Undercover Heroes (One Direction Superhero AU)

Chapter 21

Harry's POV:

It's been a week and my burns had healed fairly quickly because of my accelerated healing. My newfound fear of fire on the other hand...

I couldn't bring myself to go near Louis. I know it was hurting him but... his fire powers terrified me. I knew he wouldn't hurt me on purpose but every time I went near him or he used his powers near me all I could think about was Nathan holding the lighter's flame to my skin and it was almost like I could feel my skin burning again.

But I wouldn't have to go back there ever again. None of us would. Our management had gotten us out of the contract and all we had to do now was figure out what exactly Nathan's plan was.

I was sitting in the living room with Niall and Liam, Zayn out in the hallway talking with Perrie, watching Louis move around in the kitchen. I hadn't gone near my stove either since I got back, so Louis took up the cooking whenever the five of us hung out. He was heating up grilled cheeses for us, not in the mood to make anything else and I couldn't help but stare as the buttered pieces of bread sizzled in between Louis's hands. I didn't even notice when Louis looked up at me and saw me staring. He nearly threw down the sandwich he'd been holding on a plate and he slammed his hands down on my kitchen counter.

"Harry, I'm not going to hurt you," Louis said, "I get that what happened to you was horrible, and the effects on you aren't going to go away anytime soon, but we're in a band together, hell, we're on a superhero team together, and you have to trust me, not be scared of me." I swallowed and nodded.

"I know," I breathed out, "I know, I'm sorry Louis just- I keep going back there in my head, whenever I see you using your powers and it's almost like I'm being burned again and- I'm sorry Lou..." Louis sighed and let his arms drop to his sides.

"It's okay Harry," he said, "I'm sorry I snapped. It's just- you're one of my best friends and it's hard seeing you look at me like you think I'm gonna burn you."

"Maybe..." I looked over at Liam and saw him furrow his eyebrows, looking between Louis and I, "Maybe we can start by having Louis touch Harry's arm or something? Like, reinforce in his mind that Harry can trust him?" I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Liam had a point, if Louis touched my arm maybe these thoughts that come up whenever I see him use his powers would go away? That didn't stop my stomach from twisting up in panic.

"That could work..." Louis said, nodding and walking out from behind my kitchen island, towards the living room. My breath caught in my throat as he stepped closer.

My skin was burning, turning red and I saw blisters bubbling up to the skin before I forced myself to look away. I still felt it though, my skin burning away the longer the flame was held there...

"Harry... Harry breathe." I gasped and I shook my head, clearing the thoughts from my head. I looked in front of me and Louis was crouching in front of me, his hands on my knees, "I'm not going to hurt you, see?" He held his hands up and shook them, smiling softly, "No fire." I nodded and just kept breathing, focusing on keeping it under control and not hyperventilating. After a couple minutes, I'd calmed down enough and I moved my hand to rest it over Louis's and squeezed it. His smiled widened, "There you go Haz." I smiled back at him and looked over at Liam and Niall. They were smiling as well and Liam opened his mouth to say something when my flat door opened, slamming against the wall with the force of it opening and Zayn hurried inside. He looked completely panicked.

"Zayn?" Niall stood up from the sofa he was sitting on, "What's wrong?"

"X Tech signed a new group to promote their tablet," Zayn said. Liam's eyes widened.

"What? Who?" Zayn took a deep breath and reached up and grabbed fistfulls full of hair.

"Perrie texted me asking me if I knew what X Tech was and I had to call her and I asked her why she was asking and she said that she and the girls signed a contract with them to promote the tablet and- fuck we can't let them go there guys. We can't- they-" Louis quickly moved from where he'd been squatting in front of me and walked over to Zayn, grabbing his wrists and gently pulling his hands away from his hair.

"Zee, calm down," Louis said, "X Tech signed Little Mix?" Zayn nodded, "Okay, okay. We can help them Zayn. We just have to figure out a way to make sure they're okay when they get back from X Tech. And we need to figure out what Nathan's planning on doing, okay?" Zayn nodded and Louis let his wrists go, "Perrie'll be okay Zayn." Zayn gulped and nodded again. Louis turned to Liam.

"Think you can hack into X Tech's computers with that new power of yours Li?" Liam shrugged.

"I can try," he said. Louis nodded.

"Okay, we'll start there then."