Stand By Me ~Zouis Family

Twenty

 A month passed and the tension in the Tomlinson-Malik household was at it’s peak. Harry was seeing a therapist every Tuesday, Niall was going through a rather unpleasant ‘I’m almost eight and I can do what I want when I want’ faze, Liam was stroppy and Louis and Zayn didn’t even sleep in the same room any more.

It was a total disaster to put it simply and Harry felt entirely to blame.

Why else would everyone be acting this way? Louis and Zayn would argue on a daily basis, sometimes about Harry and sometimes over stupid little things that didn’t warrant an argument at all. Harry was going insane, his head was constantly throbbing from just the stress of talking about Mr. Campbell with a therapist, and the fact that he’d been enrolled in a new school that he was due to start at in just over a month, plus Mr. Campbell’s trial was next week.

On top of all of that, Harry had to deal with Louis latching onto him, Niall being a royal pain in the butt, Liam throwing tantrums over nothing, and Zayn’s absence; Zayn would leave for work in the morning, come back just in time for dinner, argue with Louis and disappear.

It wasn’t that Zayn didn’t love Louis any more, he just didn’t really know how to cope with everything at the moment. Zayn had been brought up in family that was admittedly full of problems, but he’d never faced these problems. But mostly, he just couldn’t understand why Louis was clinging to Harry like glue, he understood that Louis was worried about him (he was too.) but he just didn’t see what suffocating him was going to do to help. And that caused him to get snappy and frustrated with his husband.

“Niall I need you to bring your washing basket down now!” Louis called to his son who was sat on the couch watching Ben 10.

“Yeah I will.” Niall responded, his eyes not leaving the TV.

“Now!” Louis yelled, “I’ve asked you three times, if I have to ask again you’re not going to Luke’s house on the weekend!”

Niall let out a loud grunt before sliding off the couch and stomping up the stairs to retrieve his red basket full of dirty clothes. He returned a minute later and dumped it at Louis’ feet casting his father a grudging look before stalking back into the lounge to finish watching his program.

Louis sighed and ran a hand down his freshly shaven face, he picked the basket up off the floor and began separating the darks from the the lights. He was tired, he found it hard to sleep at night knowing that Harry was hurting and also knowing that Zayn wasn’t there to cuddle into and keep him warm. Zayn wasn’t there to tell him not over think the situation. Zayn wasn’t there to dry his tears. Zayn wasn’t there.

Louis knew it was his fault, he was being difficult and needy and he was pushing his husband away, and Louis was terrified that he’d push Zayn so far away that he’d no longer be able to reach him, he was scared that Zayn would leave him but Louis didn’t really know how to bring him back. Every conversation they had turned into an argument about one thing or another.

Louis threw Niall’s dark clothes into the washing machine and dropped his lights into the pile of everyone else’s light clothes on the floor, he turned the machine on and leaned against it, catching his breath and closing his eyes firmly.

He could feel his family falling apart right under him but he couldn’t stop it, he simply didn’t know how. He didn’t know why Niall was acting like a moody teenager, he didn’t know why Liam was throwing tantrums every five minutes and he didn’t know why Harry wasn’t getting better. He was trying to help he really was, but apparently it wasn’t having the desired effect. Louis felt his throat begin to close up and that familiar sting behind his eyes, but before he hand a chance to break down a little there was an almighty scream and them Liam was standing in the laundry room doorway, fat tears rolling down his face.