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Harry hates haunted houses.
Actually, hate is a very strong word.
Harry strongly dislikes haunted houses. Emphasis on the strongly.
But, when the entire floor of his dorm invites him to go to the local Haunted Asylum the night before Halloween, it’s not like Harry can just say no. So, he acts as nonchalant as possible while they all load into three cars and begin the journey to what Harry is certain will be his untimely death.
The October air is cool. A brisk wind ruffles Harry’s curls and he’s thankful for his last minute choice to wear his favorite olive green headscarf to hold his hair back from his face. The building, which apparently at one time was actually a real asylum, is lit up, shining like a beacon in the otherwise gloomy night. The excitement from his dorm mates is palpable as they make their way towards the ticket line, chatting excitedly about the thrills they expect that the asylum holds. Perrie, a sweet girl who lives down the hall from him, links her arm through his and pulls him along with her into the line.
“Ya alright? You look a bit peaky, babes.”
Harry swallows thickly and tries to ignore the knots twisting in his stomach just from looking at the asylum. See, the thing is, Harry isn’t great with being afraid. He avoids horror movies and games like the plague and lives his life in a general scary free zone. However, it’s his first year in uni and he actually wants these people to like him. So, as much as he wants to tell Perrie that he’s quite certain he might die of terror inside the asylum instead he just says, “Yeah I’m fine. Just a bit cold, winter’s really sneaking up on us isn’t it?”
Perrie laughs as Harry’s roommate, Niall, turns from where he was standing in front of them in line and begins spouting all sorts of weather terminology about how this winter is supposed to be the coldest one in ten years. He’s been in one climatology class for three months and thinks he knows enough to replace the weatherman on the local news. Then again, the weatherman did say it was supposed to be a temperate evening, which was clearly an outright lie. Niall would probably be an upgrade.
Niall is forced to stop talking about the differences between cumulous and stratus clouds when they reach the ticket booth. They pay quickly and follow the inclined dirt path leading up to the asylum. Harry spots some port-a-potties off to the side and decides to quickly relieve himself before entering the haunted asylum. Especially because there is a slight chance that he might pee himself if he gets scared enough and he definitely wouldn’t be able to explain that one to his friends.
“I’m just gonna go to the toilets real quick,” he says to Perrie and Niall. “I’ll meet you at the top?”
“Sure, we’ll wait so we can go in together. Safety in numbers, eh?” Niall says with a cheeky grin and a wink before prancing off pulling a bemused looking Perrie with him.
Surprisingly, there is no line for the toilets so he takes care of his business quickly. Harry takes a few deep breaths in the port-a-pottie, which, for the record, he strongly regrets since the smells do nothing to calm his churning stomach.
As he makes his way back up the path, Harry sees a lone glow necklace sitting abandoned on a bench. The fluorescent green draws him in and he feels sad for it just sitting there on a bench in the dark night all alone so he picks it up and plops it on his head where it sits atop his headscarf.
Satisfied with his new look, he walks up the rest of the path with a skip in his step which is quickly extinguished once the foreboding asylum sits in front of him.
Perrie looks over at him from where she stands with her roommate Jade and says “Oh, you’re so brave! I could never do that.” Harry frowns in confusion and is just about to ask her what she’s talking about before Jade says, “Come on, babes! There’s no way I’m going in alone, you have to hold on to me the whole way through,” and pulls her away towards the entrance. Perrie just laughs and turns back to call to Harry, “See you on the other side!” before she disappears into the asylum.
Niall walks over clapping Harry’s shoulder and saying, “Let’s do this!” before walking in where Perrie and Jade had just disappeared.
Harry walks closer to the door, takes a shaky breath and steps forward into the darkness.
Louis loves his job.
He gets to wear a costume, scare the living daylights out of people, and he gets to do it with his two best friends, Zayn and Liam. Although, admittedly those two spend a great deal more time making out in dark corners than jumping out of them.
It’s the night before Halloween and it’s been a good crowd so far, a lot of university kids, but that’s the norm for a place thirty minutes from his college campus.
Louis enjoys a good prank as much as the next guy, and if you think about it, that’s all his job entails. Jumping out and scaring people, tricking them into thinking he’s a crazed chainsaw-wielding murderer, if only for a moment. It’s satisfying in a way Louis doesn’t think any other job could be.
Louis’ standing in the corner of the “patient examination” room, waiting for his next victim, when two bodies stumble through the door. Even in the extremely low lighting, a staple in every haunted house really, Louis can tell it’s Zayn and Liam by the breathy moans Liam lets out as Zayn sucks on his neck. He’s become a bit too familiar with their more intimate moments than he’d like to be since they got together four months ago. Don’t get him wrong, Louis loves Zayn and Liam, he really does. When shit goes sideways there’s no one else he’d rather have behind him, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for them. But, they’re still in the honeymoon phase, and Louis is lonely as fuck. At least before he didn’t feel quite as pathetic about it, considering his two best mates were pining and moping over each other for months and months. But then, they got their shit together, stopped pining and confessed they wanted to be together which left Louis alone in his loneliness. He had to listen to Liam wax poetic about Zayn’s jawline and cheekbones in the locker room before and after every practice. The least he’s allowed to do is make Liam blush with his endless teasing.
He clears his throat loudly and Liam lets out a high-pitched squeak when he turns and sees Louis in his mask lurking in the shadows.
“Jesus!” Liam exclaimed.
“Nope, just me, Louis. Who, unlike some people, is actually doing his job,” he teases.
“We are doing our job!” Liam huffs.
“Really? I didn’t realize you were being paid to stick your tongue down Zayn’s throat, Li. That seems like a very different kind of job.”
Liam flushes bright red and opens his mouth before closing it again in indignation.
“Chill out, Lou.” Zayn drawls from where he stands behind Liam, winding his arms around Liam’s waist. “Not everyone can be as into this as you,” he says before pressing his lips to Liam’s cheek. Liam’s face splits into a bright grin and he turns his face to nuzzle into Zayn’s neck. Louis rolls his eyes fondly. It’s great to see his best friends happy and in love, but it also hurts when he doesn’t have someone of his own to be gushy and cute with.
“Ugh, disgusting. I’m going to medical. Enjoy snogging.”
Zayn shoots him the middle finger before reconnecting his lips with Liam’s.
Louis smirks and makes his way out into the hallway, strolling along until he reaches the “infirmary”. Blood spatter coats the walls and a corpse, that’s actually just an old mannequin, lies in a rusted medical bed. Atop a small desk lies Louis’ favorite method of scaring. A chainsaw. Well, it’s not exactly a functioning chainsaw since it’s missing the actual chain, but Louis has come to find that even just the noise is enough to turn even the toughest of lads into blubbering messes. He chuckles lightly to himself and goes to the door peaking out, looking for his next victim.
Harry stumbles up the dark staircase trying to move as quickly as possible through the house without falling. He’s not exactly graceful in broad daylight so wandering around a dimly lit house while simultaneously terrified isn’t the greatest combination for him. Dissonant violin strings and eerie atmospheric sounds seem to filter out of the walls, setting Harry on edge. He hears a door creak to his left and before he can even react he’s being yanked into a small dark room with a shout. Before he can get his bearings he hears a loud whirring and spins around to see a horrifying man right in front of him wielding a chainsaw. He squeezes his eyes shut, lashes out and the next thing he knows he’s punching the man square in the face. The buzzing of the chainsaw is immediately silenced and a heavy silence lingers.
“Ow Jesus! What the fuck, mate?”
Harry opens his eyes to see the man pull the mask from his face and freezes. Because - holy shit. Not only is he the hottest person Harry’s seen, maybe ever, but he also happens to be Louis Tomlinson - junior at Harry’s uni, captain of the football team and object of Harry’s desires since pretty much the first day he set foot on campus. And, oh yeah, he also happens to be the person Harry just punched in the face.
To be fair though it wasn’t entirely his fault! He firmly believes that if some crazy chainsaw wielding psycho drags you into a dark room without your consent and then shoves said chainsaw in your face – they kinda deserve to be punched. And on top of that, this guy clearly was breaking the rules of this establishment since he’s pretty sure they can’t just grab you and drag you into scary rooms without your permission.
But this is Louis Tomlinson. Looking possibly the most attractive Harry’s ever seen him with black kohl around both eyes and his hair sweaty and mussed up from being under that mask. Strips of gorgeous tan skin peek through his tattered clothes and this could be the one chance he has to get the hottest person at his uni to notice him so he needs to salvage this situation. Quick.
“I’m so sorry. I don’t even- I think it was just reflexive. I would never-“ Harry exclaims growing more and more distressed as the embarrassment sinks in.
“Shit, I’m just so sorry.” Harry says. Now that the adrenaline and terror is wearing off a bit, he can’t believe he actually punched another person. He can’t believe he punched Louis.
The guilt must be showing on his face because Louis looks at Harry for a few moments before saying, “Eh, it’s alright. Occupational hazard, I guess. Besides, I’ve definitely had worse. You barely even got me.”
Harry wonders if he should mention that he knows who Louis is and that they attend the same uni, but before he gets a chance to, Louis is speaking again.
“Guess this is just my luck. Grab a really cute guy in the hopes of chatting him up but then get punched before I’ve even said a word.” Louis lets out a pitiful chuckle. “It’s definitely a first.”
“You-you think I’m cute?” Harry asks, disbelieving.
Louis gives him an incredulous look. “’Course. That’s why I pulled you in here, isn’t it? Wanted to see if I could impress you with my stellar performance, then maybe convince you to give me your number as well. Didn’t really work out the way I hoped though,” Louis says with a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck.
Harry’s cheeks color. “Sorry, I just – I didn’t think you were allowed to like, grab us and take us places? It was a bit startling.”
“Well for the normal customers we’re not, but when someone’s got one of these green glowsticks,” Louis says, reaching out and tugging on the one Harry has over his headscarf. “It means they want to get scared even more, so we can grab ‘em and take ‘em into these rooms and freak them out a bit.”
Perrie’s words from earlier about being brave suddenly make a lot more sense.
“I-I didn’t know that. I just saw it on a bench and thought it looked lonely so I decided to wear it.” Harry says blushing a little at the confession.
Louis laughs.
“You’re something else. I’m Louis, by the way.”
“I know.”
Louis gives him a quizzical look and Harry realizes that a complete stranger saying they already know your name sounds a bit creepy.
“Oh. I’m not some weird stalker, I promise. It’s just we go to the same uni and you’re quite popular being footie captain and all so…yeah. Oh, and I’m Harry.”
“Well, Harry, it’s nice to meet ya. You go to Manchester?”
“Yeah, it’s my first year.”
“What’cha studying then?”
“Law.”
“Ah, that’s very ambitious of you, young Harry.”
Harry smiles and looks to the ground before staring back into the crystal blue of Louis’ eyes.
“What about you? What are you studying?” Harry asks.
“Drama. Always fancied meself a teacher though, but I don’t think I’d be any good at it.”
“What? No, you’d be a great teacher! I bet all your students would love you.”
Louis blushes and looks down. “Ha, I don’t know about that.”
“No, they definitely would! You’re a born leader, you’re supportive, and you inspire so many people. There’s nothing about you they couldn’t like!”
Louis rubs the back of his neck and looks at Harry bashfully. “You really think so?”
“Absolutely!” Harry declares to Louis earnestly. “You should go for it, mate. Follow your dreams!”
Louis’ eyes widen in surprise at the blind faith Harry has in him. He feels his heart swell in his chest at the obvious sincerity of the boy standing in front of him. “And you’d make a fantastic solicitor. Obviously. You’re very persuasive, ya know.”
Harry’s cheeks heat up and he smiles widely. “Well, thanks, Louis. I appreciate it.”
They stand in silence for a few moments. Harry glances at Louis who looks like he’s about to say something when suddenly the rev of a chainsaw, followed by a shrill scream pierces the air and breaks the moment.
Harry lets out a soft laugh prompting Louis to ask, “what?”
“Nothing, it’s just… for a second I forgot where we were.” Harry replies with a small smile.
“Yeah… yeah, me too, actually.” Louis replies, just now taking notice of the music that plays through the asylum and the sound of feet thundering on the lower level. “What are you doing here all alone anyway? Not to be rude or anything but your reaction to seeing me seems like you aren’t the type who comes to places like this often.”
“I’m definitely not.” Harry laughs. “I didn’t even want to be alone at all but Niall ditched me practically the second we walked through the front door.”
“Hmm, Niall. He your boyfriend then?”
Harry laughs before replying, “No, he’s my roommate. And a really good friend but, no.”
Louis noticeably perks up at Harry’s denial, allowing a pleased smile to adorn his face. “Oh, right.”
“Yeah, no boyfriend for me. Not yet anyway,” he says, looking at Louis with hopeful eyes.
Louis chuckles softly and takes a step closer to Harry. Harry notices their faces are only a few inches apart and his eyes dart down to Louis’ lips as he unconsciously wets his.
“Well in that case, how about that number?” Louis asks before bringing their lips together in a soft kiss.
Harry thinks, maybe haunted houses aren’t that bad after all.