One Direction Requested One Shots

How I Feel When You're Not Near [Nouis]

A.N.: This wasn't really requested per se but it's really not long enough to give it its own story thing and I'm too lazy to come up with a blurb and find a picture. I'm just being lazy, okay! Dedicated because Nouis is her OTP and this idea came to me when we were talking. Enjoy :)

“How long will you be gone?” Niall rolled over on the bed, ruffling his hair lightly before he looked up at his best friend.

Louis pulled away from his closet to shoot Niall a small smile before he ducked inside again and he started pulling out more clothes. “Three months, the summer, and then I go to college.”

“Do you have to?” Niall whined low, tangling himself in the blankets until he was wrapped up in a cocoon.

Louis chuckled at Niall’s reaction before he moved away from the closet and flopped onto the bed. “Yes, I have to. I volunteered to do the summer camp. I can’t back out now.” Louis poked Niall’s side so he would look at him but Niall just shook his head and furrowed his brow, squirming around in the sheets with his eyes shut as he tried to feel his way out. “And I can’t keep lazying around with you and the lads at high school. I’ve gotta grow up eventually.”

Louis pushed off the bed and had managed to take a step towards the closet when Niall called him back. “Is that what you think we’re doing? Just lazying around?”

Niall’s voice sounded so wounded that Louis spun around quick and walked back over to the bed, reaching down to touch Niall’s cheek lightly. “No, of course not. I didn’t mean it like that.” Niall still wasn’t looking at him so Louis rolled over so he lay on top of Niall and, cupping Niall’s cheeks, he pressed a lingering kiss to Niall’s forehead.

“I just meant that it’d be kinda weird to have a 20 year old hanging around a high school, that’s all.” Louis laughed, laying his head on Niall’s lightly and shutting his eyes, hugging his arms around the smaller blonde. “I love hanging out with you and Harry and Liam and Zayn. You’re my best friends. I wouldn’t trade you for the world but…I am enrolled in college and it’d be silly not to go.” Louis wound his fingers in the blankets and undid the knots Niall had trapped himself in.

“Can you get off?” Niall mumbled suddenly, still not meeting Louis’ eyes. “You’re crushing me.”

“Yeah, of course.” Louis popped off the bed, slightly apprehensive because Niall had never complained when anyone lay on him before and they all did it a lot, lying on each other. Louis watched as Niall sat up slowly, rubbing at the back of his head anxiously. “Are you-?” Louis started but Niall cut him off by standing up suddenly.

“You know, I think I’m gonna go home… let you pack…” Niall said, kicking at the ground slightly before he started heading toward the door. “I’ll try to write you at camp.”

“Okay,” Louis followed Niall with his eyes almost warily but Niall didn’t look back at him once. “I love you.” Louis called to him as he disappeared out into the hall and he expected to hear it back but he didn’t. It was the way the group always bid each other farewell and to not hear it back sent an unpleasant feeling down Louis’ spine. He didn’t feel like he’d done anything wrong but…what if he had?

At camp, everyone – leaders and campers alike – were able to check their emails once a week on communal computers. Louis always looked forward to Saturday because then he could get updates about the boys and it was almost as if he had never left home. However, on his first Saturday, Louis had four emails from Liam, one from Zayn, and none from either Harry or Niall. The gist of Liam’s emails were just day to day happenings, and nothing too interesting, and the most interesting in Zayn’s was that he got a girlfriend, a senior named Perrie. Louis bored them all with tales of camp before he signed off but he felt sad that he hadn’t gotten anything from Niall.