#anyway niall can't stand the thought of louis thinking he's anything less than Everything

[dearmrsawyer]

It’s been weeks but i still cannot stop thinking about this so here have ~1k of Nouis immediately after the release of the Observer Magazine interview. 

Louis has his foot kicked up on the coffee table, mindful of his cuppa, as he watches Freddie choose selectively between his coloured blocks. He favours green today, stacking them tall enough that he looks at Louis with pride before swiping a hand through them, sending them toppling gleefully across the carpet.

Clifford is watching warily from his bed in the corner, ears perking up every time the blocks take a tumble. 

Louis grins as Freddie holds out one particular block that his dad simply must inspect, and is about to give it a good once-over when the doorbell rings. 

Louis’ eyes go to the clock above the TV, heart sinking slightly at the thought that Briana is already here for Freddie. But it’s barely two yet and he’s got a few more hours until she’s due to pick him up. 

“I’ll just be a tic, Freds,” Louis murmurs, hand smoothing down the back of Freddie’s head. His hair’s really coming in now, soft as sunshine. 

Louis can’t see a silhouette in the panes of glass beside the door. The visitor must be standing right on his doormat. He would be wary, but he knows whoever it is obviously has the code for his gate.

The door’s barely open before a body comes barrelling through it, charging into Louis and wrapping him up tight. The wind’s knocked clean out of his lungs and his arms hang in mid air. Even after a year, it still takes him a moment to recognise Niall without his sunny head. He’s seen his regularly enough, watched it grow out until it was just the blond tips he started with, and then it was gone altogether. Even now, Louis recognises Niall’s smell before anything else.

He always smells so clean, fresh like he can cleanse Louis’ life of any impurities just by being here.

“Alright, lad?” Louis says, hands finally coming to rest on Niall’s back.

Niall is gripping him so tight, head tucked up right against Louis’, stubble scratching at his neck.

“You idiot,” he hisses just behind Louis’ ear. 

“Seems uncalled for,” Louis muses, hands clutching loosely at Niall’s shirt.

“You right knucklehead.” 

Louis answers with an affronted scoff, trying to pull back to level Niall with his best arched brow, but Niall doesn’t let him. He sounds fierce, like there’s a fire in his belly driving him. His hands are clamped around Louis so tight he can feel the press of Niall’s fingertips through his tee. 

“How could you say that stuff about yourself?”

Louis’ stomach slips down a rung as he realises.

“So you read it, then?” he jokes weakly, slumping a little under Niall’s grips. But Niall just seems to envelop him further, clutch him tighter.

“How could you say all that stuff about us, and then talk about yourself like that?”

“Niall-”

“Like you’re nothing. Just... filler.”

Louis is acutely aware that his front door is wide open and while the gate to his property is imposing, it doesn’t completely obscure the view.

“You held us all together. You’re the reason we made it,” Niall says. His voice is coloured the same shade as when he describes what his astronaut pals go through in zero gravity. Like what he’s saying is a wonder to the human experience. Louis swallows.

“How many times did you make sure we were taken care of over the years? Made sure we were heard or protected or that we didn’t miss a moment that we’d want to remember. Or when you’d lose your mic being a right fool on stage, and the rest of us scrambled until you got it back. We sounded empty without you, Lou, always did. Always felt it.”

“I-” He’s not sure what to say, lets his chin rest atop Niall’s shoulder. “I’ve got Freddie in the lounge.”

It’s all he can think of, the only string of words he can put together. The tension in Niall’s body is slowly easing as the seconds pass, and Louis feels him sigh against his chest. 

“You just...” Niall starts, but he just sighs again.

His fingers lose their grip, sliding down the length of Louis’ shoulder blades until they rest at the dip of his waist. Louis’ arms are still trapped beneath them, wrapped lightly around Niall.

Niall tips his head to the side so his cheek is pressed into Louis’ shoulder, facing out, and because he isn’t quite sure of what else to do, Louis lets his head rest against Niall’s. 

“It’s all very dramatic, this,” he says, and Niall’s fingers tense for just a second before the fight seems to slip out of him again.

“Just don’t like it when you act like you weren’t everything to us. And the fans.” His breath is warm even through the fabric of Louis’ tee. Warm, steady puffs. “To me.”

Louis feels every reflex inside him twitch with the need to make a joke, even as his throat tightens. He likes to answer gentle words with raucous ones when they’re about him. It’s easier to direct the conversation in a way he can control. But there’s always been something about Niall, something that renders his soft. Something he couldn’t bounce off of when his heart was involved. 

“Thanks, Nialler,” he says quietly. Niall rests along the front of his body, completely at ease now that he’s said his peace and Louis’ accepted it. They rock gently, and Louis’ head flashes back to a stage - one of their last - surrounded by thousands of fans so close to his home when Niall had pulled him close enough to feel his pounding heart, hand warm against the back of Louis’ head. 

“Think we’ve put on enough of a show for the neighbours, yeah?” Louis says, and Niall shifts, his cheek sliding over Louis’ shoulder so he can look back. He laughs when he sees the door sitting open, and finally pulls away. Air rushes in around Louis and he feels cold. 

“Suppose they’ve seen enough,” Niall agrees, and shuts the door himself. 

Louis stands a little awkwardly, hands clasped before Niall turns back. He tosses a thumb over his shoulder and asks, “Wanna see the kid?”

“‘Course, can’t have him forgetting his favourite uncle.”

“Definitely not,” Louis nods, leading the way in his socked feet back towards the lounge room.

Freddie doesn’t seem to have been troubled by Louis’ extended absence. He’s got his green blocks back in a tower and has moved onto yellow. 

“How’s the little lad?” Niall booms the second he comes around the corner. 

Freddie still turns bodily whenever he moves his head, twisting his little torso around to face Niall. He instantly grins so wide, it’s a perfect reflection of Louis whenever Niall enters a room. Maybe its genetic, Louis thinks with a grin of his own.