Imprisoned In My Heart: A Larry Stylinson Fanfic

8.

There are very few things more awkward than trying to avoid someone politely, and Louis learnt that very quickly over the course of the next few days. His second week of work seemed to come remarkably quickly, the weekend flying by, and before he’d managed to get his head sorted out, Monday morning came rushing back and punched him in the face, and he was walking through the prison corridors again, trying to get to the safety of his office as quickly as possible. It was the one place he could be sure that he wouldn’t run into that familiar mop of curly hair. Unfortunately, fate seemed to enjoy making him and Harry meet at every turn, and Louis couldn’t seem to help staring at the boy whenever they came across each other. It was as if Harry was made of metal, and Louis’ eyes were magnets; he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away for more than a second before he found himself watching the boy again.

 Then, of course, came the fact that it kept slipping their minds that they were supposed to be ignoring each other.

 Louis had barely been in the building five minutes on Monday morning when he spotted Harry, and he instantly found himself examining Harry’s face, taking in the exhaustion and stress etched across it. Before he could look away, Harry glanced up, almost as if he had known he was being watched, and their eyes met. Seeing as they were both so determined to be civil, Louis couldn’t just look away, so he nodded curtly, and Harry dipped his head in return. Then, he hurried past, and Louis hung on to his folder like it was a lifeline as he rushed to his office.

 When Louis went for coffee, Harry just so happened to be passing by and paused to watch as Liam presented Louis with a new plant, one with lots of cute pink flowers and glossy leaves, one that any gardener would have been proud of. Louis threw his coffee all down his shirt in his excitement and came very close to stripping off in the hallway, before deciding that having a coffee-stained shirt was ‘cool’ and cheerfully escorting his new plant to his office, chatting to it all the while. Harry fought back a laugh as everyone hurried to avoid Louis and the plant he was carrying, and as Louis struggled to open a door with his arms full of begonia, their eyes locked and they looked at each other for a moment before Louis escaped through the doorway.

 Some time close to lunch, they almost had a full-on collision in the corridor. Harry was wandering along staring at the floor, and Louis was concentrating on not dropping the sixteen books he was holding, so they almost ran right into each other before Louis felt the warmth of a body a few inches away, and Louis’ shoes came into Harry’s line of sight. They simultaneously jerked away, Louis with a yelp and Harry with a little gasp, and blinked at each other for a while.

“Sorry!” Louis said, and his voice sounded strange as he forced an apology past the lump in his throat.

“It’s not your fault,” Harry muttered, looking at the floor again. “I should’ve been looking where I was going.”

“So should I. I guess we’re both at fault. Still, no harm done!” Louis plastered an appropriately friendly smile onto his face, but the expression felt weird, and he let it slide off as quickly as it had come.

Harry coughed nervously, and he too attempted a smile, but it was an awkward twist of his mouth and took a lot of effort to hold even for a few seconds.

“Well, I’ll see you around, then.” Louis quickly sidestepped to the left and said a little prayer that they weren’t going to have one of those moments where they both stepped the same way, and then did it again and again for several uncomfortable seconds until one of them froze with embarrassment and the other dodged quickly past them, bright red in the face.

Luckily, Harry neatly stepped to the right and hurried away in the opposite direction, and Louis breathed a silent sigh of relief as he headed once again for his office and made a vow not to leave it for the rest of the day.