Where I Am Without You [L.S]

Chapter Twenty Three

Sorry I'm very far behind on updates with this story on here but there's a lot more published on AO3 than there is here so I'll steadily be updating this one over the next few days !! Make sure to go through and read each last chapter rather than the latest one posted so you don't miss out on parts of the story !!

Enjoy x

March 2014

All he wanted right now was to be able to curl up in his bed and sleep. Preferably with Louis wrapped around him. Instead, he sat with a mildly interested expression on his face as the interviewer positively grinned at him, Zayn and Liam as they sat together on a low sofa, camera's angled towards them.

They were somewhere along the Thames, the river spreading out behind them through the glass windows. It was a bright day, especially for London and he longed to simply walk out in the streets like anyone else. But there was at least a hundred fans lined up downstairs, despite this interview not being a live event and their team trying their best to keep their location under the radar. The fans always found out a way to find out their location however. It wasn't as though he minded, he truly loved the overwhelming support they received from their fans but sometimes he really just wanted to be able to go grocery shopping without getting mobbed.

He could sense the agitation from Liam and Zayn also. They'd been doing promo for a solid two months now and with tour rehearsal schedules all mixed together life was hectic at the moment. They'd hardly had a chance to breathe since the start of the year and he knew that all five of them were just longing for the three days off they were having the moment this interview was over with.

He was leaving London early tomorrow morning, had planned this trip weeks in advance actually and now that it was so close he could hardly wait for this interview to be over with. He would hang around for a while downstairs with the fans whilst they got ready to leave, that part at least wouldn't feel like a chore but he was counting down the minutes till he would arrive back at his and Louis' private home.

He didn't actually know where Louis was, hadn't seen him in three days since he and Niall had been delayed in flying back from LA. He knew he was scheduled to fly back into London sometime today but it was too much of a distracting thought for him to be thinking about whilst in the midst of being asked about which venue he was most looking forward to playing on their upcoming tour.

It had initially been Louis' idea to get out of London for the three days. He'd first suggested they simply go to one of their family homes up north but they'd only just seen both families recently and they would be coming down to London soon enough anyway. Instead, the both of them had spent hours pouring over travel destinations, preferably ones they hadn't managed to go to yet before finally settling for heading to the Cotswold's. Neither of them had been but it was one of his mum's favourite places she'd gone with her own parents when she was younger and they'd both taken one look at a rental house on the outskirts of town and known it was the perfect place to get away.

It had been so long since they'd been able to get away just the two of them. Management had sat them both down when they'd ultimately had to let them know where they were heading to over the short break for safety reasons. He still hadn't forgotten the stern looks on the faces of the three adults before him as they'd strictly told him not to appear anywhere in public with Louis. It still hurt after four years the divide that they were trying to paint between them when all he wanted was to claim Louis as his in front of the entire world. Neither of them had spoken much the evening of that interview, instead they'd curled up in bed, wrapped in each other. As if in their silence they were both trying to hold together each other's pain at the situation they'd been so unwillingly faced in.