Larry Sickfics :)

Migraine - Harry (part 1)

Backstage, the boys were rushing around as usual to get ready for their show. Harry, for once, was actually ready early and just sitting on the couch in the green room. However, he was not feeling very well; his head was pounding with a migraine. As he sat there staring at the ground, Louis walked in the green room. His shoes dangled from his hands by the laces.

"Alright, Haz?" he inquired gently. Harry's eyes refocused and his gaze met Louis's. "You look a bit pale."

Shrugging slightly Harry replied, "yeah. I've just got a headache." His face tried to create a smile but instead contorted into a strange pained grimace.

"Are you sure you're alright to sing tonight?" Louis' voice had dropped almost to a whisper as he seated himself beside Harry on the couch. Harry remained silent forcing Louis to look directly at him for cues of response. All he received was a slow, single nod down and up. With a worried glisten in his eyes, Louis extended a hand which met with Harry's back. "If you can't perform that's alright. We'll get it sorted," Louis reassured Harry.

Harry got pretty bad migraines somewhat frequently, but they never got easier to manage. Louis knew Harry hated missing shows for them seeing as they were "just headaches" (i'm sorry!), but they really put him out of commission. The easier ones to deal with left him light and sound sensitive; the more annoying ones made his ears ring and fucked with his balance, and the ones he hated were the ones that made him sick to his stomach. But the very worst were the ones that, on top of everything previously stated, screwed with his vision; dark spots clouded his line of sight, leaving him bedridden until it subsided. He had been to the hospital the first few times he had them so bad, and was given prescription medication to deal with them.

Louis, knowing how stubborn Harry was when it came to shows and his migraines, looked deeply into his husband's eyes for any signal of a lie. He was quite skeptical that he only had a headache.

"You two look like you're at a funeral!" Niall interrupted the quiet stillness of the room.

"Shhh Niall!" Louis whispered, annoyed at his bandmate. "Harry's ill. Nothin' big just a bit of a headache," he continued.

Niall's smile faded as he shifted his focus to Harry. "Oh lad I'm sorry. You do look a bit pale though." His remark prompted a sarcastic eyebrow raise from Louis, as if to say no shit. "Well, do you two need anything?" Niall inquired in a hushed, apologetic tone. Louis looked to Harry for any silent or verbal requests for the blonde one. When his lover simply shook his head in response, Louis did the same to relay the message to Niall. Niall made sympathetic eye contact with the oldest, who shared a grateful glance and nodded a silent dismissal.

Not even two minutes after Niall left the couple alone in the room, a crew worker popped their head in to give them a 15 minute warning to places. Louis jumped at the opportunity to let someone know of Harry's ailment. "Erm, Harry's got a bit of a headache brewing. Are there any painkillers somewhere back here? Before it gets too 'orrible," Louis politely pleaded with the crew member, his tone rather hushed to keep from hurting Harry.

"Yeah, I'm sure we've got some around. D'you want me to get Paul? He might know better than I do," they replied matching Louis's volume.

After taking a moment to ponder, Louis nodded saying, "that's probably best. Then he knows what's going on as well. Thank you." And with that, the uniformed person ducked out to find the boys' tour dad.

Meanwhile, Harry was absolutely miserable, and he honestly was to blame for it at this point. He could tell that it was a migraine since before his head was even hurting, but he knew if he told anyone they would have him try to sit out.

Harry's self reflection was interrupted by the sound of the door opening once again, this time revealing a worry-faced Paul. "Harry, they said you've got a headache. Can you tell me what's going on?" their bodyguard inquired gently.

"I-" Harry squeaked out pathetically, a single tear beginning its journey down his ashen face. Louis began gently grazing his calloused hands along his boyfriend's spine upon seeing his distress. "Yeah. It-it..." he sighed in frustration. His head was clouded as it pounded louder in his ears and it was all he could do not to just break down right there.

"You haven't got a migraine, do you?" Paul got straight to the point, seeing as Harry wasn't communicating well.

Harry stared at the floor before deciding he really wanted to do the show tonight. Inhaling deeply he tried again and lied through his teeth, "no, no. It's just hurting pretty bad right now. I'm not sure I drank enough water today." He made his most convincing eye contact in an attempt to reassure the two men sitting before him.

Louis clicked his tongue sympathetically and leaned over to pull his baby into a hug. "Let's just get you some pain relievers and see if that helps. We're on in ten so it might even be working by then." Paul nodded in agreement with Louis' suggestion and reached into his pocket to retrieve the bottle of paracetamol he had grabbed for them.

"Here," he extended an open palm with two small pills in it. "Where's your water, Harry?" Paul continued. It happened to be sitting there, unopened, at the youngest's ankles.

After watching Harry down the medicine, Paul left to round up the other three and warned the couple to be ready for places in 5 minutes. Louis and Harry decided to start walking slowly to the backstage area.

The whole time they strode down the long, brightly-lit hallway Louis just spoke excitedly to Harry about the concert. Harry didn't even try to listen as he began to regret lying. His stomach was already starting to turn nauseatingly, rather than with his usual show excitement. He just prayed the paracetamol would take some of the edge off so he could last through the show.

Louis caught onto his lover's quiet discomfort and quieted down. Harry didn't even realize until Louis stopped walking and pulled his hands so Harry would face him. "Love, please tell the truth. Do you have a migraine right now? I noticed you didn't eat much at dinner and you're being awfully quiet. You don't even seem excited about performing tonight, but earlier you were so looking forward to it..."

As Louis continued on and on about how off Harry had been acting, Harry had evidently stopped listening at the mention of dinner. His stomach wasn't too bad yet but he was just full of regret tonight. He shouldn't have eaten dinner. He should have said he was unwell sooner. And he most certainly should have just said he has a migraine. "Louis, I promise I'm just dehydrated." Harry mentally smacked himself for being so stubborn, but it was their last show for a few weeks. He would simply rest after.

—-

The boys were finally on "Best Song Ever" and Harry could not have been more thankful to be finishing up a concert. The pain meds had completely worn off already as he was in more pain than when he took them. He even had to opt down on most of his solos to keep from vomiting all over the stage, but it was almost over. Just one more song, he reminded himself as he readied himself to sing. "Maybe it's the way he walked - OW! Straight into my heart and stole it!" The whole crowd was wildly screaming along for the entire three minute song. No one really even seemed to care that he missed doing his iconic whale.

Per usual, the group made their way around the stage waving and wishing farewell to everyone they could. Harry straggled behind as he started to lose the battle with his body. The group waited mid-stage to bow with him, Zayn standing on one end with his free hand extended. Harry willed his legs to cooperate and carry him to Zayn's side faster.

Upon reaching the four waiting on him, he nearly collapsed - though it wasn't obviously visible to anyone besides Zayn and Louis who were closest to him. Zayn held tightly onto Harry's waist to stabilize him while they bowed. Apparently Liam and Zayn weren't actually aware Harry was unwell tonight; no one had thought to tell them in the wake of the pre-show chaos.

"Mate are you alright?" Zayn whispered quickly as the group bent over in unison. Harry couldn't hear him. His stomach was consuming all of his attention as he fought to keep it in place. Seeing how lost Harry was, Zayn turned to face Louis as they stood back up. "Do you know what's wrong with Harry?"

"Headache," Louis answered simply as concern grew inside both of them.

"Migraine?" Zayn wondered fearfully.

Louis took a moment to think as Liam called out a final goodnight to the crowd. "He told me and Paul it wasn't before the show and took paracetamol but I'm not so sure, now."