Civil

|31| Umbrella

Katie's POV:

After we took care of Niall and Ms. Wilcox's predicament, we had quite the mess to clean up. Thankfully, Perrie and Zayn took responsibility and helped us. Louis and Zayn took axes and hammers and tore out what was left of the overhead cabinets. I gave Perrie a change of clothes from my closet and she helped bail water out of the house while Niall cleaned the foam off the walls. Needless to say, it was a very busy night.

But the next morning was going to be just as busy.

Louis and I picked out cabinets from a catalog and had them installed the following morning. They were stainless steel this time so hopefully we would have less to worry about in case of another fire. The kitchen looked almost good as new, however stubborn wine stains remained on the tile floor that Louis and I couldn't seem to get out.

"So, how have you been?" I joked sarcastically and Louis laughed in response. We were on our hands and knees scrubbing the floor so we didn't have to completely replace the flooring. Even though we had been cleaning for ages, we hadn't really talked to each other about anything important the entire time.

Louis put down his scrubbing brush and leaned over me. "A lot better now that you're here." His hot breath tickled against my ear as he grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back onto the floor.

He pushed his lips to mine and I welcomed his kiss at first. It wasn't until he pushed my head to the side to kissed my neck that I took a whiff of the floor and scrunched up my nose. "I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work in a room that smells like bleach and heavy cleaners." I joked, pushing him away.

"Fair point." He groaned and crawled off. He looked so tired and he struggled just to get to his feet. We had been working all evening to fix the kitchen and as soon as we woke up we continued our efforts.

"We'll continue this later. You should rest today, you look exhausted to death." I got to my feet and kissed him on the cheek before walking past his still standing body and moving behind the counter to fix something to eat. "I should probably get ready soon anyway." I sighed, glancing at the clock. I know it had only been one day but spending so much less time a day with Louis was hard to get used to after being almost inseparable for so long. Especially with it being on my hands. Usually he was the one busy and I was the one waiting for him. Now the tables had turned and I struggled not to feel guilty for leaving him alone at a time when he really needed someone.

"Right, another day of practice I take it?" Louis asked and I nodded in confirmation as I stuck leftover pizza in the microwave for a quick meal. "How did yesterday go anyway? We never really got to talk about it? Did you suck as badly as I predicted?" Louis grinned, waiting for me to go off on that comment. I think he enjoyed me going off a bit too much.

"Have I thanked you lately for your unwavering support?" I said sarcastically as the microwave let out a long beep and I took out the plate of pizza. "And no, I mean, yes but..." I sighed, reliving the highlights of how many times I caught the ball...with my face and chest and everything but my hands. My body was beginning to ache in pain just at the memories.

Let me tell you, with the amount of painkillers I took when I woke up this morning, I'm surprised I'm not high as a kite by now.

"I do wonder if I'll ever be as good as them. I mean, there's one guy who isn't the tallest but they are all in much better physical shape than I'm even capable of." I admitted bittersweetly.

"Love, I was only joking." I looked up to see him smiling at me, and also stealing my pizza. "It was only your first day, don't count yourself out yet." He stuck the end of the slice of pizza in his mouth and tore away at it's rubbery texture.