Untouchable

Chapter 34

Harry's POV

It was pathetic, how quickly I forgave Louis for hurting me so badly. I supposed that was what happened when somebody was in love as much as I was. We had only had two days left of the break before we had to go back on tour and we spent it together, watching bad television and eating take away. It was fantastic.

I knew that Louis felt horrible about what he had done and to me that was punishment enough. I didn't like him feeling badly about anything, but I knew that I couldn't just let him off the hook immediately.

Going back on tour made the both of us nervous. We were both worried about how he would be able to handle the pressure again. We were starting the American leg of our tour and I wondered how he would feel about being so far from London. I didn't know if he would have any problems with home sickness. He never had before, but I didn't know if anything had changed.

He held my hand as we walked through the venue, trying to find our dressing rooms. It was nice. He hadn't held my hand at all for the last few shows of our European leg and I had missed the casual intimacy of it. I didn't care that we didn't have any sexual intimacy. To me, that would only be a bonus to what our relationship already was and I was willing to go without it for my entire life if he was never ready. I was content with holding hands and cuddling and that was all I really needed to be happy. I knew that he didn't feel quite the same way about it and that it was useless to convince him otherwise, which always bothered me. I hated that he felt inadequate in our relationship.

I waited for him as he got his hair done and Liam walked in.

"Alright, Harry?" he asked, his tone light, but his mouth twitched into a frown when he looked over at Louis.

"Great, thanks," I replied, watching as Louis looked away from Liam, looking guilty.

Liam nodded, but I knew that he was curious. When he had called to tell me where Louis had disappeared to, he had sounded as angry as I had felt. I understood that he couldn't have controlled Louis' decision- nobody could ever control Louis, not really- and I had told him as much. I knew that he didn't agree with it and hadn't supported it and that had been enough for me. But I still felt protective over Louis and I didn't like the way that Liam was glaring at him.

"You want a tea or something, love?" I asked after Louis cleared his throat.

I knew that he wasn't sick, just uncomfortable, but I saw the way Liam raised his eyebrows at 'love'. He clearly had not expected us to be okay again so quickly.

"I'm fine, thanks," Louis mumbled, playing with his fingers.

He looked ashamed under Liam's stare and I didn't like it. I wanted Louis to feel bad about what he had done because it wasn't okay with me, but I didn't want him to feel bad because of what Liam thought. It was our relationship, not his.

"We're fine, Liam," I said, trying not to sound too irritated.

Lou looked up and glanced between the three of us, confused. She had no idea of what had happened and I wanted to keep it that way. I didn't want our problems being scrutinized by anybody but us. I knew that she wouldn't judge us, but I still wanted to keep it private.

"Alright," Liam said, shrugging, and that was that.

After both Louis' and my hair was done, we went back to our dressing room. He didn't much feel like messing about like he normally did and I understood that.

"You okay?" I asked when he returned to the room after getting a cup of tea.

He shrugged.

"Liam's mad," he said quietly, curling up next to me on the couch that we had dragged in from another room.