Reunion

The house was physically quiet as the four men slept in their separate rooms, randomly picked as they had found their way to the different rooms. The sound may have been absent physically but that didn't mean their minds were as tranquil. Each of them tossed and turned for the night as they found themselves bouncing between different emotions and memories of the people who had just stumbled their way back into their lives.

As the light began to wake itself slowly back up, it was surprisingly Harry who was up first and knocking his way around the house. Even though his life was s symphony of chaos on the best days,he enjoyed quiet mornings like this as he eased himself into the day ahead. At home, Carrie would have her music playing as she exercised her two hundred and twenty three calorie breakfast away because she was scared that her waist would grow by a tenth of an inch and the tabloids would call her fat. If he had been on tour, he would have had multiple knocks on his door to update him on his commitments for the day and why he needed to get himself up and moving.

What he actually enjoyed were mornings like this. Mornings where he could slowly wake up as he sipped his orange juice and read the paper on his iPad. He had some classical music floating through the air and the whole moment felt perfect and peaceful and calm. Those were three things that he had been missing in his too much lately.

Harry looked out towards the rising sun over the slightly undulating water and felt his mind wander back to the night before and his reintroduction to three of the people who had been so central in his life for so long before being meticulously carved out of it. Niall had seemed his usual happy self, even more so since he was about to be a very proud father. They had stayed in little contact after the breakup but with Niall it was like the had only parted five minutes earlier. His warm spirit and forgiving nature meant that he could look at Harry and be happy to see him and not hold the grudges from years ago that could have come between them.

With Louis, it was easier. The two of them had stayed in regular contact after the split. Louis had always accepted Harry's silly and frivolous ways, encouraging them when he decided to go along with the shenanigans. The two of them had used each other as crutches as the band had imploded and when the final collapse had happened, they turned to each other to try and understand what had happened. They had never quite been able to figure it out but the bond had remained and the friendship had endured. They understood the other's crevasse sized faults and asked no more of each other than they could give.

Zayn was the hard one. They hadn't spoken since the day that Zayn had walked out of the studio, his tense back the last thing Harry had seen of his once close friend. He could have easily gotten Zayn's number from a number of people but he had never let himself do it, had never let himself rebuild that tattered bridge. He had heard different bits of the life he had created for himself and was glad that he seemed to have found a place of happiness in which to live his life. In many ways, it seemed more settled and cohesive than his own and a measure of jealousness always came out when he thought about it.

Harry's final thoughts rested on his departed friend. If there was anyone of the five of them who deserved to go off into the sunset and live a complete and happy life, it was Liam. He had done everything right. He had been an honourable guy who had never showed any anger at the group breaking up. He had married his sweet girlfriend even after the two had broken up for an extended period of time. He had created two beautiful children who, from what Louis told him, were the perfect image of their father. He had built a life that he had talked about from the day Harry had met him.

As Harry munched on his toast, he thought back to the last time all of them had been sitting in the same room. It had turned ugly and brutally honest and none of them had walked away without shrapnel embedded their skin. Simon had called them to a meeting and insisted that they hash out the differences that had subtly been dividing the boys. He was sick of the calls from assistants and producers complaining about the boy's behaviour and the boys complaining about each other. He had only stayed for a few moments in the beginning, making it clear what his intention was for the event. Come out united and past the bullshit that surrounded them or end everything and move on. He didn't care how long it took, he only cared that it was resolved.

Harry nervously puffed his cigarette as he made his way towards the large office tower where a large part of his future would be decided. He had been expecting this meeting to be coming sooner rather than later with the crap that had been happening between them on their break from tour. Skipped and shortened studio sessions meant that the work on a new album for the goup had been more drama than productive and not a single song finished during the process. While Harry had almost an entire album written and several songs recorded for his solo album, skipped and shortened studio sessions meant that the work on a new album for the group had been more drama than productive and not a single song finished during the process.

He walked through the quiet halls of the building, the bustle of the industry absorbing those he came across. Seeing an international pop star was nothing new to these people so he was merely a piece of furniture as he entered the elevator and headed up to Simon's office. When he reached it, he smiled at Simon's assistant Sasha who absently smiled back and waved him into the inner sanctum. Harry entered and saw that all of the other boys were already there. Even Zayn had beat him and was resting his head against the back of the plush chair he was occupying.

"Ah," Simon said as he scowled at Harry and rubbed his throbbing temples. "The last one of you finally decides to arrive." He pointed at the last empty chair and Harry quickly sat in it. "Half an hour late but at least you got yourself here. Now, I am sure that you all know exactly why I called you all here. I am sick of the shit that you all seem so happy to deal with on a daily basis and I am only hearing it from other people. You have two choices and you will make one before you leave this office today. Choice number one is you will walk out of here a band that can live and work with each other professionally. I don't care if you like each other but I do care that you are able to be in a studio together without one of you having a two-year old tantrum." Simon paused as he looked at each of the young men in front of him. His voice was emotional as he spoke and it surprised each of them. "Choice number two is simple. You will walk out of here and go your separate ways. You are no longer a band and are free to move on and do what each of your heart desires. I will prepare a statement that will sugarcoat the fact that you can't stand the sight of each other and release it to the press and then the grand experiment is done. You won't have to see each other's shadows again."

Simon stood from his chair and moved towards the door. He paused for a moment before turning to face the boys he had begun to consider close to his own children. They had been so eager and bright with energy when he had brought them here for the first time and now each of them laid lazily back in the chair. The changing dynamic was not something he hadn't seen before but this one hurt him more than usual.

"You guys were special, you know that? You guys got it for so long. You understood that the foundation of the five of you was more important than everything else that was built on top of it. You knew that if the foundation failed, the stuff on top of it failed. You understood all of that but somewhere along the way you forgot it. I hope that even if you decide to walk out of here separate, you find it again. It was magical to watch."

And then Simon left. The air felt visibly sucked out of the room as he did and left each of the five men still in it sucking for breath. They stayed quiet and let his words sink into them. Minds drifted back to the very beginning of not the band but of their friendship. When they wanted to hang out with each other instead of rushing off to produce something individual.

Harry looked around and took in each of the people surrounding him. As he did that, he could see images of each of them from nine years earlier against who sat in front of them now. Louis sat to the left of him, his eyes staring directly at the phone he held in his slim hands. Of the four bandmates, this was the one that Harry still actually felt a connection to. They each had a similar view of life and how to live it. He sometimes felt resentment from the others about the fact that he confided in Louis things he no longer did with them but the integral connection had been broken for too long.

Beside Louis was Niall. The usually smiling irishman was staring absently outside the window. The bright blue eyes were a dull and murky sea as he seemed to struggle with what to say to the others. His energy that could always make the room crackle the second he entered it was missing today. In fact, it had been missing for quite awhile now that Harry thought about it. He felt Harry staring at him and turned to look at him for a second before returning his gaze back outside.

Beside Niall was Liam. Physically, he looked most like his old self. His relatively recent marriage to Danielle and their plans for having a baby kept his spirits usually high these days. But the strain of not being able to meet his role of peacemaker that he had been nominated for by rest of them had been a strain. He had probably invested the most in the group emotionally and the concept of it being gone would hit him the hardest. Harry say him wipe the corner of his eyes as if to make a preemptive attack on the tears that seemed to be very near from falling,

Finally, Harry moved to Zayn. Of all of them, he had changed the most. He had always been quiet and mysterious, his many tattoos like an armour to protect against the outside world. But over the past couple of years, it had seemed like he had been doing the same thing to the band. And as he had begun to shut them out, he had welcomed the alcohol in ever more to replace them. Harry had tried to reach him in the beginning but for the last year, the effort had been half-hearted. Zayn wasn't receptive to it and Harry found it exhausting. Besides he had more going on his life that needed attention than a sulky friend. In fact, this was the first time that Harry had seen him in weeks and he was shocked by his physical appearance. His usual thin frame was now gaunt from his liquid diet and his skin had a pasty appearance. His eyes were darting around the room as if they found it painful to rest on one single spot and they were ringed with red from lack of sleep. His usually perfectly placed hair was matted to his head and looked like it hadn't been washed in days.

"Fuck," Liam yelled as he stood up and went towards the window looking out over London. "This is fucking ridiculous. At what point did we let it come to this? At what point did we decide that we were all too fucking important to leave our egos outside the door?" He turned to face the group and Harry immediately saw the pain written clearly on his face. "We always swore that we would be friends. We were going to travel the world and make music and never let this amazing thing go. And that was exactly what we did! We let it rot and vanish without even putting up a fight to fix it."

Louis stood himself up and ran his hands through his hair. "We were kids at the time. We thought we would be eighteen forever and life would never be any different. Well, guess what Liam. Life happened. Shit happened. The ugliness and truth of the world wrecked the fucking perfect little bubble that you tried to keep us all in. And guess what, I want out of it! I want out of it for good because I can't breathe in it anymore."

And that was how the afternoon went. Three hours of yelling and tears and accusations and almost reunifications that never stuck for more than a minute. Liam and Louis were the most vocal of them which wasn't surprising as they had always been. Niall would speak up every once in awhile, usually in defence of whoever was being attacked in the moment. Harry would side with Louis and tried to get Liam to understand that there was not a shred of what they had started with to stitch back together again. Zayn remained silent. Harry noticed that his fingers were never still just like his eyes and as the afternoon wore on, his whole body began to shake. He had brought a small flask with him that his lips hungrily attached themselves to and he had tried to ration it but as the stress built and the voices got louder, he couldn't hold himself back and he had been out for the last hour.

After three hours, the room finally became silent. Each of them had created as much separation as they could from each other in the small room as they claimed their corners. The only one who remained where they had been when it all started was Zayn.

"So, that's it," Liam said as his body sank into itself against the window ledge. "As Simon said, this is the end of the great experiment?"

Louis nodded. He had been the main person to fight for the breakup and he could sense that he had won. "Yeah, I think it is."

Liam had insisted they put it to a vote but even if he had won, he knew that it didn't matter. If one walked out there was no point in continuing on. The fans wouldn't accept it. Simon wouldn't accept it. Liam wouldn't accept it. In the end, it hadn't mattered because he had been the only one who had voted to stay together. The rest understood that the damage had been done and could not be repaired.

And that was how it ended. What had begun with the screams of teenage girls in the back alley of a studio had ended with the whispers of five men. The only ones who said goodbye were Louis and Harry and that was only because they still wanted to maintain a presence in each other's lives. The rest just gradually cleared the room and left to their own lives.

The quiet of the kitchen was softly broken when Harry heard a set of feet making their way down the wooden stairs of the staircase. He turned towards them and saw Zayn lightly stepping on each one as if not to wake the other two sleeping bodies upstairs. As he did, he saw that the dark-haired boy had grown back into himself. He was still slim but no longer looked like he could be blown away by a puff of wind. His hair was back to it's glossy texture and his face looked refreshed and awake. It was covered by the slight stubble he seemed to prefer but it looked like it belonged on the strong face.

Harry had heard about Zayn's visit to rehab and was glad he had gotten the help he had needed. He had always worried after he had left that day that the next thing he would hear about him was that he had overdosed in some dingy bathroom in downtown London. But he had survived and had walked out the other side with what seemed to be a good and solid life. And that had made Harry proud of his former friend.

"Hey man," he said as he poured out a glass of juice for Zayn. They had long ago passed formality even though they had been apart for so long so he dived right in to what he wanted to ask. "Ready for this?"

Zayn took the glass, sniffing it before taking his first sip. He looked at Harry and smiled his cheeky smile. "Fuck no," he said before finishing the drink in one downing. "Absolutely fucking not."