Young & Beautiful

XVIII
Chapter Summary
Halloween.
Chapter Notes
See the end of the chapter for notes
It’s Halloween.
It’s Halloween and Louis’ just woken up to Niall brandishing pumpkin ale into his face.
“Happy Halloween, mate!! Drinks on me!!” Niall’s thundering, his radiant smile invading Louis’
space bubble, pressing cold bottles into his cheeks, and Louis thinks this might be the first time
he’s ever actively thought that he’d rather get woken by the piano any day.
“Fuck’s sake, what’s wrong with you?” he rasps as he attempts to orientate himself, registering
that it’s morning, it’s Saturday, and Zayn’s party is only a handful of hours away. Zayn’s glorious,
costume required, alcohol-is-supplied, very hot and expensive mess party.
Which is really the only reason Niall doesn’t get one of those bottles that he’s brandishing cracked
over his head.
“You got your costume all prepared?” the golden ray of annoying fucking sunshine asks, eyes
alight as he pops the cap off of one of the beers, before slinging it back effortlessly, swallowing
half of its contents without a blink of the eye.
Louis stares, impressed, as he scrubs the sleep away from his eyelashes and crevices, sitting up
properly.
“All prepared and ready to go, mate. How about you?” Louis considers for a moment. “What are
you gonna be, anyway? You never did get round to telling me.”
Niall grins, setting down the now empty bottle, lips moist. “It’s a surprise.” He wipes his mouth
with his Styx t-shirt.
“Well that sounds promising,” Louis concludes flatly, before groaning and flopping out of bed
(why must he have energetic flatmates? Why?), pulling on trackies and stretching his arms above
his head. “I dare say I’m actually quite excited for tonight though. It’s been awhile since I’ve
partied, proper like.”
He waits for Niall’s response as he steps outside of his bedroom and, oh.
Damn.
There is a pumpkin patch in their flat.
“We’re carving pumpkins!” Niall suddenly bursts, hopping forward as Rory hauls in yet another
huge pumpkin, struggling to set it down in the kitchen. Louis considers helping, wants to help—
he loves Rory—but, no. No. Too early to haul pumpkins. So he sits down instead, rubbing his