#this is the least riveting first conversation eveeeerrrr

[infinitelymint]

You SHOULD TOTALLY do it yourself and give us another snippet of your vegas fic because I am persecuted by it day and night and waiting for it to be here within us since that so far away day you shared that first scene(bless you, it was so good). It haunts me that I still don't know how they feel when they first see each other again. Or the conversation they have when they wake up next to each other, DAMN. So yeah, like if you feel like sharing...you know, like, would be appreciated haha

OH NO! I forgot you!!!! I’m so sorry! SO SORRY! I had my birthday weekend and then uni stress and the doctor stress and then gluten stress and I’M SO SORRY!!!! Man, I feel so sorry, I tag promised you that I’d post something and everything, I’m awful :( Sorry. I’ll give you their first conversation, and hope that somehow you see this ask! 

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He closes thedoor behind him and turns around, finding that the three others are therealready, apparently only waiting for him. Oops.

“Oh,” he says,startling slightly. He hadn’t thought he was running late, but maybe he wasafter all. “Sorry, guess I lost track of time. Didn’t mean to keep you guyswaiting.”

“Not at all,”Liam shakes his head, his face splitting into a massive smile. “I only juststumbled out of my room a moment ago.” He shakes his head and takes a steptowards Harry, which makes Harry realise that he’s been standing there rootedin front of the door like a loon rather than moving to greet Liam properly.“Bugger that anyway, Harry, come here! I haven’t seen you in ages.”

They meet eachother halfway in a tight hug, Harry clutching Liam against him as though he’strying to make up for all the time they haven’t hugged. “Missed you,” hemurmurs into Liam’s neck as he finds that he’s kind of reluctant to let goagain. Hugging Liam now only cements to Harry that’s he’s probably missed theother man even more than he’d allowed himself to believe.

“Missed you too,man,” Liam says, seeming just as reluctant to let go as Harry is. “Let’s not goso long without seeing each other again, please?”

“No,” Harryagrees, shaking his head slightly. “No, let’s never.”

Liam pulls backand smiles, squeezing Harry’s upper arms once before letting go. Harry’s almostembarrassed to find that the corners of his eyes are slightly damp, but reallyhe shouldn’t have expected anything else.

“Oi, lads,”Niall interrupts them, pretending to wipe away a tear as they turn theirattention back to him. “That was beautiful, touched my soul and all. But,really, I’m starving. Can we save the waterworks for after dinner?” He gesturestowards the door, and Liam laughs, making his way back towards the other two.

It’s not untilthen that Harry gets the opportunity to properly take in Louis. He somehowsimultaneously looks exactly the same and so, so different. He’s clearly olderthan the last time Harry saw him, the crinkles by his eyes slightly deeper andthere’s just something about his very being that seems older, more settled,more mature. Calm. A kind of calm that he’d never really been able to achieveback when they were still in the band, too energetic, always bubbling, plottingtheir next act of mischief. There’s not much of the manic energy that used toooze out of him left. He’s dressed in skinny jeans much like Harry’s apart fromthe fact that his are dark blue. They’re rolled up, revealing a pair of tannedankles leading into a pair of black Oxfords. His chest is covered by a nice,fitted black jumper with speckles on it, and it hits Harry once again how muchLouis’ style is exactly the same, only more mature. That probably shouldn’thave come as a surprise seeing as so many years have passed by, and yet…

His hair isswooped back into a lazy quiff, and it’s longer than Harry would have expectedit to be, the ends of his hair nearly touching the nape of his neck. He looksso good. Even when Harry doesn’t know where they stand he can appreciate thatLouis looks good, looks hot, looks positively breath taking. But then again,Louis has always been handsome regardless of whether he was donned out insweats or dressed to the nines. Age has clearly only made him better, like heis his very own personal brand of fine wine.

Their eyesfinally meet, and Harry desperately hopes Louis was too distracted by Niall tonotice how Harry was taking him in. He thinks so, because he doesn’t recogniseanything in Louis’ eyes that might indicate that he’d caught Harry - for thelack of a better term - checking him out.

Prior to thismoment Harry hadn’t known what to expect from this first encounter with Louis;should they shake hands, should they hug, should they completely ignore eachother? What could he expect to see in Louis’ eyes? Hate? Anger? Indifference?Kindness? He still doesn’t quite know how he’s supposed to react, but he doesrealise that his emotional reunion with Liam is probably only going make thisone with Louis all the more awkward.

“Come on,”Niall’s voice interrupts Harry’s thoughts once again. “A good steak waits forno one, Harold, better move those legs and come along with us.”

Harry chuckles,can’t do anything but, and finally moves properly towards the others, breakinghis focus on Louis who in turn is turning his back to Harry as he makes his wayout of room after Liam. Harry can’t quite figure out whether he should berelieved that whatever showdown was to happen between him and Louis gotpostponed or sad that they didn’t just get to rip off the band aid, so tospeak, and get it over with. He’s probably going to keep building it up in hishead to this massive confrontation until it finally happens, and the longer hegets to ponder it, the more anxious he’s gonna get.

He follows theothers diligently out of the room, though, and into the lift. He doesn’t knowwhere they’re going for dinner, but he knows that Niall considers himself quitethe food connoisseur, so he’ll have prided himself on pre-picking only the bestplaces to eat for them. Wherever it is, it’s bound to be delicious.

Once they’re allin the lift, Harry finds himself somehow having ended up standing next toLouis. Liam and Niall are deep in conversation and Harry steels himself forwhat will undoubtedly be some very awkward minutes. He very decidedly does not look at Louis.

“Did you fly infrom LA?” Louis asks, and for two seconds Harry just keeps staring straightahead until he realises that Louis is talking to him.

What…

“LA?” hequestions dumbly until he fully registers Louis’ question. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, Idid.”

“That’s nice,”Louis says, and when Harry chances a look sideways at him, he’s smilingslightly, looking back at Harry. Seems that Louis, too, is in on the‘let’s-make-this-a-great-weekend-for-Niall-and-be-civil’ plan, though it is kindof odd, Harry has to admit. “No jetlag, then, right?”

“Uh, no,” Harryanswers. “I guess not. I’m pretty knackered still, though? Did you, uh, did youfly in from London?”

“No,” Louissays, “Actually I came in from New York, so no jetlag for me either.”

“That’s nice,”Harry says, still kind of flabbergasted that they’re even having thisconversation right now. Louis hums in reply just as the lift announces theirarrival to the main hall with a ping.