Migraine [louis-centric]

chapter 38

Third person POV

Louis' face was emotionless, his eyes were blank.

Harry didn't know what to believe. The past few days were a whirlwind of emotions. Louis, the beta of the group, came out as an omega and for the first time, they saw the vulnerable side of Louis. But just as soon as things were starting to look up, albeit the slightest bit, another tsunami crashed on them. 

Harry and Louis used to be close, during X-Factor all the way until the end of their first world tour. It was a blur after that, mornings spent with Louis chatting about nothing and everything changed into cooking large brunches for the pack. Evenings cuddling with Louis, while criticizing movies turned into going to fancy restaurants with the pack. Louis was kind of left out during that time because the alphas and the omega were still bonding. Their love growing deeper as each day went by, almost forgetting about Louis. 

'But Louis was fine,' Harry thought, 'he was going out and seemed to have fun, didn't he?'

Harry buried his face deeper into his hands, footsteps retreating. The sounds Harry could hear was the beat of his heart and the soft breaths of Louis. He didn't need to look up to know Louis was there. The other pack members had left already, in an attempt to calm Niall down. The PR guys had no reason to be in there anymore, the only one left was Louis. 

Louis stood by the door, body frozen. He wasn't scared nor was he angry. He was numb if anything. A weight sat on his chest, his insides twisting and knotting. His eyes could see and his ears could hear, but his brain wouldn't process. Only black dots in the place of memories and deafening silences in the place of conversations. It was as if Louis was floating through a black hole, swimming in the void.

In his trance, he moved towards the taller alpha; creating a depression in the bed where he sat down next to him. Louis' gaze remained fixed on the wall, he's screwed, he knows that. However, he can't get himself to react. A part of him hoped Harry would not believe all this bullshit, he hoped Harry would start a conversation and ground Louis to Earth.

Harry rubbed his eyes, blinking and looking at Louis. He eventually breaks the silence.

"Why?" 

It's a simple question, but Louis can't answer it. Wait-no, he has an answer planned in his mind but his brain won't let him speak. So he shrugs his shoulders, throwing a lazy smile at Harry. 

"Why?"

Harry asked him again, his voice cracking up a bit. He was on the verge of crying. Louis, however, remained emotionless. Harry's green eyes stared at the right profile of Louis' face, watching him exhale through his mouth.

"Science"

Louis doesn't miss the way Harry grimaced. His gaze fell on his lap, playing with his small hands. 

"What do you mean by 'science'?" Louis remained silent.

"Answer me!" Harry's voice boomed in the empty room, Louis nearly jumping out of his skin. He finally turned to look at Harry, looking at his chest. 

"Human behavior. A science experiment of sorts, if you must say. I wanted to see how naive you guys were. How easily you believed someone. Not once did you guys fight back, you know? Not once did you doubt." Louis forced a laugh, "idiots."

Harry was taken back for a moment, before springing to his feet, clearly frustrated. 

"Louis! You don't need to lie! There's no one here! You can tell the truth, babe! We'll help you, I'll help you!" Tears rolled down Harry's face, his throat hurting like hell due to choking up his sobs. A blank smile remained on Louis' lips, eyes trained on the ground.

"I'm not lying, Harry. It's the truth. I'm sorry, I guess I just like having attention on me. I know it is a shitty excuse, but I guess it's a beta thing."

Harry's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. 

"What about the-the medical reports and the legal documents and all those things you showed us?"

Louis' eyes trailed upwards, stopping right at Harry's chin. 

"They were fake, Haz. It's extremely easy to fake them, especially when you have money. I bribed all the doctors, hired someone to write the documents for me. And you know, I went to acting classes as an extracurricular on Sundays, I know how to fake a few tears. I guess you're wondering why I did it, well, I think boredom had something to do with it. And a bit of alcohol. But as I said, I did it in the name of science. As a study, to observe how easily you would believe me. Niall was the easiest to fool, such an idiot-" 

"Shut up!" Liam's voice echoed from their left, where he stood by the door. Anger was written all over his features and his eyes were red-rimmed. Great, Louis thought, I made two alphas cry today. 

Betrayal was evident in Liam's eyes, but it was the only way to protect one direction, to protect this dream they had built up using fragile pieces of glass. Ready to fall and shatter into tiny, microscopic pieces anytime.

Harry was dumbfounded. He couldn't comprehend what Louis had said. His brain was mush, unable to believe anything. He didn't know who to trust, at this point, he didn't even trust himself. 

Liam looked away, as though even looking at Louis could give him an incurable terminal disease. He took brisk steps, grabbing the other alpha's hand and wiping away the tears with his thumb. He turned to look at Louis with disgust before grabbing the alpha's hand and walking out of the room.

Just before Harry left the room, Louis raised his head up to see Harry, for one last time. At least for a while. 

Green met blue for the first time in a long time. 

What Harry saw scared him. He saw the broken remains of a beautiful painting, he saw a beautiful set of flowers blooming in the middle of a black hole. He saw something so beautiful, so broken, so tragic. 

And for the first time, Harry really saw Louis. 

thank you for reading, sorry for any grammatical errors, it's 3:52 am. 

also, a huge thank you to @yaoigirl111 for giving such lovely ideas!