Late-Night Library Confession - louis

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by livewhilewetype

by livewhilewetype

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The university library was eerily quiet, the kind of quiet that made every creak of a chair or shuffle of papers echo like thunder. You were seated at your usual spot in the corner, a fortress of books and notebooks shielding you from the rest of the world.

It was late—too late—and you were exhausted. The kind of exhausted that made reading the same sentence over and over seem productive. That’s when he showed up.

Louis Tomlinson, in all his messy-haired, hoodie-clad glory, strolled in like it wasn’t 2 a.m. His signature smirk, one you’d seen a hundred times across campus, was intact despite the hour.

"Late night, yeah?" he asked, plopping down in the seat across from you.

You blinked at him, caught off guard. Louis was magnetic in a way that made even his casual attention feel like sunlight on a cold day. "Yeah," you replied, trying to sound casual and not at all like you were hyper-aware of the fact that the Louis Tomlinson was sitting across from you. "Got a big paper due."

“Same,” he said, pulling a laptop out of his backpack. “Except I haven’t started.”

You couldn’t help but laugh. “Typical.”

He tilted his head, pretending to be offended. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you’re one of those people,” you teased. “The ones who leave everything to the last minute.”

"Alright, fair," he said with a grin, leaning back in his chair. "But somehow, I always pull it off."

For the next hour, Louis barely worked on his paper, choosing instead to chat with you about everything and nothing. You learned he hated math, loved philosophy (which didn’t make sense to you), and had an entire playlist dedicated to sad songs he wouldn’t admit to liking.

It wasn’t until he looked at the clock and swore under his breath that the spell broke. "Alright, I really do need to start this thing. But hey," he paused, looking at you, "how about we make a deal?"

You raised an eyebrow. "A deal?"

"Yeah. You help me survive this paper, and I’ll buy you coffee tomorrow. Deal?"

It was a terrible deal, one that benefited him far more than you, but there was something about the way he was looking at you that made you agree anyway.

“Deal,” you said, shaking his outstretched hand.

As the hours ticked by, the two of you worked side by side. And though neither of you said it, you both knew that tonight was just the start of something much bigger.

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