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Everything about Louis’ relationship revolved around fate. He and Harry were destined to meet, he was sure the universe plotted and schemed just so that the two of them would fall for each other. It was one of those things that were completely obvious. The two boys were meant for each other. It wasn’t one of those typical teenage relationships. They had to go through so much just to date in secrecy. The boys had to fight through evil management, fake girlfriends, and basically everything under the stars. Even though most of their careers were living hell, they always smiled through it. As long as they could hold each other’s hands and one day stand side by side and whisper “I do” everything would surely be alright.
The first time the boys met was in the bathroom. Yes, the bathroom. It wasn’t really a story they liked telling, for it was quite awkward, but also loved telling it because of the originality of it all. How many people get to say that they met the love of their life while taking a piss? Not many. A hi and an oops was thrown around, and both boys left not really thinking about the situation that occurred.
The next time the universe decided to pair them together was when they got put into a band. You see, both boys tried out as solo artists for the X-Factor UK and instead got put into a band with three other boys from different parts of the country. Altogether, it was four boys from the UK and an Irish bloke. They made up One Direction.
Right from the start, they fell in love. Harry was bi, and Louis was gay, but no one knew it. For a long while, not even Niall, Liam, or Zayn knew about how the boys truly felt about each other. It wasn’t exactly what they were scared... It was that they knew management would not be able to handle it. The plan was to make the band one of the most well-known names in the entire world. With two gay boys in the band who were dating, that just wouldn’t do. So of course, management acted out. They gave Louis a random girlfriend and made up a story about how Harry introduced her to him. As if torturing Louis wasn’t enough, they set up Harry to be a womanizer; a 16 year old boy who was obsessed with sleeping with woman and just couldn’t get enough. Little did anyone know that the farthest Harry had ever gone was a few hand jobs with his boyfriend. No one in the band was alright with the labels management had given them but there was nothing they could do about it. The contracts were signed, and their first single had been recorded. There wasn’t anything they would be able to do for a long while. Instead of moping, Louis just gripped Harrys hand tighter and waited for their five year contract to end, just so that he could finally make Harry his.
~ ~ ~
The success of One Direction was unbelievable. In the first two and a half years of being a band, they were already household names. Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry Styles were all boys that everyone knew. Posters of their faces were being pinned up on teenage girls (and boys) walls all over the world. International success was reached and the band was at the peak of its career. By that time, the other three knew about Harry and Louis. They all did everything in their power to help hide the relationship, but it was quite hard.
You see, the pair had a habit of… showing their relationship. During interviews, on stage, when they went out on dates, they always gave each other loving looks or always found some way to touch. Management noticed, and the people noticed. All those things could seem to be friendly, but the way that they looked at each other proved a long time ago that it wasn’t. From the beginning; the boys couldn’t go a day without giving each other a few lovely looks, and that was the one thing modest couldn’t take away. They could threaten to make Eleanor be with Louis more, or find another older woman for Harry to date, but they still couldn’t stop what happened on tour. The tickets were sold, the dates planned, and they knew exactly what they were doing.
One day all the stress of management and the public would all be worth it, or so they hoped.
~ ~ ~
It was July 23rd, 2015. The day marked five years of the boys signing a contact agreeing to be in a band for the next five years and be “managed” by modest. It marked five years of struggle, hiding, and longing. They had all been waiting this day, the band was finally over. Their time being international pop stars was done, and they would be normal people living in England who had their names written in history books. Girls cried while staring at posters, and watching the last interview and goodbye concert, trying to reminisce how they spent the last five years focused on people who would never sing again. The most painful thing to watch was the goodbye concert held in London. 80 thousand came to see them sing their songs for the last time. There was even a couple more thousand piled outside hoping to catch a glimpse of the boys who changed their lives forever.
At the very end of the concert, “Forever Young” was sang as they left the stage. It all started with Forever Young, and now it all ended with the song. Tears were being streamed down their faces as they said their last words as a band.
“I’m Liam Payne..”
“I’m Zayn Malik..”
“I’m Niall Horan..”
“I’m Louis Tomlinson..”
“I’m Harry Styles..”
and all together they said, “And we were One Direction.”
Linking hands, they looked into the audience and bowed. The lights were dimming and one by one they slowly walked off the stage, with a pain in their stomachs.
They knew this moment would one day come, but none of them anticipated it would feel like it did.
~ ~ ~
One month later all the pain from the last concert was being forgotten.
It was August 23, 2015 and Louis was yelling at people to adjust his tie and make sure he looked posh when he walked down the aisle. He had been waiting for this day for five years, and it had finally come. After five damn years of taking shit from management, the press, and everyone else, he was finally doing it. Louis was about to marry Harry Styles.
Louis had been just like the sun all morning. He shined bright and was really excited to finally make Harry his. It was like a dream that was too good to be true. The fighting was worth it, because Harry would finally be his. It was something he kept repeating to himself. Liam caught him staring off into space and when Liam asked what he was thinking about, the boy claimed he was thinking about the kind of children he and Harry would adopt. A curly haired girl with blue eyes or a boy with green eyes and a cute little fringe like Louis? Decisions, decisions.
Well, it didn’t matter much. He and Harry would have years and years to decide.
~ ~ ~
The service was supposed to start at 3 P.M. sharp. Louis was scheduled to arrive on the platform at 3:05 and wait for Harry to walk down the aisle, and it would all begin from there. Liam being Liam decided that it would be best if the pair didn’t talk a few days prior to the wedding because he claimed it would make the wedding even more special.
Since he was the one who did all the planning, Harry and Louis pretty much had to agree. They hadn’t talked for about three days and Louis was going crazy.
He twirled in front of the mirror a couple times making sure he looked presentable. When he deemed himself worthy, he was about to go outside for some fresh air when Niall and Zayn came storming in, blood stained all over their skin and clothing.
“Harry!” They both screamed simultaneously and fell to the floor broken sobs and pain. Niall began coughing large amounts of blood but kept screaming Harrys name at Louis.
Louis’ heart automatically started pumping so fast he thought he was having a stroke. All that was running through his mind as he tried to exit the building was, “Harry, baby, Harry I love you, Please be okay, what happened, you’re not dead right, Harry I can’t live without you.. no what am I saying, please be alive..”
The only noises he could hear was the pitter patter of his footsteps running along the sidewalk and the far off siren in the distance. He was running in the direction of it, tears already falling. His stomach was churning and he had a bad feeling about it all.
It felt like an eternity had past when he got to the spot the ambulance stopped. He raced around the trunk and saw him.
Harry. The paramedic had his fists on his stomach pumping, and lips blowing air into him, but the man next to him kept telling him it was no use. The kid was dead.
Louis swore he felt his heart stop and fall down to the pit of his stomach when he saw the paramedic take his hands off Harry and looked at him with pity.
Harry was dead.
Louis hands clenched as he looked at Harry. Even with the blood stains and lifeless eyes, he was still beautiful. The perfect curls Louis loved running his hands through was soaked in crimson, along with his tattered shirt and jeans. His eyes were open, but didn’t have the usual emerald glow to them. Part of his lip was disconnected and Louis would bet his life that every bone in his body was broken. He looked so flat.
Harrys dead he thought, and immediately leaned over and threw up while the paramedic came over and patted his back. He asked Louis to explain who he was and when Louis told him it was their wedding day, the man almost cried. He explained to Louis what happened.
Niall was driving the car to the church with Zayn in the passenger seat and Harry in the back. They were following the rules, wearing seatbelts, and going the appropriate speed limit, but sometimes that isn’t enough. Seatbelts couldn’t have saved them when the large oil semi-truck carrying a couple thousand pounds was going a little too fast and toppled over on top of their car. Harry was dead almost instantly. The fact that Niall and Zayn still had the energy to run the two blocks from where the accident happened to the church to get Louis was a miracle.
Louis and the man talked for a little while longer before he patted Louis on his shoulder and told him to go home.
The boy watched the car drive away with the love of his life in the back.
Today was supposed to be a special day. It was supposed to be the best day in Louis life. Two blocks, that’s all it was. Two more blocks and they would be holding hands reciting “I do.” But instead, he was on the floor, still in his wedding suit, crying. He lost his best friend, boyfriend, husband. After five years of fighting and waiting, it was all supposed to be worth it. They were supposed to get married and adopt children and grow old together. Harry and he had been planning it for years. The names of the kids, the house they want to live in, what city, country, who in the band they would make the godfather… and all the planning was down the drain now.
Harry was gone, and he took Louis with him.
~ ~ ~
It’s been six years since Harry Styles died. The tabloids went crazy, saying it was suicide. A couple things had happened after the day Louis lost his love. For one, he was never the same again. Ever since that day he didn’t feel anything. Everything went wrong. Harry was dead. Zayn and Niall both cracked their skulls in the accident and lost their memories. The doctor said that they could be regained, but they never came back. The boys didn’t remember the band, the boys, or their families. They lived in London around Louis and Liam for about a year before they got tired and left some time in the middle of the night. That happened a year after Harrys death. It killed Louis. Harry was gone, and now Zayn and Niall were gone and he didn’t even know where they were. Liam was the strongest. He visited Louis at least once a week, making sure he was alright and bringing him food. Every time he came he urged Louis to go somewhere with him but got refused.
Louis Tomlinson had only been out of his flat five times since the love of his life died. He only left to visit Harry; on his death day.
Today was the sixth time he was going to visit. He put on his wedding suit, and retreated his flat. On his way to the cemetery, he picked up daises. They were Harry’s favorite flower. They also happened to the be flower he was going to give Harry on the day he was supposed to make him his.
When he got to Harrys grave, he read the tombstone out loud and placed the flowers neatly on it. He sat criss-cross and stared at it for a while. Louis did it every year, he sat down in his suit and relived the five years that he was with the boy. They were the best years of his life.
Tears started streaming down his face and fell to the floor.
He sat there the whole day like that. Crying, and talking to Harry telling him how much he missed him and how he wanted him back and how he would never stop loving him. He reminded Harry that one day they would get to be together again, Louis was just waiting for his time to come.
It started getting dark outside and it was his signal to go. The only thing lighting the cemetery was the moons dark glow. Lou leaned in and kissed the gravestone telling Harry goodbye until next year.
He stood up and slowly patted his clothing down, getting all the dirt off. If Harry was watching him, he wanted to look nice. With one last look at the grave, he walked away to go back into his flat until next year.
Harry might have been the one who was physically dead, but he took Louis’ right along with him the second his heart stopped beating.