Ghosts That We Knew- l.t au

Louis has a secret. It's not his fault, he didn't ask for it. He's just the ghost of someone who once was

But the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view

We'll live a long life

- Ghosts That We Knew by Mumford and Sons

Louis sighs leaning against the bar looking at the mostly empty restaurant. They just finished with the lunch rush and things had settled down before the dinner one.

He looked at Zayn who was wiping down a table. Zayn seems to feel his stare because he looks up and smiles, "are we done?"

Louis looks at the clock on his phone and scowls at it. "5 more minutes" he grumbles at which Zayn laughs. It's not like Louis doesn't like his job, it's generally easy and well paid, but he just wanted to get home.

"Are you coming over tonight?" Louis asks tapping his fingers impatiently. Zayn walks over and nudges him "what do you think?" He says grinning.

Louis rolls his eyes and laughs "are you sure you have a place to live cause you're always at ours".

Zayn shrugs "what can I say your roommate is hotter than mine" he says.

Louis laughs "you don't have a roommate" he reminds him. Zayn looks at him and smirks before walking into the back of the restaurant.

Louis chuckles again, Zayn had met Louis at work and they quickly became friends. Louis had invited him over one day and Zayn met Liam, Louis's roommate and best friend. They had started dating soon after that and like people say the rest is history. Looking at his phone Louis finds that it's exactly 4:30 and he can finally leave.

The one good thing about Zayn always being over is that he has a car. Louis couldn't afford one and Liam was a university student so public transportation had quickly become their friend before Zayn.

The drive from work to the apartment is fairly short and Zayn always loved to crank the music. Louis closed his eyes and thought about how lucky he was to have his friends. After only knowing Liam for two years and Zayn just over one, they had all become inseparable.

Louis was filled with dread as he remembered the secret. Louis wasn't exactly human. He had a couple human/machine hybrid organs but the rest of him was all mechanical.

The synthetic skin and visual features were top notch and nobody would be able to tell that he wasn't human. He could eat, breathe and sleep. Louis acted like a human and the only thing saying he wasn't, was his internal hardware.

That being said his friends had no idea. Liam knew that Louis had a bad past and that he doesn't like talking about it so Liam doesn't bother to ask about it. The rare times he does ask, Louis goes into a pretty intense anxiety attack. Louis past had not been the greatest and it scared him to think what would happen if his friends knew what he was.

Robots that looked like humans had just started to make their way into society but it was still very new and most humans didn't approve of the idea.

Zayn looked at him oddly when they got to the apartment because generally Louis wasn't a quiet person. Louis shrugged and Zayn let it go. Another reason why he love his friends is that they never pushed for information.

Liam greeted them both as they entered and Louis flopped on the couch. Zayn followed, turning on the tv to a random show. "Pizza tonight?" Louis asked looking up at Liam who was standing above him.

"Yeah I called Niall, he's coming over later" he answered going to sit beside Zayn. Louis felt himself smile bigger. Liam had met Niall at school and he had fit in with their little group really well. Louis mostly loved Niall because he laughed at everything Louis said.