Chapter Text
If you were to ask Louis why he was walking down the street at six in the morning (an ungodly hour honestly, he was supposed to be sleeping in) juggling two cups of coffee on a box of records most definitely not grumbling to himself, he'd simply say it's because he's a damn good friend and also because Nick Fucking Grimshaw thinks it's okay to just not show up to work without a notice in advance, therefore, forcing those who were not supposed to be working to show up instead (again, honestly) but here he is bringing coffee along with the requested box of records for his co-worker and mate, Niall who asked him to come into work on short notice. (and seriously fuck Grimshaw)
Louis arrives at the record store; Cowell's Records. It was a very quaint place not too big but not too small. They had a somewhat wide selection of music ranging from old classics to hard metal and blues. Although if Louis was being honest the shop's music selections were heavily influenced by him and his co-workers so there was an imbalance between the genres.
He walks in and puts the box of records on the counter next to the till.
"Tommo!" exclaimed Niall popping up from behind the counter smiling upon his arrival.
What.
He's greeted by his odd Irish friend, Niall, who seems to have not been hit with dreadful news this morning unlike Louis as he's humming to an Arctic Monkeys song playing through the store. He's known Niall since before he decided to drop out of law school to go study art (which is still the best decision he's made in his life so far).
Niall basically runs the shop because Simon is hardly ever around being extremely busy with other work. When he first started working here he was nineteen and he always questioned how in the hell was it that Simon knew everything that went on here. Three years later and he still doesn't understand. Naturally, he suspected there were cameras unless Niall was relaying his every move to their boss, which c'mon. He searched three bloody days for those secret cameras and gave up when he turned empty.
Simon returned later that week to check in making sure everything was in order and said,"You won't find any cameras, Tomlinson, there aren't any." Niall laughed loudly as he watched Louis' expression change from really confused to possibly even more confused.
He left it at that.
Louis hands the blond boy his coffee. "Morning Ni." He mumbles into his foam cup leaning against the dark counter, Niall beside him looking through the records in the box.
Louis watches as two girls walk in right then moving towards the left orange wall covered in framed and signed vinyl covers. The opposite wall painted blue was floor to ceiling covered in posters from various music genres. The front counter with the till against the left wall towards the middle.
"Sorry you had to come in so early mate, Grimmy didn't come in and I already tried ringing him. Thanks for working short notice I have to head out and run some errands soon." He said looking up from the box over at him with a grimace.
"It's cool man." Louis gave him a reassuring grin.
He got over it, he decided it was better than being miserable at home in loneliness while his flatmate, Liam, moped around because of some row he got in with his girlfriend. As much of a good friend Louis is and tries to be Liam was quite depressing to be around at the moment.
"I wasn't planning on doing anything anyway." Louis said waving is hand dismissively.
He set his coffee down and clapped his hands together loudly saying, "What are my duties today captain?" quickly standing at attention legs together hands at his side, chin up. Niall held in a snort.
"You're just putting away a shit ton of vinyls I picked up."
"I think you mean that I picked up. Did you not see me juggle that in here?" Louis retorted. Niall laughed shaking his head at him before walking to the back room to do god knows what.
The two girls from earlier had migrated closer towards the metal section of the shop which was closer to the front where Louis stood. He doubted these girls were going to buy anything from that section if their Uggs and press-on nails were anything to go by. Although he really shouldn't judge. Louis had tattoos covering his arms, chest, and neck. Piercings through his eyebrow, lip, ears, and nose that he occasionally wore, along the black kohl he sometimes wears that rims his blue eyes.
Louis notices the girls glancing over at him while he works giggling every so often, one with long vibrant blue hair and the other with shoulder length blonde hair. He gives them a curious look wondering if there's something wrong with him.
He put on trousers this morning. He remembered this time.
Is there something on his face?
His dick isn't out.
Why in the hell are they staring at him?
Louis shrugs going back to his work.
"Headin' out mate see ya later!" Niall shouts walking out the door waving taking his coffee with him.
Louis glances up at him shouting back a reply as one of the girls, the one with blonde shoulder length hair, walks up to him.
"Hey, could tell me where the like Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga stuff is?" She says twirling her hair in her hand looking up at him.
Louis looks are her confused, "I don't really think we've got that here love,"
She bites her lip.
"You could check the pop section," he tries helpfully. "but it's pretty sparse."
The girl tucks her hair behind her ears, "Like not even One Direction?" She tries again.
Louis shakes his head no. The girl stands there looking at him and Louis stared back expectantly, waiting for her to say something.
She doesn't say anything. He chuckles nervously.
"Um...did you need anything else or.." he trails off, feeling uncomfortable.
"Oh! No, no thanks!" She walks back to her friend hurriedly.
Okay. Well, that wasn't weird at all, Louis thinks turning back to organizing the vinyls, the girls talking behind him in rushed whispers. Louis didn't plan on working here for the rest of his life. He has been here for fours years already, which is quite a while, to be honest, but he wanted to be a tattoo artist.
He loves art in general and uses it to express himself. When he paints or draws or sculpts he puts all he has into it wanting it to be his best work. He takes inspiration from everything he can whether it be people, events or places.
He uses the ink on his body to express himself and has drawn all his own tattoos and wants to tattoo other people, and maybe own a tattoo shop if he's lucky. He wants to share his talents with others one day hopefully through tattooing.
He walks back to the till, bored of working already and begins to play on his phone. The bell rings and he sees the two girls walk out.
He is playing a very intense game of Flappy Bird when he hears the bell on the door ring again, signaling that someone has entered. He looks up quickly to see who it is and back down at his phone only to look up again and look at the boy who just walked in, hardly registering the sound of the bird falling, ending his game.
The first thing he notices is his hair. It's hard to miss, it's brown and it's so long and curly just past his shoulders. And his legs. God, his legs. They look like they go on forever, clad in his tight black jeans. He's wearing a loose white t-shirt and sweater with converse, and he's absolutely beautiful.
Louis' eyes trail to the boy's face and notices he's staring back him and shuffling on his feet. Louis looks away quickly realizing he was staring like a creep. Great. He looks back at the boy and he smiles at him nodding his head hello at him. The boy sends him a small smile back before moving forward and begins flipping through records.
Louis almost face-plants into the counter. How embarrassing.
He's absolutely stunning Louis thinks to himself, looking back down at his phone finally realizing he lost his intense game of Flappy Bird and the cute boy with the long legs probably thinks he's such a creep for checking him out so openly. This time he does faceplant into the counter.