TRIGGER WARNING! MENTION OF SEXUAL ABUSE! IT'S NOT DESCRIBED BUT IT IS MENTIONED!

"What are you doing here, Harry?" Louis tries to sound as confident as possible.

"I'm here to see you, Lou. I've been so worried since you left. I tried to call you and I went over to Zayn and Perrie. I'm so happy I can finally see you. Being away from you has been killing me."

"Why" is Louis' short answer.

"I missed you. Lou you are my best friend and..."

"Keep that bullshit to yourself, Harry." Louis snaps, fighting his tears. He needs to hide behind his shield. He can't let himself open up to Harry, not again.

"Louis, let's have a talk." James says. "Harry, please sit down. We will be back in a bit." James puts his hand on Louis' back and guides the boy to the kitchen.

"I know he has hurt you, Lou. But I don't think it was his intention. He clearly cares a lot about you." James says, looking at his nephew who is facing the ground.

"He hurt me so bad. I don't want to feel it again, uncle. It was like a knife through my heart." Louis admits. His heart is still aching.

"I know it does, boy and you can tell him that. You can make it clear that he hurt you badly, but Louis he is here now. I saw your phone, having 876 missed calls from him from the past week. He is not faking his care, boy. I believe he actually does care about you. Don't forget you have put him through hell as well, and here he is, in my living room, desperate to see you. I don't tell you to forgive him immediately, but at least give him a chance to talk to you. It will make you feel better as well, nephew. As much as you try to hide it, I see the way you have been looking at him during English class. It's okay to let him in, Louis. I know he hurt you, you hurt him as well, it's human. Harry couldn't know about Tristan. I'm not saying that you did something bad. It's a really good thing that you pushed him away, but see it out of Harry's point of view." Louis nods understandingly.

"I know, uncle. That thought has crossed my mind as well... It's just that I think I would believe him blindly if the roles were reversed. I would have followed him home."

"Hear him out, Lou. If you don't like what he says, kick him out. I'll leave the two of you alone. Do you want something from the supermarket?"

Louis shakes his head.

"Fine, anyway if something happens call me okay?"

Louis nods and hugs his uncle.

"Thank you for being the best uncle in the world."

"What can I say, I'm born this way." He jokes, making Louis giggle as well. "Now go to your boy, Lou." Louis nods, leaving the kitchen. He looks at the curly lad from a little distance. His curly hair is hidden under a big black hat, he is wearing a dark green button up with flowers and black skinny jeans. He looks flawless, like he always does.

"You want to talk..." Louis carefully takes place next to Harry. His voice is barely a whisper.

"I'm sorry that I let you go home alone, Lou. It was really wrong of me and I didn't know it would hurt you that much. I swear if I knew it would end up like this I would have come without a doubt."

"It hurt me a lot, Hazza. You promised to stay by my side, yet you decided that cleaning up Stephanie's mess was more important."

"I just did it to help you, Lou. Tristan could have gone to the police. I don't want you to be in any trouble."

A humourless chuckle leaves Louis' mouth.

"Tristan going to the police? How ironic would that be." Louis tries to hide everything with his sarcasm, but a single tear escapes from the corner of his eye.

"What do you mean? Lou, why are you crying?"

Louis is having a war between his brain and his heart.

His brain tells him to not say anything, to keep everything to himself. Harry had made promises before and he broke them. He isn't trustworthy. Louis shouldn't open up. He is Stephanie's friend and all the shit from back then can just be brought up again if Harry talks too much. That's the last thing Louis wants. Maybe Harry doesn't even believe him when he tells the truth, laughing in his face.

His heart does trust the curly lad, always has. He can't deny the connection that they have and Harry hasn't told a soul about their kiss in London or about Louis having gay thoughts. Harry always knows how to comfort him and he just feels safe with him. Harry makes him feel protected and even though he didn't come home with Louis, he wasn't angry with him either. He could have totally freaked out seeing all the blood and stuff. Also he is here and the number of missed calls on his phone from the taller guy is undeniable. Harry does care about him.

"I trust you, Hazza." Louis' voice is a whisper. "And I need you to just listen to me and not say a word. Don't interrupt me, don't make funny faces, just... listen to me and promise me that the thing I'm going to tell you now won't leave these four walls."

Harry looks at Louis, nodding. "Promised, Lou. You can trust me."

"Can you promise me another thing?"

Harry nods.

"Can I hold your hand? And promise me you don't pull away."

Harry lays his hand in Louis', not saying a word and giving Louis the chance to prepare himself to speak.

"I was 15." Louis starts, scraping his throat again. He only opened up once about this, not even his own mother knows. He has no clue why he feels he can trust Harry, but he really does feel that way.

"Stephanie and I just started dating. It was a confusing age for me. It's the age that I started to question my... sexuality. There was this one boy in my football team, or soccer as you guys like to call it, and I started to have these weird feelings towards him. He was really handsome and we were close friends. I always used to stare a little at him when he came out of the shower but I never thought anything about it.

One night he stayed over at my house to play videogames. We were fighting over the controller and it got a bit... touchy. He ended up on top of me, straddling my waist and... I got hard. Luckily he was cool about it, he didn't make fun of me or anything but it made me think. Stephanie never got me hard and it bothered me.

So the next day I decided to go to her house. Her mom let me in on her way out to do groceries. She told me Stephanie wasn't home but that I was more than welcome to wait for her inside, so I did.

I was on my phone and I started to google 'symptoms of being gay'. I know it's really stupid but just think about it, I was a child. Feeling thirsty I went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. When I came back..." More tears are forming in Louis' eyes and he squeezes Harry's hand.

"Tristan, being nineteen at the time, was holding my phone. I was really scared because I thought he would hit me or something for looking that shit up while dating his sister, but the opposite happened.

He told me to go to his room, admitted that he was bisexual and that he wanted to talk about it and teach me... stuff." Louis is shaking and Harry puts his other arm around Louis, comforting him.

"He started to touch me and make me touch him. When I was over he would make excuses for Stephanie to leave the house so he could..." Louis can't speak the word, loud sobs leaving his mouth.

"I was 15. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to accept that I was gay, I wasn't ready to be touched by a man or touch him myself. Hell I wasn't even ready to touch anyone. I was a kid... I still am a bloody kid.

He did this for 4 months until one night I confessed to my uncle what happened on a sleepover at his place. He noticed that I ate less and that I never wanted to partner up with Stephanie anymore during classes. He heard that I was refusing to get changed during gym class. He saw me flinching when Zayn only put his arm around me. He noticed the signs and he asked me about it. I just couldn't lie.

My uncle got furious. He went over to their place when he knew Stephanie wasn't there. He told everything to his mother, telling her we would go to the police. His mother was crying, offering money to please not say anything. She was willing to give us 50 000 pounds but I refused. My uncle was persistent in going to the police, but I didn't want to. I felt so ashamed and dirty and I also blamed myself a bit. In the years I learned it's not my fault, but back then I did feel like I was guilty. Instead of going to the police, my uncle and I made a deal that Tristan had to leave town, and he left until last week.

The reason I pushed Tristan is because he followed me to the bathroom and came on to me again. I just wanted to push him away from me, I didn't mean for him to bleed or something."

For the first time Louis looks up, making contact with Harry's green eyes. They are all watery and his cheeks are wet from the tears.

"Are you angry?" Louis whispers, voice still shaking.

"Yeah." Harry's voice is raspy.

Louis wants to pull away his hand but Harry doesn't let him. Instead he pulls the smaller boy in a tight hug.

"But not with you, Lou. I'm angry with myself for bringing you there and not protecting you. I should have listened to you. I am so sorry. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you. I don't know what I can say to make you feel better. I want to make you feel better. You didn't deserve this." Louis feels Harry's wet tears falling on his head, mixing with his own.

"You couldn't know, Hazza."

"God I feel so selfish. Just... Louis tell me what I can do for you? I don't know how to react, I'm so sorry. I just want to make you feel better, I don't know how. How can I comfort you, Lou? What do you want me to do? What is comfortable for you? I'm here whenever you want, I'll leave if you want that to. I respect every single thing you say."

"Don't act different around me. I'm still the same person as before. I'm not some porcelain doll or something. I won't break. Just be with me like you always have, scold me for stupid things I do or say, joke with me, don't treat me differently okay?"

"Sure, Lou."

"And one more thing, Hazza."

"What?"

"Please, hold me."