KINGS & QUEENS - LARRY STYLINSON FANFICTION

DOUBTS

"You were quiet, love," Louis says as they come back to their room where they get ready for bed.

"I thought you were happy about me being with you."

"I am happy."

Matt nuzzles into his covers and turns toward Louis who is about to dim the lights. He exhales audibly before he speaks. "Please don't be mad at me for what I'll say now, promise?"

Louis leans against his pillows. "Tell me."

"I've noticed that . . . whenever you talk to Harry, you kind of change."

"I change?"

Matt rubs his eyes. "Yes you . . . your voice gets softer and I feel like you kind of ignore me when he's nearby. Well, maybe ignoring is a pretty harsh word but you . . . I feel like you would want to be with him instead of me."

"That's not true."

"It's what I feel. When you talked to each other at the bar, it felt like you were alone with him and I was just sitting there, feeling stupid."

"Harry is very attentive, that's all."

"But this is different."

"Harry talked with you a lot and he wanted to know so many things about you. Do you really have the impression that I was ignoring you? Or that Harry ignored you?"

"I feel like the third wheel and my time here hasn't even started yet."

Louis scoots closer to Matt. In his eyes, everything was fine at the bar and he really doesn't understand Matt's complaint. "I'm sorry that you feel like this. It wasn't my intention and I'm also sure it wasn't Harry's. He really wanted to get to know you better."

"When you first told me about this stunt, I thought I could handle it. I mean, I thought this was weird but your reaction to it made it easier for me. The first time you told me about stunting you were pissed as fuck. You were angry and you hated the whole idea of stunting with him. You were so dismissive about this clause that I was sure it wouldn't affect our relationship although it felt strange."

"Do you think it has affected our relationship?" Louis asks, an inner voice telling him that it might be true concerning the feelings he was confused by earlier at the venue.

"Yes, and it hurts me."

"It's only been some weeks since I was forced into this, it's also new to me."

"Still there's something that has changed and I can't quite put my finger on it. All I can tell you is that I feel how you're drifting away from me, from us, from what we had. It drives me crazy to see that you share all those moments with someone who plays in the same league as you and I feel like I can't compete."

"Compete with what? What moments are you talking about? I'm not in a relationship with Harry, it's a job."

"It might be a job in your eyes, okay. But the photos tell another story. The fact that you're together with him more than I am while I'm at home. . . I don't know. Everything combined gives me a hard time and it's just impossible for me to ignore what I read between the lines."

"The photos are planned, they're fake. We have to look credible, Matt. That's the reason why you're here now."

"For me, fake looks different. They might have been at first but . . . have you seen the recent ones? I know I shouldn't look at them but they're everywhere! They're on covers of gossip magazines and when I went on the tube some days ago, guess who appeared. It's just . . . terrible. You two are everywhere." His voice sounds sad. "He's in your league, I'm not."