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Harry walks into one of the many storage closets in his workshop and wonders when the last time someone has cleaned in here. He picks up a cardboard box and sneezes loudly.
“Too long then,” he mumbles to himself while still rummaging. He just about gets to the back of the dark space, ready to give up, when he hears his name being called.
“H?” Louis appears at the entrance of the door, completely blocking any remaining light.
“Hey Lou,” Harry rasps. The dust is making his asthma act up. He needs to get out.
“Niall told me you were back here.” Louis peers into the space. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah, it’s fine, just…” He goes into a coughing fit and just about knocks Louis down trying to get into some fresh air. “Just looking for something. Where is Niall? I need him to get a detail on cleaning these rooms.”
“I’m sure he isn’t too far away. He would never let me wander around here on my own.” Louis looks over his shoulder, and Harry follows his line of sight.
Sure enough, a pair of blue eyes are peering around the corner, disappearing as soon as Harry makes eye contact. Harry rolls his eyes but decides to deal with him later.
“How are you?” He focuses on Louis and for the first time takes him in. He looks fresh off a runway in a light button down and freshly pressed trousers. His hair is a constant state of carefully crafted chaos, and Harry just wants to run his hands through it.
“The very best. I was wondering if you wanted to go to Paris. The weather screams spring, and it is just reaching twilight. We could have a hot chocolate and a biscotti and take a walk on the Seine.” Louis’ eyes glaze slightly, obviously envisioning the occasion. It sounds heavenly to Harry, and he smiles warmly, almost ready to leave when he sneezes violently. And then he remembers what he was doing before Louis showed up.
“I can’t. I have...prior commitments.” He sighs and wanders to the next closet. “Maybe in a few….weeks?”
“A few weeks?” Louis’ eyebrows shoot up. ”Everything alright?”
Harry shoots a look towards where Niall had been spying earlier and can’t see a trace of him. He looks back at Louis who is starting to look genuinely concerned. He sighs and looks at the ceiling for a second before leveling Louis a look.
“You won’t believe me if I told you,” he says.
“Harry. I am literally standing in Santa’s workshop...after leaving me office in hell.” Louis smirks at his dramatics, and Harry can’t help but laugh as well.
“Fine, fine.” He abandons his previous search and finds a couple of chairs for them to sit in,and rings for a warm drink.
“So I am Santa,” Harry starts.
“I think we have established that, yes,” Louis replies.
“I hadn’t finished,” Harry responds, rolling his eyes. “I am Santa, and that comes with a lot of responsibilities. One of the lesser known responsibilities is that I am part of...well...am head of the Council of Legendary Figures.”
“Ok, that sounds cool,” Louis says, smiling excitedly.
“It would sound cool. They are all pretty awesome people, except--” He clenches his jaw. “Every damned year we get a call from Ed because even though he has all year to prepare, he always waits until the last minute and expect us to bail him out.”
He sighs again, feeling the frustration build.
“Ed? Who is that?” Louis asks, looking at Harry’s clenched fist. “Does he need a talking to? From me?”
“No, no not at all. Ed is great most of the time. He would give you the shirt off his back. But he just is...struggling with his new position, and I wish that if he needed help he wouldn’t wait until literal weeks before…”
“Who is Ed?” Louis repeats.
“Oh, sorry. Easter Bunny.” Harry shakes his head. “And now I am spending my Wednesday afternoon looking for the damned straw to weave the damned baskets and not going to Paris with my very beautiful boyfriend.”
He pouts again, but Louis’ face is bland, and somewhat frozen. “You ok Lou?” He gives his knee a gentle squeeze.
“You know the Easter Bunny?” He asks, almost wooden in tone.
“Yeah, the council. Ed is great like I said, just…”
“You talk to the Easter Bunny?” Louis’ voice is strained and almost squeaky.
“Lou, what the…”
“You could introduce me to the actual Easter Bunny?!” Louis stands up and is actually hopping on his toes.
“Ummm. Yes?”
“Oh my God! Harry! The Easter Bunny!”
“Louis, you are Satan,” Harry deadpans.
“Yeah?” Louis looks confused.
“I am pretty sure you could meet anyone you wanted. You have an actual window to the world.”
“I would never just pop in on someone though. The Easter Bunny. I wondered if he actually existed. I was convinced that is was a myth.” His eyes go dreamy, and Harry has to snap his fingers to bring him out of it.
“A legend actually, in character and in life, if he didn’t ruin a week of my life.”
“Can I come H, please. I promise I will be helpful. I will bring Liam! And Zayn! We can do all of the work! Please let me meet the Easter Bunny!”
Louis is hopping again, and it is the most bizarre and adorable thing Harry has ever seen.
“I guess you are meeting the Easter Bunny then,” he says, and Louis immediately jumps into his arms. Harry guesses he can sacrifice a week to Ed if it means making Louis this happy.
A few days later Louis is standing, once again, in Harry’s workshop, this time with Liam and Zayn in tow. He feels a nervous energy that is rare at his age and line of work. Meeting these legendary figures is just a small part of it. Louis rarely gets the chance to be truly helpful. He can’t wait to chip in and get his hands dirty.
“Alright, I told them that I was bringing in help, but I didn’t exactly tell them who,” Harry tells them before they walk into the main workshop. He looks nervous, and while he wants to tell Harry not to be, he understands the position that Harry is in.
“We will be on our best behaviour, I promise.” Louis stares directly at Liam, who despite leaning heavily into Zayn, is giving off his most murderous look.
“Come on Li, introduce me to this Niall one that has taken your fancy.” Zayn urges Liam forward gently. Liam’s forehead wrinkles in worry.
“I don’t fancy him, Zayn.” He reaches for Zayn’s hand. “He just...gets me.”
Zayn smiles and kisses his head gently.
“Well, I want to meet him.” Zayn gives Harry an encouraging look, and Louis can see Harry start to melt under his spell.
“Yes, can’t wait to spend the day with the demon and Liam.” Louis chuckles, pushing Harry towards the door. “Everything will be fine, H. I can’t wait to help out.”
“Well I guarantee that Ed will be happy to see you all,” Harry sighs, putting a hand on what looks like an ancient door handle. “I am scared to see what he has done with my workshop.”
Apparently, Harry had a right to be nervous. When he finally opens the door Louis is taken back by the sheer volume of paste colours that assaults his eyes. There isn’t an inch in the large room that isn’t covered with something. One corner has eggs of different shapes and sizes. Some chocolate, some plastic. Some even a gummy variety. There is basket filler covering nearly every surface, including the people at the large wooden work table, who all seem to have a basket in front of them in different stages of being woven. When he stops looking at the utter chaos around them, he begins to focus on the eyes that are all on him.
“Louis, Liam, Zayn. I would like to introduce you to the Council of Legendary Figures.” It feels more of a stand off than an introduction as all movement around them halts, and the two groups just stare openly. Harry clears his throat and continues.
“This is Tommy, Father Time,” he begins. Tommy nods his head, but takes the hand of the woman directly beside him. Harry points towards her, and smiles warmly. “His wife, Lottie, Mother Earth.”
“Hello.” Lottie looks at them all with a warmth in her eyes that can rival Zayns. Louis can’t help but notice that for someone who is called mother to the earth, she wears a lot of unearthly colours. Her hair is definitely not a colour that he has ever seen in nature, and her nails are an electric shade of blue. She pats her husband’s knee as he looks between them with concern. “You look very familiar.”
She looks at Louis with interest. He feels the same, but can’t quite put his finger on why.
“Next you have Oli, Sandman.” Harry nods his head towards the redhead who has his arm slung on the back of his chair. He pats a brightly coloured backpack that is hanging from it and nods his head.
“I am here for all of your sleeping needs. If you’re tired, I can get you through it.”
“That won’t be necessary, Oli.” Harry interrupts him as he is about to open the back pack. Oli frowns and shrugs, giving Louis a wink instead.” Louis looks at Harry nervously, but Harry just shakes his head, a bit of a smile on his lips.
“You know Niall of course.” Harry moves on, gesturing to the far end of the large table. Niall, of course, ignores Louis completely and gestures for Liam to come and sit by him. Louis sees that he has reserved a seat for him, but he happily drags one over for Zayn too. What an ass. Harry must have noticed as well because he pats Louis’ back.
“And on this side is Nick, Tooth Fairy.” Harry gestures to a man whose smile is nearly blinding. He stands immediately and takes Louis’ hand.
“And fairy fairy, darling.” He leans in close. “Pleasure is all mine.”
“Thank you.” Louis smiles back
“And this!” Harry nearly stands between them, sending Nick back to his seat. “Is Ed.”
Ed stands as well, and Louis beams as he comes over and envelops Louis in a full bodied hug. He smells of chocolate and tulips, and Louis can barely contain his excitement.
“Thank you so much for helping us. I am forever in your debt…”
“Louis, Mr. Bunny…” Louis clamps his mouth shut. He hasn’t been this nervous in centuries. Ed just laughs.
“Please, Ed is great. Thank you so much Louis. There is room over here, we are just finishing up the baskets.” Louis takes a seat beside Ed, and Harry sits on his other side.
“I am afraid that I have no idea what I am doing,” Louis says, looking at Harry who has already crafted an entire basket in the time it took for Louis to finish his sentence.
“That is alright,” Harry says. “We are almost done this part, but I can teach you if you like.”
“Yes please.” Louis says, and Harry immediately arranges the materials into a manageable order.
“Um, Harry.” The lone female voice in the room speaks up over the rest. “Are you not going to introduce us to your friends?”
Louis looks at Harry who has visibly blanched. Louis would suspect that he did not indeed intend to do that at all.
“Oh, yes, sorry.” He stands slowly, making a show of fixing his plaid button down shirt that he always wears when he is working. “Yes, of course. Council, let me introduce to you. Louis…” He looks down at Louis fondly, who smiles back. “Liam, and Zayn.” Liam only looks up to his name being acknowledged before he turns back to continue speaking to Niall. Zayn smiles, and waves warmly at the crowd.
“Louis is my boyfriend.” There is a general noise of acknowledgement, some pleased, some surprised. “And Satan.” He finishes the sentence as though that will be the end of the conversation and sits down, crafting his basket. The entire room is deathly silent. Louis looks around, and every single one of the group is looking at him in absolute horror, save a few.
“Nice to meet you all.” Louis smiles, taking Harry’s hand.
“So you’re the devil,” Tommy says, face neutral, but his eyes have a look of horror.
“Yes, but please call me Louis.” He smiles. It doesn’t seem to warm Tommy to him.
“You live in hell,” Nick pipes up. Apparently it is more obvious statement hour.
“Yes, I do.” Louis nods. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, not that he thinks they are going to bully him. They all look ready to bolt from the room honestly.
“THAT IS WHERE I KNOW YOU FROM.” Lottie jumps up excitedly, and rushes over to his seat. Tommy jumps behind her, but not in time for Lottie to jump into his arms. Louis hugs her back, not really knowing what is happening. He looks at Harry who is just as confused.
“You know me?”
“Of course I do. We came from the same...family I guess you could call it. You chose to come down and do your hell thing, but I was sent down to take care of people while they were still on the earth. I have been down longer than you, which is probably why you don’t remember me.” She hugs him again tightly, and Louis squeezes back a little more tightly.
“You are my family?” He asks, in a bit of a daze. She pulls back to give him his space a bit and sits back in her seat.
“Well, kind of. Like siblings. I didn’t realise that you ever came up. I can’t believe this.” She smiles, and everyone is looking at her like she has lost her mind. She rolls her eyes dramatically, and Louis laughs out loud because he really can see the similarities.
“He’s an angel guys, Get over it.” She smiles, going back to her task.
“So you aren’t going to kill us all and send our souls to Hades?” Tommy asks. Louis laughs. He can’t help it.
“No, I manage the bad souls, not hunt for good ones.”
“So what about those two?” Nick gives a little finger wave at Zayn that gets him a death stare from Liam.
“Um,” Louis says, not really wanting to tell their story. It would take hours to wade through it anyway.
“Personal assistant Liam and fellow angel Zayn,” he says which seems to get him tentative acceptance from the crowd.
“Hear that Ni? Mother Earth is Louis’ sister.” Harry pipes up, giving Niall a sassy eyebrow raise. Niall just rolls his eyes, and gives Liam a pointed look who seems to agree with whatever Niall was silently communicating with him.
“Yeah yeah. He is great. We all love Louis, can we get back to work please?” He continues to not work. In fact Louis hasn’t seen him pick up even a piece of straw, but the general atmosphere is now one of ease and pleasantry, and Louis couldn’t be happier to be a part of it.
They work with the general noise of friendly chatter, and Louis is happy to sit quietly and listen to conversations of people who have known one another for a long long time. Harry and Ed are the youngest of the group he finds out, and the rest treat them accordingly with a mix of razzing and over protectiveness. No one really mentions Louis and his companions aside from a polite questions, or an inclusion into a discussion that they might be interested. Liam and Niall stick to the company of one another while Zayn tries to engage everyone there in some sort of small talk.
Suddenly there is a breeze that blows the basket filler into a tiny cyclone in the center of the table and everyone shivers slightly. Louis looks up to see a man walk in, smiling brightly.
“You’re late,” Harry tells him, hardly looking in the man’s direction.
“Fashionably.” He replies, and leans down and gives Harry a kiss on the cheek that is a bit too lingering for Louis’ taste, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Jack, can I introduce you to Louis?” At this the man looks up, just now realising that there is someone there that he does not yet know.
“Louis?” He asks Harry instead of Louis, which is just not a good first impression, Louis could tell anyone.
“My boyfriend, Louis.” Harry smiles at Louis, and he can hear a snicker from behind him that he deduces as Nick.
“Boyfriend Louis,” the man, Jack says, eying Louis up and down. “You are keeping secrets from me H.”
“He doesn’t need to run his love life by you.” Niall pipes up from the back, and honestly it’s the nicest gesture that Niall has ever offered Louis. Louis blows him a kiss in response. Niall cringes.
“I’m Jack Frost.” Jack smiles, but a sickly sweet smile that he has seen Liam don from time to time. “Call me James.” He sticks his and out, and Louis takes it tentatively. James smiles brighter, gripping Louis’ hand tight. They stand that way for a second before a wave of confusion washes over James’ face.
“Not gonna work on him mate.” Oli sneers at James. “He can’t feel cold.” James jerks his hand away, eying Louis suspiciously.
“I don’t have any idea what youre talking about,” he says to Oli, slumping down in the empty seat next to Harry. Oli sorts, and gets back to wrapping the foil around a chocolate egg. “And what kind of person doesn’t feel cold? What are you, an angel or something?”
“Angel of darkness.” Ed mumbles, giving Louis a little elbow in the ribs. When Louis looks at him he is smiling at the joke that he made. Louis smiles back. Ed may not be that funny, but he is friendly, and Louis loves it.
“What was the rabbit ears?” James asks.
“He’s satan, Lucifer, the devil.” Ed enunciates every word as James's face gets whiter and whiter.
“Is this true?” He asks Harry once again.
“Yes, angel of Hell. Keeper of damaged souls. We just call him Louis. And his friends Zayn, and Liam.” Harry points to where the other two are gently placing eggs in baskets, Liam, surprisingly focused on his task.
“This is absurd.” James grumbles. “You are dating the devil, but you wouldn’t even go out with me for a coffee.”
“The heart wants what it wants.” Harry beams at Louis, who can’t help but lean in for a kiss.
“Does he even have a heart?” James juts his thumb in Louis’ direction, once again not speaking to him directly.
“More than you seem to.” Louis says, finally standing up for himself. The entire room bursts into laughter, and James finally shuts up and gets to work.
The day wears into evening and then into night. The ones who need sleep eventually start to drift off, leaving only Lottie, Louis and Zayn picking away as daylight begins to creep into the low windows.
“So Zayn.” Lottie’s voice is barely above a whisper. Everyone else has gone off to find a bed, but Liam who refused to leave Zayn’s side. “I know Louis’ story. But you are an angel as well. How did you end up with him.” She nods towards Liam. Zayn looks at his sleeping figure, and smiles.
“That is a very long, and complicated story, but if you want the short version, I was a guardian angel in the time that he was on earth. I fell in love. Basically abandoning the only rule of a guardian angel, don’t get attached to the human. Except he wasn’t the human I was guarding. He was the one trying to kill the human I was guarding. And yet I fell for him anyway.” Zayn’s face contorts into one of grief as though all of this didn’t happen centuries ago.
“When he was killed...I knew that I couldn’t let him go. I made a choice. That choice led me here.” Zayn looks down to where he had unconsciously grasped Liam’s hand, and Louis saw that Liam had curled his fingers around it. Louis couldn’t tell if he was awake, or if the movement was instinctual.
“Any regrets?” Lottie asks, seemingly unaware of how personal of a question that may be.
“Some,” Zayn replies. It catches Lottie off guard, but Louis knows the struggle they have faced. He smiles sadly at Zayn who smiles back. “But I am happy. I am content, and I have an eternity with the love of my life. I can’t much complain.”
Lottie seems to consider the answer as Harry walks into the room with a tray of breakfast sweets, and the strong scent of coffee and tea. He looks like he spent the night standing on his head as his hair is going in ten different directions, only held somewhat together by a scarf wrapped tightly around the front of his hairline. She smiles at Harry, and waves him over with the food, but looks at Zayn thoughtfully. “I’ll have to hear the rest another day.”
Zayn smiles slowly, and nods. “I’d like that, yeah.” He says. Louis doesn’t know for sure, but he hopes that Lottie fully understands what the gesture of friendship means to Zayn. He leaves Zayn to gently wake Liam up while he helps Harry with breakfast.
In the end it takes a week of nearly around the clock preparation, but they make it under the deadline thank’s to Louis and Zayn, and in a small way Liam. Ed is making his rounds, hugging, and kissing cheeks, while Niall packs the back up sleigh to drop all of Ed’s materials on the island until the big day. Louis slinks his arm around Harry’s waist as they stand in the doorway.
“That was fun!” Louis says, waving to Ed once more.
“Was it?” Harry replies, sighing heavily. “I am now a full week behind on my work.”
“You are a month ahead of schedule. You always are.” Louis says, squeezing him tightly.
“Who told you that?” Harry turns on him, closing the door behind him. The village is quiet once again, and Harry has almost forgotten what it was like to have a conversation with Louis without at least a dozen eyes on them.
“Niall.” Louis smiles, clearly chuffed that Niall told him anything at all that didn’t include the words get out of my way.
“He did, did he?” Harry smiles as well, knowing how important Niall’s approval is to Louis. But as soon as the smile comes, it’s gone again. “You have to go, don’t you?”
Louis reaches up, and tucks a stray curl behind Harry’s ear. “I really should,” he says, “But there isn’t any reason why you can’t come with me?”
“No?” the smile creeps back in.
“Come and spend the night with me?” Louis asks. Harry answers him with a kiss as they vanish into nothing.