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“Harry it’s dumb,” Louis repeated for what must be the sixth time this morning. “You don’t need a book bag to take to the zoo and that’s final.”
“But I need water and refreshments,” Harry pouted, doing the thing with his bottom lip that should probably be (might be) illegal. It’s just- he needs to put it away.
“No,” Louis replied stubbornly, pushing Harry’s lip back into its normal position so that Louis can maybe, finally, think clearly. “It looks stupid and kind of suspicious, if I’m being honest.” Harry opens his mouth for a rebuttal, but Louis shoves his hand in his fiancé’s face before anything can come out. “Nuh uh uh. No more arguing. You can do what you want, because you are a grown man, believe it or not, but just know that I do not support this.”
~*~
Harry brought the bag.
He brought it because he is shameless and clearly wants Louis to die of embarrassment.
And it’s not even the first bag he brought out, no; it’s the one that is literally a giant bear that zips open. It’s a fucking bear bag. A giant fucking bear bag.
“Babe no, please just leave it in the car.” Yes, Louis has resorted to begging; no he isn’t ashamed. (Yes he is.)
Harry grinned and opened the bag for none other reason than to pull out the only thing that Louis hates more than that goddamn bear bag.
His fedora.
“Harry no!” Louis shouts, making a grab for the stupid piece of flimsy material before Harry gets the chance to settle it onto his head. Harry’s faster though, and he’s tripping out of the car and on his way to the front gates before Louis can even start crying. “Please, I’ll do anything,” he gasps once he’s finally able to catch up to Harry’s long stride.
Harry came to an abrupt stop and turned on Louis, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Anything?”
“Well, I mean. I might not-“
“No deal,” Harry declares before he starts skipping to the line that’s extended from the front gate.
“Harry, please, if you love me at all you’ll leave the hat.” Louis hates whining but the hat is fucking ridiculous; it’s brown with a brim wide enough to home several small cats and he looks like he’s just got in from a long day of working at the rice farm. Harry’s not listening though, because he’s running up to the front of the queue, pushing past a group of five year olds to purchase their tickets. “Haz you can’t just break in line!”
“But I have to buy tickets for my beautiful, beautiful fiancé, don’t I?” Harry asked, pulling out the puppy dog eyes for the sake of the woman behind the counter. “He’s a bit excited, you see,” Harry says conspiratorially to the woman, as if he wasn’t lying through his goddamn teeth.
The woman nods, looking dazed; stuck in the haze of awe that always seems to accompany Harry Styles. Louis tells him all the time that he should be famous, what with the hair and the eyes and the voice and the name; he could make it big, Louis’ sure. “It’ll be 52 pounds.”
“Thanks ever so much,” Harry replies, blowing a kiss over his shoulder as he grabs Louis’ hand to pull him past the small gathering of angry children. “Okay where to first?” Harry says this as if he hasn’t just pissed off a mob of toddlers; toddlers who are rapidly making their way through the line now, crying and pointing Harry out to equal parts bored and distressed parents.
“I vote for something far, far away from here,” Louis replies hastily, grabbing Harry’s arm and pulling him off towards the monkey habitat; conveniently located on the other side of the zoo.
“Are we going to see the monkeys?” Harry sounded like he was six years old, not the grown ass man that he actually was. “You know I love monkeys, babe. Especially spider monkeys.” He waggled his eyebrows at Louis not-so-subtly.
When they first met in college, Harry was clingy as all fuck. They were friends, but then at some point that thin line between best friends and lovers was crossed and after a very awkward discussion and a pint of ice cream and more than a few breakdowns, they had both decided that they liked where this was headed.
Now, nearly ten years later, Harry likes to pretend that the spider monkey thing was something more than the pathetic nickname that Louis had jokingly come up with during his brief Twlight phase. (It was not that brief.) (He may have a tattoo.)
“Yeah I know babe,” Louis smiled, not quite having the heart to tell him that the whole nickname wasn’t entirely a term of endearment. He was really clingy. “What else is on the list today?”
It’s not often that they both have enough time off of work to go out like this; to spend a whole day to themselves, no meetings for Louis or special baking events for Harry, just HarryandLouis together and happy.
“Well, we have to see the penguins, obviously. Also the llamas and the hippos and the lions. And the, um, the bears, yeah.”
“You want a little bear to match your bag?” Louis asked in the patronizing tone that he knows will rile Harry up. Just to add some fuel to the fire, he picks the bear bag up by the head and swings it around while it’s still attached to Harry’s back.
Harry clearly isn’t in the mood to play now, though, because he just hangs his head a bit, dragging his toe in a circle in the dirt. “Just like ‘em, ‘s all.”
Louis glanced around quickly and, when he saw that there were no children around to corrupt, he shot up onto his toes to attach his lips to Harry’s.
They kissed for a while, long enough to draw some wolf whistles from a group of three guys who seemed to be checking out the snake habitat. Harry grinned when he pulled away and sent an only slightly apologetic look in the guys’ direction.
“On to the monkeys now, yeah?” Louis asked, pulling his blushing fiancé by the hand down the worn dirt path between the habitats.
~*~
“The best for last,” Harry declares, towing a now-slightly-sweaty-Louis towards the bears by the hand. “They’re so close, I could touch them!”
Louis smiled and pulled out his phone to take a few more pictures of Harry stretching his arm out towards the bear cubs, Harry grinning at the camera, Harry growling like a bear, his hands held up to mimic paws. “Look how cute they are!” Harry leaned over more and that was apparently enough to attract the attention of the smallest cub, because it was shakily making its way over to Harry and the twelve year old boy that he had befriended back at the peacock exhibit.
(“I wanna see your peacock-cock-cock, your peacock-cock-cock,” Harry had sung, drawing a small crowd of disgruntled looking adults. “Not KP fans, huh?” Harry whispered, putting his lips against the shell of Louis’ ear.
Harry managed to charm his way out of being escorted from the park by simply explaining that Louis was a deaf-mute and that he needed to feel the vibrations of Harry’s throat, is all, he didn’t mean to be that loud, he swears.
That was their wedding song, is all; an inside joke that had started when they were teenagers- young and so, so in love.
Louis had stood in stunned silence, accidentally going along with Harry’s whole deaf-mute story as he fish-mouthed for a solid two minutes while Harry spun an elaborate tale of their first meeting, going into detail about how Louis eventually taught him sign language, so that Louis would finally have a rest from reading people’s lips, all goddamn day, starting with ‘I love you’ and ending with ‘marry me?’
It would have been quite touching if it wasn’t absolute bullshit.
This had attracted the attention of a younger boy who had looked up at Harry, all wide-eyed and innocent as he stated: “I want to be in love like you guys someday.”)
“Do you think we’ll get to pet it?” The boy asked Harry, looking nervously between the cub and the otherwise-occupied zoo worker.
“We might,” Harry replied, shoving his hand through the fence as if he wasn’t breaking about ten of the zoo rules that are explicitly laid out right in front of him. “He’s so small,” Harry mused once the cub was only a few feet away. “He looks so sad, though.” Harry frowned and waved his hand around trying to beckon the cub closer. “I just want to free him from this prison- look!” He pointed over at the food stands set up for the bears and his frown deepened. “They have to eat that garbage all day.” Harry’s frown faded as the cub’s curiosity towards him grew. “I always thought that they’d be bigger, you know?”
“I read in a book that baby bears are only about the size of a large puppy.” This kid seemed to be pretty smart for a twelve year old; spouting off information that Louis, as an adult, should probably, maybe, know. “Cubs also leave their mums after only two years! What if I had to do that?”
“You’d probably die,” Louis muttered too loudly because he’s dumb and bad with children that aren’t in direct relation to him. (He also maybe doesn’t like that this new kid is stealing all of his fiancé’s attention.) “I mean- oh, hey,” he pulled his silent phone out of his pocket, “Lottie’s calling, let me just-“
“Just go Lou, we could do without your negativity.” It wasn’t unkind, Harry’s words punctuated with a silly face and a grin. “You might want to call her anyway; check on your mom and everything.”
Louis’ mom isn’t even that sick now, and it was just a cold to begin with, honestly, but Harry’s been obsessed with her health, constantly driving the two hours to Doncaster whenever he can to bring her soup and movies and sweets from his bakery.
“She’s fine, babe,” Louis insisted, giving up any pretenses of his phone ringing. “We were just-“
“Lou call her, please.” And Harry’s- no. He needs to stop with the big, wide eyes. He needs to stop with the plump lip stuck out into a pout as if he was six, not twenty seven years old. “It’ll put my heart at ease.”
Louis groaned but pulled his phone out anyway, making a show of dialing his mum up as he walked to the other side of the area to look at the lions.
~*~
“I know. We’ll be up again before the wedding, I promise,” Louis repeats for the third time in as many minutes. “I think we’re planning on coming up at the end of May.”
He could practically hear his mum’s grin. “I’m just a little old lady, Boo, trying to spend some time with the family is all. You know it’s been ages and the twins are getting to where they don’t want to play with me anymore.”
Louis sighed because his mum sure was pulling out the big guns on this one. “You don’t have to guilt trip me, I want to come up and you know it.” Two could play at this game, though. “It’s just been so hard with figuring out all of the adoption stuff and it’s such a process but I’m happy to do it because Gracie should be home right after the wedding, but I never expected it to be so hard, you know?”
Like a switch, Louis could almost feel his mum soften, her cheekiness fading. “It’s fine, love, just come up whenever you can, okay? Don’t stretch yourself too thin with the adoption and the working and the wedding and all. It’s fine to pace yourself. Do what you can, yeah?”
“Yeah.” Louis exhaled a breath he didn’t realize he was holding as his mum worked her magic to calm him down.
It was meant to be a guilt trip, but now after everything was out in the open, he realized that he was feeling a bit overworked and tired.
“Well, I’ll let you go now, I’m sure that Harry’s waiting.” His mum giggled a little at the end, still clearly not over Harry’s charming personality. (It’s been ten years, honestly.) (Louis’ maybe not over it either.)
Louis turned around to look over at the boy in question, happy to find him leaning against the waist high fence, his bum resting on the top, his stupid back pack slung over his shoulders as he chatted with the boy from the peacock exhibit. “He’s fine; he’s made a new friend at the zoo.”
“That boy could befriend a brick wall, Lou.” Then, a little softer, she added, “I’m happy you snatched him up.”
Louis grinned, covering his face a little when Harry caught his eye. “Yeah, me too.”
They hung up a few minutes later, Louis’ mum yelling at the girls (and Ernest) from downstairs about dinner and then Louis’ speaker had been flooded with a chorus of hey, Lou’s from two sets of twins.
“Can we leave now?” Harry asked, once Louis finally put his phone away and found his place by Harry’s side. “All of this animal torture is making me sick.”
Louis raised his eyebrows, wondering where that had come from. “They don’t torture the animals, H. They take good care of them and nurse them back to health and play with them and everything.”
“They are being exploited for monetary gain, Louis,” Harry insisted as he pulled Louis to the exit.
“You were the one who wanted to come!”
“That was before I knew that I was feeding a power-hungry organization.” He started walking faster, Louis nearly running to catch up. “How would you feel if you were shot with a tranquilizer dart and woke up in a cage?”
“I probably wouldn’t be very happy,” Louis amended, “but-“
“No buts,” Harry said sternly, pulling him towards their car. “We should protest and stand up against this cruelty and tell these rich pricks to shove their-“
“Harry, you’re attracting a lot of unwanted attention,” Louis warned, happy when he’s able to spot their car only a few meters away. “How about we finish this discussion at home?”
“Can we send a strongly worded letter?”
“I’ll do you one better,” Louis bargained, pulling open the car door for him. “We’ll send an email. It’ll get there faster and all.”
Harry grinned, happy, and pulled his back pack off to place in the backseat.
“How many bottles of water did you bring?” Louis asked when he noticed Harry’s biceps bulging from the weight of the bag. He put their car in reverse, pulling out from their spot near the middle of the car park. He waved happily at the woman working the gate, showing his parking pass and grinning as she let them go through.
Once they were a few miles away, Louis could see Harry visibly relax against the seat, smiling a little to himself.
“Babe I know you were upset about the animals, but I don’t think that you should- H?”
Harry hummed, turning his head to face Louis, his ear resting against the seat.
Louis glanced in the rear-view mirror again, making sure that he’s not hallucinating. “H, why is your bag-“ Louis nearly swerved off the road as he watched Harry’s stupid bear-shaped bag wiggle around in the back seat, eventually falling over. “Harry, no. No, no, no.” He turned to look at his stupid- beautiful, but stupid- fiancé at the next stoplight. “Please tell me you didn’t-“
“Okay, before you say anything else, just-“ He reached back and started unzipping the side, a cautious grin on his face. “I just need you to bear with me.”
“No,” Louis started shaking his head, getting faster and faster as the realization of what Harry had done began to sink in. “You- you didn’t.”
“He looked so sad, Lou, you don’t understand,” Harry murmured, allowing all of Louis’ worst thoughts to come true as he lifted a goddamn bear from his stupid, stupid bag. “The light’s green.” Harry said it with such casualness that Louis was able to forget for a moment that his fiancé was holding a baby bear on his lap in their shitty little beat up Volkswagen and drive.
Louis hit the gas a little too hard and Harry jerked forward, the cub falling over a bit. Harry was quick to set it upright, brushing a hand over its fur with care as he murmured words of comfort into its rounded little ears.
“You can’t-“ Louis’ eyes were constantly switching from the road to Harry to the cub. Road, Harry, cub. Road, Harry, motherfucking baby bear cub. “You can’t just steal a baby bear, H.” Louis pulled over into the closest car lot, happy to see that the shop was already closed. “This is so, so illegal, love. Like- it’s so illegal.”
Harry pouted, rubbing the cub’s ears again as tears welled up in his eyes. “He didn’t want to be there, though.” He touched all over the bear’s face, feeling its nose and mouth and-
“Harry, please get your fingers away from there.”
“Brendon told me that it was a good idea,” Harry muttered, going back to stroking the cub’s head. “He agreed that it looked sad.”
“But remember what he said about the mother bear? About how the cub only got to be with her for two years?” Harry nodded petulantly, ceaseless in his strokes on the cub’s head and back. “Well now that cub won’t get to be with his mum and he won’t know how to survive when he’s older.”
Louis honestly felt like he was dealing with a child sometimes.
“But we could-“
“We can’t take care of a baby bear, Harry.” Louis finally allowed himself to pull off his seatbelt, turning to face his stupid, stupid, stupid, fiancé. “Think about it, love. A wedding, a baby, and a cub?” He took Harry’s hand off of the bear’s fur and held it against his chest. “It’s crazy. And illegal,” Louis threw in; because it’s true and Harry seemed like he needed to be reminded again.
“I guess I knew that.” Harry sighed, looking the cub up and down in his lap, watching as it fiddled around with his fedora. “But what do we do now?”
“You’re okay?” Louis asked, because Harry gets attached to things quite easily. Harry nodded solemnly, smiling a little sadly at the cub. “We can take him back to the zoo?”
“Yeah, we can take him home.”
~*~
They got the bear back with surprisingly little difficulty. (Harry placed the bear in the bathrooms and began shrieking until one of the workers came in to escort it back to its habitat. It was just a little runaway, no bear-napping or anything.)
“Your screaming was so loud,” Louis mused as they walked hand-in-hand (at a normal pace) back to the car for the second time that day. “I thought that my ear-drums would explode.”
Harry jerked to a halt, pulling Louis back by the hand. “Would you say that it was-“
Louis’ eyes widened, reaching a hand up to slap over Harry’s mouth. “Harry, no, not another-“
Harry pulled Louis’ hand away, grinning.
“Unbearable?”