Fix You (Larry Stylinson AU)

Agreement

*L*
Louis walks home as fast as he possibly can. Those words stung him so much. He did numb his reality. He numbs his reality because of how truly broken he is. There is a void in his life and he would never be the same. He can’t believe how much Harry saw through the fake self that he shows everyone around him. Harry is the only one that sees his demons. He’s sure Harry can see them because he has demons of his own.

The first thing Louis does when when he gets home is opens a new bottle of whiskey and pours himself a drink. It’s barely noon and he’s already planning to get so drunk that he can’t stand. What was his life coming to? He is pathetic. No wonder his family hates him. No wonder Harry could see right through his ‘happy teacher who has it all together’ facade. Harry probably thinks he’s a wreck. Why should Harry take his advice when he’s not even taking his own? He’s such a hypocrite.

Louis falls asleep after a few drinks. He wakes up a few hours later from a nightmare drenched in sweat and crying. He doesn’t cry often. Whenever he feels like he’s going to, he drinks until the urge goes away. He wipes the tears from his eyes and picks up the bottle on his nightstand. He walks to his bathroom and turns on the shower. Having no shame, he brings the bottle with him. He loses track of time in the shower and also loses track of how many swigs he’s taken out of the bottle.

After officially becoming a prune, he exits the shower. He dries off quickly but doesn’t bother putting on any clothes. It was the one perk of living on his own. He realizes that he hasn’t looked at his phone since he got home. He doesn’t even know where he put it. With his bottle in hand, he searches his apartment. His phone is in the kitchen, probably left it there in favor of the booze. He grabs his phone and sits down on the couch.

Looking through his phone, he sees he has three missed calls from Zayn and seven texts from Harry. He isn’t in the mood to talk to Zayn. His date probably went amazing last night and he didn’t want to hear about it. He knows that makes him a bad friend but he wanted to wallow in his self pity today.

From Harry: I’m sorry, Louis. That came out totally wrong.

From Harry: Please talk to me.

From Harry: I’m an absolute idiot.

From Harry: Just ignore everything I said earlier, okay?

From Harry: So I guess you’re ignoring me?

From Harry: I take that as a yes.

From Harry: I’m sorry.

Those texts break Louis’ heart. He knows Harry didn’t mean anything rude by his comment. He said it like acceptance. Like he understands. Louis shouldn’t have left in such a hurry. That only makes him want to drink more and so he does. It’s only a little after five in the afternoon and he’s completely plastered. The kind of plastered where it is a struggle to get up from the couch. He sits there for a while, contemplating whether he should text Harry back or not.

He doesn’t know how long it’s been but he is brought out of his thoughts by a knock at the door. He sets his bottle on the coffee table and stands up. It is a struggle to stand up and even more of a struggle to stay up. He finds a pair of shorts and throws them on. He figures the person at the door is Zayn because he never called him back and Zayn always demands to be paid attention to when he has good news. He unlocks the door without paying much attention.

“I’m sorry, Zaynie. I was going to call you back when I--” His slurred words stop abruptly when he sees that it’s not Zayn who is at the door. “Harry?”

*H*

Harry felt like a complete idiot when Louis walked out without even a word of goodbye. Why did he let those words slip out? It was stupid and irresponsible of him. Of course Louis is going to be sensitive to basically being called an alcoholic. He didn’t mean it offensively. He knew alcoholism too well. He only wanted to see if Louis knew it was a problem. If Louis’ reaction to the response was any indication, he did.