aroseinflames

A One Direction fic rec of university/college fics as requested via dm. This rec is part 3 of this rec. If you enjoy the fics, please leave kudos and comments for the writers! You can find my other recs here. Happy reading!

Part One | Part Two

- Louis / Harry -

🎒 Shake Me Down by @agreatperhaps12

(NR, 208k, enemies to lovers) Harry's new to college, fresh out of Catholic school and conversion therapy camp, and Louis runs the campus LGBTQIA organization.

🎒 We Are Only Just Beginning by @afirethatcannotdie

(E, 129k, established relationship) In the dim light of a dorm kitchen, Harry Styles meets a boy who flips his life upside down. Three years later, he's a senior in college, ready to take on the world with the love of his life by his side. And then Louis Tomlinson admits he doesn't know what he wants to do after college after all, and Harry's world flips again, this time not so pleasantly.

🎒 it's golden, like daylight by wildestdreams / @thelavendrhaze

(E, 61k, omegaverse) longtime friends, Harry and Louis, come up with the perfect plan to fake date, which, of course, ends up being a complete disaster.

🎒 elephant juice by @stylinsoncity

(M, 32k, fwb) harry doesn't understand boundaries. louis doesn't mind at all.

🎒 That Howling Infinite by @sweettartine

(E, 27k, pining) When Louis struggles in the literature class he needs to pass to graduate, his professor assigns him a tutor. A cute tutor. A cute tutor with a boyfriend. 

🎒 taken by lust’s strange inhumanity by CuckooTrooke / @larrydoinglaundry

(E, 20k, omegaverse) much to Harry's triumph and dismay, Louis is here but the last time Harry got a glimpse of him, he had a pretty omega wrapped around him, clinging onto the flaps of his leather jacket while nosing his scent glands. Maybe that’s just the story of Harry's life; always infatuated with the wrong people.

🎒 I Didn't Fall For You (You Fucking Tripped Me) by @allwaswell16

(E, 20k, omegaverse) These days Louis tends to steer clear of dating alphas. He’s dated too many knotheads in his time, and he’s ready to just focus on school and his friends and his pet monitor lizard, of course. Too bad the alpha next door won’t take a hint and stop using the worst pick up lines of all time on him.

🎒 Spinning Out Waiting for You by amomentoflove / @daggerandrose

(M, 18k, witches) Harry Styles is a year and a half away from graduating with a masters in potions and he has one huge milestone to reach in his academy career: the Matching Ceremony.

🎒 High heels on, 'm feeling alive by thebreadvan / @thebreadvansstuff

(M, 14k, meet cute) Harry damages a car when drunkenly stumbling home after a fun night out with his friends. Feeling horribly guilty, he tries to find the owner and make it up to him.

🎒 in the pub that we met he’s got his arms around you by fearsparks / @onlythebravest

(T, 13k, friends to lovers) Harry's best friend Louis comes to visit him where he attends uni, meets Harry's friends, who point out that they don't know what platonic means

🎒 Behind closed doors by bluegreenish / @greenblueish

(E, 10k, fwb) the one where omega Louis finds a sock on alpha Harry's door handle that causes a big misunderstanding but is also the beginning of something new.

🎒 spice up your life by barchive

(E, 9k, established relationship) After a conversation with his Uni friends, Harry worries that his relationship with Louis has lost it's spark.

🎒 Trying to Find the Words (To Say For Ages) by @insightfulinsomniac

(E, 6k, roommates) As best friends and roommates, it’s really not a big deal when their on-campus housing provides Harry and Louis with an unusual, intimate bathroom arrangement. They’re perfectly comfortable with one another and their own bodies. Except for the whole mutually pining thing. That might make it a little awkward.

🎒 Take My Hand, Dumbass by LadyLondonderry / @londonfoginacup

(G, 5k, roommates) There's only alpha dorms at university, and Louis Tomlinson, omega, refuses to pay the exorbitant fees to live off campus. So, four years pretending to be an alpha it is! That'll be easy.

🎒 Oblivious Hearts by FelintoGirl / @felinto-girl

(G, 5k, friends to lovers) Attempt number seventy three was pasta night. Louis almost had a breakdown while trying to cook sauce from scratch, but Harry licked his thumb clean and smiled like Louis had handed him the moon. Louis had to leave the room and scream silently into a pillow. But still… just friends.

🎒 Alpha Heater For Sale by stretchmybones / @lookwhatyoumademelou

(T, 3k, omegaverse) Louis tilted his head at the flyer curiously. It read: Alpha heater for sale! Winter weather got you down? Call Harry for your warm, furnace-like needs!

🎒 Stole My Heart by @haztobegood

(NR, 2k, humor) “The worst thing. I’ll never recover. I just reached into a box of free samples outside that new chicken restaurant. Only it wasn’t free samples. It was a man. Holding a box of chicken nuggets. His chicken nuggets. I stole this man’s food, Niall!”

🎒 When you look at me like that, my darlin', what did you expect? by INnenaHeart / @thechavier

(M, 1k, meet cute) Louis realizes he's into men because of a long hair, chelsea boots wearing, Harry

- Rare Pairs -

🎒 These Streets Are Yours by sunsetmog / @magicalrocketships

(M, 5k, Liam/Louis) The night Louis slept with Liam, Louis was half-convinced that just for once, things were going to go his way.

🎒 Make Your Mark by LadyAJ_13 / @ladyaj-13

https://x.com/erodarryx/status/2058574206854476282

Larry being an open secret in the music industry:

https://x.com/brightannegold/status/2084655674831802396

Add this to the long list of behaviors these two have that mimic each other. It’s crazy.

They can have the narrative that they are starting fresh in a new home with no ghosts of past relationships. Giving more credibility to the usual articles we get shortly before a BUA.

It allows him to sell the house in preparation to move into that huge compound Harry is working on without everyone’s first thought being that he is doing it to move forward in life with Harry.

He could pretend to be selling it to pretend to spend more time in LA triggering a custody battle which ultimately reveals he isn’t Freddie’s father.

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter what the reason he chose now to list it for sale because whatever reason it is happens part of a bigger plan we aren’t privy to yet.

The timing is too suspicious to think it means nothing, but Louis is not dumb, he knows that this would cause the type of reaction we are seeing now and he either wanted or needed this to be public.

I saw Louis Barnet house on Rightmove- it’s all decorated in a very neutral style to sell. I think the one thing I’d make sure wasn’t there if I was him is something that people might link to his arch enemy. But that’s just me… 😂🤦🏻‍♀️

Thanks for your blog being such a great resource and thank you for always being so kind!

Hi sugar. Yes! It’s a good sign, IMO.

I’m sure he’s moved out anything that was important to him (like all those extra Brit awards 😆). The H blanket is pretty hilarious, though.

yes, there’s proof and just be warned, because once you see all the timing you literally won’t recover. sorry this took so long, but i wanted to collect as much proof as possible to reeaaally fuck you up. :) 

so the OTRA tour break was from april 5th to june 4th, and the boys all talked about doing a lot of songwriting while they weren’t on tour. remember how they mentioned multiple times during MITAM press that they split up and went with different outside writers and came back with a bunch of material? that was during this time. 

the general fandom theory is that louis wrote home on april 14th, 2015, because that’s the song he wrote with liam and jamie, and he posted this on insta: 

they’d been apart for less than two weeks at that point. the next day, harry pops up wearing the famous blue bandana in west hollywood: 

and we assume it’s just a shout out to fandom, thinking that harry’s reassuring us that everything’s cool with them while louis is papped out at clubs every single night for weeks on end. not realizing that louis had just spent the day before writing what would become one of the most iconic relationship songs the band has done so far, and even made liam get all emosh: 

While Liam Payne said “Home” is the most meaningful song on the album for him but demurred about exactly why that is, he revealed Tomlinson tapped into his emotional side while writing and recording. “Having seen different things he’s gone through and different stuff this year – and obviously I’ve written a lot of songs with him – he can really get into that sensitive mindset to write songs, which is pretty cool.”

then louis was supposed to fly to LA to write with julian (and so he would have still been within the two week rule, as harry was already there and would be for a while), but julian changed his plans and flew to london. so the two week rule was broken, we were all sad but we understood, can’t be seen together, etc etc. 

we don’t know the exact day when iicf was written, as far as i know, but it was within those couple of weeks louis was supposed to be in LA and wasn’t. all we do know is that later, liam says he cried while recording it, anne says it’s her favorite, and louis says he cried too (DEATH!!!), and that harry has never, ever given an actual explanation of the meaning. here’s what he said in the track-by-track explanation: 

I’ve been working with Johan for a little bit; we did a couple of songs together. We did a song for Ariana Grande, and we did – he’s like a really good piano player. He’s just really good at it, so it’s quite natural to just sit with him at a piano and start playing. It was another one that kind of just, kind of fell down, out of, you know, it felt quite natural to like, sing it, and obviously if you get, like, a cool melody with instruments, you kind of decide whether it’s better to follow it or not. Sometimes it’s really cool, and sometimes it’s better to leave that as an instrumental melody, so.

which is basically “erm, um, PIANO. PIANO IS COOL LET’S. LET’S TALK ABOUT PIANO.” or also this. 

and then, at the MITAM listening party, the video for IICF turned out to be a literal homage to baby larry, showing unseen clips and sending us all spiralling.

later, as promo season rolled around, harry and louis very much claimed those songs as their own. the day the perfect EP was put on spotify (out of nowhere), louis tweeted this: 

and then (AND THIS IS POTENTIALLY THE WORST PART), when louis went in early november to vancouver and atlanta and the stalkers and update accounts started hinting heavily at a winter girlfriend who we’d later learn was danielle, harry tweets this: 

I do x

here is ten amazing hogwarts h/l AUs, stop your fightin about houses and rejoice in something we all agree on; harry and louis falling in love in every universe

💛 When a Louie leaves their calling card ..

https://x.com/brightannegold/status/2084655674831802396

Add this to the long list of behaviors these two have that mimic each other. It’s crazy.

hello sweetheart, thank you for your kind message. 💖 I had to let it simmer for a bit, but I'm ready to speak on this now.

I first want to say that i don't exclusively reblog posts I 100% agree with. sometimes I reblog posts that simply show an interesting perspective or voice a thought that I don't know enough about to make a judgement on, but still want to share, because I find it important to amplify a valid voice or share a challenging, critical thought. sometimes I reblog posts that broadly align with what I think, but in which I do not agree with every single point that was made.

To be abundantly clear, I personally have every reason to believe that Louis does not want to stay in the closet for the rest of his life; in fact, not even for very much longer -- and the same goes for Harry. Mainly to be able to start having kids and lead a normal (as possible) life with them. Obviously there are a lot more nuances, upsides, and also (sadly) risks to being out, but I don't know how much weight each of those hold for H & Lou respectively and as a couple, I could only guess.

As many lovely people here have said before, I'm also personally under the impression that by now they don't much care about what the public (= strangers!) thinks of their relationship status or sexuality, nor do I think they are keen on the general public knowing much about it in the first place -- not just because of everything that's happened during the 1D days and its aftermath, but also because they have become incredibly private about their personal lives. Within friend-, adult family-, and work circles that matter, they're not hiding their relationship (never really much have) and are not hiding who they are in general.

At the same time, we shan't forget there are a lot of moving parts connected to their closet - most of them the public isn't privy to, and it always has to be viewed in the societal construct we all live in, as well as their careers they obviously still care about maintaining at the moment. Them and their careers exist and operate within a heteronormative, homomisic, transmisic, misogynist, patriarchal construct and in order to be successful, an artist MUST adhere to an industry standard in which all of the aforementioned societal biases are still extremely prevalent. we cannot ever overlook that fact. so as much as we fucking hate stunting (and i'm sure they don't enjoy it either), it is a part of their careers and part of upholding the image catering to the heteronormativity and homomisia we sadly live in.

But back to the topic -- my read on it is that they'll take a break from the spotlight and from actively releasing music and touring within the next 2-3 years to "settle down" and start the process of having kids and focussing on just their family for a while before they return to being active artists. (tiny side info on surrogacy laws in the UK: surrogacy is permitted in the UK, although the law is, to be blunt, a bit risky for the hoping-parents-to-be if you don't 100% trust your surrogate to for sure give up custody of the baby post-birth, because custody automatically stays with the birthing person [and whoever they list as other parent] guaranteed until the baby is born and "Surrogacy agreements are not enforceable by UK law, even if you have a signed document with your surrogate and have paid their expenses.". But in the case of one of them donating and using their sperm with a surrogate, if they use an unlicensed clinic, H or Lou would automatically be a legal parent of the child.) And remember the reno of the London properties fusion is estimated to be finished at the end of 2027. Obviously who knows if that plan will stick, but you can still move into a home earlier than when any and all reno is finished; plus, they have several homes in several countries. Also H's residencies this year are a great way to try out that kind of touring, since it's much less stressful to tour with children when only doing residencies.

I also have no doubt that babygate will end, but in the most lowkey way possible. paternity test, short statement, then the story gets buried by their teams, questions about it are blacklisted and Louis possibly never publicly talks about it again. -- and I also hope that the very real child who was being used his entire life will finally have peace (and hopefully be able to get therapy for that fucked up scheme they used him for).

So yeah, I have absolutely zero doubt about them coming out in the not so distant future and I'm sure they've had a plan for a long time and said plan surely changed a couple of times, too. I don't read them as wanting it to be a big thing - especially since coming out would mean (in some kind of way or another) inviting the world into their relationship. I don't see it being more than a short statement -- or a pap walk, short written confirmation, then back out of the spotlight; not addressing anything else, not addressing past stunts (that would stir up a lot of old 'demons' with veeeeery long tails), no definitive info on how long they've been together, etc. but that is just my guess! i of course might be wrong; maybe they’ll have a big-but-private wonderfully gay wedding/re-newal of vows, we will see. plus, it'll also depend on whether it happens before or after they have their first child and how long they've been out of the spotlight by that point. People nowadays have such incredibly short attention spans and no object permanency, so it shouldn't be too incredibly hard to wait out the news buzz and then go on with their day to day lives - especially if they've been out of the spotlight for a while by then. people love to forget, people love to move on from things that don't constantly entertain them with fresh new stuff. also, like I mentioned earlier, we know how easy it is to bury a story if they want their teams to do that.

All I hope for them is that it's going to go exactly how they want and what they feel comfortable with and that it will make them feel free and at peace, among other things. All of their feelings about it are valid and they are theirs alone. None of us have walked in their shoes. I have always and will forever wish them all the happiness in the world. 💕

-

so this sums up my main thoughts about it. i had originally written more, but i feel like it's not my place to talk about it in too much detail. What I will end on saying is that after 13 years of supporting H & Lou, the past 15 months have felt huge and I don’t say that lightly. I'm so deeply joyful and excited for them. Like the wonderful Gina @twopoppies keeps saying: things are shifting. 😌