10 Years Later (Larry 1d)

Chapter 20

Louis sat on the floor moping for a while before deciding to pull himself together and stop being so pathetically lovelorn. After all if Harry had coped with unrequited love for four years, Louis was not going to let himself fall apart after one hour. He raked his fingers through his hair and stood up, telling himself that some marmite on toast would make everything better. He was interrupted on his way to the kitchen by his phone ringing, answering it to hear Melanie squealing that his photo had received over five million retweets in less than an hour, smashing the previous world record.

Louis was stunned, not really knowing how to deal with that. After the call ended he loaded twitter onto his tablet, gasping at the follower, favourite and retweet numbers rising at a ridiculous rate per second. He clicked onto his newsfeed and saw the four lads had all retweeted the photo and they'd each tweeted a message about how happy they were to be back together. He zoomed in on Harry's tweet, less cryptic than usual, 'The last few days have been better than I could ever wish for, and more than I could ever hope to deserve.'

Without thinking, Louis hit reply and tweeted, '@harry_styles you deserve all the good things, and by good things, I mean me', realising after he'd sent it that was probably a really, really bad idea. He swore, not really knowing why he'd done it, having acted on instinct, forgetting for a moment that it was public. He thought about deleting it but felt better about it when seconds later Harry tweeted back, '@louis_tomlinson you are the best thing'.

Louis quickly DMed the lads a group chat with his mobile number, realising that none of them had it and set about making himself marmite on toast. After eating his lunch he called the staff line to put an order in for some dinner for him and Harry, smiling to himself as he requested chicken, stuffed with mozzarella cheese, wrapped in Parma ham with some homemade mashed potatoes. He asked for some wine and beer as well, not knowing what Harry would want to drink. He got a text message on his phone a few seconds after hanging up, reading, 'Hello mate it's Niall. Nice one for breaking twitter. Fancy coming over and meeting the famalam? Middle house. X'. Louis grinned at his phone, firing off a message letting Niall know he'd love to and was on his way.

At Niall's he was pulled into a bear hug by the Irish man and handed a cup of tea, Niall grinning at him, "I took the liberty of making you a cuppa, 's not like you ever refuse one". Louis smiled gratefully and sipped his tea while he was introduced to Niall's wife, Samantha. Samantha was blonde and curvy with a kind face and pale blue eyes. Louis liked her instantly and it was obvious the couple adored each other. Samantha called out "Sean, Aidan, come downstairs" and a few seconds later, two small blonde blue-eyed boys came running downstairs noisily.

They stopped suddenly at the threshold, unsure why a stranger was in their living room until Louis crouched down to their level and said softly, "Hi, my names Louis, what are yours'?" The boys looked to Samantha for reassurance who nodded encouragingly at them before the taller boy stepped forward into the room and said bravely, "I'm Aidan", then dragging his brother forward after him, "This is Sean." Louis told them he was pleased to meet them and he was a friend of their Dads.

He asked Aidan how old he was, and Aidan proudly replied, "Five and a quarter", Louis smiled and asked gently, trying to draw Sean in, "How old are you Sean?" Louis paused as Sean hid his behind his brother, before he continued, seeing he wasn't going to get an answer, "Let me guess, you're ten years old". Sean peeked out from behind Aidan, giggled and shook his head, Louis teased "No? How about forty five? Sean shook his head in fits of giggles as Louis made a show of scratching his beard and thinking before exclaiming, "I know! You must be sixty seven!" Sean giggling and shouted, "I'm three" and held up three fingers at Louis. Louis laughed and said, "Oooh, three. Why didn't you say so before?"

They moved over to sit on the couch, the boys sitting next to Louis as he asked them questions about school and nursery, having successfully broken the ice. He asked the boys what their favourite book was and all of a sudden Sean tore off upstairs, coming back a few minutes later with a very well read copy of The Gruffalo shouting, "Gruffalo, Gruffalo!" and climbing onto Louis' lap and handing him the book expectantly. Niall and Samantha groaned, having obviously read the story millions of times but Louis hadn't read it since Ernest and Dorris were small and was happy to oblige. Aidan huffed, "That book's for babies" and Louis promised he would read Aidan's choice after.

Sean cuddled into Louis' lap and began sucking his thumb, one small arm reaching up to curl a hand into his beard. Louis began reading, making different voices for each of the characters, pausing as he felt Aidan scoot a bit closer to look at the pictures, to wrap an arm around him drawing him into a one armed hug. He felt calm and content reading to these two young boys, so totally absorbed in reading the story aloud that he didn't even notice Niall slyly taking a photo of the three of them. Once the book was finished, he looked down to see that Sean had fallen asleep in his lap. Samantha grinned at him, "You've certainly got a way with kids, most of the time we can't get him to take an afternoon nap anymore. Do you think you can take him upstairs?" Louis nodded and gently carried the small boy, following Samantha upstairs to the boys' bedroom, laying him on one of the small beds and stepping back as Samantha tucked him in and kissed him on the forehead.

They headed back downstairs and Louis spent about an hour playing Lego and doing a floor puzzle with Aidan while chatting with Niall and Samantha. He found out they'd gone to secondary school together, reconnecting after One Direction split and Niall had gone home for a while to see his family. They had become friends first before Niall eventually made a move on her a year or so later. They'd got pregnant after a few years, Samantha mouthed, 'unplanned' and pulled a funny face before breaking into a grin and they'd married when Samantha was 8 months pregnant with Aidan, Sean following two years later.

Niall got his phone out to show a picture of the two of them on their wedding day, both with the widest grins imaginable, Samantha in a simple floaty wedding dress with a huge round belly. She laughed looking at it, "I was the size of a house!" She pouted good naturedly when Niall teased, "Yep you were really fat" and burst into giggles when he added softly, whispering in her ear, but unfortunately not quiet enough for Louis to not overhear, "And I'd quite like to fatten you up again soon".

Louis made a disgusted face and groaned, "Guys, seriously? There are innocent ears over here!" He explained to Aidan when he looked up curiously, having been oblivious to all but his Lego creation, "Mummy and Daddy were just saying something naughty that my little ears couldn't cope with". The three adults laughed while Aidan shrugged and carried on playing with the Lego, not really understanding or caring what the grown-ups were talking about.

Louis felt so at ease with Niall and his family but he wanted to see Liam as well, being the last lad he hadn't caught up with properly. He made his excuses and hugged them all goodbye, telling them to give a hug to Sean when he woke up. He promised Aidan he would come back to see them soon and told Niall he would see him tomorrow for the editing.

Once outside he checked his messages to see if Liam had replied with his number yet which he hadn't, although Harry had texted him asking what time he should come over and Zayn, ever concise had just texted him with, 'Zayn x'. He added the numbers into his phone and replied to Harry telling him to come at 7. Louis knew which house was Liam's by process of elimination and thought he might as well stop by and see if he wanted to hang out. He rang the doorbell but there was no reply so he decided to head home and try to catch up with Liam another time.