"Okay! You know what? I think that's enough." Louis tried to stand up from where he was sitting on a chair in front of his full body mirror.
"Sit!" Harry ordered, pushing him down again by the shoulders.
"My hair is fucking stale. I don't need anymore of that!" he complained.
"Just a little bit more." Harry squirted even more gel into his hands and continued combing through Louis' already rock hard hair. It didn't even feel like hair anymore, it was just stale stripes of hair product. Normally, Louis would never have allowed anyone to fix his hair but seeing as Harry was breaking all of his small but very important rules lately, he'd agreed to let him do it.
After examining his work thoroughly Harry finally seemed pleased with the result. Louis was already scowling at the reflection in the mirror. He looked like a cartoon of some sort. He was wearing extremely tight red pants, a snug button down shirt that was almost suffocating at the collar and his hair was parted in the middle and all in all he looked like a little nerd. All that was missing was a book of algebra tucked under his arm.
Harry pulled out a pair of big hipster glasses from God knows where and slid them on Louis. "There. Now you look like a perfect little gay boy," he said, clearly satisfied with the look. Louis glared at him. Harry had made him look so much worse than he had expected when he'd agreed to this.
"I hate you," Louis said, looking narrow-eyed up at him.
"You don't." Harry said and dried off some gel from his hands with a towel.
"Oh but I do."
"Nope." Harry smiled and adjusted Louis glasses a little. His finger slid along Louis jaw and automatically Louis was breathless. "Because every time I do this..." Harry leaned down and placed a soft, heart-stopping kiss on his lips. Louis' response was almost instinctual. He immediately wrapped his arms around Harry's neck, pulling him in and reciprocated the kiss the best way he knew how. To his dismay Harry broke the embrace and smirked at him. "...you do that."
"But you're hot."
Harry chuckled and pulled Louis up from the chair by his arms. "I've been told."
"Oh, being modest are we?" Louis said. Harry just rolled his eyes and laced his arms around Louis' waist. It felt so unreal. It had been only an hour since their kiss on the kitchen floor and already Louis felt like Harry belonged with him. He was acting sweet and he was cute and funny and always seemed to find a way to kiss his cheek. Louis turned crimson every single time. It was such a coupley thing to do, and to be honest he loved it.
"You on the other hand look like a little school boy."
Louis scowled. "And whose fault is that? If you'd let me do it then I could have turned this thing to my benefit. I could've looked sexy instead of a young little twink."
"I think you're cute."
"Harry. I've told you, looking cute is not a compliment. If you want to say I look nice, tell me I'm hot."
"But you do look cute."
"Harry!"
"Quite adorable actually."
"Harold. Say I look hot."
"But –"
"Tell me I look hot!" Louis exclaimed.
"Jesus," Harry flinched. "Okay, you look very hot, Louis."
"Well, thank you. Now kiss me."
"You do a lot of ordering around, don't you?"
"Shut up and kiss me, Harold." Harry rolled his eyes and kissed him. Louis grinned into the kiss. He knew many ways of making somebody kiss him, but the simplest was just to tell them. Harry's lips were warm as always and his fingers fiddled with the edge of Louis' shirt, finger occasionally brushing his bare back, making him shiver. It was so easy to melt into him and forgetting what was going on in real life. All Louis could think about was the brush of Harry's curls against his forehead and the taste of his tongue against his lips. He didn't know how long they stood there, it could have been minutes or hours or days. All Louis wanted was more, more and more.
"You need to go to work." Harry mumbled against his skin.
"I don't want to let you go. You're warm."
"You start in twenty minutes."
"You're still warm." Louis snuggled closer, burying his face in Harry's shoulder.
"Lou..."
"Five more minutes." Harry seemed to give up at that and just hugged Louis tighter.
Things had gone so fast. Maybe it was because of how they'd met or because both just knew what they wanted, or rather what they didn't want. Louis knew he didn't want to be just friends with Harry and he knew he didn't want Harry to be with anybody else. But what were they now? He wasn't sure he wanted to be boyfriend to a rock star or even if he wanted to be a boyfriend or have one at all. He liked to party. He liked to kiss random people and have sex a lot and do what he pleased. Being tied to someone wasn't something he'd planned to be until a reasonable age, approximately thirty-two.
"Harry?" he asked softly. "What are we?"
"I don't know." Harry mumbled against him. "This happened very fast."
"Maybe we should take it slow. See where things go."
Harry leaned back and his deep green eyes stared into Louis'. "You want to do that?"
Suddenly he felt a little nervous. What was he getting into? "Um, yeah. Okay."
"So we're kind of...you know, dating a little bit?" Harry bit his lip and looked at him through his lashes. It was adorable.
"Dating a little bit?" Louis grinned at the expression. "Okay, yes. We're kind of dating a little bit."
"Okay, good. We're on the same page then." Harry grinned back.
"But we don't tell people, alright? I don't want to be in some publicity thing, kay?" Harry nodded seriously and kissed his cheek.
"My lips are sealed."
---
"HOLY FUCKING JESUS! LOUIS IS DATING A FUCKING ROCK STAR!!!!!"
"Niall! Shut the fuck up!" Louis hissed and anxiously looked around. He just knew he shouldn't have told him yet. Louis was in his ridiculous outfit at work and had received numerous looks and stares. He was starting to get pissed off because they were just plain rude. Niall had come around after his shift at the electronic shop had ended as usual and was waiting for his caramel latte and Louis had decided to spill the beans.
"But Lou! This is huge!" He tried to keep his voice down but didn't succeed very well. "I mean with Harry comes a huge fucking package deal!" Then his eyes drifted into space and he looked absolutely gone. "He could take us everywhere..."
"Snap out of it, Niall. And it's not a big deal really. Well, it's fucking crazy, but we're not together or anything. We're just gonna' casually hang out and make out a lot."
"But it's Harry Styles. This is crazy man." Louis handed him his latte and he took a careful sip. Today Niall was dressed in blue jeans, a white shirt that said 'crazy mofo' and dark shades and Louis immediately could tell he was trying to look cool for some reason.
"So what's wrong with you, why are you wearing sunglasses inside?"
"I'm meeting Shauna after this."
"How is that going?"
"I don't know. We hang out, fuck and then she's gone." The poor kid actually looked sad.
"Niall. I told you not to get hung up on this," he sighed and Niall hung his head. "But don't worry Darren and I are going to meet tomorrow and figure this thing out on our apparent date."
"Date?"
"I accidentally said yes. Did you even know he's gay?"
"Well, he kissed you so maybe that's a hint."
Louis rolled his eyes. He had still no idea of how to get out of that one. He couldn't exactly call and cancel because the meaning behind seeing him was for charity right, so that would just be awful. And he couldn't tell him "I changed my mind, sorry" after a few hours. He could say he'd decided to go celibate...but lying isn't really nice, is it? Sigh. He would just have to find away to avoid doing anything that could lead Darren on in any way. No physical contact, no looking into his eyes or joke about sex. Nothing. God, how was he going to manage about two hours without any of that?
It was a slow day at the coffee shop and Niall eventually left to go see the skinny little bitch and when the clock hit six, Lindsay finally came to take over for Louis. He was leaning on against the counter with the twitter app up.
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
I've gone through with my part of the bet. No need to worry @Harry_Styles I'm still alive.
Leigh Simons (@LeighSss)
AW do you think he's worried??<3
Samine (@Samiiiii)
You two are so cute
Jackie Almond (@Almondslivelong)
What did you have to do Tommo?xxx
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
I wore a special little outfit to work and have endured the rudeness of many narrow-minded people. Been a pleasure x
"Wow, Louis. I like your sense of fashion today. Who are you wearing?" Lindsay smirked.
"Actually it's a challenge."
"What did the other guy do?" she said as she made herself a coffee behind the bar.
"He wore yellow pants."
"Lame." Yeah it was... Louis should have made him do something worse.
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
What if hypothetically @Harry_Styles were to do another challenge...What should he do?
Beauty and the beast (@YokerBBb)
Go nude at his next concert. We want to see his junk
Louis snickered. Wouldn't they all love that. He resisted the idea to answer with a "Sorry already seen it" and kept scrolling through his answers. Since Harry had mentioned him in his vine clip he had gained tons of more followers and the numbers were increasing excessively with every hour.
Cameron James (@CamJames777)
Make him dress up as a girl
Now that was a good one, and Harry would love it. Louis read through some other stuff but he had already decided what to challenge Harry with.
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
I here by officially challenge Mr. @Harry_Syles to dress up as a girl in his next interview. Wearing a dress is preferable.
Louis smirked as he sent the tweet out and awaited the answer. Harry sure would be up for it. He was competitive and just like Louis hated to lose. He wouldn't hesitate to do it.
Louis got his stuff from the locker room behind the kitchen and swiftly filed out of the shop. He decided to walk home and the idea to grab a coffee on his way out turned out to be a good one because it was still quite chilly out even though it was the end of March. When he was halfway home his phone chirped and he got his answer from Harry.
Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles)
@TheTommo I'll do it if you do a thing for me.
Louis smirked.
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
@Harry_Styles What go down on ya?
Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles)
@TheTommo Stop being dirty minded. I was talking about a challenge.
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
@Harry_Styles Oh really were you now xxxxxxxx
Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles)
@TheTommo If you go for a cheeky little swim in the lake with the ducks I will gladly dress up as a girl
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
@Harry_Styles But it's March
Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles)
@TheTommo Take it or leave it. I'll be needing proof
The Tommo (@TheTommo)
Taking it. But you better be wearing lipstick or I'm never talking to you again.
Harry Styles (@Harry_Styles)
@TheTommo xxxxxxxxxxxxx
--
Louis was nervous. He was sitting in a corner at Starbucks waiting for Darren to arrive. He had gotten here early to try to prepare. He wasn't sure what to expect. It was a first date after all so there probably wasn't anything to worry about really. He'd made sure to sit near the bathrooms so that if things got uncomfortable he could easily excuse himself. The place wasn't too full and he had already ordered his coffee and a bagel when Darren stepped inside the coffee shop. Darren's eyes didn't find him immediately and for a moment he contemplated hiding and not alerting him to his presence in the back, but he wasn't a jerk dammit and this guy was Niall's friend. He took a deep breath and called out,
"Darren! Over here." Great, now he sounded eager to see him.
"Oh, there you are!" he smiled enthusiastically. Louis didn't get up to give him a hug. He had planned this very well and decided a very platonic and very, very brotherly handshake was a good way to go. Darren strolled over to where he was sitting and pulled off his jacket, smiling brightly.
"Hi."
"Oh, you already ordered." Yes, he had. Now Darren couldn't offer to buy him anything and Louis wouldn't feel like a jerk for not doing it either.
"Yeah. Uh...you can go order. I'll wait here."
"Oh. Okay." Darren trailed off to the counter with a confused look. Louis buried his face in his hands as soon as he was gone. This was going to be awful. Just...awful. He brought up his phone and typed out a message.
-Kill me. Niall. Kill me. What do I do. What do I do.
-Be nice. And come up with a plan.
Louis groaned. Niall was no help whatsoever. Darren was at the front of the line now and when he turned and found Louis looking at him he waved with a grin. Fuck. He was definitely sending the wrong signals. He quickly looked away and silently begged the gods for someone to take him away.
"So how are you?" Darren said when he was back with a coffee and a muffin.
"I'm good, good." Could this get any more awkward? "You?"
"Great!" The enthusiasm in his voice was painful and Louis wanted to drown himself for not focusing on the phone call before. Louis tried to smile convincingly at Darren and it seemed he succeeded because he beamed back at him. Louis made a mental note to smile less.
"So let's get on with this. Any ideas on how dear Nialler will get the girl to stick around?" The sooner they were done with this, the better.
"Not really. I saw this move and I got the idea of trying to make her jealous but I don't think that will work in this situation. I mean that would probably just give her more reason to go." Louis nodded slowly, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. Good thinking Darren, but hey, let's talk about things that could actually help.
"The movie was really funny though. You should see it." It sounded like a bore. "Maybe we could go together?" SHIT. Shit. Already Darren was bringing those kinds of things. What did he say to that? Darren was looking up at him nervously and with big eyes and all Louis could do was internally scream for help. He swallowed harshly. What did he say to that? Here they were on a so called date and he hadn't even explained to Darren that he wasn't quite as fond of him as he was in return and now he was asking for more and it wasn't like he could pretend that seeing a movie together was absolutely and totally platonic because it wouldn't be, at least not for Darren.
"Uhm, maybe," he said awkwardly. He didn't look him in the eye but he regretted it immediately because this could be taken as him being shy. Not good.
The "date" carried on and it was horrible. Darren kept changing the subject to Louis or something that was relatable to them dating. It was actually starting to get annoying how much he avoided talking about Niall but at the same time quite impressing of how many ways he found to trail the subject back to Louis. And Louis did everything in his power to turn the subject back. He tried to come up with ideas but was interrupted by Darren's jokes and topic changes and sometimes he didn't even realize they weren't talking about what was important anymore.
The thing that made Louis extremely uncomfortable was the way Darren looked at him. It was some sort of hungry stare that wasn't at all as appealing as the way Harry would look at him. Harry would bite his lower lip and lick it absentmindedly and he would trail Louis' features with his eyes and then Louis would feel warm and fluttery inside. Darren's look felt intruding and he felt self-conscious in an entirely different way. More like "Don't touch my goods! I'll beat you with a stick!" instead of "Pounce on me bitch. I want to feel your hands on my body".
"So how was your day yesterday then?" Darren asked happily. Louis was starting to wonder if he was going to ask about every day of his week. Darren would not stop asking him all sorts of questions and he considered snapping at him, saying, "making out with Harry Son of God Styles, but that wasn't really an option was it.
"Uh, Niall and I went to Stan's for a party." He answered. An idea flashed to his mind. "You should have been there. There were a lot of hot guys." There hadn't been.
Darren stared confusedly at him. "Uh..."
"I mean no one goes up to my standards but still. You should have come. Get some." He said casually, watching his reactions intently.
Darren eyed him carefully and Louis felt very unsure all of a sudden. "Actually I already have my mind set on someone." He nudged his knee to Louis' under the table and Louis' eyes widened in shock. No. No. No. That went in the wrong direction. That was so not how it was supposed to turn out! Bad move, Tommo. BAD MOVE! He didn't know what to do. He stared back at Darren who smiled back at him, intentions very clear.
Suddenly his phone started to ring. The lords had heard his prays and they'd sent a phone call to save him! Thank you, God! He made a quiet promise to go to church more often and sent a not very sincere apologetic look at Darren and left the table.
"Hello?" he answered as he let out a breath of relief.
"Hey, it's me." The low familiar voice sent a smile across his face.
"Couldn't go a day without me, huh?" he smiled, secretly very happy he'd called. He could almost tell over the line how Harry rolled his eyes. "Did you miss me, babe?"
"Maybe a little," Harry answered and Louis mentally slapped himself for blushing.
"You're lucky because I miss you too."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm on a date."
Harry chuckled. "Right. How's that going? I hope he hasn't touched you."
"As if I'd let him. And it's awful. It's so awkward the penguins in the south can feel it." Louis groaned.
"Have you come up with an idea yet?"
"No, the bastard changes the subject all the time and whenever I mention Niall he starts talking about me. I don't know what's wrong with him."
Harry laughed. "Well you are a lot more interesting than Niall, Lou, if you know what I mean. I can see where he is coming from."
"You're not helping. And he keeps talking about taking me to the movies to see a really bad movie that doesn't sound interesting in the least." Louis sighed. He waited for Harry to answer and cheer him up somehow but Harry was silent. "Babe?" he asked.
"I want to do that," Harry sounding like he was pouting.
"What?"
"Take you out. Go to the movies. Dates."
"Oh." Die, butterflies. Die.
"Can I do that?" Harry wondered in a low voice. Was he nervous? Louis was. "Would that be okay?" More than anything.
"That-that would be okay." He breathed.
"But you don't want people to see you with me." Harry said sadly.
"That's not it at all, Harry! You're being stupid. And if you really want to we'll just be sneaky about it."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Oh, okay." Harry let out a breath into his phone and Louis felt like he could feel the relief just fly over onto him as well.
"I think I have to hang up, Haz," Louis said reluctantly as he found Darren staring at him. Slowly he began towards the table of pain.
"Call me later?"
"Of course."
"Laters, Lou."
"Bye, baby." He hung up and sat down at the table.
"Who was that?" Darren wondered, looking kind of suspiciously at him. None of your business, he wanted to say and glare but the question was innocent and Louis sighed inside.
"Um, Niall."
"You call Niall 'baby'?" he asked. Oh.
"Uh, yes?" he said, making it sound like a question. He tried to fix it. "Of course. Yeah. All the time." God, he sounded so freaking weird. Could this date end already?
But the date continued and still Louis couldn't get Darren to remain on the subject of Niall for more than seconds. The difference of how Louis felt about Harry and Darren were even clearer than ever now that he'd just talked to Harry. His gut was still warm from the fluttery feelings he got every time Harry spoke to him and Darren's babble had nothing to offer and he didn't do anything for Louis in the slightest. His breath didn't catch when he looked at him and he didn't get lost in his eyes and he definitely didn't want to pounce on him and press him up against nearest wall or fuck him in the bathroom. No, that was only Harry.
--
*FAN POV*
Elle and Jenna were bored. They'd spent the day watching movies but slowly they had got tired of watching Zac Efron cry over his dead little brother or watching Chuck Bass pine over Blair Waldorf, so they had turned to watching YouTube videos and scrolling through their twitters.
"I wonder who The Tommo is. Do you really still think it's someone Harry slept with? I mean they seem like they're just really good friends."
"But he just started following him though," Elle said and then sighed heavily. "Oh, I don't know..."
"Why does he have to be anonymous," Jenna complained exasperatedly. "I want to know who he is."
"Well, we know some things about him! Let's make a list and we'll go from there." Elle suggested and Jenna nodded.
"He's twenty-one
"He goes to Uni in the city and is studying to become a drama teacher
"He likes to party
"He obviously likes Tom's
"And stripes
"And Harry," Jenna snickered.
"He's gay
"His best friends' names start with an N
They looked at each other. "You do realize we just have to go ask around at his college and we can find out who he is?" Jenna said with a big smile. Elle smirked smugly back at her, the sneaky little investigator that is buried inside every directioner coming out of its shell.