From Everything That Was (Till Everything That Will Be)

Louis (Present)

And when you've seen what I've become
Will you love me for who I am, and not who I was?
- Chance Peña

Harry's lips were like a drug Louis tried once, tried to forget about, but then just found himself coming back. They were everything he needed. They were his oxygen, they stilled his hunger, and it felt like the cure to eternal happiness.

December twenty-fifth was spent kissing a lot. Louis tried to make up for all the time they lost even though he knew it was impossible. But he could try. And he did. After they returned home from breakfast, there was not a moment where any of them were fully dressed.

Louis felt like a starved man and Harry was no different.

With Harry, Louis didn't mind having the lights turned on. Harry saw through him in a way Louis didn't mind.

Harry was so different from anyone else he had ever seen.

Next to him, Louis felt at home in his own skin.

Next to him, Louis slept peacefully.

He knew, because not once in the next three days did Harry sleep in any other place than Louis' bed. Harry drew the demons away. Louis had not had such a sound natural sleep in years.

"Are you excited to return back to work?" asked Harry as they sat in Louis' bed three days later. They were naked, Harry's back to Louis' chest as Louis tried to braid tiny braids into his hair.

"Yeah," Louis said. "I miss the kids."

"Me too," Harry said. "Also, sometime in February, we are taking them on a two-day class trip to London."

"Oh yeah, I recall," Louis recalled. "I had actually completely forgotten about that."

Harry chuckled. "Of course you had. I figured, that's why I told you. How're the braids looking?"

"Very good," Louis said, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth. "You should grow your hair long, so much easier to braid."

"I had long hair once."

"What? No way."

Harry turned his head to look at Louis. A mischievous spark was in his eyes. "Yeah. I began growing it out after I began Uni. Chopped it off when I was twenty-one."

"I'm gonna need pictures," Louis said. He batted his eyelashes. "Pretty please?"

Harry smiled fondly and reached for his phone on the nightstand. He unlocked it and went to his camera roll. He handed Louis his phone and Louis' jaw dropped.

"No fucking way. That's you?"

In the picture, Harry was wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, his hair long and reaching about his shoulders. He was smirking in the picture. Niall was next to him and another guy. The guy had his hand on Harry's lap.

"Yeah," Harry said.

"Who's that guy?" Louis asked, pointing at the man.

Harry wet his lips. "That's my ex, Nick. We only dated for about a month or so. He was my first boyfriend after, you know, well, you."

Louis shouldn't feel jealous. He was the one who ended things, but still, seeing another man touching Harry in an intimate way made his blood boil.

"I'm hotter than him," he just said.

Harry cackled, turning around in Louis' hold. "Are you jealous about a relationship I had when I was twenty, baby?"