When Tomorrow Comes

Waiting For Forever To Being

"That's a sick jumper, mate. Looks warm and toasty," Niall comments as Louis strips it off and drapes it over the back of his desk chair.

Louis looks around and raises an eyebrow. "Yeah, uhm, it is. You cold?"

"Mmmm... little chilly actually."

Louis grabs the green woollen jumper, balling it up and chucking it at him. "Have at it then."

Niall catches it against his chest. "Cheers!"

"Alright," Louis says as he sits down at his desk and lifts the lid of his laptop. "So I thought we could do a basic schedule for the project and work out roles and assign tasks."

"Sounds like a solid plan," Niall says, voice muffled as he pulls the jumper over his head. "Really glad we got paired together, I'm shite at this organizing stuff," he admits, head popping out the top, and Louis is almost relieved. He'd much prefer to take control and dole out set things for Niall to do, much easier for his internal control freak to tolerate that way.

The professor had paired-up students randomly, which Louis was kind of glad of, to be honest. Being new at the University means he doesn't know a lot of people yet and he's always been a bit socially awkward, so he sees this as a good opportunity to make a new Beta friend and get the work done too. Plus the assessment requires access to an Alpha so Louis would've been completely lost, certainly not having made any connections there, preferring to stay holed up in the Omega student quarters. Thankfully, Niall said he could handle that aspect without any issue while Louis would be free to focus on the data analysis and report writing.

Louis creates a new google doc to start making notes as Niall drags over the spare chair from the corner of the room, setting his laptop down on the desk beside Louis'.

Louis opens his calendar and Niall does the same. Louis scans his carefully constructed and down-to-the-minute calendar and glances over to find a very empty version on Niall's screen. He forges on regardless.

"We've got two weeks before we have to submit our findings so I'm thinking that we should probably meet up on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. How does that fit with your timetable?"

"Yup! Works for me. Not too early on Sunday's though," Niall says and nudges Louis with his shoulder.

"Okay. Fair call. I'm not much of a morning person myself," Louis chuckles. "What's your email? I'll share the docs with you and send you calendar invites for our sessions."

They swap emails and phone numbers, Louis finishing the setup so they can move onto the project requirements. It's an interesting subject, looking at the way scents affect Alpha behaviours and what triggers their base need to create a nesting environment for an Omega. It's an expansive topic, and the results are not a foregone conclusion by any means, given the amount of scope for various influences. But that's just more data for Louis to crunch which is right up his alley. Data analytics is kind of his thing, and why he transferred to this particular University, so he's glad to be jumping straight into something he's interested in.

By the end of their three-hour session, they have a good handle on their overall objectives and next steps. Niall will approach one of his friends to be the Alpha subject, and he's confident he can source items from some of his Omega friends to use in the testing as well. Louis will focus on structuring the data models and controls and keeping them on track with the schedule.

Louis rubs his eyes and stretches out his back. It's getting late and his stomach is grumbling. As if on cue, Niall's grumbles too and they both look at each other and laugh.

"Might be time to quit, yeah? Hunger calls," Niall suggests patting his stomach.

"Yeah. I think we've made a good start," Louis agrees.