Mission to Mars

1

The alarm went off at 05.30 the next morning and Harry jumped out of bed, excited to start the day. He took a wee, brushed his teeth, and put some training clothes on. He walked out of his room at 05.53 and met Liam out in the hallway.
"Good morning Styles. Are you ready for today?"

"Yes, I'm really excited! After you Payne." Harry smile and followed Liam to the eating area.

They were handed a well-balanced breakfast from the kitchen staff and sat down to eat. Niall and Louis joined them shortly after.

After they all said good morning to each other Liam informed them how the two months ahead would look like.
"We'll start out in the gym after breakfast every morning for an hour work out. Then we'll do different tests and practice being weightless."

They all nodded their heads. They knew the drill. After they had eaten a steady breakfast they accompanied each other to the gym for a full round workout. They would lose muscle mass in space so they had to stay fit.

Harry kept to himself, working his muscles. His eyes kept on traveling to Louis who was lifting weights beside him. He had arm and leg muscles to die for. He was glistering from sweat and yeah, shit, what the hell was he doing? Harry forced himself to look the other way just to meet Nialls eyes. The Irish lad was smirking at him. Great.

They worked out for an hour and a half and went their separate ways to shower. They were getting a health check-up before lunch. Harry passed, and so did the other guys. They spent the rest of the day on a plane known as the weightless wonder or Vomit Comet. Harry would never get used to the feeling of being completely weightless.

"Woohoo, that was awesome guys!" Niall shouted excitedly when they were back on the ground again.

"You better get used to it Horan. There's a long way to Mars." Liam chuckled.

Harry turned around to get his water bottle and bumped into Louis.
"Oh, sorry."

Louis just huffed and walked away without even as much as a glance in his direction. Harry sighed and ran a hand through his sweaty hair. Louis probably thought that he bumped into him on purpose. Like that would ever happen.

They ate dinner together in an effort to get to know each other. Harry noticed the Louis talked to everybody but him. Could he make it more obvious? Apparently it was up to him to keep up the facade. When it was quiet around the table he turned to Louis with a fake smile.
"Have you always wanted to be an astronaut Louis?"

Louis furrowed his eyebrows like he was confused or annoyed that Harry talked to him but at least he answered the question politely.
"Yes, it has always been my dream."

Harry raised an eyebrow to challenge him.
"Uhm, what about you Harry?"

"Thank you for asking Louis. Yes, since I was a young boy." Harry answered with a grin.

Louis rolled his eyes and dug in on the steak.
"Wow, that was as pleasant as pulling out a wisdom tooth or something." Niall said and looked between them.

"Yeah, what's up with the two of you? Are we gonna have a problem?" Liam questioned.

"No problem!" Harry immediately protested.

"Of course not. I genuinely think me and Harry will be the best of friends." Louis answered. Harry was the only one who heard the "over my dead body" that Louis muttered after.

Liam and Niall looked relieved and Harry felt sorry for them. They hadn't signed up for a personal vendetta between two of their team members. It was actually kind of silly. They didn't have a good reason for not getting along other than the fact that Louis was annoying as hell. He couldn't even pinpoint what his problem with him really was. He had to try harder from now on to at least pretend like they got along. He needed to have a chat with Louis about it.

As they headed to their rooms later that evening Harry made sure to walk next to Louis.
"We need to talk." He mumbled so the other guys wouldn't hear.

Louis sighed but nodded his head. He walked to his own room and motioned for Harry to come with him. They said goodnight to Liam and Niall before they stepped into Louis's room together. As soon as Louis had closed the door behind them he turned to face Harry.
"What?"

"Don't give me that bullshit. You know what. We need to get better." Harry answered irritated and dragged a hand through his hair.

Louis gave him a pensive glare before he sighed again.
"Fuck! I know!"

"So?" Harry challenged.

"I'll pretend to like you." Louis answered, looking like it was the worse thing that ever happened to him.

"Geeesh, don't knock yourself out trying." Harry said and rolled his eyes.

"I won't. I'm gonna win a fucking Oscar from how convincing I'll be. How about you?" Louis smirked.

"You're looking at the new Meryl Streep. I'm gonna be very convincing at it." Harry chuckled.

"So you want to be a woman?" Louis questioned with a grin.

"You know what I meant." Harry huffed.

"I don't know curly. You would look good in a dress." Louis teased.

"I know." Harry answered with a smirk and Louis laughed.

"So I guess we're fake besties now?" Louis asked.

"Yep. It doesn't mean that I actually like you." Harry replied and felt horrible for saying it.

"Oh, don't worry. I really don't like you either." Louis smirked.

Harry wasn't used to being disliked but he guessed it was only fair. He said goodnight and headed to his own room. After he had brushed his teeth and undressed he laid in bed and stared at the ceiling.

He tried to figure out why he didn't like Louis. He was cocky that's for sure. He had this aura around him that screamed rude. He was too good-looking. He probably thought that he could get every girl from just batting those long eyelashes at them, looking at them with those blue eyes of his. It irritated him. Yeah, he couldn't really put his finger on what it was about Louis that put him off but he would stop ponder about it. He closed his eyes with a sigh and drifted off to sleep.