Poison

Genevieve's POV
We pull to a halt in the middle of a busy street, the night air charged with excitement.
"Where are we?" I ask in bewilderment as I take in my surroundings. We seem to simply be on a random street here in London, I don't see anything particularly spectacular.
"You'll see," Louis smirks and hops out of the car, jogging around to let me out. He interlaces our fingers and pulls me towards a small brick building, a few people mill around outside but most are scurrying to their destination to get out of the cold as soon as they can.
My eyes widen as we reach the glass doors. You've got to he kidding me. Louis glances back and grins at my expression before ushering me into the building. The smell of old books assaults me and I breathe in heavily, sighing with the comforting smell.
"What are we doing here?" I ask happily and draw my hand away from Louis's to run my fingers along the books nearest us. The cramped room is filled with shelves and books, dim lighting and cozy chairs immediately make me feel comfortable, yet I can't help but feel awkwardly overdressed.
"Looking at books," Louis says simply, pulling a tattered navy novel off of the shelf and skimming his long fingers along the edges of the yellowed pages.
"I can't help but feel both of us are slightly overdressed for book shopping," I laugh lightly and pick up a paperback.
"Why I suppose you're right," Louis says and places the book back. "Of course, that's not all we're doing here."
He abruptly grabs my hand, pulling me through the rows of shelves until we near the back of the small shop.
"Hello hector!" Louis says brightly as we come face to face with a tiny old man crouched behind the check out desk. "I'm here to pick up what I called about earlier."
"Ah so this is the girl," hectors bright eyes sparkle kindly as he looks at me and I can't help the blush that comes over my cheeks. Louis talked about me with this guy, for some reason the fact that he tells other people about me makes me feel all tingly inside.
"Yes Hector, this is Genevieve," Louis introduces, his eyes twinkle mischievously as he looks between us.
"Well Genevieve it's a pleasure to meet such a beautiful lady," Hector says and grins.
"Hey hey hey," Louis says with a chuckle. "Back off my girlfriend old man," he teases and Hector turns his grin to Louis.
Hector wordlessly crouches over and pulls something out from behind the counter, he pops back up with a brown paper package, a pale white rope tied in a bow around it.
"Here you are," Hector says and hands the rectangular package to Louis.
I highly suspect that it's a book.
"Thank you Hector," Louis says and begins to pull me back towards the front of the bookstore.
"Thank you Hector!" I call over my shoulder as I jog to keep up with Louis.
We burst back out of the cozy store and I immediately shiver at the drop in temperature. The dreary winter is a stark contrast to the warm bookstore. Louis quickly ushers me back into the car, leaving me more confused than ever.
"Louis what is going on!" I exclaim as he climbs back into the drivers seat. This is the most random date I've ever been on in my life!
"Just go with it love," Louis says with a cheeky smirk, blasting the heat. "This is for you," he hands me the brown package. It's heavier than I thought it would be.
"Can I open it?" I ask, fiddling with the rope.
"If you ever want me to drive to destination number 2," Louis grins at me with excitement.
His comment confuses me even further but I'm just going to take his advice and go with it. I pull the bow undone and the rope falls away before I delicately undo the tape holding the brown paper together.
"You are the most boring person to ever open a gift," Louis remarks. "You're supposed to rip off the paper in a hurried frenzy."
"I prefer to do it this way," I say shyly and pull back the paper to reveal a dark brown and gold detailed hard cover book. I look over to Louis in confusion before gently cracking open the cover. Inhaling sharply, I gently leaf through the pages.
"You didn't," I whisper, my eyes wide as I trace over the familiar words. "Is this a-"
"A first edition copy of A Tale of Two Cities?" Louis finishes for me. "Yes."
"I can't accept this," I breathe out and fiddle with the edges of the yellowed paper.
"Yes you can," Louis rolls his eyes. "But that's besides the point right now."
I turn to look at him, the book resting in my lap as I wait for him to continue.
"Find the bookmarked page," Louis directs, a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth. I turn back to the book with furrowed eyebrows and examine the top of the book. A slight parting of the pages cues me in to where the bookmark is and I slowly open to the right page. A piece of bright pink paper stands against the words and I read Louis's dark scrawl.
I suck at poems and writing in general, but I saw you reading this book and your copy was old. Well I've always been a little competitive so I found you one older. Speaking of old things, that's our next stop. Something old that goes tick tock. (I guess I'm not a hopeless poet after all)
I grin as I read the note.
"Really?" I ask and turn to Louis. He looks at me innocently and I laugh. "Big Ben?" I give it a guess. Louis grins and starts the car.
"That one was easy," he says and pulls back on to the street.
"There's more?" I ask and tuck the note into my purse.
"Of course there's more!" He exclaims, offended. "Who do you think I am? Go big or go home!"
I smile at him and watch his face as he drives. The corner of his mouth twitches up and his bright eyes flick to me.
"Like what you see?" He asks flirtatiously.
"Love it," I lean over and kiss his cheek but draw back before we have a repeat of earlier.
"I love you," he says and grabs my hand, pulling my knuckles up to his mouth. "I also love saying that I love you," he remarks and peppers kisses across my fingers.
"I love you too," I say and giggle as his kisses tickle my knuckles.
We pull to a stop in front of the large clocktower and Louis jumps out of the car, once again racing around to get my door for me. I glance up at the sky uneasily. It's been getting darker than usual, dark grey clouds covering the sky, it looks like it's going to storm.
Louis wraps a comforting arm around me and leads me up the structure. I crane my neck to see the face of the famous clock.
"What are we doing here?" I ask curiously, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that this is the opposite of a normal date, though I should have expected something like this from Louis.
"Goodness Genny I cannot tell you that," he smirks and leads me through a door, once more out of the freezing cold.
"Mr. Tomlinson," a husky voice welcomes as we enter. I take in my surroundings and see a cozy restaurant that had been adjacent to the massive clock tower. "Right this way."
The man leads us through the small restaurant and I grow even more confused at the lack of other people, and by lack of other people I meant that nobody is here. It's strange, especially considering it's around when the dinner rush would be and the fact that this place must be pretty popular due to the expensive looking decor. We wind through tables and to my complete and utter shock, the man who welcomed us leads us through a swinging door to the kitchen. A single chef occupies the industrial space, the kitchens white and stainless steel decor the opposite of the restaurants intimate feel. We keep walking through the kitchen until the man stops in front of an old looking wooden door. It had been painted white to blend in with the wall, but the paint was chipping.
"I can take it from here," Louis tells the man. He nods in understanding and holds open the door.
"Lou," I say cautiously as he pulls me across the creaky threshold. The steep wooden stairway in front of me is causing me anxiety. "What are we doing here?"
"Just trust me," he urges softly and tugs me up the narrow stairway. He has to drop my hand as I follow him up the ancient stairs, clutching the railing in case my heels were to connect with a loose board. My optimistic feelings about this date are slowly being replaced with anxiety. I can appreciate the effort he went to for this, and it is truly sweet, but how could he think I would enjoy this? Exploring a dusty old clock tower? They don't let people up here for a reason.
The stairs come to an opening and I sigh in relief at flat ground. However, to my dismay, that isn't exactly the case. I step on to the smooth platform behind Louis and immediately grasp his arm to steady myself from the dizziness that occurs. I was foolish to think that the end of one stairway would be the complete end. This is a massive clock tower, of course the stairs would wind around the inside. However, the next set of stairs ahead of us was not enclosed. An exposed brick wall stabilizes one side, but the only thing preventing us from a fall to the main floor of the tower is a moldy railing.
"No," I whisper, shaking my head. I can see the stairs winding up above us now, with the newly exposed railing.
"Yes," Louis chuckles at my reaction and a burst of anger flashes through me. He doesn't seem to register my feelings and takes a few steps up, assuming I will follow him.
I do, but not for the innocent reason of climbing the stairs. I press myself close to the wall and peer over the railing.
"Look," I direct Louis and he stops about two steps ahead of me. He turns to face me confused and I continue. "A fall from this height would most likely cause a sprained ankle if you attempted to land on your feet, but if you weren't anticipating the fall and fell face forward you would surely break one or both of your wrists, potentially cause injury to your legs, and if your head were to connect with the ground there is no telling the implications."
"Really?" He asks, scolding my childishness.
"Yes really," I say and cross my arms over my chest.
He's about to respond with some sort of snarky comment when a realization seems to hit him.
"You're afraid of height," he says, his eyes widening.
I bristle at the words. I am not afraid of heights. Just uncomfortable on ancient staircases that travel up a great distance. "That's absurd," I say haughtily.
"It's okay love," he says gently and takes a step down. "We don't have to do this."
That is exactly what I had wanted. But now that he's offering it because he thinks I'm scared, no way. A sense of determination washes over me and I narrow my eyes. "Lead the way," I say.
And he does, with one last unreadable glance at me Louis begins the trek up the old stairs. After what seems like an eternity we finally reach the top of the stairs. I had long since resigned myself to staring completely straight forward, focusing on Louis's muscular back. After about the fourth flight of stairs I began wishing that I had built up better endurance, due to my panting it was clear I haven't worked out in a while. Louis on the other hand seemed perfectly fine the entire walk up.
When we inevitably reached the top of the steps, I collapsed against Louis.
"Whoa there," he chuckles and wraps an arm around me in support. He leads me to a small table and I collapse into a wrought iron chair. Louis shoves a glass of water in my hand and I chug it down gratefully.
"You okay champ?" Louis jokes but there is a note of worry in his voice as he sits in the chair across from me, leaning on the table.
I nod and place the now empty glass on the white tablecloth. Only now do I begin to take in my surroundings. The top of the tower was very spacious, the entire room paneled in dark wood. A massive bell fills most of the room and our table is set up between the bell and the face of the clock. The face let's in dim light but mostly we are relying on the candles placed cautiously around the space. I can make out the ornate black numbers and hands of the clock. Despite the fact that we are much higher in the air than I would prefer to be, I can't help but be awestruck at where we are. We are in a clock. If that isn't cool I don't know what is.
"What do you think?" Louis asks after a moment.
"I think that you spent way more money on this date then you should have," I respond.
"This isn't our last stop either," Louis offers me a sly smile and I can't help but grin back. I slide out of my coat and shiver a little at the slight chill, this place isn't exactly heated but I haven't been out of my coat all night and what can I say, I like the dress. I note the food in front of us. Logic says it must be cold by now but when I cautiously reach out to take a bite, it's the perfect temperature.
"This is amazing," I say as we both begin eating the elaborate food that the restaurant we entered through must have brought up.
"I had to make an amazing date," Louis shrugs bashfully. "Because you're an amazing girl."
"Sometimes I think you get your lines from greeting cards," I joke to hide the blush that his words gave me.
"I'm offended," Louis scoffs in mock offense, throwing his hand to his heart for added affect. "I am trying to be romantic here."
"You're doing a fabulous job," I humor him and reach my hand across the table, he responds by entwining our fingers.
"I'm glad, because now it's time for your next clue," his eyes sparkle.

Notes

YES I realize that none of this is actually landmark accurate, especially everything dealing with Big Ben. It's only that way to support the story.
WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY WILL GO NEXT?
DO YOU SHIP GENNY AND LOUIS/ WHAT SHOULD THEIR COUPLE NAME BE?