Under Coloured Trees || Larry Stylinson

23

By the second half of March, the weather has started to ease up a little bit. It's no longer ice cold outside and people have started to replace their heavy coats with lighter jackets. And it's different because semester finals were over in January so there's this peculiar thing in the air that students irradiate. Something between hope and calm and still a lingering hint of anxiety about the new semester they are in right now.

The decreasing possibility of more snow and cold days was indirectly proportional to Harry's mood. As spring stopped being a distant dream you think about with longing eyes as you look out the window in class and started becoming a reality, Harry's mood got better. Louis noticed this of course, because seeing and talking to Harry is a daily routine now. And he likes it. He likes that Harry smiles more than he did before, so Louis has decided he likes spring. Better than fall, when Harry was angry and better than winter, when Harry was sad, he likes spring because Harry looks happier.

They get along better than they have ever done. Maybe it has to do with the fact that Harry is the only person he has considered reliable enough to talk about his family situation and his... well, personal situation in general. Or maybe it isn't about being reliable or not, because Louis would trust Liam with his life and still hasn't told him anything. Maybe it's about how comfortable he feels with that person.

He doesn't know, okay? But telling someone... Telling Harry... It felt like he had been breathing sulfur-intoxicated air for years and then suddenly he had stepped outside and taken a deep breath of fresh air. It made him feel dizzy at first but he eventually got used to the new air just like he got used to Harry knowing.

Perhaps it is because Harry shares part of his pain...

That said, there's another thing that has been poking at the back of his brain like the little annoying kid in a family gathering and that makes him feel warm all over whenever he pays attention to it. It makes him feel warm when Louis was used to living in the cold. And it's scary and it's... also nobody's business but his own.

So, did he mention already that the weather has got better? Yeah, yeah, let's focus on that. It's warmer and that has allowed all of them to gather under the trees at campus again. Just like they did at the beginning of the school year. Except now, Louis is proud to be able to say that these are his friends. Not acquaintances, not people that put up with him because they feel sorry for him, but friends. He hadn't felt like he had friends in so long it's hard not getting paranoid about them disappearing and leaving Louis alone again. But Louis is working on that.

Right now, Louis is walking towards Liam, Zayn and Niall, who are somewhere on campus waiting for him and Harry to get off work so they can all go out because it's a Friday and, as part of Niall's religion, they have to go to some party or pub that Louis will end up leaving earlier than all of them because his social battery runs out faster and all he wants to do is go home and fight the desperate need to yell at random pedestrians on the way there out of pure frustration with his own self.

Harry's walking beside him as they reach the little bench where the other three are sitting down, Niall with his head thrown back facing closed-eyed at the sun. It's that time of the day when the sun is about to set but there are still some stray, soft rays caressing Niall's happy face and Liam and Zayn, who are sitting very close to each other, one of Zayn's legs thrown over Liam's closest thigh.

"Ah! Gentlemen" Niall says when he hears them coming, lowering his head and using his hand as a visor to look in front of him with a wide grin that resembles too much a smirk, in Louis' very humble opinion. "How are we in this fine morning?"

Louis deadpans as he stares at Niall, same as Harry, who just stops next to Louis and looks down at his friends. "It's six pm," he says.

Niall shrugs as Liam turns to look at him with an amused smile. "Still fine"