Archive of Our Own ^beta

As far as life aspirations went, Harry never pictured himself in this situation.

Not to say the house they were at was horrid –Harry had stayed at far worse motels when he"d first moved to LA, and they had visited far creepier places in the past. The house had two floors, it was large and furnished, perfect for raising a family on the outsides of Los Angeles and unlike most of the other locations they’d gone to, it lacked cobwebs.

"Is there anybody in here?" Came the muffled voice of Louis from down the basement, where the sect supposedly practiced their rituals and summoned demons. Harry stopped pacing in the hallway to listen. "My name is Harry," Louis continued. "Harry Styles, in case you plan to kill me later and don"t know how to find me. That"s my name."

As if ghosts couldn"t remember faces, Harry chuckled to himself, then shook his head. Ghosts weren"t real, he didn"t believe in any of these things and that was the whole point of him being here- the whole point of the web series, the contrast between Louis’ beliefs and his.

Five minutes ago he had been in Louis’ place, down in the dark basement, trying to supposedly communicate with spirits.

"This is your last chance to make your presence known," Louis commanded, but the way his voice shook made it less effective. Harry checked the hour on his phone, Louis had less than a minute left before he could come up. Harry didn"t understand how he could still be so scared after the lack of evidence they had gotten during this investigation. "I"m going to leave and never come back, if there"s someone here, give me a sign. Make a sound-"

Right on queue, Harry kicked the basement door open, the metallic sound of the door bouncing on the wall resounding all over the house and probably even louder down the basement. Louis screamed. Harry doubled over in laughter, his laugh echoing down the basement and giving him away.

"You son of a bitch," Louis shouted. He marched up the stairs and stared at Harry with furious eyes, breath still labored, one hand on his chest while the other one held a flashlight. "I hate you," he lightly punched Harry’s chest.

Harry clutched his stomach.

"You think you"re really funny, huh?" Louis crossed his arms. "Wait until a ghost kills you in your sleep."

Harry wiped away tears from his eyes. "You should"ve seen your face," he wheezed, then proceeded to imitate said face, bulging out his eyes and furrowing his eyebrows, he let out a high pitched scream.

"Fuck you, that"s not how I sound," Louis complained, but there was a slight smile forming on his face. "Let"s get out of here, this place is fucking scary and I"m starving."

Harry waited for him to be far enough, then turned to one of the cameramen who was just coming up from the basement. "You got that on tape, right?"

-

"So, where are we going next week?" Harry asked around a mouthful of fries.

Louis threw him a disgusted look. "Didn"t your mother teach you not to chew and speak at the same time?"

Harry chewed louder, "Yes,"

Louis shook his head. "We"re going to an abandoned asylum."

"Oh, that sounds like fun."

"Yeah," Louis chuckled. "For you, maybe." He stole one of Harry"s fries right out of his hand and put it in his mouth, then leaned back on his seat. "I can"t believe we"re already on the third season, this is nuts."

Harry nodded. He couldn"t believe it either. What had began as an excuse to watch Louis lose his shit to the sound of doors creaking, had transformed into one of the highest-rated web series of BuzzFeed as well as his main source of income.

"You already planned all the places we"re going to visit this season?" Harry pushed the plate of fries across the table when Louis kept stealing them.

"Yeah," Louis grabbed the bottle of ketchup and squeezed until the fries were flooded in tomato sauce. "And that"s all I can tell you right now, don"t try bribing me for details."

Harry cringed at the plate, he had always known Louis had questionable eating habits. "I know, I know, gotta keep my reactions fresh and all that." Louis nodded. "But, if you tell me where the asylum is I"ll buy you another round of fries. How"s that sound?" Harry wiggled his brows.

-

"Shit, this place looks worse in person," Louis stared at the looming, ruined building. His big blue eyes wide and scared, arms wrapped around himself even if he had on a sweater.

"Awww, are you scared, baby?" Harry stood closer to Louis and circled an arm around his slender shoulders. "I"ll protect you from the big bad ghosts, don"t worry."

Louis wiggled out of his arm. "Don"t touch me, ew."

After a six-hour flight, most of which Harry had spent sleeping, they were in Spring City, ready to go inside Pennhurst Asylum. The chilly air, along with the cloudy night sky added to the frightening atmosphere of the haunted place, it would make for some pretty good shots.

Some seconds went by while Louis stood frozen facing the building until Harry cleared his throat. “So, you gonna go in?”

“You go in first.” Louis snapped.

Harry sighed and spared a glance at the camera crew behind them, the little red blinking lights staring back at him. “Whatever you say, baby.” he shrugged and walked to the entrance with a bounce in his step.

The interior of the asylum was even more menacing than the outside,  as soon as Harry entered, an unpleasant smell hit him.

“Ugh,” Louis pinched his nose. “Smells like shit. I can’t believe people pay to come in here.”

The building had all the staples of haunted abandoned places. Graffitied walls with deteriorating wallpaper and mold, cobwebs, dust. Harry pointed his flashlight at a rusty wheelchair standing in their way. It was easy to believe the place was now a Halloween attraction.

“Are we sleeping in here tonight?” Harry raised a brow.

“Fuck no,” Louis said,  cowering on himself while he walked.

Harry followed behind, careful not to stumble over anything.

“So, this place used to be a mental institution back in the ’60s,” Louis began. “They used to throw everyone in here; disabled people, immigrants, criminals, orphans, people with epilepsy. Basically anyone they didn’t consider fit for society.”

“So, they would’ve thrown you in here, too, huh?”

“Oh,” Louis laughed. “if anyone would’ve been sent to an institution back in the day it would be you, pal. You’re too weird to have survived during that era.”

Harry tilted his head to the side. “You have a point,” and followed Louis into one of the rooms of the building.

“So, this was where some of the patients slept,” Louis explained. Harry pointed his flashlight at an old hospital bed, the mattress torn up and covered in dirt. “In 1968 a documentary exposed the mistreatment of patients. The staff would, um, slap or beat them.”

Harry winced. “Okay, that got dark, real fast.”

Louis nodded. “Yeah, the living conditions were terrible. That’s the main reason it was shut down.”

After they wandered into a couple of more rooms --all of which were in the same deteriorated conditions-- Louis directed them to the underground tunnels of the building.

“So, this is supposedly the most active place in here.” Louis’ voice trembled the tiniest bit. The underground tunnel system had small corridors that they’d covered with motion lights. “If anything moves towards us, we’ll catch it.”

“Cool,” Harry said.

“Okay,” Louis moved closer to Harry, both stared into the tunnel that was illuminated by small green light dots. “I heard about what happened in here,” Louis’ cleared his throat. “The abuse you guys had to endure. If there’s anybody in here, make your presence known, move so we can see you.”

A silent minute went by, Harry faked a yawn. “You guys are boring,” Harry said, to no one. The team had spent an hour setting up the motion lights and nothing was happening. Louis let out a relieved sigh.

“I brought something that can help,” Louis said before he whipped out a small airplane toy.

“Uh,” Harry frowned, sharing a confused look with one of the cameramen. “You sure you’re alright, Lou? Maybe the fumes in the tunnel are messing with your head.”

“The manager told me one of the ghosts is a little boy called Howie, who loves airplanes,” Louis squatted down to put the toy on the floor a couple of feet away from them. He quickly retreated to stand beside Harry.

Harry’s confused frown remained on his face.

“Howie, we heard you like planes,” Louis said, eyes trained on the toy on the floor. “Don’t you want to play with it?”

“Howie, if you don’t grab that plane in five seconds, I’m going to take it for myself and I’m going to disrespect it!” Harry shouted.

Louis giggled. “That didn’t sound good.”

Harry turned to him, open-mouthed. “Ew Louis, it’s a toy. I didn’t mean- ew.”

“I’m just saying.”

“What?” Harry said. “I’m not into fucking plastic toys.”

Louis shrugged. “Well, I’m not an expert on your kinks, am I?”

“Why would someone even-” Harry started but promptly got interrupted by the sound of an alarm. The motion lights had been activated.

Louis’ face drained of all color and his eyes widened, he rushed to stand closer to Harry, hiding behind his shoulder. “Fuck,” he let out softly.

Harry waited a couple of seconds, hoping to hear another sound. He puffed air out of his cheeks when he didn"t. “Well, that proves nothing. Must’ve been the wind.”

“Are you kidding me?” Louis moved to stand in front of him. “The wind?”

Harry shrugged and nodded. “Yes, baby. Are we done hunting ghosts tonight?”

Louis rolled his eyes. “I want to try one last thing.”

Harry put his hands on his waist and observed as Louis searched for something inside his jacket, coming up with a small ball. He raised a brow. “A ball? That’s your genius plan?”

“Shush, the staff told me Howie was very playful.” Louis positioned himself once again, staring down at the tunnel, he enunciated. “Howie, I’m gonna throw this at you. I’ve heard you’re very playful, so let’s play a game.”

Harry stood behind. He suddenly got a craving for sushi and idly wondered if they could stop at a sushi place before they had to get on their next plane.

Louis threw the ball at the tunnel and it bounced unceremoniously on the floor a couple of times before it landed beside a wall in the darkness. Louis motioned for Harry to follow him into the tunnel to retrieve the ball. But then Louis pointed his flashlight at the wall and gasped.

“Oh shit, shit, shit.”

“What?” Harry narrowed his eyes. The graffiti on the wall read Louis. “Oh, now that’s a strange coincidence.”

“Fucking shit,” Louis squirmed. “What are the odds?”

“Hey, it’s not such an odd name.” Harry placed a hand on Louis’ shoulder and tried to bring him closer to his body. “Let’s try again, yeah?”

They walked back, Louis in front of Harry, a little quiet like he usually got when he was still shaken. “That was not a coincidence,” Louis said. “That ghost clearly meant me. He"s trying to scare me.”

“Okay, Howie. Show us a sign that you meant Louis.” Harry threw the ball, it bounced three times before it stopped in a different corner.

Harry walked in the direction and pointed his flashlight at the wall, he immediately started laughing.

“What?” Louis came closer. “What’s so funny?”

Harry took a deep breath and tried to calm down before he pointed the light at the wall so Louis could read what it said.

“You’re right, this ghost is onto you,” Harry said. The graffiti on the wall read ‘I Love Pot’.

Louis shoved him and then chuckled. “I hate you,” he said, barely containing a smile. “Don’t act like you don’t get stoned, too. I’ve seen your Higgs shirts.”

Harry smiled and shrugged, content that the mood had lightened up. "Look at this one." Harry pointed at a graffiti that read "I ❤️ followed by a crude drawing of a penis".

-

Harry tapped his fingers on his desk to the rhythm of some pop song he no longer remembered the name of. By now the office had mostly cleared up and it was only Niall, Louis and Harry left.

The day had been a busy one. Full of editing and filming and brainstorming for upcoming projects. His feet still hurt from having to run while wearing stilettos for that one video Liam was producing. It had been a bad idea agreeing to help, he was sure one of his toes was sprained now. But none of that mattered cause they were done with work for the day, and it was a Margarita"s two for one Tuesday, the three of them would head over to join their coworkers at the bar as soon as Louis returned from the restroom.

Harry lifted his head when he heard steps and found Louis in a completely different outfit than the one he had been wearing the whole day. He let out a low whistle.

"Is that a new sweater you"re wearing?" Harry asked, staring at the tight, red sweater Louis wore, paired with denim boyfriend jeans. "Since when do you dress up just to go to the bar? What you were wearing was fine. Now I"ll feel underdressed." He looked down at his white shirt and Adidas shorts.

"Oh, I"m not coming with you guys tonight, sorry," Louis said, fixing his fringe on the reflection of a monitor.

Harry frowned, then turned to Niall for an explanation. Niall was still plugged in with his headphones on. "What do you mean you"re not coming? It"s margaritas two for one Tuesday."

"Yeah," Louis began clearing his desk. "I have a thing."

"What thing?" Harry stared harder at Niall. "What"s he talking about?"

Niall sighed. "He has a date with Andrew."

Harry opened his mouth. Louis threw a glare at Niall, who just shrugged and continued typing. "Thanks, Niall." Louis said exasperated.

"Oh," Harry said, then he grinned. "Since when are you two talking? I thought Andrew was with Steven."

"He"s single," Louis said annoyed. "But it"s really none of your business. Now, I really gotta get going. Try not to get too shitfaced without me."

"Wait," Harry said, rising up from his desk.

Louis turned, "What?"

"I just want to know," Harry paused, face serious. "Are you guys gonna try on three different brands of condoms to see which ones are more worth it at it"s given price?"

Louis tightened his lips. "Okay, I"m leaving."

By the time Harry stopped laughing, Louis had already left. He looked at Niall.

"But seriously, since when are they seeing each other?" Harry asked.

Niall glanced at him then shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry frowned.

"Nothing. Forget it." Niall took off his headphones and started pocketing the stuff from his desk. "Let"s go catch up with the guys while they"re still sober. I"m starving."

-

“I can’t believe I’m here,” Louis said. “I promised myself I’d never return to this hotel.”

Harry made a point to take in the modern architecture and interior design of the salon they were filming in before responding. “Service was that bad, huh?”

Louis scoffed. “No, it wasn’t that. This was the place that turned me into a believer of the paranormal, years ago.”

They were at The Dauphine Orleans Hotel, a hotel built in the late 1700s and a strikingly different place than the asylum they had visited the past week. The hotel lacked graffitied walls and the smell of feces, but it had valley parking, french quarters and a wedding venue. As much as Harry enjoyed the thrilling experience of going down dark, spider-infested places, he was glad he would have a nice clean bed to sleep in tonight.

“And we’re sleeping in here!” Harry cheered at the camera, raising his arms up in glee.

Louis nodded, lips tight. “I agreed on staying the night, that’s true. As unsettling as this place is.”

“Unsettling? Lou, I’m sure you can think of a couple of places we’ve stayed at that have been way more unsettling than this one.” Harry glanced at Louis, who was sat beside him looking pensive. “Are you gonna tell us the story or what?”

Louis shook his head. “So, when I was eighteen, I stayed at this very same hotel with a couple friends, including my boyfriend at the time,” he began. “I was just like Harry, I thought ghosts and all that paranormal stuff was bullshit. Then one night while I was sleeping, I felt something repeatedly poke my-”

“Wow, wow, wow,” Harry held up his hands. “Keep it pg, Louis, jesus.”

Louis took a deep breath, face red he said through clenched teeth. “Like a finger poking my face! That’s what it felt like! That’s what I meant.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know what you meant? You were in a hotel room with your boyfriend. Things happen. When a boy and another boy are dating, they-”

“Shut up.” Louis stared up at the ceiling and let out an exasperated sigh. “Anyways. I felt a finger poke my face and I naturally thought it was my boyfriend trying to wake me up or something. So, I opened up my eyes ready to tell him off, but it turns out he was sleeping by my side- just completely asleep and snoring.”

Harry shrugged. “So what if he was snoring? You can fake snores.”

“I knew what his snores sounded like. He was asleep.”

Harry narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t buy it.”

“Well, you’ll buy it tonight when the ghost pokes you, too.” Louis retorted.

“Oh, kinky.” Harry smiled and wiggled his brows.

Louis facepalmed. “Why do I bother with you.”

After filming the exterior of the hotel and taking a brief tour around with their flashlights, they finally were on their way to their room. As they walked through the silent hallways, Harry felt his eyelids drop more and more each time.

The room was standard, decently sized, clean, scarcely decorated. There was only one issue.

“There’s only one bed,” Harry stated. He wasn’t shocked or bothered, but he hadn’t expected it.

“Yeah,” Louis scratched the back of his head. “I asked to stay in the same room I stayed in the last time, so.”

Harry raised his eyebrows. He was still holding a camera. “Oh. That makes sense,” he said. “Although, you better not wake me up like when we stayed at the Sally House. I’m actually knackered tonight. Didn’t sleep at all on the plane.”

“You’re sleeping on the couch,” Louis gestured at the miniature couch in the corner.

Harry gasped. “No fucking way am I sleeping on that thing. You sleep on the couch! You’re the only one that could fit in that thing, anyway.” Before the argument could go on and on, Harry jumped on the bed and quickly got behind the covers, raising his eyebrows challengingly at Louis.

Louis huffed out. "Okay, whatever. Also, I never wake you up intentionally, jesus, sometimes I don"t even know how you can sleep with all these," he gestured around. "bad vibes around."

“I’m just saying, I’m not going to wake up no matter what you do.”

“I call dibs on the bathroom first,” Louis announced before rushing to the bathroom and locking Harry out.

“Heeey,” Harry called out. “Not cool, Lou. I’ve been holding in my pee for half an hour!”

Louis" laugh was loud even through the bathroom door. They’d shared rooms before and Louis always took way too long getting ready in the bathroom, so Harry got undressed before he lied back on the bed, and grabbed his phone so he could scroll through Twitter. He was in the middle of watching a video of a cat cuddling with a baby when he heard Louis’ tinny voice come from the bathroom.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get through this night if I’m honest, guys,” Louis said, probably filming himself on his phone. It was another ten minutes before Louis came out.

“Finally,” Harry said when Louis unlocked the door.

Louis looked a little lost as he padded in his direction, he had changed into a pair of grey sweats and a hoodie and his fringe looked softer than an hour ago. He stopped in the middle of the room to fix Harry with a look. “Why are you naked?”

Harry looked down at his naked chest. “I’m not naked, I’m wearing boxers. That’s not naked.”

“Youtube’s gonna demonetize the video.”

Harry snickered. “No, they’re not.”

Louis shook his head. “Don’t you have respect for me?”

“Oh, baby, I respect you,” Harry said. “If I didn’t I wouldn’t be wearing these.” He let the elastic band of his boxers slap against his skin.

Louis rubbed a hand down his face, shook his head. He set the camera in front of the room, then turned the lights off and got in bed beside Harry.

“Sweet dreams,” Harry whispered, snuggling in his side.

“Fuck off,” Louis turned his back to him.

It took Harry a couple of seconds to remember where he was. He blinked himself awake and glanced around the mostly dark room before he came to his senses. They were in New Orleans staying at The Dauphine hotel recording an episode.

He briefly wondered why he had woken but when he turned to the side, he found Louis curled up in on himself, eyes scrunched shut, his breath short and choppy as his small frame trembled.

“Lou?” Harry sat up. “Lou, are you okay?”

“I he- heard something, I don’t- don’t know what it was but-” Louis stuttered, his arms were wrapped around himself and his chest rose quickly.

“Hey, it’s alright.” Harry cleared his throat, his voice rough with sleep. “I’m right here, nothing’s gonna happen to you.” He softly stroked one of Louis’ arms.

Louis shook his head, “I’m- Harry I’m really scared. I don’t-”

Without further thinking, Harry wrapped Louis up in his arms and pulled him into his lap, Louis didn’t resist. He cradled Louis’ head against his chest and began stroking his hair. “You’re alright, Lou. You just need to breathe, okay?” This had never happened before. Never in the two years they had been doing this, had Louis had a panic attack, even when they had gone to scarier places.

Louis nodded his head against his chest, his body small and warm against Harry’s naked skin.

“Okay, baby, I want you to take a deep breath in,” Harry said and waited to hear Louis do so. He counted to four in his head. “Now let it out.” Louis let out a shaky breath, Harry continued running his fingers through his hair.

“That’s good, baby. Just like that. Again, deep breath in,” he counted to four. “Let it out.”

The panic attack lasted around twenty minutes. They repeated the breathing exercise until Louis had calmed down enough and fell asleep. When Harry grew uncomfortable with their position, he laid back down on the bed, careful not to wake Louis and the both of them slept like that, with Louis head on Harry’s chest with Harry’s arms around him.

-

“So, you guys had any luck catching ghosts last night?” One of their cameramen asked. His voice was unbearable this early in the morning, Harry winced at the sound of it and rummaged his bag in search for his headphones, there was no way he was going to stay awake during their plane ride back to L.A. The sun hadn’t fully come out yet, and the lights of the plane’s interior hurt his eyes.

“Michael, if you don’t shut up you’re gonna catch these hands, alright pal?” Louis groaned, taking a seat beside Harry. He was bundled up in a mustard yellow bomber jacket, the bags underneath his eyes made him look soft and sleepy, he held a styrofoam cup between his hands.

Michael rolled his eyes and huffed out, “Alright, alright,” before he left.

The lights went out and Harry sighed in relief, he adjusted his seat and pulled his jacket tighter around himself.

“Coffee?”  Louis held up the cup to him with a tentative smile.

“Hmm, yeah.” Harry took a sip and tried not to cringe at how sweet it tasted. “How many sugar packets did you dump in this?” he chuckled.

“Oi,” Louis scowled. “Just two.”

“Way too many.” Harry took another sip.

After a couple of seconds of silence, Louis cuddled closer to Harry, who had already closed his eyes. “I want to thank you, for last night. You-” he cleared his throat. “handled it pretty well, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t been there.”

Harry popped one eye open. He hadn’t expected Louis to bring it up, especially after they had woken up just a few hours ago completely tangled with each other. It had been a little awkward, since Harry had been half-naked.

“Oh,” Harry said. “It’s no problem. Don’t worry about it.”

And that was that.

-

The sun was setting on the horizon, the road was surrounded by green pastures and trees, the atmosphere was perfect for a calm drive if it wasn’t for Louis nervous leg jigging.

“Stop bouncing your leg,” Harry pressed a palm on top of Louis’ knee, stopping the movement.

“Sorry, I’m just a little nervous,” Louis said.

‘In two hundred meters, turn left’ said Google Maps.

Harry followed the indication. They were driving through Denton County, Texas, on their way to the infamous Old Alton Bridge where a demon supposedly inhabited. Last week’s investigation had made Harry a little weary, not because of the ghosts or whatever but because he feared Louis would have another panic attack tonight. Overall the whole past episode would have to be heavily edited before it was uploaded, what with the lack of evidence they had found and the recorded five hours of them sleeping cuddled together in bed.

“Don’t think about that, yet. Tell me what you did during the weekend. What was so important that made you pass up on coming with the guys and me for drinks?”

Louis sighed, he had started biting on one of his nails. “Not much, um. Skyped with my mom, laundry, went out with some guy I met on Tinder. Watched a couple of episodes of-”

“Wait, did you say Tinder?” Harry frowned and turned on the headlights, the sky had turned too dark to see the road.

“...yeah,”

“But I thought you were an independent woman who didn"t need a man."

"I am an independent woman," Louis said with conviction. "I still want to get laid, though."

Harry tried to cover his ears while still keeping a hand on the wheel. "Way too much information!"

Louis huffed. "Oh, c"mon, you think I-”

“Shhh,” Harry sent him an exaggerated wide-eyed look. “I don’t want to hear the explicit details of your sins. Tell me about this bridge, then.”

By the time they had arrived at the bridge, the sky was entirely dark and the only source of light came from their flashlights.

The bridge was wider and bigger than Harry had pictured, the base of it was made by wood, Harry stomped on it a couple of times to make sure it was sturdy enough to hold them. There was a lake underneath them and the forest surrounded them.

“Well, here we are,” Louis began, taking some steps. He was wearing a large hoodie that fell to his mid-thigh, the sleeves rolled up.

Harry jumped a couple of times on the bridge. “This thing is firm, huh?”

Louis grinned, “That’s what she said.”

“No,” Harry chuckled. “That’s what he said.”

Louis shook his head as if he hadn’t been the one to start it. “Can you try to seem scared, at least?”

Harry nodded seriously and proceeded to pull the most exaggerated scared face he could think of, widening his big eyes and curling his bottom lip.

“Never mind.”

Both of them proceeded to sit down on an area that didn’t look as dirty so they could start filming, Michael gave them a thumbs up.

“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we investigate goatman’s bridge as part of our ongoing investigation into the question, are ghosts real,” Louis said the iconic phrase, Harry gazed directly at one of the cameras and shook his head. Mosquitoes kept flickering around them, Harry tried to swat them away from above Louis’ head. “The legend says there’s a demon that inhabits this place, they call it the goatman cause he is said to be half goat and half man-”

“No shit.” Harry laughed. “I thought it was because he was half fish, half man.”

“Shut up,” Louis said. “Anyways, our goal tonight is to contact this entity.”

“Any demons here, hey demons here we are,” Harry said to no one while he mindlessly pointed his light at random spots in the distance. At times he felt a little bad for not believing in any of these things, particularly when he felt so chill while Louis wandered the bridge with a frightened, glazed-out look on his face. “Are there any demons listening, any, uh, any horny boys?”

Louis sputtered. “Horny boys?”

Harry shrugged. “Goats have horns, don’t they?”

“If there’s any uh, anyone here. Show yourself. Give us a sign, um.” Louis rubbed one of his arms and glanced around. “I don’t know what to ask.”

“What if- Can I try something?”

Louis shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”

Harry nodded, took a deep breath and shouted, “Fuck you Goatman!”

Louis stepped back. “Wow,”

“Look at me, Goatman, I’m on your bridge! We’re not scared of you! If you want me to get off the bridge you’ll have to drag me out yourself!”

Louis glanced behind his back as if he expected something to show up. They waited for a couple of seconds in case they heard or saw something but nothing happened.

“Kay,” Harry said. “Should we go to the woods now?”

A branch cracked under Harry’s foot and Louis snapped his head back. “Oops,” Harry said.

“Is there anybody here?” Louis shouted at the empty woods, then he said to Harry, “This is where people practice rituals, according to some sources.”

Harry nodded then shouted, “We’re here for the cult stuff! Come say hi to me and my little friend.”

Louis chuckled.

“What?”

“When you say it like that it sounds like you’re talking about your penis.”

“Oh,” Harry smiled. “There’s nothing little about it, though.”

Louis" eyes widened. “Okay!”

They continued walking, a gush of wind blew past them, making the bushes surrounding them move.

"What was that?" Louis froze in his step, Harry collided against his back.

"I"m sure it was just the wind," Harry answered with a bored tone.

"No, I heard a whisper," Louis said whipping his head around like he was waiting to spot the goatman behind a bush.

Harry eyed their surroundings and found nothing out of the ordinary. "Maybe it"s the cult. They"ll kidnap both of us and sacrifice us to a pagan god." Louis" body radiated warmth, the impulse to wrap his arms around him to bring them closer flickered through his mind for a second. Harry frowned at himself.

Louis stepped behind Harry.

"Lou, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I"m doing?" Louis hissed, ducking.  "I"m trying to hide from the cult behind your big body."

"My body is not that big, yours is just small," Harry said with a smile, "plus what are you going to do if the cult does approach us? There"s only so fast your little legs can run."

Louis softly hit him in the back of the head. "Shut up, I ran track in high school."

"That"s not true, that was your sister. You played volleyball in high school."

"How do you know that?" A stronger gush of wind blew past them, Louis shivered behind him. "Fuck, it"s cold."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I told you to bring a jacket. You want mine?"

"No, just," Louis stood closer to Harry"s back and put his hands inside the pockets of Harry"s jacket. "There."

Harry laughed. "And you expect us to walk like this?"

Louis shrugged. "Yeah. Anyways, how do you know I played volleyball in high school?"

Harry took some leisure steps, careful not to make Louis trip on his feet, the position they were in was working, he felt the body warmth sip into his back.

"You told us one time when we went out. Actually, I remember your exact words being "I"m only good at sports if they feature balls"."

Louis cackled, "Was I drunk?"

Harry nodded, "Probably."

They stayed like that for a few more minutes. Harry calling out for demons, or ghosts or cult members while Louis was plastered to his back, putting all of his weight on him. When it was clear there was nothing hiding in the forest, they returned to the bridge.

“I’ve never done this before.” Louis’ words came out trembly. It could’ve been because he was still cold or because he was genuinely scared again.

They both sat on the bridge facing each other, an ouija board in the middle, the night sky above them, and a couple of cameras focused on them.

“Seriously? Not even in high school or college.” Harry hadn’t played it as many times as others would’ve guessed but that had more to do with the lack of parties he had attended during his teenage years than with him believing in ghosts.

Louis shook his head. “I vowed to never mess with this shit but look at me now.” he let out a nervous laugh.

Louis had insisted on learning the proper ways to initiate the ritual, or whatever. He had lit five candles and had made a circle of salt around them to “protect” themselves.

“Okay, so. We just put our hands on that tringle thingy, right?”

“It’s called a planchette,” Louis said.

“Kay.” 

Louis sighed. “Yeah, okay, let’s do this.”

Both went to rest their hands on the planchette at the same time and bumped their knuckles together.

“Wow,” Louis let out.

“What?”

“Nothing, just, your hands are really warm?” Louis wrapped his fingers around Harry’s bigger hand to feel at it. His own smaller hand was significantly colder than Harry’s. It made Harry"s belly feel weird.

“I told you to bring a jacket,” Harry rolled his eyes and shrugged his own jacket before handing it out to Louis. “Here, it’s fine. I’m not even cold, just take it.”

“But-“

“Don’t worry about it,” Harry waved him off. “Now let’s talk to goatman, yeah? Want to ask him if he has hooves. ”

-

Harry rushed into the office’s cafeteria, stomach already grumbling. The second he’d heard there was gonna be free sushi for lunch he had stood up from his desk and gone straight here.

Much to his and his other coworker’s dismay, they didn"t encounter their average sushi bar.

Harry walked over to where Louis was chatting with a naked Niall covered in decorative leaves and sushi rolls, bare body laid down on top of the counter.

“Mind if I help myself to a salmon roll?” Harry asked, eyeing Niall’s pale chest.

"Sorry, Niall"s saving all the salmon rolls for me." Louis tilted his head. "You can try with Steven, though." Harry looked behind, Steven was also naked, on top of the table in the middle of the room, covered in sushi. Several coworkers were wandering around the room with an empty plate while they eyed the food dubiously.

"You don"t even like sushi." Harry narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, well, maybe I like it when it"s served on Niall"s naked body," Louis raised an eyebrow. He was wearing a big red sweater, and his nose was flushed because of the temperature of the room, the guys must have turned up the AC to ensure the sushi remained fresh.

"Oh, so you have a thing for Niall now, huh? Thought you were seeing Andrew."

Louis shrugged, he said yes at the same time Niall whined no.

Ashley approached them with a camera. "How"s the prank going?" She asked Niall.

Niall shut his eyes. "Not how I expected."

"If you"re so into Niall why don"t you go ahead and have a roll, baby," Harry said, pointedly looking Niall"s crotch, where a thin, large leaf had six sushi rolls on top.

Louis narrowed his eyes. "Don"t tell me what to do."

"I don"t think you dare," Harry grinned.

Louis raised a brow and without flinching grabbed a sushi roll straight from Niall"s leaf-covered crotch before sticking into his mouth and chewing, never losing eye contact.

Niall"s entire face and body flushed a deep red. "I hate this. I hate you both."

"Nice," Harry said amused when Louis showed him his tongue. "Well, I"m gonna order a pizza." He patted Niall on the cheek.

-

“Did we really fly all the way to New Orleans for this?” Harry asked.

Louis rang the doorbell and hushed Harry. The outside of the house looked like any other Harry had seen. He’d imagined a lot more dream catchers hanged around, but it was a regular house just painted a vibrant purple.

“Hello!” A woman in a flowery robe with blonde hair opened the door. “You must be Louis and Harry, come on in. We’re glad you’re here.”

Harry smiled awkwardly as he stepped into the home behind Louis, two camera guys following them.

“Spirits, this is Harry and Louis.” The lady directed at the empty house. Harry scrunched his nose up to avoid laughing.

The inside of the house looked more like what Harry had imagined, it was cluttered, filled with weird sculptures, dolls, mirrors, and religious images.

“Take a seat, loves. Would you like some tea?” The lady asked, already heading for the kitchen.

“Um, sure,” Louis said, eyeing one of the chairs before sitting. Harry sat beside him, unsure of what to do with his hands.

The crew proceeded to take shots of the sculptures from up close.

The Lady returned not much after, balancing two tiny cups in her hand. “Here,” she placed them on the glass table in front of them.

Harry and Louis muttered their thanks.

The lady sat on the opposite chair. “Excuse me, I’m gonna feed the spirits,” she happily announced. Before either of them could ask her to explain what she meant, she gulped some of the tea and proceeded to spit it out.

Laughter bubbled up inside Harry"s throat, Louis kicked his leg in that instant, so he coughed to cover it up.

"So, your name is Bloody Mary, you"re a well known psychic and voodoo practitioner," Louis started. "Can you tell us what we"re gonna do today?"

Mary nodded. "Today I"m going to perform various opening rituals to create a direct passage to spirits so you may communicate with them more efficiently."

"How did you know you were a psychic?" Harry butted in.

Mary smiled and closed her eyes. "When I was a little girl, I had no idea what I felt and saw was uncommon. I thought everyone had the same abilities I did. I kept predicting stranger"s futures and getting glimpses of their past lives and I thought that was normal. My mom pulled me aside one day and told me I needed to stop letting people know everything I saw about them. I"d walk up to the neighbor and tell them I was sorry they got fired from a job before it happened.  I"d shake someone"s hand and congratulate them on their newborn when they didn"t even know they were pregnant. Sometimes it got me in trouble." She laughed.

Down in the basement of Mary"s home, Harry and Louis gathered around Mary while she drew something on the wooden floors with a piece of chalk, she hummed and said some nonsensical phrases, she spread water around the figure she"d drawn, some pennies and bread crumbs and lit up a candle.

"Spirits," she said in a sweet voice. "Here we are to respectfully communicate with you. I"m Bloody Mary and I"m with some friends," she glanced at Louis. "State your complete names, the both of you."

"Um, Louis William Tomlinson." Louis met eyes with Harry.

"Harry Edward Styles."

“We let you open the gate to let them through today.”

They didn’t turn on the lights to conserve the eerie atmosphere. They roamed the dark basement with a light flash in their hands, which was just as cluttered as the rooms upstairs.

“Hey spirits, is there something you wanna tell my little friend Louis?” Harry pointed at some old chairs stacked in the corner of the room.

 “Or maybe you wanna tell it to the giant here with me?” said Louis.

“That’s weird,” Mary said out of nowhere.

Harry stifled a laugh when he saw Louis do a little jump and a double-take behind his shoulder.

“What’s weird?” Harry turned to Mary.

Mary motioned upwards, Harry pointed his light at the ceiling and saw the fan moving. “Huh,”

“I don’t remember turning that on,” Mary frowned.

Louis’ got that wide-eyed look on his face at Mary’s words.

“Well,” she shrugged. “I’m gonna let you guys on your own for a few minutes, I’m gonna grab something to eat. The spirit world is in your hands for now.” Mary grinned and went upstairs.

“So,” Harry took some steps towards Louis. “I think it would be a good idea if I left you here on your own for a few minutes. So you could, I don’t know, get closer to the ghouls.”

“What?”

“Yes. Maybe my presence is interfering with the-” he waved around. “Whatever- what if you locked yourself in that room there and turned off the light? So the spirits felt comfortable interacting with you.”

“You’re so full of shit,” Louis laughed. “you just wanna see me freak out!”

“No, of course not, baby.” Harry put on the most innocent face he could. Louis crossed his arms and raised his brows. Harry shook his head. “Okay, I’ll go first, how about that?”

“Fine,” Louis stepped out of the room they were currently in and closed the door behind him.

Harry rolled his eyes, turned off his flashlight. “Two minutes,” he called out to Louis. “So, here I am. Do with me what you will.” He directed at the non-existent spirits. The seconds ticked by, he felt a tug on his jacket. Probably the denim getting stuck on a nail on the wall.

"It"s crazy to think most of my income comes from standing in dark rooms for a couple of minutes weekly, doing nothing," Harry murmured to the camera they"d installed inside the room. "Not exactly what I pictured myself doing when I joined film school." He shrugged. "I"m not complaining, though. Louis, however-" his phone started beeping, marking the end of the two minutes.

He kicked the door open cheerfully. "Your turn, baby!"

Louis glared at him. "Fuck."

"You"ll be alright," Harry squeezed his shoulder. "I"ll be right here, yeah?" He ruffled the top of Louis" head, Louis slapped his hands away before walking into the room and closing the door behind himself.

A couple of silent seconds went by, Harry sat on one of the old basement"s chairs.

"Doing this shit is much easier with Harry, as much as I hate to admit it." Harry heard Louis whisper to the camera inside the room. "He makes the scariest places seem less scary? Cause he"s never- he"s unbreakable, so when he"s not with me I feel a little… I don"t know." A beat went by, Harry stood up and approached the door so he could hear better. "Not to say he"s like, my daddy or anything just- why did I say that. You guys are gonna have fun with that one aren"t you?" He sighed.

"Two minutes," Harry called out when the timer on his phone started beeping. "You can come out."

Louis kicked the door open. "I like men."

It took Harry a minute to comprehend the joke, when he did he rolled his eyes but chuckled. "Cheesiest joke you"ve done on the show."

Louis laughed.

"That wasn"t so bad, was it?" Harry grinned. Louis stumbled in his direction with a smile on his face.

"Nope," Louis grabbed onto the collar of Harry"s jacket. "Felt a tug on my shirt, though." He demonstrated by pulling on Harry"s jacket.

Harry"s hands went to cover Louis". "The spirit wanted you to take off your clothes, huh?" Louis looked up at him, eyes barely visible in the dark. "You gotta learn to not get so scared," Harry whispered.

"And I think you need to learn to see things for what they are."

"I think you need to learn to shut the hell up."

"I think you need to learn to shut the fuck up," Louis said, gaze unflinching. "I stepped it up with a curse word there."

"We"re gonna get demonetized." Harry narrowed his eyes.

"I think we"re losing track here," Louis swallowed and then chuckled.

"Should we close it now?" Mary stood underneath the door.

Louis jumped. "Shit," he quickly let go of Harry"s hands and turned to look at Mary.

Harry mourned the loss of Louis’ warmth momentarily before he slapped on his usual face. "Yeah, let"s close it."

Mary closed her eyes and took a deep breath, she extended her arms, palms facing up.  "We thank all the spirits for letting us have a glimpse into their lives and now we would like to close the gate!" she clapped her hands twice. “Okay, it’s done.”

It took them an hour to get all the equipment back inside the van, when they were done and ready to go, both of them approached Mary to say their goodbyes and thank her.

"Once again, thank you for having us," Louis said. "It was an interesting experience."

"Yes, very interesting. Thank you." Harry tacked on, eyes taking in the weird sculptures for the last time. The woman could open a small museum if she wanted to.

"It was a pleasure," Mary extended her arms, clearly expecting a hug.

Louis hesitated for a second before he accepted it, wrapping his slender arms around her big frame. Immediately and before Harry could object, she pulled Harry into his arms and hugged him tight, patting his back. "Come back when you wish." She beamed at them.

Harry and Louis were stepping down the stairs of the entrance when Mary called out, "By the way, congrats on your engagement. You make an incredible couple."

Before either of them could ask for further explanation, she winked at them and closed the door.

-

"She said what?" Ashley cackled, throwing her head back against Harry"s new leather couch, dangerously balancing a glass of champagne.

"Congrats on your engagement," Louis repeated, stuffing a profiterole into his mouth.

Christmas lights adorned Harry"s dining room, his apartment smelled like pastries and chocolate and freshly cooked pork ribs. Around twenty of his coworkers were spread out all over his apartment.

There were still twenty days until Christmas but the Holiday dinner had to be filmed today so it would be edited within the next week and uploaded within the next two.

"I don"t believe you." Ashley leaned back.

"Ask Harry," Louis took a sip from his glass, his words had come out the tiniest bit slurred. He wasn’t drunk, yet, but he wasn’t in the conditions to drive either.

Several pairs of eyes turned their attention to Harry. "Uh, yeah.” He confirmed. “That"s what she said before we left."

"Don"t you think that"s weird?" Niall butted in, leaning across the table to grab a profiterole.

Harry raised a shoulder. "I don"t know, Niall. Do I think the woman that spits out tea to, quote-unquote, feed the spirits, is weird?"

"She"s a psychic, though," Niall tacked on as if it made a difference. "What if she"s onto something?"

A beat of silence went past and then the whole room started laughing, Harry let out a chuckle and went to get himself a glass of water from the kitchen.

It was past midnight and the majority of his friends had already left by now, except for Niall who had already claimed the guest room for himself two hours ago when he"d exited the party unannounced, his snores could be heard even through the closed door.

"I"m leaving," Ashley stood up from the couch and grabbed her bag. "This was lovely, but I have to work in the morning. Louis, you want me to give you a ride?"

Louis was spread out on the couch, half a glass of champagne in his hands, drowsy look on his face. "No way, you live on the other side of where I live. I"ll take a cab, darling. Don"t worry about me."

Ashley smiled dejectedly but nodded. She hugged Harry goodbye before she left.

"You don"t have to call a cab, you know." Harry started picking up the empty glasses from the table and took them to the kitchen. "You could stay here."

"Pssst, and share a bed with Niall after he ate twenty profiteroles? No, thank you." Louis made to get up, he started patting his pants in search of his phone.

"Or you could just take my bed." Harry handed him his phone. "Wouldn"t be the first time we shared one."

"I"d much rather take the couch." Louis grimaced and patted him on the chest.

"How about," Harry went to the cupboard where he kept spare blankets and pulled out two. "I take the couch, you take my bed, yeah?"

Louis considered it for a second. "Sounds good." He said and stood up on shaky legs.

"Want me to carry you to bed?" Harry watched amused as Louis held onto different furniture to steady himself while he walked towards Harry’s master bedroom.

"Nope, I"m fine," Louis assured him. Once he had crossed the room, he jumped on the bed and quickly got inside the covers. Not even a minute passed before he started snoring.

Harry chuckled and turned off the lights. But not before he recorded a twenty-second audio of Louis snoring and sent it to their friends" group chat.

-

They had officially finished filming the episodes for the third season of the web series just in time before the holidays, the only thing left to film was this last episode of post-mortem and then they"d have a blissful month of rest and recharge before they had to start preparing for the fourth season. The months had flown by impossibly quick, and even though Harry felt a little nostalgic about it he couldn’t wait to see his family and laze around.

"Hello and welcome to another edition of BuzzFeed Unsolved post-mortem," Louis began. They were at the studio, both sat next to each other facing the camera. "the show where we answer your questions about the most recent episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved. All the questions we"re answering today came from you guys via our Facebook and Instagram page."

Harry took a sip of his coffee. "Right, let"s get to the questions." He grabbed his phone. "So last week we had the voodoo episode where we went to New Orleans, this question says, "Hi guys! Do you think any of Bloody Mary"s predictions have come true before?” Harry fixed his eyes on the camera. "No, cause none of that stuff is real."

Louis sighed exasperatedly. "Here we go again. Can"t you entertain the possibility for even a second?"

"Uh, no, Louis." Harry frowned. "It makes no sense, scientifically speaking, so why would I entertain the idea?"

Louis rolled his eyes. "Anyway, this next question says "at this point, I"m convinced Harry is either a demon or an alien"" Louis started laughing. "What do you think about all the people who speculate you"re a demon?"

Harry shrugged, then caressed his chin with a pensive look. "Well, I can"t be a demon cause they don"t exist. As for whether I"m an alien or not, I can"t comment. Don"t want the government coming for me or anything like that."

Louis started laughing and shaking his head. "You"re so dumb." He cleared his throat. "@sarah28  asks, are you guys friends in real life?"

"Uh," Harry said. "Friends is a bit of a, uh, strong word and," Louis kicked his leg from under the table, Harry grinned. "I guess you could say we mutually respect each other. Yeah."

“You’re an asshole,” Louis coughed. "This next question is from @spookylou, has Harry been working out, he"s been looking quite buff as of late." Louis read.

"I have been working out, spookylou, thank you for noticing. Been waiting for this guy," Harry signaled Louis with his thumb. "To say something about it but,"

"Hey," Louis kicked his foot. "I told you you looked good the other day."

“Yeah, I don’t remember that.” Harry frowned. Louis kicked his shin.

They answered a few more questions about the episode, mostly about supposed whispers that could be heard during the video that they hadn’t caught, and shadows that could be seen in the background.

"Well, that does it for this episode guys. Once again, thank you for watching and we"ll be back in February hopefully with the fourth season!" Louis said and someone called out cut.

"So, got any plans for the holidays?" Harry asked once they were back at the office, picking up their belongings.

Louis smiled. "Not really unless you consider stuffing myself full of food and visiting my family, "plans""

"Sounds like fun. You plan on visiting any spooky places during the break?" Harry moved closer to Louis.

Louis narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

Harry shrugged,  "I just don"t want you visiting any spooky places with anyone else but me."

Louis smiled and crossed his arms. "And why"s that?"

Harry started thumbing the collar of Louis" jacket, Louis still hadn"t returned the jacket he had lent him when they"d filmed the goatman episode. "I just don"t want to lose my job."

Louis started laughing. "Oh but imagine how many views your "why I left buzzfeed" video would get!"

Harry laughed. 

-

December had gone by quickly, in a blur of twinkling lights, flights, and good homemade food. It seemed like it was yesterday when they"d finished filming their third season finale and they were back at it once again, this time in South Carolina.

The streets were dark, barely illuminated. The weather was cold because of the winter. They were headed to Old City Jail.

"You ever, look at a place and think, this is where I"m gonna lose it later." Louis blurted out, eyes fixed into the distance.

"Like, your virginity?"

"Yes, my virginity. Actually, I have some plans for you when we"re back at the hotel that I haven"t told you about."

Harry almost choked laughing.

The place was old as its name said, dusty, filthy. A big building with a balcony and small windows.

"This is known as the most haunted place in South Carolina," They walked up the stairs to the building with their flashlights in hand.

Mindlessly, Harry started humming the tune to Ghostbusters, during Christmas break he and his family had marathoned as many movies on Netflix as they could, including that one.

Louis craned his neck to look at him. "Are you humming that song cause we"re ghostbusters?"

Harry stopped midway. "We"re not ghostbusters."

"Uh, yeah we are." Louis laughed. "What do you think we"ve been doing all this time? That"s the whole point of the series."

Harry"s eyes widened with realization, "Oh my god."

Louis doubled over in laughter, clutching his stomach. Even some of the camera crew chuckled.

"I can"t believe you just realized that. We"re starting the fourth season I-" Louis shook his head, eyes shiny with happy tears.

“Shit,” Harry furrowed his brows. “I didn’t go to UCLA for this. Am I supposed to put that on my resume now?”

"This place looks like a dungeon," Harry wondered aloud once they were inside the building. "And not the good kind."

Louis sputtered. "Yeah well, this is where prisoners were flogged when they were punished."

Harry opened his mouth in amusement. "Oh wow."

It was even darker inside the building, the only light came from their own flashlights and the small specks of moonlight that filtered through the crevices of the windows.

"Okay, let"s get this over with." Louis took a deep breath and took out the spirit box before turning it on, immediately the loud static sound initiated.

"Do we have to use that thing?" Harry groaned out.

Louis shushed him and focused on the sound of the machine jump quickly from radio station to radio station, hoping to hear something intelligible. The explanation was that spirits could manipulate the radio signals to form words and communicate through the device. They’d used it a handful of times by now and Harry still didn’t get used to how annoying it was.

Harry sighed, he grabbed a metal chair that was lying around and sat down on it. "Okay, dude, talk to us!" He directed at the ghouls. "We would love to talk to you, ghouls, demons or whatever lives here for some reason. We"ve got experience with this, despite what Wikipedia says, we went to the goatman"s bridge and now we own it-"

"True." The spirit box blurted out.

Harry snapped his head at the sound. "What did it say?"

"He said true." Louis"s eyes were wide.

They moved to another room after they didn’t get any more responses. Louis" energy felt different than normal, a little more carefree than Harry remembered. There was a bounce in his step, and his features were focused instead of frightened.

"You wanna know why there"s iron on the walls," Louis pointed with his flashlight at the wall across from them. "To avoid inmates from breaking out."

"Huh,"

Suddenly Louis widened his eyes and froze.

"What happened?" Harry stepped closer.

Louis checked his own arm. "I felt a tug on my sleeve." He laughed nervously.

"Oh," Harry ran a hand down Louis" arm in comfort. "A tug? Do we have a tugger in here?"

Louis chuckled. "Why do I find this funny? If you weren"t here with me I"d be shitting my pants right now."

"Awww, ghostie probably likes you." Harry cooed. "Hey ghost, if you think Louis is fine as fuck, make some noise. If you want me to leave you two alone turn off one of our flashlights!"

Louis slapped his arm. "Shut up!"

"What, Lou? He probably doesn"t know how to get your attention." Harry pouted.

A bang was suddenly heard.

“What the fuck?” Louis whipped his head around.

“Ghostie, is that you?” Harry turned his head in the direction of the sound. “You would like some alone time with Lou, is that what you’re trying to communicate?”

Louis shook his head, sighed exasperated then put on a smile. “You know what? Haven’t had a lot of luck with alive humans so, why not? fuck it. Ghost, if you wanna smash, knock three times.”

Harry couldn’t hold in his laughter, face red. “Really, Lou? Are you that desperate?”

Louis shrugged. “Can’t be worse than my last three tinder dates. LA men are a terrible breed. Why not give it a try?”

An ugly tremor went down Harry’s body. “Okay,”

Continuing down the basement they arrived at the morgue, which was just as decrepit and old as the rest of the building. If Harry had believed in any of the paranormal bullshit he’d describe the atmosphere as heavy.

Louis entered the room first and an idea sprung in Harry’s mind. “I have an idea,” Louis whipped his head around to look at him. “Ghostie seems to really like you so, what if… you tried to seduce him.” He finished with a devilish smile, running his eyes up and down Louis’ body. 

“What?”

“Yes, just, turn that shitty box on and- y’know, take off that jacket, bat your eyelashes, just act like you always do when a hot tall guy is around.”

Louis opened his mouth, offended. Harry waved a hand around. “C’mon, you know what I mean.”

Louis considered it for a few minutes, he paced around the room. “Okay.”

Harry raised his brows, “Really?”

“Don’t make me backtrack.” Louis hissed, eyes stern. He took a deep breath, turned the spirit box on and handed it to Harry.

“Hey, ghostie,” Louis said in a mock seductive voice, he tugged his jacket down to expose one of his shoulders, and looked over it in a seductive manner. The spirit box continued making the same annoying static sound. Louis strolled around swinging his hips. “Do you think I’m pretty? Would you like to get a piece of this?”

Harry scrunched his nose up, his lips tight. The whole crew around them had inexplicable looks on their faces, watching the scene unfold, but Harry couldn’t focus on them enough to decode what their faces meant, too focused on Louis.

“Oops,” Louis let his flashlight drop to the floor, then slowly bent down to pick it up.

That’s when Harry couldn’t hold it in any longer and he let out a loud cackle. “Did we shut down the entire building for this?”

“I don’t like this,” seemed like all the easy confidence Louis had had just a few minutes ago had evaporated in a second.

“It was your idea,” Harry pointed out. “You said you wanted to explore the jail by yourself.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes I make dumb choices,” by now, Harry knew what that face meant. The wide, distraught look. The closed-off body language.

“Let me go in first, yeah?” He squeezed Louis" waist.

Harry walked up the concrete stairs of the jail, glanced at the concrete walls, there was no color to the place, it was just a big block of grey.

“This is a gorgeous home that you have, ghouls!” Harry announced loudly as he stepped into a room. He always felt a little dumb talking to himself when they did this, shouting his words to thin air. “You probably wanted to see sweet little Louis instead of me, sucks for you. We don’t have a lot of time, so you know the deal. Show your presence, terrorize me, throw me at the wall, just- whatever you want.” He got no response. “You weren’t this shy a few minutes ago when Lou was here. Hell, you even tugged at his jacket. I don’t know a lot about human relationships but that’s not the way to woo someone.” Harry continued walking down the hall at a leisure pace. “I get it, though. He’s pretty but-” something that looked like a bottle cap fell in front of Harry at that instant.  Harry narrowed his eyes at it. “Okay.”

Once the five minutes were up, he went down the stairs to meet with Louis.

“I don’t think I can do this,” Louis chuckled nervously, it was his turn.

“Of course you can,” Harry pulled him into his arms and placed his chin atop Louis’ head. “You’re a ghost hunter, remember?” Louis scoffed but he didn’t back away from Harry’s embrace. Harry looked him in the eye, grabbed both of his shoulders and said, “Go get your ghoul boyfriend.”

Louis pushed him away. “I hate you.”

-

“Can you speed up, we’ll never get to West Virginia at this speed.” Louis groaned from the copilot seat.

Harry didn’t spare him a glance. “You could’ve driven.”

“No way, haven’t driven a manual in months, that would’ve been a terrible idea.” He splayed over the leather seat of the suburban. “Besides, I like being driven around.”

“Like a princess?” Harry teased, he quickly glanced at Louis and saw him with his eyes closed, face lax. Harry slapped his feet away from the dash.

“Mm, yeah. It’s what I deserve.” Louis said softly.

Harry chuckled and shook his head. “Okay, princess. Why are we going to West Virginia?”

“If we encounter him tonight you’ll be able to stare at him in the eyes,” Louis said once they were face to face with the famous statue.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Harry frowned.

Louis shrugged. “Means you’re freakishly tall like Mothman. I was making fun of your height.”

“Baby,” Harry grinned.  “I’m not that tall, you’re just-”

Louis shushed him, face stern. “Don’t say it.”

They were at 4th street in Point Pleasant,  admiring the twelve-foot, polished steel statue of Mothman. It looked sort of the way Harry had pictured it, insect-like, moth-like, monster-like. It had wings, a gaping mouth with fangs, big red orbs as eyes, and claws and-

“Wow,” Harry let out. “Come check out his abs, Lou.”

Louis got closer to Harry to look in awe at the steel six-pack. “Wow, he definitely works out.”

Harry nodded. “Damn, when will he drop his abs routine?”

“Moth-man?” Louis said. “More like, moth-daddy.”

Harry choked on his spit. “That was awful!” he said between maniacal laughter.

Louis started laughing as well. “You know, I was hoping we didn’t encounter him tonight but I think I’ve changed my mind now. Mothman can like, get it.”

“Stop!” Harry wheezed.

“Did you see his ass?” Louis went around the statue.

“Oh my god,”.

“So,” Louis addressed the camera as they walked down the street. It was still winter and both of them were huddled up in jackets and beanies. “We came to Point Pleasant cause we hope to catch a glimpse of Mothman but, we also came for the Mothman Festival. This cafe is known for its mothman treats, it’s one of the many locations around town with mothman-themed food.”

Harry opened up the door to Coffee Grinder to let Louis in before him. He was immediately hit with the smell of coffee when he stepped in. The cozy and warm atmosphere was a nice change from the other places they visited.

They found a table and ordered everything in the mothman-themed menu.

“This is adult mothman,” Louis held up a large-sized cookie in one hand and a smaller sized cookie in the same shape in the other. “and this is mothman baby.”

“It’s like you and me.” Harry grinned, he popped a cookie inside of his mouth and took a sip of his mothman latte. Which tasted exactly like any other latte.

After they were done tasting as many treats as they could, Louis directed them to their next stop.

“A pizza joint?” Harry looked up at the sign that read Village Pizza.

Louis shrugged at his side. “They have mothman pizza.”

Harry scoffed. “Okay,”

Inside of the pízza joint, Michael went inside with them and filmed the making of the pizza up until they deliver it to their booth, freshly taken out of the oven.

Harry thanked the waitress. He examined the food in front of him. It looked like an average pizza, with the usual ingredients of cheese, bell peppers, mushrooms and pepperoni arranged in a mothman shape.

“This looks really good,” Louis said.

“Indeed. Can’t wait to eat Mothman out,” Harry grabbed a slice and delighted in the way Louis almost choked on a bite of pizza at his words. “You know, this trip so far just seems like a convoluted plan to make me go on various dates with you,” Harry wiped the corner of his mouth. “Is there a reason why we’re here besides eating? I feel like I’m in a Worth It episode.”

Louis took another bite of his pizza, his cheeks bunching up while he chewed. “You think I’m desperate enough to trick you into coming to a date with me?”

Harry shrugged, half grinning. “You did try to seduce a ghost on our last trip.”

“Shut up,” Louis tossed a bunched up napkin at his face. “To answer your question, we’re here to speak to the manager. She promised to tell us all about Mothman, that’s why we came here.”

The manager, Lydia, was a sweet looking lady with very short hair. She sat down with them once they were done eating.

“What’s the scariest tale you’ve heard about a Mothman sighting?” Louis asked from beside Harry.

“That one time he tried to steal Danielle’s baby boy,” Lydia began in her thick West Virginian Accent. “She was sleeping in bed with her six-month-old baby when the Mothman appeared and tried to grab it from her. She had to fight him off.”

“He tried to steal a baby?” Harry said incredulously.

“Yeah, uh, I mean. That’s what she said, but she said it in a very convincing way.”

“Did she say what he looked like?” Louis asked.

“Yeah, the usual stuff.” Lydia nodded.  “She said he was taller than 6 foot, had big red orbs for eyes, he had a broad torso and wings.”

Once they’d thanked Lydia and were on their way to the car, Louis turned to him and said, “You know, this Mothman keeps sounding more and more like you.”

“What?”

“Yes, he’s around six feet, has a broad torso and likes stealing babies,” Louis answered cheerfully as if he’d just cracked the case.

“Louis,” Harry brought a palm to his face. “You’re making me sound like a baby kidnapper to our viewers.”

“But it’s true! Whenever you see a baby you just wanna steal them away! Remember when I invited you to my mom’s wedding? you kept carrying my baby brother. And when Nick had his first child, you wouldn’t put his baby down!”

Harry shook his head. “I am not the Mothman.” he directed at the camera, there were enough theories of him being a paranormal creature as it was.

“I don’t want to get shot by a hunter,” Louis explained, grabbing a yellow safety vest from the trunk of the suburban.

“Right,” Harry frowned. “Won’t that make you an easier target for Mothman, though? He’s gonna see a little thing in fluorescent yellow and just grab you with his claws by the back and then take you to his nest or something.” It would make for an interesting sci-fi movie or a weird porno. He told Louis as much.

They were parked at the Wildlife Reserve, surrounded by woods and yellowed pastures, where the first sighting of the Mothman had taken place, supposedly.

“So, in 1966 it was popular amongst young people to come here,” they walked down the road. “One time these four kids were driving through here and they spotted a figure, which turned out to be the Mothman shuffling towards them. As soon as they saw him they got back in their car and drove away as fast as possible.”

“Hmm,”

“What do you think about that?”

Harry shrugged, “ I mean- we’re talking about the year ‘66, right?” Louis nodded. “So how do we know these kids hadn’t smoked some, some weird cigarettes.”

“You can say weed.” Louis deadpanned.

“Some of that devil’s grass.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Anyway, they said Mothman started chasing them while screeching, and that he sounded like a record played at a high speed or a mouse squeaking.”

Harry started wheezing.

“Don’t laugh,” Louis said, laughing.

“I just-” Harry shook his head, unable to stop smiling.

“Give me your best Mothman impression,” Louis dared him. Harry straightened up and cleared his throat. “Wait! Pretend you’re gonna try and attract a potential moth- mate.”

Harry nodded, face serious and determined, then he made his best attempt at a squeaking mouse, Louis immediately broke down in laughter.

“What you laughing at?” Harry said. “I’d like to see you do a better impression.”

“Oh, it’s that a dare?” Louis raised his brows at him, hands on his waist.

“Damn right it is!”

“Okay!” Louis proceeded to clear his throat, look up at the sky, and let out the highest pitched scream Harry had ever heard. “How was that?”

“That sounded like a pig giving birth.”

“Fuck off,” they continued walking. “One of the teens in the group reported the accident to the police, so the police put the four of them in separate rooms to retell what they’d seen and it turned out that all of the accounts matched.”

“Well, obviously.”

“Nuh uh,” Louis held up a finger. “The only way the four of them saw the same thing would be if it really had happened, especially under the influence of drugs. What, you’re gonna tell me when you get high with your pals you see the same things as them?”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “Eh, I guess you’ve got a good point.”

Louis knocked his hip against his. “Have I finally won an argument?”

“Don’t let it get to your head,” Harry said. “I’m a little tired and you’ve just fed me great food all day, so. I’m feeling gratuitous.”

Louis shook his head, a big smile on his face. Harry didn’t think twice about slipping an arm around Louis’ shoulders to pull him close while they walked. He held his breath for a second to see if Louis would bat him away, but Louis continued walking.

“So, over an estimated 1,000 people have tried to look for the Mothman. And tonight, that’s what we’ll do.” Louis said to the camera. The sky had turned completely black by now and they wandered the woods with their flashlights on.

“Wow,” Harry stopped and pointed at a giant lump of dried up branches. “Look, it’s his nest!”

Louis scoffed. “Imagine if right this second something was flying above us.”

“That’d be awesome.” Harry smiled. “Who do you think he’d eat first?”

“You, obviously.”

“Why me?”

“Cause you’re larger,” Louis shrugged, walking deeper into the woods, kicking branches away from his face. “It’s like picking the biggest bagel from the bakery.”

“Okay,” Harry conceded. “But you’re prettier, though.”

Louis let out a small scream when one of the branches got stuck in the back of his vest.

“Calm down, baby.” Harry laughed.

“I thought I was being carried up into the trees,” Louis breathed out with a hand on his chest.

“Really?” Harry wheezed.

“This is fucking terrifying during nighttime.” Louis stopped. “Let’s get this over with, why don’t you try making your Mothman impression.”

Harry sighed. “Do I have to?”

“Please,” Louis blinked his blue eyes at him.

“Okay,” Harry raised his chin a little and made the squeaking noises he had done ealier. Louis joined him with his high pitched screams and together they made a cacophony of weird noises. They did that for a couple of seconds until the clear sound of howling interrupted them.

“What the fuck,” Louis met his eyes, alarmed.

“Sounds like coyotes,” Harry said. At some point during his childhood, he had been a boy scout.

“Okay,” Louis raised his arms in defeat. “That’s our queue to leave.”

Back in the car while Harry drove them back to the town, Louis rolled down one window to try his last attempt at a mating call for Mothman. They laughed so hard they almost hit a tree.

-

It was a Tuesday and Harry was ready to flee the office and go out for drinks. The whole week had been busy with projects and late-night editing and he"d spent more hours behind the steering wheel driving around than in his own bed. Working for BuzzFeed had its cons and pros, like with any job. He loved the environment and his coworkers, but his days were usually fast-paced and the workload was heavy.

He still put on a smile when the red light of the camera turned on. The set was the usual one, a light pink background, and just a stool in the middle for him to take a seat.

The only thing he knew about this video was that he"d have to answer a bunch of private questions that most people wouldn"t want to answer.

"Do you remember the first time you had sex?" The person behind the camera asked.

Harry interlaced his fingers. "Uh, yeah. I was in high school. My parents were going to be away for some hours so we drove to my home and just did it."

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Eh, yeah, I guess. Wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing but it was alright.”

"Would you say you"re more dominant or submissive in bed?" was the next question.

Harry chuckled, he had no problem answering private questions but sometimes he forgot how personal they could get. He considered the question, "I"d say more dominant, I just- I like doing most of the work, I don"t know. But I like going with the flow, too."

"When  was the last time you had sex?" Harry laughed, then faltered. He furrowed his brows and tried to remember.

Ashley giggled. "You don"t remember?"

He"d been busy these past few months, and tired. That was the logical explanation.

"I-" he puffed out his cheeks, "I think around, seven months ago? Oh wow."

Ashley giggled again. "You sound surprised. Why"s that?"

"I didn"t realize it had been that long. Wow."

He answered a couple more questions regarding his sexual life and then he was free to leave.

On his way to the entrance, he caught sight of Niall still working behind a monitor.

"Hey," Harry pulled a chair nearby and sat behind him. "What you doing?"

Niall"s eyes stayed on the screen but he took off one of his earphones. "Last minute editing,"

"Hmm," Harry got closer to the screen and saw himself and Louis. "Where"s Louis? Wasn"t he the one who had to edit this video."

"He said he had an important meeting." Niall continued clicking away. “Give me a couple of minutes, I’m nearly done.”

"Hmm," on the screen, Louis and him were arguing about something, both with huge grins on their faces, Louis tried to punch his chest so Harry grabbed both of his wrists and pulled him close. Harry frowned, he didn’t remember what they were arguing about that day, and even if he remembered doing that, he never expected it to look so, intimate?

He swallowed, tried to laugh. “Do we always look like that?”

“Like you’re five seconds away from hauling him up and kissing him? yes.” Niall answered without glancing at him, expression unwavering.

Harry blinked. “What?”

Niall turned off the monitor and raised up from his chair. “Done. Let’s go.”

Harry was left staring at his reflection on the dark monitor, mouth agape, eyebrows furrowed.

“You coming, or what?” Niall shouted, holding open the door.

-

A few beers and tequila shots later, Harry stared at his deformed reflection on a glass of water, chin resting on top of a sticky table. Waiting for Liam to pay so they could leave.

“Why didn’t Louis come?” Harry blurted out.

“I already told you,” Niall sighed. “He had a meeting with someone.”

Harry furrowed his brows, “Like a date?” he slurred, maybe he should’ve eaten something, he wasn’t usually a lightweight. His eyelids were heavy, all he wanted to do was fall asleep. Good thing Liam was the designated driver tonight. Wait, why was he nauseous?

“I don’t know, Harry,” Niall took a sip of his beer. “Why don’t you ask him if he’s on a date.”

Liam came back jingling the keys in his hand. “Done, let’s go.” He paused to take in Harry’s state. “What are you guys talking about?”

Niall shook his head, rolled his eyes. “Harry has been mopping over Louis for the past fifteen minutes.”

“Oh,” Liam exclaimed unsurprised. “He still hasn’t realized?”

“Am I missing something here?” Harry raised his head and narrowed his eyes. “What haven’t I realized?”

Both Liam and Niall chuckled. “We’ll tell you later, let’s get out of here.” Liam patted him in the back.

-

“This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we’ll be doing things a little different than usual,” Louis addressed the camera while Harry stood beside him trying not to fidget. Liam’s porch as their background. “It occurred to me that we’ve never gone to a place that is truly, currently active. So here we are,” Louis pointed at the house behind. “The couple that currently resides in this home personally reached out to us and tonight we’re going to find out who or what haunts their house.”

“Who is this couple you’re talking about, Louis?” Harry asked, already knowing the answer.

“Thank you for asking Harry,” Louis nodded. “The person who reached out to us is a colleague of ours, a Buzzfeed producer like ourselves, Liam Payne. Liam has given us the opportunity to collect evidence tonight that will finally prove that ghosts are real.”

Harry scoffed. Louis snapped his head to stare at him, a smile on his face, “Yeah, you like that?”

Harry shook his head. “Continue.”

“And we finally have the opportunity of helping somebody, and judging by some of the things Liam has told me, this house terrifies me. I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m actually really nervous right now.” Harry could tell. Louis was putting on a brave face as he often did but his eyes always gave him away. “Shall we?”

Harry had been initially surprised when Louis had informed him of this week’s episode, but he was content not to have to take a seven-hour flight for the episode and instead drive a couple of blocks away from his own home.

Louis got the keys from his pocket and opened the front door before stepping in, Harry right behind him. This was the first time Harry was visiting Liam’s new home, the interior was very homey and organized, there wasn’t a single thing out of place.

Louis assessed the surroundings and crossed his arms. “I hate this place.” Liam and his husband had gone to a hotel so Harry and Louis could examine their house.

Harry chuckled. “Why, baby? Don’t you like the mid-century interior design?”

There was a sound in that instant, something that resembled a tap.

Louis’ eyes widened.

“There was a noise over there,” Harry pointed his flashlight at the dark corridor.

“Yeah, no shit.” Louis laughed.

Harry laughed. “What was that?”

Louis took a deep breath and put a smile on his face. “I don’t know. Let’s go find out.” and with that, he directed himself towards the noise, Harry followed him.

They arrived at the TV room. “We’ve heard what you’ve done,” Louis said. “I’m not scared of you.”

“Is that Liam’s husband?” Harry approached a picture frame on the wall. Louis came to stand beside him.

“Yeah, I think so. When he was younger.”

“So, what’s the story?” Harry sat down on the couch. Louis came to sit close beside him.

“Liam and his husband moved here a couple of months ago. He said everything was normal the first three weeks until one night he woke up to the sound of footsteps during the night, lots of wood creaks, you know the usual,” Harry tried to pay attention to Louis’ words but he couldn’t stop focusing on the warmth coming from Louis’ leg. “He’s a skeptic like you so he and his husband tried to ignore it but over the next weeks, the footsteps got even louder. Around this time he also noticed that lights were turning on on their own-”

“How do we know it’s not just Alexa tuning on the lights, huh?”

Louis looked at him incredulously. “There’s a light switch.”

“Okay.”

Louis’ phone started ringing, he took the call. “Hello. Yes. Are you outside? yeah, give me a second.”

Harry frowned, Louis hadn’t told him anything about someone else coming.

“Who was that?”

“Oh,” Louis pocketed his phone and stood up. “I didn’t tell you. I invited a psychic.” at Harry’s raised eyebrows he shrugged and said, “I just wanted all the help we could get, yeah?”

“I- okay.”

“C’mon.” Louis waved him over and so a camera guy and Harry followed him to the front door. When Louis opened the door the first thing Harry noticed was that the guy was hot. He’d been expecting another woman with odd fashion choices, or an old man with a long beard in a robe, but this psychic was young and good looking and tall. He flashed a bright smile at them.

“Hi,” he stepped inside.

“Hi, Luke, nice to see you again,” Louis went in for a hug. “Glad you made it.”

Harry blinked.

“Luke, this is Harry,”

“Hi Harry, I’m Luke, nice to meet you.” Luke smiled at him and offered his hand.

Harry couldn’t shake it cause he was holding a camera on one hand and his flashlight on the other so he awkwardly nodded. “Hi Luke, I’m Harry.”

Louis turned to Luke. “He doesn’t believe in any of this.”

Luke chuckled. “Yeah, you told me. That’s awesome.” The air in the room had turned tense and it had nothing to do with ghosts.

“Yeah, sorry man.” Harry grimaced. Not sorry at all.

“Just so you know,” Louis bumped Harry on the shoulder. “In case he acts like an asshole.”

Luke laughed. Harry didn’t try to fake a smile. “Is this your first ghost hunt, Luke?”

“Uh, no,”

“Oh.” Harry turned his back to the camera so it didn’t catch him rolling his eyes.

“We’ve never worked with a psychic before, so tell us how does it work,” Louis gripped Luke’s arm.

Luke smiled. “Yeah, okay so, what I do- I go through each room or location and I see if I pick up cold spots or what type of vibrations I get. Also, I sense the residual energy around the place of the people that live here or if there’s someone else. So, typically I can tell what happened here before the house was built.”

Harry didn’t want to seem like an asshole and that was the only reason he wasn"t laughing or rolling his eyes.

"So, should we do a tour of the house and see which room you think is the most active one?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

Louis and Luke walked side by side in front of Harry while they explored the different rooms of the house, every now and then they"d snicker about something Harry couldn"t hear.

He didn"t like this at all. People didn"t watch the series to see Louis talk to some random dude, pseudo medium with a quiff. They watched it cause they liked the dynamic between Louis and him. The feeling he was getting in the pit of his stomach reminded him of last week when he"d gone for drinks with his friends– that heavy feeling, that nausea.

"Since when is he friends with this dude?" Harry whispered to Michael, who shrugged in response.

Luke suddenly paused his laughter and looked around, palms spread at his sides. "This room. I think something or someone is in this room."

Finally, Harry thought. Talking to ghosts seemed much better than watching Louis flirt with Luke the whole night.

"I feel mischievous energy coming from here," Luke explained, eyes wary. "Like a kid,"

"Is there someone else with us here?" Louis glanced around.

"If anyone"s here, can you tell us your name?" Luke fixed his eyes on the wall, the question was followed by complete silence.

"Or maybe you could move something?" Louis intervened.

They heard an intelligible sound come from another room, it sound like a shhh. Louis turned to Luke for answers.

Luke had his eyes closed, face lax. "I- I don"t know how close you guys are to the couple that lives here, but I"m also sensing a paternal figure that recently passed away."

Louis slapped a hand to his mouth. "Oh my god,"

"What?" Harry frowned.

"Liam"s granddad passed two weeks ago." Louis’ face was bewildered.

Coincidence, Harry thought, raising his eyebrows unamused.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Luke stepped closer to Louis, with earnest big brown eyes. "Something else that Liam told you?"

Louis nodded. "He told me about this one night a couple of weeks ago. He woke up and saw a little girl standing right in front of him."

"Did she say something to him?"

Louis shook his head. "No, she just stared at him and he fell back asleep. He told me he thought it had been a dream."

Luke caressed his defined chin. "We should go to the master bedroom, then."

Harry had never —in the past three years that they"d been doing unsolved— been so irritated. He just wanted the night to be over. He wanted to go back to his home and put on some Rick and Morty episodes or scroll through his Twitter feed until he fell asleep, or literally anything else would be more entertaining than watching as Luke helped Louis set the ovilus.

"This is the first time we"re using the ovilus," Louis said to one of the cameras once the device was ready to go. "It"s a mechanical device that picks up on the magnetic field and temperature of rooms and allows the spirits to communicate."

"Is the ovilus just as annoying as the spirit box?" Harry huffed out.

Louis threw him a weird look but ignored his comment.

"I"m gonna set it on the bed and we hope we can speak to the little girl Liam said he saw." Louis set the device on the king-sized mattress and then backed away, almost colliding with Luke.

"Sorry," Louis giggled.

"No problem," Luke smiled, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder.

Harry tried not to tighten his jaw. Where had Louis even met this dude? Hot psychics dot com? Was there a dating app exclusively for people that believed in this shit that Harry didn"t know about.

"What now?" Harry loudly cleared his throat.

"Oh," Luke turned to look at him as if he had forgotten Harry was there. "Now we ask questions."

"We would like to speak to the little girl that"s here," Louis announced to the room. He"d clean-shaven today and he looked particularly prettier than usual. Jacket zipped up to his chin. "Is there a little girl in here?"

"Hi," the device spoke in a robotic kind of voice.

"Hi," Luke said. "What"s your name?"

The question was followed by dead silence.

"Can you prove that you"re here with us?" Luke continued.

More silence.

"Ouch," Louis winced and jumped out of a sudden.

"What"s wrong?" Harry snapped his head in his direction, rushing to his side.

"I felt, like a scratch on my neck? Like the burning sensation, I- can you check the back of my neck?"

Before Harry could do so, Luke was already there, gently peeling down the back of Louis" jacket to check for a wound.

"There"s nothing here, you"re fine," Luke assured him.

Louis laughed, "It just, I don"t know? It started to burn." He shook his head. "Maybe it was my head."

The device made some unintelligible sounds.

Harry raised up from where he was leaning on the wall and went to stand in front of the device. If he left it to Louis and Luke they would never leave the house.

"Hey dork," Harry said to the ghost. "We don"t have all night. Say something,  move something,  break something."

"Yes" the device spoke.

"That"s it." Harry crossed his arms, a little surprised it had worked. "Who are we talking to? Why are you here? What do you want?"

The three of them held their breath for the answer but nothing happened.

"Yeah, okay," Harry huffed out. Of course the previous yes had been nothing but a coincidence. "Nothing. There"s no one here. And if there is, they"re a coward."

"What if they"re scared of you?" Louis tilted his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Yeah, what if it"s like that Nicole Kidman movie and they think you"re the one who"s the ghost."

"Oh," Harry nodded, "if they think I"m a ghost then I"m gonna give them the scare of their lives."

He inhaled in air and let out the loudest, deepest scream he could come up with.

Luke retreated a couple of steps, freaked out, but Louis began cackling, which made Harry smile.

The nice moment was quickly broken when Luke walked towards the closet and started examining it.

"What"s up, Luke?" Louis asked.

"I"m feeling as if a family lived here and now they can"t leave. It"s not that they"re angry, they just don"t have anywhere else to go," Luke kept staring at the closet door like a weirdo. "Also, I"m- getting some vibes coming from here, I don"t know why," he sliced the door open and rummaged through the hanging clothes. Not only is he a scam, Harry thought, he also has no boundaries.

Louis approached Luke and looked into the closet with his flashlight. "Oh, that"s an attic."

Harry joined them to take a look. Inside the closet up on the ceiling was a small, rusty door. "It doesn"t look like it"d fit a human."

The device started doing more unintelligible noises.

"Let me," Harry stepped into the closet so he could remove the door. “No ghosts here, just wood and cobwebs.”

They tried calling to the ghost a few more times but were rendered unsuccessful and decided to go downstairs again, this time to the living room.

“This is also where Liam has said he’s seen the girl,” Louis sat on the couch, Luke sat right beside him.

Harry sighed and sat on the small couch opposite them.

“Is there anyone here?” Louis asked once again. “Can you prove to us that you’re here? Maybe by moving something, or saying something, maybe you could scratch the big guy over there.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “scratch me!”

Louis laughed then the sudden sound of a tap was heard upstairs.

“Wow,” Harry glanced at the ceiling.

“Did you hear that?” Louis looked around. “Can you make another sound like that?”

There was a knock.

“Step forward please,” Luke stared into the dark hallway.

Louis pointed at the direction of the noise with his flashlight. “Yes, follow the light, follow my voice. Come here,”

Another two knocks.

“Oh, someone wants to play!” Harry cheered. “Has the haunt began?”

Silence. Harry chuckled and reclined back on the couch. Liam’s furniture was comfortable as fuck, he thought he could sleep there without a problem.

“Damn it,” Louis exclaimed after no other noises followed.

“Is there another room we need to check?” Harry asked, eyes already closed and head leaning on the couch. He was done with tonight.

They moved to one of the guest rooms of the house.

“Okay,” Louis stepped in first. “This is supposedly one of the most active rooms of the house. When Liam had his nephew over, he told him he’d seen a group of people staring at the closet during the night, men, and women dressed in white.” Louis pointed at the closet doors.

“This room has very heavy energy,” Luke said when he stepped in. Harry repeated the words in a mocking tone under his breath. “There are multiple layers coming from here. I sense two men involved in a murder, and a very evil spirit I-”

“Do you think it’s human, the spirit?” Louis asked.

“I believe it takes form as a human,” Luke said.

“Nice,” Harry leaned on the wall and laughed.

Louis shot him a strange look.

Suddenly Luke snapped his head in the direction of the hallway. “Do you hear steps.”

Louis sat on the bed. “Yeah, Liam’s told me he hears steps.”

“No,” Luke shook his head. “I mean like, I hear someone walking right now.”

“Oh?” Louis frowned.

“Like I hear it psychically. With my psychic senses.”

Harry laughed and then tried to cover it by faking a cough.

“Wait,” Louis held up a finger. “I thought I heard something too. Michael, did you laugh?”

Michael shook his head behind the camera, “No.”

“I thought I heard him laughing, too.” Cynthia, from the camera crew, said.

“Who was it?” Louis directed at the ghosts. “Was it you? Are you actually a little girl?”

Luke made a strange face. “I heard no. In here, just heard the answer no.” He pointed at his head.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. “You just heard ‘no’ inside your head?” Harry didn’t attempt to hide his disbelief this time. Out of all the people he’d ever met that claimed to have paranormal abilities, Luke was the laziest one of them all.

“Harry, can I speak to you for a second?” Louis stood up. “Alone.”

Harry frowned, he looked around to the crew for answers but they all avoided eye contact.

“Sure,” Harry drawled.

He followed Louis into the master bedroom and was thrown off when he heard the lock. He was about to ask what was the problem when Louis said, “What’s the matter with you?”

“What?”

Louis crossed his arms. “What’s your problem? Why are you acting so weird?”

Harry scoffed. “I’m not acting weird.”

“Yes, you are.” Louis scowled. “You’ve been acting weird the whole night.”

“No, I haven’t.” Harry crossed his arms as well. Where was this even going?

“You’ve been huffy, and irritated all night. You’re being rude to Luke for absolutely no reason. Like jesus, I’m used to you being skeptical about everything but you’ve never been this big of an asshole before.”

Harry felt his face heat up. “Oh, so I’m supposed to be super nice to the stranger you invited without even consulting me first?! Am I supposed to be amazed when he says shit like his psychic ears are hearing steps?"

"What do you mean I didn"t consult you first?" Louis took some steps closer. "When have I consulted you before? I always invite people without telling you and you"ve never been mad about it. What about when we met up with Father Thomas? Or with Bloody Mary? You never said anything then."

"It"s not the same thing." Harry tightened his jaw.

"How is this time any different!?"

"Oh please, you know it"s different! Bloody Mary was a weird but charming lady and Father Thomas was a seventy-year-old priest. This guy is different, I don"t like- ugh," I don"t like it when you flirt with him. "I like it better when it"s just the two of us. Otherwise, it"s weird, that"s all." He rubbed a hand down his face, the night had started out badly and it only had gotten worse.

Louis made an incredulous face and then laughed. "I can"t believe this," he shook his head. "Niall told me so but I didn"t believe him."

"What?"

"Just say you"re jealous you asshole!"

Harry faltered. Louis looked genuinely angry- like Harry had never seen him before. Cheeks flushed and fire in his eyes.

"I"m not jealous," he muttered weakly.

"Yeah, you are." Louis stared him down. "This is why you"ve been weird all night. This is why you don"t like Luke. You"ve been mopping around all night, snapping at everyone because you don"t like seeing me with another guy."

Harry swallowed, heart in his throat. He wanted to deny it but he couldn"t.

"What do you want me to say?" Harry finally said.

"I want you to say you"re jealous," Louis took a step closer. "I want you to be real with me for once and say how you really feel," he took another step. "I want you to stop being stupid and realize that I"ve been into you for ages," he took another step so their faces were close enough he had to look up to meet Harry"s eyes. "And I want you to fucking kiss me." He poked his chest.

A beat went by where Harry was too shocked to even move. And then he couldn"t stop himself from cradling Louis" face, press him against the nearest wall and kiss him.

Louis let out a small surprised whimper and then his arms were around his neck. Louis" lips were soft and warm, his body felt small against Harry"s.  Their tongues swiped together as if they"d done this before.

Harry had never let himself think of kissing Louis before, but now he couldn"t stop doing it. He couldn"t get enough of it, especially when Louis kept tugging him down, whimpering into his mouth like he didn"t want Harry to ever let go.

It was instinctively when Harry hoisted Louis up in his arms easily and threw him against the bed, their lips never disconnecting. The covers were soft under their bodies, rustling under their weight. When they finally separated, Louis was panting. Harry brushed the hair away from his gorgeous flushed face, to admire his dark pupils and his shiny red lips.

His own breath was quick too, he felt dazed by how happy he felt. Like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Like the knot in his stomach had disappeared.

Louis blinked up at him. "Are you calmer now?"

"Yeah," Harry couldn"t stop smiling.

"Great," Louis patted him on the chest. He looked so pretty under him, cheeks blotchy and eyes glimmering. He wanted to kiss him again. "Now can you get off of me so we finish this filming? I don"t want to spend another second in this creepy house."

When they came out of the room, no one met their eyes. Apparently, Liam"s house walls weren"t very soundproof and the whole crew had heard them fight and then desperately make out.

"Hey, man," Harry approached Luke while the crew prepared to finish filming.  "I"m sorry for being a dickhead to you. It wasn"t my intention."

"No worries, man," Luke smiled, and patted his arm. "I know. It"s all well."

The rest of the night was awkward. Everyone was fidgety and walking on eggshells. Luke tried his best to act normal but he still looked uncomfortable. Harry tried to break the tension several times by making jokes but after they all fell flat he stopped trying, he couldn"t stop glancing at Louis no matter how hard he tried.

Weird things continued happening inside the house, including the moment where the ovilus device started saying "get out" out of nowhere. By the end of the night they were all equally tired, son when Louis told the crew to cut, they all sighed in relief and rushed to put the equipment aside so they all could leave.

"It was nice meeting you," Luke pulled Harry into a hug once Louis had locked the door behind them and they were all standing outside, ready to get inside their cars.

"Yeah, man, likewise." Harry patted his back. "Sorry again, for being an asshole."

Luke shook his head. "Hey, it"s fine. You and Louis make a nice couple." And with that, he walked over to Louis.

Hary and Louis watched Luke get into his car and drive away, followed by the crew, until it was just the two of them standing in the middle of the quiet street. Once the cars had dissapéared into the distance, Louis got into the passenger seat of Harry"s car wordlessly.

Harry turned on the engine. The adrenaline from earlier still coursed through his veins, but so did uncertainty. "So… do you want me to drop you off at your place or?"

"Fuck no," Louis said affronted. "I"m not making you drive all the way to Beverly Hills. It"s late and your place is only ten minutes way,"

Harry nodded and tried to hide the amusement from his face. The drive to his apartment felt like a dream. Like his body was on autopilot while his mind was elsewhere.

Louis, on the contrary, seemed unfazed.

When they arrived at the apartment, Louis promptly rummaged through his closet and grabbed a change of clothes before he announced he was going to take a shower. He knew his way around Harry"s place well enough by now.

"Okay," Harry dazedly watched as Louis disappeared into his master bedroom and then he heard the sound of the bathroom door lock.

The clock on his phone marked 2 am, even though he"d woken up late the previous day to prepare for this night"s filming, the emotional rollercoaster he had gone through had worn him out.

He turned on his TV, got on the bed and let the sound of the shower and the TV lull him. His hands twitched at his sides, the night"s occurrences played over and over in his mind. It didn"t feel real.

Like an avalanche, he remembered all the memories he had with Louis, the feelings he"d felt that he couldn"t decipher at the time. They all made sense now, he liked Louis. He"d liked Louis for a long time now and he was just realizing it. He’d known he was attracted to him since the first time he saw him, and he’d known he considered him a friend, but. This was different.

"Creepy fucking house," Louis said when he came out of the shower, hair dripping, cheeks flushed. The pajama pants he wore were too long on him, and so was the old UCLA sweatshirt.

Harry swallowed, something about Louis wearing his clothes was making him feel things. "It was creepier than usual, wasn"t it?"

"Oh, definitely," Louis padded over to him. "And when the damn device started telling us to get out? Nearly peed my pants. I couldn"t wait to get out of there."

"I-" Harry licked his lips, transfixed by the way Louis got on the bed and scooted closer to him before boldly sitting on his lap. "You should tell Liam to move."

In this position, he had to look up to meet Louis" blue eyes. The weight on his lap felt comfortable, warm and soft and heavy. His hands curled at his sides, he wanted to touch but not until Louis said he could.

"I should, yeah." Louis wrapped his arms around Harry"s neck. "I"m gonna, definitely."

Harry blinked a couple of times, a rush of saliva came to his mouth. "Are you really gonna sleep in my bed tonight?"

Louis rolled his eyes, "Don"t act like this is the first time we"re gonna share a bed," he smiled before he leaned down to kiss him, this time with less desperation. Harry wrapped his arms around his slim waist and closed his eyes, he breathed in the scent of his body wash on Louis" skin and tasted his toothpaste on Louis" tongue. It was overwhelming and new and at the same time, it felt so familiar.

"Oi," Louis giggled and rutted his ass down on his lap. Harry gripped his waist harder and kissed his neck. "Feels like your little friend got excited."

"Already told you," Harry sucked on Louis" neck, hoping to leave a mark. "There"s nothing little about it."

"I can sense that," Louis shuddered when Harry slipped his hands down his ass to cope a proper feel. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t wanted to do just that since the first time he caught sight of it.

Harry chuckled. "With your psychic senses?"

"What?" Louis started laughing. "Don"t-" he yawned.

"Aww, baby is tired." Harry pouted.

Louis rubbed his eyes. "Well, duh, I had to wake up early to prepare for the filming while you slept," he leaned down to kiss Harry again, with more intent this time. Rocking his hips down and pulling on Harry"s hair. Harry was already hard when Louis let out another yawn.

"Okay," Harry placed his hands on Louis" waist before lifting him off his lap. "This is not happening tonight."

"What, why?" Louis whined while Harry stood up.

"You"re a second away from passing out," Harry walked over to the bathroom. "I don"t want you to sleep in the middle of getting dicked down. That would traumatize me far too much."

Louis groaned and crossed his arms. "Fine. Where are you going?"

"I"m gonna take a shower, if you"re still awake after I"m done, you"ll get a reward."

"Oh?" Louis perked up. "Like what?"

"You"ll see," Harry winked and closed the door behind him.

He showered and brushed his teeth, by the time he came out of the bathroom, changed into a soft pair of trackies and an old Henley, Louis was already fast asleep. He got on the bed and hugged him close and fell asleep with a smile on his face.

-

Harry woke up to his 9 am alarm blaring from across the room.

"Shit," he got up the bed and started looking for his phone, by the time he found it inside yesterday"s discarded pair of jeans, Louis had already woken up.

"You still have the ghostbusters theme song as your alarm?" Louis cackled.

"Why are you laughing? You"re the one who set it."

"Yeah, like two months ago." Louis chuckled. "I can"t believe you haven"t changed it."

"Maybe I haven"t gotten the time," Harry turned off the alarm and dropped his phone down on the floor again. They didn"t have work today and there was no way in hell he was getting up from bed before two pm. "Or maybe I"ve grown fond of the tune."

"Hmm, it"s a catchy tune." Louis agreed, looking at him with hungry eyes, pretty and comfortable under Harry"s covers.

"Yeah, it is." He jumped on the bed and cradled Louis in his arms, Louis instantly parted his lips for the kiss and moaned when Harry pressed him down against the mattress with his full body weight.

"Am I finally going to get fucked?" Louis purred, looking up at Harry with heavy-lidded eyes.

Harry swallowed, brushed the hair out of his face so he could take a good look at his flushed skin, his gorgeous cheekbones, his long lashes. "Yeah, let me give Luke a call."

Louis slapped his arm. "Shut up."

Harry laughed. "Oh, but you were so fond of him yesterday."

Louis groaned. "Yeah, cause I wanted to make you jealous, asshole. If it hadn"t been for me flirting with Luke yesterday it would"ve taken you another year to realize you liked me."

Harry wanted to be offended or angry, but he knew himself enough to accept Louis was right.

"We should send him some flowers," Harry leaned down to kiss Louis" neck. He wanted to mark him up from head to toe, make sure everyone knew he was taken now. "Or a box of chocolates, for helping us realize we liked each other."

"Oi, you send him the flowers," Louis shuddered when Harry scraped his teeth against his collarbone. "I"ve known I liked you for almost a year now."

Harry stopped kissing his neck to look him in the eyes. "What?"

"Yeah," Louis cheeks pinked under the heat of Harry"s gaze. "All these months I"d been trying to flirt with you, did you not realize? I was waiting for you to catch on. You even noticed the Mothman investigation was just an excuse to go on a date."

"Oh," Harry frowned. Had he actually been that stupid? "Why didn"t you say anything?"

"I wasn"t sure if you liked me back," Louis shrugged. "You"re nice to everyone."

"We need to have a conversation about this," Harry said, face serious.

"Can we have that conversation later though," Louis snaked his hand down his pants and gripped his cock. Harry"s breath hitched. "Really want to get this inside me first."

"Ye-yeah, okay." Harry moaned and then ran to the bathroom to get a condom and lube. When he returned to bed,  Louis was entirely naked, gently jerking off, flushed to his neck.

"You"re gonna take your clothes off or what?"

Harry almost tripped on his pants taking off his clothes in a rush and jumping on the bed, batting Louis" hand away so he could look at him properly.

"You"re so gorgeous," he ran a hand down his arm and then over his hardened nipple. Louis bit his lip. "There are so many things I want to do you."

"Like what?" Louis" breath hitched when Harry palmed his cock.

"Everything," Harry said, images of Louis tied up to the bed, blindfolded, crying in pleasure popped into his head. He had watched the video of Louis confessing what he liked in bed a week ago and everything was coming back to him now.

"I want you to," Louis whispered, throwing his head back against the pillows. "Want you to do anything you want with me. Want you to fuck me with that big cock of yours, stretch me open. Want you to throw me around the way I know you want to, want you to come on my face and to-"

Harry flipped him over by the hips right that instant, muffling Louis" words with a mouthful of a pillow. "Raise your hips up for me, sweetheart."

Louis did as told, positioning himself face down ass up on his bed. Harry would be lying to himself if he said he"d never pictured Louis naked before, but even his wildest dreams didn"t come close to the image in front of him, of Louis" at his disposal, golden skin illuminated by the sun filtering through the curtains.

"Harry, please," Louis whined after some seconds. "I want your fingers in me. I want you."

Harry chuckled darkly. "I don"t know if you deserve them, baby. You"ve been bad. Prancing around, flirting with other guys just to make me jealous."

"B-but I only want you." Louis whimpered, bending his head at an awkward angle so he could look at Harry.

"Is that right?"

"Yes," Louis squirmed. "Only want you. Only ever want you."

A warm sensation spread through Harry"s chest. "Okay, baby. I believe you." And with that, he pressed a lube coated finger inside Louis" hole. Louis" reaction was beautiful in return, gasping and closing his eyes.

Harry leaned down to kiss the back of Louis" neck while he worked the finger inside. Louis was tight.

"Your fingers are so big," Louis slurred. Harry should"ve known he"d be a vocal one during sex. He loved it.

"Yeah, baby. Do you want another one?" At Louis" nod, he pressed a second finger inside, Louis immediately whined, his pretty hands fisted the sheets.

Harry stopped pumping his fingers to turn Louis"s face around so he could kiss him, feel his breath hitch when Harry grazed his prostate with the tip of his fingers.

When Harry felt like Louis" was relaxed enough for another one, he pressed in a third finger and revealed in the way Louis" face went completely lax, brows furrowed, mouth open in a breathy moan.

"I want-" Louis began then let his forehead thud against the sheets when Harry curled his fingers. "Oh my god."

"Yes baby,"  Harry kissed his chin, his cheek. "What do you want?"

"I want to suck your cock," Louis said muffled by the mattress. "Please, I-"

Harry tskd,  as enticing as it sounded, he knew if Louis got his mouth anywhere near his cock he"d come in under a minute.

"Next time, yeah baby?" He bit Louis" earlobe. "I promise next time I"ll let you suck my cock as much as you want."

Louis let out a mournful whine.

"Shh," Harry pushed three fingers of his free hand inside Louis" mouth. "If what you want to do is have something in your mouth you can suck on my fingers, yes baby?"

Louis moaned around the digits and did as told, stuffed by Harry"s fingers on both ends and loving it, making appreciative sounds that went straight to Harry"s cock, looking every bit like Harry"s wildest wet dreams.

Once Harry felt like Louis was ready, he pulled out his fingers from both his sinful mouth and his hole and just stared at him, debauched, sweaty, flushed, prettier than Harry had ever seen him before.

"You think you"re ready for my cock, baby?" He teased, gripping Louis" arsecheeks and spreading him open, looking at the pink wet hole he"d be in a moment.  He flipped Louis" onto his back and kissed him before he could answer, bit his lip when Louis" warm hand suddenly gripped his cock.

"Yes, yes, I"m ready." Louis panted into his mouth. "I"ve been dreaming about this moment since forever."

Harry shut his eyes, images of Louis" fucking himself on four fingers to the thought of getting fucked by Harry springing in his mind, desperately rolling around in his sheets.

Harry gripped Louis’ chin between two fingers and kissed him roughly while he slicked up his own hard cock , he spread Louis" legs and raised them up by the back of his knees. "Hold them open for me, baby."

Louis" dazedly blinked up at him before gripping the back of his thighs, exposing himself to Harry, trusting. Harry slipped on the condom and dragged a hand down his cock to the sight.

Harry dragged Louis’ body down to the end of the mattress by his hips, put one foot on the bed while the other stayed on the floor and pushed inside slowly.

Louis trashed and moaned at the intrusion, choking out sobs, eyes nearly rolling back into his head.

"You alright, baby?" Harry asked once he was balls deep, genuinely concerned. He brushed the hair away from Louis" sweaty forehead.

"I"m splendid," Louis said breathlessly. "You weren"t lying when you said you were hung, holy shit."

Harry smiled and started thrusting, testing out the waters. He didn"t care much for his own pleasure at the moment, he just cared about making Louis feel good.

The position got uncomfortable fast so he put his other foot down on the floor before started thrusting harder, pulling Louis" down by his thighs at the same time. Louis" reaction was beautiful, parting his lips and letting out a stream of "uh, uh, uh"s".

"Yes, yes, like that," Louis" moaned. "Oh my god!"

Harry groaned, being inside Louis felt heavenly, his cock tightly surrounded by the velvety heat. His  hips pistoned on their own accord, chasing the pleasure, spurred on by Louis" screams. 

Harry leaned down to kiss him, his thrusts deep and quick, he pressed their foreheads together, "You"re so gorgeous. Want you to come for me, baby. Do you want to come?"

"Yes, yes," Louis jerkily nodded.

Harry wrapped a hand around Louis" cock and started jerking him off, loving the whines Louis let out, Harry trailed his hand down from Louis" cock to his balls and gently felt at where their bodies were connected, the way Louis’ wet hole stretched to accommodate his length.

"Oh my god, Harry, Harr-" Louis choked out and then he was coming, shuddering in Harry"s arms, brows furrowed, lashes wet.

Harry pulled out, got rid of the condom and jerked himself off to the sight of a debauched, cum covered Louis, shortly after he came all over Louis" belly, adding to the mess.

"That was so good," Louis said breathless, eyes full of adoration, he caressed Harry’s cheek. "Harry that was incredible."

Harry leaned down to peck him on his lips, he ran his hands down Louis" legs. "Did it live up to your fantasies?"

"It was amazing," Louis wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "I like you," Louis" whispered into his mouth. "A lot."

Harry grabbed his hand and kissed the back of it. "I like you a lot, too." He stood up from the bed. "Now come, let"s take a shower."

"Don"t want to move," Louis flopped back on the bed. "Don"t even think I can walk right now, not after that."

Harry rolled his eyes but he couldn"t stop a big smile from forming on his face. "Then I"ll carry you, princess," he said before hauling Louis" up bridal style and walking them to the bathroom.

"So, when did you realize you had feelings for me?" Harry asked. After they"d showered and changed into new clothes, Harry had prepared them lunch and now they were once again in his bed, idly watching the TV while they munched on waffles. Louis" head resting on his chest.

"I think- when I had that panic attack at New Orleans, and you were so quick to calm me down." Louis didn"t take his eyes off the TV but his tone was honest, vulnerable. "You made me feel so safe, I couldn"t look at you the same way after that."

Harry hummed. "Then why did you continue going on dates with other guys?" He regretted the question as soon as he said it, he’d always had issues with reeling in his jealousy.

Louis sighed. "I don"t know, I guess I wasn"t sure you felt the same way at the beginning, I didn"t want to make things awkward between us but then-"

"Then what?"

Louis raised his head to meet his eyes, and started fiddling with Harry"s fingers."Then you started acting weird whenever I mentioned seeing other guys and I knew something was up. I just wanted you to realize it, too. But that"s the story, basically. Also, Niall and Liam were definitely aware of it, they just didn"t tell you anything cause I asked them not to."

"So, now what?" Harry interlaced the fingers of his hand with Louis’.

"You tell me,” Louis said softly. “do I have to download Grindr again or?"

Harry flipped him down onto the bed and kissed him. "No," he growled.

Louis giggled. "You know, for someone so carefree, you sure are possessive.

"Shh," Harry buried his head in his neck. "I don"t want you to download Grindr or Tinder or any of those shit apps. You"re my boyfriend now, okay? I promise not to be a blind dumbass ever again."

"Shouldn"t we go on a date first?" Louis wondered aloud.

"Are you saying we haven"t been going on dates for the past two years?" Harry frowned. "So when you and I flew to Mexico to stay at an abandoned building, it was just work?"

Louis rolled his eyes but there was a big smile on his face.

Harry rubbed a thumb against the dimple in his cheek. "Is it too early to say I might be in love with you?"

The words seemed to catch Louis off guard, his eyes widened. "Harry, are you serious?"

"Yeah," Harry shrugged. "Dead serious. I think I"ve been in love with you for quite some time now. You don"t have to say it back, I just want to be honest with you."

Louis pushed himself up before crawling into his lap, he held Harry"s face between his warm hands and looked into his eyes. "I might be in love with you, too."

Harry"s face broke into a huge grin. Louis giggled and then they kissed once again. Harry wrapped his arms around Louis before pressing him down against the bed. It lead to round two.

-

"This next question is from Lindsay," Louis read aloud. "are you guys engaged?" Louis giggled and turned to look at Harry. They"d been officially dating for a year now and these types of questions had become more and more frequent. Fans wanted to know everything they could about their relationship. They"d even come up with a theory about how they"d already gotten married.

In the beginning, they"d been unsure about whether or not to announce their relationship to the world, afraid they"d turn their subscribers off, but ever since they"d admitted they were dating, their views had doubled, their following on both their Twitter and Instagram account had grown as well. The company was ecstatic about it. YouTube was full of compilation videos of cute moments of the two of them now.

"Well, Lindsay, it"s not really any of your business now, is it?" Harry narrowed his eyes at the camera, they were in the middle of filming the fifth season post mortem.

Louis nudged his leg. "Stop, they"re gonna think we"re really engaged."

"Well, you never know what can happen before we upload the video." Harry deadpanned.

"What are you talking about?" Louis laughed and waved him off. "This video will be up in a week, you can"t-"

Harry got down on one knee and pretended to search for something inside his jacket. "Louis William Tomlinson," he began.

Louis covered his red face with both hands. "Harry, stop," he screeched. "Harry you"re not proposing to me here, what the fuck,"

Undeterred, Harry continued, "You"re the love of my life, my best friend, I"m in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, so will you-" Harry"s serious face broke into a grin.

"You asshole," Louis laughed and shoved his shoulder. "I thought you were being serious for a moment!"

Harry got back on his chair, he hugged Louis and kissed the top of his head. "Sorry, baby. Forgot the ring at home."

"You"re unbelievable," Louis gritted out but his face was still flushed a pretty pink. "We"re cutting that off the video," he directed at the editing crew.

They didn"t end up cutting that off the video.

Two months later an episode would air of them investigating another haunted place and both of them would have a new gold band on their ring finger. Harry would have to send some flowers to Bloody Mary, or something.

THE END.