Golden // Larry Stylinson

Chapter Fourteen

"Our lives are literally giant, twisted games of Simon Says." Harry mutters as the five yet again leave Simon's office after being chewed out for the displays of affection on stage the previous night.

"You boys will never learn, will you?" Zayn mocks Simon's words in a high pitched voice, sneering as he says it.

"He's the one that needs to learn you can't squish the gay away." Louis mutters, reaching out for Harry's hand.

"He keeps threatening to fire us, but he's been doing that for months and we haven't stopped. If he was going to, he would've done it by now." Liam ponders aloud, putting their situation in a new light.

"He always says 5am tomorrow, but every time I wake up I'm still employed." Niall shakes his head. "Crazy."

"We're not backing down though, right?" Liam looks to Harry, then Louis. "Did you get the flags?"

"Gemma's dropping them off before the concert tonight. She's going to be in the audience."

"Perfect." Louis squeezes his boyfriend's hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing his hand softly.

Back on the bus to the hotel, they all crash on the sofa and floor, Harry laying across Louis' chest, his legs dangling off the edge of the couch.

Louis' hands trace warm patterns into Harry's chest, having slipped under his shirt. Tracing the swallows, he smiles to himself as he remembers what they represent.

"You're my angel." Louis whispers into Harry's ear, making the younger boy's heart flutter.

"You're my baby." He returns the smile, especially when Louis' lips press slowly against his.

He wants to shift on the couch so he's on all fours, face-to-face with Louis in order to have a proper makeout session, but he knows the other boys wouldn't appreciate that very much, and they gathered for a reason.

"So it's the last show tonight." Niall sighs, pretending to be oblivious to the mild face-swallowing on the couch.

"For Europe. We'll be back in a few months in America, and everything will be back to normal. Maybe Simon will fall in love with a guy in the next five months and have a totally different outlook on us gays." Harry interrupts, not wanting to think about the idea that Simon may fire them for real.

"Doubtful. I think he'd rather off himself than admit that he's a homosexual."

"Let's get back to reality and not these fantasies." Liam brings everyone's attention back to where it should be; planning.

"So Gemma's got the flags, and we already have some boas from the fans in Wembley Stadium. And some colorful sunglasses from Niall's closet."

"My granny gave them to me, don't laugh. And don't break them either." Niall glares around the group, daring anyone to so much as scratch his granny glasses.

"I wouldn't dream of it, Nialler." Zayn puts his hands up in defense.

Twenty minutes later, they've assembled a backpack that Liam will smuggle into the dressing rooms and on stage.

"The fans will love it. Inclusivity, right? I don't know why Simon thinks that's a bad thing. Hasn't he ever watched any basic Netflix show? The best way to popularity is to be on good terms with as many cliques as possible." Niall rants as he waits for the microwave to beep.

Louis watches the four boys converse as he plays with Harry's hair in silence. He's been debating something, but before he brings it up he wants to make sure he would be okay with it.

As the plan is now, he isn't coming out tonight. He's still got time, and they wouldn't get in too much trouble with management. About as much as they seem to be consistently getting in lately.

If they do what he is thinking about, he's out and they get in massive trouble. Like, that's it- they're out of here and you never even heard of One Direction in the first place kind of trouble.

He wants to be out. He wants to be out for his sake and for his freedom, for his and Harry's happiness. So he can be who he wants to be around everyone. He only truly feels like himself when he's around the boys because he knows he can be. He doesn't want to keep wearing a mask. At interviews he won't have to lie about whether he's single or not, and he can behave how he wants to.

He also wants to be out for the sake of the fans. After seeing Luca's interaction with Harry and how immensely Harry changed Luca's life, Louis wants to be Harry. The person who is someone else's inspiration to be who they want to be. Louis wants to be some little boy or girl's role model, the one who they look up to and say 'Louis Tomlinson had the strength, so I can find the strength too'.

And he's ready, right? He's often laid awake at night imagining what it would be like to be out, how scary it would be to face the music and have everyone look at you differently. But the feeling of relief must be enormous once you jump that hurtle.

"Hazza?" Louis whispers, tugging on one of Harry's curls in order to get his attention.

"What's up, baby?" Harry turns his smiling face to Louis; Niall had just said something apparently funny, and Louis realizes he's the only one not laughing.

Noticing the contemplative look and the serious expression on Louis' face, Harry turns a little more to focus on him.

"Lou?"

"I was just thinking, um, about tonight."

"What about it? Are you still okay with it? If you're not you just need to say so, this is all to help you, so if you don't want it-"

"No, I do want it Harry, relax. I definitely want it. I just... was wondering if you'd be okay with adding something to it."

Harry does a double take, surprised that Louis had seemingly stressed so much about adding another prop.

"Of course. What is it?"

~

Very short chapter today, 600 words less than I normally do 🥲 but I'm in the home stretch of this story and I really want to get it finished while I'm on winter break. It's currently Thursday the 29th and I go back Tuesday the 2nd of January

I don't really know what each chapter will look like because I've edited out entire chapters and split other sections into multiple chapters (like this one) to try to keep some suspense although I'm sure most of you have an idea of what Louis is thinking of doing. Still, if you want to guess in the comments feel free, then if you get it right you get bragging rights