The Love We Share: L.S one-shots

73 Questions

By: literlarry_real

6,053 words

Summary:

Louis is more nervous than usual about filming the upcoming episode of Vogue's 73 questions. Musician and soon to be actor Harry Styles may have something to do with that.

Start:

Louis' got this. Just like the 27 times before. He doubts his 28th time will be any different. Apart from the fact that this time, he will be interviewing Harry Styles for Vogue's 73 questions. No biggie, really. Or the fact that this is the first episode of 73 Questions 2.0, where the celebrity does not know the questions beforehand. Or that Harry, whose interview had been scheduled before the revamp, had actually requested not to be briefed on the questions. Louis can't decide whether that was an amazing or an amazingly stupid decision. The questions and interview topics had still been checked and given the green light by his management of course, so Louis is hopeful that this won't go too wrong. Oh, and then there's the fact that this is his first time doing an installment of the series all by himself. Vogue's budget cut for the series had been beautifully wrapped in "your British charm, quick wit and authenticity is the only thing 73 questions really needs" with a pretty red bow on top. Under the wrapping paper however had been a pretty ordinary box with a letter inside that revealed the decision to cut the team down to only a handful of people, meaning more responsibility, more stress, a higher salary, and a new job title that is so long Louis usually just refers to it as "doing what needs to be done, meeting a selected few famous people and making a series that previously featured one-take heavily scripted interviews look as natural and authentic as possible". It's still shorter than his actual title. But, luckily for Vogue, Louis loves what he does, and has been doing since he got out of university four years ago. And if 73 questions now means filming these interviews with a DSLR on a tripod à la Casey Neistat then so be it. It definitely weighs less and is easier to handle than those RED cameras they had before.
He checks that his phone is on silent one last time and pulls the questions up, reads through the first 10 once more, takes a deep breath, and runs through everything again. Batteries? Check. Spare batteries? Check. 128GB memory card? Check. Mic plugged in? Check. Settings on the camera all as they are supposed to be? Check (He'll have to adjust the ISO once they're inside).

Louis' got this. He can handle famous people with all their quirks and attitudes and usually manages to get the interview to turn out well. He can handle interviewing Harry Styles, British singer, songwriter and soon to be actor in his private London home. He can handle asking 73 questions about promo- related topics and random and seemingly personal questions that won't matter in the grand scheme of things. He isn't sure however, if he can handle the trust Vogue has in him, giving him the creative freedom and responsibility. Or the admiration and affection he's been rumoured to have towards the younger man. Niall, his co- writer, unfortunately picked up on that. "You've never been this excited or nervous about any other celebrity, do you fancy him or summat?" Louis rolling his eyes and telling Niall to get back to work had lead to Niall spreading the absolutely false rumour around the office that Louis was crushing on Harry Styles. After that, it had been hard to keep the questions appropriate. (Niall still claims it wasn't him who put the numerous bad pickup lines in there, but Louis isn't too sure about that. The one involving Guinness kind of gave it away.)
Louis shakes his head and swoops his fringe to the side, puts the headphones around his neck and gets out of the car, camera ready to go.
Walking up to the gate of Harry's townhouse, he mentally checks his equipment again. Car keys, phone on silent, mic, camera with SD card, no chewing gum. He's all set.

Taking a deep breath, he turns on the camera and points it at the alarm system at the black iron gate and rings the bell. He knows they will have another take of the 'arriving' scene, but Louis likes to have options, and it's more authentic this way. Almost immediately the speaker crackles a little and he hears a loud bang before Styles' signature slow drawl through the intercom.
"SHHHT! Oops. Who's there?"
Louis feels like he missed the beginning of a knock knock joke, but, as he wants to make a good first impression, he decides against telling one.