Larry Stylinson ~ Poor Little Rich Boy AU

9.

Chapter Nine:

“Well. I guess you really weren’t kidding about the tree.”

Harry had no idea how the hotel proprietors had managed to persuade a palm tree to grow in a country where if you were lucky, it only rained for ten minutes in a day, but somehow they had managed it. He also had no idea how Louis had managed to climb said tree, given that it was very tall and appeared to have no handholds to grab onto whatsoever, but somehow he had managed it. Louis seemed to be very good at managing things. Getting around Harry’s social anxiety. Getting him to become friends with him…getting him to begin feeling things he’d never felt for anyone before in his life. It would have been a big fat lie if Harry had said he wasn’t developing some kind of feelings for Louis, and an even bigger lie if he’d said he wasn’t worried about them.

Ignoring him, Louis stared up at the sky, drumming his fingers repetitively on the branch he was perched on. Apparently rather embarrassed by his current position, he pretended that Harry hadn’t spoken and continued gazing upwards, as if the cloudless, starless sky was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen in his life.

The ladder which Harry had procured was by no means the easiest thing to drag through the hotel gardens, especially as the tree Louis had gotten stuck in was in a little area of greenery at the back of the golf course, meaning that he’d had to haul an enormous wooden structure across the previously flawless greens. He hadn’t quite dared to look around and see what kind of damage he’d been doing with it, but he dreaded to think of the kind of scuffmarks he would have left in the grass. It lay at his feet now, and he kept glaring at it; he’d already decided that he wasn’t going to bother taking it back. After all, it was heavy, and Louis was in no state to help him carry anything without falling over.

“Are you going to ignore me and stay up there all night, or would you like me to help you get down?” he asked, struggling not to grin.

Louis glanced downwards, saw his amusement, then with a noise like an angry cat he swivelled clumsily around on the branch, folded his arms and turned his back on Harry, clearly deciding he’d rather keep his dignity than get back onto the ground.

Unwilling to let him cling to what little humility he had left, Harry leapt forwards with a laugh, grabbed hold of the tree trunk and started violently shaking it so that the branches rustled wildly, Louis struggled to stay seated and almost fell off, and ended up clinging to the trunk with a horrified expression, making a whining noise.

“Harry, don’t! God, I’ll fall, don’t, Harry, please!”

Quickly releasing the tree, Harry retreated backwards a couple of steps and looked up at him, raising one eyebrow. “Oh, so I exist now, do I?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever! Just help me get down!”

“Well, I don’t know about that. I’m kind of enjoying seeing you stuck up there.”

Louis growled at him. “For some strange reason, I’m not. Now would you please get me down?”

“What on earth are you doing up there in the first place?”

“I remembered someone telling me that this sort of tree is impossible to climb,” Louis admitted, “because the branches only start close to the top, and it’s hard to get a decent grip on it. Turns out, it’s notimpossible, so long as you take your shoes off and spit plenty on your hands first. It is, however, kind of impossible to get down, so if you don’t mind…?”

Innocently, Harry asked, “What makes you think I can get you down?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know, maybe it’s something to do with the ladder which is lying on the ground right behind you? Don’t go getting cocky with me. I’ll make you regret it.”