Rivals - L.S.

Eighteen - Crime and Punishment

Harry was wearing a nice suit, trying to look his best for the dreadful day ahead. Nick had requested immediately the next morning for Harry to be down at the stadium, apparently the team's management needed to have a conversation with him 'assessing the recent situations' and 'planning possible outcomes'.

Harry knew it wasn't going to be good.

He sat at a large round table accompanied by Nick, Simon, Ben Howard (the team's lawyer) and Danielle Campbell (the team publicist). None of them looked too happy.

Harry tried to hide his injured hand, hoping they wouldn't notice the large splints on his fingers and see it as a reason to kick him off the team entirely. But, deep down he knew that it was useless, pictures and videos of him were everywhere, from the punch itself to Harry in the back of a cop car to Harry leaving a doctor's office. Everyone had seen it all by now.

"Harry, thank you for coming down on such short notice," Ben began, a smile plastered onto his face. He straightened his suit and opened up a file that was sat before him on the table.

Harry nodded. "Of course, it's the least I could do-"

"-How's the hand?" Simon interrupted.

"Um, I broke two knuckles, Coach. The doctor said at least three weeks," Harry answered quietly, bowing his head shamefully.

Nick cleared his throat, as if to signal Simon to get back on topic. "Harry, can you give us a brief summary of what happened?" the brunette asked, folding his hands on the table with a look of interest on his face.

Harry nodded slowly. "Lately I've been getting followed and harassed by paparazzi, worse than ever. They were pushing me and yelling derogatory things about both myself and my teammate Louis Tomlinson," he began, eyes on his own fidgeting hands in his lap, "I couldn't let them say those things anymore. I had to stand up for myself, show them that," Harry trailed off, realizing that they didn't care about that part of the story, "I, um, then I hit one of the men and he went down. I was dragged away from the crowd by one of the others and then the police came. And that was it."

All eyes in the room were on Harry and frankly, it made the boy very uncomfortable. Everything was silent for a good minute, until Danielle spoke up.

"I think that was very brave of you, Mr. Styles," she said softly as she pushed a strand of her dark hair behind her ear, "But from the perspective of this establishment, it reflects very poorly on the character of the team. Especially with the way the papers are portraying it. My advice would be to enforce some kind of punishment, it doesn't have to be anything awful, but something to show the public that fighting and violence isn't supported by the Great Britain team."

Ben nodded curtly. "Nick, Simon, how do you feel?" he asked.

"I think this whole thing is a damn joke. Boys get in fights, boys stick up for themselves and for the people they care for. Harry did just that. I have no hand in whatever punishment is tossed his way," Simon chimed in, sounding almost disbelieving.

Harry flashed the man a grateful smile, happy that he had at least one person on his side.

Nick shook his head. "I love ya, Harry, I really do," he began, gesturing with his hands, "But I think that something needs to be done. I think you should be discharged from the team for at least a month, considering you're out for three weeks anyways due to your injury. I also think you need to make a public apology to the man who's nose you broke. It was a liability to not only yourself but to the team and that is not something to take lightly, especially when someone was injured-"

"-Mark White does not deserve my apology, sir. I mean no disrespect, but if it had been you in my position, you wouldn't want to apologize either considering the awful things he said and will probably say again if he gets the chance," Harry cut in, squeezing his hands into fists before releasing them again. His voice was shaky but he still managed to spit Mark White's name like it was poison in his mouth.

Ben interjected before Nick could make a reply. "So, Harry Styles is discharged for one month, then his position will be reinstated?" Ben clarified, picking up a pen and clicking it.

The room stayed quiet, Nick and Danielle nodding in agreement as Simon glared at them all.

"Okay. That's that, then. Harry, you are free to go," Ben said, eyes turned to a notebook before him as he quickly scribbled something down.

Harry stood up and smoothed his jacket. "Thank you all," he replied, forcing a smile before turning and quickly exiting the room.

-

"Hi, this is Louis. I can't get to the phone right now. You know what to do. Beep."

Harry took a deep breath and did his best to make his voice sound cheerful, even though he felt more disappointed then he was expecting to.

"Hey, love. It's me. I know you're at weight training but I just left my meeting with the board and figured I should fill you in. I, uh, I got discharged from the team for a month. I guess it could've been worse though, right? Right. Well, I'll let you go. Have a good training session, do some squats for me. I'll be at my flat if you want to come over later. Bye, Lou."

Harry shoved his phone into his jacket pocket, waiting in the lobby of his building for his security detail and his car to arrive.

When he finally got home, he trudged up to his door and fumbled with his keys as he tried to unlock it. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him, throwing his jacket and bag on the ground as soon as he crossed the entryway. Harry, desperate to drown his regret in something sweet, headed for the kitchen to see if he had anything good to eat.

On the kitchen counter laid a little pink slip of paper- a ticket to the annual carnival. There was a note beside it that read "Knew the key you gave me would be useful ;) I'll be back to get you in one hour. Be ready. XO, Lou."

Harry felt a smile instantly spread across his face, his heart feeling fuller than it had in days. It was like he forgot about all of the bad stuff going on just from Louis' gesture.

Feeling like the luckiest boy in the world, Harry scrambled off to find a perfect carnival outfit to impress his lovely boyfriend.