Labels || H.S. [#Wattys2020]

TWENTY-SIX

Harry and Reagan watched as Lydia paced the room. She had been walking the same tiny constraints of the studio for the past twenty minutes, completely silent. Harry didn't mind though, he had been in much worse trouble before and technically he hadn't even done anything that bad. Reagan though was terrified. Lydia hadn't shouted, she didn't even bat an eye when she found Harry with Reagan in the ladies' bathroom, she simply said in a calm and even voice, "Studio. Now." and walked out. Reagan knew that things were about to get really bad if Lydia had to call all of the boys in to have an emergency meeting.

Even though they had been caught in the ladies' room, it was completely innocent. He was standing at least foot away from her for God's sake. But she knew that it could be misconstrued in many ways, she could get fired while he would get high fived, that's how fucked double standard is. The fact that Lydia still hadn't even yelled at them made her feel that much worse. She simply stalked around the room, heels clicking upon the wooden floor as she paced and paced. The boys sat in front of them on the opposite couch, watching as Lydia almost made a hole in the floor. They looked at Reagan and Harry, almost as if asking what had happened in the span of a lunch break. Harry simply shrugged and Reagan looked away.

"Look," Lydia said finally, "I have enough work to do without the lot of you causing me so much grief."

"What do you mean?" Louis said eyebrow cocked, clearly knowing exactly what she meant.

"You know precisely what I mean. I shouldn't have to worry about giving you access to your social media accounts. I shouldn't have to worry about your well being when you go out in public. And more importantly," she turned to look at Harry, "I shouldn't walk into the ladies' bathroom and find you with Reagan!" All the boys looked at each other while Reagan studied her shoes, she didn't dare meet Lydia's piercing glare.

"Look," Harry began, "It's been a rough couple of months. We know you've been putting up with a lot, but Lydia, have we really done anything that bad? The bathroom thing was innocent I was giving her first aid! I mean look at her leg!" He pointed at the Hello Kitty band-aid, his voice becoming more indignant by the second, "She could have bled out!"

Louis snorted and Niall laughed as Liam actually contemplated whether it was humanly possible for Reagan to have died from the scrape on her knee.

"And I promise I won't ditch my guards again," Harry said in a disgustingly convincing fake reluctant voice he had so obviously learned from all the years of pulling the same stunt over and over again. It looked as if he had actually convinced Lydia as if she was going to let it go because she believed he was truly sorry and he would really never do it again, but then she walked back to her desk, grabbed a stack of papers, and threw them at Harry.

"Do you know what could've happened to you?" Lydia asked, her voice lower than Harry had ever heard it.

He looked at the pictures she had thrown at him, hoards of girls clinging on to him for dear life, he and Reagan holding hands, running down the street. There must have been hundreds of pictures, hundreds. But he knew that it wasn't the fans attacking him that irked Lydia, it was something else.

"It's happened before, it'll happen again." He said with a shrug. The boys laughed from across the room, knowing he was totally right. No one could stop Harry from trying to meet fans, it was his thing. He felt he just needed to meet as many as he could, he wanted to thank them for all that they've given him. No one could ever talk him out of it. Although, after all the attacks and hoards of teenage girls, you'd think he'd be more reluctant.

Lydia glared, "It wasn't just the fact you completely disregarded to take a bodyguard with you Harry, it's the fact that now we have another scandal to worry about."