Lock & Key✔️[l.t. soulmate short story]

•Six•

[Louis]

"No way, I'm not doing that." Kealleigh laughed, shooting down Harry's idea of a dare.

"Oh come on! Nobody is here anyway."

"Oh please, I'm sure there are some fans hiding in the bushes or something somewhere."

"She's got a point there, that's a possibility." Niall says with a laugh.

"Lads, I think we can trust her." Zayn says suddenly. "Who disagrees?" Now I knew where they were headed. They needed to know we could trust her before bringing her to our house to hang out, having the hotel room was a convenient way for us to hang out with Harry's new friend and see if we could trust her with the location of our real house.

"What's going on?" She looks around with confusion evident in her eyes.

"Zayn, you're supposed to consult us in private. Now she knows." Harry says in a uselessly hushed voice.

"Guys I'm right here." Kealleigh states and puts her hands in the air, but everyone ignores her.

"She's cool, I trust her." Liam says from the recliner.

"Yeah same here." Niall leans back on his elbows from his spot on the floor.

"Well I trusted her the minute I saw her at the concert!" Harry says excitedly. I roll my eyes, then notice Kealleigh looking at me with a raised brow. I make a funny face at her and she giggles.

"What about you, Louis?" I look at Harry, wondering what he's talking about.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you trust Kealleigh?"

"Guys, I'm still right here." Everyone else continues to ignore her, but I look right at her. Do I trust her? The boys don't care if I trust her with my emotions, my life, or my heart. But for some reason, when Harry asked if I trust Kealleigh, that's what I thought of. And I do, for some reason I trust her with everything I have.

"Yeah, she's good." I say quietly and nod to Harry, then make my way to my room.

I run my fingers through my hair and pull it slightly. What is wrong with me? I've spent at least four bitter years ignoring any social interaction with a person that wasn't one of the lads, now I can't stop myself from trying to make her smile. I walk to the desk in my room and place my hands on either side, leaning forward to look in the mirror hanging on the wall above it.

"What am I doing?" I whisper, staring at my reflection. It's the same as it has been since I discovered I didn't have a soulmate, same old Louis but with a solid glare. Then my mind wanders to something else, the tattoo on my back that the boys were making a big deal out of. It's been a month since I felt the burning on my shoulder blade and Harry investigated it, yet I still hadn't seen the tattoo for myself. I hesitantly turned around, glancing over my shoulder to try and see it. When that didn't work, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and turned the front camera on, zooming in to see what was reflected in the mirror behind me.

"Jesus." The tattoo is so intricate and detailed, not to mention in full color, there's no way that it would be healed on it own. If I'd paid someone to do this when I was drunk I would've had to have it done in two sessions, and it would've stung like hell to the touch the next morning. I touch my left hand to my right shoulder blade, running my fingers over the tattoo only to feel normal skin. It doesn't feel raised at all like month-old tattoo would. My hotel door opens and Liam peaks his head in.

"Hey, we're headed to- woah, sick tattoo mate. When did you get that?" He walks towards me from his spot in my doorway, closing the door behind him. He stands beside me, holding my shoulder steady and looking at it.

"That's really cool man." He pats my back and sits on my bed. "As I was sayin, we're about to check out and head over to the house."

"Yeah, okay." He stands and gets ready to leave the room, most likely because of my overall demeanor the last few years. "Hey Lee?"

"Y-yeah, Lou?" His voice cracks in surprise that I'm using the nickname that the others sometimes use.

"Harry was making a big deal of New Years, why is that?" I turn to face Liam directly. He has a puzzled look on his face before the expression brightens in realization.

"Oh! That's Kealleigh's birthday. She's just turned 18 and got her soulmate tattoo, January 1st." He smiles, but it soon fades. "Oh, Lou I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"So her tattoo showed up January 2nd, our time?" Liam thought for a moment before nodding.

"I suppose so, yeah. Why?"

"No reason." I shake my head and throw a different shirt on. Liam leaves as I finish getting dressed, throwing on some moderately tight jeans and vans. I slide on my short coat and make my way out to the living room with my small travel bag, we hadn't brought much since we're only a few hours from home.

"You ready Lou?" Harry asks as I walk towards the group.

"Yeah, I'm good." I nod and stand closely behind Kealleigh with the others, ready to lead her to the car through any fans that may be waiting.

"Damn thing," she mutters, reaching her right arm over her shoulder and itching her left shoulder blade. Exposing part of what appears to be a keychain, this doesn't surprise as it must be her soulmate tattoo. What does is one of the things on the keychain in her tattoo. that's my X-Factor number. My eyes narrow on her back, the styling of her tattoo is similar to mine, it's on the opposite shoulder blade and what I can see of it is in greyscale but it's the same exact style. 

If we stood next to each other, her key would face my lock. At that thought I quickly walk ahead of her and the lads, leading the way to the car and allowing them to flank her on their own. This can't be happening.