Ficlet: I Had Rather (Louis/Nick)
Dec. 9th, 2018 07:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magicalrocketshipsOriginally posted here.
ANONYMOUS ASKED: If you're still taking prompts I'd really like a Nick/Louis where Nick meets Louis family for the first time and they're both really nervous about it
Okay, so this isn’t quite what you asked for, Anon, but when I was writing I Had Rather Bark At A Crow, initially it had an epilogue that, as I was writing, didn’t seem to work, so I cut it. The epilogue was Louis and Nick going to visit Louis’ mum and sisters, and it’s been sitting on my hard drive for a bit because I was loathed to just delete it. So, here you are:
Louis/Nick, family, I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, cut scene.
Nick wakes up to Louis making shushing noises and pulling the duvet up and over Nick’s shoulders. Nick mumbles something about letting all the cold air in, but he’s still mostly asleep. Louis kisses his temple, and Nick snuggles down further under the duvet, ignoring the giggles coming from somewhere near the bed. That can’t be right.
“Shut it, you lot,” Louis says, and then he’s kissing Nick again, smoothing his hair away from his face.
Nick falls asleep again to the sound of retreating giggles, and Louis closing the living room door.
When he wakes up again, the sun is streaming through the gap in the curtains, and Nick is on the sofa bed in Louis’ mum’s front room.
Ah.
He can hear Louis outside, shouting, and his sisters shouting back, laughing and giggling. Nick climbs out of bed, straightening his specially purchased, brand new, red checked Ralph Lauren pyjamas, and shuffles sleepily in the direction of the kitchen. Maybe with the aid of some caffeine, he can go and make something of his hair and remember how to be human so he can make a good impression. He’s been secretly fretting about meeting Louis’ family since Louis first brought it up as a possibility.
That plan’s a bit fucked when he finds Louis’ mum in the kitchen, drinking tea and watching Louis and the girls out of the kitchen window.
“Morning,” Nick says, a trifle awkwardly, since this is his boyfriend’s mum and everything, and because his boyfriend is Louis.
“Morning, love,” Jay says, and she smiles at him. “There’s tea in the pot, or there’s a coffee in the cupboard above the microwave. It’s only instant, mind.”
He goes for the coffee, putting the kettle on and leaning back against the counter.
“You didn’t fancy a bit of early morning football, then?” Jay waves her mug in the general direction of the girls and Louis outside.
“Didn’t get the option,” Nick says. “Think Louis was letting me sleep.”
She gives him a look. “That won’t last.”
“I know,” he says. He wonders how much she knows about the past however many months of him and Louis fucking around. “So, uh, thanks for having me. And everything.”
“It’s not often Louis brings someone home,” Jay says. She leans past him to turn the kettle off. “It’s a bit battered, that,” she says. “Doesn’t always turn itself off when it boils. When Louis finds out he’ll just try to buy us a new one, but it does its job. You just need to remember to turn it off.”
“Right,” Nick says. “But, like, thanks. For, uh, letting him bring me home.”
Jay passes him a mug from the cupboard by the fridge. “He seems happy.”
Nick knows as well as the next person that that isn’t the answer to his unspoken question. “Jay—”
“Hi,” Louis says, tumbling into the kitchen. He’s rosy-cheeked and breathless, hair falling into his eyes, jumper falling down over his hands. He’s in pink wellies with roses on, pulled on over his pyjama bottoms. The girls follow him inside, Fizzy and Daisy squabbling over the muddy football, all of them in their pyjamas and wellies, jumpers and scarves and coats on over the top. Louis kicks off his muddy wellies and ducks under Nick’s arm, wrapping his arms around Nick’s waist. He goes up on his toes to kiss Nick’s temple. He smells faintly like sweat. “Hi, you.”
“You didn’t wake me up,” Nick says, drawing Louis into his side.
“Yeah, well,” Louis says. “You never get enough sleep.”
“Says you,” Nick says, squeezing his fingers into Louis’ hip. “Did you really take them outside in their pyjamas?”
“We’re rebels,” Lottie says. “Literal rebels.”
“Hmm,” Jay says, leaning over to kiss Louis’ cheek. “If you could remember to tell them before you go that they can’t go out in their pyjamas normally, that would be great.”
“Mum,” Louis complains. “You’re always stifling my creativity. Don’t you want creative children?”
“I prefer it when they don’t have pneumonia,” Jay says. She claps her hands. “Right, girls, come on. I’m not having you lot freezing to death in my kitchen. In front of the fire, all of you.”
The girls all complain as one, a loud cacophony of noise that Nick would normally prefer happen after his morning caffeine. It sounds like a lot of, but, Mum, to him.
Louis will still be here once you lot have chipped the ice off your legs,“ she tells them. "Come on, wellies off. Don’t leave them there, Daisy. I’ll fall over them. Put them by the door. That goes for all of you. Lottie, you too. Just because you’ve got a boyfriend now, it doesn’t mean you can’t move your wellies out of the way of your pregnant mum.”
Jay is positively huge, now, a very large baby-baby-bump with a person attached. She looks tired and a bit run down, and Nick can see on Louis’ face that he’s worried.
“Mum—”
“I’m fine, love. These two have been sitting on my bladder all night, that’s all. Up and down like a yo-yo.”
“We brought fireworks,” Nick says, before Louis and his mum can have any more conversations that only seem to involve their eyebrows. That’s weird, right? It’s weird.
“I’m going to light them,” Louis adds. “I’ll be the firework king.”
“We’re all going to die,” Jay says, which is still Nick’s point of view as well, but Louis just leans in and kisses her cheek.
“No one’s going to die,” Louis says. “Not when I’m in charge.”
Jay meets Nick’s eyes over the top of Louis’ head. “What do you think, love?” she asks.
“Fairly sure we’re all going to die,” Nick says, ignoring Louis’ elbow to his side. “Good way to go, though. Who doesn’t love a good firework?”
“Exactly,” Louis says, in satisfaction. “We’ve got piles of sparklers, too. Hours of fun.”
“Hmmm,” Jay says, but she’s smiling, and her eyes are bright. “It’s good to see you happy, love.”
“Blame him for that,” Louis says, and he grins up at him. “It’s all Nick’s fault.”
Nick doesn’t mean to go red, but he just can’t help it. “Shut up,” he says, and Louis kicks him.
“Learn to take a compliment,” he says, and laughs.
~*~
Nobody dies at their impromptu belated bonfire party that night, which is good. Nick has plans to draw a heart in the air, and his name and Louis’, and luckily nobody will be able to tell, because everyone will be busy with their own sparklers. His cheesy, romance-tinged sparkler ideas will stay secret, just the way he likes it.
They end up huddling round the dying remains of the fire pit long after the little girls have gone to bed, and Louis’ mum and Dan have gone inside to escape the worst of the cold. Lottie and Fizzy stay out with them, wrapped up in coats and hats and scarves and under blankets on the other side of the fire to Nick and Louis.
Nick feels curiously, ridiculously happy. Louis burrows closer to him on the bench they’ve pulled up close to the fire, the two of them having sacrificed their blanket to Louis’ sisters. Nick’s back is cold and his front is too hot; Louis tucks his hand into Nick’s and lets Lottie tell them all about how brilliant her new boyfriend is.
It’s nice, is the thing. Louis is an odd combination of frenetic and completely relaxed; he’s easy around his family in a way he never quite is with either his band or with Nick, but he’s vibrating somewhere off the key of reason too, like he’s tied to Nick with a thin band of elastic, and whenever he twangs off to do something else, he’s propelled back to Nick’s side like a cannonball.
Nick kisses the top of his head. “You okay?” he asks, quietly, whilst Lottie and Fizzy are bickering over toasting marshmallows.
“Getting there,” Louis says, and Nick smiles at that. “It’s alright, this, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” Nick agrees. “Thanks for bringing me.”
Louis’ face curves into a smile, then, bright and luminous like the sky. “It’s not awful?” he asks. “You wouldn’t rather be off doing stuff with your friends?”
“Nah,” Nick says. “I’d rather be here, making sure you don’t go back to lit fireworks and poke them with a stick.”
“I am the firework king,” Louis proclaims, for the twelve-hundredth time.
“You’re a menace,” Nick says, but he loves him anyway.
Louis just grins at him, bright and wide, and Nick laughs, and tugs him into a hug.
ANONYMOUS ASKED: If you're still taking prompts I'd really like a Nick/Louis where Nick meets Louis family for the first time and they're both really nervous about it
Okay, so this isn’t quite what you asked for, Anon, but when I was writing I Had Rather Bark At A Crow, initially it had an epilogue that, as I was writing, didn’t seem to work, so I cut it. The epilogue was Louis and Nick going to visit Louis’ mum and sisters, and it’s been sitting on my hard drive for a bit because I was loathed to just delete it. So, here you are:
Louis/Nick, family, I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, cut scene.
Nick wakes up to Louis making shushing noises and pulling the duvet up and over Nick’s shoulders. Nick mumbles something about letting all the cold air in, but he’s still mostly asleep. Louis kisses his temple, and Nick snuggles down further under the duvet, ignoring the giggles coming from somewhere near the bed. That can’t be right.
“Shut it, you lot,” Louis says, and then he’s kissing Nick again, smoothing his hair away from his face.
Nick falls asleep again to the sound of retreating giggles, and Louis closing the living room door.
When he wakes up again, the sun is streaming through the gap in the curtains, and Nick is on the sofa bed in Louis’ mum’s front room.
Ah.
He can hear Louis outside, shouting, and his sisters shouting back, laughing and giggling. Nick climbs out of bed, straightening his specially purchased, brand new, red checked Ralph Lauren pyjamas, and shuffles sleepily in the direction of the kitchen. Maybe with the aid of some caffeine, he can go and make something of his hair and remember how to be human so he can make a good impression. He’s been secretly fretting about meeting Louis’ family since Louis first brought it up as a possibility.
That plan’s a bit fucked when he finds Louis’ mum in the kitchen, drinking tea and watching Louis and the girls out of the kitchen window.
“Morning,” Nick says, a trifle awkwardly, since this is his boyfriend’s mum and everything, and because his boyfriend is Louis.
“Morning, love,” Jay says, and she smiles at him. “There’s tea in the pot, or there’s a coffee in the cupboard above the microwave. It’s only instant, mind.”
He goes for the coffee, putting the kettle on and leaning back against the counter.
“You didn’t fancy a bit of early morning football, then?” Jay waves her mug in the general direction of the girls and Louis outside.
“Didn’t get the option,” Nick says. “Think Louis was letting me sleep.”
She gives him a look. “That won’t last.”
“I know,” he says. He wonders how much she knows about the past however many months of him and Louis fucking around. “So, uh, thanks for having me. And everything.”
“It’s not often Louis brings someone home,” Jay says. She leans past him to turn the kettle off. “It’s a bit battered, that,” she says. “Doesn’t always turn itself off when it boils. When Louis finds out he’ll just try to buy us a new one, but it does its job. You just need to remember to turn it off.”
“Right,” Nick says. “But, like, thanks. For, uh, letting him bring me home.”
Jay passes him a mug from the cupboard by the fridge. “He seems happy.”
Nick knows as well as the next person that that isn’t the answer to his unspoken question. “Jay—”
“Hi,” Louis says, tumbling into the kitchen. He’s rosy-cheeked and breathless, hair falling into his eyes, jumper falling down over his hands. He’s in pink wellies with roses on, pulled on over his pyjama bottoms. The girls follow him inside, Fizzy and Daisy squabbling over the muddy football, all of them in their pyjamas and wellies, jumpers and scarves and coats on over the top. Louis kicks off his muddy wellies and ducks under Nick’s arm, wrapping his arms around Nick’s waist. He goes up on his toes to kiss Nick’s temple. He smells faintly like sweat. “Hi, you.”
“You didn’t wake me up,” Nick says, drawing Louis into his side.
“Yeah, well,” Louis says. “You never get enough sleep.”
“Says you,” Nick says, squeezing his fingers into Louis’ hip. “Did you really take them outside in their pyjamas?”
“We’re rebels,” Lottie says. “Literal rebels.”
“Hmm,” Jay says, leaning over to kiss Louis’ cheek. “If you could remember to tell them before you go that they can’t go out in their pyjamas normally, that would be great.”
“Mum,” Louis complains. “You’re always stifling my creativity. Don’t you want creative children?”
“I prefer it when they don’t have pneumonia,” Jay says. She claps her hands. “Right, girls, come on. I’m not having you lot freezing to death in my kitchen. In front of the fire, all of you.”
The girls all complain as one, a loud cacophony of noise that Nick would normally prefer happen after his morning caffeine. It sounds like a lot of, but, Mum, to him.
Louis will still be here once you lot have chipped the ice off your legs,“ she tells them. "Come on, wellies off. Don’t leave them there, Daisy. I’ll fall over them. Put them by the door. That goes for all of you. Lottie, you too. Just because you’ve got a boyfriend now, it doesn’t mean you can’t move your wellies out of the way of your pregnant mum.”
Jay is positively huge, now, a very large baby-baby-bump with a person attached. She looks tired and a bit run down, and Nick can see on Louis’ face that he’s worried.
“Mum—”
“I’m fine, love. These two have been sitting on my bladder all night, that’s all. Up and down like a yo-yo.”
“We brought fireworks,” Nick says, before Louis and his mum can have any more conversations that only seem to involve their eyebrows. That’s weird, right? It’s weird.
“I’m going to light them,” Louis adds. “I’ll be the firework king.”
“We’re all going to die,” Jay says, which is still Nick’s point of view as well, but Louis just leans in and kisses her cheek.
“No one’s going to die,” Louis says. “Not when I’m in charge.”
Jay meets Nick’s eyes over the top of Louis’ head. “What do you think, love?” she asks.
“Fairly sure we’re all going to die,” Nick says, ignoring Louis’ elbow to his side. “Good way to go, though. Who doesn’t love a good firework?”
“Exactly,” Louis says, in satisfaction. “We’ve got piles of sparklers, too. Hours of fun.”
“Hmmm,” Jay says, but she’s smiling, and her eyes are bright. “It’s good to see you happy, love.”
“Blame him for that,” Louis says, and he grins up at him. “It’s all Nick’s fault.”
Nick doesn’t mean to go red, but he just can’t help it. “Shut up,” he says, and Louis kicks him.
“Learn to take a compliment,” he says, and laughs.
~*~
Nobody dies at their impromptu belated bonfire party that night, which is good. Nick has plans to draw a heart in the air, and his name and Louis’, and luckily nobody will be able to tell, because everyone will be busy with their own sparklers. His cheesy, romance-tinged sparkler ideas will stay secret, just the way he likes it.
They end up huddling round the dying remains of the fire pit long after the little girls have gone to bed, and Louis’ mum and Dan have gone inside to escape the worst of the cold. Lottie and Fizzy stay out with them, wrapped up in coats and hats and scarves and under blankets on the other side of the fire to Nick and Louis.
Nick feels curiously, ridiculously happy. Louis burrows closer to him on the bench they’ve pulled up close to the fire, the two of them having sacrificed their blanket to Louis’ sisters. Nick’s back is cold and his front is too hot; Louis tucks his hand into Nick’s and lets Lottie tell them all about how brilliant her new boyfriend is.
It’s nice, is the thing. Louis is an odd combination of frenetic and completely relaxed; he’s easy around his family in a way he never quite is with either his band or with Nick, but he’s vibrating somewhere off the key of reason too, like he’s tied to Nick with a thin band of elastic, and whenever he twangs off to do something else, he’s propelled back to Nick’s side like a cannonball.
Nick kisses the top of his head. “You okay?” he asks, quietly, whilst Lottie and Fizzy are bickering over toasting marshmallows.
“Getting there,” Louis says, and Nick smiles at that. “It’s alright, this, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” Nick agrees. “Thanks for bringing me.”
Louis’ face curves into a smile, then, bright and luminous like the sky. “It’s not awful?” he asks. “You wouldn’t rather be off doing stuff with your friends?”
“Nah,” Nick says. “I’d rather be here, making sure you don’t go back to lit fireworks and poke them with a stick.”
“I am the firework king,” Louis proclaims, for the twelve-hundredth time.
“You’re a menace,” Nick says, but he loves him anyway.
Louis just grins at him, bright and wide, and Nick laughs, and tugs him into a hug.
