Hearing Harry trying to quietly sniffle for what had to be at least the hundredth time since they got into the car, Liam glanced over at him curiously, "are you sick or something mate? You're sniffling like crazy."
Harry shrugged, readjusting the seat belt over his chest. They were on their way to a sound check before the concert tonight and Liam was right, he was sniffling a lot.
His nose was beginning to feel kind of stuffed upm he realised with another wet sniffle. He hoped that he wasn't getting sick. He hated being sick with a passion, the whole idea just made him cringe. If he was lucky, the reason for his runny nose was the cold weather settling over the city.
It was due to start snowing in a couple of days and the temperature was ever so slowly dropping as the hours ticked by.
Niall nudged Harry side with a grin, "even if you are, a colds a cold right? You'll be fine."
Harry knew that his immune system didn't like to do anything half-arsed, that for him a cold was rarely just a cold. He shook his head stubbornly and smiled back at Niall, "it's probably nothing, just the weather messing with me."
"It is getting pretty chilly out there. . ." Louis peered out the window, breathing a mark onto the glass.
The sound check went by pretty fast, the lads had a bit of fun with it as always and by the time the concert came around they'd already all slipped and fallen multiple times on the icy stage. It was just their luck that they were playing an outdoors show on one of the coldest nights of the year so far. Thankfully they were allowed to bundle up as much as they wanted as long as the colours didn't clash so each boy piled on the layers. Harry noticed that he was the only one shivering once they were all tucked up into shirts and jackets and he hurriedly clamped his jaw down, sniffling yet again.
He wasn't catching a cold, no way.
During the concert he found that swallowing was beginning to become a bit of an issue. His throat started feeling raw and sore and even though his voice still sounded fine he was struggling to keep his face straight when he needed to swallow. He'd already been through two bottles of water and although it helped while it was going down, the second it was gone his throat went straight back to that weird soreness.
"Alrighty, let's clap it out guys!" Niall yelled, letting his guitar hang so that he could clap his hands above his head. The crowd roared and joined in as the band all harmonised the last piece of the last song on the set list.
"That's all the time we've got tonight, thank you for having us here!" Liam waved, grinning widely.
Louis said goodbye too and then Harry said his part before they all headed off stage.
A bodyguard named Gregg drove them back to their hotel, walking them all the way up to their room before bidding goodnight and resuming his post in the room next door.
"Go grab some more layers will you Curly? Or maybe a shower? That sniffling's driving me mad." Louis groaned playfully as he threw himself onto the soft grey couch in the middle of the massive room with a wide yawn. He ripped his thick jacket off and sighed, blinking tiredly.
"I second that," Liam agreed, shoving Harry gently in the direction of the bathroom as he made his way into the kitchen, "anyone hungry?"
Harry went to sniff again when he felt the all too familiar wetness in his nose but paused, seeing how irritating it was becoming for everyone else. Instead, he went into the bathroom and blew his nose into a wad of toilet paper, scrunching it up and flushing it down the loo once he was finished.
He checked the insides of his throat in the mirror before he left the bathroom. Now that he'd stopped singing it wasn't as bad but in the mirror he could see that the skin was inflamed a bit. He closed his mouth with a sigh.
In the kitchen Liam and Niall were cooking a second dinner of mashed potatoes and sausages while Louis perched on the counter top and critiqued them like a judge on some cooking show. Harry poured himself a glass of water and moved out of the kitchen quickly before he got in the way.
After eating everyone realised how exhausted they were and headed off to bed, pulling all the curtains and switching the lights off on the way. Niall and Louis had a room together with two double beds and Harry and Liam had the same on the other side of the suite. Within ten minutes of everyone packing it in the room was dead silent and Harry was trying really hard not to sniffle again. At least, not until he knew everyone was asleep.
He pulled up the second blanket from the end of the bed and tucked it up under his chin.
***
The next day was pretty busy. The band had a bit of promo to get through as well as an interview and then another concert that night. This one was indoors thankfully, as it had only gotten colder over night and Harry thought that if he had to survive out in the cold again he'd probably just end up falling over from shivering so hard and make a complete fool of himself.
He'd resigned to the fact that he was definitely sick now. Yesterday, there had been reason to hope, but now he just felt congested, headachey and sore. His throat had been killing him all day and by the time they got around to the concert he wasn't even sure he wanted to do it. His head was throbbing, he couldn't breathe right and he really wanted a nap. However, he couldn't just say that, and he knew it was just a cold so far. It would be babyish of him to tap out of a concert just because he had a cold.
He warned the others that he probably wasn't going to be at the top of his game that night but they just laughed and told him that he'd be fine, a cold wouldn't stop him from sounding amazing as always. He hoped they were right.
He struggled a bit more that night than he had the one before but he got through it, promptly falling asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel.
The next day Louis had to come in and wake him up. Harry usually had this internal alarm clock that snapped his body into consciousness around 8 every morning but that day he was still snoring at almost midday. Both Niall and Liam had both tried waking him but they'd both failed miserably, only earning tired grunts from the youngest member for their efforts. So now it was Louis' turn and he was going to resort to the method he knew would work.
A wild shriek tore from his lips and Harry's eyes snapped open just as his friend landed on him, forcing every trace of oxygen out of his lungs. He gasped in shock and weakly rolled Louis off of his chest so that he could get his breath back. He coughed dryly into his fist and stared at Louis in confusion, "why'd you do that?"
He cleared his throat and tried again, a rush of relief flooding through him when sound actually came out the second time around. He raised a hand to his temple with a wince of pain. He knew it was supposed to get worse before it got better but this was just an overstatement. He felt absolutely horrid. His head hurt a lot, to the point where having his eyes open felt like a mission, his nose was totally clogged, his throat was burning like someone had set fire to it and now thanks to Louis his chest was aching. Or maybe not, it could've been like that before Louis jumped on him, who knows.
Either way, he didn't want to do anything other than roll over and go back to sleep.
"Because it's lunchtime and you were still sleeping like a log," Louis replied as he picked himself up off the floor with a grunt.
"I feel like crap Lou. . ." Harry explained feebly, burying his face in his pillow to block the light out.
Louis chuckled, "surely you're not going to let a cold take you down like this, come on mate, you've gotta get up. We've got an interview in like an hour." He tore the duvet off of his friend and grabbed onto his leg, pulling him until his toes touched the floor.
"There you go, I gotcha half way there. You just have to do the rest."
Harry moaned. It was going to be a long day.
After the interview Harry heard Liam mention to Niall something about how glad he was that that was all they had to do that day. The relief he felt was indescribable and he fell asleep stretched out across the lads on the couch while they watched Racing Stripes on the television. It was the best sleep he'd had in days.
He was woken up later on when everyone was going to bed and he downed a couple of paracetamol before brushing his teeth and sliding into his bed with a short fit of coughs and an irritated sigh. He wasn't going to hope that the cough wasn't going to be a thing for the next few days, because so far hoping had only jinxed it, but he sure as hell didn't want to be coughing. The lads were already starting to get mad about the uncontrollable sniffling, add coughing to the mix and they'd be on him like wild dogs.
Harry had tried explaining that such a simple illness like a cold hit him worse than it did others but the boys had all just told him that he was over reacting and that if he just relaxed and tried not to think about it it would be gone before he knew it.
Harry thought it was a load of bullshit.
He sagged into his bed and couched again, muffling it into his pillow as best he could.
The night went awfully slow for Harry and by the time morning came he swore that he'd only gotten an hour if that if sleep. The coughing picked up speed as the night went on and every time he hit near to drifting off he would be forced back onto his stomach to bark into his pillow. The severity of his sore throat now made the pain from a couple of days again look like nothing.
"Stop it Harry. . ." Liam moaned sleepily as Harry struggled to stifle yet another round of coughs.
"Can't," Harry croaked in reply, rubbing exhausted tears from his eyes.
"Wakey wakey !" The door burst open suddenly and Niall and Louis bounded in all bright eyed and bushy tailed as if they'd just slept for fifty years. Harry covered his ears with a groan and Liam chucked a pillow at them.
"Oi!" Louis exclaimed, biffing the pillow back at Liam.
"You two lazy sloths need to get up so we can go into town! We've got a free schedule right up until the show tonight so we might as well do something!" Niall clapped excitedly. Harry grimaced and sneezed.
"How soon do you wanna leave?" Liam cracked an eye open.
"Dunno, like an hour I guess." Louis shrugged.
"Okay, now piss off. I'll be ready then." Liam shooed them both out of the room with a wave if his hand.
Half an hour later Liam was out of bed already and Harry realised that he probably needed to do the same. He wasn't exactly in the mood for going into town but he figured he could grab something from the pharmacy that was a bit more effective than paracetamol while he was out so he forced himself out of bed.
His nose was completely stuffed. He stood up and tried breathing through it failingly.
By the time Harry was all dressed up in all of his warmest clothes the other were rearing to go and he followed them all out the door without a single thought of breakfast or lunch.
The drive into town wasn't overly long, but Harry counted 12 glares from his friends. Every time he coughed or sniffed they would all just turn and stare with this look that made him feel like a five year old. He tried to shake off the thoughts, he couldn't help being sick, it wasn't his fault.
In town the group headed straight for the food court where they sat down and had lunch. It was freezing cold and Harry was literally shaking in his seat as was Niall but while Niall joked and laughed about it Harry refrained from crying out about how the jerking around was making the pain in his head spike agonisingly. He just wanted to purchase his mends and get back into bed.
Unfortunately, that was t what happened. He trailed after his friends as they looked in every single shop, talking to strangers and asking way too many questions. Harry started feeling worse and worse and as the fits and sniffling grew more and more violent the lads glares grew meaner and less playful.
When he finally got the courage to ask if they could go to the pharmacy really quick so he could find some medication they all just rolled their eyes and scoffed.
"It's just a cold Harry, you'll be perfectly fine without spending fifty bucks on medicine that you don't even need," Niall said.
Harry recoiled a little, not expecting such a harsh response.
"He's right Haz, we don't have much time left before we have to leave anyway. I don't know what the hell your deal us today, do you want sympathy? Is that what this is?" Liam frowned, fixing his beanie.
"Course it is, why else would he put on such a show? Dial it down a little mate, we get it, you've got a cold. I'm sorry. Now deal with it instead if moping around like a two year old would you?" Louis added his part with a scowl.
Harry opened his mouth to say something before deciding against it and clamping his lips shut. Their was no point. They were all against him and he was far too tired to put up a fight on his own. He nodded his head slightly and trudged away in the direction of the car-park. He knew they'd know where to find him.
He unlocked the car and got in, tucking his legs up underneath him. He didn't have the key to start Liam's car, just the one to unlock it unfortunately he had to sit in the freezing cold while he waited for the others to finish up. This was why he hated getting sick. Nobody understood. His friends hated him at the moment and there was nothing he could do about it.
About half an hour later Harry heard the car click and glanced up to see the others getting into the car. Nobody said anything to him the whole ride back to the hotel. He coughed so hard he swore he almost puked at one point but still no one said a word, or hardly even looked at him.
Back at the hotel Harry felt like a dead man walking. Walking through the lobby to the elevator felt like torture and if anyone noticed the worrying swaying he was doing they didn't react. He fell into another harsh coughing fit well they waited for the lift and the man who came out tapped him on the back sympathetically as he walked past. It was more than his friends had shown him in the past few days and it made him wonder whether or not this was really where he belonged. What was he thinking, he thought to himself, of course it was. He just needed to get over this, this cold, and everything would be back to normal.
Up in the room Harry managed to get a twenty minute lay down before h had to start getting ready for the concert. There was nothing he wanted to do less. The ride there was bad enough, then the time backstage and then the god awful time he had actually performing. Usually he loved it, but tonight while he coughed his lungs out and shivered like crazy under the hot lighting he struggled to find any sense of enjoyment. Like the walk to the lift, it just felt torture.
He wasn't even sure if he was going to make it through the whole thing. Plenty of times he thought he was going to pass out but he didn't, and finally the concert finished and the screams followed him offstage.
Someone from the stage crew questioned him as he staggered past. "Are you alright son? You're terribly pale."
He uttered a quiet, 'fine thanks' in response and carried on. He needed to get to the van before his legs collapsed underneath him.
He waited their with Gregg for almost an hour before the others joined them. They said that they had met a few fans, well they told Gregg anyway.
Harry didn't even remember the journey back up to the hotel room. He knew he'd gotten their on his own, nobody would've helped him, but he was leaning on the wall in the suite now and he couldn't remember a single footstep from the journey there.
He started off towards his room coughing into his elbow when someone grabbed on to his arm. He instantly relaxed, thinking that someone had finally realised how awful he was feeling. He slowly turned to see Liam staring at him.
"I barely got any sleep with you in there last night Styles, you're on the couch tonight," Liam said gruffly, pointing at the piece of furniture. Harry very quickly deflated. They really didn't care at all.
He nodded sombrely and tried to get into the room anyway, figuring he could grab the blankets off the bed at least but Lima hand on his chest stopped him, "nah, couch."
Harry swallowed painfully and dragged himself over to the couch, easing himself down into the centre of it. The lights went off. He couldn't believe this was happening and for some reason he was sweating.
He laid down on the couch and curled into himself as tightly as he could. He was still frozen, but it was slightly better and as if it was the easiest thing ever he fell asleep.
***
It was dead quiet in Liam's room the next morning and he sighed as he woke up, enjoying the change from the rough coughing he'd been waking up to for the last few days. Because it had been so quiet he'd managed to sleep until ten a clock so he got up, wrenching the curtains open. A smile spread across his face. Snow was falling. It was light, but it was still snow. He'd have to get the lads up to go outside and mess around in the couple of inches covering the ground.
He pulled a shirt over his head and walked into the main room. Harry was still on the couch, curled up in a tiny ball. Liam hoped he'd be in a better mood today. He reached down and shook Harry slightly. Nothing. Not even a sound. He shook him again and his breathing went erratic when he still got no response. He gently rolled his friend over and pressed a hand to his scarily pale face, a shocked sound falling from his lips as he felt how cold his skin was.
He ran back into his room and swiped his phone off the bedside table. As he talked to the emergency number he compiled all the blankets he could find, even the ones off of Niall and Louis and threw them on top of Harry. He gave the lady on the other end of the line their address and quickly hung up, looking to his two very confused friend stumbling into the room sleepily.
After hearing that Harry was unresponsive Louis had a try at waking him up but this time it didn't work. He stayed unconscious. Liam's head was racing. Just a cold. They all said that it was just a cold. Apparently it wasn't just a damn cold because now the poor kid was literally out cold. He felt like a bully.
Liam almost cried when Harry's eyes opened. The ambos weren't there yet but he was awake and tucked the blankets tighter around Harry as he tried to make sense of what was going on. Everyone must've apologised at least fifty times each before a team of people in fluorescent vests burst in and loaded Harry onto a stretcher. He tried saying he could walk but it didn't work.
He was coughing again, violent hacking sounds that made Liam wince. It hadn't sounded like that yesterday had it? Did they really not notice?
The lads chased the ambulance to the hospital and rushed inside, frantic and panicked. This was all so wrong. It was Liam's fault too, he thought. He'd made him sleep on the cough with nothing but the clothes he was wearing and now he was hypothermic.
They had to wait outside while they warned him up and a doctor came out and explained that once they got him back to normal temperature it kept rising and he'd gone from dangerously low to dangerously high fever in hours.
Liam was terrified.
The doctors checked him for everything before settling on pneumonia and letting the boys know the news. Liam's heart just plummeted. It sure as hell wasn't just a cold now and he was pretty sure that the word just should never have been there in the first place. Harry obviously hadn't been exaggerating they all thought he was and now he was in the hospital.
Liam knew he was a pretty sucky friend.
He was pretty upset when the doctors let them into Harry's room when they finally go the fever down but Harry seemed unfazed. He told them that he had said that it was worse and they had all ignored him. But he knew that he had scared them and Liam quickly shut him up when he tried to apologise.
"Now, we don't deserve any of that talk." He shook his head, "we're the ones that owe you a thousand apologies."
"I don't need it, I've already forgiven you lot." Harry yawned.
"Yeah, because you're actually a good friend unlike us losers." Niall rubbed his shoe on the ground sheepishly.
"You guys are great. . ." Harry trailed off, as if he was about to fall asleep.
"Just go to sleep, you sap" Louis smiled, "we'll be here when you wake up."