Liam's just back at his car, shopping in tow, when his phone starts to ring. He fumbles open the car door, dropping his bags down onto the seat as he tries to get his phone out of his pocket. It's Louis.
"Hiya," he says.
"Why the fuck didn't you tell me that you and Niall were a thing?" Louis asks, without saying hello.
Liam promptly shoves his shopping over onto the passenger seat and sits down in the front seat of his car. "Oh god," he says, softly. "Louis—"
"He just told me," Louis goes on. "Since last year? Are you kidding me?"
"I'm sorry," Liam says. There's panic coiling in his belly. Please don't let this fuck the two of them up; Louis means too much to him for him to fuck it up. He's only just fixed it. "I'm so sorry."
"I don't understand," Louis says. "Why did you keep it a secret?"
"Because—" he doesn't know how to say, because Niall is a total fucking fuck-up. Niall is Louis's best friend. But then, Louis is one of his best friends too. "Because Niall begged me to," he says softly. "And it's been killing me."
"Liam," Louis says. "He's my best friend."
"I know," Liam says. "And I'm sorry." That panic really is twisting in his chest now, a band tightening around his lungs. His heart's pounding.
"That's fucked up, Liam. It's not like you to keep things from me"
"I know. I'm sorry." Liam doesn't know, and he's not entirely sure which part he should be sorry for. All of it, probably. And more besides. God.
"I've got to go and talk to him again, all right? He's crying."
Liam's stomach contracts at the idea of Niall crying. Christ. "All right," he says, and he doesn't say, what about me, because there's no point.
He drives home afterwards, going into his flat and putting his shopping away. He sits on his sofa with Loki in his lap, and watches last night's X Factor again, just because it's the first thing on his Sky+, and he can't be bothered to scroll. Loki licks his face and burrows closer, curling up against his jumper, and Liam tries to concentrate on breathing in and out, in the hope that the tightness in his chest will lessen, just a little.
It doesn't, and when his phone rings again in an hour, Liam's about four seconds short of a full on panic.
"Fuck," Louis says, seemingly instead of hello. "Fuck, whatever you did to Niall, it's really messed him up. He's really upset and I can't get anything out of him. Can't you just—I love you both, can't you try and fix it?"
Liam is too exhausted for this. He's already cut all ties with Kit and he's been up since five, and there's a pretty good chance he's going to lose Louis as well as Niall. He covers his eyes with his hand. "Fuck. Like, you can't, okay? This isn't my fault. Don't you think that—like, I wouldn't—" He's close to tears, and he hates everything, and everything hurts. "He's the one who broke my fucking heart, okay? He's the one who left me. So don't fucking start on me about hurting him, all right, because I'm the one who—" He's never said, fell in love, and he's not going to start now. "It's me who got hurt, okay?" he says finally, and Louis is very, very quiet down the end of the phone.
"Liam," he says, softly.
"Don't," Liam says, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just don't, okay."
Louis goes after that, and Liam doesn't do tears, but he lets himself bury his nose in Loki's neck after Louis's hung up, allowing himself a bit of a hiccup and a sob, because today's been rubbish from start to finish, and it's not even evening.
