Liam and Niall exchanged a glance, "what, literally?" They knew Harry wasn't coping well beforehand. Anyone could tell just by taking a look at him, and this only added to their worry.

"N-no, I mean like-" Harry stammered, pausing to try and compose himself. "He's um, just there for me."

"Did you like, try to-"

"No!" Harry cut them off, becoming distressed. "No, let's just talk about something else. Please. Gemma. Have you heard from Gemma?"

"A couple of times, yeah."

"Has she...um, like, has she asked about me?"

"A couple of times. She wants to talk to you."

"I was gonna call her tonight. Chickened out obviously."

"She'll want to hear from you. She's just as worried as we were."

"I'm surprised she even cares any more." Harry forced a laugh.

"You know she'll always care Haz."

Harry shrugged. "I suppose. So, how've you been? What've you been up to?"

"We've done nothing new. It's been shit really."

"Oh. I've been painting more. And writing more."

"I miss walking into my room and there being a little painting on the pillow." Niall pouted.

"I'm sure Liam can do it for you." Harry chuckled.

"God Harry, don't stitch me up here." Liam rolled his eyes playfully. "I drew that person once and you thought it was a duck."

Harry huffed, "it was an easy mistake."

Harry's head snapped around as he heard the fire alarm start to beep, followed by a yell of "shit fuck shit, fire! Shit, fuckity fuck!"

"Um, Harry, is your building on fire?" Liam raised his eyebrows.

"No. Probably not anyway. I think Louis forgot our cake was in the oven."

"Harry! I'm sorry, I know you're on the phone but shit!"

"Okay. Um, maybe the house is burning down."

"Is that Louis?" Niall wiggled his eyebrows.

"Yeah." Harry smiled, ignoring Niall's gesture, "I think I need to go." He added as he heard another string of swearwords.

"You made a cake together." Liam added.

"I needed distractions. Okay, goodbye. I've got to go, I'll talk to you soon, yeah?"

"Promise?" Niall tilted his head.

"Yeah. I promise. I'm sorry."

"It's alright mate. Don't stress it." Liam smiled reassuringly, "bye."

"See you soon." Harry waved, before waiting for them to hang up.

Harry went downstairs quickly, almost laughing at the sight of Louis. The cake was sat on the side, a knife next to it where Louis had tried to scrape the slight layer of the burned cake off.

And Louis was sat on the stall, holding his foot with a pout. "Stubbed my toe." He explained feebly.

"Are you and the cake okay?"

"Give me a minute and I'll be fine. The cake though, it's hard to tell."

"I can probably save it." Harry observed it.

"Thank you Mr Baker Man." Louis smiled. "Also sorry for interrupting you on the phone."

"It's okay."

"How was it? Is everything okay?"

"I thought it was going to be awkward but it wasn't." He beamed. "Everything was fine, but um, I think they may have picked up on how I am."

"Ah." Louis grimaced, "when you were still there did they realise everything wasn't the best?"

"Yeah. They knew I wasn't, well, wasn't coping very well but I don't know if they knew how bad it's gotten."

"Are you gonna tell them?"

"I dunno. Maybe. I don't like talking about my feelings, I know it probably seems like I don't mind, it's because I'm trying to work on sharing shit. But yeah, I hate talking about this rubbish."

"I get you. I'm like that, I don't like to talk about stuff but I force myself to most of the time. It's usually better out than in."

Harry hummed, "it is but yeah."

"I talk to the cats about my feelings." Louis chuckled. "They give wonderful advice."

"You can talk to me as well."

"We can be feeling talking buddies." Louis smiled, "deal?"

"Deal."

"That means I want to hear everything."

"Everything? What like, everything everything?"

"I don't know what you're insinuating but no, I don't need to know if you're horny-"

"No!" Harry cut him off, looking rather flushed with wide eyes, "no, that's not what I meant, I-"

"I know." Louis laughed. "I meant, I don't want you to feel like you're alone. I don't want you to feel like your only way out is to die."

"That is my only way out." Harry rolled his eyes.

"It might feel like that. But I want you to not need a way out."

"Good luck with that one." Harry chuckled dryly, "my life is a shit show. I can't imagine you'll find it overly easy to fix me."

"You don't need fixing. You're not some broken toy who purely relies on others to help them. You're your own person."

"Then what do you intend on doing?"

"Showing you things. Showing you how fun life can be."

"I love life." Harry grinned sarcastically and Louis just looked at him blankly.

"I know jokes are a good coping mechanism and all that but I'm really fucking worried about you."

"Don't worry." Harry sighed, averting his gaze to the window. "I'm not planning on doing anything like that for a while. That would be embarrassing."

"Embarrassing?"

"Yeah. Like, you know now. So it's scarier. And I'd just seem desperate."

Just the way Harry spoke so easily about wanting to kill himself felt like a knife was twisting in Louis's chest.

"C'mere." Louis opened his arms, beckoning with his hands.

Harry stepped forwards and allowed Louis to hug him tightly. Harry didn't really hug back. He just stood there, leaning lightly against Louis and allowing himself to feel safe in Louis's comforting arms.

"I don't get why I trust you so much." Harry muttered. "Like, you weren't in my life and then you were, and now you're a big part of it."

"The world's a funny place Curly." Louis said softly, stroking Harry's hair, and Harry leaned into the touch.

"That it is." Harry agreed with closed eyes.

"We may not know everything about the world but I know one thing for sure."

"And what's that?"

"I'm happy that you're in my life." Louis said easily.

And Louis wasn't quite sure why that caused Harry to breakdown, but Harry's weight against him suddenly became heavier and he was crying.

"Oh, darling." Louis murmured, keeping a hand on the back on Harry's head, his thumb stroking over Harry's hair gently, the other arm wrapped strongly around Harry's waist.

Harry didn't speak, just sobbed. Heart-wrenching sobs. He was crying more than Louis had ever seen him cry, even with the events of the previous day. Louis suspected the reality of everything had just hit Harry. Like after any big thing, everything was calm, and then the storm would hit- the storm would come charging in and tearing down everything in its path.

"Let it out love, let it out."