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They say a smile speaks a thousand words but for Harry, when Louis smiles all he can hear is silence. The deafening silence of happiness which blooms in his chest and spreads throughout his body, down till his toes. It’s a warm feeling. Louis’ smile really makes him happy. When Louis smiles, his lips pull up sweetly and his eyes form into a thin line with crinkles around them and tiny bags under them. Harry loves those crinkles. He feels they’re Louis’ best feature because they’re only visible when Louis’ smile is real.
Louis is quite generous with his smiles. He’ll smile at everybody. He’s one of those people who just radiates happiness automatically. It’s not even something he tries to do, it just happens. And it astounds Harry, like, “how can someone just make everyone happy by simply being present?” Harry doesn’t understand how but he loves it when Louis smiles. Not the fake ones, though. There have been too many of those recently. He loves the real smiles that Louis keeps for Harry when they’re cuddling in bed after a tiring session of making love or when they take walks in the park.
Harry notices there are six smiles that Louis has. One, when he’s in the public eye, like an award function or an interview and he has to keep up the image of “the funny one” in the band. Two, when he’s annoyed with someone but can’t really say anything to them at that moment, the only release being a few snarky comments disguised with a laugh so people don’t take it seriously. Three, when Louis’ sad but can’t show how he’s feeling because he’s obviously in the public eye all the time. Four, when he’s with people who he genuinely likes and when he’s actually having fun. Five, when he finds something cute and cracks a little smile. But none of these smiles reach his eyes like the sixth one does. The sixth one is the smile that always adorns his face when he’s with people he absolutely adores like his mum or his sisters or, of course, Harry. Whenever he’s in the presence of these people, he’s always smiling and Harry knows it’s because he’s just content. Harry loves this smile of his to bits.
Harry also loves it when Louis finds something funny and just bursts out laughing. The sound of Louis’ laughter is like music to his ears. He always wants to hear him laughing because it just makes him a really, really happy boy. Louis’ the kind of person who, unlike Harry, isn’t shy of laughing really loud. Whenever he laughs, it’s always a very open and generous laugh. And Harry just wants him to keep laughing and smiling all the time. “Is there something on my face?” Louis asks when he catches Harry gazing at him with a fond smile and Harry just shakes his head as a blush creeps up his neck. He’s embarrassed to tell Louis that his laugh leaves him enchanted. He looks at Louis in wonder, “I’m so lucky to have him,” is basically what runs through his mind.
Harry loves making Louis smile, whether it be off stage or on. He does extremely stupid things just to catch Louis’ attention and to make him laugh. And when it works, he feels like his heart is soaring and he’s on the top of the world. He feels as if this is what he was born to do – make Louis laugh, he’s not exaggerating, he swears!
Usually, Harry doesn’t find intoxicated people very hot but with Louis, it’s just completely different. When he’s drunk, he’s like a child on a sugar rush and Harry just wants to kiss his face till he’s red. Louis always laughs really, really loudly when he’s drunk and Harry never gets embarrassed. His friends tell him to tone it down a little but Harry will just look at him endearingly and admire his boyfriend who he really, really loves.
Harry could listen to Louis’ laugh and watch him smile all day but unfortunately, there are days when Louis feels low. But Harry will always be there, right beside him, pulling silly faces or cracking stupid jokes in an attempt to make him laugh. Most of the times, it works. But when it doesn’t work, Harry will always be by his side telling him how much he loves him and “you’re the center of my world, no – my universe, Lou” and other cheesy things like that. But that makes Louis crack a small smile and that’s all that Harry could ask for.