storm ➳ tomlinson a.u

one - new beginnings

Glancing up, I searched the signs for the number of where my luggage collection point was. As I followed the arrow which pointed in the direction I needed, I tucked a lock of my wavy brown hair behind my ear. Once I reached the luggage claim, I stood with just the sound of one earphone in my ear as I waited for my cases to appear on the conveyer belt. Just my luck, most people received their bags before mine had finally appeared on the belt.

"Fucking finally." I muttered to myself as I reached over to grab both of my cases. With a humph, I hauled them onto the hard floor and proceeded to pull both of them along the hard floor, trying to keep my backpack pinned onto my shoulders. Crowds of people passed by me as I entered the waiting area and began searching the crowd sitting down. Biting my lip, I looked over everyone again feeling disappointed when I couldn't find who I was looking for. Where was he? He'd promised he'd meet me there.

Suddenly, a pair of strong arms wrapped around me from behind. "Hey little sis."

"Joshua!" I cried, dropping hold of my suitcases and turning to throw my arms around his neck. He chuckled and pulled me closer to him. 

"Well, you've grown." Joshua said holding me at arm's length and giving me a once over.

"It's only been a few weeks since you last seen me." 

"All the same, you've changed." He said ruffling my hair and picking up one of my suitcases for me. "Besides, to me you'll always be the little chubby girl with pigtails and glasses."

After jabbing my elbow into his side and him laughing at me, I picked up the other suitcase and we walked out of the airport full of excitement and laughter. My brother and I had always got on when we were younger, besides the usual petty sibling arguments. When we'd moved up to Scotland, he'd stayed up here to finish of school. My parents had let him because he was old enough to look after himself and he only had one year of high school left - he'd just stayed with my grandparents until he got his own place. When it came to me, I was only thirteen when we moved so I was only in my third year at high school so it was easier for me to move. We visited each other as much as we could in the past three years, but in the last year Joshua didn't visit us and we didn't know why. He just kept putting it off. It did upset me a bit that the first I saw him in a year was at my parents funeral. I didn't care now though, since I was actually here and would probably be staying with him for a while.

"Nice car." I said to Joshua when we approached a sleek black car which I didn't know the make of - I just knew it was pretty.

"Thanks. She's my baby, I just got her about four months ago." He grinned at me as he unlocked the car. He popped the boot open and I helped him lift my cases into it. 

"So I guess that answers my next question," I stated and Joshua looked at me with a confused expression. "You don't have a girlfriend."

Joshua punched my left arm and I returned it. "Get in." He demanded and I followed his demand, smirking to myself. I slid into the passenger seat and glanced around the car. It was spotless, and I expected that the house wouldn't be anything like this. Joshua had always been messy and I knew the only reason his car was like this was that he probably looked after it more than himself. Hence the no girlfriend. 

"How far away from the airport do you live?" I asked as he put the car into reverse. 

"Not too long, you'll be fine. Still get travel sickness, huh?" 

"I can't believe you remember that. We haven't been in a long car ride together in years."

"How could I forget? You puked on me once." 

I grimaced at the memory. We'd been driving up the north of Scotland to go camping and I'd forgotten my travel sickness tablets, causing me to throw up on Joshua. 

"You never fail to bring that up." I groaned rubbing the bridge of my nose.

"That's what big brothers are for, Kels." Joshua smirked at me briefly before turning his attention back to the road. 

Thankfully, the car ride wasn't too long like Joshua had said. We arrived outside his house within fifteen minutes. The house was just a normal house which surprised me. I didn't know what I'd been expecting - maybe a rundown abandoned house or something. It was nice, and the neighbourhood wasn't too bad. It wasn't the cleanest and it was a little run down, but there were a small group of young children playing in one of the gardens so it couldn't have been too bad. 

We stepped out of the car and I walked around to help Joshua with my cases, but he called my name to stop me. 

"I'll get those later, I want to show you around and introduce you to the boys first." He held out his hand for me to follow him.

Nervousness washed over my body. As much as I was perfectly okay with living with three other guys, I knew it would be hard to get used to. Especially when I knew nothing about either of them besides their names. 

With reluctance, I took hold of his hand and let him guide me into the house. 

"They're good guys, I promise." Joshua murmured into my ear before opening a door to what I presumed to be the living room. As we entered the room, my eyes fell upon a boy lounged across the sofa, his curls falling over his face slightly as he watched TV.

Joshua whistled and the boy looked up. 

The curly boy said and sat up, his eyes landing on me. "Hey! You must be Kelsey." He sent me a soft smile and I nodded. He stood up and took a step towards me before holding out his hand. "I'm Harry Styles."

"Nice to meet you, Styles." I replied, shaking his hand, with a smile.

"Where's Louis?" Joshua asked with narrowed eyes. Harry shrugged and returned to his previous position on the sofa. Joshua sighed and told me he'd be back in a minute, and left the room to find his other house mate. 

Awkwardly, I played with my fingers as I waited on Joshua to return. Harry's eyes were trained on the TV and I had no idea whether I should speak or not. He was fairly attractive, with soft green eyes and plump lips, his biceps bulging as he casually had his arm slung over one of the cushions. 

"So, I'm guessing you got the attractive gene that Josh clearly didn't." Harry's voice broke the silence. A blush crept onto my cheeks, and I opened my mouth to respond only to be interrupted.

"Dude, that's my little sister." Joshua said stiffly, wrapping his arm around me protectively. 

I heard more footsteps enter the room and turned my head, to look at who was now standing next to me. My green eyes were met with blue ones, before wandering up to his brown hair and down his lean body, which was dressed in a white v-neck and black skinny jeans. 

"You must be Louis." I said with a smile, trying not to be distracted with how attractive he was. "I'm Kelsey."

"I am and I know." he returned bluntly, not even bothering to smile at me as he stepped over to sit on the sofa next to Harry. Surprised by his harsh response, I just strode there blinking a few times. Harry narrowed his eyes at him with pursed lips and I wondered if Louis acted like this a lot. 

"You could at least pretend to be nice for once, Lou." Joshua said his jaw clenching and his arm leaving my shoulders. 

Louis just shrugged as he looked into my eyes harshly. "I just don't think having her around is a good idea." His bluntness nearly made me take a step back. 

"Where is she supposed to fucking go?"

"I don't know. All I know is that you obviously care about her a lot - and that makes her a target." I noticed that Louis had an English accent but I couldn't pinpoint exactly where from. 

"Target for what?" I asked, turning to face Joshua who had his eyes scrunched shut and was rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Look, I'll tell you later. It's - it's complicated. Let's just get you settled in yeah? I'll show you to your room. And you - " Joshua threw his car keys at Louis, " - can get her cases from the car."

"Why me?" Louis groaned, standing up.

"For being a douche to my sister."

A smirk played at my lips as Louis pursed his lips at Joshua. After a short staring match, Louis muttered something under his breath and stomped out of the room. Joshua puffed out his cheeks and pushed me in the direction of the door. I followed him up the stairs, excited to see my new room. The house was bigger than it looked from the outside, which I suppose was needed for three - now four - residents. Joshua led me to the room at the end of the hallway and pushed the door open. It was just a small box room, and was just big enough for a single bed, a wardrobe directly across from the end of it, and a small desk below the window. 

"It's not much, if you want a bigger room I'll switch if you want. And I kept it white so you could decorate however you wanted. Also, excuse the burn on the bedding - it's the only one we had left." Joshua said as I walked into the room.

"It's perfect, Josh." I replied with a grin before turning to face him and pulling him into my arms. "Thank you for letting me stay with you." 

"I'm your big brother; it's my job to look after you. Would you rather stay with crazy Aunt Liv?" 

Chuckling, I pulled out of his arms. "Here's fine." 

We were interrupted by someone clearing their throat. Louis was standing in the door way, my two cases in front of him. "Here's your cases, princess." He drawled before swiftly turning and walking back downstairs. 

Joshua stared after him, shaking his head. "Unbelievable." He muttered under his breath.

"Is he always like this?" I questioned curiously.

"Sadly, yes. You get used to it. Do you want help unpacking?"

"No, I'll be fine." I responded shaking my head. Before leaving, Joshua sent me a soft smile and walked out, shutting the door behind him. 

Tucking my hair behind my ear, I pulled one of my cases onto my bed and unzipped it. Lying at the top of the case was a picture of my parents, Joshua and I seven years ago. Joshua was thirteen and I was ten. Not long after that photo was taken, Joshua had tried to climb a tree but fell and broke his arm. Smiling, I placed it on the desk where I could look at it. The next hour was spent unpacking all of my clothes and possessions, which wasn't exactly a lot. My small collection of books and DVDs that I'd saved from my old house. I'd managed to save all of my favourites but I was still kind of upset that most of my book collection had burned in the fire. 

"No," I said to myself quietly, "Don't let yourself think about it." 

Deciding that I'd spent enough time with my own thoughts, I left my bedroom and walked downstairs to look for Joshua and see what we'd be doing for dinner.

"Josh?" I called once I reached the bottom of the stairs. 

"Kitchen!" He called in response. When i reached the kitchen, he was sitting at the kitchen table on his laptop. He closed the laptop and slid it to the side once he heard me arriving. I pulled out the seat across from him and sat down. "Settled in okay?"

"Yeah, but I'll need to get some paint soon. The white hurts my eyes." 

"We'll go buy paint this weekend if you want."

"That would be good." 

Josh averted his gaze and rubbed his jaw. "Look Kelsey, about what Louis said about you being a target - "

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I cut him off.

"No. It's probably better if you know straight of the bat," He said with a lopsided smile. "I've not been the same for a while. Well, I'm still the same person. I'm still Joshua. I mean, recently I've got involved in some serious shit - Louis and Harry are both involved too, that's how I know them. I - I've did some things I'm not proud of. It is dangerous having you here, I know that. But I promise you I won't ever get you involved in this or let you get hurt, okay?" 

"Wait so like, a gang?"

"Of sorts, yes." 

I sat in silence for a minute trying to process everything he had just told me. It wasn't exactly the greatest feeling in the world knowing, but I knew that once Joshua had his mind set there was no changing it. I had to accept that. Quietly, I stood from where I was sitting and walked around to Joshua, placing a kiss on his cheek. "You're a big boy, you can look after yourself. I still love you. Plus I could probably kick your ass now."

Joshua grinned up at me. "Doubt it." 

"What's for dinner?" I asked after sending a soft punch to his arm. 

"I don't really have anything planned. Is Chinese okay?" 

"Yeah, that's fine."

"You can go watch TV or something while I gather up everyone's orders. I'm assuming that you want the usual?"

"You remember a lot."

"It's because I'm the best."

"That's debatable." I replied ruffling his hair. 

"Rude." 

With that, I walked into the living room where Harry was still sprawled onto the sofa but Louis was nowhere to be seen. He turned to face me when he heard me enter the room before moving his legs off the sofa so I could sit next to him. 

"Am I bothering you?" I asked with a grimace as I sat down.

"Of course not, this is your house too." He replied with a toothy grin.

"What are we watching?" I tucked my legs up to get more comfortable in the corner of the sofa.

"Friends re-runs. Do you like it?"

"Is that a serious question?"

Harry shrugged and turned his attention back to the screen. "It was, but now I know you're a normal human being. Congratulations."

"That's the dream."

A few minutes passed before the door to the living room opened and Joshua entered. "Harry, what do you want from the Chinese?" He asked, sitting in the arm chair next to the window. 

Harry thought for a few moments before giving Joshua his order. Joshua wrote it down before walking off to make the order. My mind wandered to Louis as my eyes were fixed on the TV. His blue eyes had been harsh for the brief moment I looked into them, but there was something else about him that captivated me. I just couldn't work out what it was. There was something about him that I found so unbelievably attractive he made my heart flutter at just a thought.

"How old are you?" Harry's sudden question pulled me out of my thoughts. 

"Seventeen. I'm eighteen in December, you?" 

"Louis' birthday is December too - Christmas Eve actually. I'm nineteen; twenty in February." 

"Dinner should be here in twenty minutes." Joshua said, entering the room and sitting in the same chair as before. While we were waiting on dinner, I zoned out of whatever Harry and Joshua were having a conversation about and into my own little world. I tried to plan out what I wanted by bedroom to be like - and trying to wonder about Louis and where he was. My questions were answered when I decided to listen into what the boys were talking about just in time for Harry to ask where Louis was.

"Where he usually is - in his room hating the world." Joshua answered with a shrug.

When the bell rang with dinner, the three of us shot up simultaneously. Joshua instructed that he and Harry would bring in the food and set up and I was to go upstairs and tell Louis dinner was here. 

"Which room is his?" I asked, backing up towards the stairs. 

"Second along from yours." Joshua answered as he pulled the front door open. 

"Gotcha." I turned around and quickly made my way up the stairs. Once I reached Louis' door I knocked twice and heard a muffle 'come in'.

"Dinner's here." I stated as I stepped into his room. It was bigger than mine, and it looked surprisingly clean considering it was a boy’s room. Louis was lying on his bed reading a book before his head turned to face me. 

"I'll be down in a second." He answered, placing his book to the side. With a nod, I turned to leave the room, but turned back around when Louis spoke up, "Oh, and Kelsey? Make sure they don't eat my food before I get there." 

"Aye, aye captain." I saluted him with a smirk before walking out of his room. This brief conversation had been the nicest thing he'd said to me all day - and I hoped I would see his nicer side more often. If he even had one.

Sure enough, once I made it back to the boys sitting around the table with the food layed out, Joshua was digging into something that I know he or Harry didn't order. Taking a seat next to him, I smacked his hand away and he looked at me as if I'd murdered his puppy. 

"Not your food." I scolded him. 

"Is this it? Is this what it's like having a girl around? I don't think I like this." 

"Actually, I told Kelsey to make sure you don't eat my food." Louis appeared at the door and winked at Joshua before turning to me, "Thanks, love."

"No problem." I muttered trying to look as gracious as I could with a forkful of fried rice in my mouth. Louis sat across from me so he was seated next to Harry and pulled his food away from Joshua. 

Dinner was silent except from the sound of forks and loud chewing (mostly from Joshua) and a few comments about passing sauce. Our whole life, Joshua and I always competed to see who could finish their meal first, and we must have subconsciously been competing since Joshua cried out a 'no!' as soon as I had cleared my plate. Playfully, I stuck my tongue out at him and the small amount he had on his plate.

Harry and Louis were both giving us strange looks when I turned around. I shrugged at them in response, since Joshua was finishing off the last of his food. 

"Siblings are strange." Harry muttered scooping chicken into his mouth.

Joshua said with a raised eyebrow., "You have a sister, Haz."