Red Brick Heart

Epilogue

Whoever invented the snooze button should be shot, in Louis' opinion.

It's a freezing cold November morning and they're still on a house stand-off about the heating: the girls and Louis wander around pitifully layered in all their jumpers and fluff socks, huddling over the hob when anyone else is cooking and cuddling up on the sofa to retain warmth, but Liam – who is in charge of the bills, so has final say – still claims it's too early to put the heating on. So Louis has resorted to nicking Jesy's fluffy purple blanket and draping it over his own on top of his 12-tog duvet, and he's still freezing cold.

He sneaks an arm out from under the duvet, turning off his alarm and, while his fury is still hot (about the only part of him that's remotely warm) he types out a message to Liam that reads I hate you your a stingey cold-hearted twat before opening up the unread message from 7:37. Louis shudders to think there's someone else awake as early as he is.

Babe can You pick me up from Eds I'm cold and really hungover .xxx

Louis groans into his pillow, typing back you are fucking useless harold also no point coming home its even colder here

He watches the screen dim and the time tick over to 8:32, wondering just how long he dares to leave it before he'll be late for his lecture. His phone buzzes in his hand just as he's nodding off again.

but you are there and this armchair is not comfy :(

Louis shivers under his piles of blankets, and yes, it's times like this he misses Harry's big warm body, even when he's got one arm thrown over his neck and almost suffocating him, or when he slings himself over Louis' body like he's a pillow and he wakes up with a dead arm. Hungover Harry is always extra cuddly. And Louis is so cold.

if you hang on a bit I can come pick you up in the car after my lecture is finished

Great thaaaaaaanks. love you lots, now I'm going to throw up

Charming !

I always am... Get out of bed so you're not late for your lecture, see you soon pumpkin .xxx

Louis grins at the screen, heart swelling stupidly just at Harry's words through the screen, and is just about to reply how do you know I'm not up completely on time and already on campus smartarse when there's a loud knock on his door.

"Get up, Louis, or we're walking without you!"

"I've still got time!" Louis yells in reply, even though it's now somehow 8:40 and he's got five minutes to get dressed and shovel some Coco Pops into his mouth before they leave.

"Mean it, Lou," Leigh-Anne says, even though Louis knows her and Jade will wait for him, just as he takes a deep breath and throws off his blankets, the cold air like a physical wall as he hops out of bed and dresses in record time.

He hurries down the stairs – minding the dodgy step as he goes – nearly tripping on a pile of shoes as he dashes into the kitchen at the end of the hallway, condensation frosting up the windows and the leaky tap still dripping. He can hear Leigh-Anne in her room above him, and so he carefully extracts a bowl from the towering pile of washing up by the sink, quickly rinses it out under the tap and pours out his cereal. He's got no milk so he nicks some of Liam's – payback – and stands up as he eats, quickly snapchatting Harry before Jade wanders into the kitchen, bundled up against the cold with a big fluffy scarf and hat pulled down over her curly hair.

"Morning," she says, pushing her glasses up her nose and shifting her bag on her shoulder.

"Mffflp," Louis says in return, milk dripping down his chin. Jade wipes it away fondly before going to grab her pasta from the fridge.