Where I Am Without You [L.S]

Chapter Eight

Quick note: For the sake of the story the 2020 Brit Awards are held on Jan 18th instead of Feb 18th in this fic but it is still the same performance as Harry actually did!

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He had spent Christmas day with his mum and Gemma, cooped up in his London home exchanging various gifts and the three of them had spent most of the afternoon and evening having a highly competitive bake off. His kitchen had been a mess by the time they'd finished, two bottles of wine consumed and a whole lot of memories still fresh in his mind.

New Year's consisted of flittering around London, caught up in the run over adrenaline from releasing Fine Line and trying not to think too much about the year ahead. Spending the count down on a roof of someone's fancy London condo home surrounded by women in sparkling outfits and men in dashing, and sometimes outrageous suits.

By the time the next meeting came around for tour preparations, he hadn't even seen any of the other boys around but judging from the constant messages they had been sending through their shared group chat, they were all doing fine. A consistent stream of messages exchanged between the five of them kept the thoughts of tour fresh enough in his mind however, the low buzzes of his phone sounding every few minutes for the past couple weeks.

The meeting this time around didn't require all of them together, instead he spent a better part of his morning hauled up in Jeff's office with him, Rebecca and Tilly going over various documents and any specific tour requests he had.

By the time they'd all well and truly had enough of scouring through page after page of official documents and papers and had gone over every personal request he had from stage production to dressing room design, he found himself heading out into one of the nearby parks from his home. On a rare London day in January where it actually wasn't raining and the slimmest ray of sunshine was peaking through the grey clouds, the open air was a welcome release. He'd pulled on a beanie and bandana that was pulled up over his nose and mouth. A large black and white sweater and jeans that he thought looked normal enough as too not draw too much attention. He'd never minded being stopped by fans, endlessly thankful for their support however on days like today it was often quite nice to fool himself into thinking he was just like everyone else. No millions of fans screaming for his attention and demands of the music industry. It was just him. Just Harry.

The first hint he gave on his social media came in early January. And to him it felt like the simplest act he could do. Niall had posted a selfie of him in a studio on his Instagram, it had been one of the first images to come up when he opened the app in bed that morning and with a simple double tap, hysteria broke out. Twitter went nuts over the simple like, #Narry had trended for twenty four hours and while he thought that was perhaps a little obsessive, it was nothing compared to late one afternoon when all five of them had simultaneously followed each other on all their social media platforms. A week later and is Twitter mentions were still going crazy. He'd had no choice but to mute them all.

He wound his way around the path which wove through the small park. On a dozen or so other people were around him as he stuffed his hand in his jean pockets and walked in somewhat of a haze. He'd just spotted a café on the street corner in the distant, planning on grabbing a drink before he headed back home when his phone rang.

He accepted the call when Liam's name popped up on his screen, still heading in the direction of the small café. "If you're calling me to be a mediator for you and Niall's latest argument I have to side with Niall on this one." He said as way of greeting. Indeed Niall and Liam's most recent message debacle was over which slasher film was considered the ultimate classic. Liam was currently perusing the argument with A Nightmare on Elm Street but Harry thought Niall had it with John Carpenters Halloween.