Harry Styles, 2021
"Harry."
Harry groans.
"Harry."
"What?" He slowly opens his eyes and lifts his head from the cold material he's been laying on. After a few seconds, he recognizes it as the window of the car he's feel asleep in.
"We're here, baby."
It's Niall, who gently strokes Harry's cheek and brushes the curls that fell into Harry's face behind his ear.
It's Niall, who acts like he's Harry's mother telling him that they arrived at McDonald's for a break on their way abroad.
Harry can't help but smile at his behavior and rubs his eyes sleepily with his sweater-paw-hands.
"Are you done with the affection?"
The driver murres and Harry's body is brought to life with sudden energy of the need to get out of this vehicle as soon as possible.
As soon as his Chelsea-Boot clad feet touch the wet asphalt of the streets of London, there's a lot of noise in his ears and a lot of movements in his vision that he's not used to anymore.
He breathes in deeply and when he's done appreciating the capital city vibe, Niall is by his side and so are two bodyguards.
Right.
He forgot about that part of being known as well.
"What would people say if they saw us together in London?" Niall asks and with that he speaks what's going on in Harry's mind.
"They would freak out."
They both nod and grin mischievously.
Then Niall shakes his head and denies the idea of playing with millions of hearts.
"I'm going to go on a date with Brandon now and you're gonna play knight in shining armor and save your prince. Bring him home, mate, deal?"
Niall dramatically places his hands on Harry's shoulders while holding his motivation speech.
Harry nods and bites down his smile as Niall kisses his cheek. "Deal."
Niall hugs him and Harry spots the first people that recognize them and pointing at them.
"I'm gonna take" Niall inspects both of the bodyguards. "This one with me. He looks nice."
"Stop objectifying them." Harry tuts but Niall only smiles sweetly and grabs the left guy's hand, pulling him with him.
When Harry hears the first girls screaming, Niall is already gone and Harry is pushed back into a new car.
He just hopes nobody took pictures because he doesn't want to give some fans hope that he knows won't be rewarded any time soon.
They drive towards the modest headquarters and Harry hates everything there. He hates the smell, the way the doors open and the receptionist.
"Who are you here to see, Mr Styles?"
She asks, fake nice accent and fluttering her lashes horribly.
"My boyfriend." Harry declares, trying to stop her flirting attempts at the same time and although she already knows that he is in a committed, homosexual relationship, her smile falls immediately.
"You mean Mr Tomlinson?"
"Yes." He has to suppress an eye roll.
"He's in Mr Cowell's office, but I'm afraid you can't join them. The meeting is top secret." She fakes compassion and places her chin on her hand.
"I know about everything they could possibly talk about." Harry says, getting annoyed with her pink blouse and her smeared eyeliner.
"You can't go, okay?" She snaps, picking her nails and rolling her eyes at him.
"Okay." Harry draws out, clicking his tongue. "But I am allowed to get tea in the lobby, right?"
The rude lady shrugs and doesn't even look at him. Harry nods, more to himself, and twirls around before walking past her.
He walks into a long hallway with closed doors every now and then, his steps echoing from the walls.
"Harry?"
Harry spins around.
It's Eleanor.
He sighs, greeting her with a small wave and lips pressed into a thin line.
She sets her bag down on the ugly carpet and takes a few long strides towards him.
"I am so incredibly sorry." She says and Harry believes her.
He nods shortly and swallows.
Of course he knows that she doesn't enjoy what she is doing but it's still not easy looking at her after she kissed his boyfriend.
She senses it and hesitantly wraps her arms around Harry's shoulders, hugging him softly and burying her face in his hoodie.
"I mean it. It was horrible, I swear and I'm so sorry, but I couldn't do anything."
"I know." Harry whispers to comfort her.
See, the thing with El is that she signed this contract nine years ago, when she had a real big crush on Louis and just decided to take her chance.
But not even two months later, she realized that Louis was very much in love with Harry. She got over him quickly but couldn't get out of the arrangement. Modest never let her go and that ruined her life.
Harry hated her for the first few years.
Hated her with a passion.
But after he threw a shoe at her, they talked it out for a few hours (it took her that long to convince him that she is indeed over Louis) and then they became actually good friends. After she had finished explaining that night, Harry accidentally spent the next few hours just drooling over Louis and telling her how amazing he is. Eleanor had been really interested and sweet about it.
She is really easy going and nice, when she isn't forced to kiss the love of your life.
"have you seen him?" She asks softly and pulls away from the hug, picking up her bag again.
"No, apparently I'm not allowed to."
"Such bullshit." She curses before her face lights up with an idea. "You know where his who must not be named's office is, right?" One day, the three of them had decided that they didn't want to say the word Simon anymore.
Harry nods, of course he knows where this damned office is that made him cry so many times.
"You go there and I got your back. If I see anyone who looks for you, I tell them you're on the balcony, smoking."
"But I don't-"
"No one needs to know that." She already turns him around and pushes him into the right direction.
"Go get your man."
So Harry smiles and ignores the only instruction he got in two years, finding himself in front of Simon's office a few minutes later.
He is a rebell.
The door is open and he leans against the frame, not making a sound yet because he wants to know what is so top secret that he can't know about it.
Simon sits behind his wooden desk and Louis sits in front of it, both of them not able to see Harry and neither are the few other men that sit in the office.
"This is so boring." Louis whispers into the back of his hand, covering the sentence with a yawn but Simon seems to hear it anyway because his head snaps up from some papers he's been reading and he glares at him.
"Would you like to repeat that?"
"No, obviously. That's why I whispered." Louis sasses and Harry can't help but smile.
"You act like a child, Louis."
"Well if you treat me like one, with all the prohibitions and controllers, I have to adapt, right?"
"Are you quite finished with the bitchy behavior?" Simon snaps and Louis only shrugs. "You don't have any respect." Simon finishes and sets his whiskey glass down on the expensive wooden table forcefully, creating a loud noise.
"Oh, I have a lot of respect, actually."
Louis says. "I just respectfully hate you very much."
"If you feel the need to get sassy on me one more time, you'll propose to Eleanor today!" Simon warms and Harry closes his eyes.
Louis is quiet for once.
"Good. You're going to propose to her tomorrow, then."
"What?"
"I think you heard me."
"I am gay, Cowell. I'm not going to propose to a woman that I don't love when there's a man that I love very much only a few hours away, watching over the fucking internet. Where the fuck is your humanity?!"
"Then learn how to love Eleanor, because this contract," he points to the paper on his desk. "Will be extended."
Harry has enough.
The contract ends in three days, a date he's waited for for almost ten years now and he is not going to endure that torture one second longer.
He has enough of this bullshit, so he steps into the room, clearing his throat.
All of their heads snap to him and Louis tired eyes immediately light up, a weak smile spreading on his lips, while Simon sighs dramatically.
"Great, now what? You bring him home? Fucking pathetic."
Harry has to bite down a swearing explosion at Simon's incredibly rude quote of his song.
But he can't prevent himself from snapping for the first time in his life.
"This needs to stop! We are not fucking objects that you can treat the way you want just to make the most money out of it, out of us.
We are not dolls for headlines and pictures, we are not machines who can work twenty-four seven.
We are not emotionless things that don't care about the way they are being talked to.
We are humans who live and love.
We love each other and you can't do anything about that. You've tried so many times but you failed miserably, can't you see that? We've been together for eight years, eight. And you saying coming out would ruin our careers is bullshit, Simon. It's bullshit.
Do you know how many Larries there are? They make about 80% of Lou's fandom and like 50% of mine. They look for indications for our relationship in every single thing we do, they analyze our songs and performances and even our outfits. So you telling us it would be bad for business is just a story you made up, because in reality you're just a homophobic asshole."
Everyone in the room is quiet after that.
The other man who works for the management stares at him in shock and Simon is completely lost for words. He doesn't even look mad, it's like his brain was not able to progress what just happened yet.
And Louis' jaw is on the floor and his eyes are so full of pride and love while he looks at Harry from his seat, like Harry is like his muse and the most important thing in his life. Which, Harry hopes, is the truth.
Harry takes a few steps even closer, walking towards Simon's desk and pointing at the contract. "This is not going to be extended. It's going to end in a few days and there's nothing you can do about that. You can't stop us."
"You can't be boyfriends."
"Oh really? Watch me." Harry turns around and bends down to be face to face with Louis, taking his face into his hands and pulling him in, connecting their lips forcefully.
"No, no!" Simon says desperately, causing Harry to pull away again, smiling at Louis for a second before turning around again, facing the asshole behind the desk.
"You can't be boyfriends! It doesn't work in the music industry."
"Well, good thing that he's not going to be my boyfriend that much longer."
Harry states and bends forward, placing his hands on the surface of the desk.
"What?" Louis and Simon ask in unison.
"This man is going to be my husband."
Harry states and Louis rises up from his seat in a matter of seconds, squishing his body into Harry's side and hugging the shit out of him.
"I am going to marry Louis and you're going to watch."
Harry ends his speech and Simon is lost for words.
Maybe he isn't exactly, but Harry couldn't care less about what he has to say.
He turns around, Louis still glued into his side and walks towards the door.
"You fuck yourself." Louis shouts over his shoulder and loosens one arm from around Harry's waist to throw a middle finger into Simon's direction.
Then the door closes and they're in the hallway.
In front of them is Eleanor, two bodyguards of modest behind her.
"That was beautiful." She says and wipes away an imaginary tear, hugging Louis shortly and awkwardly, because he's still wrapped around Harry.
"I got these two strong men to escort us out of here and to get you two to the airport. I booked you a short flight so you don't have to sit in a car for hours and hours." She smiles and turns to look at the men.
"I would now ask you to please be quiet for the whole time we spend with you because I've heard you talking at tea. You're opinions are shit and no one asks you to express them so please shut the fuck up and do what you're here for." She says to the two men sweetly and takes one of Harry's hands in hers to pull them into the direction of the exit, the bodyguards following them.
"We need to talk about what you said there, though." Louis whispers when they step out of the building and walk over the parking lot towards a few black cars.
He has to untangle himself from Harry now that they could be seen.
"We will baby." Harry smiles and presses a kiss to Louis forehead, closing his eyes at his smell.
"Faggots." One of the bodyguards mumbles under his breath.
Harry and Louis curse him loudly but Harry immediately grabs Louis' hand to prevent him from physically hurting the man.
It doesn't matter, though, because Eleanor steps forward, reaches back and slaps him across the face.
"Shut your fucking mouth and focus on saving these two from danger, because that is your fucking job, you fucking loser." She spits and looks at the man who holds his cheek in shock disgustedly, before turning around again and walking back over to them.
"Thank you." Harry says, and he means it.
Because he's got enough of all these voices, all these homophobic people who just can't accept love.
He's got enough of hiding and holding back and he hates that he has to let go of Louis hand again, because it's the middle of the day in the middle of London and he's outside with Louis Tomlinson and Eleanor Calder.
That would bring some good headlines.
"Thank you, El." Louis says as well and hugs her quickly.
She nods and wishes them good luck for the next few months, since they are going to see each other less when the contract is finally over.
"No need to get sappy babes. Now get back to your Disney castle and please tell Taylor that I love her." She fangirls a bit and eventually they say their goodbyes before Louis and Harry get into the car and she waves at them while they drive off.
They cuddle the whole way to the airport and separate for a few minutes to get through security lines, hiding behind hats and bodyguards to not be seen together in the same place at the same time.
Then as they sit down in the first class of the plane, they are immediately close again, sharing a blanket and kissing sweetly, innocently, happily.
"All small items must be secured." The voice of the safety instructor says and Harry pulls away, trying to contain his pre-joke laughter and looking at Louis.
"I swear to god, Haz-"
"Are you secured enough?" Harry whispers.
"I WILL hit you." Louis warns and Harry wraps another arm around him.
He just wants to be an octopus whenever he's with Louis, because then he could hug him even more.
Louis squirms out of his grasp and takes an aggressive sip of water and ignores Harry aggressively.
For like two minutes.
Then he forgives Harry and kisses him again.
****
A/N
I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I'M FEELING 22
(get it? cuz it's chap 22)
yup that was all i had to say have a wonderful day now. Or night or whatever.