It was the morning after the gala, and Harry didn't get a wink of sleep. His mind was constantly on one person.

Louis.

He needed to get his mind off of him somehow.

His mother told him that she arranged for Eloise to join them for a friendly game of croquet this afternoon. That should stop him from thinking about Louis.

The king and queen, along with Harry and Eloise, were out in the courtyard playing a round of croquet.

Niall was there too. He wasn't able to make it to the gala last night because he had been in Ireland visiting family for the past 6 months and only just returned this morning. He and Harry have been the best of friends ever since they met in primary school. They've been joined at the hip ever since.

"Ni! How was your trip back home?" Harry asked as he went in for a hug.

"It was absolutely wonderful Haz! I almost didn't want to come back, but I knew I couldn't be away from my best mate for long…and I needed to meet your new fiancé! I was just chatting with your parents and they told me the gala was successful. Where's the lovely future bride of the legendary Harry Styles, Miss. Eloise Hart?!" Niall questioned with excitement in his voice.

"Ah yes! I couldn't bear the thought of being away from my Nialler for very long!" Harry smiled at him. "Yes, in fact she is right over there!" Harry pointed behind him to where Eloise was making her move in the croquet game. "Ellie! Come here darling! Niall wants to meet you!" Harry called out to Ellie.

As Eloise made her way to the two young men, Niall turned to whisper in Harry's ear, "Ellie? Nicknames already?! Wow, that must be true love!"

Harry's shoulders stiffened. "No! Well—We just get on really well, have since we first met! It's nothing really…"

Niall gave him a confused look.

"Ellie, dear, meet Niall Horan, my best mate since primary school! And Niall, meet Eloise Hart…my future bride." Harry introduced the two.

Eloise stretched her arm out to Niall. "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Horan. I've heard so much about you. Even though I've only known Harry for 12 hours, he sure speaks very highly about you!" She giggled as Niall took her hand in his and kissed it.

"Enchanté Miss. Hart. I hope the future heirs to the throne will be just as beautiful as their mother." Niall said, with a wink and a smile.

Eloise blushed at Niall's compliment. They smiled back at each other, staring into each other's eyes. "Oh please call me Ellie! A friend of Harry's is a friend of mine! And I'm not that beautiful," She said as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and smiled.

"Ah! On the contrary! You must be the most beautiful woman in all of England! And you can call me Niall." Said Niall still smiling back at Eloise.

The rest of the afternoon, Niall and Eloise couldn't keep their eyes off one another. They were constantly smiling and giggling. It was like they were in their own world. And Harry wasn't in it.

At some point they started to notice Harry's distance from them, so Ellie decided to ask him what was wrong. "Harry, are you alright? You've been very distant from your parents and Niall and I, all afternoon."

"Yes! I—It's nothing…" Harry lied. Ellie could see straight through it and gave him a knowing look. "Really it's nothing. I mean, you and Niall are hitting it off and I couldn't ask for anything less! It's just— am I boring?"

Ellie gave him a confused look. "What do you mean Harry? You are a very intelligent and interesting individual!"

"I just—somebody told me I'm too uptight and should 'let loose' once in a while," Harry confessed.

"Oh Harry… You just worry too much, you only get to be a prince for so long, and pretty soon you're going to have a lot more responsibilities and extra stress once you become king. You should probably learn how to destress properly before stress takes over your life." Ellie explained. "Is there something on your mind that you would like to do?"

"There is this party I got invited to last night. It's next Friday, but I don't think I'm going to go."

"Why not?" Ellie asked.

"I can't go. I shouldn't go. My parents would have my head if they found out I was even considering going." Harry explained.

"Wait! It's not King Louis Tomlinson's party, is it?" Niall chirped in.

Harry nodded.

"No way! You got invited to one of King Louis' parties and you're not even going?!" Niall exclaimed.

"Well you know better than anyone why I can't go!" Harry defended himself.

"But this is like a once in a lifetime opportunity! Those parties are legendary! You would be missing out!" Niall cried.

"I can't Niall… I just—I can't." Harry sighed.

"Why do your parents need to know?" Ellie questioned.

"Well— Because— Huh." The more Harry thought about it, his parents didn't need to know. Louis gave him explicit instructions on how to sneak out without anyone being alerted of his absence. Maybe he can go and have some fun for once in his life. But what if he gets caught?

"No. It's too risky. I'll just de-stress with you too! Besides, Ellie's family now so we're all stuck with each other." Harry smiled at his best friend and future bride.

Meanwhile, back at the Tomlinson estate…

Louis was cleaning up the castle from last night's festivities, while asking Zayn how the party went. Although Louis has servants throughout the castle, he doesn't feel right just making them clean up his messes, even though this is more Zayn's mess. Zayn would rather have the servants clean up his mess, but Louis was making him help.

"How was your party? Any fires to put out? Drama I missed?" Louis questioned.

"It went really well! No fires! And the only drama you missed was all the women fighting each other while throwing themselves at me," Zayn said with a smile and a wink.

Louis laughed and rolled his eyes while picking up the throw pillows and putting them back on the couch in the library. He was too busy talking to Zayn to have noticed that they ended up in the library and what state it was in, until now…

"Z…" Louis started, "I thought we both agreed the library was to be off limits during the parties?"

Zayn's eyes went wide. Oops. "Euhm…" he started, "yes. Yes we did."

Louis gave him a confused look. "Then why does it look like you hosted an orgy in here?"

"What?! It does not look like that! Look. It was only me and…a special friend…having some fun—if you know what I mean," Zayn confessed with a side smirk plastered on his face.

Louis raised his eyebrows and put his hand up in front of Zayn's face. "Say no more—I really do not need that visual to haunt my dreams."

"As you say, your highness," Zayn joked. "What about your night? How did inviting Mr. Golden Boy go for you?" Zayn often called Harry 'Golden Boy' because of how protected he was. Harry's parents kept him in a bubble, that way, he never did anything rebellious. He was the kingdom's Golden Boy. And that was about to change.

"It went really well!" Zayn gave him an incredulous look. "Well we didn't exactly get on right away, but I gave him the ol' Tommo charm. So he'll be there. You can count on it," Louis explained, smiling.

"Ahhh… And how did you do that? Hmm?" Zayn nudged Louis' shoulder and gave him a sly wink.

Louis rolled his eyes and said, "well let's just say by the time I left, he looked all 'hot and bothered,' and something tells me he'll be coming back for more."

Zayn had a look of surprise on his face. "You're starting to sound a little too cocky, even for you!"

"Well you didn't see the look on his face when I told him I wasn't asking but practically demanding," Louis defended, with a knowing smile.

Zayn chuckled a bit, "there's the Tommo I know! I love the way you manipulate people to get what you want. That's why we're friends!"

Louis' smile faded after Zayn's comment, and Zayn noticed.

"Hey…I was only joking! That's not the only reason I'm friends with you. You're much more than a good manipulator!" Zayn said, trying to comfort his friend.

"No, I know. It's just that's what my father was good at. That's how this came to be," he said, gesturing to his castle.

"Yeah, but Lou, your father was a cold person and didn't have a heart—no offense," Zayn said while putting his hands up for the last part.

Louis chuckled a bit at Zayn's last remark.

"The Louis that I know and love—the Louis standing right in front of me—is the kindest human I've ever known and has a heart the size of this entire continent. You care about your people and more; otherwise, you wouldn't be doing this with Harry," Zayn explained genuinely.

Louis looked at him with tears in his eyes. "Thanks Z," he said while reaching his arms out to Zayn for a hug.

After about 5 seconds, Zayn spoke up, "m'kay. Are we done now?"

Louis chuckled against Zayn's shoulder, then pulled away. Zayn wasn't much of a hugger. "Yes. Thanks again, Z. I feel a lot better."

"Oh 'welcome, but I was actually talking about cleaning…" Zayn replied.

Louis laughed, "of course you were...and you weren't even cleaning. I am, you're just following me around."

"Hey!" Zayn sounded offended. "I'm showing you where things go! How can you clean when you don't know where to go? Hmm?"

"It's my fucking castle! I think I know where I store my things in my castle." Louis said sassily.

"Yeah yeah. So you really think Harry'll show next week?" Zayn questioned.

"He has to. This plan depends way too much on it. It's way too important. And I don't exactly have a plan B if this doesn't work out," Louis explains.

Harry needs to accept Louis' invitation.

Louis doesn't know what to do if he doesn't.

And Louis always knows what to do.

But this was way too important.

Eloise and Niall had finally left. Harry's parents retired to their chambers, and Harry was looking forward to his comfy bed himself.

As Harry sat on his bed, he looked at his bedside table, where Louis' invitation sat. He picked it up to look at it.

Maybe Eloise was right.

He's been following orders and rules ever since he was a kid. He never once stepped out of line. Maybe he should change that. Or at least get a taste of it before it's too late, and he's married with three children.

Maybe Louis was the right person to help him with that.