Chapter Forty Four

Sorry for the slow update - Had a busy past few days !! The entire story is now completed so will try an post once, if not twice a week from here on out :)

"I think we should play our last show in London." Zayn states the minute the five of them are all loaded onto the screen.

Three days into their week off they're back together despite being spread across three separate countries. They've been talking non stop as always but Zayn had sent through a message at 6am that morning stating to sign in to Zoom at 9am sharp.

Louis is pressed into his side, head lazily resting on his shoulder but through the screen he can see his brows furrow at their bandmates statement. He's thankful too then that they'd had the wise enough sense to shower earlier, he wasn't quite prepared to face the mocking they'd have received from the state they'd been in from the others.

"And the reasoning behind this is....?" Niall inquires.

"It's our last show together and I think we should do it back home, where we started. A fitting end to ten years."

"Yeah but think of the logistics of upping the tour from Australia all the way back to the UK to set up for just one final show." He replies, liking the sentimental concept behind it but they'd had this tour planned out for an age now and dragging their tour crew team back across the world after months already on the road seems a little excessive.

"I actually kinda like that idea." Liam cuts in next, "I get what you're saying Haz but this is our final show, our final act together, for real this time. A way to send off the past ten years and all that we've achieved both together and as solo artists and people in front of a home crowd."

"If we are gonna do this we should have just planned this all backwards and end it in the UK instead of starting there." Louis chimes in next.

"Niall?" Zayn questions.

"I'm keen."

"Great." He mutters shaking his head. "And who wants to inform our managers, record label, finance team and tour crew members of this sudden decision only months before tour is scheduled to end?" He tries once more.

"Come on H, live a little!" Zayn pipes up and he's really lost them all to the idea now, even Louis seems to have given in judging by the glint in his eyes.

"Fine." He resigns. "Where?"

~~~~

"I truly cannot believe it's taken you this long to tell us, we've known for weeks H." Sarah tells him, humour evident in her tone.

A vinyl belonging to Florence + The Machine plays quietly behind him, the light outside finally beginning to dim as evening approaches.

"To be fair, we haven't explicitly been trying to hide ourselves, we're just been wanting to do things properly this time." He explains one their last night in the city. Louis had been out all afternoon, busy with his own affairs and faced with the prospect of an empty house for so many hours he'd realised how little he'd spoken truly with his other band members.

Sarah and Mitch had both laughed him off when he'd called them, apologizing profoundly for neglecting their friendship as of late.

You needed time back with your boys H, we understand.

They'd both echoed down the line to him, it hadn't stopped him from repeating his sentiments the moment they'd stepped through his door an hour ago. The couple had managed five minutes of small talk before Sarah had cracked and demanded he tell them both the full story. She'd been here that first night he'd realised he would actually have to face Louis again after being apart all these years and he mentally kicks himself he hadn't been communicating better with them both over the past few months about what had been happening in his life. He hadn't been lying to them, just hadn't been open as he'd gotten so used to during their time working together.

They're two of his closest friends, he knows they care deeply for him and would be there for him in whatever situation.

"Honestly H, we're just happy to see you like this. You've been missing the spark that's been lighting up inside you these past few months the entire time we've known you., it's been good seeing it come alive" Mitch explains from where he sits with Sarah nestled into his side.

"Right poet you are." He says in answer though his heart pangs at his words. That even a man who hadn't ever seen him interact with Louis before saw the change in him now they were together once more.

"Talking of songs, I've got a few for you to look through."

"Really? When did you start writing again?" He questions, moving forward to where Mitch places down his infamous writing journal which he brings everywhere with him.

"He's been writing almost non-stop for the past two months." Sarah offers, "Honest I walk into our hotel room back in Venice at 2am and he's sat in the middle of the room, guitar in hand scribbling out lyrics!"

"Firstly, that's the best time of the day to write and secondly what were you doing out at 2am in Venice?" He asks turning to her with a puzzled expression.

"Niall took Ny, Michael and me out, Liam joined us for a bit too."

"What? Why wasn't I invited?" He retorts pretending to sound offended at being excluded.

"Because you were a little too caught up in your own special person to notice much else then. A second honeymoon phase by my reckoning." She answers with a smirk.

"Hey! Don't use my love life against me like that."

"Just observing." She teases him right back.

"Alright, back on track to the songs now please." He says as he begins reading through the scattered lyrics which lie across the page Mitch has opened too.

They spend the better part of two hours sitting together. Eventually he gets up to go and grab two guitars and a pair of drum sticks from his home studio for them to begin crafting out a melody to particular lyrics they point out. It's fun and feels remarkably like chill nights on a Jamaican beach.

He's reminded again in that time what special people he's found over the course of his life. He's changed, he's well aware of it since he started out. And whilst he's all too aware that he has a few million people out there in the world who adore him, it's the people closest to him whom he can't help but treasure the most. The people who have stuck by his side, remained true to themselves despite the fame being associated to him brings and are his friend above all else. One Direction's hiatus in 2015 had been one of the most difficult situations he'd yet had to face in life, but it had brought him together with people such as Mitch and Sarah and for that, he'd always be grateful.

"So what's your plan for when this tour's over?" Mitch asks when they finally set aside the instruments. "Seems like only last week we were about to play the first show now we're onto America already."

"I know, tour always passes the time at unprecedented rates." He replies, settling further back into the cushions which lie scattered over his sofa. "There's been a lot of talk for possible options, perhaps a sixth album for the band like a final farewell, but most of us have our own solo projects going on. Fine Line I'd like to tour, it seems too personal not to share the full album onstage, like it's the final bit of closure I'd need for that part of my life."

"It's not a bad idea, you know we'd join you anywhere and in whatever direction you take." Sarah states genuinely. "Gosh, that was terrible unintended pun wasn't it?" She continues after a beat of silence between them as they burst out laughing.

"I can say with certainty that I've heard enough jokes about which direction to take to fill an eternity."

"Immortal in their comedic value in my opinion." Mitch cuts in with a smirk.

"You've only been with me four years, you just wait till it's been ten!"

"Fair point. But back on the original topic, you think you'd be up for writing a fifth album with the band?"

He pauses to think about that for moment. Thinks of the sound evolution each of them have undertaken over the course of their careers.

"Honestly, musically and lyrically I'm not sure how much we'd gel anymore. I love the boys, their solo work too, but trying to combine all that diversity and added maturity in our personal tastes, I'm not sure how we could craft an album out of it all. I wonder whether this tour might be our final act, our final goodbye as the five teens we started out from now as the grown adults ready to progress into different avenues of our lives."

There's too much history, too many late nights, fights, confessions, shared experiences and a bond created only by living in such close confines with others that will surround the five of them forever more, but it dawns on him that this might just be there bittersweet ending. To say goodbye to such a monumental moment of music history. Personal experience aside, One Direction helped shape an entire era of music beloved around the world. He's seen things and participated in moments he could but only hope to imagine growing up, he wouldn't change many things about the last ten years considering where it's lead him too, but they're all ready to move on with their lives now. Before it had felt like a part of him had been left so incomplete, the final paragraphs of a chapter left unread, but now as they've come back together to tour the world, it feels like that once gaping hole is beginning to close.

"It wouldn't be a bad way to say goodbye."

"No," He says with a smile, "No, it truly wouldn't."