first of all… happy new year guys!!!
as promised, here are the best fics i read in 2018 (some of them were published before but i discovered them in 2018), there’re not in order:
Chasing empty spaces (79k, chaptered) - 1930s au
The year is 1934 and Harry Styles was to inherent the largest tobacco firm in the south. His parents have picked out the “perfect” girl for him to marry and he has the privilege of receiving the highest education possible. The problem was, Harry hadn’t realized he didn’t actually want any part of that future until he met a mechanic named, Louis Tomlinson.
Don’t want shelter (76k, chaptered) - teacher!louis, businessman!harry
Louis and Harry have known each other all their lives. Friends as children, they danced around each other as teenagers, and have spent the last twenty-five years either screaming at each other or not speaking at all. Except for that one time ten years ago…
When Hurricane Nicole threatens the coast, they end up stuck together in their families’ old vacation home that they begrudgingly co-own.
During the storm, and in the months after, they’re both forced to reevaluate their history and what they mean to each other.
Save myself (219k, chaptered) - rich!louis, student!harry
by @make-thisfeellikehome
Louis Tomlinson is a train wreck. That is a way of putting it lightly. His whole world is a vast blur of darkness and bad decisions and it doesn’t matter how many times he decides he’s done, he always falls back in, because darkness is tricky like that for him. Louis wants for nothing—has everything he could ever ask for really, but it’s all nothing. Maybe he needs to be rescued—maybe he can’t be rescued. No one knows.
Or the one where Louis is a spoiled rich kid who is ignored by his entire family, who’s friends only use him as a means for drugs and no one believes he’s worth any more than just that. Harry Styles is a first year university student who’s just moved to Doncaster for their theatre program who just happens to get the short straw when he’s partnered with Louis for Bio Lab. What could go wrong?
Lightning strikes twice (104k, chaptered) - groupie!louis, famous!harry
Louis slipped his hand onto Harry’s thigh, snaking his fingers up and inwards. “I’m a big fan. You’re so talented, and I have to admit that I actually fancy you a bit.”
“Yeah?” Harry reached up to push Louis’ fringe out of his eyes. “Well, you know, I like to try and be accommodating to my fans.”
“You’re quite well known for that,” Louis whispered as he turned his head some more, their mouths an inch apart. “So I hear.”
Rock star Harry Styles was nineteen when he met Louis, a groupie with a huge heart that Harry couldn’t quite shake from his mind. Fate granted him a second chance at the age of sixty, his washed up and lonely existence being transformed by a widower with a bookshop.
Tell me how to feel about you (38k, chaptered) - college/university au
Louis thought it would feel different once he got to LA. He knew it was best for him; a fresh start as far away as he could get. But when the plane touched down and he stepped out into the hot air around LAX, Louis felt exactly the same.
There’s still a hole in his chest where his heart used to be; ripped away even after trying for so many years to keep it from happening. He knows it’s not all his fault, not by a mile, but it doesn’t stop him from blaming himself for it all going wrong.
If he’d just stayed strong, if he’d said no when he said yes, maybe everything would be different.
Or, Harry has been trying to convince Louis to date him for years, but Louis has always been wary of Harry’s fairly obvious commitment issues. Louis eventually gives him a chance, opening his heart up to the one thing he fears.
Have faith in me (183k, chaptered) - rich!harry, assistant!louis
As the son of Anne Styles, millionaire owner of one of the world’s most luxurious fashion labels, Harry has spent his last seventeen years living in carefree extravagance. And now he’s grown tired of it, along with the pressure from his mum to follow in her footsteps and the constant care given to him by her past assistants.
When his mum’s newest assistant, Louis, moves into the guesthouse, Harry determines to be treated differently. To be treated like an adult. Except Louis is not at all what Harry was expecting…
This is a story about growing up, growing in love and having the faith to make it last.
Shake me down (208k chaptered) - college/university au, insecure!harry, protective!louis
Harry’s new to college, fresh out of Catholic school and conversion therapy camp, and Louis runs the campus LGBTQIA organization.
Red hands (132k, chaptered)
“I’ve never told anyone,” Harry murmurs, voice so soft no one else would be able to hear, if it wasn’t just the two of them.
“But you’ve told someone,” Louis says firmly. “And that’s not gonna fucking happen around here. You don’t speak a word of it, or someone’s going to kill you, and we can’t let that happen.”
a dystopian au in which harry, an ex-soldier who’s escaped from his government run camp, accidentally stumbles across the biggest rebel movement in the country, and louis, one of the rebellion’s mysterious leaders who appears to hate him, seems to simultaneously have an obsession with keeping him alive. or: harry is wanted for treason, niall hasn’t changed in four years, liam is always smiling, and louis is angry. like, really angry.
There are no atheists in foxholes (64k, one shot)
“Do you think we’ll ever see it again?” Harry asks after a minute. “London?”
Louis blinks, looking down. They very well could spend the rest of their lives on this island, and they’re both very aware of that. Everyone probably already thinks they’re dead, anyway. Their flats are going to be sold, and their families are going to have funerals, and life is going to go on without them. Even if they do get rescued, it’s already been days. The news of the shipwreck has definitely reached London by now. They don’t know if there’s been any effort to look for survivors, but they also don’t know how far away from the wreck they are, or how far people are going to go to look for them, or if anyone even knows that this island is here and, like, it’s very possible that they’ve already looked and stopped looking for survivors, and no one knows they’re out here-
“I don’t know,” Louis says, before he can start spiraling. “I hope so, but I don’t know.”
Or, the sea takes everything from Louis, but it gives him back more than he ever could’ve asked for.
Dance to the distortion (96k, chaptered)
Louis accidentally breaks Harry’s camera lens and in order to get it fixed, they decide to participate in a romantic couples study. The only issue is that they are not actually couple. Well that and the fact they cannot stand each other.
Lonely king (40k, chaptered) - broken!louis, indie!harry
When Louis’ parents pass away in a car accident, he inherits a cottage in the woods of Scotland. He ends up spending the summer there; unraveling secrets, mending bonds and creating memories with his best friends.
For as long as i can remember (it’s been december) (128k, chaptered) - lawyer!louis, chef!harry
After recovering from a severe accident that causes Harry to lose his memory of three years, he moves to London to start his life over as a star chef. Little does he know that when he falls in love with Louis at first sight, it’s not the first time they meet.
Featuring an unintentional game of hot and cold, Harry chasing memories that won’t come back, Louis burying himself in work to try and forget what he can’t forget, Liam being torn between two of his best friends, Zayn as a moral compass and Niall saving the day with good music and brutal honesty.
The road less travelled by (98k, chaptered) - Lumberjack!louis, high school principal!harry
Louis was a lumberjack happy to be living his life alone in what could qualify as Middle Of Nowhere, Canada.
Every morning, he went out into the woods, cut his logs, then came home at dusk to a scalding hot shower and a good book by the fireplace. Rinse and Repeat. He had a good life, quiet and peaceful; simple. Not a secluded one as Niall annoyingly claimed.
Louis certainly didn’t need some chatty trespasser dropping into his life, his forest, his home. Invading his space, his circle of friends, touching his stuff, asking questions about his husband. His late husband.
A trespasser who wasn’t supposed to crawl under his skin, occupy his thoughts, and steal his heart from where Louis had locked it safely away, only to put it right back on Louis’ sleeve — where it once laid.
No, Louis definitely didn’t need Harry.
Saving symphony hall (124k, chaptered) - symphony hall au, omega!louis, alpha!harry
“I think I have an idea,” Louis said. Slowly, and reluctantly, but with a growing sense of the inevitable. “God damnit, I think I have a really good idea.”
“Oh christ, that’s the problem-solving face,” Babs said. “Last time we saw that face, he sold a company.”
“Wait, what?” Zayn asked.
“Right place, right time,” Louis said. “Also, fuck my life,”
“What?” Zayn repeated. Niall patted his hand.
“I usually just roll with whatever Louis is about to do,” he said. “It’s better for us all.”
“That’s the attitude,” said Louis, “I’ll tell you tomorrow. Tonight, I need to do some research. Zayn, give me your number. I’m gonna save our symphony.”
Shelter as we go (75k, one shot)
Louis looks at him like his words might break him, glass about to splinter, one wrong footfall away from shattering into a million tiny pieces.
“Hey,” Harry breathes, and he knows, meeting Louis’ eyes, that his words could break him easy as anything. He almost wants Louis to bring his boot down.
Walk that mile (149k, chaptered) - road trip au
Harry stares at him, the line of his jaw standing out scarily. “I wanted to get the most out of this trip so I planned it carefully.” His voice is low and steady and somehow that’s worse than when he was yelling. “So far, you’ve put your sticky fingers on everything I’ve tried to do.”
“Sticky fingers?” Louis repeats, offended. “Are you saying it’s my fault you got stung by a bee? Had you been alone you would have gotten halfway to the Dotty Diner and ran the car off the road because of an allergic reaction, so don’t go blaming me.”
“Polk-A-Dot Drive In,” Harry spits before getting out of the car. He slams the door shut with a deafening reverb and Louis rolls his eyes.
-
A Route 66 AU where falling in love was never part of the plan.
5. I believe him when he tells of loving me (28k, chaptered)
louis doesn’t remember harry. harry takes him home.
4. Wild love (130k, chaptered)
“Good,” Julia says, clearly pleased to have them both uncomfortable and unable to look at each other. “Now, I only have one more question before you can go. What are you planning to do when this experiment ruins your friendship?”
“We said we’d stay friends no matter what,” Harry says smoothly, his chin lifting in defense.
“That was our one thing going into it,” Louis agrees. “Stay friends no matter what.”
Julia raises a perfectly manicured brow, “That’s all fine and good. But I hope you realize your emotions aren’t going to realize this is an experiment in the end. If one of you falls for the other and finds out those feelings are not reciprocated, you’re not going to be able to laugh it off as a social experiment. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this, I’m just hoping you’ve considered all of the possible outcomes.”
-
AU: Two best friends try to date each other for forty days. It’s supposed to be fun until emotions make it complicated.
3. In sickness and in health (83k, chaptered) - american!harry, british!louis
“Just make sure that you head down to the immigration office as soon as you can, alright?” James reminded them, making them look towards the man and nod in unison. “Remember Louis, you have only two weeks. So make it legal quickly so you don’t get deported.”
“I’ll be sure to remind my assistant to schedule our appointment,” Louis joked and laughed.
A loosely based The Proposal Au where Louis is to be deported in two weeks. Since he doesn’t want to lose his job, he asks his assistant, Harry to marry him for a green card. If it makes them realise they’re in love, oh well. There’s also the fact that no one doubts their credibility.
2. Hush (41k, one shot) - high school au, quarterback!louis, feminine!harry
“I don’t like you like that, Harry.”
“See,” Harry starts, Louis can hear the smile in his voice, “that’s where I think you’re lying.”
or an au where small towns suck, louis is losing it, and harry’s just too perfect.
1. Light my morning sky (54k, one shot) - college/university au
The relatively cliché College AU in which Louis happens to be proficient in Philosophy, Ethics and keeping his distance, while Harry is in need of a tutor to salvage his grade, and never passes up on a challenge; Zayn and Liam like to gaze wantonly across at each other whilst pretending to read Austen; and Niall is the precarious bond that holds them all together.
(Expect some sappy self-indulgent scenes consisting of bed-sharing, 4 am almost-love declarations, drunk texting, and far too much time spent at the student bar for it to be an accurate depiction of uni life.)
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