Effervescence (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 1

[ Louis. ]

I don't remember much about the flight from London to New York except for the fact that I mostly slept through it. I was seated next to Harry, which was unusual, considering Larry Stylinson and the rumors that would surely spring up. Harry had fallen asleep too, and during one part of the flight I woke up and looked at him. His eyes were closed and his lips parted gently. His chest rose and fell with every breath he took. His brown curls were, for once, not styled with gel, and they fell gently over his closed eyes. He's cute, I think to myself, but then quickly shake the thought out of my head. Harry? Cute? I'm not gay. At least, I don't think so...

I remember going back to sleep after that, then waking back up just as the plane was touching down. Harry was waking up too, and he gave me a big lopsided smile.

"How'd ya sleep, Lou?" he yawned, looking at me through half-closed eyes.

"Pretty well," I say, smiling back at him. This was the first time I'd talked to Harry all day.

"That's good," he said, grinning at me. He's sleepy, I thought. He's probably gonna hit the sack right when we get to our hotel.

An hour later, we were all in our own hotel rooms. One of the rooms housed Niall and me and Zayn, Liam, and Harry were in the other. I was tired, I had jetlag from the flight, and it was about 3 am, so of course I tried to get a bit of rest. Not if Niall could help it.

"Niall, turn the volume down," I growled, sliding my head under my pillow to try to block out the noise. Niall ignored me. "Jesus Christ Niall, what even are you watching?" I snapped, sitting up in bed. He was watching House Hunters. House Hunters. "What the hell, Niall, are you really keeping me up at 3 am because you're watching this crap?!"

"Calm down, bro," said Niall, turning down the volume only a bit.

"No, I will not 'calm down, bro'," I muttered, shoving my head under the pillow once again.

The next morning was a bit of a rush. We were pretaping an interview on the Today Show at noon, so we all had to wake up early to get ready. Harry, Zayn, and Liam came into our room where we were having our hair styled. Niall was going first, his messy bangs flopping over his eyes. He rarely ever kept his hair down like this; he preferred to keep it up in a neat quiff. Playfully, i leaned over and played with Niall's bangs, ruffling them with my hand.

"Hey!" Niall said and laughed. The rest of the boys laughed too. For a nanosecond I locked eyes with Harry. He was smiling, but there was something else in his eyes. Jealousy? Who could Harry possibly be jealous of? I shrugged the thought out of my head and smiled at him. His eyes brightened, and he smiled back.

As Niall was having his hair gelled and sprayed into the perfect quiff, the other boys and I were messing around, wrestling to get the remote to the telly. I practically had to sit on Zayn to get the thing out of his hands, but by the time I grabbed it I was being yanked by the collar to get my own hair styled. So much for having command of the television.

[ Harry. ]

The whole rest of the morning I thought of Louis smiling at me. Just thinking about it gave me butterflies in my tummy. I looked over at him from time to time as he was getting his hair done. God damn it, he's so cute, I thought. By the time he was done, he bounced out of the seat, determined to get the remote again. I sat at the edge of the bed, my eyes glued to the television, watching whatever the boys chose to turn on. But all I could hear was Louis' laugh, Louis' voice.

"I swear to God, Liam, if you don't give me this god damn remote you will regret it the rest of your life," Louis said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, right," Liam said with a smirk. "Fat chance, Tomlinson."