CHANGE BY LOUIS TOMLINSON

+ BONUS

I hope this chart is a helpful reference for all writers. I used dictionaries, checked a couple of language forums, blogs and other people’s charts to compile this. It also includes slang. I know that some of them won’t be a completely accurate comparison, but I tried to find the closest equivalent to them.

Please, keep in mind that some of these may vary throughout the years and could depend on the region. For example never in my life have I ever heard of the Water/Drinking Fountain in America (or at least in my area in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, etc.) be called the Bubbler. But apparently its very common in the Midwest of America, in particularly in Wisconsin (also in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for people to actually call it that). 

I left it out of the chart because it’s only a few areas that call it that and not all of America. I imagine something similar could happen for those in the UK, and if so, please share any differences in the words and/or slang in your area.

Here is part 2 of my long word count fic rec! I scoured through ao3 and picked out a lot of great fics for you all to look through and find something to read! Hope you like em! This is from 149K down to 130K! Part 1 is here.

🖤 Walk That Mile by @daisyharry

Harry stares at him, the line of his jaw standing out scarily. “I wanted to get the most out of this trip so I planned it carefully.” His voice is low and steady and somehow that’s worse than when he was yelling. “So far, you’ve put your sticky fingers on everything I’ve tried to do.”

“Sticky fingers?” Louis repeats, offended. “Are you saying it’s my fault you got stung by a bee? Had you been alone you would have gotten halfway to the Dotty Diner and ran the car off the road because of an allergic reaction, so don’t go blaming me.”

“Polk-A-Dot Drive In,” Harry spits before getting out of the car. He slams the door shut with a deafening reverb and Louis rolls his eyes. - A Route 66 AU where falling in love was never part of the plan.

149K / Strangers to Enemies to Friends to Lovers / Road Trip au /

🖤 This Multiplicity of Powers by @helloamhere

Maybe in another universe he isn’t different. Maybe he hadn’t been given an impossible choice. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost everything and broken everything and then fallen impossibly, irrevocably in love with the first next thing that was kind. Maybe in that universe he doesn’t feel like he’s never breathing, always pretending, teaching the kids even though they all have to learn alone, trying hard not to read the headlines, and so afraid, every day, that he won’t be a good enough teammate to the superhero he can’t live without. He knows that love isn’t supposed to feel this way, slid secret under your skin like a surgical razor, an invisible war held close over the tender vein that keeps you alive. On the other hand, Louis wonders, had he ever known how to do it any other way?

Maybe there’s a universe where he doesn’t have to keep all his secrets on the inside.

But this isn’t that universe.

An X-Men au

149K / Friends to Lovers / Hurt Comfort / Slow Burn / Angst W Happy Ending /

🖤 Empty Gold by rainbow_kings

AU where Louis Tomlinson attends the vigorous, demanding performing arts school: Guildhall in hopes to complete his theatre degree. He is a scholarship student, always having to work twice as hard to prove his worth which has caused him to feel resentment and anger towards his subordinate position.

Harry Styles is the wealthy, naturally gifted actor who effortlessly snatches all the main roles within the class. The complete contrast to everything Louis is.

Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles have had bad blood and despised each other for the two years they attended Guildhall together, making each task a competition between each other.

In the final year, when Guildhall produces and performs an original play, Louis is heartbroken to learn the lead role has been been received to Harry and he’s the second role. He’s mostly terrified, however, when he realises he has to date Harry in the play as their characters. They come together through awkward stage kisses that transforms to hate sex, heated arguments, rehearsal times after lectures and baking carrot cake together.

148K / Enemies to Friends to Lovers /

🖤 Monday Meetings by @flamboyantommo

American AU where the boys all work for their college newspaper. Louis gets to voice his opinion in every issue, Liam is in charge, keeping everyone in line, Niall just really loves soccer, Zayn is an aspiring photographer and Harry is the incoming photo editor.

(Or, the one where Louis wants to date Harry, but won’t, because they work together, even though the other boys follow no such rule.)

— Louis turned and looked Harry in the eye. “I told Niall that even though he wanted to date Josh, his co-worker, it just wasn’t going to work out. And that was OK, because there’s plenty of other people out there for him.” Please take the hint. Please. It looked like Harry did, because he simply nodded before breaking the gaze.

147K / College AU / Roommates / Friends to Lovers /

🖤 amaryllis by @hattalove

“Where are we?” “Um. A little while out of London?” Niall tries, seemingly the only one willing to not be mysterious and provide Harry with information, and. Oh. “London London? As in, the capital of England London?” he asks, just in case he’d misheard. “No, the other London,” Louis laughs, low and biting. He comes closer finally, the moonlight just enough to reveal a sharp-cut jaw and pale skin. “Sorry, Pup.” Nobody’s ever called Harry a “pup”. Frankly, he finds it quite insulting, but he lets it slide to try and comprehend his current crisis.

or the one where harry gets bitten by a werewolf. louis is the mysterious not-quite alpha, liam and zayn have Things going on, niall is their token human, and together, they watch a lot of TV.

146K / Werewolves / Friends to Lovers /

🖤 Escapade by dolce_piccante

In the grand scheme of things, finding a date for a wedding should be no problem for Louis Tomlinson. He’s rich. He’s handsome. He’s reasonably well behaved. But when the wedding is for his lifelong best friend (and former boyfriend), and is happening in under a month, finding a date for the ceremony and accompanying festivities becomes more of an adventure than he ever could have planned for.

146K / Fake Relationship / Slow Build /

🖤 rather be sad with you (than anywhere away from you) by @coffeehazza

Louis, Niall, and Liam have already been living together for four years when they get a new roommate.  Harry’s in pre-med and Louis is struggling to graduate and fulfill his family’s hope of him becoming an esteemed lawyer while battling his mental health.

Featuring: Longhaired Harry AND longhaired Louis! Lots of Rom-Com lad nights, future dentist Niall who unabashedly refers to their flat as the ‘lad pad’, future aerospace engineer Liam who can’t seem to escape Harry and Louis’ sex life, drunken karaoke, and matching Fleetwood Mac tattoos.

145K / Uni AU / Friends to Lovers /

🖤 Flour and Chocolate by teaandtumblr

It was nice, for a bakery he supposed.

Then he approached the display cabinet.

And the foreboding slammed into him. Because every product had letters next to it. Letters. GF, DF, V, O, VGN.

 What. The. Fuck?

Lifting his eyes to the chalkboard menu spread across the back wall Louis felt physically ill. ‘Gluten-free’, ‘organic’, ‘vegan’, ‘paleo’, ‘dair-…’ Wait, what the fuck was a paleo? He had entered some hipster-trash establishment and it was more than time to get out.

OR

Louis is a single dad and Harry works at the newly opened bakery down the street.

145K / Single Parent Louis / Baker Harry / Slow Burn /

🖤 All That I Could Never Lose by @chelsea-frew

One Direction takes on “The X-Factor” with a twist: Harry Styles was born blind.

145K / X Factor Era / Hurt Comfort /

🖤 Own the Scars by @crinkle-eyed-boo

 “But I don’t belong here,” Louis insists.    “Why do you say that?” James asks.    “These people are all drug addicts and alcoholics,” Louis shrugs.    Something sparks in James’ eyes.    “And you’re not?”

Louis has never felt like he was good enough: for his stepdad, for his life-long best friend, for the life he’s supposed to want. After an accident that nearly costs him his life, Louis’ parents send him to rehab where he’s forced to face his demons. On the long and difficult road to recovery, Louis must confront the truths he’s been avoiding about his future, his relationships, and his sense of self-worth. Because before he can love anyone else, he’s got to learn how to love himself first.

144K / Childhood Friends / Friends to Lovers / Slow Burn /

🖤 Landslide by @aimmyarrowshigh & spibsy

The year is 1976. In November, Jimmy Carter will take control of the White House. Americans are meeting Laverne & Shirley at their apartment in Milwaukee. Hotel California diverges from the reign of Kool & the Gang. And the FBI is still reeling from the repercussions of Watergate, the tragedy at Wounded Knee, Operation Family Secrets, and the strategic terrors of the anti-cult movement.

That’s what Special Agent Harry Styles has been told is the basis of his mission to an abandoned farmhouse in rural New Hampshire.

With his hair grown out long and his shirt untucked, he’s going undercover to do reconnaissance on suspected cult leader Louis Tomlinson, who has led a group of people out into the middle of nowhere, leaving no record of the life he’d had before. All Harry knows is what the agency gave him: Tomlinson’s name, and instructions to figure out what he’s doing with the eleven people he brought with him.

In the year that Harry spends undercover and under Louis Tomlinson’s wing, he learns more than he ever expected.

143K / Historical / Agent Harry / Cult Leader Louis /

🖤 falling into you by @aliensingucci

In the grand scheme of adolescence and boyhood, Harry was still working himself out, so far with little luck. But four things he could say for certain: 1) he’d been at the top of his class all through primary and secondary school, 2) he was the shittiest alpha to ever walk the earth, 3) Liam Payne never let him forget it, and 4) he’d been in love with this boy, Louis Tomlinson, ever since he was fifteen years old.

143K / Alpha Harry / Omega Louis / Slow Build /

🖤 Serendipity, Actually by somethingsilly

AU where Harry truly believes in Destiny and Louis just happens to cross his path at the right moment. Featuring a world with the size of a stamp, Liam as the best friend ever, Niall as a social butterfly who knows everyone and Zayn who always knows what’s going on. Or where everyone is at the right place at the right time.

142K / Friends to Lovers /

🖤 Dare to Love by NicoleFrenchie

Louis is a drama major starting his sophomore year in college. A bunch of stupid dares from his friends aren’t supposed to turn his entire world upside down. Then again, maybe it’s not the dares. Maybe it’s just Harry, Niall’s new Freshman roommate.

142K / Friends to Lovers / Angst W a Happy Ending / College AU /

🖤 Wear It Like A Crown by zarah5

As part of a team of fixers hired to handle a gay scandal in Buckingham Palace, Louis expects Prince Harry to be a lot of things—most notably a royally spoilt brat. Never mind that the very same Prince Harry used to star in quite a number of Louis’ teenage fantasies. 

141K  / Prince Harry /

🖤 The Compulsion to Find Love by Toomanytears

The most prestigious English third-level institution, Candling University, accepts omega students for the first time and Louis Tomlinson applies with bright eyes and brighter ambitions. There he encounters personal obstacles, traditional mindsets and a beautiful boy who inverts every prejudice Louis has ever known.

140K / Alpha Harry / Omega Louis / Uni AU / Angst W a Happy Ending /

🖤 Petrichor by larryandgaystuff

Louis moves back home after graduating from college and finds out that Harry hasn’t changed much in the ways that matter and neither have his feelings for him.  His hair is longer and his voice is deeper and he now owns the bakery where they worked as kids.  But his eyes are just as bright and his dimples are just as beautiful and he’s still everything Louis wants.  Niall and Liam basically help them both get their shit together because what else is new.

140K / Exes to Lovers / Pining /

🖤 Pull Me Under by zarah5

As the first British footballer to come out at the prime of his career, it helps that Louis Tomlinson is in a long-term, committed   relationship. Even if that relationship is fake. (Featuring Niall as Louis’ favourite teammate, Liam as Louis’ agent, and Zayn as Liam’s boyfriend, who just happens to be good friends with one Harry Styles.) 

140K / Fake Relationship / Football Player Louis /

🖤 A Lot of Fight Left in Me by @chloehl10

A few years after One Direction, Louis and Harry Tomlinson are happily married, have 5 year old twins and life seems pretty perfect. Their children have started school, and they’re still in regular contact with their bandmates and best friends, Niall and Liam. However, when their daughter receives some news they could have never expected, their whole world gets turned upside down. With a little help from friends and family and their love keeping them afloat they’re determined to take back their happiness, believing in the fact that love really is all you need. 

139K / Established Relationship / Kid Fic /

🖤 As You Are by zarah5

Five years after The X Factor launched his career as a radio host and songwriter, Louis Tomlinson returns as a judge. Falling for a contestant is the last thing he needs. It’s also against his contract.

The only reason Harry auditions for The X Factor is because his best mate signed the two of them up as some kind of joke. Harry doesn’t get the big deal—not until he’s faced with this season’s judges and realises that one of them used to be his desperate, impossible teenage crush.

139K / Famous - Not Famous / Forbidden Love / Angst W a Happy Ending /

🖤 Run Like the Devil by benzos

Harry stops pouting, but his frown is still fixed in place. “Are you sure?” he asks. “You know it’s your soul you’re signing away.” He sounds…sad? No, that’s not right, but there’s  something.

Christ. This is the most incompetent demon Louis’ ever met. If he hadn’t seen the red of his eyes he wouldn’t believe he was a demon at all. How’d he get this job if he isn’t trying to convince Louis to deal? Or is it just another trick? A ploy for sympathy?

“I’m sure,” Louis says. “Come over here and kiss me.”

Supernatural AU. Louis hunts demons; Harry’s the strangest demon he’s ever met, and he keeps fucking meeting him.

139K / Enemies to Lovers / Demon Harry / Hunter Louis /

🖤 like fires in the night by coldflasher

Louis comes to university looking for a drama degree and a purpose in life. He gets significantly more than he bargained for.

He’s got a secret stash of weed under the floorboards, his grades are going to shit and his mates keep getting pissed. There are secret passageways in the wardrobes and he really needs to get Niall a girlfriend. And most importantly, he can’t take his mind off the mysterious law student down the hall…

138K / Uni AU /

🖤 the breaking of your soul (upon my lips) by becauselarry

The one in which One Direction in 2015 still includes Zayn, and nothing has been right between Harry and Louis for a long time now. Louis is certain that the situation he finds himself in won’t change anything at all - he doesn’t want it to, if he is honest with himself, as he doesn’t want this situation to be a situation in the first place.

138K / Established Relationships / Secret Relationship / Mpreg /

🖤 You You You by @isthatyoularry

“Infamous boybander leaves club together with unknown,” read the headline. Underneath were pictures of a boy with dark curls, green eyes and very tight pants. They both studied the article for a moment, reading it through quickly. “Is that…?” Louis frowned. That guy almost looked exactly like… “HOLY FUCKING SHIT!” “Louis,” Niall said, looking absolutely fucked over. “You just fucked the most wanted guy on earth. You just fucked Harry Styles of One Direction.”

Or, the one where Harry and Louis meet at a club and Louis takes Harry home, only for him to realize that the boy who just made him breakfast half naked is Harry Styles from One Direction.

137K / Famous - Not Famous / Famous Harry /

🖤 All About Us by LHStylinson

When Harry and Louis’ teenage daughter bring a boy home for the first time to meet them Louis tries to act as the protective father and Harry just wants everyone to be happy. Throughout the night and protests from their daughter, Louis and Harry reminisce about how they met and overtime share their story with the boy that seems to look at their daughter the same way Louis once and still looks at Harry. 

137K / Established Relationship / Famous Louis / Baker Harry /

🖤 Unbelievers by @isthatyoularry

It’s Louis’ senior year, and he’s dead set on doing it right. However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.

Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

136K / Enemies to Lovers / Enemies with Benefits / Football Co-captains /

🖤 Fake It Till You Make It by @avocadolouie

In a twisted turn of events, Louis finds himself posing as the brother of his fiancé, Harry, for an annual company retreat.

Did he sign up for this? No.

Is he doing it anyway? Yes.

Can they actually pull this off? Probably not.

136K / Fake Relationship (in a way)

🖤 You Call Out My Name (For The Love You Need) by AllTheseLittleWritings

“I’m so sorry, baby,” she says, as they watch the car burn in the silence of the first spring night, which still seems like it’d be winter. The small drizzle of water has turned into snowflakes and they are still falling, but they don’t feel cold. Some stick to Louis’ hair and eye lashes and they stay there, like they’d be part of Louis.  

-

Louis thinks he has fallen in love. He’s so sure about it. Then everything changes. He gets into a car accident with his mother and suddenly his life turns from living into being an angel. He doesn’t know what to do with his time, until his mother gives him a task.

Harry is trying to make it as a singer. He spends his days on the streets, playing his guitar, and his nights at a pub. He loves his whiskey and he likes his one night stands. When a guy with blue, bright eyes sits next to him in the pub, he realizes things could be a lot different.

In other words, Harry is a street artist and Louis is an angel.

135K / No Smut /

🖤 Eight Cakes and Two Eulogies (Make a Happy Marriage) by yesllliam

The Honourable Louis Tomlinson, heir to the Earldom of Colbury and the multi-billion pound family business, RLA Enterprises, often feels under pressure to conform to the expectations of those around him. The 30 year old, nerdy and rather homely physicist part of himself feels he ought to be getting married and carrying on the family line – as does his formidable Grandmother. The only problem is, after his last disastrous relationship, seven years ago, he has little desire to get intimate with another woman, let alone marry one. Of course, Harry, his famous actor of a best friend, always likes to pip in that he is free to marry him and while Louis loves him to pieces, the joke is getting a bit old now.

135K / Historical / Friends to Lovers /

🖤 Let’s Fall in Love in a Place You Want to Stay by embro

A George of the Jungle / Tarzan AU where Louis is a model who meets Wild Man Harry in the Congo. He was raised by apes and barely speaks a word of English and turns Louis’ life upside down.

134K / Model Louis / Jungle Man Harry /

🖤 Undone, Undress by @angelichl

Louis’ new roommate is shy, skittish, and flinches at the slightest sounds. He’s an art major who gets drunk on cherry wine, wears lacy lingerie, and shows up late at night covered in bruises that blossom across his skin like flowers.

Obviously something is wrong. Louis just doesn’t know what it is.

134K / Hurt Comfort / Uni AU /

🖤 Empty Skies by @greenfeelings

For three years, Harry has been running from his past. Now, he is moving to London and pledges to fulfill his only dream – making it big in the music industry. Not everyone has a place, though, and the competition is tough. As is his past catching up on him.

Louis is part of the biggest boy band of the world, and getting there had meant a lot of hard work, as well as sacrificing parts of his heart and soul. He’s still happy. Maybe not as happy as he could be, but who is he to complain?

Featuring Perrie as Harry’s adorable flatmate, Niall as his manager, and Liam and Zayn as Louis’ bandmates.

134K / Pining / Hate to Love /

🖤 With a whimper by kitundercover

Louis has been alone for too long to remember how not to be, and Harry has too much to worry about to deal with a scrawny, wild, stranger. —

The man grips his arm tightly. “You’re not going to say anything.” It’s not a question.

Louis shakes his head, his body twitching.

“Fine.” Large green eyes survey him before letting go. “It’s cold. Take this. Wear it.”

Louis can’t help another flinch as the man’s long scarf is wrapped around his tender neck, it’s still warm. He touches the soft material. “Thank you.”

The man bears his teeth. “Don’t thank me. Don’t ever thank me.”

132K / Dystopia / Slow Build /

🖤 red hands by @dystopianharry

“I’ve never told anyone,” Harry murmurs, voice so soft no one else would be able to hear, if it wasn’t just the two of them.  “But you’ve told someone,” Louis says firmly. “And that’s not gonna fucking happen around here. You don’t speak a word of it, or someone’s going to kill you, and we can’t let that happen.” a dystopian au in which harry, an ex-soldier who’s escaped from his government run camp, accidentally stumbles across the biggest rebel movement in the country, and louis, one of the rebellion’s mysterious leaders who appears to hate him, seems to simultaneously have an obsession with keeping him alive. or: harry is wanted for treason, niall hasn’t changed in four years, liam is always smiling, and louis is angry. like, really angry.

132K / Dystopia / Enemies to Lovers / Slow Burn /

🖤 Hold You Now by @solvetheminourdreams

The string within Harry’s own sweatpants is now dangling outside of his pocket, stretched so far out that the seams of his pants have tightened. His eyes remain hyper focused on Louis, how oblivious he is—scrolling through his phone without a care in the world, while Harry feels his tilt on its axis.

Three years ago, Harry Styles said goodbye to communications consultancy firm McQuiston Worldwide, leaving a life of travel and agency PR behind. When he accompanies his best friend to a family wedding across the Atlantic, he’ll be forced to reopen old wounds and face his past—one that no one wants to hash out, but may just have to.

131K / Angst W a Happy Ending / Slow Burn / Ex Friends w Benefits /

🖤 Wild Love by @daisyharry

“Good,” Julia says, clearly pleased to have them both uncomfortable and unable to look at each other. “Now, I only have one more question before you can go. What are you planning to do when this experiment ruins your friendship?”

“We said we’d stay friends no matter what,” Harry says smoothly, his chin lifting in defense.

“That was our one thing going into it,” Louis agrees. “Stay friends no matter what.”

Julia raises a perfectly manicured brow, “That’s all fine and good. But I hope you realize your emotions aren’t going to realize this is an experiment in the end. If one of you falls for the other and finds out those feelings are not reciprocated, you’re not going to be able to laugh it off as a social experiment. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this, I’m just hoping you’ve considered all of the possible outcomes.”

- AU: Two best friends try to date each other for forty days. It’s supposed to be fun until emotions make it complicated.

130K / Friends to Lovers / Fake Relationship /

🖤 Lightning Strikes The Heart by Bekita & @fournipplesau 

Shrewsbury, 1814

Dearest reader, I present to you your new bulletin of news regarding Shrewsbury citizen’s activities. My name is Lady Merriweather and I will be in charge of the updates. I will make sure you are to know all the important details of what is to happen this season. You must know that you do not know who I am and you never shall. But be forewarned; I certainly do know you. I advise you to be on your best behaviour, lest you want the whole town to be privy of your business.

As expected every year, the Lockhart House hosts the season’s opening ball, and its invitation is the motive of the hustle in town, and every family hopes for the invitation. This year is no different, but this year everyone’s attention is focused on the new Duke of Montgomery, His Grace Harry Edward Styles, and whether he will attend it.

All the omegas will be in their best manner, behaviour and clothes as it is expected. And here, dear reader is where we will find out which young omega might succeed at securing a match, hoping to not become a spinster.

Place your bets.

130K / Historical / Enemies to Lovers / Fake Relationship / Alpha Harry / Omega Louis

The Serpent and the Lion by Louise Parker

“Louis doesn’t know what lives in boys like Harry — magnificently beautiful boys, who should want for nothing, but somehow still have a quiet dissatisfaction for life simmering underneath the surface. The singular change in Harry was something Louis never thought he’d see, but then again, nothing that had been happening lately was ever in Louis’s line of prediction.”

OR