we're gonna estimate very, very early january.
—-
a promised luau happens on a warm january friday, thanks to liam's scheduling, and it's going to be fun. at least he hopes. he bought decorations for the club and asked louis to help him put it together.
every once in a while a staff member gets to host an event and they take turns. neon night will be michael's night, new year's was niall's, and mitch will host valentine's day. louis hopes he can throw a big bash soon, because he and zayn would go crazy. plus zayn's birthday is coming up. maybe they can throw him a big bash like louis' birthday turned out to be. louis didn't even know niall and liam's birthdays had passed until it was too late. after finding out that niall doesn't celebrate his big day for very personal reasons, louis didn't feel as bad.
so he made up for it by celebrating new years with him and doing body shots off of him on stage.
"i still have to find my shirt," liam grumbles as he tapes flowers along the bar. "'m pretty sure niall stole it."
louis chuckles as he sets up a bowl with tiny umbrellas and picks up a blue one, twirling it between his fingers. "how's that going, by the way? with niall and zayn and all?"
"good, actually," liam hums. he finishes his taping job and sets the roll of tape on the bar. "i know you're probably confused about it."
"nah," louis shrugs. "zayn does his own thing, i do mine. whatever makes him happy. but like...are you and niall actually together, too?"
"yeah," liam nods as he grabs his next row of flowers. "we've been together for about two years and we were exploring, i guess you could say. just looking to possibly have a third in our relationship? it was mutual. niall's had experience with polyamory and i was open to it. i love that kid and i'm glad i have him, honestly."
"oh, how cute," the stripper puts his umbrella between his teeth and organizes the glasses behind the bar for michael, checking to see if ice is stocked and if sodas need to be changed. he leaves the bar and spreads hawaiian tablecloths over the tables, then asks, "is zayn good to you guys?"
liam looks up at him and smiles so bashful that louis wants to pinch his cheeks. "yeah."
"that's all i need to know, then," louis nods and makes his way to the stage. he doesn't add any finishing touches to it except tear up a fake lei and sprinkle the flowers along the border. thers's no need for extravagant decor when dancers will be moving all over the place anyways.
they decorate the upper floor with tablecloths similar to the ones downstairs. liam wraps lights around the staircase while louis gathers skirts and plastic coconut bras for the dancers if they want to wear them and sets a handful of each in the locker rooms. knowing niall, he would definitely wear both of them. he cleans them up as he goes, checking to make sure paper towels are good and that everything is ready to go before the night begins.
once everything is set up, liam dims the lights to see the staircase lit up and smiles approvingly. he keeps them dimmed for the rest of the time and makes sure everything is in their exact spots while louis goes on a hunt for harry. the club opens in about fifteen minutes, so this is really the only time he would be able to see him before everyone settles in.
he sneaks into harry's office, obviously catching the man by surprise when harry is startled by his sudden appearance.
"you have got to stop doing that," harry says but waves him in. "everything good out there?"
"fine and dandy," louis hums and takes a seat on the edge of harry's desk. "just waiting. i'm bored now."
"wanna go take a smoke break, then?" harry offers.
louis nods before following him out of his office. he takes a look around the office before he leaves and catches harry's red hawaiian shirt sitting on the arm of the couch, waiting to be worn. he looks back at harry, who's about to round the corner, and an idea pops in his head as he rushes to his side to leave the club with him.
the smoke break consisted of them sitting in the pavilion with louis' legs thrown across harry's lap while he sat with his back against the wooden wall. harry was absentmindedly toying with his boot laces until he accidentally untied the ones on his left boot. so he reties them, unties louis' right boot and ties those again so they're hopefully the same amount of tightness.
he spots small bruises on the insides of louis' thighs through the bottom of his shorts. "working yourself too hard," he tuts. louis has been back on the floor for a week now. his body is getting used to being on the pole again, so he's bruising easier. give it some time.
"i've had worse," louis shrugs it off. when he catches harry's frown, he adds, "first week at paralyzer my legs were black and blue. 'm fine."
harry nods and puts his hand back on louis' thigh while he finishes his cigarette off. he scrapes the end of it along the boards of the pavillion and flicks the dead butt into the waste bucket at the entrance steps, fist pumping when he made it in. he tries to toss louis' in there as well but misses.
they walk back in through the front entrance and harry clocks them in behind the front counter, leaning over it to kiss louis' cheek. "have fun."
"you know it," louis returns the cheek kiss and walks through the entryway. instead of heading straight to the locker rooms to fix his appearance, he sneaks down the back hallway.
"and where do you think you're going?" mitch asks from his open office, causing louis to stop in his tracks.
he takes a few steps backwards and pokes his head into the boss's office. "i'm robbing harry."
"oh...alright. have fun."
louis dips into his boyfriend's office, racing back down the hallway smuggling harry's hawaiian shirt under the tee shirt he was wearing. he ruffles his hair in the mirror in the locker room, and strips himself of his tee shirt before pulling harry's shirt over his shoulders and leaving it unbuttoned. if it's open wide enough they can see his piercings plus the low cut shorts. they could practically be panties with the way his thighs eat them up. with it buttoned, his shorts were barely visible. it was good either way.
he leaves it unbuttoned and puts "smelly goods," as niall calls them, on himself before heading out to the floor to tend to the rest of society. zayn's on first, so he sits front row and cheers his best friend on while picking up loose dollar bills that fell off the stage. he gathers about twenty, holding them in his hands and proceeds to make it rain on the boy when he comes to him.
after zayn's round, a lei is handed to louis to put around his neck plus one for his wrist by niall so he blends in with everyone else. niall is wearing a hula skirt over his shorts and a very bright pink and yellow floral shirt.
"you look ridiculous," louis laughs as the boy does a twirl.
"eh," niall shrugs, "i'm gonna convince all the other lads to wear one too. just watch."
around midnight they hold a limbo game. the winner gets a free private dance, the usual grand prize. the champion, a very pretty girl who's name was amari (announced once she won) picked one of the female dancers to do her show.
he covers the bar for michael's break and makes himself a drink after he tends to the crowd. he makes a couple hundred on tips easily, but he has niall do the really heavy lifting for him.
as he closes the register, he spots harry taking a seat at the end of the bar. he grabs a beer for him, pops the cap off with a bottle opener and places it in front of him.
"i was wondering where that went," harry eyes the shirt over louis' chest as he brings the bottle to his lips. he gives the stripper another once over as he takes his first drink and salutes him with the bottle. "looks good on you."
louis grins as he leans against the bar. "'s very comfortable. i kind of broke it though."
he shows harry the spot where the button came off when he had got it caught in the drawer during the rush and harry shows him where a button was also missing from the top from a long time ago. now he doesn't feel so bad.
"'s old anyways," harry shrugs.
louis serves two more people after their quick conversation and michael returns from his break not long after. he thanks louis for covering for him, offers him a second drink, and louis carries his new glass around while tugging harry to a table upstairs by his hand. they settle in a back corner where nobody could see them because people are nosey and like to butt into louis' business.
it's not like he's ashamed or embarrassed to have harry wrapped around his finger — he actually loves it because harry's attention is 100% on him and nobody else — he just wants to spend time with him as much as he can. even though he and harry have been up eachother's asses the past month and a half after his shooting incident and through his recovery, it's safe to say harry has become one of louis' safe zones.
"are you..." louis squints at the man under the dark lights. "are you wearing a hula skirt?"
"i am."
"how much did niall pay you?"
"ten bucks and a cigarette."
harry lights said cigarette that niall offered him and finishes his beer while louis sips on his tequila sunrise in silence. the smaller man is swallowed by his button up shirt even though it's clinging to his sweaty chest. it's too hot downstairs with all of the bodies and hyperactivity, he needed a breather to cool off.
he slips his hand under the shirt louis was wearing to rest it on the small of louis' back. louis tenses a bit at the coolness of harry's hand from the cold beer bottle he was holding previously, but he didn't complain because it was absolutely smoldering.
when niall is called onto the stage for his dance, louis watches from the ledge and whistles as the boy goes. not only is there money coming from customers, but zayn walks away and comes back with his own handful of money to throw onto the stage. louis wishes he could pull his phone out and record the look of awe on zayn's face right now but harry held onto it so he could watch his friends from the sidelines.
another limbo round goes on for another private show but louis wasn't too interested in it, so he wiggles his way onto harry's lap to invade his personal space while the man scrolls through his phone. louis takes his lei off of his neck and places it around harry's, asking the man to take a picture, and he holds the side of harry's face while he kisses his cheek for longer than necessary while he takes a selfie of them.
"that's to make up for my thieving," louis hums and harry only grins before turning to look at him.
he traces under harry's jawline while subtly skimming over the man's features. he shaved again recently. his hair has gotten longer. he's pretty. so, so fucking pretty. he's so lucky. fuck. it's happening. it's definitely happening.
"come here," louis mumbles before pulling harry's face closer to his and kisses him. he cradles his face with both of his hands as harry's tighten their grip on his waist. their lips move in the slowest synchronization, just as gentle as could be. he can't help but grin into the kiss that follows suit.
kissing harry is a literal dream come true. he'll never get used to it. anything they do, he has to pinch himself just to make sure it's not a fantasy. they did the deed just that morning and louis slapped himself in the face while looking in the mirror just to be on the safe side.
louis hums as harry moves to press tender kisses to his jaw and neck and places his hands on the man's shoulders. he can feel harry smile against his neck and soon enough zayn texts him to tell him to meet him in the locker room. bummer, because he wanted to spend the rest of his night hiding away from humanity with pretty harry and his soft lips.
harry, though, had continued to just maneuver his mouth to the other side of his neck, distracted by his partner's existence.
"h."
"mhm?"
"i've been summoned by zayn."
as soon as zayn's name fell from his lips, harry began to suck on the small part of his neck that his lips were grazing over.
louis hisses out and tightened his grip on harry's shoulders, fingers bunching up the fabric of his tee. "you shit."
harry's not sure if it was a moan or a complaint but his voice cracked so he's gonna go with the first one. ever so gently, he fluttered a kiss on the hickey he created before trailing more light kisses back to louis' lips.
it makes louis dizzy just how openly affectionate harry is with him. it's great.
"see you later, then?" harry proposed.
"later," louis promises with one last kiss.
as he heads downstairs, he takes a quick glance behind him and sees harry staring at him, holding his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger. he winks at him before completely walking away.
zayn catches him as soon as he hits the bottom step. "your face...is red as fuck."
"i'm pretty sure my lips are gonna fall off," louis sighs a dreamy sigh and he grins once zayn's eyes widen. zayn looks at the top ledge then looks at louis before smirking and tossing an arm around his shoulder while they walk to the locker room.
"quit sucking faces at work, you slut," zayn teases. "not good for the environment, you know."
"louis sucked who?" niall chirps from in the locker room, closing his own locker afterwards.
"his boyfriend," zayn teases and louis throws zayn's arm off of him once the two start to cackle over the way his face reddens even more.
niall suggested that they should go ahead and plan a wedding, so he and zayn toss ideas back and forth out loud and check to see if louis is opposed to any of them. as far as they could tell, louis had a distaste for pink roses but that was it.
louis only hoped they were teasing but part of him knew niall was absolutely serious about this.
"technically this would be louis' second marriage," zayn purses his lips. he and louis share a look before both of them exaggerated a loud gag at the thought. "scratch that. louis' never been married a day in his life."
"i am married in my head," louis shrugs as pushes himself onto the sink. "to ryan reynolds."
"i bet ryan reynolds is married to you in his head, too, lovey," his best friend pats his cheek. "louis reynolds or ryan tomlinson?"
"tomlinson-reynolds."
"or you could mash up the last names. reynoldson? reynlinson? tomlinolds?" niall proposes.
"i like reynoldson," louis shrugs. "louis and ryan reynoldson."
the three strippers all look at eachother questioning the idea before nodding in unison.
"perfect name for a perfect couple."
when zayn found out about the forged marriage ordeal, he nearly had a heart attack. louis called him once they made it to the hotel in vegas and answered all thirty million questions the man asked. where are you? why the fuck does your location say you are in nevada? is marshall still pretty? harry's not going to jail is he? does emma need a babysitter? can niall come?
since they got back, zayn has been checking in on him a lot more. he's been making sure he's got all of his paperwork and everything under the correct name and even went as far as calling his car insurance company, his school, and his mother just to clarify that louis' last name was indeed tomlinson.
when jay asked why, zayn told her that all along he's been pronouncing louis' last name as "tommelson."
jay called him stupid and told him to go back to bed before she sent shark to america in a box full of cotton balls. zayn is absolutely terrified of cotton balls, so he immediately straightened up, told jay he loved her, and promised to never ask such a stupid question ever again before hanging up and crying to louis that his mother was evil.
after louis does a stage dance, a satellite dance plus two private shows, he walks into harry's office with too much money stuffed in his tip bag. so, being the wonderful partner he was, harry helped him count everything out with a counter and swapped his singles for big bills.
"six grand so far," harry flicks the bundled amount of cash at louis' forehead.
"look at that," louis hums and sticks the money back in his bag before locking it in harry's safe.
he pokes his head out from underneath the man's desk and bites his lip. "go lock the door."
—-
the end of the night comes quickly and louis is glad because tonight has worn him down. he's ready to go home, take a long shower and go to bed. he's done a lot of socializing, a lot of stripping, and a lot of collecting back missed time and funds. he definitely didn't make 17 grand, but money is money.
harry waits for him at the bar, keeping light conversation with michael while he closes. michael spots louis walking out of the locker room with the boys and acknowledges him with a nod, which the stripper returns. the bartender throws louis an extra hundred bucks for working extra hard tonight when he didn't even have to.
"i just love your face," louis kisses his cheek and sticks the money in his pocket before looking over at harry. "ready?"
harry nods and grabs his hand while they each bid the bartender a goodnight. they meet up with zayn and niall in the front lobby and the four of them leave together. liam had already left because he went to get late night food for him and his boys.
"so, harold," niall smirks as he looks between harry and louis. "little birdy told me you got smooched on tonight."
"he can get it again," louis says before stopping harry and pulls him in for a kiss, laughing when his friends whistle behind them. harry rolls his eyes at the two boys before pecking louis' lips once more and continuing to go out of the front door with him.
the strippers make quick conversation about how good of a night they had. it was fast and easy for the most part other than zayn having to break up a small fight between three of the girls around two. then niall smacked his head against his locker and cut his eyebrow, so louis had to play mr. fixer-upper and slap a bandaid on the boy's head. literally slapped it onto him. what 22 year old man chooses a sparkly pink bandage for a face wound?
then again, this is niall.
harry's head snaps up when the sound of glass breaking and an alarm going off catches his attention. he releases louis and runs toward the side of the parking lot it was coming from, niall following in tow after retrieving his gun from his backpack. he tells zayn and louis to stay put until zayn eyes a camaro speeding out of the parking lot. then he makes a run for it, dragging louis with him.
"holy...shit," he comes to a stop and grabs louis' keys from the boy's other hand to turn off the alarm.
"you've got to be fucking kidding me," louis unties his boots, stepping out of them so he can run towards his vehicle in only socks. harry scolds him because he could easily cut his feet on the broken glass that lies at the tires but louis ignores his words, only doing a full loop around his mercedes with his hands in his hair.
four of the windows were smashed in with glass covering the seats and floorboards. a baseball bat, presumed was the item used to bust them, lays in the back seat. the tires were slashed as well.
louis places his hands on the trunk of his car, dropping his head. he takes a deep breath and looks up to see niall grabbing the bat, careful not to cut himself on any shards of glass.
"mitch can put in an order to get you a new car," he says.
"i don't want a new car."
"you're getting a new car. until then, you're driving one of mine." harry orders.
with an infuriated eye roll, louis allows his partner to put his boots back on his feet so he doesn't get hurt.
harry hurriedly dials mitch and tells him to come back to the club as soon as he can before he hangs up and grabs louis, ushering him away from the car.
an uneasy feeling swarms louis' entirety and he looks back at harry, who now has his eyes focused on him. "dibs on the ferarri," he says, tone light and almost inaudible.
"take it then, baby," harry kisses the top of his head. "i'm taking you to my house where you'll be better armed. gonna have liam come sit with you. and then i'm coming back to figure this shit out." he scans louis' eyes and notices a twinge of an undetermined feeling lying beneath his features. fear...maybe doubt. "unless you'd prefer i stay with you and have the boys do this."
"stay with me," louis whispers, "please."
nodding, harry pulls the shaking boy to his chest and holds him tight. "of course. i got you, bunny. always got you."
he tells the two working on the mercedes that he's taking louis home but he'll stay until mitch arrives. when both of the other lads say that's fine with them, get louis home safely, he locks louis inside of his audi and gives him his gun just in case.
"i'm gonna fucking kill him," zayn grits as he rounds the vehicle. "i put money it was him."
"who, luke?" niall asks.
"who else around here drives a camaro except for him?"
"depends on the color."
"black. looked like a zl1."
niall bites his lip and flicks his eyes over at harry. "luke's camaro is red...unless a customer drives a black camaro 'round here, dominic and mitch are the only other ones i know that works here and owns one."
the youngest of them smacks his head against the trunk of the vandalized mercedes benz. "mitch has an ss and he doesn't even drive it."
"and dom?"
"his is blue."
"which could easily be mistaken for black in the dark if it's a darker shade..."
zayn picks up the baseball bat that was used and inspects it, sighing when he noticed something scribbled onto the bottom of it. "guys..." he points the handled end towards niall and harry with a look of unease.
- xoxo, monty
when harry looks down at the bat, he turns sharp on his heels to rush to the audi. he taps on the window and motions for louis to roll it down. when the window is lowered, he pokes his head in.
"any idea of who monty is?"
louis' face goes sheet white. "...mylo."
the gang member sighs heavily. "fuck. okay. okay."
"why?"
harry whistles at the two working on the vehicle and points to the baseball bat in zayn's hand. "bring that here."
he shows louis the script on the weapon and the smaller man tears up, throwing a light, defeated punch to harry's steering wheel as he lays his head against it.
"monty's a family nickname," he whimpers.
tires squeal as a car comes to a halt behind them and mitch is already snapping profanities after profanities when he gets a look at the scene.
"you get that boy home now," he says to harry. "i fucking mean it."
—-
poor louis can never have a good day without something bad happening 😭 me too lou, me too.
so what the happ is fuckening?
who do you think is behind all this mess?
why is mitch suddenly so protective over louis?
i shall see you soon ❤️🔥