three hearts in one home (l.s.)

10. Nicknames and croissants

“Hi”, I whisper when sitting down besides Louis' bed the next morning, him still asleep.
I thought I could make a stop here after dropping Jonah of at school.

Louis breath is quiet and regular and he looks better than the last days, more recovered and not as tired anymore.

I feel myself getting butterflies again when staring at him, he looks so pretty like this. I lean back in my chair and pull out my phone to scroll around on my Instagram feed out of boredom.

It’s about ten minutes later when Louis slowly opens his eyes. I give him time to wake up. His eyelids flutter a little and he frowns because of the sunlight falling right onto his face.

He looks around and when he sees me, he flinches a little before smiling.
“Hi, Harry.”

I smile, his sleepy voice sounds even cuter than his normal one.
“Hi, Louis. How are you feeling?”

He shrugs and waits a little before answering. “Sleepy.”
He chuckles and pats on the bed with his left hand, signalling me to sit down.

I get up from my chair to sit down next to him and now our hands are extremely close, as well as our legs and his eyes stare right back into mine.
“I’m getting better. I’ll probably be out by tomorrow or Wednesday.”

I smile happily, I can’t wait for him to finally be able to get out of here.
“I’m glad, love. Jonah can’t wait for you to finally get home again.”

He smiles during the mention of his son and then says: “This might be extremely annoying, but would you mind picking me up? You can say no, Harry, really but I can’t drive yet, obviously.”

I smile. “Shut up, Lou, of course I’ll pick you up, no worries it’s not annoying.”
Something in his expression changes, his eyes look like they sparkle a little and his lips lift a little.

I stare back, raising my eyebrows questioningly.
“It’s cute when you call me Lou”, he says and that makes me blush a lot.

“Shut up.” I quickly get up from the bed, “I’ll get a coffee before you make this any more embarrassing, do you want one too?”

He chuckles and then shakes his head. “I don’t like coffee.”
“Oh yeah, of course not, I had to drink tea for the past three days.”

“Sorry”, he mumbles, now looking a little guilty, “I know this is shit for you right now and I am really sorry, I wish this never happened, fuck, it’s all my fault-“

“No”, I interrupt him and quickly shake my head, “No, Louis, that’s not what I meant. It was a joke, please don’t take this seriously. I like doing this for you and now I’ll get myself some coffee.”

He smiles softly and mumbles a quiet sorry before I slip out of the door, butterflies still in my tummy. Shit, I kind of start liking him.
But I feel like he could like me too.

I halfway walk, halfway jump down the stairs, feeling all happy and dizzy.

“Hi”, I say to the woman at the counter and she starts smiling when she sees me all giddily, “I’d like to get a coffee and some tea please, a croissant as well.”

She nods and walks off to make my coffee and Louis’ tea before grabbing the croissant.
“Here you go”, she says after a while and hands me the tray.

“You didn’t have to”, Louis says when I enter the room again and blushes a little, “I promise I’ll pay back for everything and of course pay you for the babysitting as soon as I get back home.”

I roll my eyes and place the tray on the nightstand before sitting down on the bed again
“I promise that if you don’t stop your annoying talk about money, I’m not going to pick you up from the hospital tomorrow and you’ll be stuck here forever.”

He grins and I smile back, his eyes locking with mine, my eyes locking with his, our eyes locking and shit, it makes me feel all sort of things.

“Alright. I’ll stop until you picked me up but then I’ll start again.” He chuckles and then points to the tray. “Is that for me?”

I roll my eyes and place the tray on his lap carefully, not wanting to hurt his leg, head or anything else he hurt during that accident.

“Nah, I obviously picked tea and coffee just for me without getting anything for you.”
He smiles before grabbing his cup and our hands brush shortly when I do that.

It’s quiet for a while, nothing but the muffled sound from the hallways and our gulps as we both drink from our cups, the beeping of some machines out of the room next to Louis’.

“You know”, he says after a few minutes, “I obviously fucking hate that this accident happened, but maybe it had a few positive sides to it, too.”

I raise an eyebrow, shrugging. “Which ones?”
Louis places his cup in the tray again and pulls a piece of the croissant before chewing it slowly.

“Jonah was able to get to spend time with his cool uncles, obviously. I realized how important he is to me and how much I miss him when he’s away.”

I smile softly and nod. “Those are quite good things.”

My breath hitches the second our hands brush again but this time, Louis interlaces our fingers and it feels like I could erupt with feelings. His hand are so soft and his finger fit between mine perfectly. Shit, this has to mean something, right?

“You don’t know the best thing about all of this yet, though.”

I smile and look at him a little curious. We both don’t mention our hands, still intertwined, don’t talk about it but both our eyes are on them, watching our hands lay on the white hospital bed and something about this moment feels really important and special.

“What’s the best thing, then?
He smiles and presses my hand briefly.

“I got to know you better, Harry.”

~~~

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