Angel Heart

Part Four

“I love you, so, so much,” Louis whispers tearfully, pressing a kiss on the top of Liam’s short hair.

“I love you, too,” a familiar and new voice echoes. “Forever.”

Five years.  It’s been five years since Liam has left him. 

Five years since Louis thought he heard an angel speak to him.

Five years since he had to see the lifeless body of the love of his life and swallow back the angry shouts and sob for hours.  Since he is a doctor, he followed the proper procedures and reported the death.  He went to the funeral, said a lengthy speech and cried some more.  He met a girl named Eleanor but their relationship hasn’t evolved from anything more than a close friendship.

That hole in Louis’ heart can never been restored.

He knows that Liam would want him to go out there in the single scene and have fun.  Fall for somebody else and learn to love again.  But he can’t.  Not when every smile, every face, every brown eyes bring him back to lonely thoughts of Liam.  His Liam.

And it broke Liam’s heart to see Louis like thus.

Every single day of the past five years, Liam has been trying to guide Louis to places where there were kind-hearted girls who could love him the way he deserved.  But not once, did Louis spare them a second glance.  Liam could see that slightest flash of sadness glint in crystal blue eyes before Louis put on a fake smile to that girl.

Liam considered it to be a miracle that Louis even had friends left.

It wasn’t natural, mourning for a boy who was destined to die early. Louis still had a full life ahead of him yet he chose to waste it away.  In the span of five years, Louis had travelled to various parts of the world, always eager to help out those in need. He now had a secure job in the Doncaster hospital, close to his childhood home.

A knock sounded from Louis’ door and both Louis and the angel beside him turned towards it. “It’s open,” Louis called out.

A slim brunette with wavy hair walks in, holding two Starbucks cups.  Eleanor is one of Louis’ few friends.  She, along with Niall, Harry, and Zayn, helped Louis maintain somewhat of a human contact even though he was being a total pain in the arse after Liam’s death. They were by his side throughout the entire five stages of death of someone you love, although the acceptance was hardly there.

“Brought your favourite,” Eleanor offers.

“Thanks,” Louis says as he pushes the glasses up his nose.

“Been working on that paper again?” she asks, hooking her chin over Louis’ shoulder.

“Yeah.  This thing is taking ages!”

“Well, you never were the patient one, so we’ll see how this goes.”

Louis looks mock-hurt. “I persevere, my dear friend. Just a couple more facts to throw in and I can mail it off to the publication.”

“I’m impressed,’ teases the girl.

Liam smiles when Louis turns his head to press a soft, quick kiss on Eleanor’s cheek.  Louis has been slowly making progress and he’s glad to see this. 

Eleanor moves to ‘accidently’ brush her lips against Louis’ but Louis reads into her intentions and stands up, the brunette’s lips brushing against the base of Louis’ neck instead.

“I think I’ll go make us something to eat,” Louis says in a form of explanation. Eleanor pouts infinitesimally but nods anyway.

Liam frowns. And he though Louis was making progress.

-

Louis can’t shake the feeing that someone is always watching him.

Not in the creepy, the-bad-guy-in-horror-flick-is-going-to-get-you kind of way but more as a protective way . . . as a guardian angel would.

He almost scoffs at the thought, almost ruining the mini sandwiches he has been preparing for himself and Eleanor.  Speaking of, that near kiss was so damn awkward!  yeah, he gets that some girls fancy him but he has never, ever thought of Eleanor that way.  To him, she is just a friend that Harry has introduced to him sometime in the past few years.  She is gorgeous, alright, but Louis cares for her in an entirely brotherly way only.  He supposes that he should find a way to let her down gently. Not the whole ‘let’s stay friends’ malarkey since he has always thought that that was the shittiest way to turn someone down.

“You really should move on,” a soft, strangely familiar voice whispers in his ear.  Louis finds himself leaning into the voice.  It has a silky, soothing tone that he always used to hear in his voice. Memories flood his thoughts and he has to bite hi lower lip so that he wouldn’t cry like a baby.

A few minutes later, he returns to his room to Eleanor once he has recomposed himself.  If she has noticed the dried tear tracks by his eyes, she doesn’t comment.

Liam groans in frustration.  Niall has just recently ‘allowed’ him to do the telepathy thing to Louis and so far, it hasn’t been achieving the desired effect.

“Why can’t you not be a hard-headed git?” Liam downright growls.

Louis looks up to Liam’s direction.  Surely that must have been a coincidence.  He wasn’t even using his telepathic powers thing.

There’s only one way to find out.

“Love you, Boo,” he whispers.

Louis glances up again from underneath his long, feminine lashes.  Holy shit, it is working. (Okay, he’s an angel and he shouldn’t be swearing, yadi yada yada. Then again, Niall can out-swear the roughest sailor any day, any time)

Liam leans forward to press a kiss to Louis’ soft, thin lips before leaving.

Louis subconsciously leans into the kiss.  It’s like being kissed by morning rain in springtime and a sprinkle of sunshine on his lips. Fleeting and warm and comforting.  He realises what an idiom he his making himself out to be so flops backs, feigning interest in his sandwich.

Eleanor prattles on about her nephew and the play date she took him to.  It’s a cute story, really, and Louis adores children. 

But he can’t stop thinking about the rain-kiss nor the whisper from that voice.