Burn to ash

Chapter 15

It's been two weeks since Louis appeared at Harry's hotel room door and they started this whole process of getting to know each other again.

Louis didn't think it would be very easy, but it's turned out to be even tougher than he ever imagined. The hated awkwardness hasn't gone away. There are still long, drawn-out silences when neither of them know what to say. Louis still wants to run away every time Harry touches him-mostly because he wants so much more than just one simple touch, he wants it all, and he knows they're not even close to ready for that-but every day, Louis feels like they're getting stronger.

They've established a routine of sorts-sleeping in late, heading to the venue only when they have to, and then staying up even later after the show, mostly fucking around, stealing golf carts and behaving like they used to when they were teenagers.

It feels good to resurrect the Dream Team, even if by the end of the first week, everyone involved with the show gets a look of dread on their face whenever they come near.

Bernard tries to establish a "no golf carts or other moving objects" rule, but Louis didn't even listen to Paul. He's certainly not going to listen to some obnoxious twat who has a stick up his arse a mile long.

One night during the second week, Harry brings a guitar with them to the balcony of the theater, and he sits there, strumming mostly nonsense as they eat bag after bag of microwave popcorn that Louis smuggled out of the green room.

The next night, Louis brings his guitar, even though it's been sitting mostly unused, and this time, there's less nonsense and before they even realize it, they're (badly) playing covers and harmonizing together.

Louis likes playing with Harry. He always liked it, but before, he'd always written with Liam. When you're writing songs about your deepest love, having your deepest love present doesn't always help the situation. That's just one of the many things they don't talk about yet. Louis knows he still has so many questions to ask Harry, questions he really needs answers to before he can even attempt to forgive him, but it's easier to goof around and play and eat way too much junk food. It feels like an escape from a way-too-harsh reality and if Louis has learned something from the last five years, it's that reality always comes calling eventually, so he's going to enjoy the respite while it lasts.

A few nights later, Niall catches Louis and Harry sneaking off with their guitars. He begs to come along, and then suddenly they're playing as a trio and when one night in the green room, Liam approaches Louis, he isn't even sure he should tell the truth.

"I hear you're playing with Harry and Niall," Liam says, "and that it's pretty good stuff."

Louis tries to look super casual. Except he's not very good at super casual and his look probably ends up more vaguely annoyed. "We're just messing around," he says.

"You're not writing?" Liam asks, no judgment in his tone.

"Hardly," Louis scoffs. "Just covers. Silly things, really."

They've played through most of Adele and Beyoncé and now they've moved onto a Harry request, Coldplay.

"Niall says you guys did a cover last night that was, in his words, fucking sick." There's definitely judgment in Liam's tone now. Like somehow Louis was supposed to know the moment they stopped fucking around and did something actually good and the moment that happened, he was supposed to run to Liam and tell him all about it.

"It was okay." Louis shrugs.

"I heard it was a little better than okay." Liam is strangely determined and Louis suddenly feels weirdly protective of their little jam sessions. Like, they really only started as a way for him and Harry to communicate since they can't seem to use words very well-okay, since he can't use words very well-and then Niall became involved and now there's Liam and suddenly it's a Thing.