So lets cross the lines we lost

Chapter 14

The rest of October comes and goes in a blur of heavy thunder and gusts of salt-ridden wind howling against their windows, a perfect metaphor for the looming exam season they'll be faced with once they return to the real world.

Niall and Liam spent each morning at five AM crouched in front of the TV waiting for the weatherman to read out the forecast––"dangerous swells and maelstroms"––which, to surfers, is apparently a good thing. Zayn went with them to sit in the van and paint while they were in the water, and that's how Louis and Harry ended up staying home watching whatever daytime talk-show's were on. Louis didn't mind the weather so much, because he got to spend it under a thick blanket with Harry, and it didn't matter where they are, and yeah, that felt really, really good.

It's been an adjustment however, and it's not even as if much has really changed, though it feels like a lot to Louis. He'd never tell Harry that.

Like when they were picking up food for the road with Zayn on their last day and Harry kissed him for the first time in front of any of the guys since getting caught out, it was just once and so chaste but it caught Louis off-guard and he wanted to shrink out of his skin for a brief moment. Or when they held hands when they got back home and went to visit Nick, or whenever they would get a chance to sit close together, or not having to hide whenever he wanted to be near Harry. It's a little overwhelming, but when he sees how happy it makes Harry, it's a little hard to think about anything else.

It's only been a couple of weeks back officially as LouisandHarry and Louis will admit it feels strange waking up to an empty bed, because it's becoming an extremely uncommon occurrence in his life now. He warns himself that he's getting too close and too clingy and he doesn't need to know Harry's whereabouts every second. He still worries, his brain going through a flash of paranoid scenarios before he's even opened his eyes.

He hauls himself out of bed and sidles into the kitchen. The house is empty, in it's general state since Zayn practically moved into Niall's room and only makes the trip over to use his studio. Louis thinks it's probably smart to just ditch this place, since there's hardly any point paying rent when he could just as easily crash in Harry's room, but then that's sort of it. He doesn't know how to cope when something goes wrong with the person you live with, considering his only example are his parents.

He also doesn't know when living together started to become a thing, when they only just started properly dating. Everything has been so calm and simple and easy that Louis is having to distract himself with classwork, which he's still finding himself horrendously behind on, all in some attempt to keep his mind active so that nothing else can fit in.

There's a note perched on top of the kettle when Louis enters the kitchen, a happy drawing of a sun wearing shades in the corner of it.

Morning sunshine! I'll be out all day today. Don't ask questions. I'm picking you up at 6.

H x

And if Louis catches himself smiling when he puts the note down, well, no one's around to see it.

. . .

"First date, hm?" Niall asks, throwing Louis a donut out of a box he stole from work. "Sounds mysterious. Zayn and I went to the cinema for ours."

Louis raises his brows. "That it?"

Niall clasps a hand over his heart. "Excuse me, that's like, traditional first date material," he says, stretching out further on the couch and smiling about something. The memory, Louis assumes. "It was this dramatic film in another language, subtitled and everything. I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy it but Zayn swore by it so I gave it a go."

"And?"

Niall sighs. "Cried like a baby. Ever need an excuse to cry, indie films are where it's at."