Led By Your Beating Heart (29k)
by missandrogyny (paynner on tumblr)
Nick leans over. “Oh,” he says, his voice smug. “Who is that?”
Harry just blinks at his phone. “Um,” he manages to stammer out.
“Who’s that, Harry?” Nick asks again, but this time he raises his eyebrows and smirks. Harry knows Nick is just teasing, and that he’s not really looking for new Harry Styles gossip, but, um. He might have found something. Accidentally.
Harry opens his mouth to speak, but all that comes out is another ‘um’. He really needs to work on translating his thoughts into words. But then it probably wouldn’t be any helpful right now, would it? His mind is as blank as a newly erased etch-a-sketch.
“Oh,” Nick says again, this time gleefully, seemingly having picked up on Harry’s distress. “Looks like we’ve got a story here! Are you going to call or delete her number?”
Her number. So Nick thinks it’s a girl. Well, Harry can’t blame him: ‘Lou’ is kind of an androgynous nickname. His stylist’s name is Lou.
But this Lou, well, Louis, he’s kind of, really, really not a girl. He’s really pretty though, which, is something.
(Or: AU where Harry’s in One Direction, Louis isn’t, and they reconnect over a game of ‘Call or Delete’)