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Liam rubs his hands together. "Let me tell you what he did yesterday. So, I'm sitting in the dressing room minding my own business, having a nice little sit-down as you do, when what do I see but Louis's lovely pretty face--"
"Replay!" says Louis loudly next to him, digging an elbow into his ribs.
Liam falters for a second, thrown off his stride of telling a story, but rules are rules, so he turns to Louis with a grin and says, "Louis's lovely pretty face."
Louis looks very smug. "Reeeplay."
"Loui's lovely pretty face."
"Double replay."
"Louis's lovely lovely pretty pretty face." Liam figures those are the most important words Louis wants doubling, just to embarrass Liam, even though he only chose those words to contrast with the latter half of the story where Louis ends up with Marmite smeared not very prettily all over said face. Liam doesn't mind though because Louis looks so amused.
"Replay backwards."
Liam concentrates for a moment, then says, "Face pretty, lovely Louis," and Louis cackles.
"Replay falsetto!"
"Louis's looo-ooovely pretty faaa-aaace--" Liam croons.
Louis slaps his thigh in delight, face crunched up in a grin, and he opens his mouth again, but--
"Okay!" Harry interrupts him. He also looks amused, but widens his eyes significantly. "To coin a phrase, are you quite finished?"
Liam had sort of forgotten they were in an interview, so he glances at the interviewer apologetically. "Sorry, sorry!" he says, and gives her his best charming smile. "What was the question?"
She has her eyebrows raised, eyes flicking between Liam and Louis who has his leg draped over Liam's thigh and is still hiding giggles behind his hand. "Quite," she says, and gives an odd knowing smile, and then carries on.
--
"You need to be - careful with that replay thing," says Paul, exasperatedly, back in the hotel. "It looks a bit rude, and--" He pauses and shakes his head. "Just tone it down."
"And what!" squawks Louis, in one of those moods. "It's not mine and Liam's problem that no-one appreciates our comedic genius."
"Because you and your replay flirting looks really bloody gay!" shouts Niall through a mouthful of crisps, and Paul winces then shrugs.
"What?" says Liam, cheeks burning for no reason, because that's stupid. "No, we're not - that's not - that's so stupid!"
Louis has already bounded over to the kitchen area, so Liam can't even exchange an incredulous look with him.
"Okay, Liam," says Harry, rubbing a hand over his head patronisingly, and Liam ducks away, scowling.
--
The next time Louis says "Replay," again in an interview, this time when Liam's talking about them all nearly missing their flight, Liam feels a weird little warm squirmy feeling in his belly, but he meets Louis's bright eyes anyway and does it.
"Louis couldn't find his trousers," he repeats, and again, and in a very bad Irish accent when Louis says "Replay Niall-style," and silently thanks god or whoever when Louis visibly restrains himself after that with a smirk, because Liam wasn't going to stop. Liam hates pissing Paul off, not to mention it is a bit rude in the middle of an interview maybe, but it's like there is nothing that would stop him playing along with Louis when Louis asks him to and bloody grins at him like it's the funniest thing ever and - well, fuck Paul and Niall and everyone for making it weird.
After the interview, Paul gives him a pointed look as he herds them back into their suite but doesn't say anything, Harry gives him a big grin and Zayn gives him an appraising look and neither say anything, and Louis jumps on his back and screeches, "Liam make me a cup of tea!", so Liam decides to focus on the familiar and make the tea.
"Replay tea?" says Louis angelically when he's done, holding his mug out from where he's curled on the sofa.
Liam hesitates for a moment, because he is not Louis's personal slave, okay, but he sighs and grabs the mug, takes it over to the kitchenette of their suite.
"Seriously?" says Harry, looking up from his phone where he's hunched over it rapidly texting at the table.
Liam shrugs, flicks the kettle on. "It's the game, isn't it?"
Harry rolls his eyes, locks his phone with a flourish, stands up to slide it into his pocket, and jams his beanie onto his head. "I," he says, then looks slowly and significantly at Liam and Louis, "am going to go and find Niall and Zayn."
"Fine, whatever," says Liam, discomfited and inexplicably a bit nervous. "Bye."
"Replay!" calls Louis from the sofa.
"Bye from Louis too."
Harry sighs, massively, and leaves.
"You're a brat!" Liam calls out, and Louis laughs.
Liam makes the tea quickly, using one of Louis's stash of Yorkshire teabags rather than the hotel's own, and hoping that will make up for the horrid little UHT pots of milk, and carries it back over to Louis.
"Here you go, brat," he says, and makes Louis reach up for it.
Louis pouts, dragging the tea in sulkily. "Replay nicer."
"Have you turned into a robot that got stuck and can only say replay?" asks Liam. Louis just glares up at him, looking about twelve over the rim of his mug, and Liam sighs. "Here you go, darling."
Louis's face switches into his smug little smile and he nods, takes a sip of tea. "Replay that."
"Here you go, darling." Liam is just standing in front of Louis like a lemon, parroting words at him, and he doesn't want to be anywhere else. He may be a little bit buggered.
"Replay shorter."
"Here you go?"
Louis scowls. "No! Replay second half."
"Darling."
"Replay with cuddles." Louis tugs hard on Liam's wrist and holds his tea imperiously up out of the way as Liam goes "Oof!" and tumbles down onto the sofa next to Louis, feeling clumsy and breathless and maybe hopeful.
He rearranges himself and lets Louis curl up to his chest, legs draping over Liam's and head on Liam's shoulder. He's smaller than Liam, and soft and warm and funny and okay fine he is lovely and pretty all the time, not just when Liam wants to make fun of him for Marmite incidents. "Darling," he says, and his voice sounds a bit funny, and Louis must be able to feel his heart beating quickly from where he's curled up against him.
Louis just makes a contented noise and takes another sip of his tea.
"Louis."
"Mm?"
"Were - er. Were the others right?"
"Probably not, whatever it was."
"Oh, you do say words other than replay!"
Louis shrugs. "Got what I wanted now, haven't I?"
Which presumably means Liam cuddled up to him alone in the room, which still begs the terrifying question--
"Is this whole replay thing - are you, erm, using it to--"
Flirt is a terrible word and refuses to form itself in Liam's mouth and Liam hates everything, but Louis places his mug on the side table and twists a little to look back at him.
"Well," says Louis, and he's smirking but Liam knows him well enough to know he looks a bit nervous, too. "That depends, dunnit. Is it working?"
Liam drops his mouth open. "You have! You have - this whole time you've been using replay to flirt with me! This whole time!"
"You didn't answer the q--"
Liam uses the adrenaline surge of his delighted outrage to dip his head forward and kiss Louis, like it's nothing. It shouldn't be anything, they've been this close before, they've kissed each other's cheeks and hands and ears and knees before, but it is, it's somehow massive, it's Louis's soft tea-warmed half-open mouth pressed up against his own pursed lips, and it makes his tummy do absolute cartwheels.
He pulls back, breathless.
"Yes it is," he says, then, "working, I mean," then, "oh my god." His mouth feels tingly even though it was just a little kiss, it wasn't a proper snog or anything, and Louis looks - well. He looks floored, his mouth open and pink and his eyes wide and shocked like he didn't think it would actually work.
"Um," says Liam.
Louis closes his mouth and licks his lips and blinks rapidly at Liam a few times, then says, "Fucking replay."
So Liam does.