Prelude To Forever ->> Larry Stylinson. L.S.

8.

Louis’s blood courses through his ears, making it so that all he hears was woosh, woosh, woosh. There was no way. Was there?

“Get this, it’s fucking trending. Almost seventeen thousand tweets with that hashtag. Help Find Sunshine. What are the odds of another lost boy named Sunshine?”

Seventeen thousand people were talking about finding sunshine, but that could be anything. There was no sense in getting his hopes up. Except they were up. Way, way up.

“All right. So what does any of this mean?” Louis was trying and failing at schooling is breath.

“Nialler tracked the tag back to its origins,” Zayn explained while Niall handed his phone over to Louis.

“Look!”

Louis tried to process the words on the screen.

@StylinHarry: So I kinda fell for a boy yesterday at # ChiPride . Kissed & fireworks went off. Literally. He’s a drama teacher. Goes by “Louis” but I prefer Sunshine. Very pretty. The prettiest. Got separated & I’m a fucking idiot who forgot to get his number. Anyone know him? # helpfindsunshine

Holy shit. It was him. He was Sunshine and Harry was looking for him, too. His mind raced. Everything from the previous day came back to him from the very first moment he felt strange yet secure arms around him to the idea of getting a an orchid boutonnière pinned on his lapel before walking down a rose petal aisle.

“Did you guys…” he trailed off. Louis wasn’t sure if he was more afraid that they did message him or that they didn’t. If he does this, this while contacting Harry thing, then he needs to come to terms with a lot.

For starters, he needs to accept that falling in love might absolute wreck him. He needs to accept that it might not. He needs to face the reality that dating long(ish) distance is going to be tough but he can’t just give up when he wants to. Louis needs to be okay with letting down his walls and defenses, the ones he has spent his whole life putting up. Sure, he let his tribe in, but not really. Not even Zayn got to know about the nights he spent sobbing alone when everyone went home and the silence settled back in.

“No, babes, we didn’t. Not ours to do, really,” Jade looked up with kind, understanding eyes.

“What are you waiting for?” Liam questioned.

“I don't know. I feel like...it’s been too easy. This whole thing. People aren’t supposed to find their soulmate on the fucking L. They aren’t supposed to just...be so perfect. Losing him hurt, so fucking much and that was only one day. What if-“

“And what if it works out?” Shawn piped up. “Don’t get me wrong Louis. I know I haven’t been around for forever so maybe it’s not my place to say it. But. Aren’t you tired of this whole not caring act?”

“It’s not an act,” Louis huffed, defensively.

“It is though,” Shawn insisted. “If you really didn’t care, we all wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t have scooped us up into this little Framily. You did this,” He motioned widely to include everyone. “You cared about us enough to not let us be alone. From what I know, you didn’t want Niall to go to some mixer, alone. You didn’t want Jade to be crying in costume, alone. You didn’t want Jesy to feel left out, and alone. And me? Even before Nialler brought be around to dinner, you were the first person to always come say hi lwhen you saw me at a party because I was always standing there alone. You did this, Louis. I’d like to think we’d all still be friends. But you made us a family. You’re our tribe mama.”

Louis just blinked, on the verge of tears. He never really thought about these people, like that. They never really talked about how Louis became a bit of an unofficial leader. He had always assumed it was because he was a teacher and had a penchant for things like making reservations and organizing group chat half plans into full on itineraries. He figured they usually all congregated at his place because he had the biggest living room, and the most provisions, but maybe it was because he really was their den mom.

“And as your tribe children,” Shawn continued. “we’re here, telling you that you don’t deserve to be alone, too. Listen to us. Just this once.”

“And if it all goes wrong?” Louis whispers before swallowing thickly.

“Then we’ll still be here. We’ll be here tomorrow and the next day and as long as it takes for you to be okay with starting over.”

Harry’s words rang through his brain on an unending loop. The sun will rise and we will start again.

Louis looked around at the six faces he had, in fact, collected. Six people who would not be sitting all together had it not been for him. A momentary thought came of what if Harry throws off the balance? before leaving just as quickly. He realized that most of the previous day felt like Harry had been with them since the beginning.

It could be like that always.

“So what do I do?” Louis asked as adrenaline kicked in. Harry was here. In Chicago somewhere, hopefully, maybe still close to the L, and thus, close to Louis. The irrational side of him wanted to take this phone outside and start tweeting jiberish while jogging the streets, because maybe, just maybe Harry has his twitter notifications on and his ringer volume up. A modern day Marco/Polo between Louis and his destiny.

“You need to breathe, first of all,” Jade got up from the floor and filled in Niall’s still empty spot next to Louis on the couch. “Then, you need to plug your phone in. Wash your face, have a cup of tea, and decide if this is what you want, Lou.”

“I don’t need to do any of that to decide. I…” he took a deep breath. “I know it’s so fast. I can’t possibly know for certain, but I think I do. I think I know. I love him. Is that possible? This is perhaps the dumbest shit I will ever say and if any of you ever hold it against me, I will absolutely deny it. But,” Louis blinked back tears. “He’s in there. In me. He settled into my bones and my body is literally vibrating with want to slide my hand in his and feel settled.”

“It’s not dumb,” Zayn leaned forward. “It’s...that’s love, babe. It’s the realest fucking thing in the whole world and when you know, you just...you fucking know.”

He felt a calm settle over the group, each of his friends settling into each other. Louis took a few moments to feel calm before the storm. Wordlessly, he stood up to go plug in his phone and wash his face. It was tomorrow and the possibilities were, in fact, endless. The promise of a new day, a new chance, a new...love.

He saw the screen light up while he brushed his teeth. About a thousand notifications popped up  and there was a swell of gratitude for his tribe. Based on the number of texts he kept seeing pop up, he assumed they tried to get ahold of him non-stop since last night. He spit out his toothpaste and went to go check on the phone, deciding to read through everything after drafting a very careful response to Harry.