10 Years Later (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 36

Niall's attention waned from the conversation as he heard his kids start to argue and he good-naturedly grumbled as he got up to return the snatched toy back to its rightful owner. Samantha stood up too and said she had to get the kids back now anyway, they had had enough sun for one day. Niall picked up Sean and took Aidan's hand, taking the boys home with Samantha trailing behind them with the bags.

The late afternoon sun dappled through the trees, washing over the group as they sat together laughing and chatting, Niall returning on his own a few minutes later, carrying an acoustic guitar with him. He sat down and started to strum, grinning happily as Zayn started singing, his soulful voice piercing into Louis' heart, 'Your hand fits in mine, Like it's made just for me'. Louis looked down at his hands numbly as Harry took his hand into his larger hand, tears pricking at his eyes.

Harry squeezed his hand, and whispered into his ear, "Ed wrote this after hearing me talk about you", and Louis couldn't stop the tears from silently falling. His heart ached as Liam's voice took over, strong and deep, and then Niall and Harry joining in for the chorus. The words took on new meaning as the boys sung, as he understood for the first time that it was about him, it was about Harry loving him, thinking he was perfect, unable to say so, unable to let the words slip out of his mouth.

Louis stayed silent, painfully aware of how out of practice his voice was. He didn't want to let the other guys down and promised himself he could practice every day to get his voice back to where it was, grateful that he didn't have many solos. The group looked at him expectantly when it came to his verse, but Louis just couldn't, shaking his head as his tears mingled in his beard. Harry wrapped his arms tight around him and sung it for him, 'You can't go to bed without a cup of tea'. The boys voices raised and soared around each other, finding harmony even after all this time and Louis found himself joining in on the last chorus despite himself, his voice scratchy and shaking, cracking on the high notes, but somehow completing the sound, adding a richness and depth to the voices. Harry ended the song, replacing the 'you's' in the last chorus with 'Lou's'. Crooning into Louis' ear, 'Cause it's Lou, Oh it's Lou, It's Lou they add up to'. The lads grinned and joined in, 'I'm in love with Lou, and all his little things'.

Louis brushed away his tears as the song ending and Niall continued strumming onto the next song, strumming the opening chords to Best Song Ever before going into Steal My Girl. Louis ducked out of each of his solos but joined in with the choruses. He was somewhat surprised that he still knew all the words, knew the songs like the back of his hand even after all these years. But, as they had sung them pretty much every day for four years ago he guessed they were pretty well ingrained. Layla and Perrie clapped as they finished and gushed about how good they all still were, and that the fans were going to go crazy. Liam frowned and shook his head, telling his fiancé that they needed a lot of practice before the tour and his voice was really rusty.

Harry beckoned to Niall to pass the guitar as he swung his long legs out from around Louis, shifting to sit next to him with the guitar on his lap. Harry said nervously with pink cheeks, "I've been working on some stuff, you know, in case we get to record again. It's a bit rough at the moment, needs a lot of work, it's fine if you don't like it, but yeah... this is called infinity...".

They listened in silence as Harry played the guitar and sang, his tuneful voice belting out the new song, 'How many nights does it take to count the stars, That's the time it would take to fix my heart'. Louis was breathless by the time Harry had finished, staring in wonder at the curly haired man. The group burst into applause, Zayn shouting, "That's fucking sick mate!" and the rest joining in to congratulate Harry on the song. Louis smiled at his love and said in awe, "You're amazing, babe". Harry blushed at the praise, scratching his neck embarrassedly as he grinned at the lads thanked them.

They chatted for a while about how cool it would be to get in the studio again and to record a new album before Louis shivered, suddenly aware that the sun's rays had lost their potency. He felt pretty tired and he still had to call Emma so he looked at Harry, tilting his head back towards the houses questioningly. Harry nodded and stood up, passing the guitar back to Niall and telling the guys they were going to head back and they'd see them soon. Niall asked about their plans for tomorrow, asking if they wanted to watch the TV show all together and Louis shrugged, telling him they'd let them know tomorrow when they figured out what the plans were.

They walked the few metres home hand in hand, the sounds of the group's laughter carrying on the May breeze. Louis flicked the kettle on as they walked in, busying himself with getting the mugs and tea bags prepared as he waited for the kettle to boil. Harry wrapped around Louis from behind, dropping his head to kiss Louis' shoulder, his long arms surrounding Louis' waist. Louis finished making the tea and they settled in the living room.

Louis couldn't relax, fidgeting, the thought of calling Emma looming over him like a dark cloud. Harry tried to ease away his tension by pulling Louis into his chest and massaging his shoulders gently. Eventually Louis sighed and said, "I might as well get it over with". Harry offered to stay with Louis for the phone call but Louis told him he'd like to be alone. Harry nodded and headed upstairs to give him some privacy, telling him that he'd use the time to let Grimmy and Ed know, squeezing Louis' hand reassuringly before he left.

Louis stared at his phone for a long moment, thumb hovering over Emma's contact details on the screen before he took a deep breath and swiped his finger across the dial button. He tensed as it started to ring and forced himself to try to relax. His mouth went dry as Emma's familiar voice answered the phone, sounding happy to hear from him and his heart sank when he realised that this would probably be the last time she would ever answer the phone to him.

Emma started chatting, asking what he'd been up to, before he interrupted her in a strangled voice. He told her everything, apologising profusely and it was awful. Emma cried and shouted, she felt betrayed and heartbroken and Louis didn't have the words to make it any better. He ended up crying down the phone to her as well, knowing how badly she was hurt. She ended the call angrily, asking Louis never to contact her again. Louis sobbed at the pain he'd caused, tapping blindly into his phone to ask Stan to go and look after her. Harry ran downstairs at the sound of Louis crying and enveloped him into a giant hug, running his fingers through Louis' hair and rubbing his back soothingly.

Eventually Louis' sobs turned into soft hiccups, nestled into Harry's chest, a large damp patch soaking into his jumper. Louis told Harry brokenly about the phone call and Harry murmured loving reassurances to him, telling him it wasn't his fault and it would all work out okay. Eventually Louis calmed and they spent the evening on the sofa, cuddled up together with a takeaway and watching a film. Louis was quiet all night, still upset at hurting Emma but slowly finding peace with it, knowing he had done the right thing by telling her, and really the only way to not hurt her would be to live the rest of his life as a lie.

After a while he realised he hadn't asked Harry how his calls had gone, so he did, pleased when Harry told him that his two friends had been really made up that Harry had got his happy ending. He smiled into Harry's curls content enough for the moment, glad he'd got the call over and done with and there was no one else that he cared enough about to ring. He looked up at Harry through his eyelashes and murmured, "Take me to bed, love, make it all okay again. They stood, Harry leading Louis upstairs by the hand saying fondly, "Come on then, princess".