On The Horizon || L.S.

Day 3: Sea Day

Monday, the 15th of August, 2022

"Okay, but hear me out.... A yacht, Harry."

"A... a yacht?" Shifting his eyes briefly to the Horizon staff member, Marta, Harry does his best to convey a sheepish apology smile using only the upper half of his face. Hopefully, she gets it; without his twisted lips, hidden under flimsy fabric, it might come across more like, 'Help me! I don't know this man!'

Which. Well. That's not entirely false, to be fair.

She responds with a patient nod of encouragement, blonde hair swishing around her shoulders gracefully. Thank the lord. With a breath, he turns back to Louis, who is gripping Harry's hand in both of his own and starting to shimmy in his seat, clearly thrilled by the plan.

A yacht isn't cheap, though, and college loans come to mind. "Isn't that rather expensive?"

"Oh, please. I barely get a chance to enjoy my travel; it's been paid for, shared with the rest of the lads. Tucked into my nest egg, I did." Louis looks chuffed about it, too, between his puffed up chest and contented expression. The confession isn't something Harry would be pairing with pride. Emergency money is a serious matter.

Before parting ways the night before, they decided that they wanted to coordinate their itineraries moving forward. Atlantis was a ton of fun (Harry's argument), Harry shouldn't be doing all of these excursions alone (Louis' argument), and the alcohol was making their brains all tingly (as seems to be a growing trend). Cruise Husbands was an excellent excuse to seal the deal. Only 14 days, right?

Well, 12, now.

On the Horizon, they have a phone app. You can use the ship's Wi-Fi for free to send messages to other passengers. Harry and Louis exchanged their room numbers and set it up so they wouldn't have another Atlantis situation, now able to coordinate their plans more comfortably. Harry sent a message to Louis once he was ready for the day around 9 a.m. Louis responded, alright mate, let me wake up a bit and ill be ready, closer to 11. So, okay, not a morning person. Duly noted.

Once they met, they headed straight for the Concierge, both more excited than the night before about making fresh plans and ready to re-arrange their schedules.

It was going... alright?

Resisting the magnetic pull from his scalp, Harry allows himself to stay anchored, Louis' palm resting against his own. "It's unfair for you to fund me going yourself; how much would it be if I paid you my portion?"

"Harry," Louis sighs, slumping a bit dramatically, "I mean it. It's already settled; you'd just be joining along. Sunk cost, all that jazz, right? Do it for me?" His eyes widen to a doe-like size, and he blinks slowly through long, thick lashes as he leans closer, settling beside Harry's cheek. Once his mouth is out of the sight of the concierge and directly next to Harry's fucking ear, like holy shit, he's breathing on me level, he whispers, "You can repay me in sexual favours. Won't you come for me?"

Harry straight up yelps. Because of course, he does. He yelps, and stiffens, and maybe something else starts to stiffen too, but he's just going to have to ignore that because now Louis is back in his own space, wiggling his eyebrows and squinting at him. The concierge looks tenser when he risks a glance her way. Well, that's great. You just had to make it weird. Who's surprised?

"No, for real, though, let me handle it. Allow me to invite you on our humble boat. Yeah? This is the one thing I absolutely have to do this trip, and I'm going with or without you, so join us. Please? How often do you get to go on a yacht?"