The Titanic (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter Two

Chapter Two. 

AN: So this is ridiculously long. Also, I’ve decided to just turn the preview into the first chapter because this didn’t break as neatly. 

~thewhitetoymaker

-

“Are you sure we have to find a room down here?” Niall asked in a tense voice, as he walked alongside Louis through the dim, somewhat depressing halls that made up the far lower decks of The Titanic. They had long since left their borrowed luggage by the proper rooms and nodded their farewells to the other dock workers that went the way they should while the two others split off to bury themselves in the hulls of the ship before they could be removed. After only a glimpse at the luxurious rooms that they were delivering bags to Niall’s expression had become longing and envious of the passengers that would spend their days in the comfort of four poster beds, love seats and considerate bowls of fresh fruit that had made both their mouths water.

Unfortunately, the Irish boy’s cheeks were becoming greener with every meter of space that disappeared between him and the reassuring, spacious deck that was now high, high above their heads. He had never handled small spaces particularly well, and so it was an active effort for him to continue descending further into the very slums of the rooms that were equipped for the staff aboard the ship. These quarters were only slightly better than the overheated, steaming chambers that belonged to the engines and the workers that were doomed to boil alongside the gears.

 “I’m sorry, mate,” Louis told his friend sympathetically, and he reached out to throw a comforting arm around Niall’s shoulders to pull his friend close. His fingers slowly kneaded out the knotted tension in the blonde boy’s neck as their pace slowed a little. “It’ll be alright once we get going, I promise. We can stay up on the top deck as much as you like once I’ve made sure that we’ve got somewhere to sleep down here, at least. I even can meet you up top, if you like, and you can wait up there while I sort this all out. You don’t have to come with me.”

Despite the ashy cast to his cheeks, Niall shook his head tightly. “Nah, you’ll only get lost if I don’t come with you,” he teased faintly, a hint of a grin lurking in the corners of his mouth.

Louis grinned widely, pressing his forehead to Niall’s temple briefly before he continued to walk further into the bowels of the ship. “It’ll be fine, you’ll see,” he said confidently. “We’re already on the ship now, and once we take up in the staff rooms no one will bother asking around to see if we really belong here. We’ll come out some time later, wait some tables, and no one will look at us twice.”

“What about that girl? The one that you poked fun at, earlier.”

Louis only brushed Niall’s concern aside. “She probably didn’t even realise that I was insulting her. And even if she did, I highly doubt she was paying enough attention to me that she’d be able to recognise me. Trust me, as soon as you put on a uniform they won’t even look you in the face, so don’t worry about it. Ah,” he said suddenly, and his expression brightened as they crossed into a new, longer corridor that was lined with fairly plain wooden doors with peeling signs denoting the number of each one. “Here we go.”

Niall’s lips pinched together at the sight of that looming hall, but they loosened once more as Louis’ fingers stroked at his shoulders.

“It’ll be alright,” the older boy repeated, gently, and then eased Niall forward as carefully as he could.

Together, they moved forward only the few meters necessary to reach the very first door that was situated on the left wall – so that Niall would not have to delve any deeper into the endless, oppressive corridor – and then Louis did not hesitate even to knock on the wood before he turned the handle and barged straight through.