Chapter Twenty One

It's well into the early hours of the morning and Harry is drunk. Needs to be after the day he's had. Niall is jumping around beside him, glass raised in the air as he sloppily sings along to a song Harry feels he should know but doesn't Zayn and Gigi are sat in corner booth chatting with friends but from the content way Zayn is leaning into Gigi he's rather out of it too. Liam decided not to join them tonight, perhaps for the first time in a while but he'd said he had other things he needed to do. Harry figured he was sleeping. And Louis was nowhere to be found. After several shots he'd finally gone clumsily around the dimly lit night club in search of him, looking back now, slightly less plastered than he had been an hour ago he's very thankful he didn't find Louis. Instead he'd returned to the bar and asked for a bottle of water.

He's still not entirely thinking straight, his vision only a bit blurry now but he's slowly sobering up, the water helping keep the inevitable headache at bay. Niall is still clumsily wailing to whatever song is playing when Harry slips away from him towards the stairs of the club needing some fresh air. The roof top is far less crowded than the club downstairs. It's a sizeable space up here, decked out in high end outdoor seating areas and several fireplaces despite the much warmer night than London is at this time of the year. There's perhaps two dozen people up here, milling around and chatting whilst quiet music plays in the background.

"A little birdie told me that you were talking about me today." A familiar, American accent says from behind him and he turns to find Kendall coming to a stop beside him near the railing.

"Who me? Sorry I think you must have the wrong guy."

"Very fun." She says playfully tapping his arm.

"How are you?" He asks, having not seen her in a few months. They had never been particularly close but he definitely called her a friend, even if her different upbringing and sometimes obnoxious attitude got the better of her, she was still mostly alright.

"Not too bad, same old. Saw you're getting the band back together, I'll have to come to a show."

"Think that was Niall's doing, I'm only along for the ride." He teases back and looks out over the lights of the city.

"Sure, whatever you say. Your album is fantastic by the way."

"Thanks Kendall."

"How long are you in LA for?"

"Only a week, then it's back to the UK and then onto the rest of Europe for the promotional side of it all, though I'm not sure why we're going considering the tour is already sold out."

"You know I..."

"Harry!" He hears a voice call out from behind him, drawing the attention of a few of the people nearby. He turns to find Niall making his way towards them. "You might want to come with me."

He doesn't even question it, instead head straight for Niall, sending a parting wave to Kendall and hurriedly follows him back down the stairs into the club.

"Niall what's wrong?" He says noting that Zayn is no longer sat with Gigi in the corner booth.

"Come on." Is the only thing Niall says and he follows him through a narrow corridor to a back room of the club near the bathrooms.

He sees Zayn leaning against a door, looking tired as his mouth moves whilst he speaks quietly enough for Harry not to hear over the music still loudly playing from the club behind them.

"He won't listen to me." Zayn says to them as he and Niall come to a stop before the door and Harry's heart drops when he realizes what's happening.

"I'll get him home, you guys both go." Gesturing towards the door, his head seems to clear up immensely as he says so.

"You sure?" Niall asks and Harry nods. Zayn and Niall pause for a moment longer before walking back down the corridor leaving him standing alone in the hallway.

He tries for the door first, not quite sure what else to do. When he finds it locked, which he'd already suspected seeing as Zayn hadn't entered the room he raps his knuckles against the door.

"Louis?" He says softly. "It's me." He doesn't hear anything from the other side of the door. "Lou." He tries again and this time he does hear the slight scuffle of shoes on a carpet.

"Lou please open the door."

There's a long stretch of silence before he hears the click of the lock and the door slowly opens. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, Louis to be in tears maybe but he wasn't expecting Louis to open the door and look angry.

"Lou..." He starts but Louis cuts him off before he can say anything else.

"Don't Harry. Just don't."

"You know I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong?"

"Maybe I don't want to tell you anything." Louis says and Harry instantly knows he's completely off his face drunk. There's no real venom to his voice, it's more as if he's spitting out the first words that come to mind, his body pressed heavily against the open door.

"I'm going to take you home, then you can yell at me there all you'd like ok? But you need to get out of here."

For a moment Harry is afraid Louis is going to start arguing with him then and there, but at the last moment his head slumps down and he hears Louis whisper 'Fine.' Before he wobblily steps out from the room and lets Harry guide him down the hall to the back door.

In the thirty seconds it takes to get outside to the deserted back entrance, a shiny black car is pulling around the corner and Harry pulls open the door before the vehicle has even come to a complete stop. Louis stumbles inside the back seat, Harry recognizing his driver, Marc, and sends him a quick nod and rattles off the address Louis tells him and then they're pulling away from the club.

By the time they pull up outside Louis' home, he's fast asleep over the backseat.

"Louis." He whispers, and then once more louder until Louis' eyes flutter open. "Don't stay Marc, I'll be a while and go stay with friends close by." He tells Marc as he gets out of the car after Louis, knowing that Ny has a home not far from here he's stayed before, and maybe Liam's LA home too.

"Course." Marc says with a brief nod of his head then the car is pulling away, leaving Louis and Harry standing on the side of the quiet street. The house is nice, very nice. Different from his home in London but very LA, and very different from Harry's old home in LA, their old home.

Louis manages to type in the security code on the gate but stumbles as he goes to shut it behind them both. Harry gives in then and wraps his arm around Louis' waist, he feels him tense beneath Harry's hand but doesn't say anything as he leans into Harry and they walk up towards the front door. He's really trying to keep his breathing normal as he follows Louis into the house, focusing on anything other than where all of Louis is pressed against him.

"The bedroom." He says into the quiet, feels Louis shift in his only half awake state to glance up at him. "So I can get you to bed Louis, not like..." He trails off, realising he's really not helping his case here. He wishes that Louis would laugh, say some offhand comment to ease the tension around them both but he stays silent but tries to step towards a distant stairway. Harry keeps his arm firmly wrapped around Louis as they slowly make their way up the stairs and towards the furthest room on the second floor.

He pushes open the door into the neatly made bedroom, Louis stepping away from him then and begins unbuttoning his shirt, pulling it from his skin the moment the last button is undone and Harry has to turn away at the sight. Swallowing down the lump in his throat. He's seen all of Louis to many times to count but that had been a long time ago under very different circumstances.

"You never called." Louis says as he starts on his trousers.

"What?" Harry says from where he's facing the door, completely unsure what to do with himself.

"You said you would and you never did. I waited all day for you to call and you didn't."

"Louis what are you talking about?"

"It doesn't matter." Louis mutters and he hears the duvet cover being pulled back and thinks it's safe enough to turn around. Louis is sitting in his boxers, legs still on the ground as he looks up at Harry with sad eyes.

"No Louis, tell me."

"You're not calling me Lou anymore..."

And that just breaks his heart.

"You did so, earlier, and now you're not."

"We're not together anymore Louis, it doesn't feel right."

"So you did it to cause me more pain?"

"What? Louis no." He says and takes a step towards him before halting. This isn't his place to be doing so. " Louis we'll talk about this I promise, but you're drunk and are not going to remember this. We can't do this right now."

"Will you stay with me?"

"Louis..." He drawls, because this is blurring some serious lines. He doesn't want Louis waking up in a few hours time and regretting saying this.

"Please Haz."

And fuck it, he has no will power left to say no to Louis when he's like this. He sighs and shrugs off his jacket and starts on his shoes next. Louis doesn't say a word, simply shuffles back and over to the right side of the bed as he'd always done. Harry hesitantly settles down between the covers and pulls them up over them both.

His breath comes in shallow intakes as the two of them lie in silence, eyes locked on one another. He can barely make out Louis' shape in the darkness of the room but he's spent enough time over the years memorizing every feature that he can imagine every line of Louis as they lie in the dark.

"I wish things were different." Louis whispers into the dark.

"So do I Lou."