Chapter Text
Louis Tomlinson sighed as he closed the magazine. They had done a small interview just last week, the first one in a few weeks. He had expected it to be at least on page five but no, they’d been downgraded even further and were now on page seventeen. Not only that but it was like they weren’t even a big deal, like this interview was just an unimportant filler they squeezed in right before deadline.
Louis Tomlinson was one fourth of the boyband One Direction, and only two years ago they had been extremely successful, touring all over the world. Louis didn’t know what had happened, none of them really did, but all of a sudden, their sales went down. New artists and bands appeared, the hype died down and they became less and less important. They had thought that as soon as their new album got out, the fans would return and support them just like they did before but unfortunately that wasn’t how it went down.
See, a year ago they released their third (and as it looked right now, last) album – and not only that, but they released it at the same time as the then 17-year old pop singer, Harry Styles, released his debut album. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Harry was suddenly all the country was talking about and honestly, the band was now 100% blaming him for their failed attempt to get back into the industry.
“Fucking Styles,” Louis mumbled as he stared at the teen’s face on the cover of the magazine. ‘Harry in love?’ the headline on the magazine said.
Who fucking cares, Louis thought and huffed, tossing the magazine to the side.
“What did he do?” Zayn, who had just walked into the living room, asked before immediately spotting the magazine with Harry’s face on it. “Oh.”
“I just don’t understand. Compared to us, he’s not even remotely talented.”
Louis knew that he sounded very self-absorbed but he knew that Zayn felt the same way. They were all tired of this guy getting all the attention. Sure there were other bands and artists who also got the attention, but Harry Styles… How could you even begin to describe Harry Styles?
Harry was England’s answer to Justin Bieber. He had completely swooped in and stolen the attention of every young girl and all the media in Europe – and with his upcoming world tour, it surely wouldn’t be long until the entire fucking world was under his spell.
Louis knew many celebrities couldn’t stand him and his obsessive fans. It was Justin Bieber all over again, only ten times as crazy.
And he wasn’t even that attractive. His brown curls were all over the place and sometimes when he was on TV, Louis began to wonder if the boy had ever been introduced to something called ‘a haircut’. His smile was alright, it was actually kind of cute and Louis could definitely see why it was a part of his apparent charm. But as soon as you saw his smile, your eyes would immediately go to his nostrils. And that was most definitely the most unattractive thing about Harry Styles, Louis thought. His big-ass nostrils.
“I know. It blows,” Zayn replied and dumped down on Louis’ couch, turning on the television.
“It sure does,” Louis said and sighed, picking up the magazine again.
After quickly finding out what page the Harry Styles interview was on, he found it, read it and sighed again. If only the guy would get himself a girlfriend, then the mass hysteria would probably die down a bit. The article was as stupid as half the other articles written about him – Harry had been seen with some girl who they had then discovered to be his cousin or something like that.
Oh yes, Louis couldn’t stand him but he made damn sure to be updated on his opponent.
“Holy fuck, Lou, are you seeing this?”
Louis snapped out of his train of thought and turned his head towards Zayn who had the most amazed look on his face.
“The TV, you wanker, not me. Listen!”
Louis turned to look at the television where they were showing footage from a red carpet to some show (that One Direction hadn’t been invited to, go figure) that Harry Styles had attended earlier this evening, and apparently it was quite shocking because when Louis tuned in, he could hear the female interviewer stutter:
“So- So you’re…you’re bisexual? ” Harry smiled at the comment and then shrugged, making Louis raise an eyebrow.
“I guess. I don’t really care about gender, ” he stated, still smiling.
Zayn let out a happy laugh and clapped his hands together once as Harry said that.
“Oh God, he just ruined it. He completely ruined it. The media will have his head.” Zayn said, obviously being very amused by this.
Louis didn’t respond and just waved his hands in an attempt to make Zayn shut up.
“Uhm..oh...Well, eh. ” Louis almost felt bad for the woman who had obviously completely forgotten everything she was going to say.
“Okay, last question for you, Harry – you’re single but is there anyone you’re interested in? Demi Lovato was here just a few minutes ago, and she seemed very keen to get to know you…” she hinted after finding her voice again.
Harry chuckled lowly and looked down for a moment. He had obviously caught on – the fact that Demi Lovato had expressed a slight interest in Harry had filled the media the past week, and it seemed that everyone – except for maybe Harry’s fans – were interested in having the two of them couple up. Harry was 18, Demi was 19, and they were both famous worldwide, so obviously they were a perfect match in the eyes of the media. Either that or they just wanted something to gossip about.
“Yeah, I guess I’ve got a crush on someone, ” Harry replied smoothly and the woman didn’t waste a second to ask him who it was. “Well.. I think Louis Tomlinson, you know, from One Direction, is quite fit. ”
There was silence in the living room.
“Louis Tomlinson? ” the woman asked and Louis was almost offended by how weird she seemed to think it was. “Is he interested in you? ”
“I don’t know, ” Harry said honestly.
The interview went on for another minute, and when it was done, both boys just kept staring at the screen. None of them said anything but Louis was sure that Zayn was thinking the same thing as him – what the hell just happened?
There was silence until they heard the front door open and seconds later, Niall, the Irish member of One Direction, was standing in Louis’ living room.
“Harry Styles has got a crush on you!” Niall burst out and pointed to Louis who nodded as if to say ‘yeah, I know’ and gestured to the television.
Niall glanced at the television and then walked to the couch. The second he sat down, all three boys burst out talking – ‘do you think he’s serious?’, ‘what the hell?’, ‘maybe he was kidding’, ‘I doubt his managers will like that’, ‘I can’t believe he likes you, not that you’re not likable, he’s just, you know’ – and kept talking nonsense until Niall said:
“What if…What if you dated him?” The question got him two confused looks from the other boys. Before they got to say anything and ridicule him for the comment, he continued, “I’m serious. Remember Justin Bieber-“
“How could we not? You talk about him all the time,” Zayn said and rolled his eyes, cutting Niall off.
Niall sent him an annoyed glance and then continued.
“When Justin Bieber started dating Selena Gomez, her fame shot through the roof. She has become way more famous since they went public.”
“So?” Louis asked, not getting where he was going with this. How did Selena Gomez have anything to do with him and Harry Styles’ crush?
“Come on, are you that stupid?” Niall raised an eyebrow and went on. “You date Harry and we’ll gain fame again.”
Louis let out a loud laugh as Niall said that and after a while, he stopped when he realized that Zayn wasn’t laughing with him. Instead, Zayn looked like he was thinking it over.
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” he stated and Niall smiled proudly. Louis shook his head.
“No way. I’m not doing that. Fuck no.”
Louis kept shaking his head until Niall spoke again.
“Come on, Louis. Just date him for a few months – and make sure you go public but that shouldn’t be a problem now that the media is probably going to try to set you up. Date him for a few months and… Actually, date him until the Brits. Showing up with him at the Brits will definitely do us good. It’s two months, Louis. You can dump him after the Brits. It’ll be over before you know it. For the band?”
Louis sighed. Fuck, there was no way around this, was there? The band was slowly failing and something had to be done about it, right? Harry Styles had presented them with the perfect opportunity.
“Alright. But don’t tell Liam about this. You know how he feels about things like that. Just make him think we’re really dating,” he said and knew that Liam would probably tear off his head if he ever found out.
Zayn nodded in agreement.
So it was settled –
Louis was sacrificing himself for the band by asking Harry Styles out on a date.