Kings and Beggars of the World - Part 5
Title: Kings and Beggars of the World
Rating: NC-17
Author: braincloud2
Parings: Harry/Louis, ot5
Warnings: Sexual content, unexplained time-travel, and some offensive language.
Disclaimer: I don’t own. I don’t intend any offense. This is fiction.
Total Word Count: 25,000+
Summary: Harry’s on tour and he feels on top of the world-that is-until he wakes up one morning to find himself at the first day of the X Factor boot-camp, just sixteen years old again, and absolutely terrified that he’s just lost the last two years of his life.
Pt 1 --- Pt 2 --- Pt 3 --- Pt 4
A/N: Okay, so it took a few hours longer than I thought it would to write, but here you go~ I love all of you for getting this far <3 Also, does anyone else have a pet peeve of describing Louis’ eyes? Seriously, I swear they are like the ocean and they change colour with the weather. I’m not sure what to think about this chapter, so I’m just going to go to sleep instead.
Simon had curled his hand over his smile at the end of their performance, but he didn’t say anything to give away his reaction beyond that, and it drove Harry bonkers not knowing what the man really thought about them.
Right now though it was dinnertime, and all the groups had come together for a huge banquet outside with different Spanish foods and dishes. The boys had straight away found their old favourites, with Niall grabbing a bit of everything and piling his plate up. Konnie from the Xtra Factor, had followed the groups to the meal and was making her way down the long table with a small camera crew, trying to get a short statement from each group. Some of the contestants looked a little taken back as the camera and microphone loomed over the table, and the more nervous ones barely touched their plates, not wanting to be filmed eating.
‘Oh, God, I’ve missed t’is,’ Niall said around his mouthful, closing his eyes in bliss. ‘T’at is good stuff.’
‘Is it?’ Harry leant forward and stabbed his fork into a piece of Niall’s chicken.
Niall yelped and he attacked Harry’s fork with his own, sending the meat flying and disappearing somewhere down the table. ‘Get your own food!’
Harry gave him a wounded look. ‘I just wanted a little bit.’
‘Come off it, you ne’er take jus’ a bit.’
Zayn snorted into his plate. ‘Harry takes it all.’
Harry shot him a look, before reaching over and slapping at Zayn with his sauce-coated fork, but Zayn deftly avoided it. Harry’s fork caught Liam’s face instead, painting sauce over his cheek. Harry choked on his laughter, even as Liam fixed him with a look that promised revenge. Right at that moment, however, Konnie and the camera crew arrived at their end of the table.
‘Boys of One Direction,’ Konnie started, and the camera focused in on them. ‘So, who’s going to be the pin up of the band? Who’s going to be on the front page of the calendar?’
‘Um,’ Harry tried to stop laughing.
Louis clapped his hand down on Harry’s shoulder. ‘It’ll be young Harry, here.’
‘Yeah, definitely.’ Zayn sniggered, poking Harry in the face. ‘It’s those little dimples.’
‘And t’e curls,’ Niall added
‘The curliest of curls!’
Three hands grabbed his head and rubbed it back and forth.
Konnie glanced between them and the camera to make sure they were filming that. ‘Are you comfortable, Harry, with becoming the new pin-up boy?’
‘That is such an objectifying term, Konnie,’ Harry said.
‘Cheeky,’ Louis scolded, and Harry smiled up at him.
‘Harry’s only going to do naked photo-shoots anyway,’ Liam said, having wiped his face clean with a serviette.
Harry nodded. ‘It’s true.’
And Konnie leant forward to ask another question, but the cameraman behind her pulled away, and she stopped reluctantly. ‘Oh, right, the next group... Okay, well thanks, boys!’
‘No, thank you, Konnie,’ Louis said, and she smiled back, completely charmed.
1D
Once back in their room that night none of them felt much like sleeping. Niall and Louis brought a twenty-pack of soft drink cans. Harry was sculling his third can, when Liam smacked him hard in the back, making him cough and spray half of it down his shirt.
‘Revenge!’ Liam said, dancing away from Harry’s retaliating swipe and hiding behind Niall.
‘Ugh. Thanks Liam. Yuck.’ Harry pulled the wet shirt off over his head.
A hand grabbed and twisted his nipple sharply as he dropped the shirt, and Harry yelped as Louis tackled him. Louis pushed him to the carpet and climbed on top of him, his knee digging into Harry’s crotch.
‘Ow! Watch it-’ Harry drove his body up, succeeding in slamming Louis down and rolling onto him.
Louis pushed back, laughing as he got his elbow up into Harry’s neck and forced his chin back, as his other hand clutched at Harry’s side, groping up until he got Harry’s nipple again. Harry tried to protect himself, but his distraction gave Louis the chance to shove him back, trapping him against one of the wooden legs of the bed frame.
‘Looks like I’ve got the upper hand, Styles,’ Louis whispered in his ear.
Harry jerked in surprise, his eyes shooting to meet Louis’ unwavering ones. Louis raised an eyebrow, and Harry panicked a little, right before Louis leant forward a licked right across Harry’s mouth.
Harry spluttered and Louis rolled away cackling, bouncing away to hooking Zayn and Niall under each of his arms. Harry pushed himself to his feet, still staring at Louis’ back.
Louis laughed too loud at something Niall said, his hands not staying still for more than a second-tapping and pinching and rubbing whatever he was touching. Harry felt like complaining that Louis wasn’t playing fair.
‘Harry, catch,’ Liam called, and when Harry turned, he threw a new can of soda to him.
Harry caught it, and scowled. ‘You shook the can up, didn’t you?’ he accused.
Liam grinned. ‘Open it and find out.’
‘You tosser.’ Harry pegged the can at Liam’s head, but he ducked and it landed harmlessly on the bed behind him.
‘Hey guys,’ Zayn said from under Louis’ arm. ‘Wait, wait. Stop for a second, Louis. I wanna know, do you lot think the wait for the result tomorrow will be better, or like worse, from last time?’
They all thought for a moment.
‘I’d say better,’ Louis declared. ‘We know more of what to expect, and I think we are way too amazing for Simon to let go of.’
‘Nah, I t’ink worse,’ Niall said.
Louis narrowed his eyes. ‘Someone’s feeling rebellious.’
Niall laughed. ‘Nah, jus’ because the anticipation made the wait go really quick for me las’ time, but t’is time I kno’ how easy it could go wrong.’
‘Yeah, worse for me too,’ Harry said. ‘It’s too big for me to feel good about the wait.’
‘Oh, you’re a pessimistic bunch,’ Louis said, and he pulled backwards on Niall and Zayn, making them all overbalance onto the bed.
Liam sprawled back on one of the other beds. ‘Do you think we sang better than last time?’
‘Course we did,’ Louis scoffed.
‘I don’t want to get too cocky about it though,’ Harry said, sitting down on the floor. ‘Like, I don’t want to be thinking that we’re so much better than everyone else, just because we have more experience now.’
‘Yeah, but we’ve never thought that,’ Louis said, rolling his eyes. ‘The only people I think we’re truly better than right now, is our past selves, and that’s all that matters.’
‘Huh. Our past selves,’ Zayn repeated. ‘It sounds good when you put it like that.’
‘You know what sounds better?’ Louis asked, his knees bouncing. ‘Sneaking out. Like we did last time. I mean, last time which is now this time, so like we did in our present past time... but not this present, the other one.’
‘Don’t hur’ yourself, Louis.’
Zayn sat up. ‘Yeah, we had loads of fun last time in Spain, didn’t we?’
‘That we did,’ Louis said. ‘Who’s up for it then?’
Liam shrugged. ‘Alright, I am, I guess.’
‘Liam said yes.’ Louis punched the air, leaping up. ‘That makes it unanimous!’
Harry squinted up at him. ‘I’m pretty sure, that unanimous means everyone agrees.’
Louis ignored him, instead grabbing Zayn and hollering, ‘Tonight, lads, we’re going out!’
‘Tonight’s the night,’ Liam said.
‘Go out and smash it.’ Zayn grinned. ‘Like, oh my God.’
Niall leapt up, knocking into Louis and Zayn. ‘Let’s paint the town!’
‘Let’s do it, let’s do it.’ Liam joined them. ‘Let’s do it, do it, do it.’
‘Harry, you’re in, yeah?’ Louis twisted around to ask, squashed between Zayn and Liam.
Harry grinned as he shook his hair out of his face. ‘I gotta feeling-’
‘Woo-hoo!’ they all cheered.
1D
They snuck out quietly by the closed doors of the other rooms along the hallway and down the fire escape, making it out the back of the hotel where Zayn had gone the day before for a smoke.
As soon as they turned the corner to the street, Louis let out a shout and broke into a run across the dark street. The rest of them paused for only a second, before Niall let out a whoop of laughter, and they all sprinted after him. Louis leapt the small wall bordering the ridge before the beach, and dropped out of sight to the sand below. The four of them followed him without hesitation, hurdling over the wall and flying out into the soft sand.
The beach was empty except for the boys, with nothing but the sound of the dark waves lapping at the coast around them, and a sky of stars stretching above them.
Louis kicked off his shoes instantly, digging his toes into the cold sand. ‘How incredible is this?’ he said, and Harry could tell he was grinning in the dark.
‘Seriously amazing,’ Harry agreed, and Louis’ arm closed around his shoulders and pulled him in.
‘Hey, we should go find that twenty-four hour pizza place from last time,’ Zayn said.
‘Yeah,’ Louis said, before groaning. ‘Oh, where was it though, I can’t remember.’
‘It was down the beach a ways, I think. We’ll probably find it if we just start walking that way.’ Zayn pointed.
‘Alrigh’ I could go for some pizza,’ Niall said happily.
‘Is there ever a time you wouldn’t?’ Liam asked.
‘Maybe. But t’ere would ‘ave to be sex involved.’
‘Sex and pizza. Kinky,’ Louis said.
he five of them wandered up the dark beach together, and it struck Harry how they would’ve never been able to do this if they were still in 2012. It had been hard enough just for two of them to sneak out of their hotel rooms without their bodyguards or fans realising, let alone all five of them. Yet, here they were; Liam and Zayn joking and pushing each other near the water line, Louis’ arm still wrapped comfortably around Harry’s shoulder as they walked, and Niall just in front of them, singing ‘I Gotta Feeling’ under his breath.
Harry looked over at Louis, his eyes having adjusted to the dark, and he lightly squeezed the other boy’s side to get his attention. ‘This is pretty alright, isn’t it?’
Louis ran his fingers over Harry’s arm, and didn’t answer for a moment.
‘Lou?’
Louis cleared his throat. ‘Yeah, I think so.’
‘Oi! There it is,’ Zayn called, pointing up to a row of shops by the front, one of which has a glowing pizza sign stuck on the roof.
‘Excellent,’ Louis said, before pausing. ‘Hang on, someone brought money, right? Because I didn’t.’
1D
Luckily, Liam had the foresight to pocket his wallet before leaving, and Niall quickly deciphered the menu, ordering three of the most delicious pizzas Harry had ever eaten in his life. They all lounged back in one of the dark booths of the pizzeria, stuffed full and sides hurting from laughing too much.
‘Seriously,’ Zayn was saying, ‘she comes out holding these red panties up, and I’m sitting there like, thinking they’re for her.’
‘Oh, God,’ Niall gasped, tears leaking from his eyes as he collapsed back into the corner.
‘She’s offering them to me though, and I didn’t know how to tell her that I wasn’t into that kind of thing, so I just put them on instead.’
Harry had to rest his head on the table, his shoulders shaking, and Liam fell against laughing into Harry’s ear.
‘No, I seriously did,’ Zayn said earnestly.
‘We believe you.’ Louis laughed.
‘Why did you though?’ Niall asked, trying to breathe.
Zayn shrugged. ‘Cause she was hot. Also, they looked pretty good once they were on. She was one of the kinkiest girls I’d ever met.’
Louis eyes brightened. ‘Harry’s got an interesting kink, don’t you, Hazza?’
Niall groaned. ‘Yeah, we know. It’s exhibitionism.’
Harry hit him. ‘And yours is voyeurism.’
Liam snorted. ‘Voyeurism.’
‘No, no,’ Louis said. ‘I’m talking about his other kink. The one where he likes to be tied down.’
Zayn coughed hard, and leaned forward. ‘What? You’re into that?’
Harry smirked at him. ‘Yeah, with like the handcuffs and stuff. S’hot.’
Niall laughed again.
‘And how did you find that out?’ Liam asked Louis.
‘Well, I was a victim, wasn't I?’ Louis said. ‘We were just messing about and I, all innocent and naive, tied him up. The next thing I know, Harry has a boner and he comes in his pants like he’s twelve or sixteen years old.’
‘You caught me mid-wank!’ Harry protested. ‘And it only happened because you kept touching my crotch.’
‘Innocently touching, though,’ Louis said.
‘What? Seriously?’ Zayn eyes were huge. ‘Louis got you off?’
‘By accident,’ Harry groaned to the ceiling. ‘It was an accident.’
‘This ac’ually happened?’ Niall asked, looking from Harry to Louis and back again. ‘For real?’
‘It really did,’ Louis said.
‘But, wasn’t it-’ Liam flushed a little, ‘-you know, weird?’
Harry shrugged. ‘I liked it.’
Louis snorted. ‘That’s because you were the one getting your rocks off.’
A strange, weighty atmosphere came over the table and they fell silent.
Harry looked from Zayn’s wide eyes, flicking from face to face, to Liam’s red cheeks, and Niall’s open mouth-and he sighed, exasperated. ‘I was horny, okay? It’s not easy being sixteen again. I don’t remember it being this bad last time.’
Louis arched an eyebrow. ‘Lucky you have me to get off on, then.’
‘Harry’s right, though,’ Niall said, ‘about it being tough to be sixteen again. I swear I’m getting chafed from jerking off too much.’
‘Ask Louis to give you a hand then, he’s really good,’ Harry said.
Louis gave a strangled laugh, and he reached over to whack Harry on the head.
‘I can’t believe you said that.’ Liam put his head in his hands. ‘Now I have images.’
‘You think you have images,’ Louis said. ‘I’m the one who knows what Harry’s face looks like when he comes.’
Everyone groaned loudly, and Zayn pressed his hand over Louis’ mouth. ‘Just stop already.’
‘Please,’ Harry added.
Louis’ eyes glittered at him from across the table.
1D
They finally started walking back down the beach not long after that. The air outside was still fairly warm, with only a light breeze shifting the water and ruffling their clothes. Despite it being nearly three in the morning, Louis and Niall were still running high on energy, and Harry could barely keep up with them, hanging back instead with Zayn and Liam.
‘So, what’s your kinkiest thing, Liam?’ Harry asked.
Liam rubbed his nose. ‘Uh.’
‘What?’ Zayn smiled.
‘You’re gonna laugh.’
‘Nah, we won’t. Promise,’ Harry said.
Liam huffed. ‘Okay. Well, there was this one time…’
‘Yeah?’
‘This once where Danielle dressed up as cat-woman, and I was dressed as Batman-’
Harry and Zayn cracked up laughing.
‘-shut up, oh my God. Why did I even say anything?’
Eventually, Harry calmed down enough for a concerned thought to occur to him. ‘Hey, how are you going with that anyway?’
Liam looked at him, smile fading. ‘With Dani? Alright, I guess. I mean, time heals all and the rest of that.’
‘Do you think you’ll get back with her?’ Zayn asked gently.
Liam frowned. ‘Maybe.’
‘Zayn! Zayn!’ Louis bellowed from further up the coast, and he shouted something else as well, waving his hands.
‘What?’ Zayn called back.
Louis threw his arms into the air in a way that clearly said Zayn was being hopeless. He said something to Niall and the two of them started running back.
‘All night!’ Louis shouted again once he was closer, and then he barrelled into all three of them. He caught Harry’s waist, and Harry found himself being spun about as Louis sang, ‘I wanna stay up all night and jump around, until we see the sun!’
‘Louis no,’ Harry laughed. ‘We can’t.’
‘But, Harry. I’m still wide awake,’ he whined, grabbing Harry’s cheeks and pinching hard.
‘Are you crazy, what are you doing?’ Zayn demanded, grabbing Louis by his shirt collar and pulling him off Harry.
‘I’m not going to assault him, Zayn, you don’t have to get protective,’ Louis said.
Zayn stopped, spluttering, ‘That’s-what? No, I meant the song. You can’t do that, mate.’
‘There’re no cameras, Zayn, and absolutely no one else around, see? Sing with me! We’ve got the floor now, so get outta control!’
Niall hooked his arm around Louis’ neck. ‘I wanna stay up all night, and do it all with you. Up all night!’
‘Liam,’ Zayn appealed. ‘I’m right, aren’t I?’
‘Like this, all night-Hey! Up all night!’
Liam smiled helplessly and Harry grinned, stepping forward to join Niall and Louis.
‘Yeah-e-yeah!’ Louis grabbed Harry again, twirling him about until the dark sand and stars blurred together. ‘I wanna stay up all night, and jump around until we see the sun!’
Liam pulled Zayn down into a headlock, but released him as soon as he struggled, laughing as much as singing. ‘Hold onto that feeling, and don’t let it go! Cause we got the floor now, get outta control!’
Harry swung Louis’ arms up and ducked underneath them, pulling him around, and the two of them nearly stumbled into the water.
‘I wanna stay up all night and do it all with you,’ he sang breathlessly, hardly able to take his eyes off the older boy’s smile.
Niall jumped on Louis’ back suddenly, and he let go of Harry to catch Niall’s legs. ‘Up all night, like this, all night-Hey! Up all night!’
Niall crowed as Louis spun about and charged towards Zayn and Liam, crashing into them and taking all four of them down onto the sand.
Harry laughed, and went over to them as they groaned and tried to untangle themselves; Zayn yelling from the bottom that their fat was crushing him. Harry leaned forward, offering Niall a hand to get up, and really he should have known better. Niall glanced at Harry’s hand, before grasping it and yanking Harry down on top of everyone.
‘Ow, Harry!’ Zayn cried.
‘It was Niall’s fault,’ Harry said, shifting as Liam rolled over.
‘E’eryone always blames me,’ Niall said.
‘It’s because you’re Irish,’ Louis said, sliding down and settling his head on Niall’s thigh like it was a pillow.
‘Cause t’at makes loads of sense. And what’re you doing?’
‘I’m sleeping here.’
Harry sniggered. ‘What happened to staying up all night?’
Louis waved his hand idly. ‘Same difference. Now shush.’ He curled over, pushing an arm over Harry’s leg.
Harry looked at the others, and realised after a moment that each was waiting for someone else to protest. When no one did, Harry shifted into a more comfortable spot on Liam’s shoulder and sighed.
‘Just for a while then,’ he said.
1D
Harry woke when someone elbowed him in the eye, and he pushed the offending limb out the way.
‘Oh, God. Whose brilliant idea was it to sleep here?’
‘That would be mine,’ Louis said, voice muffled. He detached his head out from under Niall’s arm, hair sticking up. ‘The sand is not as comfy as I remember it being last night.’
Zayn moaned and shoved at Liam who was sprawled on top of him. ‘My everything hurts.’
Niall rolled over with effort. ‘I have sand all o’er me,’ he said, shaking his hair, and a shower of grains fell out.
‘What time is it?’ Harry asked.
Louis reached over and dug into Liam’s pocket, pulling out the boy’s phone. ‘Ugh. Early still.’
‘Give me back me phone,’ Liam mumbled, still half asleep.
‘We should probably head back,’ Harry said. ‘Someone might notice we’re gone.’
‘Good, because I don’t think I can sleep here anymore,’ Zayn said, stretching.
Harry sat up, blinking at the sun just peaking over the horizon and turning the sky pink. ‘It’s the day we find out if we’re through,’ he said.
Louis patted him on the shoulder. ‘Yes, Harry. Now, come on, I need a shower.’
1D
No one said anything about their disappearance, so Harry figured they’d gotten away with it. Not that they’d been forbidden from wandering around at night, but it had been implicitly assumed they wouldn’t.
The results of their audition wouldn’t be announced until late in the afternoon, so everyone just lazed about the beach for most of the day. Harry was too tired to worry much about the result, and by lunchtime, he was resting his head on a table in the sun, drifting in and out of sleep. Liam and Zayn had gone down to the beach for a brief swim, no longer concerned with missing the audition because of a sting from a sea creature, but Harry had stayed right where he was.
Niall and Louis wandered back at that moment, chatting loudly, and making Harry squint up at them. They both had vanilla ice-creams in cones.
‘Hey. Where’s mine?’ he asked, without raising his head.
‘You were sleeping. And you aren’t stealing mine, so don’t ask.’ Niall said pointedly as he sat down opposite Harry.
Louis perched against the table between them, looking down at the beach. ‘Where’s the other two fifths gone?’
‘Swimming.’
‘Without me? How rude.’
‘You’d gone off with Niall, though, hadn’t you?’
Louis twisted his mouth; looking from the beach, to his ice-cream. He turned to Niall. ‘I bet you I can eat mine faster than you can eat yours.’
Louis didn’t wait for Niall to answer-he just opened his mouth wide around the top half of the cone, and chomped down. A bit of vanilla ice cream leaked from his lips as closed his eyes tight and swallowed, before he opened his mouth once more and shoved the rest of the cone inside, barely even chewing before he swallowed.
‘Ah!’ he screamed, folding in half. ‘Brain freeze!’ He spun around in a tight circle, and then dashed off towards the beach without looking back.
Harry and Niall stared after him, stunned. That had been-yeah.
Niall made a small noise, and Harry turned back around to find the Irish boy had gone red in the face and he was staring at his own ice-cream, which was melting slightly over his fingers.
Harry huffed a laugh. ‘You too, huh?’
Niall jerked, and squirmed under Harry’s eye. ‘You saw what he did. And t’is wouldn’t be a problem if you lads hadn’t been going on las’ night about jerking each ot’er off.’
‘I didn’t jerk Louis off. My hands were stuck to the headboard.’
Niall groaned and shifted. ‘Shut up. I don’t like being sixteen again.’
‘Tell me about it,’ Harry said, fascinated by Niall’s changing colour. ‘Are you still going to eat that?’
‘Huh?’
‘Your ice-cream.’
Niall pressed his lips together, eying the cone in his hand like it had betrayed him. ‘No,’ he admitted, and he held the ice-cream out towards Harry for him to take.
The urge struck Harry, and without really thinking about it, he reached up and clasped his fingers around Niall’s wrist instead, rising up a little from his chair to curl his tongue over the ice-cream, green eyes fixed on Niall’s widening ones.
‘Uh,’ Niall said, going bright red and letting go of the cone.
It fell to the table top, splattering right across Harry’s cheek and ruining another of his shirts.
Niall choked out, ‘Oh, God,’ and then he was up and moving towards the public toilets. Harry watched him go, before looking down at the wasted ice-cream.
‘Did you drop it?’ Liam’s voice came from behind Harry
Harry looked over his shoulder and blinked at Liam’s dripping torso, before looking up. ‘Hallo. Louis went looking for you and Zayn.’
Liam blinked at him. ‘Uh, you’ve got-on your face.’
Harry sighed. ‘It was Niall’s fault.’
‘Sure.’ Liam patted Harry on the back, sitting down next to him, and putting his towel on the table. ‘Where is Niall anyway?’
‘He’s having a wank in the loo.’
‘Uh-really?’
‘Go look if you don’t believe me.’
‘That’s… um. You should probably clean up.’
‘Why? Is it bothering you too?’ Harry looked up at him.
Liam smiled. ‘Not really, no.’
Harry pushed out a breath. ‘Then what’s the big deal?’
‘Hi Louis, hi Zayn,’ Liam said pointedly.
Harry lunged for Liam’s towel, and wiped his face roughly trying to get it all off. He turned around finally, only to realise neither of the other two members were in sight. Liam laughed next to him.
‘That was a dirty trick,’ Harry said, the corners of his mouth twitching.
‘Yes, it was,’ Liam said. ‘You know, this has been really fun here.’
‘Hmm,’ Harry agreed, before biting his lip. ‘Liam?’
‘Harry.’
‘You know how we said things were different now? Like, between the five of us?’
‘Yeah, what about it?’
‘Could it be a bad thing too?’
Liam gave him a quizzical look.
Harry plunged on. ‘What if, we get so caught up in each other that we’re not thinking about stuff the same, and not thinking about other people the same? Like, would that be bad?’
‘Are we shutting other people out, who we wouldn’t have before, you mean?’
Harry nodded.
‘Yeah, I think we are.’ Liam frowned, and he looked sad for a moment. ‘What’s really bad, to be honest, is that I don’t miss it at all. Of course I miss our past life, and the people there, but… I don’t want the same interactions with people here, who don’t know this is the second time we’re going through this.’
lsquo;Do you think it might twist us, as people, though? Would we start doing things we wouldn’t have done before, just because we’re caught up in this… bubble thing?’
Liam pressed his lips together, thinking. ‘Yeah, probably,’ he said eventually, closing his eyes.
And that wasn’t the answer Harry wanted at all
Part 6