit! And made you the single most amazing environmentalist in our entire building!” Liam adds, probably sensing that Harry’s struggling to keep up.

“He- He chose me,” Harry says, in awe of the t.v. where Louis is busy telling the room of reporters how excited he is for this next chapter in TSI’s future. Perhaps he’s in shock. “Shit, Li. He chose me,” he repeats, his stomach close to bursting with butterflies as the realization sinks in.

“I know. I heard,” his best friend grins at him before gesturing to the Louis still answering question in the first-floor lobby of TSI. “So what are you doing still moping around here?”

That’s a good fucking question.

Chapter Text

The view from the twentieth floor of TSI has always been one of Louis’ favorite sights in the city. He remembers the very first day he came here to see his grandfather in action. Louis didn’t quite make it to the former CEO’s office on time. He was late of course, he usually always is, but in that instance he had good reason, mesmerized by the skyline and its charm and he wanted nothing more than to see it every day. Now that Louis owns the company, the building, and everything in it, he guesses he technically owns the view too though as CEO, he rarely has time to appreciate it like he should. Maybe that’s why after all the reporters from the press conference left and the building emptied, Louis found himself here taking it all in; wishing Harry was here to see it too.

It’s hard to believe, but Louis once lasted nearly a decade without so much as speaking to Harry. It’s seems like such an impossible feat considering it’s only been days and Louis feels like he’s drowning in how much he misses him. Mostly, he just wants to know that he’s alright. To fix the giant mess he caused.

Niall said he let Liam know about the press conference today, which he assumes means Harry also knows since he’s been with his best friend ever since their fight. Louis hopes with all his heart that Harry saw and knows that Louis meant every word; that he knows that speech was for him. He hopes Harry can forgive him for everything he has said and did before that he didn’t mean, past and present. If Harry allows him to, he plans to spend a lifetime making amends for all it.

He’s not holding his breath for any of that to happen. Frankly, he doesn’t believe anybody deserves a third chance. And yet, almost as if someone out there has been listening to Louis’ prayers, he realizes he just might get the chance to do all those things when he hears the elevator rise to the twentieth floor and ding behind him.

Niall left for home shortly after the reporters did so Louis knows it can’t be him coming up to the top floor. It’s also Saturday so the place is essentially a ghost town and the chances of it being a random employee are slim. But, as soon as those elevator doors open the sweet scent that fills Louis’ nostrils is unmistakable. He’d know it anywhere.

With his eyes closed, Louis counts all twenty-six of the steps it takes for his Omega to make it to the windowed-side of the lobby with him, his stomach flooding with butterflies when Harry’s arm brushes against his.

He can’t believe Harry’s actually here, and for a long time, Louis just relishes being next to him with neither of them saying a word as they stare out at the city before them. It’s the best feeling in the world and it just gets better when Louis chances a glance to his right to find a dumb grin on Harry’s face more beautiful than anything outside the window.

“Nice jacket,” he tells the skyline.

“Thank you. Nice hoodie,” Louis grins, going back to staring out the window. Harry turns to look at him next, his heart racing with those green eyes pinned to the side of his face.

“I saw you on t.v.” Harry informs him. “Being delightfully problematic I might add. I won’t lie, it was pretty hot hearing you order the whole world to start recycling,” Harry teases him, making it impossible for Louis to keep up the game of sneaky glances they had going. Louis ends it in a matter of seconds, turning Harry towards him by the waist and holding him there so that they can’t look anywhere else besides right into each other’s eyes.

“But, did you watch the whole thing, Haz?” Louis checks. “And did you hear everything I said? Because I really did mean it. This is a new chapter for everybody; the company, me... but more importantly, it’s a new chapter for us too,” he promises, watching Harry close his eyes and let out a shaky breath as his Omega practically melts into his touch. “If that’s what you want.”

They haven’t always on the same page about things, except when it comes to the two of them. Louis wants this chance to start over; to truly make this a new beginning, but after all they’ve been through, he can’t say for certain that Harry feels the same.

“I did hear what you said, Lou. Every single amazing word,” Harry assures him, leaning in towards Louis until their foreheads touch and they’re breathing the same air. The relief Louis feels just from that is like a weight off his shoulders. “And of course that’s what I want. Why else would I be here waiting for you to kiss me?” Harry kindly nudges, smiling from ear-to-ear when Louis pulls him in and connects their lips without having to be told twice.

***

Eight Months Later

Louis’ pretty sure his last meeting was his final appointment for the day. At least he sure hopes so. Otherwise, someone’s going to walk into his office to find him and Harry lounging on the sofa in a position that probably isn’t as professional as some of his new clean energy partners would like. Not that Louis particularly minds being a human pillow for his brilliant boyfriend sitting between his legs and using him as a backrest, all the while scrolling through the first full emissions reports he’s been able to get his hands on since phase one of TSI’s green plan went into effect half a year ago.

“Holy shit. This is insane!” Harry exclaims. “TSI’s numbers for non-renewable energy came in at a record low beating my own personal best for phase one emissions decreases! We’re doing better than I even predicted and it’s my plan!”

Louis finds him so cute when he’s excited like this. In fact, he’s so adorably geeky about his job that Louis can’t help dropping a kiss to his shoulder and egging him on.

“Mmm. What’s the percentage, love?” He grins against Harry’s ear, running his nose along the shell of it just to feel him shiver.

“Th- Thirteen and a half,” he stutters out before composing himself. “Lou, that’s better than the eleven percent decrease I got with the Colemans! This is amazing progress for just six months!”

It’s better than amazing. Harry’s hard work and dedication to saving the planet is incredible. So much so that it should be celebrated which is why Louis started planning for this triumphant moment weeks ago before the emissions reports even came out.

Harry’s back to scrolling on his laptop faster than most people can even read, however he freezes the moment Louis pulls at his ‘There Is No Planet B’ t-shirt enough to lower it over the bond mark on his left shoulder and press a lingering kiss to it.

“I got you something,” Louis whispers watching his boyfriend close his laptop and abandon it in record speed.

“A gift? Where?” he asks already standing up from the sofa and looking around the room as if it’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time. Harry has no clue where it could be. And although watching him search for it in all the wrong places would be fun as well as fucking hilarious, Louis is just as anxious for him to finally have it so he breaks within seconds under the influence of those bright green eyes.

“Alright, alright,” he caves. “Desk. Fourth middle drawer on the right. Light blue envelope,” Louis reveals at the same time as the key he’s had to keep on him at all times so Harry wouldn’t ruin the surprise since he still prefers sharing Louis’ office to having one of his own.

Harry steals the tiny gold key from Louis’ hand and also a kiss before sprinting across the room.

“I thought it was strange this drawer has been locked,” he smirks over the desk as he works to open it. “I tried just about every key in this place.”

“Precisely why I hid it,” Louis snorts, sitting up straight once the drawer is unlocked to watch his boyfriend dig through it like a kid on Christmas morning.

With no trouble at all, Harry locates the blue envelope waiting for him, glancing over at Louis for the okay before ripping it open. By some miracle, he doesn’t rip the two roundtrip plane tickets he finds inside that make him smile, though his brow furrows slightly when he reads the destination printed on them.

“Key West International?” he chuckles, obviously intrigued when he turns to face Louis. “What on Earth are we going to do in Florida?”

"We’re going for the same reason most people go there,” Louis hints, snorting a laugh when Harry cuts his eyes at him and his face goes flat.

“Jesus, we’re not going to SeaWorld, are we?”

“Of course not. Fuck that place,” Louis laughs as he stands and crosses the room too. “We’re going for the sun. And the great beaches... among other things,” he explains, reaching past Harry into the open drawer to give him the smaller white envelope he conveniently forgot to mention. All the key hiding and waiting is worth it when Harry makes a small gasp at his personal invitation to the National Marine Sanctuary they’re visiting while there. “Surprise!” Louis exclaims, having to wait a few seconds for the shock to pass before Harry’s yelling with him.

“Oh my God! We’re going to an actual Sea Sanctuary? Wait. This isn’t the one where-?”

“You mean the one where thanks to you a beautiful whale calf was released from captivity and found an amazing new pod for herself? That’s the one,” Louis finishes for him just to watch his jaw drop. “And the even better news is we may even get to see her while we’re out on the boat. Apparently, her pod is one of the easiest to locate because it’s also the biggest.”

The sound Harry makes in response is so loud Louis jumps, laughing when Niall comes running down the corridor a few seconds later.

“Come in!” Louis says after a frantic knock at his door, his best friend knowing better than to burst in after many lessons learned that involved him seeing more of Louis and Harry than he’d probably like to.

“What the hell is going on in here?”

It takes Louis a moment to even answer due to the big impromptu kiss his Omega pulls him into.

“Mmm,” Louis hums at the feeling of Harry’s tongue appreciatively brushing against his. “Er- Everything’s fine, Ni. He just found out about Florida,” he manages with another mouth practically glued to his not that he’s complaining. Seeing Harry this happy was the whole point in doing this.

When Harry finally pulls back, he’s beaming at Louis as if he’s sunshine itself.

“Thank you so much,” he whispers, leaning back in to press a series of kisses to Louis’ face. Louis hardly has time to tell him he’s more than welcome before Harry’s digging his phone out of his back pocket. “Fuck. I have to call Li! I have to tell him!” Harry announces, sneaking in one more quick kiss with Louis before heading to the sofa to call his best friend. Once Harry has him, Louis’ best friend, certain now that nobody’s being murdered, steps further into the room with them.

“I literally thought someone died,” Niall laughs as they listen to Harry animatedly describing his future trip to Florida and then gasping in outrage when he realizes he’s the last to know. “Or, that you’d already given him the other thing.”

“What?!” Harry exclaims out of nowhere, though it has nothing at all to do with Louis and Niall whispering a few yards away. “You knew and didn’t tell me?! For how long?” he demands of poor Liam who was sworn to absolute secrecy by Louis and Niall.

Since Harry’s so preoccupied at the moment, Louis takes the opportunity to sneak back over to his desk. Harry’s still deep in conversation on phone, unaware when Louis open the second middle drawer on the right that has also stays locked around the clock.

Niall dutifully stands in the way to block Harry’s view of Louis so he can’t see him checking on the contents of the small jewelry box that’s been hiding in this office even longer than the Florida tickets. Louis bought a ring for Harry not even a week after the Nishi break up and make up. He’s just been waiting for the perfect time to give it to him.

“You’re not going to wait until the trip?” Niall whispers over Harry and Liam now geeking out over Harry’s reports stats and all the cool Florida conservation sites Harry could check out while Louis’ geeking out internally about asking his favorite person in the world to marry him.

“Not sure that I can wait,” Louis smiles. He’s also not sure that he wants to.

The look on Harry’s face today when he got those tickets was the best thing Louis’ ever seen, and now all he wants is to recreate it sooner rather than later. After all, they’re already stuck with each other for life. Might as well have a ceremony and a couple of fancy rings to officially seal the deal.

“Well, mate,” Niall squeezes his shoulder when he still seems undecided about the exact timing of things. “Whenever you do decide to propose, make sure you warn people first. Murder accusations tend to dampen the mood,” Niall jokes before wrapping him in a tight hug.

Niall walks over to Harry to lock him in an embrace as well, during which Louis makes a snap decision by shoving the jewelry box inside his work bag rather than back in the desk drawer.

He has no fucking clue what he’s doing. The thought of asking Harry to spend the rest of their lives together on a beautiful sandy beach sounds just as amazing to Louis as asking him at home in their flat. It’s the best predicament Louis has been faced with in a long time because no matter what he chooses, it all ends the same. Harry’s going to be his fiancé and eventually his husband. They’ll get to do all the things they promised each other when they were younger and all the things they dream about now. The where and when aspects of that journey starting aren’t nearly as important as the two of them simply starting it. So, whether it happens tonight in their living room over some take-away Chinese or two weeks from now during an ocean sunset, Louis’ ready to make it happen. He thinks he may have been born ready when Harry grins over at him. They both were.

<3