A School Of Royalty

Bonding?

"How do you know anything about that?" Louis said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Niall-"

"Have Mom and Dad been home?" Louis cut her off. He was done talking about Harry and even though parents weren't exactly the thing he loved talking about the most, he was curious if they had decided to visit their children.

"Um, well," Lottie began to say, "Dad has been home a few times, but not for long. He stays at the office even longer these days. The longest he has stayed away are six days in a row and the longest he has been home are three hours. In total." There were a sadness in her voice, a sadness Louis recognized more than anything and anger immediately rose within him when he thought about his neglecting parents.

"And Mom hasn't shown her face. Still shooting for some movie down in Egypt, I think. Honestly, the press know more about her whereabouts than her own family." Her words had turned angry, bitter.

"I am sorry," Louis said, letting out a sigh. "Well, how are our adopted parents then?" He wiggled his eyebrows a little in the hopes of getting Lottie to crack a smile. She did.

"Betty and Charles?" She questioned even though she already knew the answer. Louis nodded nonetheless. "They still act like an old married couple," she grinned. "They are good, yeah. They miss you."

"I miss them, too," Louis said. "I should call them soon, wait, actually, are they in the house right now? I could say hi."

"Actually-" Lottie bit her lip slightly, her eyes wavering. The ghost of a smile was lingering on her lips, "-Charles took Betty to the cinema today."

"What!" Louis sat up quickly, almost sending his laptop to the floor.

"Yeah." Lottie nodded lightly, a bright smile on her face. "Charles asked her if she wanted to go and she, well, said yes."

"Are they on a date?" Louis said, his tone high-pitched. "Why didn't I know about this?"

"I only found out half an hour ago when they left," Lottie said. "But I am happy for them, like, truly happy."

Louis settled back into his pillows, letting out a breath of air. He smiled at the thought of the two. "So am I-"

The door into the room opened, cutting Louis' sentence off. Louis spun his head toward the door, only to see Harry step into the room. Harry lifted his hand in a small, questioning wave. Louis flipped him off, resulting in Harry rolling his eyes.

"You might as well just give up, curly!" Louis said to him, not caring that Lottie could hear. "I am not done being a brat. Never will!" There was a teasing tint to his voice, even though he had not intended it. Harry seemed to hear is at well, because instead of answering Louis he just smiled slightly and shook his head in amusement.

Louis rolled his eyes and returned to the screen, only to find Lottie smirking up at him. "What!"

"Nothing, nothing." She held her hands up in front of her as in surrender and chuckled slightly. There was a knowing glint in her eyes, but Louis couldn't determine what it was and when he asked her she just flipped him off, saying, "I won't say a thing."

***

Louis woke up Saturday to Fleetwood Mac on the record player and Harry doing yoga on the floor, wearing only a pair of gray sweats.

Louis groaned into his pillow, before sitting up. "Do you honestly never wear, you know, a shirt?" He let his eyes wander over Harry's torso, wondering how he was not cold when Louis himself was freezing. And that was even though he was wearing a hoodie, sweats and had the duvet draped over him.