Boundaries

"Harry wake up," Louis shakes Harry in the veil of their dark hotel room, as Harry stirs he leans closer and places his warm lips to Harry's ear, "You need to wake up, management have called a meeting."

Sitting up now Harry rubs his eyes, he smiles when he looks at Louis silhouette, leaning over to turn on the light the brightness burns his eyes, "Fuck," he groans scrunching up his face. Louis is standing at the edge of the bed with his phone in his hand, the panicked expression on his face makes Harry falter.

"What's wrong?" His voice is hoarse, swinging his legs over the bed he rubs his face. "Fuck its four a.m. Lou what the hell is going on?"

Louis sighs and sits down next to Harry showing him the twitter feed illuminating his Android screen, "it's everywhere," his voice is quiet, worried.

Harry takes his hand, "Lou, it's nothing, you know what they're like. They turn everything we do into a 'moment' no one will buy it." There is a hint of sadness in Harry's words as he talks to Louis, he keeps his eyes on Louis soft hands in his and trails a finger along his palm. There is a brief moment where neither speaks, there is no noise outside the still hotel room and Louis closes his eyes leaning his head on Harry's broad, bare shoulder. They sit together, hand in hand for several moments, although Harry brushes off the twitter feed this time it could have gone too far. Louis and Harry were caught at the zoo holding hands, the footage was all over the internet in minutes. The photos from every possible angle flooding tumblr's dashboards and, no doubt the gossip magazines in days. They had been warned, so many times by management to keep apart and keep their evident feelings beneath the surface. How could he? After all Louis was everything to Harry, he was his rock in this meticulous whirlwind that was their lives. Having to hide such a big part of him was impossible and Harry thought, wrong.

"Harry?" Louis voice pulled him from his disorganised thoughts.

Turning he kissed Louis head and put a hand on his face, turning to look at Louis in the bright lights he smiled, "we can do this. It'll be okay."

Louis seemed to visibly relax at Harry's words and threw the phone onto the bed, "I…" he trailed off not sure what exactly he wanted to say.

"Management can't break us," his words laced with promise. He looked down at Louis and trailed a thumb along his soft, pale lips. "Trust me."

"I can't… if they push us apart anymore I'm going to fucking lose it!" Louis voice cracked as he spoke and he kissed Harry's thumb as it tenderly stroked his mouth. Leaning into kiss Harry he was startled by a bang at the door, Louis looked at Harry pleadingly and Harry knew, in that moment what he was asking.

"I'm not going anywhere," Harry whispered, kissing Louis quickly as he stood up and rushed to the door only in baggy sweatpants, tattoos trailing his skin like graffiti on a subway wall.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes Harry opened the door to see a displeased Valerie standing at the door, glasses perched down her slender nose and her lips pursed. "We need to go. Louis replied to our text fifteen minutes ago, we can't wait."

Harry, startled shook his head, "You do know what time it is, right?"

"Harry, I don't have time for this, you know what this is about get downstairs…" She looked behind Harry at Louis on the bed and narrowed her eyes, "You too Louis, I mean it, they're pissed enough as it is. Don't make things worse." With that she turned on her tall, shiny black heels and trotted back down the hallway.

Harry slammed the door and whirled to see Louis quickly getting dressed, "They can't treat us like–"

Louis cut him off, "They can."

"But."

"Harry, we signed the contract we have to live like this until it runs out." Louis was clenching his fists as he spoke, Harry could see his knuckles turning white and began to walk to Louis. "No Harry, we have to go."

"Do you think this is about–" Harry began.

"The photos?" Louis paused grabbing his phone and a jumper off the top of his chaotic suitcase, "Yeah I do, I don't think it'll be good."

Harry felt his stomach drop.

He grabbed a hoodie and his phone and took Louis hand as they walked towards the door, "Louis," he whispered just before Louis opened the door.

"Mmm?"

"I love you okay?"

"I know."

Harry sighed, "I can't change."

Louis smiled and pressed his lips to Harry's, his breath was warm and tasted of toothpaste and coffee, "It is what it is Harry," he whispered as he pulled away.

Harry laughed and on opening the door Niall stood there looking dishevelled and half asleep.

"Niall," Harry said startled.

"I heard her through the wall," Niall began patting Louis on the back as he walked out of the door and shut it. "You guys okay?"

Louis nodded but said nothing and began down the corridor, Harry looked at Louis not knowing what to do or say, he leaned into Niall, "I think things will be bad."

Niall nodded, "We're here, yeah. Just, whatever they say or want you both to do… just, keep Louis in line." Niall patted Harry's back but Harry pulled him in for a hug.

"Thanks man," Harry whispered as he pulled away and gave Niall a weak smile before traipsing down the corridor after Louis.

As they stood at the elevator Louis didn't smile he just stared down at his phone aimlessly scrolling through tweet after tweet, all conspiracies about the two boys. The photo of them holding hands and kissing at the Zoo was all over his feed, edited, zoomed in on and circled. He sighed, "We're fucked."

Harry just took Louis hand but when the door opened and a concierge was pushing a bag trolly, he pulled away.

On the seventh floor they knocked on Valerie's suite door and waited.

Louis gave Harry a reassuring smile but the look on Valerie's face told them otherwise.

Perhaps this time management was really going to cut them off from each other. Harry felt sick, he walked in slowly and his heart was in his mouth, Louis was right, they really were fucked this time.