10 Years Later (Larry 1d)

Chapter 7

Louis woke up again at about lunchtime, his head fuzzy, face sore and throat dry. He hauled himself out of bed and went to the toilet, turning the shower on before he relieved himself. He stood in the shower for a long time, letting the hot water mingle with his tears until it ran cold. Turning the water off and shivering slightly he got a towel and dried himself off vigorously, rubbing at his tattooed body until his skin turned red. He numbly pulled on a pair of boxers and jogging bottoms and went downstairs to make himself a cup of tea as if on autopilot. He saw a note from Melanie on the table, letting him know she had cleared his schedule for the day, there was a home-made lasagne in the fridge for him to reheat and asking him to call her when he woke.

He put the lasagne in the oven, set a timer on his phone and headed into the lounge, turning on the TV and selecting the morning TV show that the boys were on that morning from the catch up menu. Skipping through the rest of the show, he paused when he saw the boys before hitting play and sitting on the sofa with his tea. His heart warmed slightly, thawing some of his numbness, when he saw the lads together, the three of them side by side on the studio sofa. They laughed and chatted with the host, about what they'd each been up to over the last ten years and interacting with each other with such ease, light teasing and banter – as if nothing had changed for them. Louis swallowed a lump in his throat, overcome with sadness at how much he'd missed them. He'd missed the banter, the easy way they showed their affections, the distinctive lilt in each of their voices and all the little in-jokes.

Speaking about the reunion Niall said, "We've all been really looking forward to it, us three have stayed really close over the years, which is great - but we can't wait to see Louis and Harry." Zayn added with a slow drawl, "It's been really hard for us to have been frozen out. Of course, we understand why, but we're so glad the other two agreed to this." Louis was a bit stunned by this, he'd assumed Harry was still friends with them and couldn't understand why they seemed to be saying Harry had frozen them out too. Liam spoke up sadly, "We just want out brothers back." At that Louis felt more tears prick at his eyes, He wanted that too and he just felt so guilty and selfish for dropping his friends, his brothers, without any real thought for what he'd put them through.

The host steered the conversation onto their families and Louis smiled as they each talked about their loved ones, happy for them that they had love, but with an ache in his heart that he was alone, that Emma had gone and he was left with no one.

Mentally slapping himself, he pulled himself together and called Melanie to let her know he was out of bed. As he hung up, the timer started on his phone and he went into the kitchen to eat the lasagne. Melanie arrived as he was finishing his lunch, looking at him sympathetically and asking how he was. Louis gave the only answer he could, "Hollow". Melanie nodded kindly and made him some more tea. She sat down next to him and said tentatively, "I'm so sorry Louis, this is all my fault" Louis sighed and said numbly, "I feel like I should be angry with you, but I'm not. To be honest I think this was inevitable, Emma was never going to want to live this life. And I can't blame her – I don't really want to either. If my mum didn't need the money, and if I didn't owe it to the boys, I'd be gone too." Not really knowing how to respond to that, Melanie steered the conversation to what the split meant for them in terms of the press and the schedule. The planned schedule for that day had mostly been training Emma anyway so having a day off wasn't going to set them back much at all.

Melanie let Louis know that there were rumours about the split, paparazzi having followed Emma back to Doncaster and warned Louis that he would have to address it on his slot on the morning TV show the next day. She apologised for not being able to let Louis have more time off, saying ruefully, "The show must go on." Louis smiled wanly at her and echoed the line back. She left him with the script for the interview tomorrow, containing the questions that management had agreed the host could ask him – and the PR team's instructions for what he was to respond. Melanie added with a grin, "Though God knows the rest of the band have been ignoring the instructions, I swear you guys will be the death of me."

After Melanie left, he went to lie down on the sofa, turning the TV back on and selecting Die Hard, a classic from the film options on the box. He barely watched the film, having seen it a million times before. His mind drifted to a memory of an argument with the lads about if this was the ultimate Christmas movie of all time. Niall had insisted it was 'Elf', Zayn had said 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' while Liam had argued for 'It's A Wonderful Life'. Harry had agreed with him, and the two of them had spent their Christmas together in the flat they shared, drinking beers and watching Die Hard.

Louis could feel his brain start to hurt, so he tried very hard to stop thinking of Harry, which was hard because so many scenes from the film reminded him of Harry. Harry laughing until he cried, his slender body curled up and racked with giggles at Louis impression of Hans Gruber falling off the roof, them both howling "Yippee ki-yay motherfucker" at the top of their lungs. Just sitting with Harry, each with a beer in their hand, curled up against each other was all he'd ever needed. He had of course known that the way they were with one another wasn't quite normal for best friends, but he hadn't cared. All Louis had cared about was that Harry was home. Louis could do anything and conquer the world as long as Harry was with him. The gay relationship rumours had exploded and he still didn't care, finding it funny until Eleanor had gone psycho over it.

After the Larry Stylinson speculation got too much and Eleanor and the management team got more and more upset & angry with them, they learned to be cautious with each other. They were no longer the sixteen and eighteen year olds that could jump into each other's arms and drape legs and arms over one another as they sat in interviews. Louis had gotten so fucking angry at the rumours. He knew he wasn't gay, he had a girlfriend, why couldn't people accept he and Harry were just friends. And then the further away they sat away from each other, the less they shared their private jokes, the less they looked at each other, the more it fanned the flames, the more the rumours spread.

Louis remembered missing Harry, how even when they were in the same room he had felt they were on the other side of the world from each other. How Harry had gotten new trendy friends and started going out with millions of different women. He remembered throwing a tantrum at Harry about it, Harry's eyes turning such a dark green they almost were black before Harry told him to fuck off. He had never seen Harry so angry as he was that night, spitting expletives at Louis in rage.

Louis' thoughts turned to which of the questions had gone off script in the other interviews. He had assumed that Harry's apology had been scripted but perhaps not, perhaps he was told to say something else and he had defied them. He was off the sofa before he knew what he was doing, pulling on a jumper and some shoes before striding out the door and heading for one of the other houses.