Who are you?

chapter 12.

As soon as Louis was dropped off at the respective location (the tour bus outside of the hotel they were staying at in Germany), Harry had all but sprinted out of the hotel, excitedly shouting, "Louis!" 

Louis could only laugh and open his arms as Harry ran toward him, allowing the pop star to crash into him when he got close enough. "Hi, Harry," Louis said through breaths of laughter. Harry was leaned down so his head was on Louis' chest, and Louis could almost feel the wide smile on his face. 

A couple seconds later, the rest of the boys came out, much less excited than Harry was. They all looked pleased enough, obviously not too excited considering they barely knew Louis. 

"Welcome, mate," Niall said once they were close enough, looking at Harry with a laugh. "We're glad you're here, maybe Harry can finally shut his hole for once."

Louis barked out a loud laugh as Harry let him go, crossing his arms with a pout on his face which only made Louis laugh harder. 

"Rude," Harry mumbled, making everyone else around chuckle as well. 

"Harry, you haven't shut up about Louis since Manchester, it's gotten a bit annoying," Zayn pointed out with a smile. Louis smiled at his former? friend, a small pang going through his heart. He missed his Zayn, one of the most introverted yet funniest guys he knew. He felt as though he could genuinely call Zayn one of his best friends. 

He also noticed how quiet Liam was being, not to mention how he looked slightly impatient. Liam was always more serious back on the X-Factor, but Louis and Harry managed to break him out of his shell (or just in general). He assumed from the meeting that he was the same, but maybe it was a facade. They all had facade's to put on for the fans, it was practically required in this industry. 

"Is this true, Haz?" Louis asked with a smirk. He noticed how red Harry's face had gotten, and how he was awkwardly checking out a crack in the pavement below them. 

"How about we introduce you to your team," Harry suggested after a second of silence, making everyone, including Liam, chuckle a little bit. Maybe it was the brotherly intuition, but Louis could feel something wrong with Liam. He couldn't tell if it was just his personality in this world, or if it was something else, but he wanted to help him. Unfortunately, Liam also didn't know him too well in this world, so there wasn't much Louis could do without seeming overbearingly nosy. 

Harry guided Louis inside the second tour bus while the other members went back onto the front bus. Louis knew the songwriting room and the travel-sized recording studio was, but he didn't want to say anything for reasons that seemed pretty obvious. Harry was sure to show him the booth that they would record vocals in, where the band kept their instruments, and the little section for songwriting in the back of the bus. 

"The people you will be working with are Jamie Scott, John Ryan and Julien Bunetta," Harry told him as they walked through the recording bus again. "John can be a little tough to work with, but Julien is nice. Jamie, it really depends on the day."

"How do you record while you're driving?" Louis asked out of curiosity. He knew how they did it, but he wanted to know if anything had changed in the new reality. 

"Good question," Harry said with a smile. "At random times during the night, we'll pull off at a rest station and whoever they need vocals for, they'll come to our bus and grab. If they're done and there's no rest station around, we sleep on the couch until the next one," he explained. Louis hummed in understanding, realizing it wasn't any different than when he was in the band. 

"Where will I sleep?" Louis then asked, not wanting to sleep on a couch for a week. He could maybe handle a couple days, but he definitely wouldn't be well rested enough to write more songs. 

"We have an extra bed for you, it's the bunk above mine," Harry smiled, looking down at him. Louis beamed brightly, happy that he could still be close to Harry. Sure, it wasn't the same bunk as when he was in the band, but it was still something. 

"That sounds perfect," Louis said with a smile. They walked off the bus, Louis following Harry, and walked onto the front bus. 

"This is where the boys and I hang out," Harry announced, Niall and Zayn looking up at the two new people on the bus. Liam looked deep in thought at his notebook, unaware of anything going on around him. Louis knew that he could get really focused when it came to songwriting, so he assumed that's what was going on. 

"He's not boring you, is he?" Zayn asked Louis, looking pointedly at Harry. Louis shook his head with a smile.

"Not at all," he said, looking up to catch Harry's gaze. 

"Just wait until you get him talking about baking, he will never shut up about it," Niall said with a laugh. "He loves talking about baking almost as much as he loves talking about Lou-"

"Okay, on with the tour," Harry interrupted, glaring at Niall. He could see Zayn bite back a laugh while Liam looked up with a small smirk, before going back to his notebook. 

"See you guys," Louis said softly as the duo walked past them. The three other band members waved back, and Harry dramatically shut the curtains on them. 

"So that was where we usually hang out, sometimes play card or board games if we have nothing better to do," Harry said, before walking down the hall. Louis noticed the bathroom right before the bunks, and knew exactly where they were. 

"This is where we sleep, I assume?" Louis asked, and Harry nodded. 

"This is my bunk," Harry said, pointing to the second bottom bunk on the left, "and above it it yours. I had Niall ask one of the band assistants to bring your stuff to it."

Louis nodded, opening the curtain to his bunk, and sure enough, his stuff was there. "I could've brought it here myself," Louis said, looking back at Harry, who simply just shrugged. "I wanted to spend more time with you," he said, and Louis could feel his heart flutter at those words. 

They both stood there, looking at each other, before Harry coughed out a quick "moving on" and walking to the next room. Just like last time, he dramatically threw open the curtains, and revealed what looked like the back of the bus. There was a couch wrapped around the end of the wall underneath a long window. In front of the couch was what looked like a coffee table, and it had a computer with a cord running out of it on top. Next to the computer there were four X-Box controllers, and Louis assumed the connected X-Box was under the coffee table like it was in his world. 

"This is where we go when we all have a long drive," Harry explained, moving around the coffee table to sit on the couch. "Sometimes we play X-Box, sometimes we watch movies, and sometimes we just sit and watch the world go by. It's never boring back here."

Louis sat down next to Harry an looked out the window to the arena they were outside of. "Do you guys go to hotels at all?" He asked, even though he knew the answer. 

"Yeah, usually when we have more than one show in a city. We're going to one tonight, and um..." Harry paused, putting a hand behind his neck as he looked down. "I was sort of wondering if you would want to room with me?"

Louis but back a smile. As if that were even a question. 

"Of course I want to room with you, you wanker," Louis laughed, lightly slapping Harry's shoulder which looked like it made him blush. 

"Good, because I kind of already told them we were rooming together," Harry said with a mischievous, yet somehow shy smile. 

"Good, I would have had you on the phone all night anyway," Louis smiled back. The tension in the air suddenly became thick, and they could both feel it. Louis had never wanted to kiss Harry more, but he couldn't find himself to do it. Not only was this their second time actually talking in person, it also didn't feel right to kiss someone who knew nothing about the real him. 

"Let's go see what the other boys are up to now," Louis said instead, hoping to break the tension. Harry blinked a couple times before nodding in agreement. "Yeah... yeah lets do that," he said, his voice cracking. Louis could tell that Harry wanted to kiss in that moment, and he felt immensely guilty for it. But he couldn't kiss him, he just couldn't. 

Not until he knew the truth at least.