Where I Am Without You [L.S]

Chapter Twenty Six

London is alight.

Five and a half thousand fans filled the venue that had been set up to premier a special edition preview of the hour long film which showed the band reforming and all the work which had been put in to get them back together again. There would be another film crew following them on the tour for a film to be released concluding the tour but this film showed the five of them over the past year sorting their way back into the band. Filming had stopped the day of the photo shoot last month, clips of the day incorporated into the film and he wondered how on earth the production crew had thrown this all together so quickly. It had been the only event they could think of to draw the crowd without giving away the surprise however, so their team had worked round the clock to make this film in time for tonight.

They'd flown back from Paris two days ago and had spent the entirety of yesterday at the venue familiarizing themselves being back on stage with one another again. It was incredible short notice for them to throw this together on stage, having only yesterday and today to go through everything before they'd been forced backstage at 4pm so not to give away their presence to the gathering crowd outside.

Now, as Harry sat in the wings with Sarah, Michael and Ny surrounding him, chatting animatedly about the setlist and tweaks they could make before tour, his hands slowly becoming less steady as he gripped the microphone in his hand. He hadn't a clue when Jeff had found the time to go out and buy them all their signature microphone wraps which distinguished them apart, but he'd nearly teared up as Jeff had pulled them together at the start of the day and held out the five pieces of fabric. It was somewhat childish and certainly not something he'd thought about bringing back, it had certainly bought a laugh out of him when he'd been told sneakily later that the fabric was bloody hand stitched by three workers at Gucci, but he wouldn't trade his for the world. The green had changed just slightly from what it had been years ago, this one a slightly dark, deeper shade of green, but he marveled at it none the less, spiraling him into his memories as he sat perched on a box backstage reminiscing over times past.

"Five minutes, band please make your way to the stage." A voice echoes round backstage and he can faintly hear the sound of the film drawing to an end. Michael and Ny send him a final smile, Sarah pulling him in for a tight embrace as she whispers good luck in his ear and takes off after the other two.

            "There you are!" A voice calls from behind him and he turns to find all four of them walking towards him, a slight bounce in each of their steps, hands fumbling with the mics in their hands.

"So we're really doing this then?" He says as they circle around him. Niall to his left, Zayn then Liam and finally Louis on his other side.

            "Face the wolves right?" Louis says with a glint in his eye that almost sends Harry to the floor.

"Don't any of you fuck this up alright?" Niall says and he doesn't think he's ever been so glad for Niall's easy going nature as he eyes each of the lads.

            "Band to the stage please, two minutes." A voice calls through the system and Harry tugs on one of his in – ears to pull it into place.

He follows silently behind Louis, trailing after him before he stops at the second mic along the stage. Zayn is too his left, the closest to stage left, Liam, then Niall and finally Louis on stage right. Each of them stand, hands shaking slightly as the sound of the audience behind the large velvet curtain before them rings in their ears. There's  buzz about the venue as the film draws into it's final thirty seconds. He can hear them loudly singing through the speaker system, their voices muffled through the rain and recording as Best Song Ever plays in the background of the photo shoot. He can well picture the images on the screen, Niall, Liam and Zayn flinging themselves around in the down pour while he had danced around with Louis at his side.

He hears them the other three's voices scream out the final line, their laughter from set that day drifting into silence before a simple drum beat starts slowly behind him.

Sarah had laughed herself hoarse when he'd burst through into their casual rehearsal three weeks earlier and said that this would be their opening song. He hadn't wanted to use any other. It had taken some time before he'd got the other lads on board but he got them eventually when he'd showed them how he'd wanted to perform the song.

The keys and guitar strings slowly coming in behind them, the curtain still raised before the five of them. They had ten more seconds.

He frantically turned as he heard the screams start from behind the curtain, the film now fully at an end, the screen he knew being folded away. No one in the audience had any idea what was happening but the music was getting louder and he felt his heart pounding in his chest. He couldn't see around Liam and Niall, instead taking a frantic step backwards to crane his next, almost tripping over a shift in the stage in the protest.

Louis' eyes caught his in amusement, clearly seeing his slight stumble. He had four seconds.

I love you.

He mouthed, knowing Louis understood without any further meaning as he smiled, open and warm in response.

I love you too.

He had a second to spin back around to his microphone when the curtain dropped and they were revealed to the waiting crowd. After all these years he still wasn't accustomed to the sheer volume as the fans realised in an instant that the five of them were actually here before them, completely to their prior lack of knowledge.

"You're insecure, don't know what for." He sang and the room exploded. It wasn't the version they knew, the melody changed and different to suit their more mature sound as artists than nine years ago.

            "You're turning heads when you walk through the door."

"Don't we make up, to cover up." Niall sang next and Harry could hear the smile in his voice.

"Being the way that you are is enough."

            "Everyone else in the room can see it, every one else but you!"

"Baby you light up my world like no body else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed but when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, you don't know!" They all sang together, the first time in front of an audience all together in over five years. They snatched their microphones out from their stands and held it out to the audience as they screamed the lyrics back at them.

            "You don't know you're beautiful!"

Louis and Zayn sang the next verse, Harry's version of the song so different to what they'd sung together for years yet so achingly familiar as they walked out further onto the stage, the deafening screams from the fans as they sang with them almost overpowering their own vocals.

Snapping the microphone back into his stand he walked forward to the front of the stage, Liam and Zayn to his left, Niall and Louis on his right as he grabbed the two closest hands to him and began to dance as the instruments took over the sound. None of them hesitated in following him in his movements as they danced to the song which had skyrocketed them all those years ago.

The lights were blinding, screams deafening, sweat dripping from every part of his body, eyes stinging and heart clenched with emotion but he danced beneath the shimmering lights to the beauty which had become his life, surrounded by people he loved.

He dropped Niall and Zayn's hand from where he'd grabbed them as they all went back behind their mics and sang the rest of the song. The only sound he could hear other than the faint sound of the boys voices through his one in – ear he had in, was the endless chorus of voices singing back at them.

His brothers around him, the one person he loved with every part of him beside him and the people who had watched him grow over the years, supported him, and a song he'd never forget. He wouldn't give this up for the world.