Impatiently, Louis was tapping his fingers against the tabletop in his room, waiting for his friends to finally be ready. It was Friday evening and Harry, Niall and Louis were waiting for Liam, Zayn and Shawn to be ready to go out for Liam's birthday. They took forever though.

"What is taking them so long?" groaned Louis and slammed his head on the table.

"Some people value their appearance, Tommo," said Niall cheekily.

"Are you saying I look like shit?" looked Louis now at him. He was wearing simple black jeans, not too skinny cause of his already prominent curves, a navy-blue shirt and simple black shoes. His jeans jacket was waiting on his chair for him.

"You didn't even dress up at all. Are you not looking for someone to pull?" challenged Niall him.

"What does it concern you what I'm gonna do?" shot Louis back.

"If you do, I'd say change your clothes and show your body more. Don't ya think, H?" faced Niall now his best friend, catching him off guard.

"I'd say it's simple but works. Looks good" said Harry and blushed afterwards.

"Um, thanks" cleared Louis his throat awkwardly. A compliment from his unrequited crush was nothing he had expected to ever get.

"For my part, I wanna pull someone. Haven't been laid in a while" grinned Niall unashamedly.

"Niall" sighed Harry disappointedly.

"Don't give me that voice. Not everyone is waiting on their soulmate, my dear" was Niall not having it.

So, Harry was probably a virgin after all. Maybe never even kissed anyone because he was waiting for the right person. Louis didn't know what to do with this fragment of information and why he was relieved about this simple fact. He blamed it on the mark.

"Anyway, you guys have never shown me your bonding mark" changed Louis the awkward topic of conversation.

"We can do it now. Come on, Harry" jumped Niall up excitedly, revealing his left wrist.

"Why cake though?" raised Louis an eyebrow at them, causing Harry to turn red in the face.

"That was a fun day" sighed Niall dramatically.

"Niall, don't. No one needs to hear that story" tried Harry to stop him but it was in vain.

"It was a bunch of years ago in Freshman Year. I was walking into a small bakery, wanting some cake. When I walked in no one was there, so I called out for them. The owner walked out and got my order. The usual. As I wanted to leave, someone came walking out of the back with a huge cake in his hands and crushed into me, causing us to fall to the floor. The cake was all over us and the owner was laughing her ass off before helping us up. And bam, I was met with that clumsy dear boy" told Niall him about how they met years ago.

"Sounds like you, Clumsy" grinned Louis fondly.

"I'm not that clumsy" claimed Harry offended.

"Oh, come on? Remember your first crush? That was hilarious" cracked Niall up laughing, but Harry just paled.

"What happened?" Louis wanted to know.

"It was shortly after we met. Harry had a huge crush and they were just totally uninterested and ignorant. Although H was into this whole soulmate stuff, he tried to talk to them. But before he could even utter out a word, he already had crushed into him and both fell down to the floor. I have never seen Ethan that embarrassed in his whole life. This was the end of that story" remembered Niall what had happened that day.

For a second Louis just blinked perplexedly at Niall. Did he just say he and Ethan? So, Harry was gay after all? Or at least bisexual? That information shocked him and he didn't know if he should react to that slip-up. Louis' only concern right now was that his most logical reason to suppress his feelings for Harry was gone. Now he was just left unwanted.

"Aye, sounds bitter. I never wanna experience something like that in my whole life" chose Louis to just ignore it for Harry's sake.

"I think it was funny" shrugged Niall.

"Because you weren't the one being humiliated" pointed Louis out, earning a small smile from Harry.

"Sounds like you know that feeling" eyed Niall him suspiciously.

"Not like that exactly. No" denied Louis, hoping they would drop that topic now.

"Anyway, I go and check on those three divas. I wanna get wasted tonight before the sun sets again" jumped Niall up and left the room.

Left alone with Harry, Louis didn't know what to do so he simply put on his jacket, eyeing Harry's outfit for the night. He was wearing skinny jeans, a flowery blouse and boots. A typical Harry outfit. Louis loved that tad bit of a feminine side Harry had although he hated it with himself. Mostly, Louis just hated himself sometimes.

"Lou, about what Niall just said ... That ... you know ..." was Harry fighting for words.

"That you had a crush on a boy?" checked Louis knowingly.

"Yeah, about me being gay" confirmed Harry his guess timidly. "I'd understand if you wanna switch rooms now and preferred another roommate. One with whom it's not awkward now and you don't feel ...".

"Haz, I'm not gonna switch rooms because you're gay. That's nonsense. You're you. Nothing changed" cut Louis him off. He knew all about those insecurities.

"You won't? Oh, okay" was Harry utterly surprised.

"Why should I? Being gay is nothing bad. And besides, it would be a bit hypocritical of me to judge you for it, wouldn't it?" said Louis nonchalantly, taking his jacket and leaving the room without another glance back, ignoring that he just outed himself in front of his possible crush.

Stopping at Zayn's room, Louis took a deep breath because he heard footsteps behind him. Before he could walk in, the other four boys came out, finally ready, and they left for the club. On the way there, Louis and Zayn were wrapped in each other's arms. Zayn had felt Louis'down mood and had pulled him into his arms, just giving him the feeling of being safe for a while. What Louis didn't take into account was passing ways with some jerks on the way.

"You fags are disgusting" hissed one boy passing them.

"Spread your filthiness somewhere else. This is abnormal" insulted the other guy them and Louis felt himself wanting to break away from the embrace, but Zayn didn't let him go, simply pulled him closer.

"Keep your nasty comments to yourself, bastard" growled Shawn back at them, taking them by surprise.

The boys didn't say anything else and just went their way, but Louis felt the outcome of it inside of him. He had seen Harry's reaction, but also Niall directly being there for him, which had made Harry happy again. Louis wasn't able to be happy that fast, or ever. Comments like that just always showed him again that he was doomed to be alone. If the mark on his arm wasn't proof enough, he didn't know what would be. He heard their words in his head mixed with all the nasty homophobic slurs he had to endure during his school time, which caused him to be pretty depressed when they entered the club.

They headed straight to the bar and ordered a round of drinks, except for Harry who wanted to stay sober. Louis would love to be that strong, but he simply wasn't. He needed to get smashed and maybe find some distraction in someone that wasn't Zayn.

One drink turned into five and pretty soon Louis was drunk off his mind, but his friends were too while Harry was just watching them disapprovingly. Drunk Louis always came hand in hand with horny Louis. Right now, he tried to focus on the people dancing but he was too drunk. Zayn next to him wasn't doing any better and started to stroke over Louis' thigh.

"Nah, hands-off, Javy Baby. You're too drunk. You know where this ends if you keep on doing that" pushed Louis his hand away.

"But I'm so horny" slurred Zayn, putting his hand back on Louis' thigh.

"Me too. But we made a deal, remember?" stood Louis up from his stool, causing their friends to avert their attention towards them now.

"Right now, I regret ever making that deal" took Zayn a hold of Louis' waist.

"Maybe we can break it every now and then" stepped Louis a bit closer.

"What kind of deal are we talking about?" piped Shawn in, curiously.

"Oh, just not getting sexual with each other ever again," told Zayn him shamelessly because he was too drunk to care.

"So, you got down and dirty with each other before, huh?" checked Niall now interested.

"What can I say? He's hella fine" grinned Zayn unashamed.

"And waiting for your soulmate doesn't satisfy your needy teenage hormones, especially not when you're the only two gay people in a shitty small town" added Louis drunkenly, not giving a single fuck anymore.

"But only when we were drunk as fuck or absolutely needy" pointed Zayn out.

"That's one way of being friends with benefits" laughed Shawn.

"I wouldn't call that friends with benefits. Too few benefits" smirked Louis, squeezing Zayn's ass.

"You can get all the benefits you want, Tommy" breathed Zayn against Louis' lips, now really close to each other.

"Okay, I'm gonna help you stick with the deal and drag your snogging buddy to the dancefloor" grabbed Liam for Zayn's wrist and dragged him away.

"We're not snogging anymore!" called Louis after him, earning weird looks from other people. "What?!".

"Uh, snappy Louis is pretty hot. Maybe I can take Zayn's place" flirted Niall playfully with Louis.

"Nah ah. No way. You're not my type and I don't do it with anyone" declined Louis jokingly.

"But with Zayn?" hooked Niall interested.

"I've known him for a while and I trust him with my life and know he'd never judge me for anything. He's my saviour" answered Louis emotionally due to the alcohol in his veins.

"That was deep, man" chuckled Shawn drunkenly.

"Maybe this was enough alcohol for tonight" spoke Harry up now.

"Nope. I'm only getting started. I wanna forget my life and get smashed tonight" sing-songed Louis and downed the rest of his sixth drink.

"Yeah, same, mate. Life is shit, making us wait for a soulmate that never comes around anyway. Let's drink our sorrows away" agreed Niall with him, clinking their glasses with already new drinks.

"A myth and weird tattoos. Nothing more. Means nothing" brought Louis out, ignoring Harry's hurt face, before he started his seventh drink and was out of his mind, not knowing what he was doing anymore and blacking out at some point.

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A little party never killed nobody ...

Question of the Chapter: Did Zouis break their deal or not?