You You You | ORGINALLY WRITTEN BY ISTHATYOULARRY ON AO3

Chapter Twenty Five: As We Make Up Our Minds, We Come Falling Down

It had been three days since Harry left. Louis couldn't have been feeling worse. He hadn't eaten, he hadn't gone to work, not been to Uni and definitely not left his room. The first day Niall had been confused, but eventually managed to get some info out of his crying friend. Louis had been violently sobbing and ripping at his hair when Niall had gotten home. Niall had tried to talk to him but all he had done was cry. Then when Niall had just hugged him tightly, he had stopped shaking and just sniffled into his shoulder. Of course when he had calmed down enough for Niall to understand him and told him that it was practically over with Harry, Niall had slapped him in the back of the head so hard he thought he saw stars.

In this moment Louis was lying in bed. His eyes were closed, the room dark, and he was experimenting with his breathing. He was trying to breathe in two times a minute, one if it was possible, just focusing on holding his breath only to not think of anything else. He didn't want to think of him, not his betrayed eyes, not his wet cheeks and definitely not the armband that was still resting on the kitchen island. The armband was one of the reasons he refused to leave his room. He didn't want to see it, have to move it and place it somewhere else. If he did then it'd be so final, over. He thought that if he just left it on the table, he could go back, rewind the tape and it wouldn't have happened. But he couldn't and disaster had already struck. And even if he did go back, it wouldn't help, because even with how much he tried to will them away, the other stuff was still there. The reasons he backed out were still there and they wouldn't go away just because he rewound the tape.

Disturbing his peaceful stillness and soul searching, he heard the door to his room crack open. "Louis. Get the fuck out of bed," Niall's voice said. "It's four in the afternoon. Get out." Louis opened one eye and stared at him for a full three seconds before closing it again.

"No." Louis said. He heard the sigh and Niall sit down beside him on the bed.

"Louis, what have you done today?" he asked seriously.

"Cried."

"What else?"

"Cried?"

"Did you go to work?" Niall asked.

"No."

"What the hell have you been doing except crying these last days?!"

"I learned how to do the cup song. Took me two hours of watching tutorial on Youtube. I kicked ass." It had been one of his distractions.

"That's it. You're getting out of bed," Niall said determinedly and started pulling at his arms.

"Stop!" he groaned. He didn't want to get out. He couldn't. He didn't want to. He couldn't face the world anymore.

"No. You have to get out or this is going to end up like when I had to drag you all the way to the sweet lands of Ireland to get you out of depression state after Ni-" Niall said as he tried to pull him up in a sitting position.

"DON'T you mention his name!" Louis sat up and hissed. Niall only took advantage of the new position and Louis tried to fight him off.

"Nghf-" he pushed his arms away. "Stop!" He tried to crawl back on the bed, reaching for the headboard to grab hold of something. Niall flung himself after him, landing on his body, all breath escaping Louis' lungs. "Uhgff! Get off me!"

"No!" Niall wrapped himself like a koala around him and started rolling. Yes, rolling like some kind of captivating ball, forcing Louis with him.

"Nfg. No. NO!" Niall rolled over again and they landed harshly on the floor. Louis groaned and lied back. They were quiet for a moment and Louis wanted to cry. He bit his lip harshly and when Niall saw, he just hugged him in a warm embrace.