The Fires of Spring (Larry AU)

s i x t e e n

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition... Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

x x x x x x x x x

A few weeks go by, and before Louis knows it, Spring has ended and he's graduating in two days. He doesn't know how it happened, but it has in the blink of an eye.

Louis' sitting next to Harry, curled up on the couch as they watch a football game on the television. Gemma and Poppy are at the park.

When Gemma had finally gotten settled in, Poppy had come back to the flat to be introduced and there were many, many tears. Gemma had made a successful recovery and so far she hadn't relapsed or even thought about it. She shared a room with Poppy, and was even saving up her money from her job to get her own flat one day for her and her daughter.

"Harry," Louis says, looking up at his boyfriend. "We're graduating in two days."

Harry hums. "Yeah, we are."

"No, like," Louis pulls on Harry's sleeve, "we're graduating in two days."

"Okay, is there something you're trying to get at here?"

Louis sits up straight and looks at Harry. "We're graduating in two days and I have no idea what the hell I'm doing after graduation."

Harry shrugs, "So, what? You'll figure it out sooner or later, babe." Harry kissed Louis' forehead and turns back to the television.

Louis groans because this is the problem with Harry. Harry was so laid back that anything was cool with him, even if things were definitely not cool. So, Louis punches Harry's shoulder.

"Ow, Louis! What the hell?" Harry leans away from Louis and rubs his shoulder.

"Harry, we're graduating and all of our friends have, like, plans and shit and we don't have anything. I can't just keep living with my mum." Louis says frantically, sitting all the way up, then leaning forward to rest his head on his knees, hyperventilating.

Harry scoots closer to Louis again and starts to rub Louis' back. "Louis, it's going to be okay. You go into the community college a few towns over, right? You can always take a gap year, babe. You can take some classes to get some credit, get a job, and take a whole year to decide what you're going to do."

Louis sits up. "Is that what you're doing?"

Harry looks uncomfortable for a moment, then says, "Yeah, yeah."

Louis collapses onto Harry's side. "It's just crazy, you know? Like, all of our friends have known what they were going to do for, like, ever. Liam's going to Australia for that fire fighters program, Josh is going to uni in Manchester for football, Niall is going to uni in Ireland... It's just insane."

Harry nods. "I know."

Suddenly, the front door opens and Gemma and Poppy come stumbling in, giggling and sweaty.

"It's bloody hot out there!" Gemma exclaims.

Poppy comes from racing from around the corner of the couch and throws herself on top of Louis and Harry. Gemma strides in and sits in the recliner.

"Did you guys have fun at the park?" Harry asks, tickling Poppy's sides.

Poppy nods and yells, "Yeah! We went on the swings and the slides and we ran around and it was so much fun!"