Don't Wave No Goodbye

“I can’t believe you’ve never seen the Back To The Future trilogy,” Harry’s tell her down the phone from somewhere in world, and if she smiles just from hearing his voice, that’s for her to know and nobody else.

“Well, I mean, I started once when it was on telly but fell asleep. Is it good?”

Harry gasps audibly from the other end of the crackly phone line. “It’s brilliant! It’s a cult classic! Next time I’m over, I’m making you watch them all back to back so we can appreciate Michael J Fox at his best and laugh at how the girlfriend changes.”

Darcy rolls her eyes. “Cult classic? You’re such a little hipster, Styles, you know that? I bet you’ll cry if I tell you I haven’t seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Breakfast Club.”

“You haven’t seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Breakfast Club?” Harry practically shrieks and Darcy loses herself in a fit of laughter.

“Can you hear yourself? God, you’re precious. I have actually, I just wanted to judge your reaction,” Darcy explains, wiping away tears as Harry grumbles quietly.

“You truly do enjoy endangering my mental health,” Harry moans, before trying to stifle a yawn. “I’ll be going grey before you know it, all thanks to you.”

“Oh no, and then what will you do? Those luscious curls are your money maker!” Darcy drawls, and laughs when Harry lets out a little disgruntled noise. She can hear Zayn in the background telling Harry to shut the fuck up. “Hey, it’s late and you’re probably super busy tomorrow doing important popstar stuff. Go to sleep.”

“Fine, alright, goodnight,” he says finally and Darcy doesn’t tell him she misses him before he hangs up, because she doesn’t. Not even a little bit.

*

“Do you think it’s too early to throw a Christmas party?” Nick asks Fiona the moment he's pressed play on a record. Fiona looks over at the Louis Smith calendar they hung up in the studio just to irk Finchy before shrugging.

“No, I don’t think so. I mean, we’re almost in the second week of December, that’s about the time everyone starts throwing those festive get-togethers. Why, you planning another Grimshaw do?”

“Hmm, maybe. I mean I've never really thrown a Christmas party and thought it could be fun, ya know?”

Fiona shudders at the thought. “Can’t think of anything worse, to be honest. Hosting a party is bad enough, but a Christmas one? Not for me, ta. I’d rather just attend the Radio One Christmas party and be done with it.”

“Oh yeah, when’s that happening? Maybe I’ll just tag onto that one and invite a bunch of people. They can’t stop me, can they? I mean, it’s Christmas.”

Nick’s phone buzzes insistently against his leg and distracts him enough to cause him to miss whatever Fiona says in response that gains a laugh from Finchy and Dan. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he sees he has a bunch of texts from Louis and wonders if it’s really safe to open them in the work place. Deciding he lives for a little danger, he clicks open.

Can’t get yr mouth out of my mind xL

Bet yr quite talented when yr not spouting that elitism hipster bullshit xL

My hand doesn’t quite do yr mouth justice xL

Nick grins at this, completely unable to resist replying. are u trying to seduce me, young tomlinson? x

Depends if it’s working… xL

Before he can even stop himself, Nick sends a reply that could make or break whatever’s between them. soon as u get off the plane, im gonna suck ur brains out ur cock x

Looking forward to it, darling xL

“Grim?” Fiona presses, looking at the older man with a slightly concerned expression.

“Hmm?” Nick asks, shoving his phone away quickly and why is it so hot in the studio today? “Sorry, what?”

“We just asked if you’re going to go through with the Christmas party?”

Nick frowns. “Oh right, yeah. Well it seems pointless to do it if Radio One is throwing one. I wonder how many people you can invite because I’ve got a few in mind.”

“There’s no limit but they’ll probably make one after this year,” Finchy teases, making a face at Nick which makes him laugh.

“Yeah, we get it, you’ve got lots of famous and important friends!” LMC pipes up from her spot, tossing up two fingers in a rude gesture that makes Nick gasp in mock offense before he’s grinning.

“And don’t you forget it, darling!” Nick croons before slipping his headphones back on, ready for the next link although his mind is resting heavily on his phone sitting in his pocket.

Later that night, there’s a pounding on Nick’s front door and when he opens it, there’s a rugged looking Louis Tomlinson on the other side who immediately grabs Nick by the collar and drags him upstairs to make good on his earlier promise. It leaves Louis gasping and spineless sprawled out on Nick’s bed like a work of art and Nick can’t even deny that the kid is ridiculously beautiful, all cheek bones and bronzed skin.

“You’re quite lovely, like this,” Nick tells him, moving about to press against the younger man. “All soft and warm, no claws out or anything.”

Louis snorts at this, slapping at Nick’s chest weakly. “Shut up, Grimshaw, before you embarrass yourself. You think you’ll be ready for round two anytime soon, old man?”

Nick flashes him a predatory grin before pouncing on him, immediately pulling him in for an intense kiss. Neither emerges from the room until the next day and when Aimee returns home to find the evidence of the all night sex marathon, she can only thank anyone listening that she’d had the good fortune to crash at Henry’s last night to avoid having to bleach her brain.

“So you hate him, right?” Aimee asks sweetly when Nick finally stumbles out of his bedroom after napping the whole afternoon away.

Nick scowls, ruffling her hair as he passes because he knows it’ll annoy her. “To the ends of the earth and back.”

“Mmm hmm,” Aimee hums into her brew, neither of them believing it.