Louis looked at himself in the mirror one last time before he left his bedroom. His eyes scanned over his body. His legs were squeezed into a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and he had a well-fitting hoodie on, grey in colour with blue accents on the hood and sleeves. Some old converse were thrown onto his feet, they'd faded from navy blue to a greyish blue colour now but he still loved them, they were his favourite shoes.
Lottie and Fizzy were the only two of his sisters in the house and best believe it they were making enough noise for all five of the Tomlinson siblings as well as all their cousins as the both of them shouted over the noise of the television coming softly from the living room. He made his way down the stairs slowly, his eyes on his phone. He could hear the shower running from the upstairs bathroom, his mum's gentle singing drifting through the top half of the house too.
"Please, stop arguing." He said as he entered the kitchen, both girls' heads darting towards him. They both looked at the floor, knowing they were arguing over something unimportant. Louis sighed, going over to them and kissing them both on the head, pulling them into a cuddle too, "Chins up!" He shouted over his shoulder as he walked away, hearing both girls giggle.
He picked the car keys up from the shoe rack next to the front door and headed out to the black van that his mum owned,, it was the cheapest car she could find that would fit all five of her children it, and unlocked it. The car made a beep as Louis pressed the button, opening easily when he slid his dainty hand onto the door handle and pushed it down. He jumped up into the seat and connected his phone to the bluetooth, playing his usual playlist for the car and set off towards the school.
Zayn had asked him to come to the first basketball game of the year, and surprisingly this time Louis said yes. Since it was probably going to be his last year at school, he decided to do everything he could and try to enjoy it as much as he could and if that meant going to watch Zayn's basketball game then that's what he would do. Edward was playing too but truth be told, he wasn't really thinking about that, no offence to the green eyed alpha, he just wanted to go and cheer on his best friend and have a good night.
It was cold for a Wednesday night in the middle of September, of course it was usually cold in the UK but it felt like a winter chill was blowing through the air, to Louis that didnt seem like a good sign. The rain came on while he was driving too, splattering against the windscreen heavily, the gusts of wing making the sky cry out with loud painful sounding noises.
He rushed inside the building, his hands covering his hair as best as they could, and slowly stalked through the quiet corridors to the large gym hall where the basketball game was being held. His hands reached up to his biceps, running them up and down in an attempt to warm himself up a little more.
The doors to the hall were open already, people slowly filling up the chairs and benches dotted around the large and echoey room. He could see both teams practicing, Zayn and Edward were standing off to the side, worried looks on their faces and lips moving eerily fast. The small omega approached them, quietly walking and trying not to disturb anyone, "Hi, is everything okay?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowed in concern and confusion.
"Harry and Marcel aren't here." Zayn replied shortly, his voice snappy and rigid, Louis knew his frustration wasn't directed at him.
"And we can't get a hold of them." Edward furthered, Louis understood why they were upset, he would be too.
"The weather's picking up, that might have something to do with it. I'm sure they're on their way and just don't have any service." Louis didnt know what else to say, that was his genuine thoughts anyways, Harry and Marcel didnt seem like the kind of guys to just not show up to something that was so important to their brother.
At that point Niall and Liam walked through the doors, laughing about something between themselves. It only took them half a minute or so to reach the three others, "They're still not here?" Liam asked, pulling Zayn into a hug when he got close enough to him.
Niall took Louis into his arms too, whispering a 'Hi' into his shoulder. Louis detached from the hug pretty soon after that, "I'll go and see if they're here yet." Louis suggested, turning on his heel and making his way back out of the gym hall.
"I'm coming too." Edward said, speeding up to catch up with Louis as they walked side by side. The alpha let out a large sigh, running his hands across his face.
"Try not to stress." Louis' voice was quiet when he spoke, Edward had noticed. He was always quiet.
"I'm just worried, what if something happened?" The omega reached up and grabbed onto Edward's shoulder, stopping the two of them in the middle of the corridor, he looked at Edward with sympathetic eyes, a small frown tugging at the corners of his lips.
"They'll be fine, I promise." Louis squeezed his shoulder and flattened down the material of his basketball jersey. He gave the alpha a soft smile, a comforting one, "You just need to calm down a bit, you stressing isn't helping anyone, especially not the team."
Edward nodded and covered Louis' hand with his own, "Thank you." The alpha whispered before he slowly turned and the pair continued walking. They waited at the main doors for five or so minutes with no sign of either of Edward's brothers. The alpha was starting to get increasingly more nervous, his foot tapping against the ground and his palms forming large droplets of sweat.
"You're gonna have to go back." Louis said, reaching his hand up to Edward's shoulder again, knocking him from his daze.
"Can you keep an eye out still? I'm really worried." Louis nodded, running his hand up and down the alpha's bicep.
"Go and kill it, Ed." Louis encouraged even though his voice was barely above a whisper. The alpha gave him a sheepish smile and thanked him before he walked off slowly, his shoulders slumped and one hand in his hair.
Louis felt bad for the boy, he would hate it if he didnt know where his sisters were and there was something he desperately needed to do. But there was nothing Edward could do to get out of the game, he was captain and one of the best players on the team so he needed to push his worries away and channel them into his game.
He could hear cheering and shouting from all the way across the school, all of the voices in the hall merging into one loud wave of sound crashing through the building, reaching Louis' ears. He kept scanning the car park, or what he could see of it through the rain, and sighed in relief when he saw two tall bodies running through the heavy droplets thrashing down from the sky. The pair of alphas were frantically pushing through the doors, soaking wet and leaving water dripping in their path, "How much have me missed?" Harry asked as they started walking through the halls quickly. The alphas were leaving a trail of water behind them, their shoes squeaking against the concrete floors.
"Just over ten minutes, I think." Louis replied, looking between them again, they looked riotous, "I haven't really been keeping track, sorry."
"It's okay, I'm just glad we made it." Marcel sighed. He and Harry were walking the dogs before they had to leave for the game and just as they got near the house the rain started pelting down on them. They had to change their clothes and dry the dogs before they could leave the house and then they got caught in traffic because of the rain. Their evening had not got off to the best start.
When the three of them crashed through the doors, the relief on Edward's face was vividly noticeable. His tensed up eyebrows relaxed and he smiled over to Zayn, who gave him a nod, that must've meant something between the two of them Louis thought because instantly after that both of them were running around like mad and the three other players on their team got themselves into some kind of shooting formation.
Harry, Marcel and Louis made their way over to where Liam and Niall were seated, well standing in front of their seats, cheering loudly for their school. All three of them joined in, Louis quieter than the others, and cheered and screamed until the whistle blew for half time. Edward came running over instantly, not even taking a drink or talking to any of his teammates, and pulled his brothers into his arms. They latched onto him too, each resting their head on one of his shoulders and letting him squeeze them half to death.
He presses his lips to Marcel's hair first, kissing the youngest triplet's head a few more times before he turns his attention to Harry, "I was so worried." He whispered, barely audible to their friends standing only a few metres away.
Marcel pulled back from the hug and grabbed Edward's face into his hands, "We're here now, you don't have to worry anymore, okay?" Edward nodded softly, leaning in and kissing Marcel properly this time. By this point Harry had properly stood up and rested hie hand on the curve of Edward's back, gently running his fingers along the material of his jersey.
"We're okay." The middle triplet whispered and kissed his brother's cheek, "You're okay, too." Edward pulled them back into his arms, usually at this point Harry would laugh at how unusually affectionate his big brother was being but he knew just how worried he had to be, none of their texts were going through and they just could not get through the traffic jam, they were worried too.
"You've gotta go and talk to your team, Ed." Marcel said quietly, running his hand through Edward's knotty hair, the eldest alpha nodded, giving each of his brothers a kiss before he was running back over to his teammates.
Edward managed to play even better during the second half of the game, running around crazily and taking as many shots as he could, hardly missing any. His eyes seemed to always be on the ball and it looked like he was thinking up a new plan every minute. Then after a while his eyebrows started for furrow more often, carving deeper and deeper lines into his forehead as he dribbled. After that he started stretching his arm when he didnt have possession, shaking it sometimes too.
Louis heard Harry whisper something to Marcel, both of them holding concern on their faces. They continued to whisper back and forth, flickering their gaze back to Edward. Both shades of green irises were darting around the room, their milky coloured hands agitatedly running through their chestnut locks. Their gazes always flitted back to their older brother, keeping their eyes locked onto what seemed to be a problem, his shoulder.
He seemed to be able to put up with it though, charging through the game amazingly despite his obvious pain. But just as the final five minutes approached something that made Louis feel physically sick happened. Edward got possession of the ball- an amazing pass from Zayn had set him up perfectly right on the three point line- and one of the opposing players went darting towards him to defend.
Apparently this boy couldn't stop himself and kept towards Edward at a scarily fast pace. And although his feet slowed down slightly, he couldn't come to a stop and went crashing into Edward. The green eyed alpha went tumbling down to the ground and landed directly on his shoulder blades, his back hitting the floor with a large thump.
You could've heard a pin drop in that hall in the moment, everyone in there went completely silent, they all halted their movements and locked their eyes onto the alpha on the floor, clutching at his left shoulder. No one said anything and Louis hated it. He was the first person to break free of this daze seemingly and hurriedly started hitting Harry's arm, trying desperately to get his attention. It worked. The middle triplet shook his head and ran over to his brother, his actions causing a few others around to jump into action. Marcel was over to his brothers seconds later and the boys from the team had surrounded the three of them so no one else could see what was going on.
It took five minutes before the team dissipated from their tightly bound circle. And then the three brothers became visible, Marcel holding Edward's already sore shoulder up and Harry holding onto his other arm, the younger pair leading him out of the hall. Louis knew that the boy from the opposing team didnt mean to hurt Edward but he was still a little bit shocked when they all just continued to play once Edward had left the large room.
Zayn looked worried as he continued to play, so did all of the boys on the team but it looked like they were playing for Edward, trying their best to keep ahead on points and just get the first game of the season, "I'm gonna go and have a look at his shoulder, Ni. I might be able to help." Louis said to his best friend, the blond omega nodding in agreement as the smaller of the two began to exit the gym hall.
The brunet walked through the corridors slowly, anxiety and stress pooling at the bottom of his stomach just from being around so many people but he tried to will it away. He swallowed hard, continuing through the hallways towards the small room next to the depute head's office, the first aid room.
Louis' hand locked with the cold metal of the door handle, bringing him back to reality, and he pushed it open gently. The scene inside was one that Louis didnt think he would ever witness. Edward was pressed up against the plain wall, his legs dangling off of the small bed that was below him, Harry was searching through the large cupboard that was at the other end of the room- he didnt even know what he was looking for, just something that would hopefully help his brother- and Marcel was seated across from Edward, holding his free hand that wasn't attached to his hurt shoulder. But all three brothers had equally stressed looks on their faces, add in a tinge of pain for Edward.
"I might be able to help you out a bit." The only triplet shocked by Louis' presence was Harry. The poor boy all but jumped out of his skin at the soft voice that came from the doorway that he was facing away from. Louis smiled shyly and walked towards the bed that Edward was sat on, "Can I have a look at your shoulder?"
The alpha nodded, scooting over to allow some space for Louis to climb up onto the bed. The omega leaned onto his knees next to Edward and started poking around at his shoulder gently, putting pressure on different parts and checking to make sure everything was still in place. He came to the conclusion that it was, telling Edward to put ice on it when he got home because there was probably nothing to worry about, "I'm not a doctor so I obviously can't tell you for sure but everything looks fine, you probably just bruised it badly."
The alphas thanked the boy, Louis flushing red under the praise and dismissively brushing it off as they began to exit the school, "Do you need a lift?" Marcel asked the boy as they were about to part, the triplets needing to go and get their stuff together before they could leave.
"No, I drove. Thanks though." He waved as a last sign of goodbye as he finally left the school building. The car park was a lot less full than it had been earlier on, it seemed that most people had already left, and the rain had lessened slightly. There was still a mass of droplets pelting against the slabs on the ground, bouncing up and forming puddles on the ground.
Louis stepped around the puddles that had formed at his feet, making his way to his mum's car as quickly as he could. He sighed as he took his seat in the vehicle, looking down at his darkened hoodie and shoes, laughing a little at himself before he headed home.
His feet splashed against the stairs leading up to his house, water clinging to the ankles of his jeans and gathering in hid shoes as Louis entered his house. The twins were back now, he only knew because he seen both of them sleeping on the couch when he walked into the living room, the pair cuddled into each other, hugging one of their soft toys. He sat down next to Daisy and ran a hand through her wispy hair, effectively waking her up, "Hi, gorgeous girl." He whispered, smiling down at her affectionately.
"Hi, Lou." She whispered, sitting up from her position snuggled up with her sister and gave him a cuddle, resting her head on his shoulder. They sat like that for a few minutes, quiet and peaceful until Louis told Daisy to head upstairs and get ready for bed.
The little girl yawned and nodded before she was walking away from him slowly and left him to wake up Phoebe. The girl in mention woke up the same way as her sister and immediately reached up for Louis to pick her up and snuggle her into him. He carried her upstairs after he sat with her for a bit and left her in her bedroom to get changed for bed.
His mum came out of her room just as Louis was leaving the twins' room, smiling at him and walking towards him. She pulled him into a hug and swiftly asked him about his day, engaging him in a long conversation until he had to drag himself away for a shower.
Louis stood under the steaming water and sighed, a nice end to a stressful but good day.