Chapter Text
Epilogue
Louis making a spectacle on Harry’s birthday has been a thing since they started High School. It’s not like he hurts him or turns his day into an irreparable mess; it’s mostly just pranks that end up okay. Most of the football team is usually in on it, too. Last year he gave Harry a cake after spending an entire week abusing him with practical jokes and misery, saying “Happy birthday! You’re a cunt,” and then pushed his face into it. Harry took it with grace, he reckons, save the fact that he picked up the cake and held Louis down, crushing it against his face and stuffed it up his shirt.
This year, Louis called him a train wreck, and made him think he meant it.
“Jesus Christ.” He stands from the table abruptly, scurrying out of the diner hall hastily. He’s got to fix this.
-Unbelievers by isthatyoularry
1 year later
“Hey, Ni.” Harry answers the phone as he’s walking down the street headed towards home. He’s hoping no one would think he’d be randomly walking down the street in London on his birthday so that they don’t recognize him and stop him for pictures.
“Happy birthday, lover.” Niall’s voice comes over the receiver like butter. How does he manage that smooth inflection every time?
“Niall, you’re gonna see me in like four hours, you don’t have to call me to wish me a Happy Birthday!”
“I know that, but I want to because you’re my best mate and it’s your thirtieth. It’s a big deal, H!”
“It’s just another day, mate, besides we’re gonna celebrate later.”
“Well, how has your day been so far?” Niall asks.
“Good! I just had brunch with Mum and Gemma and Mich at this little place called Pa Paul’s kitchen. It was lovely, great hollandaise.”
“I fucking love hollandaise. Did you know it’s just egg yolks and butter and lemon juice? Fucking delicious. But it is kind of interesting that most of the time it’s served on eggs so you’re just putting like– egg juice on top of eggs.” Why is Niall talking about hollandaise so much?
Harry snickers. “Eggs-cellent observation, Ni.” Niall groans.
“I’m gonna let you have that one just because it’s your birthday. So are you on your way home now?”
“Niall, what’s with all the questions? Is everything alright?”
“What? OH– yeah, everything’s fine, mate. So how is Gemma?” Ok, this is getting too weird.
“Niall, what’s going on? Are you stalling me or something?” This is getting a little sus.
“What? Nooooooooo. Of course not.” Niall’s tone says otherwise. It’s that exaggerated ‘I’m definitely not keeping any secrets here’ tone. “So where are ya?” Ok, something is definitely going on.
“I’m walking through the gate to our house.” Harry punches the code to open the gate and walks through toward the front door. As he approaches he thinks he hears the sound of bass thumping inside the house. “Niall, I hear music. Did you idiots throw me a surprise party? I’m not dressed for a party!”
“That’s your first objection to a party? That you’re not dressed for it?” Niall laughs his unmistakable HAHAHA laugh that everyone knows and loves. “Alright– well, my work here is done, so I’ll let you go enjoy your birthday surprise. Have fun, mate!” Harry sighs and keys in the code for the door, it’s still C-O-C-K, and he still laughs to himself every time he keys it in.
As Harry walks through the door he definitely hears bass thumping, but no one jumps out from behind the furniture and yells ‘SURPRISE’ at him, so that feels like he’s ahead of the game. He furrows his brows in confusion because Louis isn’t even supposed to be here. He’s supposed to be at a meeting with his management that he couldn’t reschedule, thus Harry deciding to do a family brunch this morning. He slides his shoes off, placing them in the basket by the door, and starts to follow the music through the house. It seems to be coming from the bedroom? Ok.
Thank God for the doorframe because when he opens the door to their bedroom he almost passes out on the spot.
I’LL TAKE YOU TO THE CANDY SHOP
I’LL LET YOU LICK THE LOLLIPOP
The booming bass hits Harry in the center of his chest and all he can do is gape and stare and gasp at the sight before him. It’s Louis. He’s in all his Unbelievers glory with a party hat cocked sideways on his head. He’s wearing tiny black briefs and there’s a shimmer of golden glitter all over him.
YOU CAN HAVE IT YOUR WAY
HOW DO YOU WANT IT?
“OH MY FUCKING GOD.” Harry yells and then immediately bursts into loud, cackling, hysterical laughter, his hands flying to his mouth in true ‘I cannot believe this is happening’ fashion.
Louis is dancing around, mouthing the words, smirking his fucking smirk like he knows exactly what the fuck he’s doing. Narrow hips shaking back and forth with his meaty thighs on full display, quads flexing with his moves. It’s then that Harry notices the bedding has been changed to gold sheets and a gold duvet. Some artwork they had commissioned from one of their favorite artists has been replaced with what looks like professional photos of Louis in a football kit in full footy action. Did he legitimately hire someone to take photos of him for this? Harry is dead. This is the campiest, most outrageous, and without a doubt…the sexiest fucking thing his boyfriend has ever done for him.
Louis shimmies his way toward Harry, picking up a remote on the way to turn down the volume on Fifty Cent who is currently rapping about how ‘it’s on and poppin’.
“Happy birthday, Harry. Do you want me to pretend to hate you so you get the full enemies to lovers effect?” Harry laughs his squawk laugh.
“No, Lou, the visuals are quite enough for me to enjoy. Besides, at this point in the story, I believe we’re already lovers.” Harry winks suggestively. “Goddamn it, this glitter is perfect, though. I totally see why Unbelievers Harry liked it so much. It’s making you fucking shine more than you usually do. Jesus.”
“Do you want to make a birthday wish?” Louis says, bringing his index finger up to touch his bottom lip, feigning innocence.
“Boy, do I.” Harry says, licking his lips. He’s ready for a taste of Louis. Harry pulls Louis into his body. He could give two fucks about the glitter getting all over him, he just needs to get his hands on Louis. “I fucking love you.” Harry practically growls the words out before his mouth is on Louis. Louis latches onto Harry’s neck nibbling his pointy teeth up and down Harry’s jugular. Harry’s hands are everywhere on Louis. He reaches down to grab his arse, making Louis sigh into his neck. Louis kisses and licks his way back up to Harry’s mouth. Harry feels absolutely feral and wild for this literal golden God in his hands. “Do you want to know my wish now?” Harry purrs.
“As long as it’s not some incredibly cheesy beauty queen answer, like some fucking world peace wish or some shit.”
“Heeeeyyyyy. World peace is a valid wish.”
“Harry, I do not want to think about world peace right now, I’m just trying to fuck or get fucked, ok? This is the only piece I’m interested in.” Louis grabs Harry’s stiff cock through his trousers eliciting a low moan from him.
“I want you to ride my face. See if you taste different when you hate me.” Louis grins and covers Harry’s mouth with his own and starts helping him undress. Once their team efforts have Harry blissfully naked, Louis backs him up to the bright dazzling bed and pushes him down onto it.
Louis grabs the lube from the bedside table drawer and tosses it onto the bed. He then climbs up onto Harry and swings his leg over Harry’s face, his hands bracing on Harry’s muscular chest. With no hesitation Harry dives right in licking and sucking around his rim, thumbs clutching the bottom of Louis’ cheeks and pulling them apart slightly. This is absolutely his favorite way to have Louis, because Louis becomes completely unhinged when Harry’s licking him out. Harry also loves the thought that his tongue is the only one that’s ever been inside Louis. His mouth is the only mouth that’s tasted his musk and felt the heat of his walls.
It doesn’t take Louis long to start feeling the effects of Harry’s mouth. Harry can tell because when Louis fully unleashes himself he starts riding Harry’s tongue in earnest. Louis arches his back and moans obscenely, whining and writhing on Harry’s face. Spit pouring down Harry’s chin as he continues rigorously lapping and suckling and salivating at Louis’ hole. Louis’ hand reaches back and grasps Harry’s hair and he knows exactly what Louis wants. Harry sticks his tongue out and holds it still as Louis rocks back onto it at a rhythmic pace. Harry’s cock is throbbing painfully right now, but he doesn’t care a bit. He’s focused on Louis and the absolutely pornographic way he’s fucking himself on Harry’s tongue.
“Oh, baby, you’ve got to fuck me. I want to come on your cock.”
“Take it then.” Harry speaks right into his arse dragging his teeth across the inside of Louis’ left cheek.
“Fuck, yes.” Louis whispers and dismounts Harry’s face. Louis turns himself around, grabbing the lube, pouring some onto his fingers, swiping them over his arse, and using the remainder to slick up Harry’s cock a bit. As Louis inches himself down onto Harry’s cock, Harry thinks about how tentative he was the first time Harry topped a little over a year ago and how now Louis has become more confident and sure when he bottoms, asking for what he wants and taking it greedily. Louis riding his cock has to be the most filthy thing Harry has ever witnessed. The way Louis arches his back and flexes his thighs, the way he throws his head back, mouth open on a gasp when Harry’s cock grazes his prostate. The way the dip above his collarbones hollows out when he presses his hand down to brace himself on Harry’s chest. Louis is fucking sex on a stick and Harry’s so hungry for him.
There’s glitter everywhere. It’s all over both of their torsos and in Louis’ hair and on his hands and Harry couldn’t give a fuck. He’s chasing the pulse of Louis’ orgasm. Looking at this man above him, wrapped in pleasure, clenching around him, it’s all Harry can do to stave off his own release, determined to make Louis reach his first. Harry lifts Louis’ hand to his mouth and starts to suck on his fingers.
“You’re not playing– ahhhhh fair.”
“All’s fair in footy and fucking, honey.” Harry purrs around Louis’ fingers.
When Harry starts thrusting his hips up, hitting Louis’ sweet spot, Louis goes almost limp with the bolt of ecstasy. Harry can see it course through him and feel the bliss in its wake. “M’coming, babe. Do that thing I like?”
“I fucking love you…and I love fucking you.” Harry whines. Louis comes at the words, hard and long and fiercely, his come splashing up between them as Louis collapses down onto Harry’s chest, heaving breaths into Harry’s neck. Louis rolls off of Harry and onto his back.
“Come on me, baby. M’all shiny just for you, make me glisten even more.”
Fucking indecent. Harry loves him.
He starts stripping his cock furiously, pursuing that familiar loosening of the delicious tension in his gut. “Aren’t you pretty, stroking that gorgeous cock for me.” Harry’s orgasm strikes him down as easily as the word pretty does. He comes with ribbons of shimmering milky white over the gold glitter sparkling on Louis’ skin, on a moan into Louis’ mouth with his foggy, heady high still coursing through him.
“Happy thirtieth, babe. Here’s to thirty more just like this one.” Louis winks and kisses Harry deeply.
“Mmmmm, think we’ll still be role playing fics in thirty years, honey?” Harry asks. The thought of him dressing up as Jack McQueen with gray hair and walking with a cane almost makes him choke out a laugh.
“God, I certainly hope not. My acting just isn’t what it used to be.” Harry dies laughing.
“This from the most dramatic person I know? Please.” Harry continues cackling as Louis joins him.
“Well, hopefully by then they’ll be writing fics about us as old men sitting on our porch in our rocking chairs drinking spritzers or summat. I don’t want to think about them writing about us fucking with our wrinkly old dicks.” They both collapse into sated giggles, relaxing into each other’s embrace.
*
GO, GO, GO, GO, GO, GO SHAWTY, IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY
WE GON’ PARTY LIKE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY
WE GON’ SIP BACARDI LIKE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY
AND YOU KNOW WE DON’T GIVE A FUCK IT’S NOT YOUR BIRTHDAY
Niall is attempting to dance through the front door and into the room with a bluetooth speaker in hand shaking his narrow arse as he sings loudly at Harry.
“This was all Niall’s idea, let the record show I had nothing to do with it.” Zayn practically yells over the music as he embraces Harry. “Happy birthday, H!”
“We couldn’t talk him out of it.” Liam yells into Harry’s ear as he hugs him.
Harry just shakes his head at his best mate and takes in the dancing idiot before him. Louis comes in from smoking on the patio and immediately joins in dancing with Niall.
Dear God, what a shitshow. These are the people he’s chosen to love, Harry laughs to himself.
Niall and Louis have begun waltzing now. Zayn, Liam and Harry just standing back and watching the ridiculousness unfold until one of them steps on the other’s foot and they both go tumbling to the floor in a pile of laughs and limbs.
“Can’t imagine why we didn’t have actual choreography when we were touring.” Harry laughs, the others joining in raucously. “Think I’ve had enough Fifty Cent today.” Harry smirks in Louis’ direction as he turns off the music. Louis returns a small smile, clearing his throat.
“I don’t want to know.” Zayn says, his hands raised in surrender.
“Well, I fucking do.” Niall looks back and forth between Louis and Harry like he’s watching a tennis match.
“We brought take away, H. Didn’t want you cooking on your own birthday and well– no one wanted you to eat what we’d cooked either.” Zayn snickers.
“Hey, I’ll have you know I did make a cake!” Liam shakes a finger in the air.
“I don’t care about the bloody food or cake, I’m just happy you all came to celebrate with me. Sarah and Mitch would’ve been here but they’re traveling to visit family. Pauli too.”
“Ugh, I was hoping to get to see Sarah tonight. Bummer!” Zayn says.
“We’ll miss them. I do love talking plants with Pauli. We’ve been chatting back and forth on insta. Green thumb, that one!” Liam chirps.
“Are any of your mates coming, Lou? I miss Steve! Haven’t seen him in forever.” Niall asks.
“Nah, mate. Steve’s in Australia last I heard. Everyone is very much enjoying their break. Can’t say I blame them.”
It makes Harry’s heart swell with how much their current bandmates and their 1D bandmates have all become friends, intertwining all of their lives seamlessly and graciously. This is starting a family who will always show you love.
“Oh, H, we’re gonna play that question game you love so much, yeah?” Louis says, placing some strips of paper on the island so the boys can submit their questions.
“Have I told you that I fucking love you today?” Harry asks, slipping an arm around Louis’ waist and pulling his back into Harry’s chest, his lips defaulting to the back of Louis’ neck. Louis doing all of this for him on his birthday makes his heart go pitty-pat. He really knows Harry better than anyone on earth to have planned a quiet night in with their best friends, food, and laughter.
“Mmmm, couple of times if memory serves.” Louis responds, his hands rising to touch Harry’s arms around him as his head turns into Harry’s kisses on his neck.
“It’s not enough. Never will be enough. I could say it 28,000 times a day and it still wouldn’t be enough.”
“You don’t have to say it all and that would be enough, H, because love is an action, not a word. You show me every day.” Harry melts into a puddle of goo at Louis’ sentiment. “Oh…and I love you too, babe.” Louis spins around in his arms and kisses him deeply, tongue stroking his. Harry’s just starting to deepen the kiss when he hears whistling. Shit. He forgot they aren’t alone. Their heads turn to see Zayn looking at them smirking and smiling, Niall with his hand covering Liam’s eyes, and his other hand shoveling popcorn into his mouth. Harry and Louis laugh.
“Come on, let’s eat.” Harry says.
*
“Zayn’s turn.” Niall says, thrusting the bowl in Zayn’s direction.
Zayn pulls out a slip of paper and unfolds it. “Niall, what the fuck?”
“What? How do you know it was me?” Niall says smiling his million dollar smile.
“Who else in present company would ask ‘WHO TOPS’? Get bent, mate.”
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” Niall falls over laughing.
“I’m not answering that, you dick.” Zayn deadpans.
“It was worth it just to see the look on your face.” Niall continues laughing.
“Here, birthday boy.” Zayn says, passing the bowl to Harry. “Oh hey, hold on– you’ve…you’ve got something sparkly on your face. Just there.” Zayn says, picking a speck of glitter off of Harry’s face. Harry turns a deep shade of red as Louis hides his face behind a pillow with his fist in his mouth so he doesn’t die laughing.
“Which habit are you proudest of breaking?” Harry immediately starts laughing. “There’s a joke here somewhere about it being my job, yeah?” The room fills with laughter.
“What was I supposed to say? Oh, it’s about Harry and how I might wanna kiss him. Yeah, that would’ve gone over like a lead fucking balloon.” Louis sneers, sarcastically.
“S’a serious question, innit?” Harry asks.
“It was meant to be, yeah.” Liam responds. Harry nods at him.
“Chewing gum. I used to chew gum constantly, remember? I was pretty proud of myself for that. Pretty hard when you have an oral fixation.”
“I’m sure it is, Haz.” Niall says, miming a blow job. Harry hits him in the face with a pillow.
“Your turn, honey.” Harry sets the bowl gently in Louis’ lap.
Louis unfolds his chosen question. “What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever read?” Harry and Louis immediately catch each other’s glance smiling like complete suckers in love.
“It’s called ‘Stranger Than Larry Fiction’. Haz wrote it.” Two heads whip toward him sharply, four eyes boring into his soul, Zayn just looks down at his lap, of course. “It’s beautiful. It’s our story. Well, it’s our story from 2010 up until about a year ago.”
“Ahhhh, it’s canon then.” Liam supplies.
“Lima, how the fuck do you know what canon is?” Louis looks shocked to his core.
“Ugh, I hate canon.” Zayn huffs.
“You would.” Louis and Zayn make disgusted faces at each other. It’s quite endearing, Harry thinks.
“Then you’re not its intended audience.” Harry quips. The air fills with the ‘ohhhhs’ of the other boys after Harry’s rip on Zayn.
“I want to read it, mate!” Niall seems excited, Harry loves that Niall is always the ultimate hype man.
“Someday, maybe.”
“Alright, my turn, bitches.” Niall says reaching for the bowl from Louis. “If you had to suck a dick– Awwww fuck, I got my own question!” They all collapse onto each other with laughter. Harry doesn’t think he’s ever had a better birthday.
Later that night, after they had sung happy birthday to Harry and he’d blown out his candles from his lopsided cake, he and Louis are readying themselves for bed. Louis is at the sink brushing his teeth when Harry walks in the room and to his own sink, splashing water on his face before applying his cleanser.
Louis towels off his face. “Are you really going to let Niall read it then?”
“Well, if I ever post it to AO3 he can read it. I uh– I wrote an epilogue, Lou.”
“What? There’s more? You wrote more? What did you write about? Oh my God–” Louis suddenly stops in his tracks and Harry knows he’s remembering what happened a little over a year ago when he wanted so badly to read a story that Harry had written. “I don’t– I’m glad you finished it, babe. I don’t need to read it. I’m just excited for you, that you completed it.” Louis looks a bit red in the face. Like maybe he’d thought about something he shouldn’t.
Harry finishes rinsing the cleanser from his face, blotting it with a linen cloth. He turns toward Louis, pulling him in by his hips. “Honey, I want you to read it. To me– aloud. I wrote about our trip to Fair Isle and the Northern Lights. Maybe I’ll keep writing it and just add time stamps from here on out?”
Louis smiles to himself at that. “That’d be amazing, babe. Then our story will be never-ending, just as it should be.”
Harry embraces him, kissing his hair. It smells like oranges and vanilla and vaguely of cigarettes. Somehow the smoky smell makes the sweet smell sweeter. Or maybe that’s just Louis that does that?
They settle into bed, cuddled up in the center, duvet white and fluffy around them. Thank God Harry’d changed the sheets after the glitter explosion earlier. He’ll probably still be vacuuming gold glitter out of the rug for days to come to prevent the housekeepers from asking questions.
“Go on then.” Harry says, turning to snag the iPad off the bedside table, handing it to Louis, and settling back in, laying his head on Louis’ chest and playing with his chest hair. Louis smiles brightly, bouncing Harry around on his chest slightly.
“Stranger Than Larry Fiction: Epilogue, 1 year later…” Louis pauses for a moment, kissing Harry’s head before continuing to read. “It’s an exceptional thing to be able to give the Northern Lights to someone you love…”