Louis POV
Naomis apartment was in a quaint village in London. The building was old and brick. We entered through a doorway tucked away to the side. The door creaked when it opened and through it we entered into a small living room with shag carpets and a plain gray sofa. The bookshelf was massive and took up a good portion of the room. Next to it was a plush blue chair. I could imagine Naomi sitting there reading for hours. The house smelled like mint and vanilla. It was an inviting and homey place. She kicked her shoes off in the doorway and I followed suite.
Lux must have been asleep because the only light came from a small nightlight in the hallway. Naomi led me silently down the hall and to a room on the right. I had to squint in the dark to see, but the hallway was adorned with photos of a smaller childlike Naomi and glamour shots of a girl I didn't recognize, who must have been Lux. She was very confident, I could tell.
Naomis bedroom was small and cramped. Her bed was up against one wall and a single dresser was on the other. There was another bookshelf shoved up against the wall beside it.
Naomi pulled her apron from the grocery store where she worked off of the purple sheets of the bed and tossed it on to the bookshelf. We hadn't spoken much on the way here. She'd asked if I was okay, and I had said yes in the most unconvincing tone. Every few minutes she would shoot me a concerned look and I would glance out the window and pretend I couldn't feel her eyes boring into mine. I tried not to think of Harry, or at the very least, not his impending demise. Despite my efforts, the vision of his pale unmoving body was sitting in the forefront of my mind.
Naomi pulled the covers back on the bed and gestured for me to get in beside her as she settled in. I obeyed, unsure what else to do. We were both fully clothed but that didn't seem to shake her.
Laying beside her in bed normally felt inviting and comfortable but all I felt was stiff and out of place. Naomi didn't curl up to me like she usually did. For a moment, we both lay there staring at the ceiling in the darkness. Then I rolled over to face her and said, "If he does die, what am I supposed to do next?"
I could just barely see the silhouette of her features. Her eyes shined as they reflected what little light the room provided. I realized her eyes were damp. "I don't know Louis," she admitted.
I sighed. I didn't know either. My entire life revolved around trying and failing to keep Harry out of trouble. What was I supposed to do without that?
She grabbed my hands under the sheets.
"He was stalling," I added as if I hadn't already told her. "He saw things going south and I froze but he just kept trying. He threw himself in front of the gun and refused to move." Even as I said the words they didn't feel real. Annoying, selfish Harry had been working to save my life. He didn't beg for his own salvation, just mine. He'd wanted me thrown from the sinking ship before going down with him. He had almost no self preservation instinct.
Naomi nodded. "I know." She looked deep in thought for a moment. "He really cares about you."
"But he brought those people to my house," I added miserably. That was the other side of the double edged sword. Through Harry's heroism that day, he had exposed me to a great threat. The very threat he'd also defended me from.
"He never thought that would happen," she defended him. "Louis he would never intentionally hurt you."
I nodded feeling numb. She was right, I knew, but how far was I supposed to let things go before I started drawing uncrossable lines with him. He was almost dead. Was I to wait until I was there too?
"I'm sorry," Naomi said to me in a soft voice.
"What do you have to apologize for?" I was confused.
"For cutting you out like I did," she told me.
I cringed, remembering the tension we'd been ignoring. Those issues seemed far off from where we had been today. I frowned and then spoke in what I hoped was a light hearted way. "At least you showed up before I got murdered."
She didn't laugh. I hadn't really expected her to. "That isn't funny," she told me.
"I didn't think it was either," I admitted. "For what it's worth though, I don't mind being ignored. I just wanted to know you were okay."
That statement seemed to make her quite sad which hadn't been my intention. Naomi sat up and flipped a switch on the lamp beside her bed, suddenly illuminating the both of us and casting shadows around the room. "Louis, I love you." She said seriously. "You know that I love you right?"
I pushed back into a sitting position alarmed by the outburst. When she had said those words on the phone, she had seemed to be saying them out of obligation, because I had said them in a moment of emotion. Now she said them frantically as if they were the last words she'd ever speak. She said them as if they were a crucial piece of information. Something I should write down so I wouldn't forget. I took a deep breath. "You don't have to say that," I told her.
"I mean it," she said. Her voice had gone insistent and desperate. Could she be lying? I knew I was quite needy as a partner. At this point I was attributing her lack of communication as foreboding a break up although I'd tried to push the thought away in favor of optimism. That same optimism that kept failing me. I assumed things with Harry had likely contributed. I had barely left my home as to keep an eye on him in the previous weeks and that likely meant for a strained relationship. I'd probably just not noticed. I assumed Naomi was still only hanging around now to make sure as to not add more pain and suffering to me for the single day. She was kind like that. She was holding off for a better day, I'd assumed which is in part why I'd not pursued further discourse on the issue. That statement of love was a direct contrast to what I'd envisioned.
I knew I lover her. It was new love but it was absolutely love. She was the first bright part in my life after years of feeling very alone. I hadn't realized how isolated I was in my life with Harry until after meeting Naomi. She'd shown me light again and I loved her for it, but I hadn't let myself believe that she loved me.
I realized I was just staring at her with a confused expression on my face but I didn't know what to say. Her expression had changed to that of confusion too as she looked back at me searching my face.
"Louis, you know that you are loveable right?" She asked softly.
Of course, I knew that... right? I knew that. I was loveable, but she had raised an important concept to me. How many times had I felt alone in the last few years? How many times had I been rejected by family because of my decision to step back from my career to care for Harry? How many times had I lost relationships? I thought for a moment of Eleanor and how she had thrown out our multi year relationship to sleep with Harry of all people. I realized I had not felt loved in quite a while. That's why I was questioning her.
"I love you too," I said finally. I knew she meant what she said. I was just insecure.
I laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. I was exhausted. We had issues, but they could wait.
Naomi flipped the light back off and laid closer to me this time. She placed her head on my chest and grabbed my hand. We didn't speak again and slowly I found myself in a deeply needed sleep.
Naomis POV
I woke up before Louis the next morning. He was sleeping like the dead but his face somehow still looked exhausted. He had not slept restfully. He had only stopped tossing and turning an hour prior. I checked my phone and then his first. Niall had updated us several times throughout the night. Nothing had changed. Nothing had gotten worse either.
It was getting close to 8 and I knew Louis would want to be back to the hospital as soon as we were allowed so I regretfully touched his hand gently. His eyes flashed open as if he'd been awake the whole time and he sat up with wide eyes. "What happened? Did he...?" He started and then trailed off frantically.
I shook my head. "No, nothings changed. It's just morning."
His shoulders slumped. He seemed to process what that meant and then rose. "We should get back then."
I looked at his hair. He still had blood matted in it. His shirt was bloody too from the bloody nose he'd had the previous day. "You need to shower and change," I decided.
He frowned but seemed to agree, letting me lead him by the hand to my bathroom. After showing him a towel, I left him to go find one of Lux's boyfriends shirt. Lux was still asleep when I walked into her room. It was dimly lit with fairy lights but I could see the outline of Lux splayed across the bed. Steven was noticeably missing, which was a surprise. She awoke at the sound of me knocking on the door.
"What gives," she whined with her face shoved into the pillow. She was not a morning person.
"I need to borrow Stevens clothes," I said plainly.
She sat up slightly, her dark hair tumbling over her shoulders. "Stevens gone," she said scowling. She laid back down.
I flipped her light switch on. "What?"
"He's gone," she spoke into the pillow again. She sounded like she was unbothered by this. "I made him leave."
"Why?" I asked leaving the light on.
"Why are you bothering me so early?" She whined.
I sighed. "Louis needs a clean shirt."
She sat up again making a face. "Whose Louis?"
"My boy," I reminded her. I had forgotten that I never used his name. I had intentionally never brought him here. It occurred to me that she would be seeing him finally. "Don't be weird when you see him... he's dealing with something."
She swung her feet off the bed and stood up. She wasn't wearing pants. She almost never was. Just a long shirt. Lux loved meeting new people so I knew she'd help. She dug in her dresser and tossed me a bundle of fabric smiling. "Keep it. I'm not giving Steven any of his stuff back."
I had no idea what Steven had done but it must have been a great offense. I thanked her heading back to the bathroom containing Louis and setting the clothes on the counter. The water was running and I could see his outline in the shower, but I didn't speak to him. I found Lux out in the hall staring at me.
"Since when do you bring him home?" She asked suspiciously.
I rubbed my tired eyes, feeling the smear of the makeup I was wearing the previous day. "He... he has a lot going on," I said evasively.
Lux rolled her eyes. "So secretive."
"I'm serious Lux," I insisted. "Don't be overbearing. He can't handle that."
She scowled. "I'm never overbearing." The light in her eyes told me that she knew that was a lie. She was absolutely self aware.
"Can you at least put pants on?" I requested.
She looked down as if noticing for the first time and then flitted off to her bedroom to remedy the situation. I used the excuse of silence to run to my room and put on clean clothes as well. I knew Louis would want to leave immediately so I grabbed Nialls keys off my dresser. Lux was back in the hallway standing at the bathroom door, likely hoping to ambush the boy inside as soon as he opened the door.
"Lux," I snapped waving her off. "Leave him alone."
She laughed, and then noticed the key in my hand. Her eyes widened. "He drives a Tesla??"
I sighed and spoke in a tired voice. "His friend does."
"Is like Elon Musk his cousin or something?" She raised her eyebrows annoyed with my evasiveness.
Louis chose this time to push the bathroom door open. With a curl of steam he emerged. Stevens shirt was too big for him and he'd opted for his own dirty jeans. His hair was all over the place but with the blood washed out I could see the purple bruising creeping along his hairline. One of his eyes was also purpler than I remembered. He walked out looking nervously to Lux. It seemed he had forgotten she lived here too.
Lux was staring at him in awe. Her jaw dropped as she took in his presence, looking from me to him and then back again. She cocked her head to the side and scrunched her eyebrows before speaking in a loud and excited voice. "Your baby daddy is Louis Fucking Tomlinson and you didn't tell me?!"
Louis froze, his eyes widened before they flashed to me. He leaned into the wall behind him as if scared his knees would give out. His voice trembled as he spoke. "What did she just call me?"
Lux jerked her hand over her mouth as if it wasn't too late. Her eyes darted to me. "You haven't told him?!"
I looked back and forth feeling particularly nauseas. This conversation was not supposed to go this way. It was supposed to have gone completely different. Louis phone rang in my pocket saving me from having to answer either of them. I dug it out of my pocket and saw Nialls name on the screen.
Louis suddenly deciding that what he'd just heard was too much, blinked hard as if removing it from his brain and then snatched the phone from me, answering Nialls call.