Work Text:
He pauses, having just finished performing Only the Brave.
‘I gotta say, it means so much to me, the show of support from all of ya, especially in that song, it means so much. To see every night, the flags, the lights, it just makes me feel so seen. And you lot have made it very clear, from the very start of the tour, that you’d have my back 100%, when I was ready to come out.’
There is a very, very slight pause, where the crowd takes the smallest fraction of a second to make sure they heard what they thought they heard, and then a roar erupts, a cheer, so loud, piercing through the venue. He peers through the lights at the people he can see behind the barricade. Some are crying, some are hugging other fans. A few he is pleased to see are valiantly holding their phones up with tears streaming down their faces or hands pressed to their mouths in shock, streaming or recording the entire thing. Good. He needs to keep going, get out the rest of what he wants to say. The volume in the screaming seems to subside slightly, probably because people need to breathe, and he takes his chance to plough on.
‘I dunno why some of ya are so surprised! You bloody had it already figured out, everything, most of ya’s did. I’ve told ya, I don’t miss a thing you lot say online.’ It was true, he spent an unhealthy amount of time on Twitter. ‘And that’s the other thing, to know that most of ya saw through all the bullshit, made us so happy.’
While it was true that he hadn’t planned to do this on this night exactly, he had planned out what he was going to say, more or less, and his words were carefully considered. The fans again had started to go wild, hearing the ‘us’, like he’d hoped they would.
‘I’ll be honest with ya, I didn’t know I was gonna do this tonight. Fuck I didn’t even warn Haz, sorry darlin, I know you’re watching the lives. I hope this was a nice surprise. Anyway, what I mean is we did plan it, I just didn’t realise I’d be ready so soon. But the energy in the room tonight, from every single one of ya made me feel fucking invincible.’
There. He’d gotten it all out, he was sure, quickly replaying it in his mind, all the parts he’d meant to say. In a few short sentences, he’d come out and confirmed larry, in a way that seemed spontaneous enough that he might, just might get away without too much wrath from his and Harry’s managements. There’d still be hell to pay, with all the stunts still in progress, but he was ready to face it. Another point of view he’d considered when planning what to say is that it might come across like he was outing Harry, an idea he found quite ludicrous, but still something he should try to avoid if he didn’t want to get completely crucified on Twitter. Hopefully, he’d managed to avoid that with how he’d worded it.
‘Alright!’ he yells, as he gathered his thoughts. ‘Lets do the photo!’
As they gather together for the photo a horrible thought struck him. Had he been too vague? Too cryptic? Like, in his mind it was pretty fucking obvious what he’d just done, and it seemed like it was obvious to the fans too, but it was the public narrative he was trying to change. Like Harry had literally got down on his knees waving a bi flag yelling ‘freedom,’ and some people still thought the man was straight. He had not come this far for someone to come in and damage control this and twist his words. As they broke apart from their huddle and he walked back to his mic, he decided to make sure there was absolutely no doubt. Somehow, it seemed harder, saying it so blatantly like this, and his throat tightened and his hands shook on the mic with anxiety.
‘So loves, I know you’ve had a bit of excitement tonight, I know some of ya are still processing the fact that I’m gay and larry is real, but you just gotta embrace it, I’m telling ya, because we’ve got two songs left and from here on out I truly feel there’s gonna be more authenticity and freedom in each and every performance and you lot are the first to experience it. Here’s Through the Dark!’
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