Gods & Monsters

Chapter 15 (Part 2)

'All doooooone! :))'

Louis briefly smiles at his phone. 'Comiiiiing' he sends back before pausing, a smirk filling his lips. 'And I'm also on my way too. ;)'

Heh, sorry. He couldn't resist.

It only takes a moment for Harry to send back his all caps 'HAHAHAHAH' that spans two lines of text. Louis can perfectly envision the blush that is most definitely coloring Harry's neck at this moment, the way he's staring at his phone with those luminescent owl eyes and unruly hair and snowy skin. He's probably got his mittens on—those hideous pea green ones that he'd purchased from that old lady with the one eye and pet parrot. (Louis likes to call her 'Pirate', much to Harry's horror. When he'd asked him how he knew her, Harry merely replied, in the sweetest simplest manner, "I sometimes have tea with her and she teaches me about flowers and gardening and stuff. She's really smart, Louis. She has the most beautiful rose bushes." Where does he find these people, honestly?)

Oh, Harry.

His phones buzzes again. It's a series of emojis—most of them blushing smilies, the others consisting of fruit and indecipherable hand signals. Louis has absolutely no idea what any of this means but he's not above being charmed by randomness. So he smiles and rolls his eyes, tucking away his phone before he does something ridiculous like text back a smiley or something equally mundane and embarrassing.

Louis Tomlinson is above smilies. He has never texted a smiley in his life. He will not start now. Even if Harry just so happens to use them as the dominant proponent in his speech.

But shit, though. Stuff like this is crazy sometimes, isn't it? Sometimes these little things take Louis by storm... Just, like, the fact that he was seriously tempted to text Harry something as small as a smiley. No big deal, right?

Wrong. That's a huge deal. Louis doesn't do that stuff. That's not part of his character or mannerisms and all his life, he's always stuck to his true nature and never bent his will or actions to accommodate others. Never. Not once. Not even for his family. Instead of straying from his firm line of 'self', Louis walked the fuck out and never once was tempted to act out of character or even try to. And, sure, this is literally just all stemming from a text, a stupid potential text, but the thing is, Harry makes Louis want to be different. He does. He makes Louis want to simplify his life, he makes him want to clean up the cobwebs and get his shit together and eat a little healthier and sleep a little more and he makes him want to be a little better and little more honest and a little less addicted to his demons. He makes him want to text motherfucking smilies in his texts and he makes him want to smell his hair and touch him for seemingly no other reason than just to touch.

It's a huge fucking deal, okay? And it's terrifying sometimes, it's horrifically jarring and unsettling when Louis takes a moment to wonder if he's, like, changing or something. Because he doesn't really notice this 'change' or whatever, but he feels happier and, if he thinks about it, he can spot certain alterations in his behaviors and speech and that's... That's a lot.

But, see, it's a good change. It's for the better. Louis' happier. Sure, he's a fucking mess because his life is chaos and it's on the brink of collapse, but with Harry (and without the complications) it's better.

He wants to keep him. He does. He wants Harry.

He can do this. He can. He's Louis fucking Tomlinson. Surely he's won over someone before, hasn't he? Sexually, yeah. He's 'conquered' (so to speak) hundreds of willing bodies. Thousands, probably. Billions.

But has he ever... Has anyone ever stayed for him?

He swallows, feet hitting the frosted ground. It's so cold outside. Winter is definitely here. It's cold and fucking unforgiving, much like these bullshit thoughts that are making his throat feel so small.