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.

"Oi! Freddie Kreuger would beat out Michael Meyers any day! Anyway, I was actually ringing to ask whether you were free later tonight, we're all meeting up at mine to discuss set list options. Thought it would be easier to do this together before we have to hand in the final copy next week."

"Oh, yeah that sounds like a good idea actually. What time?"

"Around 7ish?"

"Perfect, want me to bring anything?"

"Nah it's all good, I'll see you later!"

~~~~

"Nah, let's put it after If I Could Fly then it picks up tempo a little before Perfect begins!" Liam says from where he was leaning over towards a coffee table from the sofa, a scribbled punch of notes before him as he scratched out yet another title.

"We could just chuck a talking break between If I Could Fly and Perfect, the it won't matter so much." Zayn offers instead, seated beside Liam.

They'd been here for little over twenty minutes, already a pile of papers had formed as they'd thrown around ideas for the set list. They'd at least settled on 18 songs with two for the encore, now they were simply trying to choose the order.

There was only two pieces of paper that weren't covered in scribbles; the first was the 20 songs, and the other paper contained a neatly arranged list of the boys solo songs they'd chosen.

Liam:

Remember

Strip That Down

Familiar

Polaroid

Louis:

Don't Let It Break Your Heart

We Made It

Always You

Defenceless

Too Young

Two of Us

Niall:

Slow Hands

On The Loose

Small Talk

Black and White

Moral of the story

Zayn:

Fool For You

There You Are

Pillowtalk

Dusk Till Dawn

Harry:

Medicine

Fine Line

Falling

Golden

Watermelon Sugar

He was happy with his choices, having chosen not to include any from his debut. But he couldn't quite contain his curiosity at Louis' songs, he hadn't heard any of the unreleased album yet. Louis hadn't made an offer of sharing them with any of them earlier, well not that he knew of, so he hadn't pressed it. Merely by the song titles he was intrigued but it was Louis' choice if he shared the songs with them or not, and it currently seemed like he'd have to wait for the album's release just like everyone else.

"Nah I reckon we just go If I could Fly, straight into Story of My Life then go to Perfect, put the break before Harry's performance, s'what we've done for every other solo one." Niall says drawing Harry's gaze from where he'd been looking across the names written on the sheet.

"I like that idea, the order of those three."

"But you've chosen some slow ones haven't you H?" Liam asks looking up at him.

"Two of them are yeah, but the other three are upbeat that they'd work well after Perfect." He replies.

"Well how bout this, when it's the two slower ones, they go straight after Story of My Life then when it's the upbeat tracks they go after Perfect? That changes things up at least a little with complicating things and as long as the band knowns well in advance of those performances they'll be no problems with it."

"Good thinking Niall." Zayn says with a nod of his head.

"So that's it then?" Louis says from Harry's left, he'd already been here when Harry had arrived. Even went as far as to offer him a small smile but other than that the two of them had done exactly as Zayn had said, avoided one another. "Set list done."

"I guess so." Liam said finally leaning back into the sofa. "Everyone happy?"

"It's good with me." Niall says and the three of them nod in agreement, "Fuck I actually can't wait for this. Back with you lot up on stage, touring and this time without bloody Modest! And Syco making our lives a living hell and working us into the ground."

Before he can reply his phone rings, a brief glance at the screen shows it's Gemma calling him. Knowing she's leaving London tomorrow he quickly glances back up at Liam, "Sorry, you guys mind if I take this? It's Gems."

"Course not."

He stands, grabbing his phone from where it had been lying on the coffee table and striding towards the kitchen, accepting the call.

"Hey Gems."

"Hey, sorry to bother you I know you're with the boys but I've got a quick question?"

"Wait, how did you know I was with the boys?"

"Lottie, we were talking earlier."

"Oh, right." He says with a small frown, he hadn't realised that Gemma and Lottie had stayed in touch much after he and Louis broke up.

"Anyways, I know you'd asked for me to accompany you to the Brits with you, and I know this is very late notice but I've just got a call through from Eleanora and she's getting married on the 18th now in New York, you know I've already agreed to be her bridesmaid and I really don't think I can back out now, she's one of my best friends, I'm so sorry H but do you mind if I don't come, I know you're really looking forward to it and if you really want..."

"Gemma." He says, firmly cutting off his sisters ramblings, "It's fine, I'd never ask you to skip the wedding, you've both been planning it for months. Honestly it's fine, I think I can manage going to an awards show by myself. I am a grown man you know."

"Are you sure H? Really sure?"

"Yes Gems, it's totally fine."

"Maybe you could ask one of the boys to go with you? I mean, it would be good rumours to spark interest before the tour is announced right? Get peoples' interest."

"Yeah, actually that might be a good idea, I'll talk to Jeff about it."

"Ok, well I really have to finish packing, my train leaves in an hour but I love you H, say hi to the boys from me!"

"Love you too Gems, safe trip!" He says before the line goes dead.

He'd been standing in the kitchen, his back turned from the living room but he turned and found Louis making his way towards him.

"How's Gemma doing?" Louis asks him, and Harry thinks it might be the first proper time Louis has addressed him since he left his house back in December.

"She's doing good, she's heading back home for a few days though."

"Oh, that'll be nice." Louis says as he pulls open the fridge and grabs a beer. Gesturing towards the bottle but Harry shakes his head.

"Nah I'm good thanks."

"It's weird ain't it." Louis says after a moment of silence passes between them. "Doing this sort of thing again, with you lot."

"Yeah, kinda is. It feels partly like it did ten years ago, when we were really just finding our feet, wanted it so badly but had no clue how to get it. Here we are now, trying to find our way together once again but with so much experience and far better haircuts." He says with a small smile and Louis barks a laugh.

"I remember being quite fond of your curls back then actually." Louis seems to say without thinking too much about his words, judging from the slight pink tinge that spreads across his cheeks.

"Well, what can I say. I'm a charmer." He offers, trying to ease some of the tension that's come between them once more.

"Someone really should have thought more about our outfits back then too."

"Whoever decided to put Zayn in all those varsity jackets and me in those bloody blazers needed to be fired. Though I didn't mind the braces." He adds, trying to level the same admission Louis had made. It seemed to work as Louis smiled, genuinely, back towards him as he took a sip of the beer in his hand.

"Yeah well, guess our fashion choices this time round might be a little different from back then."

"I'd say." He replies leaning back against the counter and folding his arms across his chest. "How are you feeling about your album release?" He asks deciding to be brave.

"Good, I guess. S'been in the works long enough that it's gonna be nice to have it out you know?"

"Yeah, I know exactly what that feels like."

"I'm happy with it though you know, think I managed to finally get what I wanted to say. Gonna be nice performing those songs in front of a home crowd too." He finishes, his eyes downcast but that same one sided quirk of his lips Harry had always been drawn to was visible. He also knows that Louis doesn't mean performing in front their British home crowd, he means the One Direction fans in general, the people who have been with them on this crazy journey over the past nine and a half years.

"I'm sure they're all gonna love it Louis, they'll be proud, we're all proud of you." Harry says after a moment, being emotionally open with Louis had always felt easy, natural, and despite their history it still seemed that way buried underneath all the pent up awkwardness.

"Thanks Harry." Louis says, lifting his eyes up to meet Harry's. It's a long way from the pet names and loving glances they'd once shared, but it was a hell of a lot better than being strangers.