love will tear us apart

10. to-do

Louis really should never have called Zayn and Niall on FaceTime.

"You little slut" Is the first thing Zayn says after both of them just stared at him for solid three minutes and Niall broke down laughing.

Louis tries to shush them immediately, pulling the blanket up higher to cover the state of his neck and trying to sort his hair out. It's also his fault he didn't do that sooner. He knows he's the only one who can be blamed.

The thing is just that he had to call his best friends the second he woke up and was completely certain Harry was still sleeping next to him. He might have underestimated how loudly his friends would laugh and scream into the phone, and that was the mistake.

Louis glances at Harry, who still has his face partly buried into the pillow, his eyes closed and his breathing even. Thank god.

Just that Niall and Zayn are not done yet.

"You fucked the prince?"

"Zayn, the prince fucked him"

"Can you guys stop?"

"Isn't that why you called us, though?" Zayn smirks. "To brag about getting dick and how good it was?"

Louis stays quiet, chewing on the inside of his cheek. Okay, yes. That's why he called them.

They seem to be having breakfast, sitting at Louis kitchen island with burnt pancakes between them.

"Go on then" Zayn says, gesturing around with his hands. The phone is probably propped up against a mug or something. "On a scale from one to ten, how good?"

Louis doesn't say anything for a few seconds, anxiously looking at Harry's face. Eventually, he pulls the phone very close to his face so that he can get away with whispering, "Like, fifteen"

Harry's lips tug upwards and he opens his eyes. "Thank you"

Louis stares at him and Niall and Zayn absolutely lose it, Niall falls down from his barstool and Zayn almost spits coffee over his pancakes.

"You were not supposed to be awake" Louis hisses and Harry just smiles, shuffling closer and pressing a kiss to his cheek. He turns his head to look at the phone then and Louis really hates his friends.

Zayn is still coughing but does an over exaggerated bow and Niall starts singing the national anthem with one hand on his chest.

"I'm going to hang up" Louis mutters but Harry stops him.

"No, introduce me, please"

Louis sighs dramatically. "Harry, these two idiots are Zayn and Niall, my crazy, manic best friends who use me for my money. Zen and Ni, this is Harry, who is a part time vampire"

"You didn't complain yesterday" Harry mumbles and Zayn and Niall laugh even harder at that.

"Be careful Harry" Niall says, being the first one of the two to regain his ability to talk. "He gets clingy after about four months, so if you don't run now he'll probably stay in your little castle forever"

It's horribly quiet for a while, Zayn glaring at Niall, Harry adverting his eyes and Louis holding his breath.

Why would Niall bring up the topic of Louis leaving, when they're doing such a great job ignoring that he will have to? Why would Niall bring up forever when that's something that is ages away?

Louis isn't even sure how far forever is away right now.

He wouldn't even think about it, but now Niall brought it up and now everything is more real and reality is shit. Because, as Louis knew right from the beginning, they can't and never will be able to have a forever.