I met you in the toilet (Larry One Shots - book 5)

a sun too hot to go down

From: http://archiveofourown.org/works/816756

~~~~~~

Rating: Explicit

Warnings/tags: alternate universe, romance

Word count: 23395

Summary: AU; Louis is the new junior intern coordinator and Harry just wants to talk.

-

It’s May 20 and the first day of summer as Louis knows it, so he shows up to the office forty minutes early with his heart in his throat and an iced Americano in his veins.

Summer, as far as Louis has been concerned for the past four years, begins on the first day of the internship program—the most magical time of the year. It’s a reprise from the monotony of academia, or the trauma of back-to-back hangovers. He loves the American university system, don’t get him wrong, but being an intern is just about everything he’s ever wanted to do. Well, maybe not the bitch work or the unpaid labour, but the fucking excitement that comes from working for an actual publication and interviewing actual people and writing for actual readers. 

And this summer is special, more than any other one before it. Because he’s not just an intern this year, no, not with his experience and his yet-to-be-framed diploma from that prestigious upstate New York university. He has clout now, the kind that translates into a special title and an actual office for people with such titles. 

Louis Tomlinson: Junior Intern Coordinator, the placard on the door reads. Well, more a piece of paper than an actual placard, but Eleanor at the front desk promised him something more substantial sometime next week. And it doesn’t matter, anyway, when he has a real job now for one of the best entertainment publications in the country. Placard or not, he’ll take it. 

Even if it isn’t a permanent job, which it isn’t, not by any means. Though it’s not to say he wouldn’t come back to do it again next summer if they asked him, because he probably would. But his longevity with the mag is right there in his job title: junior intern coordinator, which means by the end of the internship program, he’ll be out a job. Which is fine, given that they’d kind-of, sort-of created the position just for him. After all, he’s Louis Tomlinson, star intern for Smut Magazine four years running, who’s too qualified to be just another trainee and too poor to be living unpaidagain in Los Angeles. 

So that’s fine. It’s a temporary job, but it’s one that pays. Yeah, it sucks that Professor Cowell hasn’t emailed him with any long-term job opportunities back east, but that’s just the lay of the land, he supposes. And in a way, Smut is a home away from home. Plus, he’ll be working directly with the new crop of interns and really, he can’t wait to get started with a bunch of college kids who love writing as much as he does. It’s basically just the best thing. 

“Hey, Louis.” 

He snaps his head up to find Lou standing in the doorway—his doorway—and dressed in her usual brand of all-black, can’t-be-fucked grunge. She was never an intimidating Intern Coordinator to begin with, but now that they’re working together, he can smile at her a little easier. 

“Hi, Lou. What’s up?” 

She looks around his office. It’s cramped, but he’s already developed a sense of pride for it. “Nice box.” 

He shrugs, smiles. “Bit weird, not being asked to get you coffee.” 

“That can still change,” Lou says, winking. Her hair is an ashy purple tucked under a beanie, and Louis just finds it so cool. “Anyway, wanted to see that you’d settled in. And I’ve come to give you a pep talk before the interns arrive.”