Louis shrank back a few inches, far enough to look directly into Harry's eyes for anything, a flicker of emotion or even the shining tear that might threaten to fall. Neither showed, just a wide-eyed Harry. It took the both of them a few seconds to realize and register what had just happened. But one thing was certain – there was no going back to how things were ever again. Louis sighed, his breath rather ragged as he slowly eased his grip on the other boy's shoulders and let his arms slump down to his sides, taking a few steps back hesitantly, like a kid who was looking at the mess he made.

I totally fucked this up. What the hell did I just do? He thought, gulping. Harry was still yet to move, or even react. "Harry..That wasn't..suppose to happen." He said dumbly, pressing both of his lips together and furrowing his eyebrows together in expressed concern. He knew that he trusted Harry with his life and that he loved the guy, but as a boyfriend? The question never occurred to him especially since he only dated girls, and he never thought that he would be having this type of issue with anyone, especially Harry.

"Louis.." was the only thing Harry said, then the phone buzzed on the coffee table, distracting both of the young lads from one another. In a sense, Louis was rather grateful that whoever had texted aided him in confronting Harry about the kiss. It was too awkward to do ANYTHING right. God I need a drink.. he thought as he pressed his fingers on his bridge between his eyes and jumped the couch to reach the coffee table where both of their phones lie side by side. "It's yours." he murmured to Harry and tossed him his phone after looking briefly at the screen. Liam.

Harry looked confused for a mere second before eyes widening in realization. "Shit." he swore under his breath and pressed the okay button and put Liam on speaker.

"Where the bloody hell are you too? You were suppose to be in the recording booth half an hour ago!" Liam's voice boomed from the other end of the call before Harry and Lou even had a chance to say hello.

"Erm..we got caught in something." Harry gulped, exchanging uneasy glances with Louis. They had both forgotten about the song that the band was suppose to be recording today.

"We'll be there soon, I'm driving right as we speak." Louis piped in, throwing his voice so that it seemed pleasant and calm like Louis normally was, throwing in a quick lie so that Liam could calm down. Harry pressed his lips together and nodded in a 'not half bad' gesture silently.

"I swear guys if you don't get here!.." As Liam's threat went on, the more his voice faded away.

"Hey guys!" greeted Niall, Irish accent strong as ever. "Zayn and I'll try and hold off Liam for now with some Nando's or something but you best hurry getting your asses here." Niall warned. "The management aren't too happy with us. Sayin' we're taking too long on the second album."

"Thanks!" both Harry and Lou said in unison. They were both rather glad that Niall had taken the phone away from Liam. He rarely ever gets mad, so both of the boys knew that this was serious and that they were definitely in deep shit.

"We'll try and be there soon." Louis promised clearing his throat so that it was more solemn this time, grabbing Harry's arm to move the phone closer to him before hanging up, their arms brushing against one other. Harry's breathing stopped and he visually tensed at Louis' touch. Sighing, they both exchanged weary glances with one another, but got dressed quickly without another word. Within 3 minutes they both came to the door, Louis in a tight white with red stripes shirt and Harry's blazer on and Harry in a hoodie and skinnies.

"I couldn't find any of my jackets." he explained hastily at Harry's WTF expression. "I'm sorry you got your feelings hurt, princess." he purred in a teasing tone as Harry scoffed and walked out the door after him.

"Shut up." Harry snapped, twisting his neck to face Louis as he trudged to the car, the end of his mouth curling into a small amused smile – something that Louis hasn't seen in a while. "Just be grateful that I decided to be normal and wear an actual sweatshirt instead of my blazer or else Liam wouldn't be the one that you have to worry about." he said, tugging his hoodie.

"Mmhm, whatever you say, Hazza." Louis said sweetly, glad that they were both on the same page again, even though Harry was now reluctant to even his touch – which pained him with such tightness in this chest it was almost unbearable. He sighed softly under his breath, the last thing that they needed right now was to go back into the awkward, depressed state they were in before Liam called. Even though they were in much trouble with Liam about being late, this was probably a once-in-a-lifetime lifesaver from all of the painful moments that would've bound to play itself out if they had stayed in the house with each other alone.

They both jumped into Louis' car, Harry taking shotgun as always and Louis in the driver's seat. Louis was already on the interstate and driving rather fast, despite he was known to drive a little under the speed limit just to be safe. After a moment or so, Harry spoke. "So.. what's our excuse for when Liam asks what we were doing?" Harry said tentatively. "I doubt we can tell him the truth.." he trailed off.

Louis leaned back into his seat, resting his elbow onto the arm rest between them and pressed his knuckle against his cheek and sighed. "Well Harry, you can tell them whatever you'd like." he murmured, casting a sideways glance over at the boy who was now on the other side of the car as if trying to get as far away from Louis as possible, back turned to face the window to gaze at the passing scenery. It was painful of Harry to bring them both back on the subject of the kiss, but deep inside him he knew that it had to happen eventually.

"Oh," was the only response that Louis got, so he decided to drop the manner and let them both fall into another phrase of silence. The only thing that was audible was the soft hum of the engine and the occasional blinking of the turn signals when Louis had to make a switch lanes as they approached the other side of town.

"Tell me something Lou, how long are we going to push this before we actually talk to one another seriously and stop pretending like we're both stupid?" Harry whispered suddenly, making Lou tap his fingers nervously driver's wheel. "You know we both can't just..shrug that off." he paused, not really knowing what to say.

"I know." Louis said, meeting his eyes for a few brief moments before raking his eyes off of Harry and back on the road. "I..I wasn't thinking." he explained. "I don't really know..what happened." he huffed, laughing bitterly. "I'm sorry Harry." he said finally. "It just..did." he struggled for more words to how to explain what he was trying to say, but nothing came. He waited for Harry to say something, but he didn't. Which was actually more painful than anything he could have ever said to Louis.

Harry and Louis both slammed the car door shut and walked into the recording studio one after the other rather than side by side like they usually walk. The sound of harmonizing hit Harry's ears as soon as he walked through the door and down the hall to where the usually recorded. Almost instantly, he was enthralled and everything behind him swept away.

You're a little late, I'm already torn.

I'm already, I'm already torn

Oh, torn.

Then came a little moment of silence and Paul's voice came in. "Alright guys, that's it. Incredible job you lot!" He confirmed, making the session officially done. Then the wave of cheers came from the three lads and laughter soon followed, a mini celebration to a day's worth of recording was now done and they had the rest of the day to themselves. Harry pushed the door open and saw the familiar faces of his band mates and body guard.

"Hey guys," Harry said sheepishly, knowing that he was obviously late. He sighed heavily as Louis bumped into him and gave a similar greeting. "Did we miss anything?" he asked almost sarcastically.

"Finally you bastards got here!"

They all exchanged hugs and greetings with one another as usual before getting down to questioning.

"Where the hell were you guys?"

"Did you guys get hungover or something?" joked Zayn.

"No, we didn't get hungover." Louis replied teasingly. "We just lost track of time." he shrugged, as if it were no big deal. He glanced sideways and saw Harry nodding silently, going along with it.

"Rightt. It's 2 in the afternoon, what did you lot do between the time you guys woke up until noon, hm?" Liam stepped in, a small frown on his face but the unmistakable playful gleam in his eyes. "Did you guys fuck, or.." he trailed off, a growing smirk replacing the frown. "I always knew Larry Stylinson was real." he mused.

"Shut up, Liam!" Harry growled, face growing more and more red at how accurately close his guess was. "Larry is as much as real is Niam is." he shot back, he couldn't help but grinning at Niall's and Liam's rather embarrassed reactions as they both looked at each other at the same time and ducked their heads in the other way in synch.

"Enough guys, this isn't going to turn into another fight. The last ones got you all in trouble with the hotel manager, and you know it!" said Paul, his warning followed by a small reminiscing laugh from all of the lads.

"Shh, Paul it's just getting good." Zayn growled punching the older man's arm playfully before averting his attention back to the argument in front of him, rubbing his hands together as if almost in a devious way.

"Mm, shouldn't you be involved in it too, Mr. Bradford Bad Boy?" Liam mimicking Zayn's accent playfully.

"But I don't even SAY that anymore!" Zayn protested, waving his arms in empathesis.

"Mmhm. That's what they allllll say." Liam said gravely in a deep voice before bursting out laughing. The voice had turned out to be too deep, and it sounded like Darth Vader in some sense. What really topped it off was Darth Vader with a British accent. Niall, poor guy, was almost as red as a tomato and was clutching his sides for air as his laughter filled the air – it was hard for anyone to sulk around if they were in the same room with the boys of One Direction. It just wasn't humanly possible.

Soon, Louis and Harry had found their places amongst friends and memories were nothing more than the past. Zayn couldn't help but notice the slight tension in the air whenever Louis or Harry would accidentally catch each others' gaze.

"What's going on with you guys?" he asked with note of worry in his sarcasm, noticing the wave of pained struggle in both of their faces before it disappeared with a surprised expression from the both of them.

"What?" Harry's voice went an octave higher than it usually was, making Zayn and the other lads cock an eyebrow. All eyes were on them now, even Niall stopped mid-way with bringing a potato chip to his open mouth.

"Nothing's wrong guys, seriously." Louis said sweetly, wrapping an arm almost delicately around Harry in a playful manner, making Harry flinch and recoil from Louis' touch. "Erm.." was the only backup that Louis got from the curly haired boy next to him.

Sighing reluctantly from the looks of his band mates, Louis figured out that there really was no use in hiding it from them since they already pieced together that something was going on between Louis and Harry.

"Well, if you're done trying to lie to us.." Liam said in a low voice as he leaned against a couch arm with Nialler next to him who put his food down altogether. The silence was almost unbearable as all eyes were on the two lads of One Direction who were suppose to be the bestest of friends but here they were with a foot's distance from one another – one looking terrified and one looking rather.. frustrated and defeated.

As soon as Louis opened his mouth after a minute of trying to word out what to say, Harry spoke up, much to everyone's surprise since he had been awfully quiet. "He kissed me."

Everyone's eyes grew wide, hazel, brown, and blue. Even though Larry Stylinson was known widely between the band, they thought that it was just the way the friendship was, nothing more.

"..Larry Stylinson." Zayn pointed out with a small snicker, oblivious from the apparent serious situation before them.

Thanks to: anon, Mersheart, narutogirl103, EatFunLove, (other) anon *lawl*, and Megan Cee for the reviews.. I'm glad so many people like it! (: