day nineteen. world; idol
( challenge on infinite earths. paring; nick/louis)
title pretty boy with dirty knees
rating; pg-13
word count: 2,257 +/-
warning(s): none.
summary: “…"louis tomlinson. i guess this is the part where i say i'm your biggest fan or some shit, but i'm actually not and you're actually just a hipster twat with a shitty taste in music and definitely not deserving of the wasting of my spare time." the statement shocks nick into laughter..”
a/n: this was so much fun to write and if you ask nicely i might write some more once i've finished this challenge thing. dedicated to ava because i love her and her tags on some of this have been helping me to work my way through this challenge; her ridiculous praise or grumpy cat meme have made me laugh. every little bit of encouragement helps. unbeta'd.
-
nick's a little bit early when he rounds upon the radio one building. it's fucking cold, and the logic is that earlier equals less traffic and therefore less time spent in the dreary, wet streets of london and more time warm inside. he cuts his way quickly through car park, eyes peeled for possible ice, long legs making quick work of the inches towards the building. he's almost there when he looks up, actually taking the surroundings in around him, which are all pretty mundane and normal, except there's a pretty boy with dirty knees sitting upon a step out the front; thermos flask in gloved, tiny hands.
"hello," nick says, stopping in front of the pretty boy and well, he's got time, he is early. the boy looks up, brown fringe spilling out the front of a maroon beanie and the smile that lights up his entire face when he lays eyes upon nick is beyond delightful. he's got pink, little lips that stretch across tanned cheeks and crinkles by his eyes and he kind of looks a bit star struck, wondrous and child-like even.
"nick grimshaw," he breaths and nick nods because yes, last time he checked he was in fact nick grimshaw, but the boy looks ecstatic and if nick's ego inflates a little because his pretence makes that look ignite on pretty boy's faces well, no one can blame him, "it's actually you, i'm actually meeting you, this has to be a dream. pinch me." he demands, and nick would but the boy is still sitting down and well, nick's arms can't really reach that far, the ground is awfully far away.
"it certainly is, and you certainly are," nick offers the boy a smile and a hand to get up off what must be the some of the coldest ground at the moment. he tugs the boy up and if they're hands remain clasped for longer than necessary well, the feeling of the boy's gloves are rather nice, that's all.
"i'm louis," the boy grins, he barely makes it up to nick's shoulder and on farther inspection nick realises it's not so much boy as man, just kind of compact and incredibly beautiful, "louis tomlinson. i guess this is the part where i say i'm your biggest fan or some shit, but i'm actually not and you're actually just a hipster twat with a shitty taste in music and definitely not deserving of the wasting of my spare time." the statement shocks nick into laughter, ridiculously loud and unapologetic and he flings an arm around louis' warm shoulders, leaning down to press a quick peck of a kiss to louis' cheek.
"it seems you've got me all sorted out," nick says with an equally crinkly eyed smile and louis just stares up at him with wide eyes, looking like he wants to touch the cheek where nick had his lips pressed to not a few seconds before, small gloved hand reaching up just a little bit. he snaps out of it after a few more seconds, and smiles wirily back, looking rather pleased that he made nick laugh.
"mostly definitely," louis replies with a straight face, but there's something teasing about it like he's really saying no, that's not it at all and you're probably more complex than even you understand and i want to get to know those complexities better. he tugs out his phone; a dull looking older model and looks up hopefully, "mind if we get a photo? my friend harry - he's a hipster you see - kind of idolises you and i want to rub it in his face that i got to meet you, and he hasn't. he'll be proper devastated."
"of course love, anything to torture a friend with," nick smiles, resisting to press fingers upon the blush that rests high on louis' cheeks to feel the warmth of it and takes the phone once louis' set it up to hold it out with his "freakishly long arms, like what are you, an ape?" and snap a few pictures; smiling with a small, pretty boy with dirty knees tucked up under his arm.
"thank you," louis smiles, this time even softer and nick kind of loves the way he's put it there, but also kind of wants to tell louis to stop smiling because he's going to injure his jaw or something. he goes to pull away, let nick go to work, but nick just tightens his grip on louis' shoulder and when two blue eyes filled with questions stare up at him he can't help the grin sneaking away from him.
"let's make your friend extra jealous shall we?" he asks and when louis looks blankly at him, inches away from rolling his eyes and gee, nick hadn't realised how attractive it was to see people roll their eyes at him, "let me tweet a photo of us together."
it only takes a few seconds, and a ridiculously cute picture is taken and seeing as nick is actually late now, he regrettably leaves louis upon the steps of the radio one building, eyes bright with a giant smile across his face and cheeks warm with blush and kisses. he tweets the picture, lazily making his way to the studio, captioning it found a pretty boy with dirty knees upon some steps and a little heart emoji and it doesn't occur to him until he's finished the waking up song that he didn't get louis' number.
which is stupid because he shouldn't go around giving his number to any old pretty boy with grubby stains on the knees of his jeans?
-
several months later, he catches a somewhat incredibly insulting tweet from a louis tomlinson in his mentions and nick recognises that smile and those eyes and the tanned skin and it's an instant follow. he sends something witty back, and is far too pleased when a well worded jibe pops up mere minutes later. it feels like their conversation, months before, and nick was right, the amount of smiling that had to be done around louis tomlinson, or him for that matter, is definitely straining some poor muscle in his jaw.
to which point, he mentions to louis through an extremely well worded reply that makes it sound like nick's not actually grinning like an idiot and louis sees straight through it. catches him up with a @grimmers surprised that with all your codswallop your jaw would be hurting from just smiling and the owner of the cafe he's in at the time glares at him when laughter cuts through the quiet hum of the early afternoon. ridiculously, he's kind of proud of louis, and an a plus for using codswallop in an actual sentence without sounding like he was born in the mid eighteen hundreds or something.
later, when he's curled up with aimee and thurston upon the couch watching x factor and live tweeting because he's got not much else to do on a wednesday night, aimee mentions how chipper nick is for the evening. nick doesn't think much of it; but then again, louis is live tweeting the x factor too and there's plenty more opportunity for banter filled tweets. so what if louis' favourites are actually nick's favourites; the shade is far too good to pass up.
-
it's late spring when nick's lazily strolling across the car park to actually be ready for work on time when there's the pretty boy with dirty knees sitting upon the radio one building steps. nick can't help the smile that blossoms up his lips, and to see one returned on louis' face makes the smile go wider. upon reaching him, louis jumps up and the pair of them breifly pretend to be unamused at the meeting until nick's wrapping louis up in a warm, slightly vicious hug. there's another pretty boy with louis, he's got a mop of curly hair and big green eyes that stare at nick; completely star struck.
"this is harry, the hipster i told you about." louis says when he pulls away from tucked against nick's chest, his beanie - this one a lovely shade of blue that brings out his eyes - slightly askew, "he was just dying to meet you. i don't know why, you're insufferable."
"he has better taste than you, love." nick replies and louis rolls his eyes over dramatically, but there's a smirk on his on his face as he pushes harry forward, stumbling over his pigeon toes and blushing. he opens his mouth, but then sort of goldfishes nick a little and louis clamps a hand over harry's mouth and smiles wirily.
"he's shell shocked. doesn't know what to think," louis shakes his head at harry, "he's embarrassing really." and obviously harry licks at louis hand because it jumps away and he wipes it on harry's well-fitting band shirt, nose crinkled adorably. harry opens his mouth once more, eyes shining and
"hi," in a small voice only really comes out. harry looks like he wants to say more, but he's kind of a little too star struck and his voice gets stuck in his throat, and louis being a good friend just kind of laughs at him.
"photo?" louis nudges harry in the side, carefully and nick smiles widely at harry, who just looks even more star stuck, much like a small, furry animal in the headlights of a car. louis looks rather smug and fishes harry's phone out a jacket pocket, and passes it over to nick, "still with freakishly long arms." they snap pictures, one of nick's arms resting around harry's shoulders and his fingers rest against the hem of louis' shirt, brushing over the top of louis' collarbone. he just feels the way louis shiver.
"out the photo you terror," nick says and flicks at louis' neck until louis steps out the way, rolling his eyes and making a face, "let me get a couple with a real fan, someone who appreciates art."
"art?" louis' voice raises an octave or two when he's indignant and nick stores that little piece of information away for a rainy day to mull over, "you call that claptrap you warble on about idiotically at some ridiculously early time in the morning art?"
"take a photo louis, you're embarrassing your cute friend." nick retorts, despite remembering harry's name and louis makes a great show of getting the phone just right and focusing properly before finally taking a couple of snap shots. louis hands the phone back over to harry, rather pleased with himself and scoots back into nick's side so seamlessly that whilst harry's finding his voice and discussing strangely named bands with nick he doesn't realise he's slung an arm about louis' shoulder once more until harry's stopped talking and staring at the pair of them.
"your hipster shtick is honestly unappealing and a little boring," louis notes mostly because he doesn't care who the xx are or whatever else they're going on about and nick laughs at the gall of the small tanned boy, such feistiness is appreciated.
"whilst your love for top forty hits is both inspiring and artistic," nick states back and that wiry grin he's come to love works its way across louis' little pink lips, oddly comforting and familiar.
"your banter is actually cuter in real life." harry blurts, eyes still ridiculously wide and shining like he's about to cry of happiness or something and nick shares a raised eyebrow with louis, a look of confusion, and harry just looks even happier. and really, because nick doesn't know better he's guessing harry might start bouncing on the spot. a few seconds later he's basically rocking on the heels of his shoes, so nick kind of counts that as bouncing.
"aren't you late for work," louis announces, and well shit, nick kind of is and finchy is going to kill him , so he curls louis in for another hug and then gives harry one to, pressing a kiss to harry's cheek, much to harry's delight and the blush on his cheeks is spectacular.
"let me take you two out for lunch," nick says, and pulls a purple pen out of his pocket and takes louis' hand, "if you're both going to be around london then still." and whilst louis is mumbling, yes they will be, nick scribbles out his number to louis' wrist and forearm, despite the fact they could easily just dm each other and adds a little 'x' at the end for good measure. "text me."
he leaves harry nearly hyperventilating and louis' cheeks burning red, touching the spot on the corner of his mouth where nick planted a quick kiss, standing on the stairs that lead to the bbc radio one building. making his way a little slowly up to the studio, he tweets some nonsensical rubbish about a pretty boy with dirty knees instead of a good morning and refuses to answer all questions about it. he gets a text twenty minutes in from some unknown number that simply says hipster twat and so nick decides to save the contact as pretty boy with dirty knees into his phone and frowns when finchy tells him off for texting too much.
harry only shows to lunch for half an hour or so and the next morning there's pictures all over the internet of nick and louis huddled into a tiny booth sharing a sandwich with far too much lettuce for anyone's taste in it.
title pretty boy with dirty knees
rating; pg-13
word count: 2,257 +/-
warning(s): none.
summary: “…"louis tomlinson. i guess this is the part where i say i'm your biggest fan or some shit, but i'm actually not and you're actually just a hipster twat with a shitty taste in music and definitely not deserving of the wasting of my spare time." the statement shocks nick into laughter..”
a/n: this was so much fun to write and if you ask nicely i might write some more once i've finished this challenge thing. dedicated to ava because i love her and her tags on some of this have been helping me to work my way through this challenge; her ridiculous praise or grumpy cat meme have made me laugh. every little bit of encouragement helps. unbeta'd.
-
nick's a little bit early when he rounds upon the radio one building. it's fucking cold, and the logic is that earlier equals less traffic and therefore less time spent in the dreary, wet streets of london and more time warm inside. he cuts his way quickly through car park, eyes peeled for possible ice, long legs making quick work of the inches towards the building. he's almost there when he looks up, actually taking the surroundings in around him, which are all pretty mundane and normal, except there's a pretty boy with dirty knees sitting upon a step out the front; thermos flask in gloved, tiny hands.
"hello," nick says, stopping in front of the pretty boy and well, he's got time, he is early. the boy looks up, brown fringe spilling out the front of a maroon beanie and the smile that lights up his entire face when he lays eyes upon nick is beyond delightful. he's got pink, little lips that stretch across tanned cheeks and crinkles by his eyes and he kind of looks a bit star struck, wondrous and child-like even.
"nick grimshaw," he breaths and nick nods because yes, last time he checked he was in fact nick grimshaw, but the boy looks ecstatic and if nick's ego inflates a little because his pretence makes that look ignite on pretty boy's faces well, no one can blame him, "it's actually you, i'm actually meeting you, this has to be a dream. pinch me." he demands, and nick would but the boy is still sitting down and well, nick's arms can't really reach that far, the ground is awfully far away.
"it certainly is, and you certainly are," nick offers the boy a smile and a hand to get up off what must be the some of the coldest ground at the moment. he tugs the boy up and if they're hands remain clasped for longer than necessary well, the feeling of the boy's gloves are rather nice, that's all.
"i'm louis," the boy grins, he barely makes it up to nick's shoulder and on farther inspection nick realises it's not so much boy as man, just kind of compact and incredibly beautiful, "louis tomlinson. i guess this is the part where i say i'm your biggest fan or some shit, but i'm actually not and you're actually just a hipster twat with a shitty taste in music and definitely not deserving of the wasting of my spare time." the statement shocks nick into laughter, ridiculously loud and unapologetic and he flings an arm around louis' warm shoulders, leaning down to press a quick peck of a kiss to louis' cheek.
"it seems you've got me all sorted out," nick says with an equally crinkly eyed smile and louis just stares up at him with wide eyes, looking like he wants to touch the cheek where nick had his lips pressed to not a few seconds before, small gloved hand reaching up just a little bit. he snaps out of it after a few more seconds, and smiles wirily back, looking rather pleased that he made nick laugh.
"mostly definitely," louis replies with a straight face, but there's something teasing about it like he's really saying no, that's not it at all and you're probably more complex than even you understand and i want to get to know those complexities better. he tugs out his phone; a dull looking older model and looks up hopefully, "mind if we get a photo? my friend harry - he's a hipster you see - kind of idolises you and i want to rub it in his face that i got to meet you, and he hasn't. he'll be proper devastated."
"of course love, anything to torture a friend with," nick smiles, resisting to press fingers upon the blush that rests high on louis' cheeks to feel the warmth of it and takes the phone once louis' set it up to hold it out with his "freakishly long arms, like what are you, an ape?" and snap a few pictures; smiling with a small, pretty boy with dirty knees tucked up under his arm.
"thank you," louis smiles, this time even softer and nick kind of loves the way he's put it there, but also kind of wants to tell louis to stop smiling because he's going to injure his jaw or something. he goes to pull away, let nick go to work, but nick just tightens his grip on louis' shoulder and when two blue eyes filled with questions stare up at him he can't help the grin sneaking away from him.
"let's make your friend extra jealous shall we?" he asks and when louis looks blankly at him, inches away from rolling his eyes and gee, nick hadn't realised how attractive it was to see people roll their eyes at him, "let me tweet a photo of us together."
it only takes a few seconds, and a ridiculously cute picture is taken and seeing as nick is actually late now, he regrettably leaves louis upon the steps of the radio one building, eyes bright with a giant smile across his face and cheeks warm with blush and kisses. he tweets the picture, lazily making his way to the studio, captioning it found a pretty boy with dirty knees upon some steps and a little heart emoji and it doesn't occur to him until he's finished the waking up song that he didn't get louis' number.
which is stupid because he shouldn't go around giving his number to any old pretty boy with grubby stains on the knees of his jeans?
-
several months later, he catches a somewhat incredibly insulting tweet from a louis tomlinson in his mentions and nick recognises that smile and those eyes and the tanned skin and it's an instant follow. he sends something witty back, and is far too pleased when a well worded jibe pops up mere minutes later. it feels like their conversation, months before, and nick was right, the amount of smiling that had to be done around louis tomlinson, or him for that matter, is definitely straining some poor muscle in his jaw.
to which point, he mentions to louis through an extremely well worded reply that makes it sound like nick's not actually grinning like an idiot and louis sees straight through it. catches him up with a @grimmers surprised that with all your codswallop your jaw would be hurting from just smiling and the owner of the cafe he's in at the time glares at him when laughter cuts through the quiet hum of the early afternoon. ridiculously, he's kind of proud of louis, and an a plus for using codswallop in an actual sentence without sounding like he was born in the mid eighteen hundreds or something.
later, when he's curled up with aimee and thurston upon the couch watching x factor and live tweeting because he's got not much else to do on a wednesday night, aimee mentions how chipper nick is for the evening. nick doesn't think much of it; but then again, louis is live tweeting the x factor too and there's plenty more opportunity for banter filled tweets. so what if louis' favourites are actually nick's favourites; the shade is far too good to pass up.
-
it's late spring when nick's lazily strolling across the car park to actually be ready for work on time when there's the pretty boy with dirty knees sitting upon the radio one building steps. nick can't help the smile that blossoms up his lips, and to see one returned on louis' face makes the smile go wider. upon reaching him, louis jumps up and the pair of them breifly pretend to be unamused at the meeting until nick's wrapping louis up in a warm, slightly vicious hug. there's another pretty boy with louis, he's got a mop of curly hair and big green eyes that stare at nick; completely star struck.
"this is harry, the hipster i told you about." louis says when he pulls away from tucked against nick's chest, his beanie - this one a lovely shade of blue that brings out his eyes - slightly askew, "he was just dying to meet you. i don't know why, you're insufferable."
"he has better taste than you, love." nick replies and louis rolls his eyes over dramatically, but there's a smirk on his on his face as he pushes harry forward, stumbling over his pigeon toes and blushing. he opens his mouth, but then sort of goldfishes nick a little and louis clamps a hand over harry's mouth and smiles wirily.
"he's shell shocked. doesn't know what to think," louis shakes his head at harry, "he's embarrassing really." and obviously harry licks at louis hand because it jumps away and he wipes it on harry's well-fitting band shirt, nose crinkled adorably. harry opens his mouth once more, eyes shining and
"hi," in a small voice only really comes out. harry looks like he wants to say more, but he's kind of a little too star struck and his voice gets stuck in his throat, and louis being a good friend just kind of laughs at him.
"photo?" louis nudges harry in the side, carefully and nick smiles widely at harry, who just looks even more star stuck, much like a small, furry animal in the headlights of a car. louis looks rather smug and fishes harry's phone out a jacket pocket, and passes it over to nick, "still with freakishly long arms." they snap pictures, one of nick's arms resting around harry's shoulders and his fingers rest against the hem of louis' shirt, brushing over the top of louis' collarbone. he just feels the way louis shiver.
"out the photo you terror," nick says and flicks at louis' neck until louis steps out the way, rolling his eyes and making a face, "let me get a couple with a real fan, someone who appreciates art."
"art?" louis' voice raises an octave or two when he's indignant and nick stores that little piece of information away for a rainy day to mull over, "you call that claptrap you warble on about idiotically at some ridiculously early time in the morning art?"
"take a photo louis, you're embarrassing your cute friend." nick retorts, despite remembering harry's name and louis makes a great show of getting the phone just right and focusing properly before finally taking a couple of snap shots. louis hands the phone back over to harry, rather pleased with himself and scoots back into nick's side so seamlessly that whilst harry's finding his voice and discussing strangely named bands with nick he doesn't realise he's slung an arm about louis' shoulder once more until harry's stopped talking and staring at the pair of them.
"your hipster shtick is honestly unappealing and a little boring," louis notes mostly because he doesn't care who the xx are or whatever else they're going on about and nick laughs at the gall of the small tanned boy, such feistiness is appreciated.
"whilst your love for top forty hits is both inspiring and artistic," nick states back and that wiry grin he's come to love works its way across louis' little pink lips, oddly comforting and familiar.
"your banter is actually cuter in real life." harry blurts, eyes still ridiculously wide and shining like he's about to cry of happiness or something and nick shares a raised eyebrow with louis, a look of confusion, and harry just looks even happier. and really, because nick doesn't know better he's guessing harry might start bouncing on the spot. a few seconds later he's basically rocking on the heels of his shoes, so nick kind of counts that as bouncing.
"aren't you late for work," louis announces, and well shit, nick kind of is and finchy is going to kill him , so he curls louis in for another hug and then gives harry one to, pressing a kiss to harry's cheek, much to harry's delight and the blush on his cheeks is spectacular.
"let me take you two out for lunch," nick says, and pulls a purple pen out of his pocket and takes louis' hand, "if you're both going to be around london then still." and whilst louis is mumbling, yes they will be, nick scribbles out his number to louis' wrist and forearm, despite the fact they could easily just dm each other and adds a little 'x' at the end for good measure. "text me."
he leaves harry nearly hyperventilating and louis' cheeks burning red, touching the spot on the corner of his mouth where nick planted a quick kiss, standing on the stairs that lead to the bbc radio one building. making his way a little slowly up to the studio, he tweets some nonsensical rubbish about a pretty boy with dirty knees instead of a good morning and refuses to answer all questions about it. he gets a text twenty minutes in from some unknown number that simply says hipster twat and so nick decides to save the contact as pretty boy with dirty knees into his phone and frowns when finchy tells him off for texting too much.
harry only shows to lunch for half an hour or so and the next morning there's pictures all over the internet of nick and louis huddled into a tiny booth sharing a sandwich with far too much lettuce for anyone's taste in it.