So lets cross the lines we lost

Chapter 19

It takes a few seconds in the morning for Louis to remember what year it is, considering his room hasn't changed since he moved out. Then he feels Harry all tucked in his arms, and everything slots into place. A weird feeling settles in his stomach, at the enormity of how much things have changed now regarding his family situation. Maybe it's the lack of guilt or internalised anger that he had been carrying, maybe it's so drastic getting rid of it all in one day. Maybe it's just too fucking early.

Then he hears distant squeals of young girls and recognizes the source of his early waking.

Louis rubs his eyes and slowly lets himself wake up. He really does just want to stay in bed with Harry, as per usual, but Christmas with so many young girls is often cause for disaster.

When he leans over his boyfriend, he notices he's already awake and scrolling through Facebook on his phone. As if he had skillfully grabbed it from the bedside table without bothering Louis.

"How long have you been awake?" Louis asks.

"Like half an hour? I woke up when the first little Tomlinson sibling did."

"Wow, I must've been exhausted."

"It's still pretty early actually," Harry says, putting his phone down and leaning over to kiss Louis' cheek. "Didn't want to wake you." He threads his fingers through Louis' hair. "Though, now that you're awake, we should probably get up and give Mark and Jay a hand."

"You're every parents dream, you know that?" Louis grins as Harry climbs over him to get out of bed, then pulls him up.

They slip into more comfortable, weather appropriate clothes. Harry holds a hand up for Louis to wait and digs through one of his bags. He pulls out a rectangular shaped gift and hands it out to Louis. "Merry Christmas, Lou."

"You didn't have to get me anything. My birthday sort of leaves room for only one day of gift-giving."

"Just open it."

So Louis does. He knows it's a photo-frame right away, but the picture inside something he didn't expect. It was taken the year they spent Christmas together during high school, so it's old and has some crease marks, but the faded festive colours paint across it as vivid as the memory plays in Louis' head, though he can't pinpoint the exact moment it was taken.

In the foreground is him and Harry, laughing about something by the fireplace, Louis can't remember what was so funny but the smile creeps onto his face nonetheless. He doesn't have a clue who took the photo, but it doesn't matter.

"Where did you get this?" Louis asks quietly.

"I always had it with me," Harry says. "Kept it in my wallet for years because I have issues and didn't want to get over you. I thought you should have it."

"Thank you." Louis wraps his arms around Harry's neck and pulls him into a hungry kiss, swaying a little. "Really, thank you. Am I incredibly vain for saying it's beautiful if it's a picture of me?"

Harry laughs. "Oh, extremely vain. You're a terrible person. And you're welcome."

Louis grins and kisses Harry's cheek. "Your gift is actually still at home. Zayn did the craftsmanship but it was my idea so technically from me."

"You got Zayn to craft me something? That's so sweet!"

"I got a bunch more of those sunset shells you like and had Zayn make one of those wind chime things with them. Because you're weird and you like pretty things so I just... I thought... what?"

Harry's looking at him with his head tilted to the side, his eyes soft and his mouth curved. He's got some messy bedhair falling over his face. Louis wants to kiss him like crazy.