That's Just Publicity

Hands

A/N: HI! 

Louis' POV: 

Harry was acting fucking weird for the rest of the show. Ever since he saw that "Louis tops" poster he's been all around awkward. Honestly, the whole thing made my stomach flip. I knew people thought that way about us, but seeing someone so close to the stage, so real and present, made it all the more real. It's easy to think of our fans as a group, but in reality, the people at our shows and in our fanbase are all individuals, all with their own thoughts, dreams, and ideas. I thought back to the dirty fanfics I read on the plane, behind every one of them was a real-life person who took time out of their day to think about what we'd be like in bed, how we'd act and react. I cringed at the thought. 

Then, deep, deep inside I also felt completely ignited by the insinuation that Harry and I have sex, that we've been in that position so many times that we have roles and customs for it. I looked over at Harry who was in the middle of his verse for "Rock Me." When he sang he had this habit of tilting his head back, his whole neck stretching to hold up his head, and his jaw clenching to get the notes out. The vision wasn't lost on me, especially after seeing it for a few years straight. When we first met, on the X-Factor, I teased him relentlessly for it. His voice was still weak and untrained so he strained extra hard to get notes out, we all did but, the way he did it was so hilariously lewd. Now, though, the lewdness of it didn't seem funny, instead it took me right back to the fanfics I read, to the "Louis Tops" poster, and I hated it. I tore my eyes off him, my verse was right after him so I readied myself to sing.  

We only had a couple of songs left on the setlist, and we interacted with the crowd between songs, zooming in on cute posters and talking to fans we could see in the pit. Somebody brought a poster about their recent engagement, and Harry being himself had to stop everything to address it. The show ended at its scheduled time, we performed the rehearsed encore, then were swept backstage where we were stripped and redressed then pushed into the limo again. Tonight we were leaving Vegas, not even allowed to stay for a party or event, killing me of my hopes to get high and have some fun.

...

Within the next few days, we had small shows in various cities in the Midwest as we made our way into the South and the East Coast. We were going to have shows in New York and Jersey to end the US portion of the tour before we hit Canada briefly and then head across the Ocean to Europe. Tonight, we were in Detroit where we had an interview before our concert. I was glad to have something to do besides fucking shows every night. We hadn't had any publicity events or parties in about a week and I was itching for socialization outside of the band. 

The Larry buzz this week had significantly settled down. I suppose people were finally realizing the whole thing was ridiculous. A knock sounded at the door to the dressing room. We were getting ready for the interview, which was with a pretty unknown news reporter, so the stress was lifted for the day. Zayn stood up to open the door, and Paul eagerly walked in. 

"Just wanted to give you a heads up that management ran the numbers and this Larry scheme is truly working. We're up numbers on downloads, we're selling out every show, and each of your social media profiles is booming as well as the collective band profiles," He explained, scrolling on his tablet like he was reading a script or looking at pie charts. I snorted, he's ridiculous. "Okay? That's great news, it's what we expected though, no?" Liam asked, hesitantly. I looked at Paul, almost nervously, and sure enough. There was a 'but...' lingering in his facial expression. 

"Management is really proud of the progress, but time will tell. At the end of the year charts will be published by all the biggest journalism websites, people like Forbes and Buzzfeed will be rating you guys. They're immensely influential, if we can get each of you to rank in the top ten in a couple of categories, and if we can break records with your album, your next album will be a success before it's even created," Paul rambled, "If you can rank higher on these websites, business will be better, and to do that, we need to keep going strong with the Larry thing, but not just that. We'll be doing more interviews, signing more autographs, taking more brand deals. And we need to get the rest of you on dates," he said casually. Niall practically choked on the fry he was eating. "Pardon?" Liam asked. I looked from Paul to the rest of the guys a few times, then over at Harry, who was biting his lip as Louise styled his hair.