HL Fic Library 🥀 Exes Fic Rec
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🥀 Mine Would Be You by @crinkle-eyed-boo {E, 114k}
Louis blinks his eyes open, his eyelids fluttering as the room swims around him. He takes several gulps of beer once he confirms that he’s definitely not hallucinating, that the very first portrait Harry Styles ever painted of him is hanging on that wall.
Louis stares at the wall, his heart jackrabbiting in his chest as he realizes that there’s not just one painting of him, there’s five, the portraits lined up like they’re some sort of storyboard depicting the rise and fall of his deepest love. His greatest heartache. A pain that cut him so deep that he left the fucking country, severing all ties with his life in New York, now suddenly surrounding him as if he’d never left.
Fucking shit motherfucker fuck.
Louis returns to New York City five years after he left it – and the love of his life – behind. He didn't intend to see Harry again, but fate has a funny way of pulling them together, whether they like it or not. After making a begrudging truce, they both start to wonder: Would it be so bad if history repeated itself?
🥀 And What If I Were You by jacaranda_bloom / @jacaranda-bloom {E, 109k}
For Louis, will losing his sight give him the clarity to realise what is right in front of him?
For Harry, will losing the love of his life give him the strength to finally open his heart?
And can they find their way back, before they lose each other forever?
A story of love. A story of loss. A story of fighting for each other, no matter the odds.
🥀 somewhere in between lightning by jassy117, @nauticalleeds, shiningdistractionwrites / @shiningdistraction {E, 99k}
As Louis took another bite, he thought back to how he had once believed that the hardest thing about being on Love Island would be Liam handling his social media. He had been wrong. It was Harry Styles, peeking over at Louis as he forked a pancake into his mouth, and gauging his reaction. It was having to quench the swelling of his heart, which felt simultaneously like hope and the breaking of a thousand pieces.
A summer gone wrong (or very right) when, under Liam’s persuasion, Louis finds himself drunkenly applying for Love Island, and getting accepted. Oh, well. A summer spent on an island paradise couldn’t be all that bad, right?
Imagine his surprise when Louis arrives in sunny Majorca to find that his first love and ex-boyfriend, Harry, is another contestant, about to capture the hearts of everyone in the villa. Most normal people don’t have to face their ex on an otherwise straight TV show. Most normal people don’t fall for their ex again in front of the whole nation, either. Too bad this whole situation isn’t normal.
🥀 Emperor’s New Clothes by sunsetmog / @magicalrocketships {E, 92k}
The fact that Louis’s most precious belonging was a cat with a face like thunder and an uncanny ability to cover every single inch of Louis’s clothing with cat hair was something that Louis chose not to think about too much.
or: Harry’s a pop star and Louis isn’t, and there’s a non-disclosure agreement where there used to be a relationship.
🥀 Consequences by @allwaswell16 {E, 78k}
Two years ago Harry let his powerful family come between him and the love of his life, something he deeply regrets. Louis has tried to move on from their devastating break up. Sometimes, he even thinks he has. It only takes one moment to freeze them back in time.
An amnesia au
🥀 your memory over me by @shimmeringevil {E, 64k}
Three years have passed since Louis last saw him, but all it took was a few minutes in Harry’s presence for him to be relegated to the desperate twenty-one year old that was practically begging his boyfriend for an ounce of reassurance that he still cared about him.
Harry shouldn’t be here. He’s brought too many unresolved feelings with him, that Louis thought he’d never have to face.
It’s Harry’s apparent apathy that’s the most difficult to come to terms with. Anger, he could handle. Regret, he would welcome. But Harry’s amiability, and carefree demeanor can only be born from indifference.
He’s moved on. He doesn’t care. And that is something Louis doesn’t think he’ll ever be strong enough to face.
OR - The worst heartbreak of Louis’ life walks right back into it when his parents invite their family friends on an all-expenses-paid trip for their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. Facing a past that he tried to bury long ago, Louis learns that some people have a way of sticking with you even when they’re gone.
🥀 Feels Like Coming Home by @phdmama {E, 60k}
The last thing Harry Styles expects when he's hanging out at the Someday Cafe in Somerville one rainy October day is for his ex, Louis Tomlinson to walk through the door, but that's exactly what happens. After a spectacularly ugly break-up three years prior, Harry hasn't heard one word from Louis, and he's moved on. Gotten over him. But having Louis back in his life, not to mention working at the restaurant where he's a chef, isn't easy, and the feelings that Harry thought he'd left turn out to be not so easily forgotten.
This is a story about love and the power of forgiveness, and how the hard choices we make define us, and change our lives.
🥀 The Second Hand Unwinds by @kingsofeverything {E, 51k}
Louis Tomlinson is one of the first members of NASA's top secret Chrono Exploration Program. When things go wrong and he's sent further back in time than planned, he has no other option than to show up on his ex-boyfriend's doorstep.
🥀 The End Should Be A Good One by bananasandboots / @anylessreal {M, 43k}
It doesn't feel like falling in love, the way it had felt the first time around, easy, simple, almost like floating, wrapped up in a whirlwind of touches and kisses, late nights spent laughing breathlessly into each other's skin. This feels broken, complicated, like every move carries the weight of their past. Like the floorboards beneath them could collapse at any moment. This doesn't feel good.
Or, the one where Harry loses the love of his life on New Years Eve and finds him again, six months later, ready to open some poorly-stitched wounds.
🥀 Sometimes You Just Know by @2tiedships2 {M, 33k}
“Dear diary. Today is going to be a good day, and here’s why...”
“What are you doing?” Louis mumbled as he bit into a piece of toast.
“It’s been almost two years and today Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson reunite. Louis is very excited about…”
Louis’ chair screeched along the kitchen floor as he flew up out of his seat, quickly grabbing the paper from Niall’s grasp. As he scanned the page he found it amounted to lines of nothing.
“What is this?” Louis asked again. “We’ve discussed how Harry Styles will never be spoken of in this flat. I don’t care how long it’s been.”
Niall snatched the paper from Louis and proceeded to draw a line across the page before writing.
“Today is the day that he-who-shall-not-be-named is coming to dinner.”
Or the one where Harry and Louis don’t believe in soulmates… until they do.
🥀 like a timebomb ticking by @infinitelymint {M, 31k}
Louis loses everything. Harry's still there.
🥀 Cowboy Like Me by Rearviewdreamer / @all-these-larrythings {M, 29k}
Going legit and starting over in a small town was supposed to solve all of Harry’s problems. That was until a string of robberies in wealthy towns brings him face-to-face with his rouge ex-partner and their dicey, unresolved past.
🥀 Get Out Of My Head (and I'll get out of yours) by Imogenlee / @imogenleewriter {E, 29k}
“You really that desperate, are you?” Despite it being a shitty thing to say, Harry didn’t mind too much, as the bitterness in Louis’ tone sounded like music to Harry’s ears. Harry was winning tonight. “Can’t find anyone new to be interested in you, so you try to hit on Zayn.”
“I can’t find someone interested in me?” Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’re having a laugh, mate.”
“Yeah, well, where are they, then? Because from what I’ve heard, you’re here alone.”
“As if I’d bring anyone to somewhere I knew you’d be. I wouldn’t wish your presence on my worst enemy.”
“Aw,” Louis cooed in a way that made Harry want to slap him. “You’re saying I’m not your worst enemy?”
“For someone to be an enemy, you have to give a shit about them. So, no. You’re not even on the list.”
“Oh–kay. Well, it’s been lovely as always, gents,” Zayn said before knocking back the rest of his drink.
Or the one for the Bottom Harry Fic Fest where Harry bottoming is more of a side plot, because angst got in the way--but it doesn't really matter because the fest stopped existing when I was halfthrough.
🥀 some things fade (some never do) by we_are_the_same / @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed {T, 25k}
Matching tattoos. He’d never thought he’d be the type for tattoos to begin with, let alone matching or magical ones, but once Harry had put the idea in his mind it had never quite managed to disappear. And it had made sense. With their relationship a long distance one, this was simply another way of feeling close to one another. Of knowing where the other was, how they felt. It had made so much sense.
Back then.
Three years after their break up, Harry calls.
🥀 Might've Took The Long Way by LiveLaughLoveLarry / @loveislarryislove {M, 21k}
It's been two years since Harry and Louis broke up. They were that couple in high school -- you know the one; been together forever, hopelessly in love, all over each other, the whole nine yards. Even when Louis went off to university, they found a way to make the distance work.
Until they broke up.
Now Harry is back in town, and no matter how many times Louis tells himself they can't be together, they keep falling right back into each other.
“They got a name?” Bebe asks.
“What?”
“Your ghosts,” she says, her voice suddenly soft. “If you want to tell me, I mean. I know I said I wouldn’t ask, but. Sometimes it can help to exorcise them.” She pauses, and chuckles. “Other times, vodka works better than sage.”
Louis holds his breath for a moment, building the courage, before he finally murmurs, “Harry.”
“Sorry?”
“Harry,” Louis says again. The name feels like a time bomb in his mouth, but it hasn’t blown up yet. “His name was -- is -- Harry.”
🥀 lost in my head by YesIsAWorld / @louandhazaf {E, 12k}
Louis had been, until about a year prior, the love of Harry’s life.
🥀 Fuck You For Ruining New York City For Me by galactic_larry / @galacticlarry {T, 11k}
Harry met Louis in college and fell in love with him in record time. Louis broke up with him in their New York apartment, so Harry left the city for good. Except now he’s back, visiting with his new boyfriend.
What happens when they run into each other at a bar three years after breaking up?
🥀 give me things to stay awake by embodied {E, 10k}
It’s shitty and it’s counterproductive and it’s self-indulgent, but he lets it become a thing. On Saturday nights Harry goes out and gets so pissed he can’t stand, and when the bartender cuts him off he rings Louis and is in his car within an hour. It’s not a cycle he’s proud of, but it’s also something he can’t resist, and he keeps doing it as long as Louis keeps showing up.  AU. It's been a year since Louis broke up with Harry.
🥀 Now That It's Over by @lululawrence {NR, 8k}
“What are the odds we would both be at Mariano’s on a Thursday night?”
Louis’ shoulders tensed. What the hell was he doing here?
“Harry? Hi? The odds are pretty crazy, yeah.”
Harry smiled down at Louis the way he used to, but there was also a glint in his eye that Louis absolutely did not like. Harry was also dressed in his favorite black and white striped women’s jeans and a printed shirt only he would ever be able to pull off. It was quite rude of him to come and interrupt Louis, particularly while looking so good. Louis hadn’t seen him since he’d finished moving his shit out of what was once their shared flat, so this being the first time seeing him wasn’t exactly providence in Louis’ mind.
Or the one where Harry and Louis broke up two months ago, and Harry just might be sabotaging Louis' dates.
🥀 Unspoken by Speechless / @smokingluckiesalltheway {E, 5k}
Harry and Louis broke up when they were nineteen. They see each other after six years.
"I'm not going to be the guy you fuck on the side while you settle down with your blonde wife." Maybe it's the way he phrased it, something about what Louis has just said tears a small laugh out of him. "I don't want that." Harry says, serious again. There is no reason for him to keep on holding onto Louis' scarf like this, but he does. "The last time I saw you I thought we would fix it." Louis' the one laughing this time, his vision blurry. "The last time you saw me was right before you got on a train and fucked off." "And I thought we would fix it." Harry repeats, his voice shot. "I thought you'd come."
🥀 Not yet a breach, but an expansion by theweightofmywords / @lil0 {NR, 2k}
“I don’t understand why we keep running into each other,” he says as his hands grip his hair in frustration.
Shaking himself out of his reverie, he scoffs. “You know why, Harry."
Fate, it seems, still holds their lives in her ceaseless orbit.
