One Direction Bromances

Nouis - Time Together

"Are you ready?" Niall asks his feathery-haired friend.

"I guess..."

"Have you been practicing?"

Louis nervously runs a hand through the hair nearest the nape of his neck. "Eh... Not exactly."

"You'll never get better if you aren't practicing everyday, Lou," Niall reprimands, frowning at the older boy. "There's no point in me teaching you anything new until you're confident about the old stuff."

"I know, Nialler. I'm sorry, I just got distracted," says Louis. He takes one of Niall's guitars out of its case before plopping down on the stool next to the Irish lad. "Could you help me practice what you taught me in our last lesson?"

Niall sighs, but knows that he'll end up helping his friend. He wasn't sure what had driven Louis to want to learn to play guitar, but it didn't matter. All Niall cared about was sharing his love of music with someone he loved. "Alright, show me which chords you remember and I'll help you correct your fingering."

Louis starts sniggering, but is stopped by Niall smacking the side of his head. "Sorry," he mutters. He moves his fingers along the frets, trying to find the positions for the 'C' chord. "Damn it," he grumbles once he realizes that he can't even remember the simplest chords.

"Here," Niall mumbles, placing a hand over Louis'. He moves Louis' fingers until they're in the right spots, and then he presses against them. "Strum now."

Doing as he's told, Louis runs a finger down all six strings. "That isn't right, is it," he states, already knowing the answer to his own question.

"Only the bottom five strings," Niall reminds the brunet boy. He takes Louis' hand off of the fretboard. "Try to find it on your own again, alright?"

Louis' fingers move more deftly this time, finding their way to the appropriate strings and frets in a matter of seconds. Just to be sure, he presses against the strings and strums the five highest-pitched strings. "Better?" he asks, looking at Niall with hope in his eyes.

"Much better," the blonde-haired boy agrees.

_________________________________________

"Why do you keep asking Niall to teach you guitar?" Harry asks his best friend. "I mean, you almost never practice. What's the point?"

"I have been practicing, actually," Louis grumbles. As if to prove his point, he leaves the room and comes back with an acoustic guitar in hand. He sits down and starts strumming a simple chord progression. "See?"

"Sorry, it's just... I never see you practicing," Harry explains. He lies down across the couch while Louis plays. "You're not half bad, honestly."

“Thanks, I think,” Lou mutters under his breath, trying to focus on playing the right chords.

“That doesn’t answer my original question, though; why are you trying to learn guitar from Nialler?” the curly-haired boy inquires, watching his flatmate.

“I’ve always wanted to learn, and Niall’s one of my best mates, so I thought it might be fun to learn from him,” Louis states after a few minutes of silence - aside from the guitar, of course.

Harry sits up a bit, propping himself up on his elbow. He reaches out and puts a hand over the neck of the guitar between Louis’ hands. He makes sure he’s got Lou’s attention before continuing to interrogate the older boy: “And you’re sure it has nothing to do with your feelings towards him?”

Louis’ eyes close, and he breathes in deeply. He gently pulls the guitar away from Harry and sets it aside. “Honestly,” he mumbles, “I’m not even remotely certain.”

“You should tell him how you feel, Lou,” the curly-haired boy says.

“Why?” Lou whines.

“Because if you don’t, I will,” Harry teases.

“NO! I’ll do it!” Louis yelps, jumping out of his chair. He rushes to the door, grabbing his keys and a jumper along the way. “See you later, Haz!”

_________________________________________

Louis nervously shuffles his feet towards the familiar door. His arm extends just long enough to knock before snapping back to his side. As he waits, he set down the bag he brought with him, freeing up his hands.

“Oh, hey Lou, what are you doing here?” Niall queries as he opens the door to his flat.

Instead of answering with words, Lou steps forward and places a hand on each side of Niall’s face. Before the Irishman can respond, Louis leans in and presses his lips against the younger boy’s. He pulls back quickly, and starts to turn away.

“Oi, where do you think you’re going?” the blonde calls from the open doorway.

Louis spins around on his heel, facing the boy who had just spoken. He silently stares at Niall, afraid to speak for fear of saying something stupid. Slowly, he shrugs his shoulders as if to say, “I don’t really know.”

“Come ‘ere, Lou.”

The feathery-haired boy steps forward until he’s within arm’s length of the Irishman.

Niall reaches out and grasps Louis’ hand, and then pulls the older boy closer to himself. He stands on his toes, leaning closer and closer to Lou until their lips meet for the second time. Niall’s hands find their way into Louis’ hair, keeping him from pulling away again. Finally, they break apart.

All Louis can do is blink repeatedly, staring at Niall again. He had expected a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them. At best he had hoped that Niall would just pretend that nothing ever happened so that it could blow over.

“Lou, why did you come here?” Niall asks once more.

“Because… Because I need you to know how I feel about you,” Lou admits. “I need you to know that I like you a lot.”

“Then why did you walk away after kissing me?” The Irishman raises an eyebrow at the brunet in curiosity.

“I didn’t want to stick around long enough to see your reaction, just in case it wasn’t a good one.”

Niall shakes his head at the older boy before speaking up: “You’re an arse, you know that? I thought it was obvious that I liked you, but apparently you’re oblivious.”

“What?” Louis utters in surprise.

“I. Like. You,” Niall repeats, emphasizing each word.

Lou breaks out in a grin, and then smacks himself. He turns to the bag he had left on the ground, picking it up and showing it to Niall. “I brought dinner, by the way.”

Niall glances at the bag before a laugh tumbles out of his mouth. “Nando’s? Seriously?”

“It was gonna be a peace offering, just in case,” Louis sheepishly confesses.

The blonde rolls his eyes, but smiles anyways. He reaches out and takes Louis’ hand again, intertwining their fingers. “Come on in,” he says with a chuckle.

The two boys go into Niall’s flat and get settled in front of the telly, preparing to watch a movie. Louis wraps one arm around Niall before using his free hand to take his phone out of his pocket. He sends a quick text to Harry to let the curly-haired boy know that everything went well, and then turns off his mobile.

“Who were you texting?” Niall questions, looking up at Lou.

“I was just thanking Harry,” the Doncaster boy replies.

Niall furrows his brow in confusion before asking, “What for?”

“For convincing me to tell you how I feel,” Lou admits.

The Irishman bites his lip before leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to Louis’ lips. “In that case,” he begins, “remind me to thank him, too.”