The Freak-Family (Zianourry)

Chapter 12

Hello! It's been a while, hasn't it? I feel like I've taken too long on this, sorry! To make it up to you, it's a lot longer than the other and usual chapters! I do hope it stays interesting through the whole thing, though, tell me honestly! I still find it difficult to crawl into Harry's skin as someone with OCD, I've read a lot about it, but it's hard to make it realistic. Well, enough of this, enjoy the chapter! Xx

Louis found himself back at work after his weekend, strengthened by his boyfriends’ support. He managed to stay focused during classes and could stop his mind from drifting towards Harry all the time. When he was sent to Anne’s office with a stack of paper from the school’s History teacher, he felt a bit jittery about seeing Harry again. He hoped he could strike up a bit of a conversation, now that he knew what not to do around him. But as he elbowed the door handle and propped it open with his hip, he was only met by Anne.“Oh,” He slipped out before he could restrain himself. “Does Harry have the day off?” He questioned, trying his best to stay nonchalant  as he peered around the stack of papers towards a grinning Anne. “He’s coming in later, he woke up late and still needed to take a shower.” She informed, and, okay, then Louis had to try not to visualize that.  

He cleared his throat and dumped the papers on Harry’s empty desk. “Well, here’s some work for him for when he gets here.” He chuckled awkwardly. Anne just smirked at him cunningly, but before anyone could address that, the door barged open again and Harry stormed in, something clung tightly in his hand as he rushed towards his mother. “Mom, I’m sorry, but can you please-” And then he noticed Louis and he hastily hid the tube of whatever kind of ointment behind his back. “Oh, sorry, didn’t know I was disturbing.” He apologised softly. Louis quickly shook his head. “No, you weren’t disturbing anything, I’ll leave you to it.” He said, swiftly moving towards the door. He knew he’d wanted to talk to Harry properly, but ointments and mothers and stuff like that were probably embarrassing enough for Harry without having Louis there to make a fool out of himself as well. “I have a lot of free periods today, so I guess you’ll see me around with more work for you to deliver from all the lovely teachers in the building.” Louis said as an afterthought, as if announcing his visits would give him the right to stay for small talk. Harry nodded timidly and Louis slipped out of the office, hoping he’d get extra points for securely closing the door behind him.

Luckily, a lot of teachers had things he needed to bring to Anne’s office, so he at least had excuses to stop by. Whenever Anne would be there he’d keep his visit short and just handed Harry whatever kind of paper he had to deliver before taking off again with a greet. However when Anne wasn’t present he’d try to talk a bit to Harry, but either the younger boy was focused on something else or Louis’ own nerves got the best of him, so it didn’t really pass the standard questions and one-worded answers.

Louis speed walked through the school’s corridors, trying to get to his next class in time, but also fulfilling his newly assigned task as the lovely colleague he wanted to be. He popped his head through the small crack of the door, peeking inside and meeting a pair of emerald eyes. “Are you busy?” He asked tentatively, hoping he hadn’t interrupted Harry during something important. Harry however just shook his head with a small smile, staring up curiously at Louis. He huffed out a relieved sigh and took a step inside the office. “Could you pretty please make 63 copies of this file for Mr. Brandt?” He asked, holding out a worksheet about something chemistry related and a printing pass. Harry nodded to his desk and Louis smiled sweetly as he placed the two items on it as neatly as possible. “Thank you Harry, you’re a life saver. I’ll pick them up later.” Louis called out, already pacing out of the office.

“Wait!” Harry hastily clambered from behind his desk and grabbed after Louis. Louis stopped abruptly and turned, quite surprised by the earnest and maybe even panicked eyes that bore into his. “63 including or excluding the already existing paper?” Louis had to suppress a smile because if that wasn’t really adorable, he didn’t know what was. “I’d say excluding, then you can’t go wrong.” Louis tried to sound comforting and he really hoped he was. Harry nodded steadily and they both barely had time to greet as Louis was sprinting to his classroom, swiftly shutting the door and starting his lesson immediately.