Pretty Boy || larry

five

{all credit goes to the original author}

five

This plan at least is far less likely to end with him getting chewed out, Louis muses as he leaves the palace at the  ungodly hour of half four in the morning. With any luck, Louis will be able to find his mystery man, scratch his itch to be looking into those too-innocent eyes again, and sneak back home before Liam even thinks to make sure he's still there. He knows for a fact that he doesn't have anything on his schedule until two in the afternoon, which means Liam won't expect him out of bed before half one. It's pretty much a flawless plan.

It starts feeling silly, though , when he's sitting in the lobby of the Langham Hotel in sweatpants, a beanie, and a soft cotton sweater. Paired with his glasses, the idea was that the outfit would distract people enough that they failed to notice even in broad daylight that the man lurking in their lobby was in fact a member of the royal family. He had failed to account for the fact that while suits do look more like him, sweatpants in a five star hotel attract a lot of attention. He's getting all kinds of dirty looks from this the staff, who are clearly having their doubts about whether a tattooed miscreant like Louis belongs in their fine establishment, but luckily Louis has 22 years of practice looking aloof and he keeps his nose just high enough in the air that no one comes to investigate.

They probably ought to though, considering that Louis is just unabashedly being a creep. It’s not that he wanted to stalk Harry, but other than the club where they met this is the only place that he could think to look. The plan that he had hatched late last night, which he affectionately dubbed Operation Where’s Waldo, was that he would get up early and wait in the lobby of a hotel but Harry appeared to be familiar with and hope that by some stroke of luck, they would cross paths.

After an hour has passed, Louis is starting to consider that perhaps his brilliant plan was not as brilliant as he had originally imagined. Plenty of people are coming into the lobby to check out, mostly businessmen ready to start their day, but there’s no sign of any curly-haired young lads with mysterious smiles.

He's just about to give in and go back home to crawl into his nice warm bed for the remainder of the morning when he hear a familiar deep voice from across the room. His eyes seek the source at one, and sure enough it's Harry, excusing himself for having just bumped into a woman strolling by in four-inch heels with her nose buried in her Blackberry. He appears to be wandering aimlessly through the lobby, eyes casting idly around, until they fall on the little restaurant connected to the lobby that's just started serving breakfast.

Louis holds his position. It's starting to occur to him but he doesn't really have a plan of action. He’d pretty much stopped planning once he got to the ‘seeing Harry again’ part. Now that he's laid eyes on him, though, he isn't sure what he's meant to do, if anything. He looks like he might be considering getting some breakfast, and Louis is certainly not one to stand in the way of skinny kids being fed.

Five minutes go by. Harry is still lingering near the entrance to the restaurant, but so far has made no move to go inside. Louis would almost think that he was waiting for somebody, if it weren't for the fact Harry doesn't appear to be waiting at all. The look on his face is one of a mildly desperate hope, and that as much as anything is what prompts Louis to rise from his seat and sidle up next to the man. “Good morning,” he says softly, and Harry jumps at once. When he sees who spoke, however, he relaxes slightly and Louis smiles. “Didn't mean to startle you, kid. Alright?”

Harry seems to think about being honest for a moment, then thinks better of it and instead quips, “Budge off, will you? I won't be able to make a pull if you're hovering around me and killing my vibe of mystery.”