There's this one small moment in a photographers dark room, a moment when the blank photograph sits in the developer tray. That moment when the photo begins to develop, just cloudy enough, blurry enough to not yet anyone know what the picture is of, before it blooms into a clear image. Black spaces and grey fog surrounds the photo, like it surrounds Rae's mind. It's strange, feeling like that moment of the photo while she just stands there, in an empty room, squinting through the fog to see who's calling her name.

It's quiet all around when the voice stops, she could hear a pin drop if she had one to drop, before it starts again. It keeps calling her, a youthful, chipper voice, beckoning to her, wonders where she is. She doesn't know that answer for herself. Then she takes a small step forward, blinks, and suddenly everything blooms around her; like the moment after the photo finishes.

Rae's standing in Ronan's hospice room, next to his bed, blinking in confusion. He's there, holding her hands smiling up at her, bright like the sun. It's clear that her brother was the one shouting her name over and over, from the way he's tugging on her hands. She smiles back at him, watches as he pulls himself up, using the leverage he has with his sister's hands, and falls into her arms. He squeezes his arms as tight as he can around her waist, giggling.

"You went away, Ra-Ra." Ronan says into her stomach. She can feel his breath, warm puffs of air seeping through her shirt.

"Never, Bud." Rae promises, still confused on how she drifted off like that in the first place. She wraps her arms around her brother, holding him close.

"Stay."

"Always."

There's a long pause of silence, a curious drop in the temperature around them, cold settling in on her skin. Goose pimples erupting on their arms when Rae looks down, and Ronan is shivering in her arms. Ronan turns his head to look up at her, his chin digging into her ribs, blue eyes like frosted ice. An ominous presence comes over the room and whatever her brother is about to say when he opens his mouth, she has a bad feeling about.

"But I will." He whispers hauntingly.

"W-what?" Rae stutters, utterly perplexed. "You will what? What are you saying, sweetheart?"

The room just keeps getting colder, and now Rae is starting to tremble from it, before she realizes Ronan is the one turning colder. Like the blue ice in his eyes is freezing him from the inside out. She hugs him close, trying to transfer whatever body heat she has left onto him. Ronan widens his eyes, big and every bit of the innocent child that he is.

"I am going away." Ronan tells her, still speaking like it's a secret. "Far, far away."

Fear clenches Rae's heart, makes her stomach swoop sickeningly. "Ro-"

Raelyn cuts herself off when she notices shadows dancing on the wall behind her brother. Realizes too late that they're snaking around Ronan's legs, coiling up around his small body. Rae holds on tighter, attempting to lean back and pull him free of the shadows, but they just pull back. This can't happen again, not with her physically in the room this time. She refuses to let this shadow take her brother away, so she fights back, pulling and tugging, with Ronan whimpering in her arms.

"I've got you, Ronan. They won't take you!" Rae tells him like a promise.

She pulls one more time, as hard as she can, but it's like pulling at a concrete wall with a rope. Ronan doesn't budge, and the shadows hang on. There's another voice in the room, malicious laughter she's heard several times before, all too familiar to her. And another voice, different from hers, from Ronan's. Different from the laughter, but she can't hear it clearly, can't focus on it, not when another shadowed arm appears from behind. All she sees is a flash of sneering smile, before the arm wraps completely around Ronan, yanking him back.

"Sissy! Raelyn!" Ronan screams, cries out for his sister.

Terror shoots through Rae like an arrow, her brother's shrieks vibrating in her bones. Frantically she looks down once more at him, sees one last glimpse of blue tinted horror, before he vanishes, her arms now wrapping around thin air; nothing. The shadows are gone, the laughter gone, the cold is settling deeper, one last voice calling out to her. Ronan is gone.

***

Rae wakes with a start, a sharp gasp ripping from her throat. She's met with honey brown, and blue eyes staring worriedly at her. It makes her jerk upward quickly, nearly misses smacking her head against whoever's closet to her. She looks around, frantic for a moment, and realizes she isn't home. She isn't at the hospital, but in fact in the living room of Harry and Louis' flat, with Zayn and Niall staring back at her. She's a little disoriented, can't remember how or when she got there, feels like she isn't breathing properly and doesn't know why. Then Niall moves.

He reaches out his hand towards her chest, and comes away with her own hand in his. "Are you alright, Rae?"

Oh. She suddenly remembers now, remembers her dream, nightmare. Remembers how cold it was, remembers how it felt to have Ronan abruptly vanish from her own arms, right after she promised him. Now the room feels way too hot, overheating her skin, and the blanket she now sees on her lap is suffocating, too heavy on her thighs. She's panting now, can't inhale deep enough to catch her breath, feels like she just swam through a riptide. She hears the sinister laugh again, she hears Ronan warning her, screaming out for her.

Rae feels herself being bent over, someone's hand on her back pushing her spin to curve down, then rubs soothing circles around her shoulders. The movement makes her hair fall around her face, like a rich brown curtain, blocking away the world, cutting her from air. She hears the third voice from her dream again, much clearer this time, right next to her. It's a calm voice, warm. Not like the heat she's feeling now that makes her sweat and her skin sticky, but smooth, like hot coco during a storm. It tells her to breath, says she can do it. Instructs her to count in her head, to look at them. Says it isn't real, it's just a dream, and-

"It isn't real, Rae. Just breath with me, darling."

Someone gathers up her hair and pulls it back, away from her face. Raelyn gasps, breaths in gulps of air like she was just held underwater for a good amount of time. Inhales and exhales with counts, until her breathing matches the breathing around her. She opens her eyes, didn't noticed she had closed them before, and looks up straight at Louis in front of her. He smiles a little tentatively, and brushes away a few stray hairs that had fallen around her face again.

"Same nightmare?" Louis asks softly, leaning back a little to allow Liam to hand her a glass of water.

Rae shakes her head, accepting the glass. It shakes in her hand, so she just quickly takes a sip and hands it off to Zayn.

"S'different this time." Louis frowns. "It was worse, Lou. So much worse." Rae hears how shaky her voice is. She knows she's still trembling like she suddenly got cold. There's a tense silence, before someone clears their throat behind Louis.

"So..." Harry begins carefully. Rae didn't even notice him sitting on the coffee table. He holds up his inhaler like he did at the hospital not too long ago.

"D'you need it now?" He offers, shrugging sheepishly. "I've already prepped it."

Rae loves him; he's so endearing. With him holding his inhaler, offering it to her because he's just worried. Harry looks so lost with how to help her in any way. She loves them all, for everything they've done for Hummingbird, for the children there, for everything they've done for her and her family. She doesn't know how she can express to them how appreciative she is; wishes she can give them something in return. For now, she smiles gratefully at Harry and takes the inhaler.

It isn't exactly ideal to be sharing someone else's inhaler, frowned upon honestly, but her chest is still spasing, and her breaths aren't has deep as they can be. She pushes the blanket she thought was suffocating her earlier off her lap. Exhales first, then slowly inhales through her mouth, pressing on the inhaler. When she's finished, she just takes two puffs, she keeps it in her hand, fiddling with it anxiously.

"Better now?" Harry inquires, concern in his green eyes.

"Much." Rae smiles gratefully. "Thank you."

"Did you- erm- do you want to-?" Louis starts unsure.

No. Rae knows what's he's going to ask and she would rather do anything else than talk about it at the moment. It's different, all five of them seeing exactly what her nightmares reduce her too. So voicing it aloud is not an option at the moment. Not with it still fresh in her mind.

"Honestly," Rae cuts him off quietly, "I could really use a cuppa. If you don't mind?"

"Do I ever?" Louis quips, the corner of his mouth pulling into a smile.

He gets up, shoots her another smile, and disappears around the corner. The second Louis' gone to the kitchen, Rae apologises to the others. They've never seen her, minus Harry and that one time with Liam, how bad her panic attacks can be, or when she wakes from her nightmares. It can be a little daunting, intimidating even. Louis has always been the one to hear it, see it, knows how to handle it better than anyone else. Probably because she has actually, subconsciously, allowed him through her walls, behind her mask, and into her heart. Allows him to see her fall apart when she needs to, but this, to the others, is different. They've usually see her stronger, controlled emotions, almost like she can handle it, can handle everything. But even the normal panic attacks are nothing compared to the dream induced ones.

"I'm so sorry you all had to see that." Rae begins quietly.

Her eyes meet Niall's, and she has to drop them to her lap after a few moments. Niall has never seen her like this, and the somber look in his eyes shouldn't be there in the first place. Niall is like the sun when it breaks through the clouds on a crappy day; the sun shouldn't dim it brightness. Rae twirls the inhaler still in her hands around her fingers.

"Normally," She continues, "it isn't that bad."

"How often do you have them?" Zayn questions, offering the glass of water back to her.

Rae politely declines, shakes her head. "Erm...it depends. A few times a month if things are normal. If things start to get bad...almost every night."

Liam pipes in curiously. "Have they ever been this bad? That was quite an attack there, Rae."

"No, I know." She sighs, forces herself to pick her head up and look at him. "I wish you didn't see it. I just- this was the worse yet. I just don't know how to stop them."

Rae hands Harry back the inhaler, then drops her head into the palm of her hands to her eyes. She presses hard and rubs until they start to ache. She reopens them to see popping white spots, and blinks them away. It's been silent for two minutes now, with Louis suspiciously absent and Rae wouldn't put it past him that he's eavesdropping. Although, it isn't an awkward sort of quiet, just a comforting one. One where no one really knows what to do, so all the can do is just sit with her. Someone shifts, their movement catching Rae's attention. When she looks up again, Niall has shifted in front of her, taking Louis' empty seat on the coffee table. He holds arms held wide open.

"Could I give you a hug?" Niall asks, voice as soft as she has ever heard from him.

It makes her smile. "Is that a question?" Rae counters, before leaning forward into him.

Niall's hug lasts several moments, before it's invaded, another pair of arms wrapped around her. Rae, guessing from the warm spicy scent, dubs them Zayn's arms. Then another pair, and another and she is suddenly in the middle of a group hug with no end in sight. Affection bursts in her heart for all of them. Rae revels in their comfort, their friendship and warmth, the care and love they've developed for her, for Ronan.

Rae doesn't know how she got this lucky, this blessed, to have them in her life as she does. Not because of their name as a band, of who they are in the entertainment world, but for who they are individually. For who they are as people. It's a support system she's been needing for a while; not that her mother, Kari, Liz and Angelique weren't enough. The more the merrier.

"I see how it is," Louis' voice come from somewhere to their left, "I leave and this happens. Have you all quite finished?"

"No." All five of them answer in unison.

Rae presses her smile into Niall's shoulder for a brief moment. She somehow wiggles free an arm, and peeks over shoulders and biceps. Louis' expression is soft, those little crinkles by his eyes radiate nothing but utter fondness that makes Rae's heart skip a beat. She reaches out her hand, making grabbing motions with her fingers until Louis moves from his spot leaning against the wall. He carefully places the mug of tea down on the floor, and makes his way over to the cluster hug, squeezing himself in between Zayn and Niall. Somehow, Louis stretches one arm over Zayn's shoulder, so his hand rest on Rae's shoulder, his fingers grazing the dip of her collarbone.

"Much better." Louis announces, prompting some chuckles from the others.

Rae hides her face again, bites back a smile until she feels a hand on her knee, squeezing softly. She doesn't have to turn to know that it's Louis' hand. She does so anyway, holding his gaze when he's staring straight back at her. His eyes, bluer today with subtle specks of sea-green, ask if she's good now.

She's not sure when she got to the point of reading his eyes when he's silently communicating with her, and she tries not to think too hard about it. Instead, she nods once, and keeps her eyes on his, memorizing the colour. Louis is smiling at her, just a soft tilt of his lips, but she sees it, knows it there and knows it's for her.

"This is a lovely hug and all," Liam pipes up, breaking a silence that lasted another minute, "But I can't help but feel we're intruding on something here."

"How'd you think I feel? I'm between them." Zayn pouts. Rae pinches his shoulder over Louis' arm.

"Yep. I'm out." Niall agrees, then pulls away quickly. Which takes them all in his direction before he pulls his arms out fully.

"You're the one who started it." Rae accuses lightly, laughing when Louis pushes Niall and he topples over the coffee table.

That ends the hug completely, and starts the play fighting between all five boys. Rae escapes from the sofa, hopping over legs to reach her tea. She sips it slowly, opting to just stay on the sideline and watch as they wrestle with each other. Rolling her eyes, she sets her mug back down, fetches her camera from the bag by the door, and sets about snapping pictures. Now that she has time to think about it, she remembers blowing up on Louis just a few hours earlier. Him taking her back here afterward, and falling asleep on the couch while the boys played video games.

She still feels bad for yelling at Louis, for him just allowing her to do so. She doesn't want to forget about her feelings towards him and maybe she kind of owes it to him actually let him know what exactly those feelings are. For now, she continues to take pictures, until their faces are all red and they end up giving up, piled on the floor with limbs tangled and laughing into the air.

"You're all children, I swear." Rae teases, hanging her camera around her neck.

Louis pops his head up from Harry's stomach and points at her. "Now, now, Wendy Darling, one never grows out of that."

Yeah, Rae decides in her mind, she should be honest with her feelings. She knows her smile is big, from how it's aching her cheeks. All she can think about is that night Louis showed up late on her door step and took her away for a while.

"My bad, Peter." She responds softly.

Louis' eyes light up before he sits up, twists around and gathers his boys into a huddle. Heads all pressed together, and Harry adds an air of playful suspicion when he peeks his eyes over to Rae. Acts surprised that she's still there an hurriedly ducks his head down again. Rae waits them out patiently, pulls out her phone to respond to a text from her mother, then snaps a picture of the boys and saves it in her photo album on it. That one she'll keep for herself, maybe she'll print it out later and hang it on the string along her room.

Her feet begin to ache from standing, so she slides down against the wall to sit, picks up her tea and continues to watch them. They seem more serious now, with Louis' soft murmurs barely reaching her ears. The others nod once in a while in agreement, and Zayn gets his ear flicked by Louis, to which Rae only assumes it's in retaliation from a teasing quip.

Finally, after a solid eight minutes, and several rounds of Temple Run on Rae's phone, the boys break apart. Rae looks up when Harry sprints towards his room. Follows Zayn with her eyes when he passes her and picks up her camera bag, slinging the strap over his shoulders. Frowning in confusion now, Rae wonders what Liam is doing with keys in his hand. Wonders why Niall slips his shoes on by the door, and then there's a hand in front of her face, looking up at Louis. His smile is bright and mischievous, knowing about a plan that she obviously was left out on.

"Do you trust me, love?" He questions, his hand open and waiting. Her jacket in the other.

Without hesitation, Rae places her hand in his, closing her fingers around his. "Always."

***
Louis keeps their destination a secret from Rae when they all pile into Harry's Range Rover. She playfully bugs Louis for a hint, pouting out her lower lip, but Louis just focuses on scrolling through the pictures on her camera. He chuckles at the most recent ones, smiles at the selfies she's taken with her mother and friends, then feels his heart drop a little at a picture of her and Ronan. The picture was obviously taken by someone else, a nurse possibly, probably unknown to Raelyn at the time.

She's sitting up in Ronan's bed, her brother in her lap resting against her chest, encircled by her arms. Rae's lips are close to her ear, partially opened, with Ronan's eyes closed, and his small fingers tangled in his sisters hair. Louis guesses she was singing to him, then notices several new wires hooked up to the little boy. Swallowing thickly, Louis steals a glance at Raelyn, who long gave up wondering where they are going.

Rae's gazing out the window, silently watching the world outside pass them by in blurs of colour, and he wishes so much for her dreams to be filled with those instead. Vibrant, lively, beautiful colours, not the dark, ominous ones that ensnare her mind, creeps up on her until she can no longer breathe. Louis knows he'll be able to talk to her later about it, but for now, he just tries to focus on Rae herself, rather than the confounds oh her mind.

She's stoic in this moment of time, usually always is, but right now, it's strongly present. She seemed to reassure the other boys that she was fine, not to worry about her because it's a simple nightmare. Whereas Rae isn't used to having so many people see her- what she deems herself- weakness, quickly stuffing it back inside.

Louis frowns, his eyes falling to what he can see of her lips, the corner of her mouth turned down just slightly. He can't see her eyes, blocked by the few strands of hair that have fallen loosen from the braid she asked Zayn to do for her (he's got sisters, who made him braid when he was younger). Can't tell if they're as blue as the Tenerife Sea, if the little golden and turquoise specks in her eyes are highlighted brightly, or if the storm in her mind churns in her eyes. His thigh is pressed against hers, a warm, solid touch that he hopes is at least a little comforting to her.

Louis gently hands her camera to Liam sitting on his other side, ignoring her curious look, and reaches out to brush Rae's hair behind her ear. He lingers ever so slightly, tracing his fingertips along her jaw, until she looks back at him. Tenerife, Louis decides. Her eyes will never cease to make his breath catch in his throat, whether she knows it or not. Even though Rae's eyes are exceptionally blue today, doesn't mean that the look in them is just as bright.

Rae offers him a small smile, and shifts a little closer to Louis, and further away from the scenery outside. He figures she'll have plenty of time to capture it with her camera once they get to where they're going. It's a bit of a drive, possibly another twenty minutes or so in traffic, so he opens his arm to her, placing it over the back of the seat. Rae shifts into him again, resting comfortably against his side, head resting on his shoulder.

"You can nap, love, if you'd like." Louis tells her, speaks softly so the others have a hard time hearing over the music playing. "Just about twenty minutes before we get there."

"Y'know, I have absolutely no clue where you're taking me." Rae responds, loosening her seat belt a little.

"That's the plan. I'm full of mysteries."

"You're full of something, alright." She quips.

Louis tugs the end of her braid, then drops his arm over her shoulders. "Oi. Cheeky bugger."

He can feel Rae press a quick smile into his shoulder. "Hush, I'm napping."

Louis simply chuckles and tightens his arm around her. He moves his head down until his lips are brushing against the shell of her ear. He feels her tense a little from his breathe, but he knows it just because it sends a tickle down her back.

"You can, y'know. You don't have to be afraid to." He murmurs. Rae remains silent and still. "We can talk later yeah? If you want. If you need too."

"Just...stay." Rae murmurs, her hand clutching the sleeves of his jacket.

"Always."

***

Rae's been standing in the same spot for a good three minutes, mouth hanging open in shock and camera hanging around her neck. She has yet to respond properly to any of the boys, just continues to stare at the landscape. Louis can't wipe his proud smirk off his face. He knew taking her to Hampstead Heath park would be a great idea to clear her mind; make her forget her nightmares. Finally, Rae turns towards Louis, pointing at him.

"You. You're idea?" Rae questions, as if she doesn't already know the answer to that. Louis nods, his smirk turned into a full smile. He gestures towards the park's landscape, at the secluded little area just on the edge of the small pond. "Really!? For how long?"

"As long as you want, love." Louis tells her.

Suddenly he has his arms full of Rae, being squeezed tight around his waist. The camera is pressing into his stomach, but he ignores the sharp pain of it, and wraps his arms around her in return. A silent thank you from Rae. She releases him quickly, practically bounces over to Niall and drags him with her.

"How'd you know she'd love this particular park?" Harry asks from behind him, both watching as Liam follows the two close behind.

"She mentioned it once when I asked what she likes to photograph." Louis tells him. "Said she loves nature landscapes, scenery, that sort of stuff. But she just hasn't been able to since Ronan got sick. Told me she always wanted to come here around dusk."

Zayn nudges Louis with his elbow. "And you remembered that?"

Louis shrugs. "Yes. What of it?" He watches as Zayn and Harry share a knowing look, then look back at him at the same time.

"L." Harry sings, beginning to slowly back away. "Is for the way you look at...her."

Louis groans audibly. Then louder when Zayn joins in.

"O, is for the only one you see."

"V!" Harry nearly shouts, "Is very very, extra ordinary!"

"E! Is even more-" Zayn starts, motions for Harry to join singing. "Is even more than anyone that she adores!"

"I hate you both." Louis deadpans.

They both end up laughing so hard they nearly fall over, and Louis has a strong urge to push them into the pond. Instead, just walks past them, ignores their playful teasing and sets off to follow the others.

***

When he finds them, Rae has got her camera in her hands, with Liam and Niall peaking through lower branches. It isn't spring quite yet, so all the trees are still bare; hauntingly beautiful, especially in the setting sun's light. Louis leans back against a tree, simply watching Rae in her element. It's different than the first photo shoot she did with them, where she seemed to have poses planned out. Here, she's free.

Free to be impulsive- like when she somehow finds flowers that bloomed way too early and weaves them in and out of Harry's curls. Free to envision something in her mind and let it come to life. Like when she requests for Zayn to scoop up a handful of water, clear as day. She carefully moves his hands at and angle, gets behind him and snaps a picture. The water reflecting Zayn's amber eyes.

Or when she catches that Niall has ventured out a little further into the trees, tripped on a branch and landed in a patch of tall grass. He just laid there, allowed Rae to take photos at different angles, before the ground got too cold to lay on. When she captures Liam's silhouette against the light, meeting a tree's in the middle. She continues to play out whats in her mind, and settles into a zone Louis has never seen her in before.

He watches as her eyes light up with a new idea. How her smile turns fond when Harry blows the flowers from his hair at her, then into the wind. The way she blushes shyly when Liam give her a lovely compliment, amazed at how incredible her mind is. Fist pumps Zayn when he successfully took shots of him high in one of the bare trees. There's a moment when Rae takes a break to switch out film rolls, that just take's Louis' breath away.

The sun is fully setting now, shining through the trees, directly onto Rae. Streaks light and shadows across her face when she looks back up, highlights her hair into soft golden hues. Rae closes her eyes, feeling what's left of the sun's little heat on her skin. Louis has never seen her so peaceful before; never seen her so...happy. He can't help but think that maybe he did this. He brought her here, a place she's been longing to come to for years, and let her do what she pleased. Which all leads to this very moment.

Abruptly, Rae opens her eyes, and spins around, finding Louis in the same spot he's been in for the past half hour. He's struck hard with the realization of how beautiful she is in every way. From her physical appearance, straight down to her depths of her heart. Everything she has done, and still does for her family, for the Hospice, just for the people around her. He's never met a more beautiful person and he's never been so in love like this before.

Rae literally pulls him out of his thoughts, lacing her fingers between the spaces of his and tugging him away from the tree. She smiles brightly at him, all teeth and all blinding, and maybe a little breathless. She pokes a finger at the corner of Louis' right eye, at the crinkles he knows are there, just didn't realize he was smiling back at her.

"It's your turn now, Louis." Rae states, leading him to the edge of the pond, between the sun's lights. "You've been disappointingly absent in my photos."

"Am I allowed to see them this time?" Louis teasingly asks.

Rae bites her lip for a moment. "Of course."

Louis follows wherever Rae leads him to, whatever she instructs him to do. Listens when she tells him to just look as natural as he can, so she can just try to capture the right expression. He just looks at her the whole time. Watches her as she plays with the sunsets light, when she zooms her camera in and out, when she finds a proper setting and once when she actually changes lens. Rae has him on the ground at one point, out in the open and away from the trees to where the light is a little brighter. She lays down next to him, just a few feet away, and sets her camera up.

Just as the sun is getting lower, Rae finishes her part with Louis, and opts to takes some last shots of the landscape. Of the pond reflecting the light, a few more candids of the boys as they're walking away, of the rare blooming flowers, and a selfie once Harry places a flower crown he strung together on her head. He then steals the camera and takes pictures of Rae herself.

"Louis?"

Louis startles a bit, once again captivated by Raelyn like he's been all day. He turns to see Liam, Zayn and Niall, all looking at him with those same knowing expressions. It makes his stomach tighten and heart pound just a little faster. Louis looks back at Rae, Harry placed her just behind a bush, bent her over a little so that her eyes peak through the branches. Rae gestures like she's gently instructing Harry how to get the right angle. Harry smiles after he takes the picture, fist pumping into the air, making Rae laugh.

"I think..." Louis begins quietly. "I think I'm going to tell her."

"Really?" Niall questions, a little pep to his voice.

Louis nods. "Just...when it's right, yeah."

By the time the sun is completely gone, Louis basically has to drag Rae away from the park. She wanted to snap just a few more photos of the path of trees all interwoven by their branches. When she complained about her fingers freezing anyway, Louis dubbed it time to head back to the car. Even after Harry turns the heat up, Rae still snuggles into Louis' side, pressing her cold nose into his neck.

They get back to the flat around eight, after stopping for some food, sending Rae in to pick up what ordered via the phone. They eat, food wrappers being thrown at each other, then onto the floor, and bid goodbye to Raelyn when Louis offers to take her home.

On the drive over to her house, Louis sees Rae scrolling through photos she took on the memory card, commenting here and there. She promises to make copies of each and every one to give to all five of them, excitement in her voice. When he pulls up to her home, MaryAnn's car is absent, either still working, or at the hospital. Louis can see the instant that thought registers in Rae's mind and he hopes that it doesn't erase how she felt tonight.

Louis walks her up to her door, waits as she takes out the key and lets them in. He can't stay long, they've got an early morning radio show they're expected to be at, but he takes the cup of tea Rae offers anyway. Once the tea is gone, and the danish from Japser's has been eaten, Rae walks Louis out.

"Louis." Rae stops him just as he has his hand on the handle. "Was tonight...was it like some sort of date? With four other people?"

Louis smiles at her. "It's whatever you would like it to be, Rae. If it felt like a date towards the end, then yes. But if it made you forget everything that's happened this morning, this afternoon, then let it be just that. It was just something you needed. Or I thought you needed."

Rae's only silent for a moment. "You're the most incredible person I know."

Louis blinks, and steps closer. "I think you're so beautiful, Raelyn. But I've never seen you more beautiful than tonight." He traces the outline of her face softly, fingers trialing over the shell of her ear, along her jawbone. He allows himself to gently graze his thumb over her lips once, before dropping his hand and continues.

"You were so in your element, Rae. It was amazing watching you. You're so talented."
Rae actually blushes, ducking her head down for just a moment. "How's it that you're able to make me forget about things? It's so easy for you."

Louis readjusts the askew flower crown Harry had made her, tilting it straight, ending with his fingers fiddling with her braid. "I just want to help you. Just want you to be happy, if for only a little while."

Rae takes hold of his wrist, smiling softly at him. "It did, Louis. I really appreciate it, so..."

She takes Louis' face in her hands, leans up slightly, and presses her lips to his. It's feels like an apology for the morning, a thank you for the evening, and something so different from just expressing her gratitude. She tastes like tea, and Louis pulls her closer, wrapping an arm around her waist. He sneaks his hand into her hair, cradling her head, tilting her back an inch to deepen the kiss. Louis feels like the tea they drank earlier comes back to warm his heart, spreading throughout his body, and he knows that Rae insinuating it means so much more than him just doing it. He knows she trusts him, knows that she knows how vulnerable she's allowing herself to be, yet still finds it in herself to do so.

He doesn't know who pokes their tongue out first, timidly licking the other's lips, but Louis honestly doesn't care. He just moves his lips with hers, heart pounding as he explores her mouth slowly, her teeth, her tea laced tongue and back to her lips. His thumb is pressed against the pulse in her neck, can feel how her own heart is racing beneath his finger. Louis starts to move her backwards, to support her back with the wall, when she suddenly inhales sharply, and pulls away.

"Ouch." Rae winces, dropping her hand from Louis' face to her lower back.

Louis shifts her to the right to see what caused the pain. The handle to the front door lines up perfectly with the bottom of her spine, mocking him with its brassiness. Well, at least she didn't pull away of her own accord.

"Oops, sorry, my bad." Louis chuckles, pressing another kiss to her temple. He sighs reluctantly. "I should probably go though."

"Oh yeah, no, go ahead. Early start for you." Rae responds, then glares at the doorknob. "I'll, uh, yeah. I'll um, call you? When the pictures are developed and that."

"Yeah, of course." Louis says. He wants to kiss her one last time, maybe tell her how much he loves her, but whatever moment they had was lost. He settles for kissing her forehead instead. "Goodnight, Raelyn. Don't hesitate to call me if it happens again."

Rae nods. "G'night Louis."

Louis falls asleep with a smile on his lips, the lingering feel of Rae's against his own.

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Notes