Only The Brave {A Louis Tomlinson Fanfiction}

Chapter Six: A Tourist in Your Own Town

Alli's POV

After retrieving the suitcase from the back of the car, we got ready for the day. We decided to see what was around the hotel to do something fun, with a security guard, of course.

Louis and I walked down the street. We had our faces covered by snapbacks and sunglasses. We were hand in hand, and my heart was going crazy. I was sort of a nervous wreck as we made small talk walking down the street. I'm pretty sure Louis knew though because he kept smirking and gripping my hand tighter.

We came across an ice-cream shop. Louis looked at me, grinned, and dragged me inside. The shop was quite small, so it only had the basic flavours like vanilla, cookies and cream and mint. 

"OH, my, GOD!" Louis started squealing like a five year old girl. I rolled my eyes. Sounds about right.

"What did you find?"

"CHILLI FLAVOURED ICE-CREAM!"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Chilli flavoured ice-cream. I had it in France once. It was so good!" He turned to the girl behind the counter, who looked to be about sixteen. "Can I try the chilli flavour?" The girl took a little spoon from behind the counter and scooped up a tiny bit of ice-cream before handing it to him. "Oh my gosh, it's just like I remember! I'll have a chilli ice-cream, please." The girl picked up her ice-cream scoop and put a large scoop into a cone and handed it to Louis. "And the lady will have..."

"Oh, I'll just have vanilla, thanks."

Louis looked at me quizzically. "The classic and very simple? Okay then." You could see the lightbulb light up above his head. "Woo girl, you're shinin' like a 5th Avenue diamond, and they don't make you like they used to, you're never goin' out of style..."

"Louis, shush. I like things to be simple and original. But then again, that makes me unoriginal because not that many people have vanilla as first choice. That's just how I like it."

"Baby, you're so classic!" He sang.

I took the cone from the girl behind the counter. She was smirking as I rolled my eyes. "Can't believe I'm going to have to put up with this." 

She laughed. Louis payed for the two of us, which made me feel guilty, but he said it was 'his treat'. "Good luck!" She said.

"Thanks, I'm going to need it."

Louis took my hand and practically dragged me back out the shop and down the street. There was a park on the corner where two roads meet at a T-junction. Louis dragged me over to the playground, which had been abandoned by kids because of the hot Australian summer. He took my other hand and sat me down on the swing. 

I could feel the heat radiating off the rubber seat through my shorts. He began to swing me while gently singing "Perfect" by One Direction. I thought back to what Matt had said to me at the concert the previous day.

"He likes you, you know." Matt spoke up. 

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Louis. He likes you. Ever since his breakup with Eleanor he could hardly look at another girl and he lost that twinkle in his eye. But suddenly, you came along, and he is the happiest he has been for the past five months. The twinkle in his eye is back. He came to sound check earlier practically bouncing off the walls. You have an affect on him. He clearly likes you, but don't tell him I told you. And you might wanna stick around. He might ask you on a date."

I started to swing my legs as he pushed me to gather up my own speed. Louis stopped pushing when I  became too high for him to reach without being bowled over by me. He stood in front of the swing, took out his phone and took a selfie of the two of us while I was mid air. He giggles as he looks at the picture.

"You look really cute in the picture," he smiled. I gave him a shy smile in return, slowing down on the swing. I'm not used to compliments because I haven't been properly complimented in many years, thanks to my parents.

"You really think so?"

"I know so! C'mon, let's keep walking in the park. It has some sort of serenity, don't you think?" He took my hand as we began to walk.

I nodded, but didn't say anything. I was reminiscing on times when my family was happy and not broken like it is now. Thinking about the times where my dad would push me on the swing with the biggest smile on his face. But soon, something changed, and I never found out what it was that made them turn away from me like that. 

"Hey, you okay?" Louis asked. I looked up at him and he was already looking down at me with a soft but worried expression on his face. 

"Yeah, just thinking about the good times I used to have with my parents at this park. They were good people before, you know? I wish it was still like that." I softly sighed and averted Louis' blue orbs that were boring into mine. I felt his hand slipping from mine, but then I felt his arm wrapping around my shoulder. I tilted my head so it rested on his shoulder. He reacted by putting his on top of mine. I reached my hand up to the one wrapped around my shoulder and held it. He gave it a small reassuring squeeze.

"Wanna go back to the room?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, just to relax. I can sit on my phone and read Wattpad fanfictions about you." He took his head off mine and looked down at me slightly shocked. I giggled and smirked. "I'm kidding. I stopped doing that a while ago. I think I'm just gonna scroll through my Instagram and TikTok."

Louis sighed with relief. "Oh, that's alright then. Yeah, and then we can go and watch the sunset. I've been here for a few days now and all the sunsets are absolutely gorgeous!"

"You're one hundred per cent correct. Sometimes, the sunsets are more special than the others. I don't know why, but the colours are just brighter and they last longer, too. "

----------------------------------------------Time Skip----------------------------------------------

I open my eyes to see Louis' blue ones staring down at me. I had fallen asleep since getting back to the hotel. "Time to get up, love. It's five in the evening and the sun is beginning to set."

I nodded and smiled softly. Louis helped me to my feet and I grabbed my phone.

We walked down to the park again. The sky was beginning to bleed into the colour orange. Louis and I sat down on a grass patch. He put his arm around me and I put my head on his shoulder, just like earlier today. The sun began to melt behind the trees and the sky began to become more colourful with neon pinks, oranges, yellows, blues and purples. 

"Wow... it's absolutely stunning," Louis whispered. "Is this what you meant by a sunset being more pretty than the others?"

I nodded. I didn't need to say anything. I felt Louis kiss the top of my head softly before looking back at the sky. 

We had been sitting there for a while, and the colours began to fade slowly. Louis stood up when the colour was almost completely gone, and there was a serenity afterwards. The afterglow. "Shall we?" Louis asked with his hand outstretched towards me.

"We shall," I replied, taking his hand in mine and intertwined our fingers together.  We began to slowly walk back to the hotel, hand in hand, taking in the last of the fading colours. 

A/N: The picture above is of a sunset over the Sydney Opera House in the harbour. I didn't take this picture so all credits to the wonderful original photographer. They were not cited in the Pinterest picture, though. I love living in Australia, it's bloody awesome!