Let Them In

14- Presents.

As Louis walked through the doors of the school on December 21st, all he felt was tiredness. His brain was exhausted and his body felt extremely heavy, with his arms and legs feeling like dead weights that he was dragging along behind him. He was totally ready for his Christmas holidays and all his thoughts were focused around the event.

Primarily, the bag of gifts that were swaying at his side were occupying his mind, leaving him to hope and pray that his friends would love the presents he got for them. He saw four bags atop the table that all of his friends were sitting at, they were all different colours with presents balanced over the rim of the bags.

It eased his thoughts that not only he had gone a bit too far with his presents for the boys. He was scared that they would be disappointed by his first choices for them and ended up thinking night after night for weeks about the perfect present for each of them. And he was quite proud of his results when it came to the night before he was bringing them into school.

As he sat on his bedroom floor, the only light coming from his bedside lamp, with them sitting out in front of them alongside a pile of different wrapping papers and gift tags, he smiled at his efforts and silently prayed that they would all go down well the following morning.

In turn, he never got much sleep, staying up until almost four o'clock wrapping them and writing little notes for each of his friends that he secretly hoped they would appreciate more than the presents themselves. His hand ached by the end of his writing session because he ended up writing a lot more than he had initially planned.

But he knew that they would understand why the messages were all so long. When Louis began to talk about something he deeply cherished, he couldn't stop, and apparently his friends were something that he truly loved. He believed everything he wrote in the messages and although they probably were very jumbled and waffly, he thought they would understand.

By the time he reached the table full of his friends, the group had noticed him and large smiles had appeared on all of their faces. Childlike excitement beamed from all of them, ready to exchange presents with all of their friends. They were some of the only people in the large social space, sitting at a table in the corner with one chair left for Louis to occupy when he arrived, later than the rest of him, like usual.

Niall got up to hug him when Louis reached the table and once he let go, Niall took the bag from Louis and placed it atop the blue table top, "Fuck sake, L. That's bleeding heavy."

All the boys around him laughed, including Louis, who could feel a sheepish blush creep up his face. He sat down in the empty seat that had been left for him and tucked his hands under his thighs, the cold of his legs cooling his sweaty hands down. The omega was visibly nervous and everyone at the table noticed.

The closest to him, Harry, placed a soft hand on his knee from under the table. He took it away when he felt Louis jump slightly but replaced it when Louis took his hand out from underneath is leg and took Harry's hand, letting it rest on top of the alpha's once he had put it back onto his knee himself.

"Will we start then?" Liam said from the corner, Niall's head resting on his shoulder. His omega nodded his head eagerly, his cheek smooshing against Liam's shoulder comically with every move of his head.

Very quickly presents were being passed all over the table, the triplets handing things over to the other boys and the other boys giving things straight back to them. By the end of it their bags had been refilled with new presents for themselves and again, they were overflowing. With presents piled high above the rims of their bags, all seven of them were keen to dig in and see what they had received from their friends.