the social experiment // haylor au

four // rain on your parade

"No, I wasn't really doing anything. Of course; let me just get my jacket, and we can head out," he said, attempting a casual smile – probably failing and instead looking like he was trying to swallow down some bad tasting medicine – and headed back up the stairs with a quick rub of her arm.

He'd figured out, after the previous Friday's events that he was obviously inadequate at verbalising his feelings and intentions, but he could use touch as a way to fully communicate when his emotions didn't come out in the way that he wanted them to – which was often.

Taylor, on the other hand, had been confused out of her mind after their last interaction. She'd walked him to the door and they'd exchanged some sort of awkward half-hug thing at her door, and stared into each other's eyes for way too long to be considered normal – because neither of them really knew what to do with themselves, and Harry really ought to leave, but they both wished he didn't – before he gave a small wave and walked back down her garden path. She'd closed the door on him and exhaled deeply as she leaned her back against the cool wood, going over the evening in her head.

She'd planned on telling Harry about having a daughter later on, casually, in passing, but tonight, all of a sudden he was in her personal space and she kind of liked the way he looked there and she'd allowed him to walk around, so obviously he would find Kennedy's room and so everything sort of snowballed into her telling him everything that had happened with her ex and holding back tears on her couch.

Wow.

All that had run through her head that evening was how impossibly adorable he was, always looking like he was scared to mess up, and how strangely attracted to him she was. Every time she thought of him as anything more than awkward, bumbling Harry, she had to stop herself because that wasn't the plan. She wasn't meant to want to make out on her couch with her patient – and yet there she was.

She stood then, turning a full 360 degrees to take in the entirety of the huge lobby – she knew Harry was a technology analyst or something of that sort, but she hadn't thought it was this big of a deal. The building was relatively squat looking, compared to all the other high rises in the area, but what it lacked in height, it made up for in architectural prowess.

It was made entirely of glass and steel, all in curving arabesques and the occasional straight line here and there. It completely reflected the grey clouds that hung low in the sky, threatening rain any minute. It was particularly easy to find where he worked – Google.

Now that she was inside she could see how big the operations were at Think Tank – she could see that there were at least five stories in the building, and every couple of seconds, a smart looking person would bustle across the room, with a tablet in their palm, and disappearing into another office or conference room. Taylor took all of the activity in and smiled, because she could see how a brain like Harry's might find this type of environment stimulating.

Louis was still puttering around Harry's office when he returned to grab his keys and coat, standing by the bookshelf and picking up ornaments and putting them down.

"Harry Styles!" he said when Harry appeared, streaking past him to turn off his desktop, "How did you neglect to tell me that your psychologist looks like a Victoria's Secret model? I mean, I know why you look so dazed whenever you talk about her because if I was you, I would have already—"

"That's highly inappropriate, Louis," he said, although his hands stilled at his keyboard for a fraction of a moment, imagining Taylor in lacy—his throat clenched and he quickly tried to recover and shrugged his coat on, pocketing his phone. Damn Louis.

"Yeah, well," Louis laughed then shrugged, and left Harry standing feeling lost for a moment in his office, then he took a deep breath and left, taking the stairs slowly this time, to make sure any uh – compromising – images of Taylor had left his mind.