Chapter Text
Louis walked into the lobby of the Styles building in downtown Manhattan. It was a Saturday morning like any other, it was quiet on the street but the minute you pushed passed the glass doors of the Styles building you were in the middle of a chaotic whirlwind of chatter and commotion. Louis headed towards the elevator and pressed the button pointed up.
"Hello, Louis."
Louis looked at the young women next to him, she wore her hair pinned up tightly with a black bodycon dress and black tights on. Her face was tight with worry as she typed on her phone her red nails tapping hard against the glass screen.
"Hello, Claire."
The elevator opened and they both entered she pressed the button for floor three and Louis gave her a questioning look.
"Is there a reason you're traveling into the BoHo realm today?"
Claire laughed pulling her bag in front of herself to make room for the person entering with them, a face neither of them knew very well.
"Paisley texted me that she forgot her as she calls it, 'healing juice' on her desk."
Louis smiled smugly at the thought of Claire picking up whatever healing juice was and carrying it around like a corpse.
He scanned his key and pressed the button for floor seven. It was the special floor only six people occupied it. Two of them being Claire and himself.
"I guess I'll see you up there?"
She got off of the elevator turning towards Louis once again as the man in BoHo attire slid past her and scurried into his cubicle. She held the elevator door open, her red fingernails wrapping around the metal.
"Paisley also informed me that Mr. Styles is not in a good mood today. Something about a model dropping out of his fashion show next weekend."
She let go and the door started closing and as it did he could hear her laughing and watched as she scurried away yelling at him to enjoy the seventh circle of hell.
He hated referring to his boss as Mr. Styles it felt incredibly weird to do so considering he was the older of the two. He had never worked for someone younger than him before. He turned his attention to the buttons and watched as the numbers would light up and fade away just as quickly.
The Styles building consisted of seven floors. Many people referred to them as the seven circles of hell because of how torturous their jobs were.
Floor one is the lobby consisting of the elevators and many conference rooms Mr. Styles rented out for use from time to time. Floor two was Louis' as he called it brand. It was called streetwear. Everything and anything related to streetwear happened on that floor and only that floor and was marked by blue and white furniture. Every floor has a head sales person and that was him.
Floor three is BoHo, run by Paisley De, a lovely wild ginger with the fashion style of a forest witch. Their section contained yellow and white furniture. Floor four was rocker wear, run by Lilly Jagger, no affiliation to Mic. They stayed true to black and white furniture with pops of red accents.
Floor five is vintage wear, run by the youngest member of staff. An African designer who goes by the name of Emily Bello. No one knows her real name but she chose her name to sell her fashion faster and it worked. She chose green and white furniture styling. Floor six was Claire Perlo and that was high fashion. Everything in there was white and marble with accents of gold.
Finally, the seventh floor was the scariest of all. The creator of the entire company sat in his crystal ball of an office made entirely of glass windows; he had a three hundred and sixty degree view of the city around him and he had his top five salespeople sitting outside of his office around a circular stage waiting for him to burst out with a new idea.
The elevator dinged and opened up to let Louis out into the marble office, the sun poured in from all around and made the room feel very cozy. Green plants hung from various places and made the room feel more exotic and exciting.
Louis went to his desk, set up in the half-moon facing Mr. Styles' office. He had a direct view of Louis, they sat facing each other the only thing between them were glass doors and glass walls. Mr. Styles would open the doors and come out to the middle on the tiny circular stage to address all five of his favorite workers with a morning announcement as they sat at their desks arranged in a perfect half moon for him. Not today though.
Mr. Styles sat at his desk in clear frustration throwing papers around while he barked down the phone at someone. Louis simply sat down at his desk and started to get to work.
To Louis' left was Lily and then Paisley and to the right was Emily and then finally Claire. All of them were there except for Claire who came moments later placing the green liquid on Paisley's desk before quietly making her way to her desk as Mr. Styles finally hung up the phone and rested his head in his hands.
Louis watched him sigh and get up as he started fake typing on the computer. He was in charge of every celebrity who walked through his doors and he depended on the five of them to give him the good news.
He peeked his head out of the door and cleared his throat looking around as all five pairs of eyes snapped up towards him. His hair fell slightly over his eyes and with one swift motion in his neck he removed it. He locked eyes with Louis and Louis starred back.
"Louis, could I possibly borrow you for a second?"
Louis nodded and got up slowly making his way around the circle to enter the devils office. He was sitting down, his chair spun around so he was gazing into the Saturday morning sky.
"Lovely isn't it."
"Yes, yes it is."
He spun his chair back around so he was facing Louis again his fingers drummed on the desk in front of him his name tag loud and proud reading his name in bold gold font Harry Styles.
"Do you know how many models are out there dying to be a part of my show?"
Louis didn't know if he should answer or not so he stayed quiet as he ranted on.
"Hundreds if not thousands of girls desperate to be given even the smallest glimpse into my world."
He looked up at Louis who was standing awkwardly in front of him, clearly unsure of what to say.
"I'm sorry. I need a coffee."
"Would you like me to go get you one?"
Louis' backstory was not as glamorous as the other fours. Louis was a paid intern for The Styles company . He did his coffee run every day for six months until he got promoted and then started his journey up to the seventh floor.
"I know it's below you, I'm just desperate. Paisley will bring me something green and the other girls are wearing heels, you're my guy."
"Large caramel macchiato with extra caramel?"
Harry sighed with relief and slid a twenty over to Louis who took it swiftly without anyone seeing. Louis knew the drill he would get Mr. Styles his coffee, Mr. Styles would thank him and he would lock himself in his office all day throwing a tantrum.
"Have I told you lately that I love you? Truly the best I've ever had."
Louis mumbled thanks as he put the twenty in his pocket and exited the office as Harry started dialing more numbers.
The girls all looked at him with sad eyes. Paisley sipped on her juice as Emily spoke up.
"He needs to stop sending you on coffee runs. You're not an intern anymore. He's taking you away from your job."
She gestured around the room and Louis laughed walking towards the door.
"Then you tell him that Em. He would love to hear that right now."
Louis opened the door as Emily rolled her eyes. Everyone knew Mr. Styles treated Louis with just one less ounce of respect than the other four. He still had Louis the intern in the back of his mind and pulled him out whenever he needed him.
There were rumors in the office that it was because Mr. Styles had a little crush on Louis and that's why he got promoted so fast and now he sends him on errand runs just so he could talk to him.
Louis did not think that was the case. He was his boss after all and he was very stressed out. He relied on Louis because Louis was reliable, not because Louis was his type.
*****
When Louis returned Mr. Styles was pacing around his office. He looked more stressed than before and Louis could actually feel it through the glass. He knocked on the door and he looked up, smiling a little bit as he raised his hand to motion Louis inside.
Louis entered carefully closing the door behind him. He walked forward and gave Harry his coffee. Their fingertips brushed lightly as the exchange was made and Harry pulled away quickly.
"Here is your change."
Louis held it out and he took it shoving it in a jar he kept on a shelf labeled "later". At this point that jar had to have hundreds of dollars in it.
"Thank you. You can return to your desk."
Louis nodded and he started to sip happily at his coffee returning to his comfy chair as Louis walked out of the office and back to his desk.
"Looks like you tamed the beast."
Paisley was taping her fingers against her desk watching Harry relax into his chair. She looked at Louis while smiling her orange hair glistening in the sunlight.
"You really do have a way with him."
"All I did was get him a coffee."
She sighed letting her chin fall into her hands. She looked like she was on the verge of sleep. She always kind of did, in a charming way.
"No, don't you see it? The way he looks at you? He totally calms down around you. It's so romantic that he has a soft spot for you."
Louis powered up his computer as he rolled his eyes. He rolled them so hard it hurt.
"That's not true at all, where do you get these ideas from? Your healing juice is making you hallucinate."
Emily laughed beside him as Claire's phone rang, hopefully, a model was behind it. They all held their breath as she picked up the phone and answered in her Italian accent.
"Hello this is Claire Perlo, Styles Company, High Fashion branch how may I help you?"
Everyone held their breath. A potential model could be on the other end asking about the show. Or worse, another model could be dropping out.
The only sound anyone heard was the soft humming of their computers and even Harry could feel the silence through the glass. Louis watched him lift his head in confusion to watch Claire's facial expression twist down.
She hung up the phone and picked up the paper she scribbled notes on. She sighed and stood up, flattening out her dress as her red heels clicked on the floor echoing in the silence of the office and she knocked lightly on his door.
The four watched her go inside and deliver whatever news she received. They watched his face deflate and watched him rise, leading Claire back outside to her desk.
He stood up tall and walked to the center stage to address them all. His suit was tailored well to his body but he looked restrained under it with all of the added stress.
"I need five models. One from each of you. I don't care what their background is in the modeling world or how much experience they have. Just get me five more models or else this whole show will be ruined."
He didn't say please or thank you or anything he simply walked quietly back into his office and threw all of his papers off of his desk in a fury.
He was a silently angry person. He became scary and amplified his presence when he was mad. The five of them had seen him like this multiple times and it only lasted for a good five minutes and then he returned to normal but Louis had bigger things to worry about than his child boss throwing a tantrum.
He needed to start looking for a model. He had one week until the show and he didn't even know where to start.
He looked up at Mr. Styles picking up all of the papers he threw moments before and looked around at the girls dialing all of the contacts they had and he realized at that moment that if he didn't pull this off he was fucked.