Chapter Six

April Sun in Cuba is playing through his Range Rover speakers when he finally pulls up in front of the building, somewhere near Knightsbridge, where he'd been instructed to arrive for the meeting. He'd been far longer with Mitch than he'd planned for so he was very grateful to find a parking space near enough to the building that it wouldn't make him later than he already was. He grabbed for the warmer coat he'd thrown in the back, just in case the weather turned for the worst, and headed towards the nondescript building.

Making his way inside, a middle aged woman sat behind a desk directed him to the elevator and told him to head up to the fourth floor.

With a distinct ding, the elevator doors pulled open and the first thing he was greeted with as he stepped into a large room, sectioned off only by a meeting room to his left, was being engulfed into someone's arms.

"Bout time you arrived!" Niall said as he pulled away, his hands remaining clasped around Harry's forearms, "Good to see ya!"

He smiled at the Irishman's antics, "You too man." His eyes searched around Niall and it took a moment for him to recognize the other man stood behind Niall with a knowing look on his face.

"Been a while H." Zayn said as he flashed him a small smile as Niall stepped back.

"Glad you're here Zayn, it really wouldn't be the same without you for this one." He replied, wiping all of the pent-up thoughts he'd had of Zayn leaving the band, despite fully understanding the reasoning why, as he stepped forward and embraced him.

"Yeah well, s'gonna be different this time round aye?" Zayn eventual offers when they pull apart.

"Can't believe Louis had to be the one to tell me you were coming back though, thought I at least deserved a text or somethn'."

"Wait you've spoken to Louis?" Niall interjects.

"Went and saw him this morning."

"Fuck man, how'd it go?"

"Fine, it went fine."

Something in his voice obviously registered with both of them as they seemed to drop the topic, realising it wasn't something he wanted to expand on.

"Yeah well anyway," Zayn begins again, shuffling slightly to draw their attention, "I wasn't sure for a while whether I was gonna come back or not. I mean, of course I wanted to but I needed to be sure of how this was all going to run, what restrictions we'd have and how things would be different from before."

"As you should have done. I think we all know how shit we were treated under Modest! Hell, even the fans divulged much of what we went through. If it was that clear, then it speaks volumes about how bad things were." Niall said, tone rarely serious and lacking his often lighthearted humour and carefree personality.

"I thought being serious was my role in the band?" A new voice called from behind them and they all turned to find Liam walking towards them. Each of them pulled him in for an embrace, the four of them sporting wide smiles as they stood huddled together outside the meeting room.

"You know I'm really not surprised that Louis is the last one to arrive I've gotta say!" Niall said once they'd all settled in a misshaped circle. As unconventional as they've ever been.

"It wouldn't be One Direction if Louis wasn't fashionably late to a meeting." Liam said with a knowing glint in his eye.

It was going to take Harry some time before he was used to the casual manner in which people addressed Louis in conversation around him.

"So, anyone got any idea's which solo songs they're gonna choose?" Niall asks as the elevator dings open and a young woman steps out, flashing the four of them a smile before disappearing into the meeting room.

"Barely even thought about it, we can change it up though right?" Zayn asks.

"I'd say so, sure the band won't mind changing up the songs every once in a while, give the crowd something new too."

"Shit what is the plan for the band anyway?" Liam asks and Harry realizes it's a good point, one that he hadn't even considered properly. Sarah had made a comment on it the other day, but he'd spent so long with his own band now that it would be strange being up on stage without those familiar faces.

"No clue mate, guess that's probably a good point to raise today though."

As Harry went to comment, behind him the elevator dinged once more and at the quick glance Niall across from him sent towards Harry he already knew who'd arrived before turning around. It had been only a matter of hours, but still as he turned around to find Louis walking towards them, a smile on his face, it took a moment to register to Harry that this was actually happening. He was actually in a few month's time embarking on a world tour with his old bandmates, including Louis. He wondered for a moment, even after this morning, whether it was too late to back out.

He wasn't given much time to linger on the thought as Louis reached them and the boys all pulled him in for a hug. Harry lingered back, the gesture seeming void to him as Louis finally pulled away from Zayn and settled at Harry's side, choosing only to send him a brief smile.

"Fuckin' freezing out there." Louis commented; indeed the weather was now turning and Harry was grateful he'd remembered to thrown in his umbrella.

"If you'd all like to come in we're ready to start now." The same woman who'd walked past them a few minutes ago called from the now open doorway to the meeting room.

Following in behind Liam, the room had only six people seated around a large dark glass table. He took a seat with Jeff on his left and Niall opting to take the seat on his right.

"Thanks for coming in boys, we want to keep this one fairly general for only the first time we're all together, most of the finer details the tour crew and us managers will work out for you. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Rebecca and I'm Liam's manager, but for the sake of the next year I'm one of the key people any of you can come to with any questions or suggestions." An older woman Harry wasn't familiar with spoke up.

"First of all, I'd like to start with at least introducing the rest of the managing team. This is Tilly," Rebecca said gesturing to a middle aged woman seated near the head of the table, "She's with Zayn. Then we have Rania, who's with Louis. Jeff with Harry and finally Amanda with Niall. And finally this one," Rebecca said gesturing to the man seated opposite Tilly, "I'm sure needs no introduction to you all." Harry smiled at the familiar face seated at the other end of the table from where he sat. He'd been delighted when Jeff had messaged him, letting him know that Paul Higgins had agreed to return as tour manager. Thinking that it would be better if they had someone all of the boys were familiar with, rather than choosing someone only one or two of them might have known. Harry had seen Paul only a few weeks ago but it still felt truly like returning to the past with Paul know seated before them, ready to get underway with another tour. But they all knew this one would be different, they were older now, their lives forever intertwined with the five years they'd shared together yet so different with the way their individual lives had played out over the last few years.

"Alright, well now that's out of the way, I'd like to start with addressing the duration and locations of the tour. As you're all aware, the tour will begin in late March, the official announcement will be made three days prior to the release of Louis' album next month and tickets will go on sale on February 1st." Harry nodded, this was knowledge that had been shared with them all a month ago. "We'd like each of you to increase fan engagement on your social medias immediately following the announcement, as well as one or two subtle mentions of it to spark interest in the public in the weeks leading up to it. I know you Harry aren't particularly active on social media but we'll speak with you personally about this as we don't want to pressure you into engaging if that's something you aren't willing to do."

"No, it's alright. I think I can make an exception in this case." He said towards Rebecca and added after a moment, "But thank you for asking anyways." He'd spent years in the band being targeted on social media, the sheer overwhelming pressure from the public and Modest! Driving him away from wanting to personally interact on any platforms. He had done, occasionally, but he tried to stay away from it as much as possible. This was different though, and taking five minutes out of his day to interact with people who'd spent years supporting him and essentially giving him the lifestyle he lead wasn't too much of an ask.

"Brilliant, so before we get into much else. We managers would like to ask that all five of you really start thinking over which of each of your solo songs you'd like to perform. You will have one song of your choice from your own music each show, we're hoping to do 18 – 20 songs at the moment so the set lists will be long. As you aren't doing as many shows, about 70, we decided to go for the longer setlists. It's totally up to you about which songs you choose, you may change which one you perform whenever but obviously you'll have to keep the band in the loop."

"Speaking of the band, who's joining us?" Niall pipped up.

"Great question." Tilly said with a smile on her face. "We did a lot of work into planning this, have recently spoken with all the artists you all individually have worked with on your tours, under full discretion of course, and have decided that after speaking to them all that Sarah Jones on drums, Mitchell Rowland and Michael Blackwell on Guitars, Sandy Beales on Bass and Ny Oh on piano and keys."

"Fuck that's gonna be sick!" Niall said with a wide grin.

"Those ratbags, they didn't even mention you'd spoken with them to me!" Harry said with an equally wide smile. So maybe being up on stage wouldn't be so bad when half his own band would be joining him. He was thrilled that Sandy would be joining them again, he'd always gotten along well with him but he didn't know Michael, he must be one of the other boys musicians.

"We asked them not to tell you yet, we wanted to finalize everyone before word got out and we only just heard back from Sandy in confirmation yesterday. He had to go over his schedule and family plans before agreeing." A woman, Amanda, offered with a small smile.

"Perfect, so as we were saying earlier, the song choices will be yours. After this meeting, you aren't all expected to meet back together business wise till January 8th but we would ask that you all speak to one another about the group songs you'd like on the setlist. We're giving that responsibility to you five as well. But we would like to stress that we know you all have personal favourites from the bands discography but the fans will be wanting specific songs, especially from Made in the A.M. We'll work out incorporating Zayn into the vocals during rehearsals."

Out the corner of his eye he saw Zayn nodding at the news, they'd all known that would be one of the trickier things, working in Zayn's incredible vocal talent into the songs from an album he hadn't be a part of.

"So moving on from song choices, next month you have a photoshoot on the 23rd which will be the official images for the tour announcement. You'll be in London for the announcement of the reunion, and Louis' album release. It's entirely up to each of you whether you will be supporting him through that but on Feb 2nd we have scheduled you all a flight to LA where interviews will begin. The first being on Feb 4th. From there, promo will be in full swing, you'll each be able to attend your own promotion for albums, particularly you three." Rebecca said nodding at Harry, Louis and Niall respectively.

"Tour rehearsals begin March 3rd back in London, you'll have a week between your last promo in Sweden and the start of rehearsals. Tour kicks off in London at Wembley Stadium on March 28th, the Europe leg of the tour hosts 30 shows across several different countries ending on May 2nd. You'll then have a week before the North America shows begin, followed by South America and finally shows in Asia and Oceania. The tour concludes in October 2020 and then that's it. The future will therefore lie with the five of you." Rebecca finishes and he leans back into the soft leather of the chair.

"Sounds alright." Liam muttered once the room had fallen silent.

"From here on out each of you are free to contact any one of us five at any time. We're working as a team from this point, or have done really for the past three months organizing this. The tour crew is already formed and fully on board and it has been decided with the shift of One Direction's ownership, that you are under the label of Columbia Records. And in case none of you aren't yet aware, Syco has been dropped from Sony so you needn't worry about any interference from them. Though this is not official for another several months so please keep that information quiet."

At that Harry paused in his movements. This was huge, Syco had been dropped by Sony. All the pain and heartache that he'd suffered because Syco and Modest! Had been so determined to keep him and Louis' relationship out of the public eye as not to 'taint' their public image. And to find out now that they'd no longer have to face either company in the reunion was almost too much for him in that moment.

"Did you know about this?" Zayn said, speaking for the first time since the meeting had started, the question directed towards Louis who squirmed uncomfortably under his stare.

"I may have had something to do with it..." Louis offered and Niall whirled around to face him.

"You what? What do you mean, 'had something to do with it?"

"Well I'm kinda in the process of dropping all ties with them, they're gonna collapse and I may just have bought One Direction from them..."

"You did what!" Liam exclaimed, almost leaping from his chair.

"I didn't want us to reunite while we were still in their grasp, so I've been working away at it for a while, the deal will be confirmed mid next month. Then we're free from Syco forever, and Modest!"

"Louis you fucking legend!" Niall said actually leaping up from his seat and walking round the table to pull Louis into a bone gripping hug.

Harry just sat there, numb and in shock. He'd done what!

"Bout time!" Zayn said grinning at Niall and Louis who he was sat beside.

"Alright well there's a few things to go over, documentsto sign before we can finish up here today, from here we'll see you again onJanuary 8th." Rebecca said beginning to pull out a thick stack ofdocuments from a brief case. Harry stayed silent, still reeling from Louis'announcement.