#louis and hops

[zimms]

me about to create a relationship tag on ao3: i knew this was a rarepair, but not a rarepair

[zimms]

wake up babe, new rare pairs dropped

[zimms]

...where Louis and Hops bond! (For the writing prompt thing!) (If that's okay-)

(@tingo-tango )

thank you tingo!!

Hops slings an arm over Louis’ shoulders. “Hey dude!” He grins down at him, taking advantage of their height difference to ruffle Louis’ blond hair. “What’re you doing for Christmas?”

Louis shrugs. “I’ll probably just stay in dorms,” he says, heaving a sigh and leaning back into Hops’ arm. “With the game on Tuesday, it’s way too much effort to fly all the way to Sweden and back for just a couple of days. However, there’s a Norwegian girl on the same corridor as me, so we figured we’d open our gifts together on Christmas Eve.” He smiles wistfully. “Try to replicate the holiday feeling somehow, I guess, even if it won’t quite be the same.” He shifts slightly against Hops’ arm. “She’s bringing her girlfriend though, so it’s possible that I might end up third-wheeling.” Louis’ words start to pour faster and faster out of his mouth, and Hops knows that Louis’s on the verge of panicking. “I might even try and track down a Swedish Church in Boston and attend a Lucia service this weekend.”

A bubble of sadness wells up inside of Hops at Louis’ tone, so he ignores the onslaught of things that Louis’s said that don’t quite make sense to him and focuses on the thing he does understand; Louis is feeling lonely. “I mean, you can come stay with me if you want?” Hops rubs the back of his neck with his free arm that isn’t supporting Louis. “I’m only in Connecticut, so it’s not that far for us to go and come back in three days?” Hops grins and his voice picks up momentum as he gains a bit more confidence. “And that way you don’t end up third-wheeling with Norwegian Girl and I don’t end up third-wheeling with my sister and her boyfriend. See! It’s the perfect solution!”

Louis turns to beam at him. “That sounds nice,” he says, voice trailing off, “but would that be okay with your family? Wouldn’t it be weird for me to come as just like a friend rather than a significant other?”

Hops grins back. “Nah, they love meeting new people! The more people the better!” In a sudden moment of courage, he brings their hands together, entangling their fingers together, even as his cheeks heat with the realisation of what he’s done. “Anyway, if you’re that concerned about it being weird, you don’t have to come as just a friend.”