Snowed In || lirry

Part Three

"'Twas two nights before Christmas, and, outside the house, not a creature was stirring- not even the neighborhood drunk," Louis stated in a dreamy tone. Outside, the storm had built up until the all the boys could see past two meters in front of the window was a wall of swirling white and grays.

Zayn snorted. "'Drunk' doesn't rhyme with 'house', Louis."

"Let me have this, Zayn, I'm bored as hell," Louis whined, turning away from the window.

Harry waited for Niall to make some obscure comment about knowing just the thing to help Louis' boredom, but, instead, the boy stood up and said, "I... I think I'll try calling Dad again... I'll be right back."

Louis watched him walk off to the bedroom while nervously tapping his father's contact on his phone. Niall had been unable to reach anyone in Ireland yet, and he'd grown progressively more concerned as the storm around the house picked up.

"I've never seen Niall look so worried," Zayn mused. He, Harry, and Louis had no problem getting a hold of their parents and siblings before the storm truly set in.

Louis nodded. "Family's his soft spot," he stated, dropping the humor usually injected into his voice. "He's scared for them."

They lapsed into silence, with only the howling wind and Niall's soft pleas in the other room for someone to answer to fill the void.

Harry couldn't take the silence for long, it felt crushing- like the storm outside was slowly seeping in. "Speaking of worried... did Liam tell either of you when he was leaving this morning?"

"Even if he left at first light, there's no way he could have beat the storm to Wolverhampton," Zayn began, "Maybe he saw the weather report and didn't leave at all."

Louis nodded but had nothing to add. He was still watching the hall for Niall.

"Wouldn't he have called us by now? You know, tell us he's okay since we knew he was planning on driving?" Harry continued, unable to let the conversation die. He needed one of them to say he was being stupid, and not to worry, Liam was tough and smart. He was probably in his flat doing much the same as the other four- sitting bored as hell while he waited for the storm to pass.

"None of us thought to call him, and he knew we were leaving," Zayn reasoned with a shrug. Harry nodded. Right, they all still thought he'd planned to visit his family.

"That can change," he decided, pulling out his phone. The charge was low, and he hadn't thought to bring another with him, but it would hold enough to call Liam.

"Harry, he's fine, calm down," Louis grinned. "You're acting like a mother hen."

Harry shot him a silencing look. The phone rang several times, but no answer; and, of course, Liam didn't have the sense to set up voicemail.

"This isn't mother-henning, this is worrying about a friend, possibly trapped in the worst blizzard since the last Ice Age, who isn't answering his phone," Harry muttered, staring at his phone as though that would make Liam call him back faster.

Zayn rolled his eyes as Harry turned around. "Bit extreme, don't you think? The last Ice Age?"

"No, no, you're right, of course," Harry conceded. "Not the since last proper Ice Age, maybe just the little one, the Mini Ice Age. You know, the one sparked by that Kraka-whatever-douchebag volcano in Indonesia, the Ice Age that kicked off the Medieval Times and feudalism? Yeah, maybe since that one."

"Krakatoa and feudalism? I miss all the best conversations," Niall called as he returned to the room. He took a seat beside Louis and curled into his side. His eyes were a bit red, as though he'd been crying. Louis tightened his embrace around the boy.