Lydia's POV

"Louis!" I shrieked, running as fast as I could away from the flying soccer ball.

"Duck babe!" He shouted after me, running past in a streak of athletic shorts and TopMan boxers as he met the ball for me. Kicking it back up into the air and letting it fall softly to the ground again, leaving it in its place as bright blue eyes turned to face me, a mischievous smile on his golden features. "You know goalies typically stay by the net, where the ball goes." Louis was quite clearly biting back a laugh, his arms crossed over his impossibly toned chest as his shirt had been ditched quite some time ago.

"I am done getting hit by your balls!" I groaned back at him, covering my mouth when his eyes widened to impossible lengths, his contagious laughter lighting up the stadium in colors that were more beautiful and breathtaking than fireworks.

"It's because I'm trying to score." Louis was keeling over, his laughs echoing across the field, as he had to prop his hands up on his knees. His eyes shut tight as I finally understood his statement, probably turning crimson as my hands went over my face and I just repeated 'oh my god I hate you.'

"Why did I have to be the goalie!" I complained, the purple Nikes seeming too large and flexible as I missed the comfort of my converse.

"My field, my rules!" Louis yelled back, his dark hair falling all across his face as he continued to run laps around the turf like an overly excited five year old.

"It's not your field!" I whined, falling onto the grass and deciding that I would not get up until he let me kick the ball at him a few times.

"Right, sorry, let me correct myself. My country, my rules." Louis shouted, his voice nearing as I scrambled to get up and run away from him. My feet a few seconds behind my brain as I kicked the uncomfortable shoes off and started running.

Wet grass flew under my feet, a burst of hysterical laughter taking over as Louis chased after me. His bright smile still fully intact as I dared a look behind me to see that even in the flash of colors whizzing past me, he was still the only one I cared about.

"Louis!" I shouted, laughter cutting off my words as a strong pair of inked arms wrapped around my waist. Picking me up off of the ground and bringing me with him as he slowed the pace down from running, to a complete stand still.

"You think you're cute don't you?" Louis' voice was coated in a thick accent, laughter shaping over his words as we stood in the middle of the stadium. His chin balanced on my shoulder as he leaned over me, floppy hair mixing with my own in the evening light.

"Why do you have to be so quick?" I complained, almost in awe of the world he lived in that became so painfully obvious in moments like these.

The stadium was lit up in a dusty glow, London's nightlife contained in our own world as I began to see just how lonely Louis' bubble could be.

"Don't you get lonely?" I wondered almost to myself, taking in the vast stadium that was only occupied by the two of us. His appearance in everyday life would cause a riot, if he even wanted to get a cup of tea he'd be asked for pictures and autographs, that wasn't a life I could do and still smile as much as he does.

"Of course I get lonely. I just don't like to dwell on it. I'm doing what I've always wanted to do, I have opportunities that people around the world would kill for and I have no right to ever feel sorry for myself. There's a family of people who love me and would talk to me at all hours of the day, there's a reason I live with Harry." Louis' voice dropped to a soft hum, his lips brushing past my neck as he finished.

"You know you can always call me." I offered, picking at my nails and thoroughly wishing I had known this before we'd both been idiots.

"You're right here, right now. I'll call you when I need you, but I don't think there's enough time in the day for that." He joked, letting me go so he could fall dramatically down in the dewy grass. His hair splayed out as humor etched lines into his smooth skin.

"I want to be with you is more of what I was getting at." I sighed, leave it to Louis to force things out of you. Taking a seat in the grass and not even minding when Louis scooted a few inches closer to rest his dark hair on my lap.

"Wow, the one who's never dated is begging for m-"

"Shut up!" I cracked a giggle, smacking the side of his head.

"We are technically already together love, we sleep in the same bed, share the same room and you peed in the loo when I was in the shower today." Louis pointed out, smirking when I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned.

"I really had to go and I didn't have pants on!" I complained, pushing my hair back over my face with both my hands.

"I don't give a damn, you were so cute. It doesn't matter to me, I just want to make sure that if we're going to let the world know then you're going to be ok." Louis' eyes were the lightest they'd ever been, contrasting against the nearly dark skyline as lights lit the stadium up in a dusty glow.

"So you're telling me that you have something to tell me?" I frowned, my fingers gently tugging at his soft hair.

"I have a few things to tell you, but a few of them need to wait a bit longer because I don't want to bring today down." He answered me honestly, and although words like that should have worried me, I trusted him. I knew he wouldn't keep anything from me that would sending me packing my bags.

"It's been a great day." I nodded, smiling with the days events. From waking up with Louis and rolling my eyes when he insisted on taking me shopping, to randomly deciding when we were watching some horrible French movie that we wanted to go to the stadium and kick a ball around because Louis was a show off.

"Can I tell you something without ruining the great day?" He countered, his arms crossed over his chest as I warily tried to convince my eyes to stop wandering down the line of his happy trail.

"Depends on what it is."

"I kissed Camilla."

"We said that at the same time." Both of us started laughing, Louis not waiting for me to answer him before he opened his mouth again.

"How was it?" I grinned, already quite aware from Markus's warning at the airport that he had probably done something stupid like that. He was quite prone to not thinking before he acted.

"Awkward, really awkward and short. She was drunk." He divulged, his head nodding in my lap as I settled on rolling my eyes at his own idiocy.

"Why did you kiss her?" I snorted, not really caring what the answer was because I knew his feelings for here weren't something to be worried about.

"Don't really have a good answer for that besides that I was an idiot. Any more questions?" Louis smirked, looking more than a little amused with my reaction.

"Yeah I'm going to need an accurate re-enaction before I can forgive you." I responded solemnly, biting back a smile when Louis begrudgingly sat up, making a small noise of disapproval before he leaned in and let his lips rest on top of mine.

It was indeed quite awkward for the three seconds that it lasted. Neither of our eyes closing, just awkwardly staring past each others heads before he pulled back and ran a hand through his hair. Nodding with a mumbled 'yeah.'

"I'm not even jealous." I snorted, falling back onto the grass and giggling to myself. It was decided, Louis kissed me better. I now had something to rub in Camilla's face.

"Hey, now you have to return the favor." Louis mouthed off, clearly pouting as I continued to laugh at his expense.

"I'm not kissing you like that, that was just uncomfortable. I'd rather kiss Ha-"

"Right, because you and Harry would get along. You'd probably bully him through the relationship." Louis rolled his eyes and smirked, clearly no longer fazed that I was severely unimpressed with his recreation.

"Hey! Harry's a sweetheart! I'm offended!" I whined at Louis, rolling my eyes when his bright eyes swam into my vision as he wrapped his hands around my wrists and pulled me up into a sitting position.

"That's the issue babe, Harry's too nice for you, and I meant you have to tell me something that you'd rather I didn't ever find out." Louis was wearing a small smile, already probably lost in hundreds of thoughts about what exactly I would tell him.

"I took David's virginity-" I mumbled under my breath, knowing that Louis probably already knew that, but I don't think he knew that I'd never actually been with a non-virgin. "-and everyone else's." I finished, picking at the grass as the area remained dead silent for a few moments. Moments in which I didn't dare to look up and meet colorful blue eyes that would explain exactly what was going through his head.

"You mean to tell me, you've never actually slept with a guy who actually knew what he was doing?" Louis sounded like he was threatening back laughter, his voice light and mischievous as I dared a look back up.

"They knew what they were doing." I sighed, a lot of awkward circling through the air as Louis just proceeded to look highly amused at my uncomfortable fidgeting.

"They knew after you trained them, but not when you were with them? Jesus, I don't have much to live up to then, do I?" He wasn't holding back anymore, cracking up like an idiot while I debated throwing my useless shoes at him.

"Why do I feel like you're making fun of me?" I sighed, rolling back onto the grass and staring up at the London sky like it would answer me for him.

"M'not making fun of you Lydia, I just hadn't imagined that you would ever be with multiple guys like David. It's not a bad th-"

"Yes it's a bad thing. I didn't actually like any of them but Sam, and he doesn't count because it was high scho-"

"That doesn't mean he doesn't count." Louis interrupted me again, and from the way he was holding his body over mine, the soft light illuminating his dark skin, I knew what he was planning next.

"I means that I-"

"Do you like me?" Louis was bad at waiting his turn clearly, his chirpy voice cutting over mine and I just couldn't be mad at him.

"I-" I hesitated over the words, because I really didn't just like him, but I knew we weren't really there yet. We weren't ready to admit that because to be honest, I was still trying to learn what his favorite color was. "I do like you." I nodded slowly, Louis seeming to understand my hesitation as his face lit up into a brilliant smile.

"I like you as well. A lot." Louis' words seemed to hold a heavier meaning, but he didn't offer me time to remember the inflection long enough to figure it out, instead moving down and kissing me properly.

"Yep, that definitely made up for it." I cracked a smile a few moments later, rolling my eyes as Louis remained smiling against my lips, not moving an inch because he was a damn pest.

"You've got no shoes on." He stated, switching the subject faster than lightening and pulling away.

Of course I complained because he was prone to remaining glued to my lips even during conversation, but when he left I always wanted him right back at it.

Louis was full of annoying qualities that weren't actually annoying, he was as endearing as he was sexy and that's probably why he got away with so much.

"I don't like wearing tennis shoes." I frowned, linking my fingers behind Louis' neck as he moved to lay next to me. Rolling with him until I was straddling him and not really realizing how bad this could look to the general population.

"You always wear those converse." Louis' eyes locked with mine as he said it, curiosity lacing through his every word.

"I do always wear them." I nodded, taking no mind when his wandering hands resting at the top of my thighs. Both of us struggling to figure one another out as I realized I had no idea why he'd asked that, but it was clear that he had a motive.

"Why do you always wear them? Just like this," he trailed his fingers up to my necklace, holding the golden smiley face delicately in his palm.

"My dad gave them to me, just like my parents gave me the necklace." I struggled with articulating the reasons why, not sure if he'd understand because my family was very different from most.

My parents didn't believe in a god, they wholeheartedly pushed their work as their creed. Raising me in a home of love and countless countries of exploration. I was alone a lot growing up, but that didn't mean I was lonely. My parents -although successful and always travelling- made sure that I came before all else.

The necklace was because I'd grown up, because they wanted to remind me to smile and trust in my own heart. It was because they always called me 'their gold in the world,' and I loved them because of all the people in my life, they were the ones that taught me what love really was. They taught me how to love, and Louis showed me why I needed to love. Which was why I'd open up about these things, because where other people would see a dirty set of old shoes, Louis would see my world.

"My dad bought them for me when I was eleven, came home with a big wrapped box and his face, he smiled the whole way through. He smiled when I cried because I thought he didn't care enough to know my shoe size, and he smiled when my mom look at him confused, wondering why on Earth he bought his daughter a pair of shoes three sizes too big." I smiled at the memory, Louis' fingers finally leaving my necklace to slide between my own. "All he said was that 'one day you'll understand,' and I told him I wouldn't. I pushed those shoes into my closet and pretended they didn't exist, that he'd bought me a puppy or something stupid instead. I swore on my life I would never, ever wear those shoes because my dad had clearly bought them as a mistake. It was ridiculous looking back on it."

Louis was smiling with me now, probably imagining a little eleven year old with too much hair throwing a hissy fit because her dad bought her shoes in a womans size.

"I did end up wearing the shoes though, obviously. I had no other shoes that when my parents were off in Brazil, I was nearly fifteen and I couldn't just drive to go get them. Cindy wouldn't get them for me either, she said I had a perfectly good pair in my closet and I needed to go wear them." I rolled my eyes, Cindy had always been all for my parents ulterior motives, which was why she was their best friend. Her husband and my father making shitty animal jokes until they were blue in the face and basically threatened divorces.

"So I wore the shoes, and they fit. Which meant that I'd be stuck wearing my dad's mistake shoes until I grew out of them because Cindy said I didn't need two pairs of shoes." I sighed again, rolling my eyes because this entire time the three of them had been plotting for me to wear these damn shoes and now I couldn't even take them off without feeling attachment issues. "My parents flew home that month and the first thing my dad said was 'I see you've grown into them,' and the smile on his face was ridiculous. I'd never seen my dad smile like that, and so I asked him why they were such a big deal. He said he'd tell me in a few years, so back into the box the shoes went. I pouted and pouted because no one would buy me new shoes, I was stuck staring at these stupid teal things that no one would tell me about and I didn't know why!" I almost laughed at the thought of how confused I'd been, everyone insisting I wore these damn shoes while I was still hardly filling them out.

"They eventually became a fixture, so worn down and comfortable that I no longer cared the reason behind them because I never wanted to wear another pair ever again. They fit my feet perfectly and they got me places, so I just stopped questioning them. I eventually forgot that they'd been much too large and instead put them on because it was a habit.

"Well, my dad sat me down after my first year of college and finally told me why. He told me that he'd found them unworn in a junkyard that he'd gone in because he needed a spare car part, they didn't cost him a dime and they were brand new. Now he didn't tell me he got them because I was the sunshine in a landfill, he brought them home because they were free. He gave them to his eleven-year-old daughter because they reminded him of her, he said the color reminded him of a color that would make me smile.

"He didn't give me the shoes because he forgot my size, he gave them to me because they held a quality only he would understand. My dad is a little weird about things speaking to him, but it didn't really make sense to me until a few months ago that he had been right. He told me that these shoes would carry me everywhere, and nothing was better than a sturdy pair of shoes. He explained that the color had just caught him as something I would like and he gave me nothing else. He gave me these stupid fucking shoes because he liked the color and they spoke to him.

"My dad bought me a pair of shoes that didn't fit me because he believed that they would stay in step with me during the most important moments of my life. A pair of shoes! I thought he was nuts, I still think he's a bit out of it, but then I met someone who matched exactly what he was trying to explain to me.

"I didn't get it, I didn't get how I could be so attached to these shoes that my dad claimed were his best present to me, and then I met you." I was raising my voice now, so completely caught off guard by everything that had made sense and was now completely just blowing my mind.

The shoes weren't what was important, the message was what he meant. He was telling me that my feet were what carried me onwards and onto the things that I loved to do. He was saying that the color teal reminded him of a color that would make me happy, and that made no sense to me until now.

"I still don't get it." Louis frowned, and I probably had made no sense to him. His blue eyes searching my face for the answers as his fingers remained caught in my own.

"Those shoes are nearly too old to continue on, they've been worn from sun-up to sun-down for years. Leading me through the dirty paths of the zoo until water started seeping in and holes appeared in the soles. They've taken me places and stayed with me, and now I get what my dad meant when he said that it struck him as a color that would make me happy." I felt a bubble of victory in my chest, because just like the necklace, my parents had known me better than I knew myself. "What's your favorite color?"

"Uh, green?" Louis answered hesitantly, his eyebrows knit together as I left him to understand the rest.

I couldn't explain it to him, and I knew he understood that. So we remained in silence for what felt like hours, his eyes searching my face as blue met green and he suddenly sat up in understanding, pushing me back onto the grass with his leap of intuition as his lips met mine, neither of us able to stop ourselves from smiling.

A/N

So... now you understand the importance of the shoes. They didn't really do much besides remain comfortable on her feet, but she focused on them so much because she didn't understand her dad until now. And if you don't get it then re read the last two paragraphs until you do. I tried to make it obvious because I felt like explaining it would ruin it....

So here's another chapter were they're sorta just getting back onto their feet :) A few more things to happen for them before the relationship shit, but yea... I really hope you liked it because even though she couldn't really explain it, i think you all understood what she meant... or I hope you do.

So Loudia playing football and all this stuff just happened and now I have to go to work... So

IF YOU STILL DONT GET IT....

Look at the gif....... because I promise YOU CANT MISS IT.

YOU REALLY CANT.

THE GIF IS YOUR LAST HINT.

ANd holy shit that gif...

-Hannah :)

LEAVE A COMMENT IF YOU GET IT hahaha :P love you all