Love Lock

Best Efforts

"So I guess just..." Louis hesitated, awkwardly holding his hand out to his bandmate.

It wasn't that he was trying to make things difficult. Everything just felt so unnatural in public where he knew they were being watched, tested, and judged.

Louis wanted to make things as comfortable as possible for the youngest, but nothing could erase the gaps that formed in their friendship.

It was all his fault. Louis knew that it was entirely his fault, and he wished so desperately that he could have been braver.

The caramel haired boy was giving his best efforts, but he didn't know if it would be enough, even if he wanted to believe that it might.

"It's not like we haven't held hands before," Harry sighed at the newly foreign gesture.

"Yeah when we were kids, it didn't mean anything then. This is different," Louis replied quickly as Harry entangled their fingers and looked back to the oldest.

"And it doesn't mean anything now...it's just play pretend," he assured. Louis nodded and tugged Harry out of the limo and towards their flat, putting on a bright smile for the unmoving crowd of paps and screaming fans.

But it did mean something all those years ago, and his smile faded with that realization. Waving at the fans as their body guards helped, Harry squeezed Louis' hand just a little bit tighter.

Maybe, Louis thought, it might mean something now too.

It had been a week since the boys announced that they were in a relationship together.

The reality of the situation finally sunk in; both Harry and Louis wished they could just wake up tomorrow and realize it was all a silly dream.

They would wake up and see that Zayn had never left them, that Simon had never called, and that everything was back to normal.

But of course that wasn't going to happen. The stunt went on and every moment became increasingly real. All Harry could think of was a constant 'this can't be happening'.

To Harry's displeasure, it was happening and the fan response was everything the band wished it wasn't.

Complete and utter approval.

One Direction's following had exploded into bursts of excitement and praise over social media.

Loving tweets and accepting messages flooded everyone's comment section while news reporters described the phenomenon on television.

By five o'clock in the morning after their last concert, Louis had become a symbol of bravery and Harry was seen as a beacon of hope.

~

Simon made a phone call bright and early that Friday to alert the boys of the seemingly wonderful outcome.

"Hello?" Liam's tired voice slurred into the receiver.

"Ah Liam I come baring good news, the fans love it," Simon laughed, money bags seething out of his venomous tone.

That's all the graying man wanted anyways, more money.

"Is that so?" Liam sat up, face falling into an expression of complete exhaustion. It's not that he wanted the band to crumble, but deep down he was praying for a negative fan response.

If the fans hated the idea of Harry and Louis being together, then they simply wouldn't have to do the PR stunt. Griffiths would conjure up some new idea and by the end of the month him and Simon would be rolling in new found wealth.