A Piece of His Heart / larry uni AU

chapter three

                  Standing in the threshold of the theatre's doors, Louis feels quite like a terrified fresher all over again.

Drama students, music students, and dance students alike are all buzzing back and forth in front of him, meeting up with their respective cliques to do nothing more than yell over each other. Even the professors are circulating the room, shaking their heads and then nodding interestingly, as the monotonous murmur grows louder and louder.

He can do this.

He can absolutely do this.

Louis' halfway out the door when a body collides with his chest.

"Oh, shit—"

"Shit, sorry!"

She latches onto his arm, stabilizing the both of them, "Gotcha. Sorry," she says, laughing lightly into her large knitted scarf as the door shuts behind her, "Wow, we're like surround sound."

Louis is laughing before he even looks up. When he does, a tall blonde woman is looking back at him. Or down at him, really.

Thankfully, she takes initiative when Louis doesn't respond. "Anyway," She opens, her voice strong and steady between them, "Are you on your way out? I'll just step out of your way here."

"Well, uh," Louis' eyes bounce back and forth between her face and the freedom behind her, as the room continues to roar around them. For some reason, he is speaking before he even realizes he is, "No—no, I'm staying."

She stops sidestepping in an instant, her face lighting up in the dim lighting.

"Right, then," She offers out her hand. Her nails are short and black, her eyes the colour of slate, matching her check shoes, "I'm Emilie. You?"

Louis takes it. "Louis." He supplies, and the shaking of his hand quickly slows to a halt. They're stood still, blocking the doorway with their hands interlocked, for at least five seconds before Emilie's eyes widen.

She blinks. "Louis Tomlinson?"

Louis blinks back. "Yes?"

"As in, Louis Tomlinson?"

"I don't know if I deserve the inflection, but yes?"

She blinks silently again, as if she has gone mute, and for a moment Louis wonders if he's slipped into some weird twilight zone where everyone suddenly knows his name. But before he can offer up another questionable affirmation, Emilie is tossing her hands up in what seems to be utter delight, plastering her palm to her forehead.

"No way—this is so cool. I thought for sure I'd see you around, but to meet you at the first meeting, like this," Her gaze darts around in the room as she releases some sort of prolonged exhale, "This is so cool."

"Yeah, you said that," Louis exhales too, purely poking fun at the blonde, because what is even going on? "But, uh, thank you. Even though I'm nothing to be excited about, really."

She properly rolls her eyes at this, like they've been mates for years, "Yeah, sure," or maybe she has no such thing as inner thoughts, "You're all the PA first years talk about—newbie takes control of the musical in his first year!" she's projecting her voice like an old-time radio host, powerful stance and all, "You can't make this shit up. So, I figured... why not give it a try myself?"

Louis absolutely cannot believe what he is hearing. And he doesn't mean her ambition—Louis' known her for all of thirty seconds now and he would gladly take orders from her, "Oh, so you're..."