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☁️ chapter five ☁️

Harry thought the day couldn't get any worse, he'd found out his lover was terminally ill the night before after all, but he was wrong. Their day could absolutely get worse.

One of Louis' band mates had woken up sick. A fever, throwing up... the whole nine yards. With Louis' immune system being in such a vulnerable state now, Harry was trying to get him to take it easy and stay away from any of the band members just to be safe. Even with only one of them being sick, he didn't want him taking any risks.

Of course, Louis didn't listen. He just really wanted to put on the best show he could, while he could.

"Honey, I'm not sure performing tonight is such a good idea," Harry said as he was backstage with Louis, who was shivering a little bit. It wasn't even chilly.

"Harry p-p-please stop," Louis mumbled, closing his eyes. He could feel a little sweat trickling down the back of his neck, despite feeling cold. He wondered if he was getting a fever, but he kept that thought to himself. He didn't want to argue more about staying offstage. This was just so important to him.

"Louis, I'm just really worried. You don't look well-"

"Gee Harry," Louis cut him off, "thannnks," he had a bit of a slur to his voice that he was having a harder time controlling with how tired he felt.

"Baby, I didn't mean it like that and you know it." Harry stated, calmly. "But please, I'm worried you're getting sick. I mean, look at you! You're shivering."

"I... I'm fine," Louis shook his head, pausing as he tried to speak. He didn't feel well at all, and it was making his ALS symptoms harder to control. "Jus' cold in here."

"That's the thing though Lou, it's not cold at all. It's quite warm actually," Harry frowned. He then noticed a bit of sweat beading at Louis' forehead and immediately reached out, feeling the skin there with the back of his hand. "Babe, you've got a fever."

"Harry, I'm distanced e-e-enough from the... fans." Louis said quietly, frustrated at the difficulty he was having with speaking. "They w-won't.. get sick."

"It's not about that honeybee," Harry cupped his cheeks, looking at him, his green eyes fixated on Louis' blue ones. "It's about you. You're not doing well, and you shouldn't be performing, it's not good for you."

"I'm dying a-anyway Harry dammit! J-j-just let me live..." he had tears filling up in his eyes, "please. This is I-important to me."

Harry sighed, about to cry himself at the utter defeat in Louis' voice, and the words themselves had shattered him as well.

"Okay love, if it's what you really want to do." He said, still wary about the idea, but Louis was an adult. He could make his own decision.

"It is." Louis said, determination in his voice. He was not going to back down on this and everyone knew it.

~•~•~

Harry's heart ached as he kissed Louis' cheek before watching him limp up to the stage. He hated that he now knew what all these little things meant. The slurring, the limping.. all of it. It would never go away.

He took a deep breath and watched as Louis approached the microphone, and try to adjust the stand while the fans cheered. He fumbled around, his hands shaky and stiff as he tried to grasp the microphone and sing.

This was off to such a bad start, but Louis was trying so hard for the fans.

"H-how are we tonight?" Louis asked after the first song, smiling as much as he could. He loved performing, and despite feeling ill, he was trying to soak up that familiar joy.

The crowd erupted with cheers, but he could see the concern on some of their faces. It definitely made him nervous, but he tried to carry on like nothing was wrong.

Everything was wrong though.

He felt like he didn't have control over his body at the moment, everything was amplified currently because he was sick, and couldn't fight back against himself. Throughout the first half of the show, he'd have random twitches, leg cramps, and his hands would freeze. They were all momentary occurrences, but not being able to control it scared him.

Things took a turn for the worst though when the show was a little more than halfway over. He felt his knees cramp up, and was extremely nervous because his stomach was starting to churn. He knew he was going to get sick, and he'd momentarily lost control of his body, feeling frozen in place. He couldn't even bring himself to speak, he felt like he had no control over any part of himself.

This meant, he had no control at all over the next events. He belched wetly, and his stomach gurgled. His face flushed red, he'd just done that in front of thousands of people, and couldn't do a thing about it. His eyes went wide in panic and security was rushing to him, but didn't make it to him in enough time. It all just happened so fast.

A loud gag, a hiccup, another sick burp, all in the eyes of everyone. He was so fevered and delirious as he then vomited all down himself, starting to get fuzzy in the head.

A couple of security guards picked him up and rushed him offstage, while the whole crowd had gone silent.

Louis nearly passed out as he was brought backstage, he'd been extremely dehydrated and had the same flu his band mate had, which had sent his weak body into a sort of shock.

He was burning up, as they laid him on the couch, delirious and barely holding onto his consciousness as paramedics arrived. They spent a long time getting fluids into him, and applying cold compresses and ice to get his temperature down, and eventually he came around.

He had more control over himself again, but was absolutely terrified when he realized he was surrounded by the paramedics and not on stage.

"W-what happened?" He asked, tears pooling in his eyes.

Hi all! Hope you're doing ok, sorry it's been so long. I hope this chapter was okay, sorry I've still just not been 100% so please don't be too harsh, but also I would love honest feedback.

Have a good week(:
-bells