Chapter Text
“Shit, that’s hot!” Louis hisses and instantly regrets saying aloud when he remembers the phone haphazardly tucked between his ear and his shoulder. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” He sucks at the pads of his fingers after he snatches them away from the pan he should’ve removed from the hob with a fucking pot holder.
“Er- No, Mrs. Richardson, not you! Um, I didn’t say anything. Ignore me. Please continue. Sorry,” he tacks on as he goes for the frying pan full of chicken again, this time with something protecting his hand besides just skin. “Y-Yes, Mrs. Richardson, of course. I’ll go in tomorrow to make sure everything is taken care of. I’ll handle it myself,” Louis promises his boss even though tomorrow is Saturday and was supposed to be his day off.
Even as Louis boasts such a promise he begins coming up with an apology as well as a thank you gift for whomever he’ll need to bribe to watch Oliva.
“Yes, I will have someone escort your guests from the airport as well. Oh. Um, I will personally escort your guests from the airport as well,” he amends just as hot water crackles and sizzles to his left, his pot of fettuccini boiling over and filling the kitchen with steam, which is definitely not a part of the recipe instructions. “You’re very, very welcome, Mrs. Richardson. It’s my pleasure. You have nothing at all to worry about. You’re officially worry-free. See you bright and early tomorrow morning! Bye!”
He didn’t mean to cut off her extensive thank you slash appreciation speech about how he is the only one on whom she can truly rely, but at this point it was either hurrying his boss off the phone or surrendering his kitchen to flames, and although he needs both things in his life, he’s got a very hungry eight-year-old in the living room who would probably enjoy eating dinner sometime this century.
The stovetop stops smoking once he removes the noodles from the heat. He tries one that’s floating at the surface getting partially uncooked noodle particles stuck between his teeth so he tries boiling them again, but at a much lower setting. Now, the pepper chicken he was just browning –burning – is another story entirely as it appears to be too done. It’s edible though so he scrapes it into a bowl, scoops the rest of the raw chicken slices over into the pan, and begins working on the pasta’s sauce.
His phone rings again just as he realizes he doesn’t know what the hell a shallot even is so he knows there aren’t any in this kitchen. Thankfully, it’s Liam calling this time and not Mrs. Richardson with some other miscellaneous task she doesn’t trust any of her other employees to do.
“What the hell is a shallot?” is Louis’ first and only question.
“It’s a type of onion, and hello to you too,” his best friend answers.
“Hi. An onion? Seriously? Then why don’t they just say that?” he sighs, moving to grab one from the fridge just as a familiar call of ‘Daddy?’ rings out from the living room.
“Yeah, love? What is it?” Louis calls back over the murmur of Liam going on about something in his ear and the sound of food sizzling away behind him followed by a, “No, Li, not you,” and a “Yes, Li, I’m listening.”
His daughter says something else, but it’s lost in the chaos. She must know that Louis didn’t hear her because she pops her head into the kitchen not even ten seconds later with his laptop in tow.
“Daddy? Can I have a parents’ permission to enter for a chance to win a contest? Please?” she bats her long eyelashes.
“Er- Maybe,” he answers carefully. “No, Li, not you. Hold on a second,” he says, putting the phone down to face Olivia properly. “What’s it for?”
“A casting all-call for kids,” she reveals with those big brown eyes of hers practically begging him already. “Aaand, if you say I can enter then I just have to submit a two-minute audition video and I might get picked!”
This whole acting thing she has recently gotten into has been pretty fun for her ever since she got the lead in the spring play at school two years in a row, as well as two other important roles in their community theatre’s small productions of Mary Poppins and A Christmas Carol. This contest thing will be a long-shot. She’s never tried for something on this scale where there could be hundreds or even thousands of other kids auditioning, but she seems to really want to do it. If she isn’t chosen it’ll be a learning experience, and if she is she’ll get to have fun doing something she loves.
For now, Louis’ just grateful that she’s so preoccupied with this contest thing that she hasn’t noticed dinner still isn’t ready.
“Please, please, please,” she chants, her face scrunched up in hopeful anticipation of the yes she can probably feel coming from the stubborn grin tugging at Louis’ lips.
“You have a parents’ permission. Let me know if you need help,” Louis surrenders, fondly rolling his eyes when his daughter springs off her toes into the air with his computer in hand.
“YES!!” she exclaims completely drowning out his warning for her to be careful with it, beaming from ear to ear when she quickly runs over to hug him. “Thank you so much! And also, something’s burning,” she points out before relinquishing her grip to skip back into the living room.
“Wait, what? Shit.” Louis narrowly escapes scorching his fingers again when he lunges for the over-cooked chicken but remembers to grab the pot holder at the last second. His quick save doesn’t really help his fettuccini noodles which have spent the last couple of minutes searing at the bottom of the pot because he forgot to add more water. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“No, Li, not you,” Louis repeats when the faint buzzing of his best friend’s voice filters through the phone he left on the countertop gains his attention.
“Are you alright? Olivia said something was burning.”
“Yes, everything is fine… I’ve decided we’re having pizza again,” he sighs over his failed dinner attempt. Having something delivered is probably for the best anyway. Cleanup will be much easier that way. And plus he has to get up earlier than usual tomorrow since he all but swore on his life to help out his boss. Which reminds him. “Hey, Li? I know I still owe you from last time, but could you do me huge gigantic favor and watch Olivia for a few hours tomorrow?”
“Of course. You know I don’t mind,” he agrees. “But, I thought tomorrow was your day off?” Louis did too. “Lou, you’ve got to start putting your foot down,” Liam scolds him. “I know it’s just you and Liv, but everyone needs a break sometimes. Even you.”
Yeah, Louis could use some down time, but he could also use the money so he won’t complain. After all, the cash it takes to replace all the meals Louis burns during the week has to come from somewhere.
**Three Weeks Later**
Louis startles awake at the sound of his bedroom door ricocheting off the wall and a bloodcurdling cry that must mean someone is dead.
“I GOT IT! DADDY, I GOT IT! WAKE UP!”
He shoots up in bed at Olivia’s request, his eyes wide and his heart practically beating out of his chest which calms considerably after a lightning-speed glance-over of his daughter reveals that there’s no blood and all four limbs are still attached. Thank God.
“What’s happened? What did you get?” he asks the tousled mess of honey curls that climb up the foot of his bed and begin bouncing all over the place when Olivia decides to treat his mattress like a bloody trampoline.
“The casting all-call for the music video! They picked me!” she exclaims, Louis’ chest taking the majority of the impact when she lands half on top of him with his laptop that he’s just noticed her holding. She all but shoves the bright screen into his face, and sure enough, the email displayed there is one congratulating his daughter on being chosen to be in something called KIWI. “I’m going to get to meet Harry Styles! Isn’t that so cool?!”
“Er- Yeah, of course! That’s so great, love. Very cool,” he agrees, just happy to see her so happy.
She lets out a high-pitched squeal that quickly morphs into another bloodcurdling scream as she resumes jumping on his bed.
Louis fights off the sudden wave off motion sickness she’s inflicting upon him, grabbing his glasses to carefully read over the details of this so-called ‘music video’ so he knows what exactly he just let his eight-year-old sign up for now that he’s not elbow deep in shallots and burnt chicken, the whole time wondering what the fuck KIWIS have to do with anything and why it’s repeatedly being shouted in caps lock.
**Two Weeks Later**
“This is the place?” Louis mumbles as they walk up hand in hand to a deserted old school building that looks like it was constructed sometime in the Mesozoic era. He quickly consults his phone, pulling up the email with Olivia’s itinerary and finds that they are indeed in the right place.
Three days ago, Louis dropped his daughter off for a wardrobe fitting outside of a lovely studio that he felt completely comfortable leaving her at for the couple of hours she had to stay. He had anticipated the same sort of thing happening today, but there’s no kind-faced wardrobe lady waiting to escort his daughter inside so now he’s currently second guessing that plan, protectively pulling Olivia bit closer to him.
“Um, I’m just going to walk with you, okay?”
She doesn’t seem to mind at all with the big smile she sports in response.
“Okay,” she chirps. “Are you staying today, Daddy?” Her hopeful eyes blink up at him instantly melting his heart.
Technically, Louis has the day off since it’s Saturday, but he had still planned to go into work for a couple of hours to play catch up. Maybe he shouldn’t since Olivia clearly wants him here with her. She was chosen as the lead out of the two-dozen other kids who were also cast for this video and she’s been immensely proud of herself. He knows he’ll get to see the finished product once filming for this video is done, but he wouldn’t mind getting to see his little girl in action as well.
“Sure, love. I can stick around if you want.” The way she beams and happily swings their arms between them while she leads the way up the steps of the building tells Louis she wants.
Any person walking by this place would’ve thought the same thing as Louis when he first saw it, but the building is neither dead or silent when they enter it. It’s actually bustling with people which means it is in fact not a deserted death trap.
There are lights and cameras being set up all along the main corridor. And for some reason, anyone who’s not carrying a piece of filming equipment is instead holding a giant tray full of pastries?
Louis’ still frowning at the various cakes and muffins whizzing by him when a woman with long platinum hair introduces herself to him as Lou and hands him and Olivia a pair of set passes.
“Livvy! It’s so nice to see you again,” she gushes as she stoops down to hug his daughter hello. “Ready to go get dolled up and look even more gorgeous?” Olivia smiles at her compliment and nods, happily taking Lou’s hand when offered.
The woman’s eyes soften at the way Louis’ brow furrows at how quickly he was just ditched. “Would you like to come too, Dad? Parents are welcome to tag along,” Lou says, smiling in sympathy like she knows the feeling.
“Er- Yeah. I would. Thank you. Um, I’m Louis by the way.”
Her eyes light up with an amused grin at the similarities between their names. “This is going to be really fun,” she tells Olivia who giggles too.
*
This type of glamorous environment with all these busy industry people running around is so different from the theatre productions his daughter has done, and yet she fits right in, enjoying all the attention she gets after she changes into her custom fitted suit that probably costs more than anything she’s ever worn in her eight years. Hell, it probably costs more than anything Louis has worn in his twenty-nine years too. He couldn’t afford as much as a Gucci shoelace.
He still doesn’t know what kids in suits have to do with anything though. Or pastries for that matter. Louis still hasn’t figured that one out.
Olivia is in good hands with the makeup team where she’s currently sitting quiet and still as a statue so Louis decides to take himself on a self-guided tour around the place. Not to be nosy, of course. Just to politely explore.
The corridor is still full of people, though most of them disappear through a set of double doors carrying more sweets. Louis follows them and the Irish man who seems to be in charge of directing people where to go…and how to toss all the sweets they’re carrying in with the rest of the frosted, sugary mountain in the center of the room.
“Are you with set design?”
Louis tears his eyes away from the food to meet the grey eyes of the man he followed here who raises an eyebrow at his cupcake-less hands.
“Uh…no, I’m not. I was just having a look around. Sorry.”
The man’s gaze moves to the guest pass hanging from his neck and then immediately reaches out his hand in greeting once he realizes he’s just a parent. “Don’t worry about it, mate. I’m Niall. Welcome.”
“Thanks,” Louis grins back, his attention still half on the giant cake mound sitting on the floor. “Er- Hey, Niall. Can I ask you a question? Where are all the kiwis? I’m only seeing a bunch of sweets.”
A tiny crease forms between the man’s eyebrows when he looks at Louis and realizes he’s being completely serious.
“Um, there are no kiwis? And the sweets are for the food war, obviously.” Louis feels himself frowning at this information and Niall’s face lights up in amusement. “You haven’t seen any of the storyboards have you? Well, you’re in for a treat,” he snorts just before shouting across the room to stop a man from adding one too many doughnuts to the top of his carefully constructed mountain.
Louis leaves once Niall takes off to do damage control. He heads back into the corridor but walks past the room where he can still see his daughter being pampered. There’s a whole room dedicated to equipment and another to kids wardrobe where a lot of the other children are still waiting, but next to it is a dressing room with only a few people in it. One of which is currently being fussed over by half a dozen hands. He’s turned around pulling on a thin white shirt to cover all the bare skin exposed above the waistband of his floral-print bottoms that look just like the ones Olivia is wearing just down the corridor. She looks darling in hers. Like a little lady with an attitude and confidence that probably got her this role in first place, but this man with his broad shoulders and array of tattoos is anything but darling. Everything about him from his long legs to his perfect bum that sits perfectly above them has Louis’ mouth going dry. He’s only able to close it when someone from wardrobe asks the man turn around to slip his matching jacket on over his shoulders and he catches Louis staring.
His feet start moving before his brain even tells them to, desperate to remove himself from the corridor so that he isn’t openly gawking inside of Harry Fucking Styles’ dressing room.
He ends up stepping all over the woman trying to bring Harry his shoes in his haste to get away. He chances a quick glance back into the dressing room to see if Harry saw that, flushing red all the way up to his ears at the tiny smile Harry bites down on while watching him escape.
*
Day one of two of filming kicks off with a loud call of action from one end of the main corridor as Oliva practices struts toward them from the other. When she asked to sign up for a chance to be in this video Louis assumed he’d end up consoling her after a swift rejection, not proudly watching her from the sidelines as she takes the lead role and completely owns it.
“She’s great. You must be so proud of her.”
Louis grins at the anonymous compliment from just behind him just like all the others before. “Yeah, she’s really something,” he agrees, too captivated by all of Olivia’s raw talent to even look away because she certainly didn’t get it from him.
“I’m Harry by the way,” the person whispers making Louis’ eyes widen just as the director asks Olivia to reset and try it again. “Um, we almost met earlier so I just wanted to come over and introduce myself properly.”
Their almost meeting was more like Louis getting caught peeping into Harry’s dressing room and then purposefully avoiding the shit out of him for the rest of the day, but he guesses they can call it that.
“Er- Hi, there,” Louis winces as he slowly turns to meet his doom and get the humiliation over with, unlike Louis’ fearless daughter who is so taken with Harry at this point that they’ve started developing their own secret handshake. Though, the majority of her confidence probably stems from the fact that she didn’t gawk at the man while half-naked.
“Um, so about earlier…” he begins in apology but then his hand is being warmly enveloped by a slightly larger one. Louis had every intention of explaining himself, however, one look into those emerald eyes and at the pair of dimples on either side of Harry’s grin has Louis forgetting a lot of things, including how the hinge of his fucking jaw works.
“No, it’s fine. Don’t mention it, uh-?”
“Louis,” he finishes for him, dumbly changing it to Lou and then back to Louis again once he remembers they already have one of those. All his spastic name changing does besides make Louis want to fling himself out of a window is make the corners of Harry’s mouth quirk up in even more delight.
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Louis. Or Lou,” he jokes. “Both suit you.”
Louis works a shit ton, and when he isn’t doing that he’s looking after Olivia and destroying kitchenware instead of buying music, but that doesn’t mean he lives under a rock. He knows exactly who Harry Styles is and also how insane it is for him to still be smiling and shaking Louis’ hand like this. He eventually lets go of course, but afterwards Louis’ mouth is still drier than the strawberry cupcake he swiped from set design when no one was looking.
“I really didn’t mean to stare earlier,” he manages to blurt out. “I should’ve stayed in hair and makeup like they told me to instead of wandering around,” he apologizes.
“Seriously, Lou, it’s more than okay. And, actually, I’m kind of glad you didn’t listen,” Harry admits as that same little grin from before makes a reappearance. “N-Not in a weird way,” he clarifies with a chuckle at himself, “I just mean that I’ve seen you around with Olivia, and she’s already told me so much about you, so.”
Once again, Louis is left a little speechless.
“Sh-She did? Really?”
His daughter came home raving about Harry after her fitting three days ago. She had been looking forward to meeting him for weeks, and now Louis finds out that when she finally got her chance she wasted it talking about him of all things? On second thought, it sounds exactly like something she’d do Louis decides, watching her face light up when she’s finally asked to reset for the last time for take one and the set bursts to life to capture it.
“Don’t worry,” Harry chuckles when Louis’ brow furrows wondering what she could’ve told him. “They were all good things. Every one of them,” he promises as he slowly backs away towards the director beckoning him.
They were?
Harry leaves Louis there with the little crease between his brows that smooths with the tiny grin Harry aims in his direction before joining the rest of his crew. Everyone is focused on the camera monitor now that Olivia’s going to be shot along with the music that Louis has still yet to hear.
The director calls action again and the sound of a gravelly voice mixed with a heavy electric guitar fills the cramped corridor. And although it’s a much different kind of sound than Louis was expecting from a kid shoot featuring cupcakes, he’s instantly sold. He has yet to hear any reference to kiwis or fruits of any kind, so that still makes zero sense, but he gets the whole retro rock and roll vibe Harry’s team is going for. Or at least he did up until his ears hang on Harry shouting about having someone’s baby and it apparently being none their business.
Louis has been lost on the concept of this video from step one, so really, not much has changed in that department, but everyone else in the corridor seems to love the rather bizarre lyrics as well as Olivia so Louis doesn’t comment. He chooses instead to cheer the loudest for his amazingly talented kid and pretend neither of them can’t hear the music she’s strutting along to so Louis can at least maintain the illusion of sound parenting. And the illusion of not staring directly at Harry Styles leaned over the camera monitor in his custom fitted suit. That’s also a priority.