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"So I was talking to them---Very sweet, by the way. Absolute angels they were---But I was talking to them and they wanted me to record a video for their friends," Louis explained from the corner of their room where his suitcase sat.
He'd just gotten back to their hotel from his concert that night, Harry with him for the weekend, and he was recapping the lovely experience he'd had.
"Mhm," Harry replied from his side of the bed. Urging Louis to keep talking.
"Which y'know, fine," Louis continued as he changed his sweats, "do that all the time, y'know." He began to fold his other pair of pants, "Except her one friend, which, bless," Louis prefaced, turning to face Harry as he did so, "had such an Italian name."
"HA!" Harry laughed abruptly, his head thrown back against the pillow.
"I'm not kidding, H," Louis said as he placed the folded pants back on the left side of his suitcase, turning back around to fully face his husband. "I was struggling."
"I'm sure you were," Harry said through the smallest laugh.
Louis' face dropped to pure disamusement for the slightest second before he continued speaking, reaching to discard himself of his shirt.
"So anyway, this poor girl, her name was Francesca-"
"Oh I love that name," Harry responded genuinely, glancing up from his phone once more.
"I do too, it's beautiful," Louis momentarily stopped pulling at the hem of his t-shirt, "But anyway," he pulled at it again and didn't continue until it was all the way off. "This poor girl... Was standing there trying to help me pronounce this name for like ten minutes-"
Harry laughed again but in pity of the situation and the kindness of the girl.
"And in the end I just could not get it so we y'know we just took the video and that, she even tried to say it with me during the video but I just... I know I butchered that name, Harry." Louis shook his head just slightly, turning to walk and get in bed beside his love.
"Well it's not the end of the world," Harry reassured as he pulled the covers down on Louis' side of the bed for the older man to get under. "Plus you know as well I do that they only care they met you. They probably won't even notice the pronunciation of their name, just that Louis Tomlinson said it."
Harry said his name with such a prestine tone it gave Louis a bit of a smile. He relaxed on his side of the bed for a moment, happy to be off his feet, before he spoke up again.
"I told them, y'know, Italian's a hard language and all that, and they were very kind but-"
"Well lucky for you, you've got yourself a personal tutor," Harry said with the slightest smirk laced into his voice.
"Exactly yeah. Actually I was kind of hoping you could help me, just so I know the correct pronunciation and that for next time," Louis looked over to the younger man as he spoke, meeting Harry's eyes before the younger turned his head.
"Yeah? What was the name then," Harry asked, since Louis hadn't actually said the name yet.
"Well there was Melissa and then there was Av... Auo-rora? Avora? Au-"
"Aurora?" Harry questioned in his perfect, practiced Italian.
"Yeah, that!" Louis snapped his finger and pointed. "Melissa was fine but I could not for the life of me get Au---Auo-vora---Au-"
"Aurora?" Harry said once more in his beautiful Italian. "Yeah that's a common name over there. Beautiful as well." Harry had spent a good amount of time there when he was writing his second album, speaking with friends and the locals, so he'd wanted to pick up the language.
And it was foreign sounding to Louis.
But it was also hot so-
"How do you do it so easily??" Louis laughed at his own terrible skill. "Au--Awoo-"
Harry laughed then. "Awoo?" He could barely get the repeated noise out of his mouth through his laughter. "A-" he sputtered a laugh once more, "Awoo??"
"I don't know!!" Louis laughed with a shrug. "Teach me. Teach me your ways, please. I want to get it right."
Harry smiled softly for the slightest second before he nodded, sitting up the slightest bit more and shifting so he was facing Louis.
"Okay. Au-oo?" Harry nodded his head for Louis to repeat but Louis stared at him like he'd just said a slur in gibberish.
"Okay that was... French or something, I don't know what the fuck that was," Louis commented with pure confusion, gesturing his hand in Harry's general direction as the younger man laughed once more. Causing Louis to laugh as well.
"No you're right, you're right," Harry agreed, looking around the small room as he thought. "Ermmm---Okay say 'ow."
Louis' eyebrow quirked on it's own accord. "Ow?"
"Yeah like 'Ow! That hurts,' you know?"
"Ow?" Louis repeated, just to make sure.
"Ow," Harry nodded
Louis' mouth opened for the slightest second, no noise coming out as his eyebrows furrowed, before he spoke.
"Ow... Auoo---Owuu-"
Harry pressed his lips together tighter, watching as Louis' mouth bobbed like a fish. Harry's eyes slowly closed with his smile growing as he willed away his laughter.
"Auo---Owuror---Aou---Aur-"
Louis had been fully concentrated, his eyes foccussed off into the corner of their room. His head bounced forwards with the effort of making the correct sound, his pitch nothing but a roller coaster.
"Aoo---Au---Ai-u-ror---Owuu---Avor-" Harry opened his eyes just as Louis looked to meet him; Both bursting into a fit of giggles.
"How the fuck do you say it?!??" Louis exclaimed through his cackles. Harry's head lolled against the headboard as he clutched his chest with more laughter, as if he were trying to keep his heart in place.
He'd nearly stopped laughing but as the scene replayed in his head his humor started up again. The continuous, near gagging sounds Louis had been making repeating in his brain nonstop.
He heard Louis still giggling behind him, the Yorkshire voice chuckling out "I don't-"
Harry could hear the shrug through his voice.
"I love you," Harry said when he'd caught his breath.
"Okay but how do you say it??" Louis asked again, finally coming down from his own fit of laughter. "Seriously, I want to get it right," Louis stared at him, not in a pleading manner but sending silent asks through his look.
"Baby you already took the video," Harry commented, "it's not like you're gonna see them again."
Louis pointed to himself, "But I need to know I did it right. It's just a me thing, I will feel better once I know how to pronounce it."
Harry smiled fondly again, "okay."
Once they were both calm, and serious enough to not burst into laughter as soon they started speaking, they tried again.
"Okay 'ow'?"
Louis was foccussed on his face, watching the way his lips curved to form the sound. Even though that was a sound everyone knows since their birth.
"Ow," Louis repeated.
Harry's eyes lit up the tiniest bit. "Good! Okay now just add an 'oo' sound to it---'Ow-oo'
"Awoo," Louis repeated from earlier.
Harry's lips compressed again, so as not to spill giggles; Louis' face looking near sheepish. "No. 'Ah'-" Harry tried again but Louis stopped him.
"Thought you said 'ow'?"
"Well I did but-" Harry thought back to his previous words and sighed, "okay 'Au'?"
"Au...?"
"Yep. 'Oo-"
"Oo."
"Au-oo"
"Awoo," Louis repeated, as if he couldn't say the combination of letters any other way.
"No!" Harry exclaimed slightly louder, laughing once more and putting a hand to his head. Louis began to laugh with him once more. "My love, you---You're not a dog. We're not saying 'awoo', just put a little accent on it. Auoo"
Louis fish mouthed a few more times... But finally:
"Auoo"
"There!!" Harry announced once he'd gotten it, "there you go!" Louis repeated the sound a few more times to be comfortable with it before they continued.
"Okay, now, this is not in the spelling, but you almost want to make a-" Harry rubbed the tips of his fingers together as he searched for the right words, "like a---Like a 'V' sound. Y'know? Au-vora."
The 'slur word in gibberish' face was back.
"Sorry run that by me one more time?" Louis asked in the sarcastic tone Harry loved oh so much. Harry huffed a laugh and nodded.
"A 'V' sound," Harry reiterated, staring at Louis until Louis nodded in a 'yes I know what fucking sound the letter 'V' makes' kind of way. Harry then demonstrated, "Au-oo. Vora."
Louis looked uncertain for the slightest second before he spoke. "Au-oo. Vora."
"There you go!!" Harry cheered, "Auvora."
"Au-oo. Vora."
"Auvora."
The name went back and forth as Louis got more comfortable with the sound, even challenging himself to add a little roll to the last r. Which he did surprisingly well.
"See? Not that bad," Harry commented, getting comfortable in the covers once more.
"Yeah says the man who spent six months in Italy," Louis responded, sass in his tone but no venom.
"You can learn anything with practice," Harry shrugged, closing his eyes for the time being. He heard Louis shift underneath the covers next to him, and when he opened his eyes next he was invited for a cuddle. Which he never denied.
"I love you, I really do," Harry spoke genuinely, his head resting just over Louis' heart. The bare skin beyond smooth.
"I love you too," Louis replied, giving him the smallest squeeze.
"I'm glad we did that. I needed that kind of laugh," Harry muttered, the sleep in his brain starting to rasp out his voice.
It was true. Both their schedules had been a lot, a stress knawing at both of them that they hadn't quite been able to fully clear. But laughs like this help, they always help, and it reminded him of their late night chats and giggles back in the Xfactor house. And many more after that, thankfully.
"Mm," Louis hummed tiredly, "well I'm glad you find my struggles humorous." Sleep was already pulling at his limbs, his arms wrapped around his love. He felt Harry jump against him with a quiet chuckle, a smile of fond crawling onto his face. But nothing else was said.
And in the quiet of the night, in the quiet of his brain now that he knows how to pronounce a name correctly, something he has control of, even if it's small, the only thing left to say is one, whispered:
"Night, darlin'."