I'm Right Here- SWM Sequel (Harry Styles)

Chapter 17:

"You ready?" Bear asks as she wraps her arms around my neck. My hands were shakily slightly as I held onto her hips so I silently held tighter to her, trying to hide my nerves.

But like she always does, Bear knows how I'm feeling and gives me a friendly smile.

"Hey, hey. C'mon, you know it's gonna be great. Take it easy, okay?" Bear soothes as runs her hands from my neck down my chest. She must feel my rapid heartbeat because her hands stop at my heart.

"I'm not gonna lie, I'm scared. What if I forget the lyrics?" I ask nervously. I can hear the opening video for the concert playing and the fans excited screams.

"They won't care if you do. They'll be so into just seeing you. But I doubt you will, you guys were great in rehearsals. And even if you do mess up, you get to redeem yourself at tonight's show." Bear says softly as she pulls me closer to her by my shirt. She stands on her tip toes and gives me a quick kiss before walking off and giving me a smile over her shoulder. With happiness overriding my nerves, I give myself a pep talk.

"You got this, Harry. Do the best show you can. Show 1 of 2- Here we go." I bless myself with the sign of the cross and I hear Zayn start singing and I wait for my cue to step out onto stage.

When I do, my in-ears do little to quiet the fan's screams. As soon as I start singing, I know this'll be a great show and I give it my all. During the outfit changes, I start taking off my clothes as soon as I leave the stage. Bear, Lou, Caroline, and a few others help us get changed as fast as possible. We run back out after the video break and do the second half of the songs. When we fly over to the mini stage, I see that Bear is on the ground surrounding the stage with Paul. I smile at her a few times during questions and she smiles back. I lose my breath several times during the show but I avoid using my inhaler. Instead I sit down and drink a bottle of water while one of the boys do their mini speech.

On the stage is a elevated platform and part of the backstage is underneath. Several times during the show, I see Bear's blue eyes looking through the space in between the stage and platform.When she sees that she has my attention, she holds the inhaler up and I divert my eyes quickly. After the matinee show, our crew all celebrates backstage for our first successful show, but we still have the night show to do before we can truly celebrate. We go into the dressing room to change out of our show clothes and I've just gotten my basketball shorts on when I feel Bear's soft touch on my back. I turn around to face her with a smile but she simply puts the inhaler in my face. With a sigh, I use it and put in back in her hand, a smug smile across her face.

"Happy?" I ask defeatedly.

"Very. You know that you should've used it during the show." Bear scolds gently as she sits down in the makeup chair and I put on my shirt.

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda." I say simply with a shrug of my shoulders but she shakes her head in frustration.

"Do I really have to stress it still- Harry, you have asthma." she pleads while taking one of my hands in both of her's.

"You don't have to stress about anything, baby-"

"Bear-"

"Natalie," I finish with a cheeky smile and Bear rolls her eyes. "I just need some encouragement."

"Oh, encouragement. And my face isn't enough?" Bear says, fake- offended. I breath in through my teeth, creating a hissing noise as I shake my head slightly making Bear laugh.

"It's close. I need a little more though." I say cheekily as I bring my face closer to her's. She smiles and pushes my cheek away lightly.

"I'll see what I can do." Bear smiles as she gets up from the chair. As she leaves, I hear my bandmates laughing just across the room.

"What was that, like the 15th time of being blown off?" Zayn jokes as he nudges Louis's arm.

"Yeah, someone's not getting in." Niall laughs loudly and Liam shakes his head while laughing.

"Piss off." I say defensively as I start to blush.

I take a quick nap backstage before the night show. I feel like the night show is a little worse than the matinee because of a few things that happened. During Live While We're Young, I push myself too far and I lose my breath so much that I can't even sing in the chorus. During the guitar solo, me and the boys are supposed to meet in a line to do our little boat dance break. However, a couple seconds into the dance I can't see, breath, or think correctly.

I go and take a seat of the clear stairs as the others boys dance and I look over and see Bear's concerned eyes. She holds the inhaler up and I give her a small nod. I finish the song and as Niall does a mini speech, I walk over to Bear. I lay down on the ground and stick my head the space between the platform and the stage. Bear hands me the inhaler and I quickly use it, the fumes loosening my lungs instantly. I give it back to her but she surprises me with a quick kiss.

"Encouragement." she smiles as she stands normal again. I smile and jump up to finish the show. After the show is done and I'm still giddy from my kiss, we all go backstage to a cheering crew. Lou  looks cheekily between me and Bear and I assume that she must've seen our kiss.

"So are Nat and you..." Lou asks suggestively as I'm getting changed while Bear is talking with Modest on the phone outside the arena.

"No, it was encouraging. Me and Bear discussed it and we both are happy being single." I explain simply as I hand Caroline my show outfit.

"I don't know, I think you guys would be just as happy, if not more, if you guys were dating.... Each other." Lou smiles cheekily and Caroline nods in agreement.

"We're not dating, sorry." I say like it's no big deal as I try to hide my blushing cheeks.

"Well it's obvious that you like each other. And the day guys realize that it's meant to be, me and Lou are going to rub it in both of your faces." Caroline says loudly and Lou seconds her.

"Looks like you'll just have to wait and see." I say cheekily as I leave the dressing room.

I find my bandmates are just down the hall joking around with Bear. We all get in the vans to drive to the hotel and we share the rooms. I get paired with Louis and Bear is with Lou. Surprisingly, me and Louis fall asleep quickly and I dream about something I've waited a while for. In the dream, I'm dating Bear while we're on tour and the fans love her. We're finally happy- being with each other. It's too bad it was only a dream..

The tour continues on without a hitch. We end up getting back into our “go to sleep late, wake up early” schedule after a couple weeks, but we’re all feeling the wear and tear of touring. The fans response is amazing though. Every night just seems to be getting louder, which makes for a fun show when the crowd wants it. Bear and I have set up a deal that I use my inhaler during Niall’s speech before What Makes You Beautiful.

Of course she wanted it to be earlier, considering WMYB is one of the last songs, but I promise to come over if I need it. The kisses of encouragement don’t come anymore but that’s alright with me. Bear and I have out time on the tour bus. As we are both winding down for the night, we lay together in either her or my bunk as we talk. Usually it’s talks on the today’s events or the show but sometimes we are both just silent.

After using the bus to travel around a bit of England, we had back to London for another string of concerts at the O2. When we have concerts several days in a row at the same place, we stay at a hotel. This of course takes away from mine and Bear’s time. The only time we were spending together was at the arena, and I was having withdrawals.