The Fault With The Spotlight

Chapter 9

"Had a good day?" Louis asked later that night. The pair of them were curled up together in Louis's bed, legs tangled together and arms around each other.

"Most of it, yeah" Harry said sleepily. It wasn't very late but Harry's head was hurting so Louis blocked all light out and let him get comfortable, even if it meant that he wasn't.

"How's your head feeling?" Louis said quietly. He had tried playing with Harry's hair but got a slap on the wrist because it hurt.

"Still hurts but I'll be okay" Harry said, his cheek pressed to Louis's bare chest. Louis was basically a human radiator, so Harry often got as close as he could.

"If you don't want to come in tomorrow you don't have to. We're not doing much, just a meeting with Simon." Louis sympathised.

"Are you kidding? Simon would skin me alive if I didn't show" Harry half joked, trying to stifle a yawn.

"Baby go to sleep." Louis whispered gently, kissing the top of Harry's head as lightly as he could, so as not to inflict any pain.

"Love you" Harry mumbled into Louis's chest. He felt relaxed and safe; he felt at home.

"Love you too sweetheart." Louis replied gently. Harry fell asleep within a matter of minutes, and Louis didn't know how he was so blessed to be with such a precious being.

The next morning was rather slow, neither of the boys wanted to get out of bed and leave the comfort of each others arms but they didn't have a choice. They slowly made their way through breakfast, complaining about the smallest of things before dragging themselves upstairs to get ready.

"Harry I can't be bothered" Louis whined, tugging at the hem of Harry's unbuttoned shirt.

"Your so needy today Louis I'm trying to get ready" Harry said with a soft laugh. He couldn't be bothered either but he had to and he knew he did.

"But Harryyyy" Louis continued, trying to lift himself up into Harry's arms. Harry picked him up and gave him a quick kiss before walking over to the bed and dropping him on it.

"Now get ready." he said with a smile. Louis reluctantly got up and got ready, glancing at Harry every so often. When they were finally dressed they brushed their teeth and walked briskly to the car. Harry fell back asleep on the short ride there and Louis felt extremely guilty waking him up.

"Morning." Vanya said stiffly as they entered the lounge together. Louis didn't reply. If she was still going to be cold then she wasn't worth his time, instead he busied himself with his shoe laces.

"Look can we just drop this?" Vanya said, half sighing half yelling.

"Finally come to your senses?" Louis said but almost instantly realised that was the wrong choice of words. "Look I want Isabel back as much as you do, but we can't let it stop us. This is our job, it's what we do for a living and we can't devote it to getting Isabel back as much as I'd like to. We will bring her back, I'm sure of it but we can't right now Vanya!"

Vanya looked extremely shocked that Louis had just stood up to her like that. She wasn't used to it but strangely she didn't mind. Yes the reasoning for Isabel's dismissal was completely barbaric but it wasn't Louis's fault and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Mabey she had come to her senses.

"I'll talk to her and sort something out, I should have done that earlier." Vanya concluded after a short while.

Dean and Cassidy were the next to arrive, Dean still being cheerful from the previous day, Cassidy looking slightly pale and like she'd had a rough night.