Louis' POV
When I see Harry standing at the door, I'm reminded of how mad his dad is. I don't know why Harry's dad had been so mad when he saw me, I'm not sure I want to know. I was considering slamming the door in Harry's face, but figure that would make things worse. Instead I just stood there thinking about what I could have done.
Whatever it was, it must be bad. I mean, I haven't done anything. I got here last night, I haven't had enough time to screw something up. Have I? I hear myself gasp, but it doesn't register in my brain. Neither does Harry concerned face, I'm probably pale and clammy looking, but I don't even care at the moment.
I did do something wrong. Last night when I was walking back from my room, I went the wrong way and ended up in a room that I wasn't meant to be in. Had someone seen me? There was no one around that I could see. I thought about it, and the memory came back to me quickly.
*Flashback*
Harry is so cute. I wonder if I can get out of this whole marriage thing and be with him instead...probably not, but for one more night I'm single, so I can think whatever I want and not feel guilty about it.
I turn the corner and keep walking, totally lost in my day dreams. Well, night dreams I suppose. I turn another corner and then realized I'm lost. I sigh to myself and continue to walk around, determined to find my way on my own. Even if I had wanted directions, it was three in the morning, who would be working this late?
I notice a small trap door. I shouldn't snoop, but I can't help it. I open it up and see stairs.
They are less extravagant them the other staircases in the palace. I tried to remember what floor I was on. The second, right? I knew my way around the first floor, and once I find the staircase down there I know where to go.
What could I possibly lose?
I walked to the stairs and looked down. It got dark at some point, but there were little lights lining the walls. This staircase was very peculiar. It was still nice, just not as nice as everything else. It looks sort of out of place. As long as it takes me where I need to go, it should be fine.
Its not like it was falling apart. the stairs were made of cement, instead of marble covered by a layer of carpet like the other stairs. It didn't look super safe, if I fell I would probably be injured.
I walked down the steps for a while and looked for a door, after a while, it became clear these stairs didn't lead anywhere, and where just a mistake. I was about to give up, when I saw a sign.
Playroom
Playroom? What on earth is a playroom doing this deep in the castle? And why would they have a room for kids when they only had one? Did the prince have a sibling I didn't know about? I don't know much about him, so it would make sense if he did and I didn't know. I shrugged and kept walking. I came to a door. I turned the knob, and it was unlocked. I pushed the door open.
Jesus Christ!
This is not what I was expecting.
The room had lights everywhere, when I flipped the switch, they lit up red. There was a bed in the middle, pushed up against the wall. Next to the bed was a night stand, it had a lot of drawers. Too many drawers for it to be a normal nightstand. On another wall was a giant cabinet. I resisted the temptation to open it. The next wall was covered in belts, whips, and other things like that. All hung up nice and neat. There was some speakers sitting on the floor, next to one of the outlets. It was full of other things that I couldn't even name.
I knew I wasn't supposed to be here, it it was very obvious that this wasn't leading to the second floor. I started walking up there stairs after closing the door again.
This doesn't make any sense. Why would they have that kind of playroom? And why wouldn't they take better effort to hide it? I mean sure, the stairs were put in a tiny corner that would take a lot of effort to find if you didn't know where they were. But why not put it in a random room, and just lock the door? Why would you make it all the way down there, and why wouldn't you lock the door? And what was with all the toys? Was this the prince's playroom?
That last thought intrigued me.
I finally got to the top of the stairs, and after stumbling around for a while, I made it back to me room.
*Flashback over*
Oh god. What if it wasn't the princes, but the kings? That thought didn't even enter my head last night! It would make sense why he would be mad about that, anyone would, but it still doesn't make sense. How would he have seen me?
"LOUIS!"
I snapped back to reality and remembered that Harry was at my door.
"Yes?" I had to give myself some credit, my voice was calm and didn't shake at all.
"Are you ok? You zoned out and it was like I wasn't here."
"Im fine."
"You're not fine"
"Are too"
"Are not"
"This is not important Harry. What are you doing here?"
His face softened when I asked that. His eyes lost their anger and it was replaced with concern.
"I wanted to make sure they didn't hurt you. My dad can be rough sometimes."
"Well, I'm fine. No one hurt me."
He nodded and then walked further into my room without asking permission. I mean, who does he think he is? He took everything in, like he was trying to remember every detail. When he was finally done criticizing my room, he turned to me again.
He sighed. "Why didn't you tell me you were a prince? Yesterday, you lied and said you just worked here."
My first thought was to go into defense mode. My brain was telling me to snap back, ask why he had lied to me. Thats normally what I would do, but I didn't want to. The emotion in his face told me he really wanted to know why I didn't tell him.
"I don't know. I-I suppose I thought you were nice, I figured if I told you who I was you would just turn to stone and give me nothing but stiff responses." It was the truth, I hated when people clammed up when I told them I royal. How was I supposed to know he wouldn't?
His eyes wouldn't meet mine. Finally he looked up at me, and slowly spoke.
"I didn't know you were a prince."
"Well I know, we just established that." Of course he didn't know. Didn't he just ask why I didn't tell him?
"No I mean, I didn't know I was marrying a prince. It was supposed to be a princess, but they messed up the arrangements."
I'm pretty sure he is still talking, but I stopped listening at princess. This was what I was afraid of. He doesn't want me, he doesn't want a prince. He wants a princess. I'm so stupid.
He isn't gay.
"I'm so sorry. I'll go home straight away, tell my parents there was a mix up. I don't know if they will listen but they might. We don't have any other children of age, so you will have to ask another family. Im so so sorry. I didn't know you were straight-"
"Ew. I am NOT straight. I'm defiantly gay. I am very happy that I'm marrying you instead of a princess."
Didn't he just say he was expecting a princess? Why would they call a princess over for a marriage instead of a prince if he was gay?
"My parents arranged me to marry a princess. It was their attempt to fix me. As you can see, it backfired tremendously, because, well, you're a guy."
Fix him? Why would they need to fix him? He seemed perfect. What could possibly be wrong with him? What's wrong with being gay?
"Why would they need to fix you? You seem perfect." The words come out of my mouth before I even think about them. I just said he is perfect. What is wrong with me!
"Oh I am defiantly perfect." He jokes while giving me a wink.
"Don't get too cocky, I said you seem perfect. I don't really know anything about you."
"Well, we should change that."
He grabs my wrist and pulls me out the door. Before he goes any further he checks the hallways for guards and when he doesn't see any, he starts running. He is dragging me behind him when he suddenly stops and turn around.
"You're slowing us down! Pick up the pace!" He says.
"I can't help it, your legs are like a mile long, of course you're gonna be faster than me."
"Get on my back."
"What? No!"
"Yes"
"No"
"Yes"
"No"
"Don't make me throw you over my shoulder, I will do it."
I groan and jump on his back, not wanting to be slung on his shoulder. It's awkward being so close to him when I barely know him, but he seems to be doing just fine. He laughs and keeps running.
"Hold on the me or you're going to fall!" He yells. Much to loud for my taste, doesn't he know guards come running when people yell?
As if on cue, two guards come running towards us from a hallways off the the side. They look familiar but I can't place them.
"Harry? What on earth are you doing? Who are you carrying?" One of them asks.
"Hey wait, that's the prince from earlier! The one who was outside the door waiting to go and talk to him." The other says.
Oh right! They're the guards who were joking around with the other people when they came for their shift. Zayn and Payne, or something like that.
The one that I think is Zayn gives me a look, just like before, I have no idea what it means. The other guy, Payne, just gives Harry a smirk.
"I see you two get along nicely." Payne says, still smirking at Harry.
"Get off it Liam, don't you have a job to do? I could fire you right now, you know." Harry and Liam laugh. Why are they laughing? Didn't Harry just threaten to fire him?
"Alright alright. Come on Zayn, let's give these two some alone time." He winks at me. Like a true two year old, Harry sticks his tongue out at him the turns away.
They are about the walk away when Zayn looks at me, then back at Harry, then me again, then he sighs. He lightly shakes his head and walks away. Harry didn't notice a thing.
He doesn't run this time, he slows to a walk, then lets me off his back. He tells me to follow him, so I do. In the back of my mind, my sanity is telling me not to go with the boy who you don't know at all the some place that you don't know how to get away from. He grabs my hand and leads me through the gates that lead to the garden.
This garden is different from ours. It stretch's out for what seems like forever. Theres flowers and hedges, all trimmed to perfection. Fountains stand in random places, but still look as if they are there for a reason. Every so often there's a bench, I count about five in my line of vision. This garden reminds me of a maze, not the big scary kind, but the kind you could be lost in forever and never get bored. Harry drags me far into the garden, before he checks to make sure we are alone. He walks over to one of the tall hedges that completely surrounds the garden. He slowly reaches in and pulls the bush open. It's not a big gap, tight for someone like Harry, but comfortable for a person like me. He squeezes through and I hear him call to me from the other side.
"Are you coming or not?"
I think about it. He could kill me if he wanted to, being alone out in whatever is past these hedges. This could be where they take all the people who need to die. Or it could be an adventure. The latter seems more fun, so its the one I choose to believe. After all, we just met what reason could he possibly have to hurt me?
"Yes, I'm coming."
I walk through the hole and I'm met by trees. Lots and lots of trees. There's a beaten down trial; made by people walking there over the years. I don't see what out here could possibly be worth the risk of being caught, but I choose to follow Harry deeper into the woods.
After a good bit of time walking, I'm starting to rethink my choice. We have seen nothing but tree's, and Harry hasn't said a word to me since we got out here. Sometimes he glances at me, looking nervous. Im about to tell him we need to go back before it gets to late, when I run into something. I look up and see Harry, blocking the path.
He grins. "We're here! Sorry that took so long, I don't remember the trail being that long. Suppose I haven't been here in a while, but still, I didn't think it would take nearly twenty minutes to walk here."
"Right...and where exactly is here?"
He moves out of the way and without him in my way, I can see the beauty in front of me. It's a lake. It has crystal clear water, you can see all the way to the bottom, but it's also a striking blue. It must only be a few feet deep, it looks like if I got in it would only go to my chest. There's a little dock near by, leading out onto the lake and ending at around fifteen feet in. Lily pad's cover parts of it, most of them have beautiful pink flowers blooming on them. When we were walking here, I must have stopped paying attention to my surroundings because there were no longer green pine trees everywhere. I didn't understand how the tree type had changed so suddenly, but everywhere I looked I saw weeping willows. Hundreds of them, all different colors. Some of them are pink, some yellow, some green, and a couple are a light purple. Most of them are yellow or green color, but not in a harsh way, they are soft and pale. More like pastel colors. If you looked far back, you could see when they started to turn into pine tree's again. The grass out here is long. Not long enough to where it needs to be cut to walk it, but long enough that if you plucked a couple pieces, you could make a grass braid. It went up just a bit past my ankles.
I turned back to Harry, and noticed he wasn't even looking at the lake. He was looking at me. I felt my cheeks flush and tried to cover it up.
"This is beautiful." I managed to say.
"I know." Harry whispered, still only looking at me. Suddenly, something clicked in his brain and he noticed he was staring and he quickly looked away. "Let go for a swim."
"What? No, I haven't got any trunks!"
"You've got boxers, right?" I nod. "Great, go head and strip down then." Isn't he being a bit forward? I am not going to swim with him in just my underwear, especially because I'm not wearing boxers, I'm wearing panties, and he does not need to know that.
I don't even have time to tell him no because the breath is knocked out of me. In the time it took me to process what he had asked, he had striped off his shirt and pants and was now standing in his black boxers. When I say that Harry out shines the lake but about a million points, I mean it. I have never seen anyone as hot as Harry. Not just hot, but beautiful. He expects me to strip when he's over there with his perfect abs and toned body? No way. Panties are the least of my worries now, he can not see my body. He will be disgusted.
"Louis, did you hear me? We are going to swim, take off you're clothes."
No no no.
"Ah sorry mate, I don't take off clothes on the first date." Did I just say date? What is wrong with me! This isn't a date!
"Date? I wasn't aware this was a date, I would've done my hair." My eyes look up to his hair, and it looks perfect. Of course. "Well, if you don't want to take off you're clothes I'll have to throw you I with them on. Im very sorry, but that's just the way it works."
I sigh and decide I would rather have dry clothes to change into later.
"Turn around. And do not judge me." He dramatically sighs and he turns around.
I start by taking off my pants, then my shirt and then I look back up and realize Harry has been watching me the entire time.
"Harry! I said to turn around!" He doesn't respond.
I notice that his eyes have left me face and started traveling down my body. They stop at my panties. His eyes get a bit wider and he licks his lips.
"You were panties?" He says in a deep voice.
"Yes, they are comfortable. I said don't judge me."
"Oh I'm not judging, don't worry." My minds works to process what he said, and when it dose my cheeks get hot.
He slowly walks up to me, then brings his eyes back to my face. Just as I think he is about to kiss me or something, he picks me up like a baby and runs to the edge of the water.
"Don't you dare Harry! Do not! It's probably cold and I need to warm up to it first!" I yell. He sets me down, then jumps in. He walks up to the edge and I'm surprised to see that the water goes all the way to his neck, meaning it was deeper than I thought.
"Come here." Harry says softly, and I forget everything I just said. I walk over to him and put may legs in the water, just as he reaches up and puts his hands on my waist. The water is warm, but I still shiver. He lifts me up lightly and slowly brings me down into the water. It goes up to my chin when he sets me down. I don't feel like straining to keep water out of my mouth, so I reach up and wrap my arms around Harry's neck. I pull my self up and wrap my legs around his waist.
I remember that this is our only our second interaction and quickly unwrap my legs and start to swim away from him.
He gives me a questioning look. "What are doing?"
"'M sorry. I shouldn't have done that." I mumble.
"No I meant, why did you move away?"
What? Why wouldn't I move away, I don't even know him. I shouldn't even be here in the first place.
He grabbed my hands before I could move any further away, and pulls me back to him. He grabs my thighs and wraps them back around his waist. He leans next to my ear and I can feel his breath hitting my neck. My heart rate seeds up, and I pray he can't hear it.
"You really should have thought twice before coming into the water," he whispers into my ear, "because I will absolutely dominate you in a splash fight."
Suddenly I'm pushed back and he moves his hands in the water, making a wall of water splash over my head.
The next hour is spent with us chasing after each other in the lake, splashing each other, and trying to see who can do the biggest cannonball off the dock. It's easily the most fun I've had in a while. When the sun starts to set, we climb out of the water and go to sit under a willow tree. Harry picks a flower off one of the branches and tucks it behind my ear, I grin like a fool. We stay until the sun is fully set and then we decide we should go back before questions start getting asked about where we are. We make the walk back in comfortable silence.
Harry takes me back to my room and says good night.
I walk inside my room and take the flower out of my hair. I set it onto the nightstand and hope that it never wilts.