Instagram (Larry Stylinson)

0.25

a/n: song starts at 2:11. Wait to hear it until it features in the plot so it'll make sense.

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Niall arrived at Harry's house first, not even bothering to ring the doorbell and instead just walking right in, finding Louis and Harry cuddled up together on the couch. He cooed at his best mate and his little friend for a couple seconds before announcing his presence, drawing their attention away from the Friends episode that played on the television.

"Ni! Hi, mate. Didn't even hear you come in." Harry stood up to greet his Irish friend and Louis followed behind. Niall pulled Louis into a hug as well, taking Louis by surprise but also making him smile.

"They don't call me the snake for no reason." Niall shrugged with a proud smirk on his face.

"No one calls you the snake." Harry snorted and Niall's smirk turned into a pout.

"Why not? It's a good nickname!"

Before Niall had the chance to continue whining, the doorbell rang and Niall ran to the front door, opening it up and letting Liam and Zayn inside as they had showed up at the house at the same time. "Lads!" Harry and Louis heard Niall shouting from the hall and seconds later the three of them entered the living room.

Liam and Zayn both hugged Harry tightly, having not seen each other for months, while they greeted Louis with handshakes and introductions: as if Louis didn't know who the famous people, whom he was currently chatting with, was. Louis shyly smiled back, not really sure how to behave himself when he was practically witnessing a One Direction reunion at that moment.

When they had said hello to Louis, Niall forced his bandmates into a group hug after much convincing and Louis quickly snapped a photo of the adorable moment on his phone without anyone noticing.

Afterwards they all sat down on the couches, Louis and Harry on the loveseat besides it. They started chatting amongst them, Louis listening intently when they reminisced about old times and told each other stories from back in the day. Curiosity sparked in Louis as he saw Zayn frowning when the boys were talking about something that had happened after he left the band.

"I'm sorry if this is overstepping boundaries, but why did you leave the band, Zayn? If you all are friends and such?" Louis of course had been heartbroken when he read that Zayn was leaving One Direction because he didn't fit in in the band and was on terrible terms with especially Harry.

"Um, can I tell him?" Zayn looked at Harry for confirmation. They had never told anyone the real reason except for their families and such, so this was Zayn's way of asking if what Harry and Louis had going on was going to last in Harry's mind.

"Yeah, you can tell him." Harry answered, beaming at Louis and squeezing his waist once.

"Well....I didn't wanna leave the band. Not at all. I had never even thought about it, but then management called me in and told me this whole story about how Harry had been papped kissing Perrie, my fiancé at the time. I believed them and got so riled up, so Harry and I got in this massive fight." Zayn looked apologetically at Harry who mouthed "It's fine, Z." back at him.

"It ended in me leaving the band because I was so mad at my best friend for kissing my fiancé, but then a month later I found out it was all fake and was staged by management. They wanted me to leave the band, so it first of all could make it to the press and somehow give the band a bigger reputation." Zayn stopped, frowning at the memory, a tear almost slipping from his eye.

"And secondly?" Louis questioned, feeling bad for the boy now that he knew the whole story. How cruel could someone be? They practically forced Zayn out of the band, and for what? To make the name One Direction bigger? As if it wasn't already?