Work Text:
Tuesday at 9 a.m. sharp, a barrage of Manchester United players in training kits storm onto Carrington Training Ground. Excluding staff, players, and trainers, the grounds are closed to all. All except for the lone man sitting in the stands looking quite out of place in his West Bromwich jersey.
“You could at least pretend to support us when you come to watch training,” frowns Louis Tomlinson, glaring at his team’s sole spectator. He’s standing with his hands on his hips, trying to look put-off, but the fond smile playing on his lips betrays him.
He looks wearier than the rest of his team who have more than likely gotten a full night’s rest. Tomlinson, however, didn’t get to bed until the early hours, having just flown in from a trans-Atlantic redeye from Los Angeles.
Tomlinson spends much of his days like this – jet setting around the world at night, and coming back to Manchester early in the morning for training.
At only 21 – 22 this Christmas – Louis “the Tommo” Tomlinson is one of Manchester United’s youngest starters. He grew up in a crowded household with his mother, stepfather, and four younger sisters in Doncaster. Much of his youth was spent watching the Rovers at Keepmoat Stadium and even playing a couple of games there himself.
Tomlinson spends most of his time divided between Yorkshire, Manchester, and wherever in the world his international pop star boyfriend, Liam Payne, happens to be. It’s not ideal, and his coaches definitely aren’t happy with the amount of exhaustion he seems to be putting his body through, but Tomlinson insists that he wouldn’t have it any other way.
From where he is in the stands, Liam Payne grins down at Tomlinson and his teammates. He shakes out his West Brom jersey, as if to show it off, and says, “But then who would you have to impress, Tommo?”
Tomlinson’s teammates laugh, ribbing him just as mates should. It doesn’t bother him though, as evident by his own laugh. Instead, he trots onto the field and begins practice. Pausing only a couple dozen times in the next few hours to make sure that Payne is still watching him.
*
England’s fascination with Louis Tomlinson began three years ago when the then 19 year old took the entire Premier League by surprise having pushed his way into a starting position on Manchester United.
Most of the nation’s football fans were understandably outraged when a seemingly unknown player had made his way onto the team without anyone taking note. There were constant complaints about his position right until his first game when he managed to score the winning goal.
Ever since his first appearance, Tomlinson has been proving his critics wrong with lion hearted courage and an unbridled determination. This courage is what launched Tomlinson from being a national hero to an international icon.
In September of 2012, almost exactly two years after his first Premiere League game, Tomlinson announced live, during an interview on BBC Radio 1 with Scott Mills, that he was gay. Well – he didn’t so much announce it as he did subtly out himself.
When asked by a female fan calling into the station who his celebrity crush was, Tomlinson answered, “Well, I quite fancy the fit one from One Direction, I suppose.”
Later, in a more formal press release, Tomlinson stated, “I’d talked to Scott weeks before the interview planning exactly when and what I was going to say, but the opportunity presented itself for me to be completely honest sooner than planned and I took it.
“I’ve been openly gay with my friends and family since I was seventeen. My teammates have known since almost the very beginning of my career. I count myself very lucky that I’ve been blessed with a safe and accepting environment where I can do what I love.
“When you’re different from the accepted norm, the world can be a very scary place. When your world is a place where even being supportive of the gay community can get you in trouble, it’s downright terrifying. But I promised myself a long time ago that I would never let anyone make my decisions for me.
“I’ve never been one to sit back let others walk over me, and I don’t plan on starting now. I never want to have to hide my relationships, or the people I may fall in love with.”
Despite the negative media and uproar from certain fans, Tomlinson’s team, the team’s management, and the team’s sponsors have adamantly stayed behind him. Tomlinson’s coming out has spurred a much needed and long overdue movement for acceptance of homosexuality in English football.
*
Liam Payne, Tomlinson’s boyfriend of six months, has also had a hectic couple of years. While Tomlinson was busy finding his footing in the Premier League, in 2010, Payne was auditioning for The X Factor. At sixteen, he had already auditioned for the singing competition show once, two years before. Payne’s hopes for getting past the judge’s house stage of the competition this time around were shot down when he was cut off early on. Yet, show producer Simon Cowell saw Payne’s potential and placed him in a group with three other boys – Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, and Niall Horan.
The boys named themselves One Direction and went on to finish third place in the competition. Their story, however, did not end there. Just a week after their devastating loss, Cowell called One Direction into his offices and signed them to his record label.
With the drop of their first album, the boys went onto sell almost 4 million records worldwide, making Payne one fourth of the world’s biggest boy band.
The whole world over has speculated over the boys’ sexualities – many going so far as to claim that two or more of them are in relationships. This is par for the course when it comes to boy bands; the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, and Take That have all been subject to these speculations. While some of these rumours have been found to be true, no one expected for any member of One Direction to come out so soon after the start of their success.
Many expected it to be Harry Styles, who is known for using mostly gender neutral wording and his overt affection for anyone he considers friend, but it was Payne who came out as bisexual not months after Louis Tomlinson’s own coming out.
In the beginning of January of this year, Payne took to Twitter and posted, “Girls are great…boys are great too.” What proceeded was a hail storm of re-tweets from Payne’s fans and worldwide Twitter trends such as “#isliambi” and “#liampayneout”.
Just hours after his original tweet, Payne posted again, “there really is no other way to take the last tweet sometimes the simplest meaning is the real one,” confirming what the public already suspected.
*
Since his confession on air, Tomlinson had been hounded by just about everyone from the media to his little sisters about who exactly the “fit one from One Direction” was. It became a game amongst fans – guess which one’s the fit one? On occasion, even the band was asked about it.
“He was a bit obsessed with Louis for someone who doesn’t even support Man United,” Zayn Malik, Payne’s band mate says, rubbing Payne’s newly shorn hair and laugh at his protests. “I mean, we all were, but at least the rest of us actually cheer for his team, yeah?”
The whole band is sitting around the drawing room of Tomlinson and Payne’s shared flat in Manchester. They’re waiting on the Indian take-away they’ve ordered. It’s a boys’ night in.
Since he started dating Payne, Tomlinson has become good friends with his band mates – having been photographed on several occasions with different members of One Direction. They do their shopping together, go to music festivals, and go to the cinemas. He’s even been known to join the band on stage every now and then.
As it turns out, even before Tomlinson had come out, Payne had had somewhat of a celebrity crush on him. Never mind that the both of them rose to fame around the same time. Payne’s band mates, of course, took this as a chance to tease him about any chance they could get.
“When Louis said that he fancied one of us, we naturally took that as a chance to poke fun at Liam,” says Niall Horan, the only Irish member of the band.
While Payne was being goaded by his mates, Tomlinson was being goaded by the media – still being asked to do interview after interview six months after his announcement on Radio 1; always on some chat show or another.
By February, Tomlinson had done the circuits twice over and hadn’t planned on doing anymore. Luckily for everyone involved, he allotted to doing one final interview on the fourth of February on an episode of Alan Carr’s Chatty Man; an episode in which One Direction would also be making an appearance.
The interview itself now has over 6 million hits on YouTube. The shameless flirting between Tomlinson and Payne is adorable, if not a bit tooth achingly sweet, and the attraction is definitely palpable. If there was ever any doubt as to the identity of the “fit one”, no one could dispute it after that day.
“It was like watching a film, with the two of them,” says Harry Styles, lounging on the sofa with his long limbs sprawled out. “Watching them fall in love was like – I mean, if you were there, you can’t deny that Liam and Louis are as close to a romantic comedy as you can get in real life.”
He is promptly pulled off the sofa by the other four with complaints about being too sappy. They try to play it off as an attack, but it’s clear to anyone with working eyes that it’s actually a group hug.
Midway through February, when Tomlinson tweeted, “@Real_Liam_Payne looks like a puppy when he sleeps” accompanied with a picture of Payne asleep in his bed, the internet was set aflame. This was only made worse, when a couple of hours later, Payne tweeted back, “@Louis_Tomlinson it’s creepy to watch people while they sleep” and “#liloisreal” trended worldwide for hours.
“I watched X Factor religiously while the boys were on it,” Tomlinson confesses from his perch on the kitchen sink counter after their friends have left. “I had a mad crush on Liam from the moment I saw his audition, so I just kept watching. He was so quiet in the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect when I actually met him.”
Payne grins as he rinses the dishes, suds up to his elbows, a few errant bubbles finding their way onto his nose. “I actually watched Louis’s first Premiere League game while we were still at the X Factor house,” he says, batting away his boyfriend’s hand which is fiddling with his hair.
Their affection is easy; almost second nature, something which is apparent in almost everything they do. The couple have never hidden their fondness for each other from the public.
“Why should we?” Tomlinson asks, “I think we’re both very physical and we show our affection with touch. If I want to hold Liam’s hand, or if he wants to kiss me, we’re going to do it; regardless of who’s watching. We’re never inappropriate so if anyone has a problem with it, they’ll just have to turn their heads, as far as I’m concerned.”
As if to prove a point, he pecks Payne on the lips and walks away to clear the drawing room.
Payne smiles after him. “He’s really very unapologetic about it all,” he explains. “I think a lot of it is because when he first came out, everyone was speculating on how long it would take for him to back himself into a closet again.
“Everything he’s done – except for loving me – has been some step in proving all his critics wrong.”
*
For all the exposure they get in the media and how often they’re photographed together, Tomlinson and Payne barely get any actual time together.
One Direction started their eight month long world tour in February of this year shortly after Tomlinson and Payne went on their first date. In between travelling and performing, the band has been sneaking in and out of studios in Los Angeles and Sweden to start prep for their third album.
Tomlinson has not only been busy with his football career, but also with his charity work. He is the spokesperson for Bluebell Children’s Hospice as well as a number of other children’s benefit organizations. Ever since his coming out, Tomlinson has also played a very active role in various LGTBQ organizations.
With their busy schedules, the couple are hard pressed to find time to spend alone.
“It’s hard, it’s definitely hard,” says Payne back on the sofa after their friends have left their flat, “We’re constantly at opposite ends of the world, running on pure determination and nothing else, really. But when you’ve got something good, it’s worth the difficulty.”
Back in May, tabloids had begun reporting premature news of Tomlinson and Payne’s breakup.
“It’s ridiculous,” Tomlinson scoffs, his feet propped up in his boyfriend’s lap. He wiggles his toes and Payne takes it as a suggestion to begin massaging his feet. “We were both in L.A. at the time and we couldn’t manage to synch up our schedules. So naturally, they all assumed that we’d had a row, when the truth is we were just busy. Liam was recording and I was doing some work with GLAAD. It’s not like we didn’t try to see each other, of course we did, and we just couldn’t.”
In interviews, the two have been known to say that they argue just like any other couple.
“Of course we fight,” Payne says. “We argue over the dumbest things – like Louis leaves a mess wherever he goes and I’m constantly nagging him about it. Sometimes we even have really serious ones.”
At this, Tomlinson laughs, “I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had Zayn call me up in the middle of the night from some other time zone to tell me off for making Liam upset.”
Payne playfully shoves at him. “Please,” he says, “at least you don’t have to deal with all four of your sisters calling to yell at you all at once.”
Tomlinson smirks, “Babe I lived for eighteen years in a house full of those girls and my mother, you do not get to complain about getting shouted at a bit for upsetting their brother.”
Payne, who only has two older sisters compared to Tomlinson’s four younger ones, concedes the point by offering him a kiss.
Because of their hectic lifestyles, the two have to find any and every way to spend time with each other. Much of this involves going to many public events together.
In February, Tomlinson was Payne’s date to the Brit Awards; in July, they went to the Teen Choice Awards together; later in September, they will attend the MTV Video Music Awards.
“I like going to those things with him,” Tomlinson says, “I like seeing them win – they’re all good friends of mine, and to see them accomplish so much makes me really proud.”
He’s not the only who’s been winning. Earlier, in May, Tomlinson lead his team to win its first FA Cup since 2004.
“It was great watching that game,” Payne smiles. “We actually almost missed it because we’d had a concert the night before in – I think it was New York, and our flight was delayed. So we didn’t even have time to wash up before the game. We went to the stadium straight from the airport. I wouldn’t let them take me anywhere else."
Next year, Tomlinson will be joining fellow teammates Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand to play for England in the FIFA Worldcup for the first time.
“I really don’t know who’s more excited, to be honest – me, my mum, or Liam,” Tomlinson says.
Payne shuffles him around on the sofa to arrange them so that Tomlinson is tucked into his side.
“I just really want to meet Steven Gerrard, is all,” he teases. Tomlinson shoves him away.
*
Over the last few months, Payne and Tomlinson have become national treasures. They have been dubbed the new Posh and Becks, much to their own amusements.
“It’s funny,” says Jay Tomlinson, “As his mum, I’ve always been proud to have Louis as my son. And before, when he was still in sixth form, the running joke in the family was that Louis would become the new David Beckham.
“I mean, it was about the football back then. We never thought he’d actually become the new Beckham,” she laughs.
When asked about their new found status, the couple seem entirely humbled.
“It’s weird, because, growing up, all I ever wanted was to meet David Beckham, and like, now I actually have the option of scrolling him up on my contacts and giving him a ring, you know? Like, how amazing is that?” Tomlinson says, bewildered.
Victoria and David Beckham aren’t the only celebrity couple Payne and Tomlinson have been grouped with.
“Yeah, we’ve had a really cool year,” shrugs Payne. He’s trying to seem nonchalant, but it’s obvious just how cool he thinks it is. “We’ve had dinner with Ellen [Degeneres] and Portia [De Rossi] and they were both very nice and willing to sort of help us if the media ever gave us trouble.”
Regardless of the negative press coverage, their relationship has been quite well received by the general public.
“That’s the thing about Liam and Louis,” says Niall Horan. “They’re both incredible people and it’s really hard to dislike either of them, despite whatever you might believe.”
Zayn Malik agrees. “I think it’s really amazing that they’ve become role model for kids who didn’t have anyone like them to look up to. But I think that what people like about Liam and Louis is that they’re a couple in love before they are anything else. Everyone loves a good love story, and they have an incredible one,” he says.
Cuddled together on their sofa, Payne and Tomlinson look like they were made to fit together. The way they smile at each other, it’s almost as if nothing else in the world exists.
An incredible love story indeed.