eight years later; nouis

two.

"beer, water, juice.." Louis trailed off, staring into his fridge. He knew what Niall wanted, and pulled out a beer for him.
Niall half smiled, "none for you then?"
"had quite enough tonight, hadn't I?" Louis said, rubbing his eyes.
"you hammered, pal?" Niall asked, cracking open his beer.
"nah," he sat down across from his old friend and sighed.
"what are you doing all the way out here mate? you don't call, you don't text, you completely become a hermit out here." Louis rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"if you really cared, Niall, why did it take you four and a half years to find me." Niall looked down and sloshed his beer around.
"I just needed to get away from it all. I want to be alone."
"why?" Niall said leaning forward.
"i don't know! i don't know, okay? maybe i'm depressed, maybe i'm a psycho, i don't know."
"she wouldn't have wanted this, Louis."
"oh, stop. don't." he shook his head and stood up, putting his back to Niall.
"don't bring her into this."
"i'm just saying..she would've wanted you to be happy, not like this."
"i could've been with her. i could have been with my sisters and brother but i was our galavanting the world. and for what? to be a washed up pop star that no one talks about anymore?! i made the wrong choice."
"i don't-" Niall sighed, "i don't want to argue with you, Lou. but you know that's not true."
Louis walked off and went behind a door, locking it. Niall sighed and put his head down on the table. This was not how he was expecting to spend his night reunited with Louis.
•••
An hour or more had passed and Louis hadn't come out yet. Niall checked his watch: 2am. He knocked lightly on the door and said, "Lou, I'm gonna take off. It was good seeing you..Catch up sooner than later hopefully." and suddenly the door came open.
"Stay. I'm sorry. I don't want it to be like this especially since I don't know when I'll see you again." he looked at Niall with tired eyes, "we'll try again tomorrow." He gestured his neck towards his bed, "It'll be like old times," he smiled, and Niall chuckled back. They'd shared a bed many many times, many cold, lonely, sad nights they held each other tight. This would just be another one of those. Niall removed his jeans and Louis tossed him some joggers and laid down next to him. Louis turned on his side and Niall held onto him tightly. They fell asleep within minutes, Louis feeling more comfortable and warm than he had in months.