Archive of Our Own ^beta

Warm, humid currents of night air blow over the short hair covering his small body as he glides smoothly from his perch on top of a tall pine at the edge of the woods. Listening with all of his senses, Harry clicks, registering the reverberations as they bounce off the ground, trees, underbrush, and other animals. The echoes map themselves in his mind and he can see the deer and rabbits scurrying away more clearly than if he were watching them with his eyes. He follows his prey, though he’s not there to hunt. 

Deeper into the woods, he alights on the branch of another pine, nestling close to the trunk while he waits, listening. The cadence of dozens of heavy paws striking the forest floor grows louder and as they approach, Harry chances a quiet chirp, quickly counting the members of the wolf pack as his radar hits them. It’s a tight group, but they’re all there. 

Spreading his arms wide, Harry plummets from his branch, soaring silently and landing in a leafy bush at the edge of a large, circular clearing. Even to his limited eyesight, the waning full moon is bright, though not as luminous as the previous evening when it seemed massive and almost artificial where it hung low in the sky. Harry watches as the blurry shapes of the members of the pack crowd together in the center of the clearing. He almost falls through the thorny branches of the bush when the first wolf howls and then transforms into a naked Louis Tomlinson, but Harry manages to shift into mist just in time. 

Staying in the shadows, he floats up to the nearest tree and finds a sturdy branch, changing back into a bat to watch the activity below. 

It’s his first year as president of the vamp frat and one of the cornerstones of his platform was to finally catch the werewolf frat in the act of breaking the thousand years of peace treaty. He knows they’ve broken it over the last year, and he’s going to prove it. Just tonight Harry’s done more than his frat thought he would—tracking the wolves after the full moon and finding the clearing where they perform their fraternity rituals. He just needs to focus on Tomlinson’s words instead of his bare ass. It’s easier once the other wolves all take their human forms as well. 

“Brothers!” Tomlinson shouts into the night, and the members of his pack organize themselves in a circle surrounding him. “Welcome back!”

Three days Harry's been in the woods, since just before the full moon, and he’s tired and hungry and having a little trouble paying attention. He listens as well as he can, mind sifting through the rote announcements of the new semester, until a tremor of excitement in Tomlinson’s voice brings things into focus. Harry commits Louis’ words to memory, but waits until long after the pack has shifted back into wolf form and taken off in the direction of the university. Only Tomlinson and his VP Payne remain behind in human form. 

“Go ahead, Li,” Tomlinson says, pointing towards the school before resting his hands on his hips. Payne says something, but Harry misses it, grabbing onto the nearest branch with his hands and trying not to fall. Harry climbs closer to the trunk of the tree, holding perfectly still as to not give away his position. He must be more exhausted than he thought. Unintentionally changing from his bat form to his vampire form is something he hasn’t done in years. 

Below him in the clearing, Payne’s wolf form takes off through the trees and Tomlinson’s shoulders tense and then relax as he slumps slightly. He kicks at a clump of moss and walks to the edge of the circle, disappearing from view still naked, and still human. Harry scoffs, but silently, not wanting to be caught. He doesn’t understand werewolves.

When Tomlinson goes out of Harry’s echolocation range, Harry takes off, flying straight up into the clear night sky, and heading toward campus just behind Tomlinson. Harry stays far enough back that, even in wolf form, Tomlinson wouldn’t be aware of his presence. But while Tomlinson can’t sense Harry, Harry sees him every time he chirps, checking his surroundings. The reflected sound of Louis Tomlinson walking and jogging naked through the woods is hypnotic and Harry follows him easily. 

Nearer to campus, Tomlinson stops and Harry does too, just in time. He watches from his perch as Tomlinson climbs the low hanging branches of an oak tree, tossing down a backpack and jumping down after it. Harry doesn’t bother following him once he’s dressed, flying back directly to his frat house where he turns to mist and sneaks in his bedroom window, changing into his corporeal form and falling into his bed. He’s asleep long before the sun comes up and stays in bed until Zayn wakes him up, late the next evening, an hour before their meeting.

Louis tightens his grip on his backpack straps, then lets go before his claws pop out. Dr. Smith, his professor the previous year, recommended him for the internship, so he probably isn’t about to totally embarrass himself. But, if he does well here, really well, then maybe he can get that fellowship in the spring, and if he does well, his whole career—hell, his whole life—could be set. 

But he’s getting ahead of himself. Like always. 

First step is going through the door. He steels himself for making a good impression; he’s sure the internship will be mostly filled with human students, and though human/werewolf relations have improved greatly over the past few hundred years, he still wants to be a good ambassador—or whatever—to show that they do care about things happening outside their pack. He pulls his sleeves over his hands, then realizes what he’s doing and lets go.

He opens the door, and he’s the first student, which makes him preen. He has the first choice of seat since the room is his. He picks a seat in the back corner, where he can watch everyone as they enter and then can keep an eye on the lab while they work; he’s trying, but some habits are hard to break. He fidgets in his seat; his jeans are tight on his legs and he has too much energy coursing through his body to sit still. He scrolls through Instagram, his eyes not registering anything he sees.

Only a few minutes later, Dr. Robinson enters the room. Louis rushes up and introduces himself. “Do you need any help setting up?” he asks. Maybe a bit brown nose-ish, but the memory of past teachers warning that he was going to go nowhere with his life still stings. 

“Not much to set up today,” she says with a soft smile. “But thank you. Dr. Smith spoke very highly of you. I’m impressed with the caliber of students we have this year.”

Louis tries not to show his pride, instead turning the attention back to her. “I’ve been looking forward to this, and I hope I can live up to your expectations.”

Walking back to his seat, he stops when she says, “I don’t bite. You can sit a little closer if you’d like.” 

Louis turns back around with a smile. “Thank you, but I think I’d be most comfortable back here.”

Slowly, a few other students show up, a whole mix of species, then about five minutes until it’s set to start, the room is suddenly full. 

Dr. Robinson claps her hands once at exactly eight o’clock and then looks around the room. The only free seat is next to Louis. It’s fine. He doesn’t want to make small talk with anyone anyway. 

“Welcome, everyone, to the Hematology Center’s fall internship program. I’m Dr. Robinson.”

The door opens and Louis focuses on not baring his canines. Harry Styles. What the fuck is he doing in the science building, let alone the lab. Surely he’s a graphic design major or something. Harry nods sheepishly at Dr. Robinson, and scans the room; Louis knows the exact moment he clocks the one open seat, because Harry’s whole body stiffens and his mouth twitches. 

Hopefully there won’t be any partner work and Harry can go elsewhere. Or, he can find the room that he’s actually looking for. 

“Nice of you to join us, Styles.”

“Won’t happen again, Doc. I promise.”

Harry slides into the seat next to Louis without making eye contact or saying a word, and looks straight ahead. Louis isn’t going to growl. He isn’t. Harry’s president of the vamp frat and that alone has Louis sure to avoid crossing paths with him, but he’s also notoriously stuck up and elitist, and if it wasn’t for their thousand year pact he’d battle him right here in the back of the lab. Louis would win, obviously. He sits a little straighter in his seat. 

“This semester we’ll be studying blood disorders specific to certain species. You’ll be required to work in pairs. Thankfully there’s an even number this semester. To make things easier on me you’re going to be partnered up with the person you’re sharing a table with. No. There will be no switching. I don’t care why. In the real world you’ll have to learn to deal with all sorts of assholes so I don’t care why you can’t possibly work with your partner, you have to, or you can drop the class,” Dr. Robinson says in a no nonsense clip.

Louis can’t drop the class. He needs to do well. He needs the fellowship. He needs to get a head start on his career or else he’ll never solve the genetics problem that will win him a nobel prize. And he’ll never figure out why he is the way he is. 

“I can’t drop,” Louis hisses under his breath. “So you’ll have to.”

“Fuck you. I’m not dropping.”

Well. That’s that, then. 

“Brothers!” Harry calls across the meeting room of the fraternity house, and everyone quiets down. “The initiation ritual begins at midnight. Which means we need to be in place before then. We wait, as I said, one mile farther west than the clearing. At twelve, we fly east. Every move is on my signal. Are we ready?”

The room full of vampires roars in agreement, and Zayn pats Harry on the back in congratulations. He leans in and says, “This’ll go down as one of the greatest pranks since the thousand year peace began.”

“Maybe,” Harry says, looking around the room at the crowd of mostly naked vampires. He raises his hand, and though their movements are the furthest thing from synced, the entire fraternity transforms, and the room is suddenly filled with a colony of bats. Harry chirps his signal and leads them out into the night.

Since the night a month ago when he first tracked them to the clearing, Harry’s been back a few times. Once with Zayn, his VP and BFF, to scout and make plans for the prank. There’s an enormous oak tree to the west, and that’s where he leads the rest of the fraternity. They alight on the branches of the oak, as high as possible, so that they’re able to escape quickly if needed. Harry hangs from one of the lower limbs, to keep watch. 

It’s a good thing he does because, while he’s positive that the ritual hasn’t started, and that the full moon doesn’t actually end until just before midnight, there’s certainly a werewolf down there in the woods. Pacing. The werewolves are supposed to be to the north, where the forest is dense, where—according to Harry’s research and reconnaissance—they spend all of their full moons together. 

Harry chirps a different signal and his frat brothers all change from bats to mist, floating as one up and into the sky. It’s not their most stable form, so they can’t remain mist for long. The cloud of mist lets the wind carry it farther west where Zayn will lead them to a deer stand, where they land as bats once more. 

Harry stays in the oak, hanging head-down so he can continue watching Louis Tomlinson pace the woods as a werewolf. His wolf is a silvery grey, with black fur along the ridge of his spine, the tips of his ears and tail, as well as his muzzle. Lifting his nose, Louis sniffs the air, wags his tail, and sprints off into the trees. It must be close to midnight. Harry takes flight, heading for the deer stand, which he circles before leading his brothers back towards the clearing. 

At the oak tree, they take the form of mist, gathering together, and moving through the forest. When they reach the clearing, Louis’ werewolf is in the center, with the others in rings around him. The dark mist floats along the forest floor, surrounding the clearing and the werewolves inside it. At the center, Louis’ wolf lifts his snout and howls at the moon, leading his pack in a chorus. Before the baying tapers off, Harry watches Louis’ body shift into his human form. 

Naked, in the center of a pack of howling werewolves, Louis stands, appearing tall among the rest of his pack still on all fours. Careful of his thoughts while in mist form lest his fraternity brothers hear them, Harry focuses on sending the outline of the plan to them instead. And a reminder to let the wolves begin their ritual before the prank begins. 

Around Louis, the other wolves take their human forms. Stretching, standing, yawning, and laughing, while patting each other’s backs and shoulders and bums, like athletes. If Harry were in his vampire form, he’d laugh. Once they’ve all transformed completely, not a furry ear or tail left in the group, they reform their circles, this time with Louis and his VP, Liam, at the center. 

Harry sends the thought through the mist to wait for his signal. Despite all that he was able to learn about where the ritual takes place, he wasn’t able to find out a thing about what would actually happen. He watches carefully as Louis leans in close to whisper in Liam’s ear, a flare of jealousy pulsing through the mist before he can stop it. Hopeless to contain it, Harry sends a stronger signal over it, and on his command, the mist drifts into the clearing. Vampires materialize among the werewolves, and Harry himself appears directly between Louis and Liam at the center.

It’s chaos. Vampires hiss and werewolves transform, a writhing mass of naked bodies and fur in a standoff: None of them touch. Louis still stands at the center, the only one to remain in his human form while the rest of his brothers growl, teeth bared. 

“Stop!” Louis shouts, cupping his hands around his mouth. Beside him, Liam transforms, and slowly the other wolves turn human again. 

Harry laughs, loud and harsh in the now quiet night air. He turns to Louis, and says, “Now, we’re even.”

At Louis’ incredulous expression, Harry smirks, changes back into his bat form, and flies into the sky, his fraternity brothers following right after him. They return to their frat house, elated at the successful prank. 

“Seriously?” Harry sighs. “You’re just going to ignore me?”

That wasn’t Louis’ plan, but now that Harry suggests it, it’s probably the best thing Louis can do. He won’t have to deal with actually talking to Harry, and he’ll drive Harry crazy not giving him the attention that he so clearly desires. 

Louis doesn’t answer. 

Harry lasts about five more minutes before asking again. “Louis. We’re partners. You have to work with me.”

Louis gives him his best withering stare.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Harry says as he sits up straighter and looks over Louis’ shoulder, so Louis adjusts, putting more of a shoulder between Harry and his work. “We thought it’d be a bit of a laugh, okay. Just an innocent prank. Ruffle your feathers, so to speak. I didn’t know you’d be so—“ 

“Don’t lie to me,” Louis hisses. “I’m not stupid and I’m not going to buy into your charm. You and that whole vamp frat are nothing but blood sucking imbeciles.”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Louis breathes deeply to keep his composure. “Clearly wasn’t a big deal to you, but it was to us. You have no idea what you interrupted. That’s why there’s the pact in the first place, because what doesn’t seem important to you, is really important to us.” It’s like he’s talking to his six year old siblings.

Harry rolls his eyes. “I get it. Sorry, for real. For fucking up whatever that was.”

Louis didn’t expect something resembling a sincere apology. “Fine. Just, don’t do it again.” 

Louis’s surprised, again, when Harry scoffs. “Okay. We won’t if you won’t,” Harry says. Louis has no idea what he’s talking about, but just wants to stop talking to him all together.

“Fine. It’s a frat truce or whatever.” Then, under his breath, Louis mutters, “We don’t have to get along. You can keep being an immature asshole and I’ll carry us in the lab and in a few months we never have to see each other ever again.”

“Sorry, darling,” Harry snarls. “That’s not going to work for me.” He grabs Louis’ forearm. Louis breathes through it. He isn’t about to be turned on, by Harry of all people, just because of a little forceful touch. “I don’t trust you not to fuck this up for me.”

Louis jerks his arm back, but Harry grips harder. Louis jerks even harder, and this time when Harry does let go, the vial of blood in Louis’ hand flies. It shatters on the table, and spills on Harry’s pants. 

“Oh, fuck you,” Harry shouts, and everyone in the room looks over at his outburst. Harry stands up, pushing his chair back with a loud scratch, and storms out of the room. 

Louis can feel everyone’s eyes on him, judging him, as though whatever just happened was his fault, and not Harry’s for being such an incredible asshole. Louis wants to be the bigger person though, or at least appear that way, so with a sheepish smile he directs a quiet “I’m just going to check on him” to Dr. Robinson, who dismisses him with a nod. 

Louis’ nostrils flare, scenting, and he follows Harry’s trail to the bathroom. He pushes open the door with his hip and walks in to find Harry, standing in his boxers, dabbing at the spots of blood on his pants at the sink. 

Harry has a tattoo on his thigh. 

Louis has A Thing for thigh tattoos. 

He tries to pry his eyes away, but they keep snapping back to that tiger. 

“Spill blood on me just so you could ogle me?” Harry asks, meeting Louis’ eye in the mirror. 

“No,” Louis says, scandalized. “Like I would ever.”

Harry sets his pants down on the lip of the sink and takes a few steps to Louis. Louis backs up, but Harry keeps coming, until Louis’ back is against the wall and Harry is inches in front of him. Louis puffs out his chest. He isn’t about to be intimidated by Harry. 

“Like what you see?” Harry teases. “Is that why you’re so cold and cut off? Because you’re afraid that you can’t handle yourself around me?”

Louis scoffs. “As if. Like I would ever stoop to your level.” His cock betrays him though, giving a kick at the idea of being eye level with Harry’s thigh-ger.

Louis wonders if Harry can smell his arousal. Another werewolf could’ve been able to, the fae too. But he doesn’t know that much about vampires, and there isn’t much research into the were/vamp relationships. Because they hate each other. Thousands of years and they still barely tolerate each other. It’s amazing the peace has lasted as long as it has, especially with stupid stunts like the one the vamp frat pulled. 

Right. Louis is still super mad at Harry. 

That cures his horniness. 

Harry doesn’t get the message though, rolling his hips and acting like a fool, trying to seduce Louis in the bathroom. Despite what Louis’ cock thinks, it isn’t going to happen. But. He could play a bit.

He tilts forward the tiniest bit, pushing into Harry’s space, ducking his head and making his eyes big and innocent, while fluttering his lashes. It always works when he’s trying to hook up. As Louis licks his lips and tracks Harry watching the movement, he slouches into his hip, pressing forward again. “But it’s not like you’d be into it,” Louis purrs, in full on flirting mode. “I’m sure a strong vampire like you would have a problem submitting to someone like me.” 

Louis’s definitely laying it on too thick, but Harry doesn’t seem to be seeing through him, instead swallowing slowly before saying, “You don’t know anything about me, Tomlinson.”

Louis drapes an arm across Harry’s shoulder. “And whose fault is that?” Louis asks. 

Harry grips Louis’ hips. “Pretty sure it’s yours. Pretty little thing like you, hidden away with your pack.” 

Louis flushes. Damn it. Harry notices too, his eyes moving up to Louis’ cheeks.

Harry presses himself against Louis, the hard length of his dick distracting Louis, since he theoretically planned on flustering Harry, but there’s proof. Harry’s hard. Because of Louis. There’s no stronger aphrodisiac for Louis than knowing that he’s having an affect on someone. He doesn’t mean for it to, but his cock gives another weak kick. Harry must feel it through Louis’ jeans, the way Harry shudders out a breath. 

Locking eyes with Louis, Harry moves his hand from Louis’ waist to the front of his pants, thumbing at the button of his jeans. “Maybe,” Harry says slowly, “we could broker some sort of… peace between the two of us. One that’s… mutually beneficial.”

This is when Louis is supposed to laugh. He pushed Harry far enough to suggest such a ridiculous thing. But maybe he can push just… a little bit harder. 

Louis bites his lip. “Maybe.”

But then Harry’s hand slides lower. He gently brushes against Louis’ dick, and Louis lets out an unintentional quiet groan. Harry’s hand comes back up, and unbuttons Louis’ fly.

“This okay?” Harry askes, quietly, sincerely, and Louis doesn’t know how their game came to this, but if he’s going to get off, then really, the joke’s on Harry. 

Louis nods. “Yep. Great.”

Harry cups Louis’ dick again. “Thought so, but wanted to make sure.” Then he pulls down Louis’ zipper achingly slow. By the time Harry gets a hand on Louis, his knot’s already starting to swell and Louis is ready to combust. 

It doesn’t take long with Harry’s hot breath on Louis’ neck, the thrill of a semi-public hand job, the fact that it’s Harry who has such a sure and steady hand around Louis’ dick. The way that Harry’s green eyes seem to bore into Louis’, heating him from the inside and making him want to whine and give himself over to Harry.

He manages to keep his whines in, but as his knees buckle and he careens over the edge of pleasure, his claws pop out, puncturing five holes in the shoulder of Harry’s shirt.

Louis straightens up and lets go of Harry as Harry chuckles. “You could’ve just asked if you wanted me out of my clothes so badly.”

Louis doesn’t mean to snarl, since Harry was kind enough to just get him off, but it’s close. 

“You going to return the favor?” Harry asks. He hooks his thumbs in his waistband, like he’s ready to whip his boxers off. “Seems like the least you could do after all of this.” He arches his eyebrow, and that’s that. The unspoken challenge has Louis whipping them both around and pressing Harry to the wall, and shoving a hand down the front of his boxers. 

Despite not actually liking Harry, trying to pull reactions out of him, and teasing him by slowing down when Harry sounds like he’s close to coming, is extremely fun for Louis. He’s less amused by his own realization that Harry’s really fucking hot when he’s panting and begging for Louis to let him come. But he’s been with his share of hot guys and he still knows how to dismiss a fuckboy when their jobs with each other are done. 

It’s weird not having a knot at the base of Harry’s cock, but it’s a smoother motion and Louis gets used to it quickly. 

When Harry comes, his fangs pop out and his whole body goes stiff, like he really is the undead.

Louis hates himself, just a little, for how much he likes it. “Don’t get used to that,” Louis says, more sharply than is strictly necessary, especially considering how Harry’s still convulsing through some aftershocks and Louis’ hand is still on his knotless dick.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, sweetheart.” Harry sounds so smarmy that Louis could probably bring up a sexual harassment charge or something for using that tone. The fact that Louis willingly gave him a handy in the bathroom would probably count against him though. Louis lets go.

After wordlessly washing his hands, Louis leaves Harry standing at the sink, still catching his breath and putting his damp pants back on. 

———  

Over the course of the next few weeks Louis manages to soften, ever so slightly, towards Harry. As much as Louis hates to admit it to himself, Harry’s O-face really is something to behold, and it broke down some wall between them, the one where Louis saw him as an enemy and someone standing in his way, instead of just another stupid college kid looking to get off. 

It makes their working relationship function, mostly. At least Louis hasn’t dumped more blood all over Harry. But they’ve gotten along since that day, the truce seeming to have stuck, and no more arguments or pranks since then. They’re certainly not friends, but it hasn’t gone past innocent bickering. 

“Just let me do it,” Louis says, snatching the vial from Harry’s hand. “I’m the one who needs to know how to do this.”

Harry’s hand clenches into a fist, but he doesn’t grab it back. Louis’s glad they aren’t going to have an outward battle of strength in the lab. 

“I don’t know why you keep saying that,” Harry growls. “I’m not taking this for funsies. I need to know this shit too.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Right. It’s not enough to suck others’ blood? Can’t you get some donors that way, for whatever freaky experiments you plan on doing?”

“Can you stop being an ass for one moment?” Harry slumps back against his chair. “Seriously, haven’t we been at this long enough that you know I’m not here to, like, sabotage you or whatever? Joke all you want, but I’ve got serious plans.”

“Like what?” Louis doesn’t want to care. He also didn’t want to get off with Harry their first week in class. But here he is, trying to make the best of it. 

Harry scoffs. “You don’t have to pretend to care. Everyone else thinks it’s silly, so why should you be any different.”

“Try me.”

“Fine.” Harry pinches his lower lip between his fingers. “So obviously vamps feed off of others, for their blood. And like, it’s fine now, people donate, lots of people are willing. I haven’t heard of any of our kind starving or anything. But it hasn’t always been that way. Maybe it won’t be that way in the future. Like…” Harry sighs. “I want to make a blood substitute. One that gives us the right ratio of nutrients and doesn’t rely on other species.”

“Oh. So you’re like, a separatist? I thought all vamps were like, extreme extroverts who always wanted to party and—”

“We’re not. And I’m not a separatist. I like the way things are. I like being friends with all sorts of creatures. I just… worry. And we’re not all outgoing. It’s stressful, on some of the clan, having to convince people to let them feed.”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” Louis admits. 

“No, I don’t suppose you would’ve. So it’s not like, a dire situation, but it is important, to me, that I get the same thing out of the lab as you do.”

“Have you… or, I guess, have others… is there any progress on that?”

Harry shrugs again. “There’s been some work. I’ve tried a few things. I haven’t died, but like, with everything I’ve tried, I’m just sapped of energy, constantly tired. So…” Harry makes jazz hands even as he frowns. 

Damn Harry Styles and his wanting to be actually helpful.

“Well. Fine,” Louis says, handing over the vial. Harry does a little wiggly dance in his seat. “Careful with that, or you’re going to lose your privileges.”

“I’ll be careful.” 

They work quietly for a few minutes, adding a few drops of the next substance to their vials and putting them in the centrifuge. While they're waiting, Harry asks, “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“You keep saying how important this is. But I don’t know why. What are you planning on doing?”

Louis can’t help the knee jerk reaction to look around the room and ensure no one’s listening in. He focuses on the vials and tries to keep his voice steady. “Uh. General lycanthropy? I’d like to find the exact element that causes us to be able to change.” Them to change. Louis pushes his own personal problems to the back of his brain. Harry doesn’t need to know specifics. “Could be useful for other things, if we could isolate it, figure out what exactly is happening.”

Sure that his facial expression is totally under control, he glances at Harry. 

“Science hasn’t figured it out?”

“Uh. No. It’s not like weres are going to let a bunch of strangers experiment on them, and there aren’t too many who are focused on the sciences… they’re mostly studying other things.”

“It’s cool. That you’re doing your own thing.” Harry sounds impressed. 

“Just because I’m the president of the frat doesn’t mean that I’m an exclusionist.” Louis tries not to take offense. Harry does seem like a decent guy, like he isn’t purposefully ignorant. But he probably does have quite a few things to learn about werewolves.

Louis is going to try his hardest to be patient with him, and to maybe let him help out more with their experiments. 

Maybe. 

Harry is late. Twenty minutes late. And all because, when he came downstairs early that morning to leave for the lab, every single piece of furniture from that floor of the house—sofas, tables, lamps, and so on—was stacked in front of the door. Surrounding that precarious pile was a wide semicircle of waist-high stacked, flattened soccer balls, with four punctures in each of them, obviously made by canine claws. 

As president, he couldn’t just leave it. He’d immediately woken the frat house, but even with their collective strength and speed, it still took a long time to get the balls cleared away. Especially when every other person made a joke about balls. And the furniture was meticulously arranged so that they had to remove it piece by piece or it would all come tumbling down. When they finally finished, Harry barely had time to grab some O-neg to drink on the way. There hadn’t been time to change into something more appropriate for lab, let alone shower. 

Still in the soft, worn, grey sweatpants and thin, white t-shirt that he threw on to move the furniture, Harry looks about as unprofessional as he possibly could. And there’s no way Dr. Robinson won’t notice, not when he has to be let into the locked lab when he arrives. 

Harry storms up the stairs to the second floor of the building, but on the way down the corridor, he slows his stride and forces himself to calm down before he gets to the lab door. The prank and its perpetrator can be dealt with later; he doesn’t need to draw more negative attention to himself. He’ll just sit on his stool and do his work and murder Louis afterward. 

“Thank you for joining us, Mr. Styles,” Dr. Robinson says after she opens the door. 

“Sorry I’m late, ma’am. It won’t happen again,” Harry says, and crosses the room, biting his lip hard in an effort to keep his fangs withdrawn and his mouth shut. He grabs his lab coat and goggles, and drops onto the stool beside Louis. 

“Why were you late?” Louis asks, but Harry ignores him, organizing the slides and vials they need. He asks again, “Why were you late?”

“As if you don’t know,” Harry says, voice hushed. 

“Why would I know?” Louis elbows him and Harry elbows him back, hard. “Oof. What the fuck?”

“Fuck you, mutt,” Harry grumbles. 

“Man, I had no idea bloodsuckers were so fucking moody.” Louis scoots his stool away from Harry and they ignore each other, except when they have to actually speak because it would make the lab dangerous to not do so. 

While most of the others in the lab leave their partners notes and track communications using paper or dry erase boards, they decided to just text each other everything in person. Louis’ handwriting is atrocious, and it’s not as if they’d ever want to see or talk to each other outside of the lab anyway. 

Once their time in the lab is up, Harry works quickly to clean and reset their space, so he can leave when Louis does. Typically he stays behind and gives their entire area a once-over, but not today. When Louis heads for the exit, so does Harry, staying just far enough behind that there are other people between them in the hallway and he doesn’t seem conspicuous. 

Most everyone takes the stairs near the lab, but Louis keeps going past them, so Harry does too, hopefully keeping back enough. Darting around the corner at the end of the corridor, Harry stops short. It’s a dead end with a stairwell, this one deserted with a heavy closed door. The windowless door creaks when he pushes it open, and a split second later he’s being thrown against it, slamming it closed. 

“What’s your problem?” Louis has him by the throat, one hand tightening around it. He lifts Harry slightly, but the second Harry’s fangs drop, he lets him go and Harry’s feet hit the floor. “Fuck.”

Harry doesn’t withdraw his fangs, and as Louis backs away from him, Harry stalks closer. “My problem? You. You and that pack of mangy, flea ridden dogs.” This time he’s ready when Louis shoves him, knocking his arms aside so that his hands glance off of Harry, and Harry doesn’t stumble, staying steady on his feet. “I came to this school because of the opportunity to apply for the fellowship next semester and you’re not screwing up my chances.”

“What the hell are you talking about, man? You’re the one who was late.”

“Because of you!” Harry roars.

“I didn’t do anything!” Louis shouts back, and the stairwell door bangs open, and they both jump.

“Gentlemen,” Dr. Robinson says, holding the door open and gesturing for them to follow her back into the corridor. “This way.” Harry retracts his fangs, and they walk silently behind her, shooting each other furious looks behind his back, until she leads them past the lab to an empty lecture hall. “Mr. Styles, Mr. Tomlinson, have a conversation. My office is right next door. If I hear anything other than civilized discussion through this wall,” she knocks on the wall beside the doorway and says, “you’ll both be out of the program.”

Next to him, Louis gasps, just as Harry’s own mouth drops open and he claps his hand over it to stop himself from stuffing his foot in there. With wide eyes, Harry nods, and sees Louis do the same in his peripheral vision. Dr. Robinson shuts the door, leaving the two of them alone.

“Tell me what the fuck you think I did,” Louis says, hands in tight fists at his sides. 

Narrowing his eyes, Harry says, “Like you don’t know.”

“I don’t. Now, either tell me, or fuck off.”

“I spent all morning cleaning up the mess that you and your pack made. Can’t believe you called me an immature asshole over our little prank and then turned around and—”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about, bloodsucker. But you are an immature asshole. Glad you remembered,” Louis says, shifting his bag on his shoulder and starting for the door. 

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Leaving,” Louis says, resting his hand on the doorknob. 

“You can’t leave!” Harry crosses to the door and leans against it. “Look. Just say you’re sorry. We’ll call it even.”

“I’m not apologizing when, one,” Louis says, flipping Harry off with his left hand. “I still don’t know what you’re talking about, and, two,” he smirks and flips Harry off with his right hand. “I didn’t do anything.”

Harry closes his eyes and says, “Someone, more than one someone, stacked all of my frat’s furniture in front of the door, and left a pile of popped soccer balls around it. Curiously, each ball had four punctures.” Holding up his hands, Harry growls and curls his fingers.

“What?”

“Claw marks, Louis,” Harry says with a huff. “Like a fucking calling card, so why are you denying it now?”

“Because I had nothing to do with it. None of us did. We were running around in the woods until about eleven o’clock last night when the moon set. Half the frat’s still asleep, probably. The only reason I’m not is because of the lab.”

Frowning, Harry grabs blindly for something to hold onto, finding a table and sitting down on it. “Full moon was yesterday?”

“It ended last night. And no offense, but I was exhausted afterwards and I don’t think anyone else was up for moving furniture either.”

“Wait… Someone pranked us and made it look like you guys did it?” Harry pulls himself completely up on top of the table and crosses his legs, bending down to rest his elbows on his knees.

“Would seem so,” Louis says, crossing his arms and looking at Harry with eyebrows raised.

Harry deflates a little and heaves a sigh. “Fine. Sorry. To be fair, I was tired and late and—”

“Shut up,” Louis says, jerking his head around towards the door at the back of the room. 

“Well, fuck you, too—”

“I heard something!” Louis slaps his hand on the table beside Harry’s leg. “Whatever—or whoever—they’re gone now.” 

Harry unfolds his legs and slides off the table. “Stay here,” he says, and transforms into mist before Louis can argue. He seeps under the door and up the wall and travels along the corridor on the ceiling, to the closest exit. 

The cloudy morning sky helps disguise him as he circles the building, spread into a thin cloud, and tries to take in as much visual information as he can, so that he can process it later. He drifts back into the empty lecture hall and materializes in front of Louis. 

Half a second later he remembers he’s naked. Not that he’s embarrassed by his nudity. Far from it. But Louis has seen him naked under other circumstances, so it’s a bit different. He dresses while he talks, hoping that his words will serve as a distraction. 

“Didn’t see anything suspicious, but whoever it was had to use the—”

“It’s the fae,” Louis says.

“What? How do you know?” Harry asks, pulling up his sweatpants with the realization that Louis is now aware he’s going commando.

“Process of elimination. Not me, obviously not you, no way it’s the merpeople, goblins could probably give a shit what any of us do, and… centaurs and gnomes… doesn’t feel right. Or, have you ever met a selkie?” Louis shrugs and says, “Has to be the fae.”

“But why?” Harry asks. 

Louis shrugs again. “No clue. But now I’m… Was it you, then, last semester, who cooked all the raw meat we had in our freezer?”

“No!” Harry clears his throat. “Did you, um… Was it your frat that laid all those coffins in our yard?” When Louis shakes his head, Harry says, “Yeah, okay. Shit. We need to, like… compare notes.”

“Yeah, and figure out what we need to do. I mean, I don’t want to break the treaty, but it’s like… They’ve already broken it.” Louis sighs and shakes his head. “I need to talk to Liam.”

“And I need to talk to Zayn,” Harry says. 

Louis pulls at his sleeves. The crowded room in front of him is full of disgruntled creatures and he tries to project calmness instead of the scratchy discomfort he’s actually feeling. He looks over to Harry, who nods, then Louis clears his throat. 

“Thank you all for coming.”

A few people in the front fall silent, but everyone else is still raging quietly to the friends around them. 

Louis tries again, louder this time. “Thank you all for coming.” More fall silent so he continues, “I know this is unusual, and Harry and I appreciate you all coming together.” He looks out to the crowd of vampires and werewolves and wonders when the last time there was a room of this kind of gathering that didn’t break out into a battle. He hopes the werewolves behave themselves, seeing as how they’re guests at the vamp house. Louis is pretty sure this has never happened in the whole history of the university.

“Why are they here?” someone shouts from the back. Louis isn’t sure who, but he doesn’t recognize the voice. 

“Listen to Louis and he’ll tell you,” Harry says, voice sharp.

“As some of you may know, Harry and I have a lab together. We had a misunderstanding, and then we figured out that a recent prank at the vamp house was set up to make it look like the werewolves were the perpetrators. Luckily for us, whoever set it up wasn’t smart enough to take the full moon into account and our names were cleared before any retaliatory action was taken.”

A few people seem to start to understand what’s happening. “You didn’t wreck our common room?” a vampire in the front row asks one of Louis’ new pledges. He shakes his head, wide-eyed.

“If it wasn’t them, who was it?” someone asks. 

The volume in the room rises with outrage. 

“We don’t know for sure…” Harry says. 

“But we’re pretty sure it must be the fae,” Louis finishes for him. He lets the outrage bubble for a minute before he says, “We don’t know for sure.”

“Wait!” shouts someone from the back. The room quiets slightly. “How do we know the fae aren’t here? Listening?” That gets the room’s attention as it falls quiet again.

Louis looks at Harry. It’s a possibility, he supposes. 

“We could shift!” someone in the back shouts. “Prove that you’re one of us, vamp or were.”

“No,” Louis says. He can’t let that happen. No one can know. “No, that’s too—”

A roar of dissent goes up. 

“It’s a good idea, Lou,” Harry says, quietly. 

“I— It’s not.” He thinks quickly. “We shouldn’t have to prove ourselves. We’re on the same side.”

“But—”

Louis scans the crowd. He’s almost sure he can see everyone. The room’s getting rowdy and he has to come up with something quickly. “Harry, I can vouch for the weres here. I know them all. I trust them all. None of them are fae.”

Harry huffs in frustration, but agrees. “Fine. Same.” He clears his throat and claps his hands to get everyone’s attention. “We don’t have to turn against each other. I know all you vamps out there. I know none of you are fae and we trust each other. Someone would’ve noticed if a fae pretending to be a vampire was here. And same with the wolves. You all know each other. Louis knows you.”

A bat flaps against the ceiling, and Louis watches as Luke shifts into his wolf. Another bat joins the first and all the vampires near Luke scatter away from him, pushing against the already full room. “Stop it!” Louis roars with his alpha voice. He needs to get a grip on things before everyone but him shifts out of their human forms. Those who aren’t shifting are still moving, turning insular, angling their backs towards those not in their frats. 

“What are we going to do?” Louis asks Harry. Harry shrugs. The tone of the room hadn’t been cordial, but they had made progress before losing it all again.

“Hey!” Louis yells. 

“Quiet, please!” Harry pleads. 

“We need to come up with a plan. Does anyone have any ideas?” Maybe if Louis can get them back on task they’ll stop the infighting. 

“Kick their asses!” a vamp shouts.

“No!” Harry reacts. “We can’t retaliate in any way that would lead back to us. Or that would break the treaty.”

“They’ve already broken it!” someone shouts. 

A chorus of growls follow. 

“That might be so,” Louis says. “But we have to be smart about this. We can’t have any blowback come to us or we’ll be kicked out, at the very minimum our houses shut down, and at worst start another kingdom war.”

“No.” Harry’s sharp voice cuts through the noise, and Louis’ cock gives a feeble kick at the timber of his voice. “I forbid any vampires from enacting revenge.” The vampires, at least, fall silent, and the werewolves fall in line at the sudden change in mood.

“I forbid the werewolves as well,” Louis says, trying to match Harry’s spookily stern tone. 

“Yeah!” Liam adds, above the handful of snickers throughout the room. But he quietly snorts and says to Louis under his breath, “You can’t forbid us from doing anything.” 

“Oh, come on,” Louis says, exasperated, trying to get the room back. “This is serious. Just… don’t. Please. We’ll sort it out, but we need to be smart about it.”

Liam joins Louis on the makeshift stage. “Does anyone have any actual ideas? Or should we call this to a close, and meet again once everyone has time to think clearly?”

Louis huffs. The whole point was to come away with a plan for payback, not to rile everyone up and then set them free.

“Lou,” Harry says, putting a hand on his wrist. “Look at them.” The whole room’s in a state of even more unrest, pulling at their clothes, moving from foot to foot, small growls and the popping of fangs. “We’re not going to get anything else done tonight. We’ll think and meet back up, like Liam said.”

Harry drops Louis’ wrist and looks at Liam. They seem to be having a conversation without Louis. Fine. “Sure. Whatever.”

“Meeting adjourned,” Harry says. 

After a moment when Louis doesn’t move, Liam calls out, “You heard him; wolves, back home.” There’s a blast of cool air as someone in the back opens the door and they all line up to leave. 

“And don’t talk about it in public!” Louis yells, hoping at least some of them will listen to him.

“Louis, do you want to hang back for a minute?” Harry asks. 

“I’ll see you back there,” Liam says, from the end of the group making their way out. 

Louis flips him off. 

“Come on,” Harry says. “Want to talk to you in private.”

Louis follows up a back set of stairs, up two flights to a room with a kitschy anti-garlic sign on the door. Harry unlocks it, and then opens the door and follows Louis in. Harry’s room is messier than Louis expects, with his closet doors open and clothes on every single surface. His laptop’s surrounded by books and notes and coffee cups on his desk. His bed’s unmade and Louis’ senses are assaulted by the sharp smell of Harry that’s all encompassing.

“What?” Louis demands. He puts his hands on his hips as Harry locks the door behind them.

“That sucked,” Harry says. 

“It did. Was that supposed to be a joke?” Louis wants to get back to his house and get out of his clothes and start looking up why the fae might have it out for them.

“Was it funny?” Harry takes a step closer to Louis.

“No.” Louis looks into Harry’s green eyes. “You’re never funny.”

Harry smirks and Louis wants to smack him. This is serious business they’re dealing with. They don’t have time for unfunny jokes.

“You’re entitled to your wrong opinion,” Harry says, taking another step. Louis should step back, but surrounded by the scent of Harry, seeing his dirty boxers on the floor, Louis can’t think straight. They’re toe to toe, and Louis puffs up his chest to make himself look taller. 

Harry shakes his head slightly, his lips curling up in a smile as he brings their faces closer together. He slows, pausing and catching Louis’ eye before he presses their lips together. Louis could say no. Could step out of Harry’s orbit. Could make sure they stay on task, but Harry’s lips are so soft, and he tastes so good. 

They kiss until Louis feels like he’s got Harry’s jaw memorized by feel alone, until he’s gasping for breath, until he’s going to explode with just how much more he wants.

Louis walks them to the door. He’s absolutely not going to end up in Harry’s bed. He won’t. Pressing Harry against the door, Louis can feel exactly how much Harry’s up for it too. He rolls his hips, searching for the perfect friction. Harry’s head falls back, and Louis kisses down his neck, across his throat, and back up to his ear on the other side. 

For a vamp, he just smells so incredible. Louis hates it. He hates it so much that he rucks up Harry’s shirt, and gently scratches down Harry’s flank, sending a wave of goosebumps across his skin and making his nipples pebble. His smooth chest is such a stark difference to most guys Louis has been with, and as his hips work against Harry’s, his hands can’t seem to get enough of Harry’s soft skin. 

Harry’s also groaning quietly, like he’s trying to keep it in and he just can’t. Every time Louis hears it, he just gets harder. After his own whimper, Harry’s hands move from where they’re softly cupping Louis’ face down to his ass, kneading it roughly. He pulls Louis flush against him, and keeps him there, and as much as Louis would like to complain, it feels so damn good that he can’t protest. 

They keep rutting against each other, well past when Louis feels his orgasm building, and past when Harry’s high pitch keen and body-stiffening orgasm hit him, until Louis is there too, humping Harry’s hips like they’re every key to his pleasure. 

Sadly, at the moment, it seems like they might be.

Fuck. Louis really didn’t think this through. Not only is he still wearing clothes, they’re now uncomfortably wet, and there’s no way Liam isn’t going to be able to tell as soon as he gets back. Fucking Harry Styles. 

“I just don’t get why you trust this untrained puppy, Harry,” Zayn says, adjusting the towel on the recliner before sitting his bare ass down and flipping up the footstool. 

Harry rolls his eyes at the insult. He thought that an official meeting between the president and vice president of the frat meant that they should both be fully clothed, but apparently not. It’s fine. He can handle wearing his jeans for a little while longer if it gives him the upper hand.

“It’s not about trust. These are facts,” Harry says, forcing himself to stand still and not pace the living room carpet. “This latest prank is just the most recent in a long list of things that, with just a little research, we can prove that the blame is misplaced.” 

Zayn narrows his eyes. “Did you practice what you were going to say to me?”

“Maybe,” Harry says, crossing his arms over his chest and chewing on his lower lip. “Look… It’s up to us to deal with this the right way. And I know that every vamp here thinks they’re better than say, a merperson or a werewolf, but are they?”

“Yes.” Zayn scoffs. 

“Are they really? When half the frat wouldn’t listen to me at the meeting? When all anyone seems to care about is revenge, damn the consequences and the treaty?” 

“Does the treaty even matter if the fae already broke it?” Zayn shrugs and says, “Look, I don’t want to do anything to ruin a thousand years of peace. My vamp line goes all the way back to the original treaty signatories. But you have to recognize that the rest of the frat is going to see this a certain way.”

“I know that, Zayn. That’s why I need you on my side. And Louis is talking to his VP as well. We need to work together here.”

“Fine. Just… It’s… Why do you even care whether or not the weres get the blame?” Zayn asks, hopping up out of the recliner and hanging his towel on his assigned hook on the wall. “They were all ready to attack the fae and we could’ve let them do it.”

“Louis wasn’t,” Harry quickly corrects him, then tacks on, “So not all of them.”

“Right,” Zayn says, dragging out the word. “Why would you believe him? Isn’t he like, making you miserable? Ruining your internship?” 

Harry coughs into his fist. “We, um… Dr. Robinson pulled us into a, um, meeting the other day. Said we have to work together. Get along or we’re out of the program, so…” Zayn’s been on the receiving end of many of Harry’s high, late night ramblings about their need to find another food source, so he knows more than anyone—except maybe Louis—how important this is to Harry.

“Shit, yeah. Okay.” Zayn grabs his clothes and hurries to get dressed. “I’ve got class, man. But listen, you should've said your internship was at stake. That changes things.”

“Yeah, sorry. I…” Harry trails off and Zayn waves his apology away, ducking out the door and disappearing in a burst of speed. Harry can’t believe that it hadn't crossed his mind at first to use his internship as an excuse. All he’d thought of was Louis. That he doesn’t want Louis to get the blame. He doesn’t want Louis to lose his chance at the fellowship next semester through no fault of his own. 

Harry skips his next class and spends the morning in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering when he started thinking of Louis as a person instead of just another furry problem. 

Of course Liam’s waiting, not so casually pacing, in front of Louis’ door when he gets back. “What’s going on, Louis?”

“Nothing.” He can’t even get out of his sticky boxers before the interrogation starts. 

“Don’t lie to me. What was all that up there about trust if I know you’re lying?”

“Fuck. Liam— just… I’ll be right out. I’ll meet you in your room.”

Liam doesn’t look happy about it, but with a nod he heads to his own room.

Louis quickly sheds his pants and briefs, then opens the pack of wipes from his dresser drawer. He wipes himself down and hopes that it does a good enough job masking their scent that Liam won’t say anything. He walks over without getting dressed. 

He’s mistaken. 

“Are you and Harry fucking?”

“Why would you—”

“Because you smelled like come and now you smell like baby wipes. There’s not too many other options that come to mind.”

Louis sits on Liam’s bed, then reconsiders, and lets himself snuggle beneath the covers. This conversation is going to suck. Great. Now he’s even thinking like Harry. 

“Thank you for cleaning off your come before crawling into my bed.”

Louis sighs, loudly and exaggeratedly long, but Liam’s stern face never softens. “Li.”

“Louis. This is a bad idea.”

“I know. But it’s just a bit of…” Fun’s not the right word. “A release valve. Between classes and the internship and now this thing with the fae. Like… It’s not like I like him.”

“You don’t?”

“I don’t! I swear.” Gross. As if Louis would ever actually like a vamp.

“But you like him enough to get off with him?” Shit. Well, Liam might have a teeny-tiny point.

“It’s not like that.”

Liam gets into bed next to him. “Then what’s it like?”

“It’s easy.”

“There’s no way it’s easy.” Liam opens his arms and Louis cuddles up against his warm body. “He’s a vampire and you’re a werewolf and you’re supposed to hate each other.”

“Well, I don’t hate him.” As he says it, Louis realizes it true. As much as he doesn’t want that to be the case.

“That much is clear.”

“I don’t like him though.”

“Okay. It’s fine if you do though, I just… I was surprised. That’s all. It’s not really like you.”

Louis shrugs and buries his nose in Liam’s ribs. “I don’t like him.” Even Louis recognizes how petulant he sounds.

“Okay.”

“I don’t.”

“Okay,” Liam repeats, as if Louis will believe him this time. He pets Louis’ hair for a few quiet minutes. “Do you want to shift? It might be easier to express—”

“No.” It probably would be easier, if Louis could. But that’s just another thing he hasn’t talked about. 

“Lou—”

It feels like a dam is about to burst, and he has to vocalize it before he starts to cry in front of LIam. “I can’t.”

“Okay, I’m not going to push it, but you know I’m—”

“No. I mean, literally, I can’t.” His voice is barely a whisper.

“It is a little unorthodox for you to be with a vampire but—”

“No. I— Forget about Harry for a minute.” He takes a deep breath and hopes that Liam will be as okay with this as he is with the whole Harry non-situation. There’re a lot of reasons why Louis kept this one tucked close to his chest, but if there’s anyone in the world he trusts, it’s Liam. The worst that can happen is Liam rejecting him, overthrowing him as president, and turning all the wolves against him. He desperately needs that not to happen. Liam scratches behind his ear and Louis’ eyes well up. “I can’t… I can’t shift like everyone else. I’m a failure as a wolf.”

Louis’ heartbeat kicks up harder when Liam doesn’t react, other than the same slow rubbing behind his ear. It turns to panic, the longer there’s no reaction. He gulps in a breath and tries to move, but Liam holds him tighter.

“What are you talking about?” Liam asks softly. “We’ve all seen you shift. You’re such a natural wolf; they wouldn’t accept you as the president if you weren’t.”

“No, but…” Louis hasn’t really thought of it that way before. “I’m not like everyone else. I can only shift during the full moon, not whenever I feel like it, like everyone else.”

“No. You’ve—”

Louis can practically hear the wheels turning in Liam’s head, trying to remember. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

“But…”

“It’s good you haven’t noticed, if nothing else. Means I don’t need to be so worried about that.”

“Shit, Louis.”

“It’s true.” He’s a failure as a wolf. “That’s why, uh, well the internship, that’s what I’m trying to find a solution to. If I can figure out what’s wrong, maybe I can fix it, be normal before anyone notices.”

“How long? I mean— always?”

Louis shrugs. “Yep. And my mom knows. It wasn’t really ever spoken about. Just like, she said it was fine, and she loves me the way I am, and that was that. But otherwise…”

“No one else knows?”

“No one. Liam, you can’t tell anyone. Promise me.”

“I promise. I won’t. But Lou, I really don’t think anyone is going to care. Like, you’re not less than just because you can’t shift whenever.”

“I can’t chance it though. This pack is everything and I can’t be here without them.”

“I get it. I promise.” Liam gives him a squeeze. “And if you do tell anyone and they don’t accept you, I’ll go all alpha on them.”

Louis laughs. “Yeah, I’d like to see that, you soft puppy.”

“Rawr,” Liam says with a smile. “So the internship, huh? That’s where you met Harry?”

Louis gives an exasperated growl. “Yes. I had hoped you’d forgotten about that.”

“That you’re fucking—”

“Not fucking!”

“Hooking up with Harry Styles? Fat chance.”

“Look, he’s… not bad. He’s a softie too. He’s as serious about the internship as I am, so he’s been a good partner.”

Louis can feel where Liam’s smirking. “A good partner, huh?”

“Shut it. He is. He cares a lot and he puts up with me—which, you know that’s like—and he’s smart. And he trusts me. I told him we didn’t prank him, and he just believed me. He’s a good guy.”

“Sounds like you like him.”

“I don’t.” Louis isn’t actually sure any more. Not that it particularly matters. They’re just using each other to get off and there isn’t a future with them and Louis is sure that Harry would never be interested in a werewolf. Not a vampire like him, who looks like him, who could probably get anyone on campus he wanted. Shit. It’s possible Louis does like him a bit. “I’d tell you if I did.”

Exams suck. Harry snorts at his own silent joke on his way to the lab. The end of the semester is never fun, but as president it’s been even less so, which he didn’t realize was possible. He had to encourage his clan to study instead of party, and then he couldn’t go to any of the parties either. He had to be responsible. It meant that he was quite confident that he not only passed his exams, but aced most of them, but he still wasn’t happy about it. And it also meant that he had weeks’ worth of built up tension and no outlet for it. His fangs keep dropping when he’s stressed, and that’s something that hasn’t happened in… ever, actually. 

Scowl firmly in place, Harry tugs on his jeans. They’re too tight and he doesn’t know why he wears them when he could wear sweatpants or nothing at all, which he’d much prefer. He sets up their lab table while he waits for Louis to arrive. While he waits for the rest of the class to arrive. Harry shakes his head, but unfortunately that does nothing to get rid of his thoughts of Louis. Especially when Louis walks through the lab door looking too gorgeous for eight o’clock in the morning, wearing a red sweater that looks so soft Harry wants to rip it off him and— 

Harry looks away, coughing into his fist, and jumps off his stool, accidentally knocking it over when Louis touches his shoulder. He scrambles to pick it up and sit normally. 

“What’s up with you?” Louis frowns at him.

“Nothing,” Harry answers too quickly. To steer the conversation elsewhere, he asks, “How were your exams?” 

Louis looks taken aback, and Harry mentally facepalms. He might as well have asked him if he slept well or had nice dreams. Thankfully, Louis nods noncommittally and says, “They were okay, actually. I mean, sucks having to like, boss everyone around, you know? Telling the pack they couldn’t run around in the woods because they needed to study wasn’t fun.”

“Tell me about it,” Harry agrees, and Louis hums, peering into the microscope eyepiece. 

For the rest of the lab they work on their applications for the spring semester fellowship. Not strictly what they should be doing, but Harry can glance over occasionally and look over Louis’ shoulder to see what he’s drafting for the essay questions. It at least allows Harry to keep his foot out of his mouth. He avoids talking at all, which is fine because they always text about the important lab stuff since they’re both so busy with their respective frats, and when it’s time to leave, they walk out together. Like friends. Weird. 

“Are you going home for Christmas break?” Harry asks, purposefully biting his lower lip with his fangs to try to make himself shut up. 

Louis looks at him with narrowed eyes. Maybe he thinks Harry’s trying to get intel on him for another prank. Maybe it’s best if he does think that. “Yeah, my mom always makes a big deal out of my birthday.”

Harry withdraws his fangs and licks the blood off his lip. “When’s your birthday?”

“Christmas Eve,” Louis says, and Harry’s mind goes haywire because his first thought is that he hasn’t gotten him a gift. They don’t give each other birthday gifts. They’re not dating. They’re not even friends. 

Still, Harry opens his mouth and offers, “I could blow you. You know, as an early birthday present.”

Louis shoves him hard, and doubles over laughing, wheezing as he says, “Don't want those fangs anywhere near my dick, thanks.”

“Oh, um…” 

Still giggling, Louis says, “That’d be like me offering to knot you as a Christmas gift.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” Harry doesn’t actually mean to say it, but it’s true. He’s been wondering what it might be like ever since that first handjob. And it’s not like he couldn’t take it. 

“Right,” Louis says, like he doesn’t believe it.

“What? I wouldn’t. I have to admit I’m curious what it’d feel like.”

“Yeah?” Louis asks, and when Harry nods, Louis says, “We’d have to plan it. I can’t knot you in a stairwell or the bio building bathroom.”

“Come to the vamp house. Everyone’s already gone home except me, since exams ended yesterday. The few that didn’t leave yesterday, headed out this morning.”

“You’re sure?” 

Harry shrugs. “I mean, it’s just sex, right? Like, the knotting part happens at the end, and the rest is… It doesn’t mean anything, does it?”

“No,” Louis says with a loud scoff. “No, it definitely doesn’t mean anything.”

The walk to Harry’s frat house is quiet. For the first time, Louis is coming over explicitly for sex. Werewolf knotting sex. In Harry’s bed. He shakes his shirt away from the sweat gathering at the small of his back. 

His anticipation outweighs his embarrassment at his forward invitation, and as they near the vamp house, he increases his pace, walking so fast that Louis notices. 

“In a hurry to take my knot?” Louis asks, keeping pace easily. 

“As if.” Harry scoffs, looking around. “Thought I saw… someone.”

“Oh,” Louis says, shoving his hands in his pockets. 

Harry forces himself to walk a little slower as they round the corner by the vamp house. He jogs up to the door, stepping inside before Louis, and checking if he senses any other vampires in the house. No one. As soon as the door shuts, he slams Louis against it, smirking at his wide-eyed surprise and leaning in to kiss him roughly. 

It’s his mistake, expecting Louis to take it without fighting back; he’s a werewolf, not a docile, domesticated puppy. And he easily spins them around, pushing Harry against the door and growling low in his chest as he trails biting kisses up and down Harry’s neck. Harry tilts his head, imagining Louis’ sharp canines piercing his skin. 

“Fuck.” Shoving Louis away from him, Harry says, “My room. Upstairs.” 

Kicking the door to his room closed behind them, Harry wastes no time taking off his clothes, breathing a sigh of relief once his legs are free from his too tight jeans. He looks up to find Louis has stripped completely too, and while he’s seen him naked before, it’s been from a distance. Unfortunately, Louis doesn’t give him time to look, crashing into him and wrapping his arms around Harry, digging his fingers into the muscles of his thighs and lifting him up. Harry squeaks and Louis laughs, tossing him onto the bed and crawling over him, looking more wolf-like than Harry’s ever seen him in his human form. 

“Wait,” Harry says, and Louis jerks back, frowning. “You’re not… You’re not going to like, shift, are you?”

Narrowing his eyes, Louis answers, “No. Why?”

With a shrug, Harry says, “No reason. Just don’t want to get fucked by a wolf is all.”

Louis snorts. “Sure you don’t.”

“I don’t!”

“Don’t worry. I don’t… I don’t like to shift unless it’s a full moon.”

“Okay. Good. Get on with it, then.” Harry searches under his pillow for his lube and flips the lid open, slicking up his fingers and rolling onto his side.

“What—” Louis grabs the bottle and scowls at it. 

“It’s lube,” Harry says, slipping two fingers inside. 

“Oh.” Louis drizzles some onto his fingers, pouting a little as he rubs his thumb against his fingertips. “I mean, I knew it was a thing, I’ve just never used it.”

“We can’t all make our own,” Harry says, pushing a third finger in. He’s not even fully hard, but he’s nervous; as sure as he is that he can take Louis’ knot, it’s still bigger than any vampire’s dick he’s seen or dildo he’s ever used. 

Louis holds up his hand, still looking at the lube on his fingers. Glancing down, eyes locked on Harry’s hand moving in and out, Louis reaches for Harry’s cock, stroking it while he watches Harry stretch himself. His warm hand and quick wrist have Harry fully hard in no time; he slips his fingers free, but before he can roll onto his stomach, Louis drops down on top of him.

Flat on his back, chest to chest with Louis, their dicks trapped between them, Harry lifts his chin and sucks Louis’ lower lip into his mouth. Gasping, he pulls away, and uses all of his strength to flip over, knocking Louis off of him. He scrambles onto his hands and knees, closing his eyes and giving his head a shake to clear it. The last thing he needs to think about is biting Louis and drinking his blood. No telling what werewolf blood would do to him. 

“In a hurry?” Louis asks, squeezing Harry’s ass and pulling his cheeks apart with his thumbs. 

“Yeah, gotta get home,” Harry says, the lie coming to him easily. 

With a hum, Louis drags the head of his cock over Harry’s crack, and Harry feels around the mattress for the lube, passing it to him. “Shit, yeah. Sorry. I forgot.”

A moment later, Louis plunges two slick fingers inside, fucking them in and out and getting Harry so wet that it starts to drip back down his thighs. He rolls his eyes and says, “Come on already and fuck me.”

“Fine.” Louis nudges his cock against Harry’s rim, unceremoniously pushing in. Harry falls forward from the force of it, catching himself on his forearms, and hissing when his fangs drop down. 

Without giving Harry a chance to adjust, Louis snaps his hips, setting a brutal pace, and fucking him almost as fast as the last vampire Harry slept with. The stretch and the fullness are incredible, and despite the speed of his thrusts, Louis’ movements are controlled and precise. Rather than tell Louis that, Harry puts his energy into rocking back on Louis’ cock, giving as good as he gets, if Louis’ groans are anything to go by. Soon enough, he feels the bulge of Louis’ knot begin to swell, and at first it slides past Harry’s tight rim easily, but thankfully he keeps that thought to himself because a few thrusts later it catches when Louis shifts his hips back. Harry bites his lip, making it bleed with his stupid fangs that won’t stay retracted, but successfully holding back an undignified yelp. 

Louis digs his fingertips into Harry’s hips, sliding one hand up his back and pushing between his shoulder blades until Harry bends the way he wants, arching his back and burying his face in the sheet. He turns his head at an odd growl from Louis, but ignores him. Maybe that’s just what werewolves sound like when they fuck. Louis’ knot grows, popping past Harry’s rim over and over, leaving him breathless until Louis dicks in hard and deep. With all of his weight on Harry’s back, Harry sinks into the mattress, panting and trying to reach his dick so he can jerk off. 

Carefully rolling them onto their sides, Louis swats Harry’s hand away, jacking him fast, and when Louis’ knot presses against Harry’s prostate, Harry comes, moaning loudly as his body is stretched like it’s never been before.

The door swings open, and Zayn stands there, mouth agape, eyes wide as he fumbles to shut it again. 

“Fuck!” Harry tries to pull off of Louis’ cock, but he can’t, and Louis holds him tight.

“Shit.” Louis hitches his hips forward and another spurt of come shoots out of Harry’s dick. “Was that—”

“Zayn. That was Zayn.”

“Well, fuck me,” Louis says, hiding his face in Harry’s hair. 

“Maybe next time,” Harry jokes, because it’s all he can do. He can’t move. He can’t chase Zayn down. He can only hope that he doesn’t say anything to anyone before he can talk to him about it. 

Louis paces outside of Dr. Robinson’s office. He came back from break a few days early because he was driving his family crazy with how nervous he was. Being back at school hasn’t helped, and one way or another he’ll be out of his misery in a few minutes, as soon as Dr. Robinson is done with Harry, who had the appointment before his. 

If Harry gets a spot and he doesn’t he’s going to be furious. He’s been trying not to read into Harry getting scheduled before him for days.

The door opens and Harry walks out, making eye contact with an unreadable look. Guilt? Pride? Confusion? Nothing definitive like glee or wracking sobs. Louis sticks out his chest and walks by and into the office without saying anything. 

“Tomlinson,” Dr. Robinson says. “Thank you for meeting with me.”

“Of course. Hopefully it’s good news,” Louis says, with a chuckle. 

“Well,” Dr. Robinson starts, and Louis’ heart sinks. “I hope you’ll take this as good news. You have been conditionally approved for the fellowship.”

That wasn’t at all what he was expecting. And he’s not even sure what she’s saying. “What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m doing something unconventional here, but I think it’s the right call to make. You and Styles have shown exceptional growth from the beginning of the internship and I’ve been more than impressed with your—his and yours—work.”

“Oh.” Louis’s still not sure what all of this means. He inches forward in his seat. 

“I’ve decided that both of you should be in the fellowship, working together on the same project. After reading through your applications and goals, I think you can both make some major strides in your work if you two continue to work together on your studies.”

“Wait. So—”

“There is a spot on the roster with your name on it. Along with Styles. You’ll work as a team and submit your work as a team, and you’ll be graded as a team.”

“What if he doesn’t accept?”

“I’m confident he will. And I’m confident you will too. In my thirty years of overseeing this department I’ve only had one person decline and that was due to a family emergency. However, since this is probably not what you were expecting, I’ll give the two of you time to talk it over, instead of expecting an answer immediately. You’ll have until tomorrow at 9am to give your acceptance. Understand?”

“Uh…” Louis’ head spun. “Yeah, got it.” Dazed. That was the look Harry had. He’s sure he’s got a matching look as Dr. Robinson ushers him back out into the hallway and calls the next student in. “Thank you,” Louis finally says. 

Harry’s head pops up, from where he’s sitting on the floor halfway down the hallway. He’s hugging his thighs and his eyes follow Louis as he walks towards him. Louis already knows he’s going to accept and just hopes Harry will too. 

With a sigh, Louis sits next to Harry. “What do you think?” Louis asks.

“I want the fellowship, so I guess I’ll be working with you. I assume you want it too, with how serious you were last semester.”

“Yeah.”

“This blows.” Louis agrees, but his mind automatically recalls Harry’s offer before break and he’s too flustered to say anything. 

They sit there silently, long enough to watch Tina, a selkie, come out of the door and immediately burst into tears, and for a few other students to go in and come out, all with varying degrees of sadness. Louis can’t read all of their expressions, including Laura, a friendly fae who he hoped would be around next semester. They catch each other’s eyes and then Laura disappears down the hallway.

“Thanks,” Louis says. “For doing this. I know it’s not your first choice, but this is really important to me.”

Harry nods. “I know. I still don’t know why, but I know it’s important, which is enough.”

Louis might be making a huge mistake, but if they’re going to succeed, then Harry needs to know exactly how important it is. 

“I can’t shift.”

Harry tilts his head back and gently bangs it on the wall. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not.”

“I’ve seen you shift.” 

Louis cocks his head toward Harry slowly. “What are you talking about?”

Harry rubs the back of his neck. “Uh. The night we followed you into the woods?”

“Right. Forgot about that, you creep.”

“I averted my eyes, if that makes it better,” Harry says, with a smirk. “Not like it matters since your dick’s literally been in me.”

“Oh my god. Let’s never speak of that again. I thought Zayn’s eyeballs were going to fall out.”

“Yeah, I had some explaining to do, after you left.”

“He was okay with it?” Louis asks.

Harry shrugs. “I mean, I don’t think he understands. He’s only ever hooked up with other vamps, so he doesn’t get it. But like, it’s my dick. He doesn’t get a say in what I do with it.”

“How reassuring.”

“No, I mean… it’s fine. It’s not like, we’re like… dating. Or whatever. Just… blowing off some steam.”

“Right.” It’s helpful, to know that Harry had no interest in him, romantically. “Exactly.”

“So I know you can shift, is the point.”

“That was on a full moon. The others, they can shift when they want. A big puppy pile on the basement floor or whatever, like, whenever they want. I can only shift on the full moon. My mom’s always said it’s not a big deal, but I hate it. I think it’s something specific to the stem cells found in werewolf blood that I’m missing.”

“Oh,” Harry says dumbly.

“Don’t tell anyone. No one but Liam knows, now. But that’s what my research is based around.”

Louis watches as Harry seems to mull that over. 

“I know we’re not exactly friends, or whatever, but I promise I won’t fuck this up for you. My blood substitute research isn’t quite the same thing, but it’s similar, I think. They do go together. I can see how we can help each other.”

Yeah, it does make sense, how their research would bolster each other’s. Looks like he’s in for another long semester with the annoyingly perfect vampire who has exactly zero interest in him. A broken werewolf. But, he’ll make the best of it, like always. 

“So it’s official?” Louis says, cautiously. “We’re really going to do this? Think we can survive another semester without killing each other?”

“I’ve got faith in us,” Harry says.

Louis hopes it's enough. 

Despite the offer, the fellowship isn’t set to start for another week. Because of that, the hectic schedule of his final semester, his duties as frat president, and generally trying not to be where Louis might be in the hopes that his feelings will fade, Harry doesn’t see Louis at all. 

He does hear about him though. On his way to the frat house from his last class on Monday, he passes a couple of freshman werewolves and his vampire hearing picks up Louis’ name. Of course, he listens intentionally after that, and it’s obvious what they’re talking about.

The one Harry thinks is named Andrew says, “Yeah, never. Never unless it’s a full moon.”

And the other one—Logan, maybe—says, “Man, that’s fucked up.”

Harry smiles, proud of Louis for opening up to his frat, no matter what some dumbass freshman thinks. 

And then he wipes the smile away, hurrying up to his room the second he gets to the frat house. It’s probably not the best way to get rid of his crush on Louis, but it makes him feel better to think about him in a compromising position than to think of the swell of pride he felt. He’d much rather think of the swell of Louis’ knot in his mouth, which has the unfortunate effect of getting him hard. In his haste, he accidentally slams his door shut, but he can’t worry about that as he leans against it, rushing to undo his pants and get his cock out. His fangs drop too, then he’s thinking about sinking them into Louis’ knot, that zip of overwhelming power and pleasure the very few times he’s had a taste of live, warm blood. Louis’ blood would probably be delicious, sweet and layered and heady. Just imagining Louis overpowering all of his senses has Harry on the brink. He works himself faster. Feeling Louis’ knot fill his mouth, swallowing his come—it would probably taste similar to a vamp’s, minus the metallurgical overtone. He wants it so bad he practically howls when he comes into his own hand, shocked at the turn his fantasy took. 

He hears about Louis a few more times during the week: A werewolf in full frat regalia he isn’t familiar with and a mermaid are talking about him in the marine bio section of the library, yet another unfamiliar werewolf in head to toe frat branded clothing and a faerie are discussing him outside the cafeteria and Harry stops to listen, but the faerie seems kind and supportive of the idea, so Harry carries on.

On Friday, he’s more than ready for the first day of their fellowship. Odd to think of it that way—as something that’s theirs—but that’s exactly what it is. And he looks forward to it, even as he slogs through the rain in his human clothes. He can’t be too early or Louis might think something’s amiss. They’d opted for the afternoon time slot, so he’s surprised when he arrives in the lab only for Dr. Robinson to tell him that Louis has already come and gone. 

“I told him and I’ll tell you the same. The point of giving you two the fellowship on the condition that you work together was that you’d actually work together. This won’t fly every week.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Harry says, already planning to have a word with Louis after he’s finished. 

Once he’s in his lab coat and goggles, he checks his phone for any texts from Louis about whatever work he did that morning. Nothing. Maybe he’s not feeling well. Maybe the full moon is soon. He should check or maybe set an alert in his phone. Harry shakes his head, and gets to work. 

They have a list of things they’re required to do to the human blood for other purposes besides their own research, so Harry gets started on that. At the end of the hour, he opens the centrifuge to put his samples in to spin, and his eyes catch on the little dry erase board on the wall beside it. 

In Louis’ untidy scrawl is a list of all of the tests Harry's just run, each item has a line through it, and a checkmark in front of it. Clearly, he did them all, but didn’t text Harry to let him know. Fuck that. An entire waste of lab time. A waste of Harry’s time. And a waste of their allotted resources that Harry hopes won’t be noticed by their Dr. Robinson, and hopes they won’t need at a later date. 

Harry leaves the bio building livid. And he knows that’s not the best way to confront Louis. He needs to be an adult, and as much as he might like to kick Louis’ ass all the way across campus, that’s probably not the way to do it. 

In need of a cool down period, Harry dumps his things on his bed and strips naked, turning to mist and floating out of his room through his barely open window. An hour or so mixing with the clouds and cold rain and maybe his mind will be in a better place. 

It’s one of his favorite things to do, not that he does it often. He’s too busy and it’s not like he can control the weather. The low temperature and the near freezing rain feel cool, the way the outdoor swimming pool feels in spring. Just cold enough to shock him at first, but then he gets used to it, and it’s crisp, refreshing. 

He floats with a cloud over the campus clock tower, and past the library, where he transforms into a bat when the rain lets up. Coming to rest in a tree near the campus Starbucks, Harry wishes they weren’t so strict about nudity on campus. He could use a latte. 

“Have you heard about Louis Tomlinson?” 

Looking down from that high, Harry would normally be able to make out who’s speaking with his radar, but he can’t, so he flies to a lower, more sturdy limb of the closest evergreen and changes into his vampire form to eavesdrop. The person talking appears to be a human man, and that’s especially curious. 

“Yeah, man,” Andrew the freshman werewolf says. “It’s cool, huh?” 

“Right,” the human man says, spinning impressively quickly on his toes. He walks away, and Harry follows as closely as he can as mist, the least likely form to draw attention to him in this weather. 

The man crosses the footbridge behind Starbucks towards the dorms, stopping at a copse of evergreen ash trees. He disappears into the wooded area with Harry right behind him. Good thing, too, because the second the man is hidden from view of the sidewalk, he transforms into a faerie that Harry recognizes. Then he changes into one of the werewolves Harry saw earlier that week. No wonder he didn’t recognize him. 

Harry stays close to him when he leaves the copse, no longer caring if he’s caught. But he wants to be sure before he goes to Louis. 

The fae-turned-fake-werewolf approaches the first person he sees, who just happens to be one of the humans Harry knows from the fellowship. His name is Jake or James or Jamie or something. 

“Hey, man. Did you hear about Tomlinson?”

“Louis?” J-something nods and says, “Yeah. I heard. Heard he’s hiding out too.”

The fake werewolf looks pleased, and says conspiratorially, “Well, can you blame him? I’d hide out, too. You know who’s been going around telling everyone his secret, right?” J-whatever shakes his head, and Harry shouldn’t be surprised to hear his own name when the fake werewolf says, “It was his lab partner, this guy he’s been secretly dating—president of the vampire frat, Harry Styles.”

Harry takes off, flying straight for Louis and the werewolf house. 

“Louis.” Liam knocks on his door again. It’s been like once an hour for the past day, and Louis is sick of it. He needs time alone, to process, to figure out what the fuck he’s going to do now that the whole frat—the whole university, at this point, probably—know his secret, because there’s no way that they’re going to let him stay on as president. He really hopes that he’s not going to be kicked out of the frat. He’s touch starved as it is, never getting to join the puppy pile. Without the pack’s human cuddles he’ll probably wither and die alone in some dirty off-campus apartment. And Harry. If he saw Harry now he’d probably beat the living shit out of him, and he’s not sure if he’d be able to continue the fellowship if he killed his partner. So. Attempting to meditate, again, it is. “Louis!” Liam’s on the edge of growling… so meditation’s out too. 

“Liam, I’m fine.”

He can hear Liam grumble but can’t quite make out what he says under his breath. “I know you are,” Liam says, full of false cheer. “But you have someone here who insisted on seeing you and the rest of the pack is about a millisecond from pouncing on him, so unless you want a bloodbath on your hands please open your door.”

Louis knows that it can only be one person. He takes a deep scent to confirm, and considers leaving him out there to fend for himself, but then he hears Oli’s growl and his feelings get the better of him. That’s what got him into this mess in the first place, so he’s really going to have to work on that. 

“Fine.” Louis rolls out of bed and skulks to the door, opening it to an even paler than normal Harry, who rushes in. 

Eyes narrowed at Harry, Liam says, “I’ll be right here, if you need anything,”

“You can send the rest of them away,” Louis says, with a nod to the rest of the pack. He hopes they listen. He’s already had too much of his business spread around, and this is between him and Harry. 

Louis closes the door behind Harry. “Why are you naked and what are you doing here?”

“You’re naked too!” Harry says, hands on his hips. 

“My room. My frat. My pack.” Louis throws him a towel. “What are you doing here?”

Harry knots the towel around his waist and looks Louis straight in the eye. “I promise it wasn’t me.”

“And I should believe you why?”

“Because you know me. I’m a little bummed you believed it without even asking me, but we can come back to that later. Also, we’re going to come back to you totally screwing me over today at the fellowship, because that wasn’t cool.” Louis lets out a huff of anger, but Harry keeps talking. Louis lets him. He’s curious how Harry plans to defend himself. “I would never, ever tell your secret to anyone. And I didn’t. Cross my heart with a silver arrow. When I first heard someone gossiping on campus I thought—”

Louis can’t hold in his growl of anger. 

“I thought you had told everyone in the frat. I was, well, proud of you, actually, for letting them in.”

Louis scoffs. “What are you, my dad?”

“It wasn’t until I heard, well, saw, one of the fae. You know the huge one? Plays guitar? Follows Niall around like a lap dog?”

“Bressie?” Louis had a class with him last semester. He’ll get back to Harry’s word choice later.

“Maybe? I don’t know his name. But you know who I mean. I saw him shapeshift into a werewolf and tell someone. Also,” Harry scoffs, “he said we were dating.”

“Gross.”

“Oh my god! The point is that I heard, saw, that the fae are behind this. I have no idea why, but I promise I’ll try to find out.”

“Are you serious right now? How would the fae even know about me? You and Liam are the only ones I told and—” Louis gasps. “Laura!”

“Laura?” 

“I saw her in the hall. She got rejected from the fellowship right before I told you about my… condition. Do you think she—”

“That’s got to be it. She and that big guy Bressie are like, super close.”

“Shit. Okay. What now?” The noise outside the room tells Louis that most of the pack is probably still gathered on his floor. “It’s probably a fire hazard or some shit for them to all be up here. And I’m going to get a million questions about you, so we should probably update everyone. Our frats, I mean. Not the whole campus. We still need a plan.”

“Okay.” Harry moves toward the door. 

“Wait.” Louis looks down at his semi-interested cock. Sue him, Harry, wrapped in a towel and professing his trustworthiness apparently does it for Louis. “I’d say I’d meet you out there but if you go out alone I’m pretty sure they’ll pounce. Just… give me a moment.” Louis turns his back to Harry and stares impatiently at the ceiling until his problem goes down. 

But when he turns back around, it’s Harry who’s thickening up under his towel.

Harry shrugs. “I like that you like me.”

Louis rolls his eyes and pushes past Harry to open the door. He’s the one who came in to their frat bare assed, he can face some werewolves with a semi. 

“Meeting room!” Louis shouts as he walks out into the hallway. Liam tilts his head in a question and there are some barks and growls. “As humans. And please be kind to our guest.”

“Thanks,” Harry says under his breath. 

Louis nods and starts down the stairs. 

It takes a few minutes for everyone to congregate and quiet down. “Thanks,” Louis says, “for the past few days. I appreciate you all taking my news… respectfully. I guess. I don’t know, really. Just, thanks for not being assholes to me.”

“You’re pack!” Calvin shouts from the back. There are murmurs of agreement. They’re all looking at him so openly, curious about Harry, for sure, but it’s the first time facing everyone since news of his transforming anomaly came out, and no one is looking at him any different. There’s a sharp pang of awareness that he probably could puppy pile with everyone, even in his human form. For the first time it hits him that he really doesn’t think anyone would care. His heart feels close to bursting with affection, and if he had his tail, it’d be wagging like crazy. He blinks away the emotion welling in his eyes, and clears his throat. 

“I also wanted to clear the air, and make sure that you all knew Harry didn’t spread these rumors. I trust him, which I explained in the previous meeting, but we’re working together on finding a cure for me, or at the very least figuring out why I’m like this. I trust his work, and I trust him as a person.”

“Then who—”

“We have proof now. It’s definitely the fae. One of them was walking by as I was telling Harry my truth. And Harry saw one gossiping about me, then shapeshifting. So, even if they aren’t totally to blame, which I can’t prove, they are spreading the news. Which I don’t appreciate.”

“Do the vamps know?”

Harry clears his throat. “I’m going to talk to them next. I think it’s probably worthwhile,” he looks over at Louis, “for us to continue to pretend that we don’t know what’s happening. That we don’t suspect them. As we come up with a plan.”

“In the meantime, there will be no retaliation, either undue against the vamps—I know you well enough to know that you’re planning something big.” There are a few guilty looks across the floor. “Or against the fae. I’m serious about this. We still need to figure out how best to handle them so we don’t lose the upper hand.”

There was a general air of agreement. Although some of them also look like they want to ask more questions. 

“Anything else?”

“Are you two really together?” Oli smirks from the front row. Louis is going to kill him later. 

Louis puts a hand on Harry’s shoulder before he can get any further than, “I—”

“I can’t see myself ever dating a vamp,” Louis says. “Even one as helpful as this one.” He hopes it’s enough to keep them at bay, while not completely lying. His home pack would probably freak if he ever brought home a vamp to meet them. They’re nice and open-minded, but that would probably push them too far. “Any more questions?”

He catches the end of Liam’s side eye; Liam knows him well enough to maybe understand what he omitted from that answer, but they all have more pressing issues to deal with at the moment. 

Despite an initial vague plan for revenge, they don’t actually get a chance for both frats to meet until the beginning of February. With the phases of the moon to work around, and both of them in their last semester, plus the fellowship, and all of the other fraternity commitments, they just haven’t had time. 

Now it’s the first of February, and Harry’s birthday, and he’s having a hard time keeping his mind on the subject at hand. It was a really poor decision to have the meeting at the vamp house, because when he came downstairs to help corral everyone, they were all naked. And he couldn’t convince anyone to get dressed. Then the werewolves showed up, and the second they saw a room full of mostly naked vampires, they stripped to the skin as well, howling up at the ceiling.

“Didn’t realize vamps were nudists too,” one of Louis’ pack says, nodding approvingly. “More in common with you bloodsuckers than we thought.”

Harry nods and stares straight ahead at the wall, refusing to look elsewhere because his eyes keep finding Louis, and he can’t let himself watch him. Naked and walking around Harry’s frat house, totally at home, telling his pack what to do, and occasionally bending over to talk to someone who’s already sitting down—it’s ridiculous. His ass is ridiculous. 

Shaking his head, Harry attempts to listen to Zayn. “—might actually work together. This is crazy. Like, history in the making.”

“Yeah, man. It really is,” Louis says, grinning wolfishly at Harry as he moves to stand next to him at the front of the room. “Your house, you start.”

Clearing his throat, Harry nods, and holds one finger up high in the air. First Zayn does the same, then a few other vamps catch on, lifting their hands in the air until they’re all pointing one finger up at the ceiling. Harry lowers his to his lips and holds his finger there. 

“That’s neat. Where’d you get that from?” Louis whispers.

“Kindergarten,” Harry answers. 

Louis snorts quietly, coughs into his fist, then tips his head back and howls. The rest of the pack follows suit, every single werewolf howls once up at the ceiling, then stops, facing the front of the room.

“Nice,” Harry says, then louder, “Thank you, everyone, for coming tonight! Some of you know that recently, Louis and I have personally been targeted by the fae. While we did at first think this was something campus wide, it doesn’t appear that way. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve discreetly asked around, and have found that so-called pranks have exclusively targeted our two frats.”

There’s a bit of an uproar at that, but it’s expected. Harry knocks his shoulder into Louis’ and Louis takes over when the noise dies down. “Now, we know you all want revenge, and we’re very thankful that you’ve all held back. We know it’s hard, especially when you might have classes with some of the very fae who’ve pranked us.”

Harry smoothly picks up after a short chorus self congratulating whoops. “We’re meeting now to come to an agreement on how to move forward, and we wanted to see what you guys had for ideas.”

“You,” Louis says, pointing to someone in the middle of the room. “Andrew, what’s your idea?”

“Let’s just go rip their throats out.” He flexes for effect.

“We appreciate your, um…” Harry pauses, but can’t come up with a better word. Hopefully, he won’t hurt anyone’s feelings. “Bloodthirst. As vampires, we really hope you know we understand where you’re coming from.”

“But that’s not quite what we’re looking for. Let’s try a less violent approach,” Louis says, as Harry points to Adam, who’s normally level headed. 

But not about this apparently.

They take turns calling out the names of vampires and werewolves who seem to have ideas on how to deal with the fae, but none of them come up with anything that won’t escalate things. It feels like they’ve been at it for hours. Harry's ready to give up and send the werewolves back to their own frat house. Though he wonders if Louis would be willing to stay under the guise of discussing werewolf and vampire fraternity relations. Being naked next to him throughout the meeting has Harry on edge. But either way, it’s probably time to call it a night. 

Their vice presidents must be thinking the same, because they stand shoulder to shoulder at the front of the crowd, clearing waiting to speak next. 

“Liam and, um…” Louis looks down and Harry glances over to see everything from his chest up to his ears turning pink. He coughs and says, “Zayn.”

Zayn looks like he might burst into giggles at Louis’ embarrassment, but he pulls himself together and says, “Liam and I were talking about all the things the fae have done to us—to our frats—over the years. Every prank has been just inside the line, you know?”

“Yeah,” Liam says, nodding and raising his voice over the protests that any and all pranks have been way over the line. Though the gathered vamps and weres don’t put it quite that way. It’s more like a din of hissing and growling. “Nothing they’ve done has technically broken the treaty. And—”

Harry raises his hand to quiet the room again, and Zayn continues where Liam left off, “Like Liam said, they’ve been careful. And we think it’s intentional. We think they’ve been trying to instigate a war between vampires and werewolves that they can safely stay out of. We don’t know why, but we do have an idea.”

“Go on,” Louis says, sounding impatient. 

Liam grins and says, “We prank them back. Every single prank they’ve pulled on one of our frats, we do to them.”

“Only we do them all at once,” Zayn finishes. 

Apparently, Liam and Zayn have done their homework. They have a list of all of the pranks that they think have been done by the fae, and a plan for how to execute their revenge. The fae will be far out in the forest for a full twenty-four hours on the vernal equinox to celebrate the first day of spring. They do it every year and they do it in the same place. And while they’re gone, the vampires and werewolves will work in shifts to make sure the fae frat house will never prank anyone again. 

It’s a unanimous decision that Liam and Zayn have the best idea. Even Harry can admit it’s brilliant.

After discussing a few of the finer points, every vampire but Harry takes off into the night, floating together as mist in celebration, and Louis’ pack heads off into the woods to run off some energy, which means Louis gets left behind. As much as Harry feels for him—being left out of a pack activity like that can’t feel good—he’s happy that Louis doesn’t seem eager to leave. 

“I might join them after. Wolf cuddles are the best.” Louis pouts and Harry fights the urge to kiss it away. 

“Yeah?” Harry asks, refraining from bragging about his own stellar cuddling skills. Instead he jerks a thumb towards the stairs and Louis follows him.

“Yeah. But when they’re all in wolf form, they can get carried away. I don’t really like being licked when I’m in human form.”

Harry turns around to look at him and wiggles his eyebrows. “Oh, really.”

Rolling his eyes dramatically, Louis says, “Not like that. Wolf tongues are pretty smooth, but they go for the mouth every time. I don’t want to have my human teeth licked by every member of my pack.”

“Smooth, huh?” Harry can’t stop himself. The conversation is ripe with innuendo. 

“Could show you, next full moon,” Louis says with a wink that Harry can’t interpret. 

“Tell you what,” Harry says, pushing open his bedroom door and shutting it as soon as Louis is inside. “You can lick me all over with your werewolf tongue if I can suck you off and sink my fangs into your knot.”

Louis sputters and Harry smirks, but that drops off his face a second later when Louis shoves him onto the bed and jumps on top of him with a growl. 

“Really?” Harry squeaks out the question. 

Shrugging, Louis leans in, kissing Harry much too gently, and making his brain short circuit. Their kisses aren’t supposed to be soft, so Harry nips roughly at Louis’ lips with his human teeth, and rolls them over so he’s on top. With no clothes in the way, and at least for Harry, hours of tamping down an erection during the meeting, they’re both fully hard almost instantly. Trying to keep his momentum and prevent any sweetness from seeping into this thing between them, Harry leaves biting kisses over Louis’ chest, sucking one nipple between his teeth, while pinching the other one hard enough to make him howl. The sound tapers off and Louis flips them again, holding Harry down with a hand on his chest.

“Fair’s fair,” Louis says, reaching behind himself and grabbing Harry’s cock. Before Harry fully understands what’s happening, his dick is halfway inside Louis’ slick, hot walls, and if his heart could explode, it would. 

“What the fuck?” Harry gasps, fangs popping out and puncturing his bottom lip. He licks his blood away and forces his fangs to retract. “What are you—”

“Thought it was obvious. It’s your birthday present,” Louis says, sinking down much too quickly in Harry’s experience. “Don’t need prep. Don’t need lube. Werewolf bodies are made to accommodate a knot, Harold. Your little vampire prick is nothing, really.”

Narrowing his eyes, Harry holds tight to Louis’ waist, plants his feet on the bed, and pistons his hips, determined to prove that a knot isn’t necessary. For that, he needs more control. He lets Louis keep riding him, hoping he’ll tire himself out, and when his movements finally slow, Harry rolls them over again, gripping Louis’ ass with both hands and lifting him off the mattress to get a better angle.

With Louis’ legs wrapped around him, and Louis’ fingers tangled in his curls, Harry buries his face against his neck, dicking in hard and fast, wanting to make Louis come without touching his cock. His knot swells between them, and Harry’s fangs drop again, almost breaking the skin where Louis’ pulse pounds beneath it. Jerking away, Harry retracts his fangs, and Louis whimpers.

“Bite me, Harry,” Louis says, tightening his grip on Harry’s hair and pushing Harry’s face back into the curve of his neck. 

Harry shakes his head, loosening Louis’ hand from his hair. He can’t. That’s a step too far. Something he’s been saving for the right person—the right vampire. “Can’t. Sorry,” he says, and Louis seems to take him at his word. He gives up on trying to make Louis come without his hand, wrapping his fingers around his knot. That’s all it takes before Louis shoots all over his stomach. Sitting up a bit, Harry fucks him as fast as he possibly can, while Louis works his knot with his own hand. The amount of come is ridiculous, and Harry spares a second to wonder what it’d be like if Louis knotted his mouth, if he’d be able to swallow it all, if Louis would really let him bite him there and drink his blood. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Harry thrusts deep inside, digging his fingertips into Louis’ hips as his orgasm rises up like a flood, making his entire body tremble. He drops back down on top of Louis, pulling out and rolling off of him, onto his back. Chests heaving, they lay there beside each other, and Harry stares up at the ceiling, unsure of what to say. At least Zayn hasn’t interrupted them this time. He laughs at the memory, and says, “No knot, no tie. No forced conversation. You can leave whenever you want.” 

“Yeah, great,” Louis says, using Harry’s sheet to wipe off his stomach. He stands and walks across the room, naked, with Harry’s come just starting to drip down his legs, and opens the door. “See you.” 

Harry lays there staring at the door, still coming down from the high of his orgasm. 

It’s quickly replaced by a sense of regret that’s still there when he wakes up the next morning. 

Louis leaves the vamp house in a hurry, shuffling into his pants as he walks out the front door and pulling his shirt on as he walks back to the were house. Stupid. It was so so stupid of him to ask to be bitten. Obviously Harry doesn’t want to bite him; he’s an easy fuck, not boyfriend material. Louis probably only thought about it because Harry joked about biting his knot. As though Louis would ever let that happen. It seemed tamer, in the moment, getting bit on the neck, or shoulder, or wherever Harry’s mouth happened to be when he was so overwhelmed by love or lust or feelings or whatever even causes vampires to bite. 

He can play it off like a silly joke. 

Obviously Harry isn’t going to be overcome by feelings while having a secret screw with a rival, of sorts. 

Unfortunately, telling himself to stop thinking about it doesn’t mean that he actually stops thinking about it. Instead it becomes a loop in his brain as he tosses and turns in his own bed. The sun is rising when he comes up with the very brilliant idea to just… stop having feelings for Harry. He’s sure he can do it. He can definitely stop sleeping with him, no problem. And they still have lab together, but like, he can be professional during his fellowship. Not ending up on Harry’s dick was remarkably easy until he got horny and distracted. But not any more. 

He feels better as he showers, gets ready, and walks to his fellowship. Easy peasy. He isn’t going to hook up with Harry, and he’s going to stop feeling anyway about him at all, except that he’s a competent future scientist. 

That’s Harry’s only important feature. 

Which is why, walking into the lab, he doesn’t expect to see Harry quite so frantic. His laptop is open, but the screensaver is already bouncing around, and he has invoices and handwritten notes spread across both sides of their desks, plus the pair of fridges under the desk are both open.

Louis slides into his seat next to Harry, kicking the fridges closed, and silently unpacking his laptop. “Harry,” he finally says, coolly, when it’s clear Harry is so wrapped in his own stuff that he might not have realized Louis is even there. 

“Lou, we’re fucked.” 

Louis’ heartbeat kicks into gear, matching Harry’s frenetic energy. “What?” There was no way. The tests hadn’t exactly been going the way Louis had hoped, but it hadn’t been a total disaster.

“This one ended in the same results as the previous tests, which isn’t too surprising, but—”

“Wait. First. What were the results?”

Louis takes notes and enters numbers in his spreadsheet as Harry explains what he had seen when he had arrived in the lab.

Harry’s right. The results are to be expected, even though Louis hoped that maybe human stem cells would’ve been the key they needed to figure this out. 

Louis takes a deep breath. Another test, then. Not ideal, but certainly not the end of the world, or cause for Harry’s state of disaster. 

“Okay. So next test?” Louis checks his notes. “We’ll focus on plasma.”

“No, Louis, you don’t get it.”

“Oh my god, Harry, you have to communicate. What exactly do I not get? Why are you all—?” Louis flutters his hands around. 

“We’re out of stock.”

“No we’re not.” They definitely had enough blood to get them through the fellowship. Each team was given the same amount.

“We are, Lou. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

It feels like Louis’ brain is short circuiting. “I don’t understand.”

“I think…” Harry pulls his fingers through his mess of curls. “Remember when you were mad at me and did all those tests without texting me? I ran the same tests, so we wasted a lot of blood.”

Louis sits back in his chair. “Shit.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what we’re going to do. Like, we could get more, but it’ll take time with the approvals and shipping and we don’t… if we want a chance at making some progress that’s so much wasted time.”

Harry’s right. He chews on his bottom lip as Louis tries to solve the problem; it’s more distracting than Louis would like. He could kick himself for not paying attention. And he could kick Harry for still being a distraction. Louis tries not to panic. This is his whole future. 

Louis pretends to be taking notes, since he doesn’t want to alert anyone around them that they’re floundering this badly. He needs this. 

“Oh.” In Louis’ peripheral vision, Harry’s head snaps toward him. The idea is so crazy that it might just work. “What if…”

Louis explains his potential solution to Harry, who doesn’t interrupt him once. If they’re looking into stem cells then maybe using shifters’ blood would work better than human blood or human stem cells. All of their tests so far were not only failures—fine and understandable in the science world—but hadn’t even given them much progress. It still felt like throwing darts and hoping something stuck. But what if they aren’t even at the right dart board?

Louis can practically see the wheels turning in Harry’s head. “I mean…” 

“I know, it sounds crazy.”

“No. It doesn’t.” Harry plucks at his lower lip. “I’m just working through the red tape. We’ll have to justify it, of course. I don’t think Dr. Robinson would mind; but we both know the department head can be a dick. And it might be more costly, which is… that shouldn’t be a huge problem. I guess. My worry is that it’ll take even longer to get in, like a speciality order, or whatever.”

That’s true. 

“Unless…” Louis doesn’t like the look on Harry’s face.

“Unless what?”

“You’re a shifter.”

Yes. “Are you suggesting…”

“That might blur the ethical lines—”

“Pretty sure it’d obliterate the line.”

“I don’t know. I mean, how would anyone even know it’s yours. We can put the request in for wereblood, and while we’re waiting, we could use just a few vials of—”

“Harry—” It isn’t the worst idea he’s ever heard. “I don’t…”

“I’m a professional blood-drawer,” Harry joked. “Practically a certified phlebotomist.”

Louis averts his eyes. He can’t stop the flush that he’s sure is working its way up through his face. Right. Jokes. It’s fine if Harry can joke about biting him; Louis knows the truth and can keep things separate. He rolls his eyes. “You’ll have to use an actual needle, not those fangs of yours if we don’t want to waste any.”

From there, they move seamlessly again: Harry retrieves a blood draw kit and hides it in his pocket, and they go one by one into the bathroom. After locking the door behind them, Louis rolls up his sleeve and makes a fist. Harry’s hands are soft and gentle as he disinfects then pricks Louis, his nose flares as Louis’ blood starts to flow. If Harry ever gives up hematology then he’d make a great phlebotomist. For real.

They line up the vials in front of them, Harry labels them all, then, carefully, they smuggle them back to the lab in their pockets.

Harry’s uncharacteristically quiet as they send the first batch through the centrifuge, and he’s fidgeting as he stands watching the machine whir. 

“We don’t have to,” Louis says, side-eying the sudden change. “We can dump this and do it all proper, if you’re having second thoughts.”

“No, that’s not…” Harry adjusts himself, palming at his crotch. “Sorry. I’m trying to stay in check. It just—fuck it smells so good.”

Louis snorts. That was not at all what he expected Harry to say. “Yes, please keep it in your pants. We can’t get any more distracted today.” And he can’t do it ever again, if he’s going to keep himself in check too. 

By the time they’re on the last step, Harry’s adjusting himself almost constantly. It’s practically indecent. Louis is about to suggest that Harry just go take care of it, when Harry’s back goes ramrod straight where he's looking through the microscope.

“What?” Louis practically elbows Harry out of the way to look for himself, but he doesn’t want to upset the sample. They’ve already wasted too much.

“Lou,” Harry says breathily. “Look.”

He scoots over and lets Louis take his space.

Louis inhales sharply. He’s speechless. In the petri dish, the fake blood they created looks like real blood.

“How’d—”

“I never expected that it’d happen so fast. Lou, do you know what this means? We could—”

“Well, fuck me.” 

It worked. It actually worked.

He looks up at Harry, mouth open and still speechless. Harry’s eyes are wild, joyful. “I can’t believe it. Lou. We did it. Fuck, I can’t believe it.” His dimples are out in full force and Louis has never seen him even close to this elated before. “I love you.”

The hyperbole might almost be funny, in a different circumstance. If Louis’ current existential crisis about not caring at all about Harry wasn’t in place. He feels his eyes go wide and disbelieving, so he blinks it away and then looks back into the microscope while Harry dances in place on his stool. 

They’ll have to test it to be sure, and repeat the experiment to prove that it really works, but it looks identical to standard human blood. 

Harry’s smile is still spread across his face and Louis hates how much he wants to kiss it away. He’s got to bring it back to the work. He has to focus. 

“So what are our next steps?”

The only good thing about telling Louis he loves him is that he did it right before spring break, so he hasn’t had to see him or speak to him since that day. This does mean that he spent the entire break freaking out about it and coming up with a plan for explaining why those words came out of his big, dumb mouth. However, the only plan he comes up with is to pretend it never happened. 

Luckily it works because Louis doesn’t mention anything about it either, and they spend the first week back after spring break detailing their plan to get revenge on the fae. 

“As suggested by our two VPs, we’ll be pairing up to work around the clock to get this done quickly and cleanly. Each pair must consist of one vampire and one werewolf. That way, if anyone is caught—”

“We won’t be caught!” Oli yells.

“The wolves didn’t catch us! The fae won’t either!” Bradley, one of the vamp pledges, shouts.

“Right,” Louis says, stepping up and lifting his hand in the air until everyone is quiet. Harry manages to hide his fondness by scowling menacingly at the closest werewolf. That it happens to be Liam is purely coincidental. “One wolf, one vamp. Each team has a job to do. Once that job is finished, you’re to come back here. The vamp house is closer to the fae’s frat house, so we assume they’ll come for the vampires first. When they find the house empty, they’ll come here.”

Harry cups his hand over his mouth and whispers quietly enough that hopefully no one else hears. “We’re leaving my frat house empty?”

Shaking his head once, Louis catches his eye and winks, then says to the room, “Everyone line up! We need to get started. The fae leave their house shortly before midnight to get to the clearing in the woods on time.”

While the wolves and vamps line up and Zayn and Liam assign partners, Harry moves a little closer to Louis. “What are we doing? Like, me and you.”

“What? Nothing. We’re not— Oh.” Louis rolls his eyes and says, “Our prank is first. That way we can sort of set an example. And I was wondering how you’d feel about having a few vamps hiding out in your house, so if the fae do decide to be assholes and trash the place, they can let us know.”

“Okay, what about…” Harry taps his lip with his finger tip, watching Louis watching his mouth. It takes a moment for him to remember what he was about to say. “Oh! I can have them do, like, a game of telephone. Two vamps at the house in bat form, and then have more spaced out in the trees between here and there. They can each signal to the next vamp. If something goes down at the vamp house, we can know about it fast.”

“Smart,” Louis says.

“I didn’t get that fellowship on my looks, you know,” Harry says, hoping for at least a little laugh, but Louis just looks at him, pressing his lips into a line. 

Louis nods once. “If you’re ready, we have over a thousand pints of black cherry Kool-Aid to deliver.”

“Yeah, um… Yeah, I’m ready.” 

As soon as Louis starts for the kitchen, Harry’s smile fades into a frown. Maybe Louis didn’t conveniently forget about Harry’s emotional declaration. Maybe he’s just making nice with the weirdo vampire for the sake of the fellowship. Harry sighs, following Louis to the kitchen, where they’ve painstakingly filled more than a thousand blood bags with Kool-Aid. 

Usually, Harry doesn’t show off his vampire strength or speed. It’s not fun when everyone else in the house can do the same. So it’s been a while since he’s carried anything heavy. Thankfully, he’s just as strong as he remembered, and he doesn’t struggle with the cooler. They each carry one over on the first trip, then Harry utilizes his speed to hurry back to the werewolf house for another cooler, while Louis empties the fae’s many refrigerators and starts filling them with blood bags. Even with their speed and strength, it still takes them two hours to finish their part of the prank. 

Everything that the fae had in their refrigerators—including two kegs of Guinness—takes up the entire kitchen at the werewolf house. And as soon as they get it somewhat organized, Harry busies himself with assigning vampires to hide out along the route from the vamp house to the wolf house. 

“Hey, I thought of something,” Louis says, and despite his vampire senses, Harry jumps. Ignoring Louis is not a good idea if it means he’s able to sneak up on him. “Some of the pack are feeling left out, since they can’t really be a part of our warning system. And I can’t let them run wild in the woods, ’cause they’ll give us away.”

Expecting more, Harry waits, but all Louis does is shrug. “What’s your point?”

“Nothing. I thought you might be, you know, expecting us to be alone, and I was just letting you know, it’s probably not happening.” 

Harry checks to be sure no one is listening, and finds Liam and Zayn standing too close to them for comfort. If someone had to overhear, at least it’s the two people who already know, but still. He grabs Louis’ arm and drags him through the house, into the backyard. “You thought I wanted to have sex. Tonight. When we’ve got a million other things to do?” Before Louis can actually answer him, Harry says, “Glad to know you think I’ve got a one track mind. But if you really don’t want anyone finding out you’ve been sleeping with a bloodsucker, maybe keep your voice down. Or better yet, don’t say anything at all.”

Louis turns his back on Harry quickly, but not before Harry sees the frown etched on his face.

Back inside the house, it doesn’t look like anyone noticed their short absence, so Harry does as he’s supposed to, and helps where he can. Louis disappears into the basement with the rest of his pack, and as each pair returns from completing a prank, the vampire takes off into the night in bat form, the werewolf joins the pack in the basement, another wolf comes upstairs, and Harry sends him off with another vampire for the next stage of the prank. 

Even with the scientific advances that allow vampires to walk in sunlight, they still need sleep. Harry’s been a night sleeper for years, so it’s difficult for him to stay up a full twenty-four hours. Everyone else gets to rest in shifts, Louis included, apparently, since he’s been in the basement for hours. But Harry’s up all night and all of the following day, making sure that the prank goes smoothly. Louis finally joins him around noon, and Harry takes that as his cue to go outside. He checks on all of the vampires in hiding, and walks to the fae’s frat house to check on things. It’s going splendidly. He helps stack and arrange some of the furniture in front of the door before going by his own frat house, walking upstairs, and falling asleep the second his body makes contact with the mattress, possibly before. 

———  

Harry wakes to the warning sound of a bat chirping and immediately is on his feet. He transforms into a bat, flying in the shadows. Niall Horan, president of the fae frat, is standing outside the front door, peering through the window into the empty vamp house, and Harry hangs from eaves, watching and waiting for him to do something. His frat brothers have already sent the message ahead that only one fae came to the house, and when Niall turns and starts in the direction of the werewolf frat house, Harry flies as fast as he can to get there first. He makes it just in time, which means that he barely wraps a towel around his waist before Niall rings the bell. 

“It’s Horan,” Harry says. 

Louis nods. “Just him though. Why?”

“Dunno.” Harry shrugs and Louis reaches for the door.

“I don’t know what the fuck you all are doing, but this is utter bullshit,” Niall says the second Louis opens the door. He slaps his hand over his eyes. “Put your dick away, for fuck’s sake.”

Frowning, Harry looks down, but his towel is covering everything. He glances over to see that Louis is naked, which he might’ve noticed if he wasn’t avoiding looking directly at him. Behind them, the rest of the vampires and wolves are naked as well, so Harry lets his towel fall to the floor. 

“It’s called revenge, Horan,” Louis says, resting his hands on his hips. “You fae have been fucking with our frats for years and we’ve had enough.”

“You’re out of your furry little mind, Tomlinson. None of my brothers would dare. Fae respect the treaty, unlike you.” Horan snorts and looks Harry up and down. “I thought you might make a good president, but teaming up with dogs? Pranks? Wait until I report this to the—”

“Go ahead,” Harry says, standing shoulder to shoulder with Louis. “Call us what you will, report us to the dean or your mom or whoever you want, but we’ve done nothing wrong. We haven’t broken the treaty. You’ll find that every prank we’ve pulled on you tonight is identical to one that was done by your frat to one of our frats. It might’ve taken us a while to figure out what was going on, but we’re not stupid. We’re well within the treaty.”

Narrowing his eyes, Horan says, “We haven’t pranked you. Either of you.”

With a heavy sigh, Louis reaches for a towel hanging from one of the hooks by the door. He wraps it around his waist and Harry bends down to pick his discarded towel up and does the same. Louis asks, “Did you come alone?” and when Horan nods, Louis says, “If you want, we can try to explain.”

“I’ll go ahead and warn you. My fraternity brothers are waiting to hear from me. If I don’t get in touch within the hour, they’ll all be on your doorstep,” Niall says, but he follows them into the house. 

It seems best to show him to the kitchen so he can see where they’ve stored all of the fae’s things. After he checks that his kegs of Guinness are still untapped, Horan sits at the little kitchen table and Louis starts to explain. Thankfully, once he gets started, it doesn’t take long to convince Horan that they might be right. And instead of leaving, Horan agrees to stay and wait for the rest of the fae frat to show up, but only if the werewolves and vampires agree to put on clothes. 

“I don’t see why I can’t just wear the towel,” Harry complains, following Louis to his room and resolutely not staring at his bare ass in front of him. “This isn’t an official meeting or anything.”

“Why is it such a big deal?” Louis asks, rolling his eyes as he opens his bedroom door. “I said you can borrow some clothes.”

Harry huffs. Clothes are personal. He only wears them when he has to, and wearing someone else’s clothes is just… He’s never done that before. 

“Here,” Louis says, tossing a pair of soft grey sweatpants at him. Restraining himself from sniffing the fabric, Harry steps into them, and pulls on the worn white t-shirt Louis gives him. The sweats are a few inches short and the shirt is a size too small, so Harry feels like he probably looks ridiculous. Especially when Louis gets dressed in almost identical clothes and it’s all Harry can do to keep from putting his hands on him. With him naked, Harry could make himself look away, but with clothes on, his mind has trouble focusing on anything other than taking those clothes off again. 

Harry runs back out to the front of the house, forcing himself to think about the issue at hand and not how the fabric of Louis’ sweatpants draw attention to his dick. 

“Lead the way, Horan,” Harry says, and all of the werewolves and vampires follow him out into the night. 

It’s not long before the rest of the fae arrive, and Harry nudges Louis with his elbow when Niall lifts his hand in the air to stop his brothers and get them to quiet down. With a mass of vamps and wolves behind him, Niall repeats what Louis and Harry told him about the pranks.

“Look at Shawn,” Louis whispers in Harry’s ear, pointing at the gangly sophomore fae in the back of the crowd. Shawn’s cheeks grow pinker as Niall speaks, and he keeps his eyes down. 

Harry turns, cupping his hands around Louis’ ear and quietly says, “Look at Bressie. They know they’re caught.”

“My fae brothers!” Niall calls out over the crowd. “The ones responsible will step forward now, or all of you will be punished.”

Considering what it took to complete their revenge pranks, it’s surprising when only two fae step forward in unison. 

Heads hanging down, Bressie and Shawn move to the front towards Niall, and Niall says, “The rest of you may go. You two will do whatever it takes to clean up the disaster at our house, and you will clean up the mess here as well. As for the rest of your punishment, I’ll have to think about it a little more.” He dismisses the fae with a wave of his hand, and turns to Harry and Louis. “I’ll deal with them, unless you have suggestions.”

“I think…” Harry turns to Louis, who nods. “I think we’re good. As long as the pranks stop and they clean up the mess from tonight, you can do as you see fit.” 

“Thanks, man. Sorry about all of this,” Niall says, crossing his arms. “Pretty sure they were posturing for each other’s attention. If they’d just talk, but no. They had to go and almost start a war.”

Louis shakes his head and laughs. After Niall takes off, Louis leads the rest of his pack back inside the house, leaving Harry standing outside. He scowls at the closed door for a moment, but ultimately decides to just go home. It’s been a long night for all of them. 

———  

Despite the buildup, afterwards things go back to normal fairly quickly. Aside from the fact that weres and vamps and even the fae have been hanging out together. And the next week, Harry is in the lab again, trying to replicate the results he got with Louis’ blood. 

“I think…” Harry stares down the microscope at the slide, breathing through his mouth so he isn’t distracted by the smell of Louis’ blood. “Human blood doesn’t contain stem cells past a certain age.”

“Everyone knows that, Harry,” Louis says, looking around before rolling down the sleeve of his lab coat. They’re alone and Harry double checked the lab door, but Louis probably doesn’t believe him. 

“Exactly. But your blood does,” Harry tells him. “And I think it might have something to do with shifting. Like, vampires, we can go from form to form instantly, but when I’ve seen you transform, it takes a little while.”

“Yeah,” Louis says slowly and Harry ignores his annoyed tone. 

“Does it hurt?” Harry asks. 

Arms crossed tight, eyes narrowed to slits, Louis says, “Like you care.”

“Louis, can you just…” Harry huffs, frustration building. They haven’t had sex since before spring break, and he doesn’t know if that’s down to him or Louis. Though the scent of Louis’ blood is starting to make him hard in his pants. Maybe if Louis popped a knot or two, he wouldn’t be such a pain in the ass. “This isn’t about me. Is it painless or not?”

After a moment, Louis drops his arms to his sides. “No, it’s not painless. It hurts, but it’s over quick enough. And the pain doesn’t linger.”

“Okay, so…” Harry sits on his stool and nods towards the microscope, waiting for Louis to see what he thinks he saw. “My theory is that the way werewolves shift is fundamentally different. The stems cells in your blood allow you to regenerate tissue at an alarming speed. Those stem cells, when added to the blood substitute I’ve been working with, make the substitute stronger and more stable.”

Louis is silent, still looking at the slide on the microscope. He finally sits back and says, “I think you’re onto something. But who’s going to test it?”

“Me, of course,” Harry says, because who else is going to be first in line to suck down fake blood that’s been mixed with the essence of Louis Tomlinson. 

“You’re going to willingly put my blood in your body for science when you wouldn’t bite me during sex?” 

“Are you seriously— You know, what? I don’t get you. Does your mood cycle with the moon too?” Harry asks, then answers his own sarcastic question, “Oh, wait, you’re always a dickhead, so that can’t be it.”

Instead of a snappy comeback, Louis ignores him, and starts to clean up their station. With an exaggerated eye roll, Harry picks up the vials of blood substitute he made with Louis’ stem cells. Together, they all add up to just enough for a meal. While Louis is putting away their other samples, Harry quickly dumps the vials into a clean beaker and gulps it down. 

“Harry! What the fuck?” Louis snatches the beaker from him much too late to stop him. 

“Science!” Harry licks his lips, wishing there was more of Louis in the samples than just his stem cells. Maybe he should’ve bitten him while he had the chance, damn his heart and stupid feelings. 

“Sit the fuck down,” Louis says, picking him up and dropping him into one of the chairs on the other end of the room. “Stay. Let me know if you feel sick or anything. As soon as I’m done cleaning, I’ll take you home and get you some real blood.”

Pleasure pulses through Harry's body at Louis’ obvious concern, but he tries not to show it. He watches Louis finish up, and when he’s done, Harry lets Louis pull him up out of the chair by the hand. It’s the only intentional contact they’ve had in days—weeks, even—and he’s flooded with shame at how good it feels. The memory of the expression on Louis’ face when he slipped and told him he loved him is enough to tamp that all down. 

Still, Harry doesn’t let go, and neither does Louis, holding tight to his hand the whole way to the vampire frat house. But once there, Louis drops his hand as if he never meant to hold it in the first place. 

“Come on. Open the door,” Louis says, while Harry stares at him. He’s awfully pretty in the moonlight. 

“Okay, but don’t go anywhere.” Harry feels fine, but any excuse to keep Louis close. “I want to tell them it worked. Honestly, I feel great.”

Louis sighs. “It’s your body, and it’s not like I can stop you; you’re so stubborn. But, it’s still too soon to tell.”

Maybe, but Harry can feel that worked. He knows it did.

Inside is a mix of vampires, werewolves, and fae, which is something Harry is still getting used to. He steps up to the front of the room and holds his finger up in the air, waiting for silence. 

“Hey, um…” Harry looks at Louis and jerks his head, hoping Louis will get the hint and join him. But Louis doesn’t move. With a quiet sigh, Harry continues, “Many of you know what I’ve been hoping to achieve in this fellowship, and while I don’t want to get into the particulars at the moment, I do want to tell you all this: I had dinner just about fifteen minutes ago. One pint of the blood substitute that Louis and I manufactured in the lab.”

There’s a confused muttering from most of the group, a couple of over the top, disgusted retches from some of Harry’s vamp friends. Harry flips them off. 

“Don’t worry,” Harry says with a laugh. “I’m fine. See?” And with that, he turns from vampire to mist to bat and back again. “I haven’t tested it, but I know it works. I feel fine. I can transform without issue, and—” Harry takes off at top speed, racing upstairs to his room, grabbing Louis’ borrowed clothes, and running back downstairs again. “See?”

The room erupts into howls and cheers and while he can, Harry tugs Louis’ wrist and leads him into the kitchen. 

“Louis!” Liam’s voice carries through the door. “We’ve got to go! Full moon in like three minutes.” 

“Shit,” Louis says. “I’ll be back once we’re done.”

“Oh…” Harry says, and watches him go. 

After the full moon, Louis transforms back into a human and makes the trek back from the woods to Harry’s frat house. The experience this time wasn’t what he expected, and there’s no one he wants to talk to about it other than Harry. He bangs on the door, and Zayn lets him in with a smirk. “Think he’s up in his room.”

“Thanks, Z,” Louis says, with an obvious eye roll. He just wants to talk. He hightails it up the stairs, taking them two at a time. He’s barely finished his knock when Harry opens the door for him. 

“How was it?”

“The run?” Louis asks pointlessly. “It was good. Better than good, actually. Can we… can I stay and talk?”

“To me?” Louis doesn’t understand why Harry looks so surprised. They are sort of friends. Even if they probably won’t be working together after their fellowship is done. 

“I don’t have to,” Louis says. “But I’ve been thinking and some of this might affect you.”

“Yeah, I mean, of course.” Harry opens the door the rest of the way and ushers him in. “I just wasn't really sure if you were going to talk to me again, like, outside of lab because of the blood thing.”

Before Louis drops himself on Harry’s bed, he strips out of his spare clothes from the run, so he’s naked like Harry.

“Okay, first things first. Yeah. Screw you. If we’re lab partners you cannot do things like that. You nearly gave me a heart attack. You can’t just like…. Ingest stuff! We’re not geologists!” Louis flails his arms about in exasperation. “That’s why we have the FDA and like, lab procedures! If we’re going to keep working together—” Louis takes a deep breath. “I’d like us to continue working together. No more drinking blood that hasn’t been thoroughly tested.”

Harry smirk slides into a cocky grin. “It works though. Can you fucking believe it? I feel great. It works. We actually did it.”

Pride sparks in Louis’ chest. They did actually manage to solve Harry’s problem. It’s pretty genius, actually. And probably once Dr. Robinson is done telling them off for breaking, like, Science 101 rules, they’re going to ace this fellowship and get into any doctoral program they want. “Let’s see if you live through the week,” Louis says, instead of admitting how happy he is that they did actually fucking do it. 

“I feel great,” Harry says for the hundredth time.

“Whatever you say,” Louis says, because he can’t not have the last word. He takes a deep breath. “But we should talk about lab.”

“Oh?” Harry’s eyebrows draw together in concern. “Is there a problem?”

“No, actually.” Louis’ heart still clenches as he thinks about all that embarrassment about not being able to change. “I think I’m going to shift my focus.” He huffs out a laugh at the unintentional pun. “The pack—the frat—are totally accepting of me. Half of them walked back with me as humans tonight, and Luke was telling me that his grandfather used to say that only the most balanced of weres—the most human, or whatever—could change like me. That they were always leaders of their packs.”

“Seriously? Lou, that’s… amazing.” His wide eyes are so endearing. 

Louis puffs his chest out. “So, finding a cure seems a little unnecessary. But the stem cell thing seems like it worked out. The fake blood. So maybe we could keep working together? It’s worked out pretty well so far.” Harry looks pensive. “Or… not.” Whatever. If Harry doesn’t want to work with him Louis’s sure he can do better than Harry can when they’re out in the real world.

“No. Or. I mean. Yes, despite everything, it turns out that working together was the key to solving the whole thing. I think…. I mean we’ll see if I still feel good later on, but I’m doing great. But…”

Louis tries not to let the feeling of his heart deflating show on his face. “But?”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea.”

“Right. Yeah. I… I don’t know what I was thinking. Caught up in everything I suppose.” He gives Harry a tight smile and takes a step towards the door. 

“It’s just…”

Louis stops. He should flee now, before his heart is officially crushed, but he’s perfected the art of looking like he’s fine when he’s really really not, so he stays and hears Harry out. 

Harry sighs deeply. “I love you, Louis. Like, even though you’re an annoying know-it-all, I really, really like you. And you don’t have to say anything—”

Louis spins around. “You love me?”

“Don’t laugh. I know I’m like… a way to blow off steam or whatever. But I—”

“No. You’re not. I… I love you too.” Louis knows how stupid he sounds, but the rushing of emotion is obviously blocking his ablility to form a more coherent sentence. 

“Oh.” Harry’s green eyes are bright with the news. “Well I thought it was going to be too hard to work with you, knowing how I feel about you and thinking you thought differently.”

Louis takes a step closer and gives an easy one-shoulder shrug. “Sounds like we’re on the same page. The dream team.”

Harry takes a step closer and they’re toe to toe. With a smile, Harry tilts Louis’ face up with a gentle finger under his chin. “Can I kiss you?” he whispers. 

Louis nods as he leans in. 

The kiss is gentle, and Louis’ whole body warms at the tenderness that’s appeared between them with a bit of honesty. 

It’s a gradual change, but the kiss turns more intense, Louis getting lost in Harry’s mouth and the feel of him surrounding his body. He’s hard, it’s not often that he’s around Harry and not interested, but it’s a slow background feeling and he’s in no rush to do anything about it. Now that they know how they feel about each other, they’ve got plenty of time. As Harry rocks against him, hard and steady, the desire in Louis grows.

“Bed,” Louis mumbles against Harry’s mouth. “Now.”

Harry can barely separate himself long enough to give a nod of assent before he’s walking Louis backwards toward the bed. Louis lays himself flat and is surrounded by the smell of Harry. It’s almost overwhelming, but Harry’s right there, hovering over him, asking him what he wants. It’s been too long since Louis’s had one, and it’s his favorite, so he finally gives in. 

“Your mouth on me.”

Harry looks at him, long and intense, and confirms, “You’ll let me blow you?”

Louis squeezes his shoulder. “I trust you. Don’t think you’re going to hurt the goods until I ask you to.” He winks and Harry groans into Louis’ chest. 

“Fuck. I’m going to make it so good for you.”

“You better. I’ve been holding out forever for this.” Louis laughs as he cards his hand through Harry’s curls. He can tell Harry’s going to go all out, and he’s probably not ready to watch Harry give himself over like that, but he’s not sure he’ll ever be ready for that vision. So he might as well go for it now. 

He waits impatiently as Harry kisses and licks and sucks marks across Louis’ chest and hips. He’s so hard he feels like he’s going to start humping the air if Harry doesn’t start focusing on his dick in the next few minutes. But then Harry’s breathing hotly over his balls and looking up at him with his wide green eyes and silently asking for permission before he starts. 

“What are you waiting for?” Louis snaps. 

Harry, somehow, grins wolfishly at Louis and with a waggle of his eyebrows, dips his head down. The tight warmth of Harry’s mouth has Louis clawing at Harry’s shoulders. He’s not going to last nearly as long as he’d like to, already writhing beneath Harry as he presses his tongue against Louis’ length, sucking and drooling to provide the most perfect wet suction Louis is ever experienced. His knot’s already swelling. True to what Louis expected, Harry seems so into it, his eyebrows drawn in concentration, his lips working perfectly in tandem with his hand, the press and lift of the rest of his body against Louis’ legs.

“You’re gorgeous,” Louis says, overtaken by the blush on Harry’s cheeks and how red his mouth is. “Want everything,” he babbles. “Want it all with you. Anything you want.”

Harry pulls off with a pop. “Anything?”

Louis cups Harry’s cheek and swipes at the wetness in the corner of his mouth with his thumb. “What do you have in mind?”

“Smell so good down here.” Harry ducks his nose into the crevice where Louis’ inner thigh meets his groin. “Can hear the blood pumping. Want a taste. Just a small one.”

Louis fists a handful of Harry’s hair in an attempt to ground himself. “Will it hurt?”

“Hope not.” He looks up at Louis, blinking slowly. “Never done it before. Never found anyone… so tempting. But I don’t think so, pain relievers in our saliva or something.” 

That’s something else they could study. But Louis pushes the lab out of his mind. “Okay. Yeah.”

Harry’s fangs are sharp against his lips, and Louis wants to kiss the look of want right off his beautiful face. “You’re sure?”

“Sure I’m sure. It’s you.” It’s the truth. He looks up at the ceiling and shivers as Harry traces his teeth on his inner thigh, working his way up to a sensitive junction to the side of his balls. Hot breath. A warm tongue. Then twin pricks of pleasure that have Louis crying out as his leg hitches around Harry’s body, holding him in place. 

He can’t help himself. With his free hand, Louis jacks himself hard, made easier by how wet he still is from Harry’s mouth, and how good it feels to have Harry between his legs, feeding. Finally he moves his hand from Harry’s curls and presses hard around his knot. He tenses up and Harry moans, loudly, bodily, then Louis’s coming, spurting up to his chest, in waves as his body contracts and releases with rapture. 

Harry’s licking gently at the spot as Louis comes down, his heart still pounding in his chest and trying to catch his breath. “Oh fuck.” He’s going to be addicted to this. “Jesus that was good.”

Harry smirks, and licks his lips. “I hoped you’d like it.” He kneels, then moves up Louis’ body, straddling his hips. He really is the most beautiful creature Louis has ever seen: sweaty with taut strong muscles, pulling himself off slowly as he eyes Louis’ mess on his chest. 

“Want to get you dirty,” he says with that deep voice of his. “Rub it in. Make sure everyone knows you’re mine.”

“I’m yours, huh?” Louis teases. “Maybe you’re mine.”

Harry comes suddenly, the veins in his forearms making themselves known, as he spurts on Louis’ belly. He grunts, pulling on his cock and dripping more come onto Louis. 

“Didn’t take you as the commitment type,” Louis says, drawing a lazy finger through Harry’s mess. He teases it upward and eventually pops it into his mouth, exaggeratedly twisting his tongue around it. He doesn’t know how Harry tastes so good: another thing to study someday.

“Think we’ve established that you had a few misconceptions about me from the start,” Harry says, collapsing at Louis’ side and pulling him into a damp hug. 

“Good thing we cleared those up,” Louis says. “I like this version better.”

“ Mhmm, ” Harry says, snuggling closer to Louis, wrapping his body around him like an octopus. “Love you.”

Louis is sure they’re going to come up against more challenges: werewolf/vampire relationships aren’t that common, and they’re going to be graduating soon, finding their way in the real world, but somehow, with Harry by his side, breathing slowly and heavily, none of that feels overwhelming. They’ll figure it all out, together.