10 Years Later (Larry 1d)

Chapter 5

Louis was woken up the next day by his phone ringing, he sleepily answered it and heard his mum gabbling excitedly about Louis being on the entertainment section of the news. Rolling out of bed, he mumbled responses to his mum while he pulled on a pair of jogging bottoms. He chatted for a minute or two before he said goodbye to his mother and hung up, strolled downstairs and turned the TV on, rewinding it to the beginning of the section. He sat down on the sofa to watch the TV report, which showed film footage of Louis and Emma struggling through the crowds to their car, similar footage of the rest of the band, plus footage of the gates of their apartment complex, and a reading of the official statement that the management team had released after the report leaked. There was also a promo for Harry who was appearing on the channel's morning TV show later that day, but Louis quickly jabbed the TV power button by instinct, to turn the footage off before he saw too much of Harry.

Louis picked up the house phone and put a call through to the support staff to order some breakfast and headed back upstairs to have a shower. Once he was clean, he gently poked Emma, who was notoriously bad at getting up in the mornings. Emma groaned but perked up when she realised breakfast was being made for her and that there was tea waiting for her downstairs. As she quickly showered and dressed, Louis dressed and went downstairs to be greeted with the delicious aroma of a fry up cooking.

When Emma came downstairs they thanked the chef and sat at the dining table to eat their breakfast and drink their tea. While they were eating, Melanie arrived with the PR team from the day before. Seeing the PR consultants' raised eyebrows at her fried breakfast, Emma guiltily pushed away the rest of her food. Louis noticed and urged, "Finish it love", but Emma replied in a low voice, "I'm not hungry anymore".

While Louis finished his breakfast, Melanie reiterated the plans for the day, plus a brief outline of the following days. Given that the news had leaked early, they had moved the reunion closer to Sunday, with it being aired on TV the Sunday after, to capitalise on the interest the reunion was receiving at the moment. Louis was starting his press the day after tomorrow and tickets were to go on sale for the tour on the Monday after the TV show had aired.

They were handed large dossiers by the PR team, which outlined the appropriate answers to the questions they would likely be asked by the media. Emma and Louis were to study them alone for a few hours while Melanie and the PR team met with one of the other lads, and they would return at lunchtime to quiz them in a mock press conference.

Emma and Louis sat on the sofa and read the PR packs giggling and raising an eyebrow at some of the more ridiculous answers. They had the TV on as background noise, not bothering to change the channel, though time seemed to stand still when a voice broke through Louis' concentration.

Louis would know that voice anywhere, at one point he knew it better than his own. It had barely changed; the deep rasp, the slow lyrical words, the flat Cheshire lilt. He couldn't breathe as he turned his awareness onto the TV show, and was overloaded with Harry. Harry was sprawling on the sofa opposite the host, one leg thrown sideways over the other knee and one arm lightly resting on his ankle, with the other trailed over the top of the sofa. He was lazily flirting with the host, his spare arm occasionally reaching up to rake his fingers through his messy chocolate curls.

When they had looked up One Direction on Google, Louis had only seen photos. He hadn't seen anything that was so, well, Harry. He had forgotten the way he talked; like you had his full attention, like you were the only thing that mattered, and the way he moved so effortlessly and languidly. He focussed on Harry's wide mouth, and the way words seemed to pour out of it, like poetry and his fists clenched as his emotions started to surface and his anger rose. Louis felt consumed by rage as he stared at Harry on the screen, the anger he'd repressed for 10 years pouring off of him in mute fury. Louis was so angry that everything had always been so easy for Harry, and how effortlessly he had managed to destroy everything that Louis had treasured - just by being Harry.

Hearing his own name, Louis honed in on what was being said. He noticed that Harry had imperceptibly tensed when Louis was mentioned, and Harry had paused for a second before he responded to the host's question, "You've never directly addressed the split and what happened between you and Louis, are you able to do so now?" Harry replied tightly, his characteristic confidence and ease visibly replaced by tension, sincerity and a hint of insecurity, "I hope it's in the past and I'd like to leave it there. I was young, I was stupid and I'm sorry for what I did." Louis exhaled and felt some of his own tension and anger leave his body at Harry's apology. The host went on to chat with Harry about the reunion, Harry immediately falling back into character as the topic changed and with her final question, asked which of the lads he was looking forward to seeing most, Harry looked into the camera, eyes almost impossibly green and half-whispered "Louis" and gave a sideways smile.

At this point Louis became aware that Emma was holding his hand and watching him, and he gave her a rueful smile as he mumbled, "M'okay". And surprisingly he was. He'd spent so long avoiding the thought of Harry and the memories, so convinced the pain would be too great to bear. But after being confronted with the reality of him, the pain was more of a dull ache, like poking a bruise, rather than the all-consuming stabbing agony he'd expected to feel.

He pulled Emma in for a quick sideways hug as the host thanked Harry for appearing and announced that Liam, Niall and Zayn would be joining the show tomorrow before cutting to an ad break. Louis could tell Emma wanted to ask how he was; wanted him to open up to her, but he just couldn't. He'd never spoken to her about how he felt about his time in the band. About what he went through when it all came crashing down. He'd outlined what had happened when they decided to make a go of things, but nothing she couldn't have found out from a Google search.

The truth was that even after a year together, he still wasn't completely ready to trust Emma. He'd been with Eleanor for three years, and she'd still betrayed him in the worst way possible. Louis did love Emma, but there were times he wondered if she was the one for him, if he really was in love with her. They had a good time together and she was such an amazing woman, but he didn't know if he was ever really going to be able to commit fully to loving her the way she deserved. He was committed to trying though, for better or for worse.

Emma didn't press for Louis to talk about it, which he was relieved for. They both went back to reading their PR dossiers, although the silence was tenser than before. After a while, Melanie and the PR team returned to quiz them on their media friendly answers; bringing with them some salad and sandwiches for lunch. Sensing eyes on her, Emma chose a small salad for her lunch and picked at it while the team prepared the mock press conference.

For the next four hours, they were pressed and needled on every possible issue and question they could be asked about until they were word perfect. It came easier for Louis as he had done this many times in the past, albeit years ago. Emma struggled, yelling a few times when she'd been provoked a bit too much, and at one point bursting into tears. Louis glared at the PR team as he comforted her but they were quite unmoved, simply stating, "We're only trying to prepare her for the press, if she can't cope with us they will eat her alive".

Louis knew they were only doing their jobs, but he couldn't help but be irritated as the PR consultants pushed and pushed Emma with difficult questions, and eventually Louis asked for a break. The PR team raised an eyebrow at Melanie who nodded and agreed they could take a break, and the PR team filtered out. Melanie kindly told Emma that she understood this was new to her and a lot to take on, but it was necessary to do this. Emma calmed and nodded, and Melanie made them all some tea.

Melanie popped out to let the PR team know they were ready to continue, and she must have had a word with them as they were a little more sympathetic for the rest of the session. At about six, the PR team started packing up, and congratulated the couple for coping with the questions. Emma knew it was a lie that she had done well, but she was so relieved the ordeal was over that she couldn't find it within her to care.

Melanie called the chef and booked him to prepare dinner for Emma and Louis and then left them alone, letting them know she'd be back in about an hour with the wardrobe consultant who had completed Emma's wardrobe.