Chapter Text
Harry was sitting alone in his dorm room, cramming for the finals he wasn't nearly prepared enough for. His roommate and best friend Liam was gone for the evening thankfully. Though if Harry was being honest with himself, he studied better when Liam was around to keep him on track and his mind from wandering off.
Harry's eyes were starting to glaze over. The words no longer making an impact in his fuzzy brains. He was startled from his reverie by the shrill sound of his phone.
* ring *
* ring *
* ring *
* ring *
Harry fumbled with his phone, struggling to answer the call from an unrecognized number.
“H-Hullo?” Harry managed to yawn out.
“Zayn! She's gone! She took everything of hers and she bloody left!” A man wailed on the other end of the line.
A frown furrowed Harry's brow as he struggled to understand just what the man was saying. “Sorry mate but you got the wrong number,” Harry told him softly.
“Oh shit. I'm sorry. I can't see the numbas too good right now,” the mystery voice tumbled out.
Harry chuckled internally at the way the strangers voice rolled beautifully. He closed his physics book, deciding the stranger with the sad story and the wrong number was far more interesting. “It's okay mate. Wanna tell me what happened? I'm Harry by the way and could definitely use the distraction from my cramming.”
You could almost hear the blood rushing to the strangers cheeks. “I'm Louis,” he muttered quietly. “I'm sure you don't want to hear my pathetic sob story.”
“Well Louis, you would be wrong. I doubt it's as pathetic a sob story as you seem to think and besides, listening to you would be far more fun than studying for my physics exam,” Harry promised him with a smile Louis could hear. “We can always talk about something else if you'd rather.”
The crying stopped completely on the other end of the invisible line connecting the two strangers for a moment in time. For once, Harry was glad he'd answered the phone to an unknown number.
“I guess it'd be good to talk about it. Cathartic even,” Louis mumbled. “Her name was Leah. We grew up next door to each other. When we were just shy of 16, she asked me out. For some stupid reason, I said yes. I loved her. I swear I did. Just not the way she loved me. I...I can't love her like she wants. For 6 years we pretended. Pretended we were happy. Pretended we actually wanted to be together.”
Harry wasn't sure how to respond to that. “Why did she leave then? I mean, she faked it for 6 years. Or was it not fake for her?”
Louis let out a soft sigh, thinking of how to respond to that. “I think it was as real as it could be for her...Leah said she'd always known the truth. Even before I did. She said she'd always hoped I'd change, that I'd fall for her instead but I...I was born this way...”
Harry felt his heart flutter for a moment with a hope he didn't understand. It was just a casual conversation with a wrong number after all, wasn't it? “Born what way?” he asked with a casual hope in his voice.
“I'm gay young Harold. Does that bother you?” Louis voice was a little sassy, in a playful way.
Harry let out a little chuckle that was most definitely not because of the joy flooding through him. “I should hope not since I, myself, am pansexual,” Harry told him with a smile Louis still couldn't see but could hear.
You could almost feel the glee radiating from the other end of the connection. Maybe Harry wasn't the only one to be happy over this chance mistake.
“So enough about my sad life, tell me about you,” Louis prompted him, curiosity seeping out of the older male.
“Not much to tell. Just turned 19, studying law for some really ridiculous reason, and working as a baker in a local shop. Painfully single of course. What about you?”
“Just turned 21 a couple months ago. I'm studying abnormal psychology because I've always wanted to figure myself out. Let's see, I work as a teachers assistant for the local preschool. Obviously, I'm single as well.”
“Abnormal psychology? That sounds fascinating.”
“It is. Law sounds...painful. Sorry babes,” Louis laughed, unable to lie about just how horrid it sounded. “But why are you studying physics if your majoring in law?”
“Actually, it is painful but...yeah. I lied, I'm looking at a physics book but am not anywhere near smart enough or passionate enough about it to really understand it. I'm taking it because my best friend has to and rather than him take it alone, I told him I'd take it with him.”
“That's very sweet of you Harry. I don't think I'd sit through such a shit class just for a friend. Then again, you're already studying law so why not add physics to it. So what did you really want to study?”
Harry let out a little laugh as he fiddled with the hem of his shirt. “I wanted to study music but I figured I could never make it. Instead I'm here studying to be a lawyer of some kind.”
“What did you want to do in music?” Louis asked, his interests peaked. He had a passion for music himself.
“A singer of course. My best friend Liam and I both wanted to sing but the only way our families would help pay for school was if we would study for their definition of a real career.” Harry sighed, sad that he would never be able to follow his dreams at this point in his life.
“You know, you could study to be a sound engineer. It's a real career that would get you a foot in the door of the music field until you get discovered.”
Harry almost dropped his phone in shock. “Holy shit! Why didn't Li or I ever think of tha?”
Louis let out a hearty laugh that was music to Harry's ears before speaking. “It's simple. You are far less clever that I, oh my young Jedi apprentice.”
Harry stuck his tongue out, forgetting for a moment that Louis couldn't see him...again.
“This would be so much easier if you could see me. But since you can't, just know that I stuck my tongue out at you,” Harry informed Louis with a teasing lilt.
Louis' laugh was one of the most beautiful things Harry had ever heard if he was to admit it to himself. “Let me guess, you have a nice long tongue like Gene Simmons,” Louis joked as he plonked away on his keyboard, trying to figure out his program.
“Oh you know it. It stretches on and on for miles,” he joked, rolling his eyes. He really did have a nice long tongue. He would bet on being able to drive Louis crazy with it.
As Louis was laughing, he noticed that he had a new message on skype. A spark on inspiration hit him. “Hey Harry, got a laptop? With a webcam?” He asked curiously, pulling up to add a new contact.
“Yeah I do...why?” Harry responded, a little slow tonight.
“Because, I can see you. With skype.” His grin was large enough to be seen through the phone. He really was curious if this boy looked anything like he imagined with his gravelly voice and sexy little giggle. Harry was feeling the same way about Louis.
Harry little out a happy little shriek, reaching under his bed for his laptop. Opening it, he pulled up skype and waited for it to sign in. “What's your name?”
Louis blushed, muttering into the phone. “LittleLouisPan.”
Harry buried his head in his pillow and let out a beautiful laugh. When he was calm enough, he came back on the line. “LittleLouisPan? Have a thing for Peter then?”
“Fuck off Harold. I doubt yours is any fucking better,” Louis growled, his cheeks growing darker with each passing second.
Harry felt his own blush at that. “To be fair, Liam made mine. It's TheHumanCupcake...”
Louis and Harry added each other, pulling up a new window and calling. Seeing each other for the first time, neither were disappointed.
“Hi,” Louis said with a small smile.
“Oops,” was Harry's response as he dropped his phone from the beauty of seeing Louis' voice coming out of that beautiful mouth.
Louis chuckled as he hung up his phone and watched Harry struggle to pick his up. The phone hand crashed onto the dark blue duvet and slipped to the floor. After a moment, Harry decided to say fuck all to the phone. He didn't need it anyway, not when he had a cute guy in front of him...so to speak.
Harry and Louis continued to flirt until both could barely keep their eyes open. Liam came stumbling in to see Harry curled around his laptop with Louis on the screen doing the same. It was kind of adorable. He let out a low chuckle, ending the call and closing the laptop before covering Harry gently with his favorite knit blanket that Gemma had made him.
Tomorrow was a new day and there was a big surprise in store for two unsuspecting men.