Something in the World Today

4

The next couple of weeks practically fly by. They’re filled with laughter, and jokes, and performing, and making fools of themselves and other people.

Louis’ head doesn’t feel crowded at all.

If Louis had even an ounce of courage, he’d use it to ask Harry to help him. He doesn’t, though, so he’s suffering even though he doesn’t have to, the product of a really terrible week.

Harry likes to tell him that Louis’ voice sounds like dipping cold toes into a warm bath on a winter’s day - tingling and almost painfully warm - but Louis likes to pretend that he doesn’t hear him. It’s a little bit flustering, the way Harry says it, bluntly and out of nowhere, most of the time.

He doesn’t believe it, mainly. He has a hard time believing it when he sees all the criticism on the internet, despite Harry’s best efforts at keeping it from him.

It’s been especially bad, lately. Louis had a bad night which led to a bad performance which led to Louis thinking that it would be a good idea to google himself which led to Louis coming across all the negative reviews which led to Louis feeling sad.

Probably he’s making it out to be worse than it actually is, but he can’t help the way that he feels, and right now he feels like shit.

He’s been covering it with with a smile and jokes and a lot of running around, but he can tell that Harry’s about five seconds from pulling him into a corner and getting it out of him. And it’s not that Louis is scared of that happening, exactly, because even before they came to this agreement Harry was always the person Louis went to when he feels like this, but it feels weird right now.

It’s going to be the first time that they do it intentionally. Well, the second time. He supposes that the first counts, even though it happened right after they figured everything out and they didn’t really know what they were doing. It still left Louis feeling like he was floating, high on some kind of drug, already addicted.

The point is that Louis isn’t sure that he’s ready for this. The problem is that it’s got its own momentum by now, and Harry’s definitely noticed. He keeps trying to pull Louis into a corner so they can talk, and Louis keeps finding excuses not to. The excuses are getting more and more ridiculous, and he’s not sure how much longer Harry is going to let him get away with it.

Not long, judging by the way he’s coming for Louis right now with a determined glint in his eye and three hours to spare.

Louis bolts. He’s not really sure why, but he does, darting through corridors with the intention of getting to the bus before Harry can catch up. It’s not a well thought out plan, because Harry will absolutely not hesitate to climb right into Louis’ bunk after him and leave him with nowhere to escape to, pinning him between Harry’s body and the wall, but it’s what he does.

He doesn’t make it, anyway. Harry’s fingers close around his elbow and bring him to a slow stop even though Louis’ brain hasn’t agreed to that course of action.

“Hey,” Harry says, and it’s so frustrating that Louis feels the prick of hot tears against his eyelids. Leave it to Harry to chase Louis down only to say hey.

“Hey,” Louis mumbles back, elbow twitching. He can’t decide whether it would be worth it to pull it out of Harry’s grasp or not.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Harry says, and it’s not even the slightest bit judgmental but it helps makes the decision anyway.

Louis pulls his elbow away and crosses his arms over his chest, trying to tuck his fingers in as close to his ribs as he can get. He should have brought gloves. It’s cold in here. “I haven’t.”