Artist of the Month: Louis Tomlinson
We’re falling into November with Louis Tomlinson as our Artist of the Month. Check out some BTS and stay tuned for more all month long!
Listen to Louis’ new album Faith in the Future right here.
@flyhometolou / flyhometolou.tumblr.com
We’re falling into November with Louis Tomlinson as our Artist of the Month. Check out some BTS and stay tuned for more all month long!
Listen to Louis’ new album Faith in the Future right here.
38 or 39 with Larry?
38 …because they’re running out of time.
i’ve decided to set this within the lighthouse au universe because i’m in a mood so here’s a little drabble set sometimes post fic but before hl get engaged/married.
“I gotta go,” Harry says with a giggle when Louis traps him against the cottage’s front door that morning. He scrambles for the handle clumsily, his belly pressed against the door, Louis’ weight heavy on his back.
“Nope,” Louis replies, quickly reaching for Harry’s long fingers, grabbing his hand and stopping his escape.
Harry huffs loudly as he tries to wiggle away, pretending to be annoyed. He can’t fully commit to it though and soon enough he’s laughing again. “I’m gonna miss the ferry.”
“Good,” Louis lies, reaching up with teasing fingers to grab at the collar of Harry’s tee, dragging it down to expose his neck and biting playfully into it.
“Next one’s not for a few days. Can’t miss the beginning of tour because my boyfriend’s horny!”
“Why not,” Louis mumbles playfully into Harry’s neck.
“Lou,” Harry sighs and Louis exhales too, taking a step back, allowing enough space for Harry to turn around and face him.
He looks cute and perfectly dishevelled in the early summer light and it’s not fair that he has to go away for months now, just pick up the suitcases scattered across the entryway and leave Louis here to deal with the busy season.
They planned it this way of course, so that Louis would be busy during the first leg of the tour, when Harry’s off being a big deal in America. He’s going to visit Harry at some point, Louis knows that. In only a couple of months too. Barely any time at all. Not to mention that he’s probably going to be dragged along the entirety of the European leg if Harry has his way. It’s barely goodbye.
But Louis’ heart squeezes painfully in his chest as he sees the soft way Harry is looking at him as he reaches for his waist, dragging him into a fierce embrace, pressing a kiss on his forehead.
“I’m gonna miss you,” Harry admits against Louis’ skin. “So much.”
“You better!” Louis teases into Harry’s neck. “And you better write home all the time.”
“One postcard per city,” Harry promises, sliding a finger against the skin between Louis’ tank top and his jeans in a slow caress.
Louis nods into Harry’s shoulder, the ball lodged in his throat too big for him to speak.
“I really have to go.”
He says so reluctantly like he’s saying ‘I don’t ever want to leave you at all’ and that makes it a little better, Louis thinks distantly, to know that this is hard on both of them, that he’s not going to be the pining spouse crying at home while Harry has the time of his life. That even though they’ll both have a great summer, they’ll be leaving a part of themselves behind, cradled in their lover’s palm while they’re apart.
Louis sighs instead of replying, untangling himself from Harry’s body, holding on to his tiny waist, fingers grasping at the belt loops of his jeans. When their eyes meet, he smiles, eyes crinkling. “Go forth and conquer the world baby,” he says solemnly, warmth spreading through his lower belly when it makes Harry cackle.
“Okay,” Harry agrees before leaning forward to kiss him one last time.
They make it to the docks with thirty seconds to spare, the ferry’s captain shaking his head as they arrive out of breath, arms full of suitcases and bags, Clifford happily bouncing next to them.
Once Louis has helped Harry get all of his luggage on board, the captain shakes his head at them.
“We got no time for your sappy stuff Tomlinson,” he groans exaggeratedly while clapping Louis on his back. “I’m already running late because of this guy,” he adds, pointing at Harry over his should with his thumb before turning around and climbing into his boat.
Harry smiles at Louis sheepishly, reaching for his hand and pressing a small kiss to the palm of it. “See you soon,” he promises.
light spoiler but i want everyone to know that lighthouse au louis 100% records himself reading books and puts them secretly on harry’s phone when he goes on tour/has to travel for work because he knows h finds it soothing to listen to his voice and he thinks it’s only fair since he can listen to h’s songs whenever he wants.
y’all i had such a lovely lovely day and i feel great about my art. how do you guys feel about a lighthouse au coda?
“I’ve missed this,” Harry whispers like it’s a big revelation, interrupting Louis mid-sentence, and he lowers the book he was holding without even noticing he’s doing it, letting it rest on Harry’s back. They’re tangled in bed together, Harry’s long body resting on Louis’, his face hiding in Louis’ neck, the tickles of his breaths sending shivers down Louis’ spine.
“Have ya?” Louis says, a bit teasing, even though they’ve said as much to each other multiple times in the past few days since Harry’s been back on the island. He passes the hand not holding the novel through Harry’s hair, fingers tangling in his curls a hint possessively before curling softly around the back of Harry’s neck, cupping it gently.
“Yeah,” Harry nods against Louis’ shoulder, his nose rubbing on the wool of Louis’ jumper. Then, he shifts slightly, branding the skin of Louis’ neck with a small kiss.
Clifford is sleeping somewhere at their feet, the weight of both of his boys heavy on Louis’ legs but he wouldn’t change it for the world, would stay right here, immobile, for the rest of his life if it means he gets to keep this.
Louis frowns slightly at the thought. He does though, he reminds himself once more. He gets to keep this, no matter how surreal it still feels to think so. And how lucky he is too, how lucky they both are.
“I…” Harry begins again after a few seconds, slow, hesitant. “I.. uh…” He clears his throat, laughs a little self-deprecatingly, and after everything they’ve said to each other, everything they’ve confessed ever since Harry’s romantic novel worthy reappearance, it feels slightly out of place for him to sound so shy.
“What is it?” Louis asks but Harry just shakes his head and with the way he’s lying over Louis’ body, curled into his neck, they can’t see each other’s faces. “No, come on, what is it?” he insists with a small laugh of his own, Harry’s contagious even when he sounds a bit awkward. “You can tell me things.”
“I’ve told you enough already,” Harry scolds.
“Pff, you sound like I force you to share all your embarrassing secrets.”
“Well you do,” Harry replies. “With the face and the eyes, how am I supposed to resist? I’m only human.” He whines it all into Louis’ neck, sounding petulant but thoroughly charmed, and Louis can’t help the flush of pleasure blossoming on his face.
“Too pretty, am I?” Louis says sarcastically, not even fishing for compliments, but Harry lifts his head and meets Louis’ eyes, his wide and sincere.
“Devastatingly so,” he says firmly before leaning down. They kiss for a while, long enough for Louis’ grip on the book they’d been reading to slacken and the novel to tumble down from Harry’s back, landing in a thud on the floor. Long enough for Louis to slide his hand under Harry’s henley and feel the way his muscles shift. Long enough for it to go from molten to sizzling.
“Don’t,” Louis starts between kisses, “think that making out with me,” he continues, “is going to make me forget you have something embarrassing to tell me.”
Harry leans away with a small chuckle, shaking his head. At himself, or at his boyfriend, Louis can’t tell.
“It’s… it’s daft,” he admits.
“I missed you so much I slept in your unwashed bedding which, to be honest, isn’t the most hygienic, so I’m pretty sure I’m the king of daft.”
“I love you,” Harry says, just like that, unprompted, and fuck, will Louis ever get used to that? The way he can just… say it now, like it’s a fact of life? Like it doesn’t shift the Earth’s axis and rearrange the entirety of the cosmos for him to say so.
“If that’s the only requirement for you to fall in love with anyone, I’m sure many of your fans would be ready to commit to the same unsanitary behaviour. Just put an ad on Twitter or something, they’ll come flocking.”
“So much,” Harry continues instead of interacting with Louis’ nonsense. He’s smiling, a twinkle in his eyes, a dimple in his left cheek as he grins a bit lopsided at him. “I love you so fucking much.”
“Speaking of your dirty sheets, I’m thinking I’ve made a mistake in washing them. I could have renamed the room the post-coital Harry Styles Experience™ and charged so much money for it.”
Louis regrets the joke as soon as it’s out, knows Harry’s had to deal with creepy shit like that and it’s nothing that should be mocked. Thankfully, he’s still smiling down at Louis in the same soft way, focused and scrutinising without making him uncomfortable with his gaze.
“How about I sign some shit in the room instead, something that you can display, and you don’t give a name to only one of the b&b’s rooms because that’d be really weird and would make me feel awkward?”
“I wasn’t –” Louis starts but Harry is quick to interrupt.
“Angling to make money off my name?” Harry wiggles his eyebrows. “I know that. Obviously. But people are gonna have to get used to me being here when I’m not touring or recording anyway, so…” He shrugs.
He says it so matter-of-factly, like it’s not even a question, and Louis can see the way their lives stretch beyond the horizon with more clarity than ever before: the two of them together here, Harry coming home as often as possible, cooking for guests and helping them sign out, carrying luggage up and down the stairs with Clifford on his heels. Harry’s carved himself a place here and he’s come to stay.
Louis swallows. Hard. “Right,” he whispers.
“I used to listen to audiobooks, while I was away, and pretend it was you reading to me.”
Louis’ eyes widen. “W-what?”
“That’s the daft thing I was gonna say. There were… a lot of things that I missed about this place, you and Cliff most of all. But you reading to me? That’s what I wanted the most. It’s silly, I know, but… I don’t know. It’s very soothing. And I just wanted to hear your voice. I thought the audiobooks might help.”
“You could have called me.” Louis lets it slip without meaning to. He never really planned to ask about this, but it’s out in the world now and it’s not like they can tiptoe around it forever.
“I…” “It’s okay, you don’t have to explain yourself.”
“I was trying to do it by myself. I was trying to let you go. I didn’t want to be a burden. The annoying pop star on the phone who won’t leave you alone, I… Fuck, I don’t know. I think part of me knew if I called, I’d end up on the first plane back. And I really wanted to finish the album, even if a frighteningly large part of me just didn’t give a fuck and wanted to see you.”
Louis hums, rubbing circles into Harry’s lower back. “Did they help? The audiobooks?”
“No,” Harry says with a small laugh. “Even the British narrators didn’t sound right. None of them did the voices as good as you do.”
Louis exhales, a tenderness he can’t put words to filling his lungs. “Quite right too,” he says, bit strangled. He swallows. “I’m a big brother, I was born to do the voices properly.”
Harry hums in agreement, eyelids fluttering for a second before he lowers his face into Louis’ neck again, their bodies perfectly tangled together.
Five facts about the wonder that is tired tired sea 💕
1. i didn’t write it with this goal in mind at all, but it’s absolutely turned into my love letter to scotland.
2. tts louis is the most me of all the character’s i’ve ever written. to the point where i would sometime actively think ‘oh i’ll just add this thing from my own life/own personality to the fic’… to the point where it’s extremely awkward for me to think about that many people reading it and maybe noticing.
3. i’ve briefly mentioned this before and idk how many people saw it? but harry 100% proposes via postcard a few years post fic. i’d say at least… 4 years later? long enough that they’ve established a way they can make their very different lives work and that they’ve got all sorts of routines in place for when harry is home and when he’s away on tour. it’s a pretty normal chill day. 100% late autumn/early winter so the b&b is empty except for louis, harry & clifford and they’re just chilling in the living room (cuddling/reading/h playing guitar ?? idk something soft) when the mail arrives and i’m thinking they bicker a little as to who is gonna have to get up to collect it and harry is weirdly insistent and pouty so louis finally gives in. he’s flipping through bills and nonsense as he makes his way back into the living room when he gets to the postcard. i’m thinking it’s a vintage one h got in a charity shop somewhere – either something super scottish or some cheesy early 20th c. romantic picture of people embracing – and on the back there’s just something short and not really effusive with sentiment like ‘hey lover of mine, wanna get married?’ or ‘what if we got married? thoughts?’ or even just ‘hey, marry me?’ because harry’s feelings get beautifully written for louis in most of his songs so he doesn’t really want a big romantic gesture for this. but louis still gasps a little, surprised, when he reads it and he drops everything else on the floor, a flutter of paper scattering at his feet that cliff can’t help but come and sniff at. when he looks up harry is still sitting on the sofa looking a little amused and a little smug, shrugging in a ‘what do you think’ kind of way. and the first thing that comes out of louis’ mouth is ‘you don’t even have a ring’ and harry laughs, then says ‘if that’s the only thing stopping you from saying yes i can remedy that’ before getting up and reaching inside the pocket of his jeans for a ring he bought probably years ago. he’s still a little nervous, even though he’s trying to hide it, so he drops the ring on the floor in his eagerness and it buries itself in the carpet and while harry bends down to pick it up, louis just says something like ‘holy shit’ and ‘are you serious?’ and he’ll deny it later but he’s crying a little and his hands are shaking where they’re still holding the postcard. maybe he presses it against his chest, hands flat against it to stop the trembling? and harry gets back up, holding the ring tightly in one fist, heart pounding as he wrinkles his nose and says ‘am i serious?’ back at him, voice a little strangled when he takes a few steps towards louis. ‘am i serious?’ he repeats, reaching for louis’ cheek with the hand not still holding the ring. ‘babe, i’ve never been more serious in my entire life.’ and louis would say yes but he just really needs to kiss harry right now. ‘we’re getting married on top of the lighthouse,’ louis says when they finally separate. ‘just you and me and whoever officiates.’ harry smiles, kissing louis’ forehead. ‘sounds about right.’
4. eventually, when harry officially moves in, they turn the lighthouse keeper room into an ‘immersive experience’ for guests and they keep one of the nice bedrooms with an amazing view of the cliffs for themselves. harry has a house in london where he keeps most of his pop star stuff like tour outfits and gifted clothes and extra instruments and various awards, but he obviously keeps his favourite guitar around the b&b. it kind of becomes an attraction, to louis’ annoyance, because harry plays it everywhere around the lighthouse and leaves it lying around. guests will stare at it like it’s some sort of magical artefact and when they think no one is looking, they’ll sneak a touch like it somehow means something to touch an object harry has touched. louis never comments on it even though he’s always tempted to remind them harry actually lives here and there’s not much left in the building he hasn’t put his big paws on. hell, louis would tell a couple of teenage girls on holiday with their parents that harry is most likely the one who folded their sheets one summer, if he wasn’t afraid they’d faint on him. instead, he watches them whisper at each other and look at the guitar with awe, blushing furiously when harry comes back from his morning run with clifford sweaty and dimply, waving at them before heading upstairs for a shower. it’s a weird balance to strike, allowing regular folk into a space harry occupies and out of the two of them, louis is probably the one who struggles with it the most, aggressively protective as he is. but all in all, louis has a steady clientele who have been coming for years mixed in with random backpackers and tourists, and the number of people coming with the hope to gawk at the popstar aren’t as high as he feared. and they dwindle as the years pass, as harry’s unlikely lifestyle choices become boring old news. louis doesn’t allow harry to keep his grammy in public rooms though, no matter how much harry thinks it’s fun to let people play with it, no matter how much he wants to normalise his life, to not be deified by the masses. but there are limits to how much popstar related stress louis can endure and he really doesn’t want the damned thing to show up on ebay someday.
5. harry relapses two years into their marriage, while on the longest tour he’s had since before he got sober. he doesn’t go off the rail and has to be tracked down at the crack of dawn in some shady part of a city he doesn’t know, but he does get completely shitfaced in his hotel room before calling louis in tears to tell him how much of a failure he is that he can’t even handle something he’s done dozens of times before without losing it. it’s probably the worst call of louis’ life, not because harry’s drunk, but because he’s so angry and disappointed in himself and louis isn’t even there to hold him through it. but they both know sobriety isn’t a straight line and they get through it together. it takes a while, but eventually, harry believes louis again when he tells him he’s proud of him. and harry doesn’t try to do year-long tours anymore. no matter how steady on his feet he feels, how confident he’s been, he doesn’t try again. not when he hits five years sober again, or ten, or even twenty. the older he gets, the better he is at knowing his limits and the less tempted he is to play with them.
i know i’ve left it on a bit of a sour note, but i promise they’re okay and they’re happy. even if there are some ups and downs.
Send me a name of a fanfic I wrote And i’ll give you five facts/headcanons about it!
Still (and forever) thinking about Louis recording himself reading for Harry. Does he send him files chapter-by-chapter? What’s he read to him? All I want are reading details 🤣 Also, related, I would probably kill a man for an audio book read by either of them 🥺
oh yes let’s talk about hl + books in my fics !!!!! sharing books/story is my love language which is why it’s tts (and moy tbh) hl’s love language as well because i have no shame i guess.
well, my headcanon is that the first time he does it it’s a secret/surprise and he hides the file on h’s phone. so i’m thinking prob. a whole book. most likely poetry though because he knows harry loves the rhythm of poetry and finds it soothing and it’s his first big tour since he got sober so he’ll need all the soothing stuff he can get.....
as time goes on though, it changes and yeah he starts sending him stuff chapter by chapter, or in smaller chunks if it’s not something that has chapters (like a poetry collection, or short stories). i like to think that maybe louis starts having a routine where he wakes up, he goes on his run with Clifford and records a chapter for harry in the morning before officially starting his day. and he loves it because it’s a way for them to stay connected, cos once harry has listened to it, they can discuss the story together.
and as for what he sends him... well it depends! i think they pick stuff together; stuff they’re both interested in. a lot of poetry of course and biographies, esp. musicians, because louis loves to know more about harry’s world and harry just love music and learning about it. novels, obvs. cheesy historical romance when louis knows harry needs a pick me up, because they make him smile & laugh, and they both enjoy it. and there's always a big supply in the lighthouse anyways since people drop them off/swap them all the time. the ones set in scoltand are h’s favourite because it makes him feel closer to home when he’s away. and louis’ fake scottish accent is terrible and it brightens his days to listen to it. rarely contemporary romance though, it just doesn’t have the same Drama to it and that’s what they both enjoy. mysteries only if harry has been doing well and can handle the stress of Not Knowing what’s going to happen, but they’re more a ~louis thing than a hl thing so it doesn’t happen very often. lots of sad books. harry does love sad books. even though they upset him. he likes the catharsis though, even when he’s in a bad mood. sometimes erotica when louis is in A Mood. he never warns when a chapter gets naughty though, loves the idea of teasing harry/taking him by surprise like that. if it’s Het (like in some of the romance novels), louis puts on the most ridiculous voices because he knows it’ll make harry laugh. if it’s actually hot, well........
and letters. louis sends him little files of himself reading famous correspondences all the time on top of the regular books. just very romantic letters. esp. gay ones. harry sends him romantic postcards and louis reads him famous love letters. it’s their Thing.
sometimes they do the thing on facetime or on the phone.... they like having that connection where louis is Acually Reading for harry. but most of the time, harry prefers to have the recordings. he can listen to them before going to sleep, or before a show if he’s nervous, or during long flights/long bus rides, or when he goes out for a walk after a show, calming himself down under the cover of darkness, his bodyguard walking a few paces behind him.... or when he’s having a wank tbh.
i like to think that sometimes if there’s a book harry really wants louis to read to him, he’ll have it shipped to the lighthouse instead of asking and louis teases him for being such a needy dork but he complies ofc.
whatever you do, don’t think about elderly hl in this verse, still living in their lighthouse though it’s not a b&b anymore because they don’t want the hassle, still reading together.... louis’ eyes aren’t what they use to be, his voice cracks a lot more, but he’ll put on his glasses and strain and he’ll read to harry every night before bed because it’s what they Do and that’s his baby.
by Mediawhore
As a B&B owner on the most remote of all the British Isles, Louis Tomlinson is used to spending the coldest half of the year in complete isolation, with his dog and the sea as sole companions. Until, one day, a mysterious stranger on a quest to rebuild himself rents a room for the winter.
who is savan kotecha? why he wasn't nice to louis?
Savan Kotecha was the main (?) songwriter for the early 1D albums.
For his segment of the And The Writer Is podcast he had this to say about Louis
I think by album three, they — not all of them, but there was one or two, one especially — that was bitter about that fact [that they were a boy band]. And this particular one — he was not the talented one, he wasn’t the singer, he wasn’t the star… he started having something against me and [the other writers] and against that process.
He went on to say maybe he was wrong and “some of them have particularly grown into really knowing what they’re doing.”
So for it to now change to
Kotecha credits Louis, the oldest member of the group, for “shepherding them into adulthood, away from the very pop-y stuff of the first two albums. He was leading the charge to make sure that they had a more mature sound. And at the time, being in it, it was a little difficult for me, Rami and Carl to grasp — but hindsight, that was the right thing to do.”
Is just funny.
“Another hotel room in England — this one in Manchester — where songwriters and producers Julian Bunetta and John Ryan were throwing back Cucumber Collins cocktails and tinkering with a beat. Liam Payne was there, too. At one point, Liam got up to use the bathroom, and when he re-emerged, he was singing a melody. They taped it immediately. Most of it was mumbled — a temporary placeholder — but there was one phrase: “Better than words …” A few hours later, on the bus to another city, another show — Bunetta and Ryan can’t remember where — Liam asked, maybe having a laugh, “What if the rest of the song was just lyrics from other songs?””
— How One Direction Became One of the Great Rock Bands of the 21st Century
“I think that on Four, there were some tensions going on. A lot of the songs were double — like somebody might be singing about their girlfriend, but there was another meaning that applied to the group as well.”
— Bunetta for Rolling Stone
Besides how spectacularly WLW the watermelon sugar video is on the surface, I think all the music videos in the FL era are connected together and depict Harry’s personal journey with fame.
If we begin with Adore You, the music video details a young boy who was always different who knew there was something far greater for him out there besides the small town he grew up in. People thought he was strange, unusual, peculiar…. until one day a fish comes to him, and things begin to change. An awakening for self-identity, sexuality, and purpose. So he embarks on a journey to find something better out there for him and who he is destined to be.
Which is where he washes up on Watermelon Sugar island. I believe this music video is a great display of self-acceptance and exploration through sex, pleasure, and euphoria. It’s the opening up of the world- seeing and being around different people- people like him- people not like him- people who want to be around him… Yet they are all enjoying one thing and finding common pleasure about it. It’s like a high, if you will. But, also I think if it’s looked at deeper…….. it can be a play on his womanizer image.
If we were to tie it to fame, this could be the perception that fans and the media have of him. He is playing through the lens of that perspective (especially if we were to look at it how the media and a grand majority of fans are taking the symbolism - pussy). So, being around all these women while eating the watermelon, having women pull him back and forth, him instantly taking a bite anytime a woman is around him…. That could display how this image he was saddled with from such a young age was that every woman he is even close to- he is sleeping with them. there’s no such thing as just friendship, it has to constantly turn into a news headline that depicts him sleeping with everyone he is close to. its the campy version of how people view him in that way.
This then slides into Lights Up as they’re all on the beach but now it’s night. The sun is set, and now he is surrounded by many people on the beach yet he doesn’t seem to be enjoying it as much. He’s being pushed and pulled in a crowd, and it seems as though he just wants to get away. everyone wanting a piece of him. As its always been speculated, this video is a depiction of how those view him in the media.He’s realizing that he’s tired of that image… of that life… he wants to leave and be fully free from it. So, the ending scene is him riding off on the back of the motorcycle with his hands up, flying like freedom is coming.
And then, finally, Falling. It’s important to notice that it feels as though Falling is filmed in the morning with the light of the sky. Harry has realized that he doesn’t want that image, he doesn’t want that self-reflection anymore. He’s looking at himself in the mirror and he feels like he’s drowning. It’s a battle of acknowledging what he could’ve become and not liking what that seems. He doesn’t want to be seen as such, so it’s a hard and strugglesome battle but he survives the drowning, and he’s gasping for air. the water washing over him like a rebirth. A place to start anew. To take back who he is and who he wants to become.
Dua Lipa, New Rules (2017) - Harry Styles, Watermelon Sugar (2020)
always you
“i looked you in the eyes, saw that i was lost.”
— walls / louis tomlinson.
Walls listening party: Charlotte