concealing ➸ tomlinson

viii

louis made a twelve minute walk five minutes by running. behind his path he left a light trail of ice. in hindsight, it probably hadn't been a good idea to keep the gloves off. but there wouldn't be long until he'd be back inside.

although, he'd be in such trouble with mr. hill for causing a small weather phenomenon in the middle of town.

racing down into the garage, louis punched in the code.

garage shakes like the world is fucking ending.

opens door to annoyingly long hallway.

continue running.

louis made his way down the hallway, panting hard. he was used to running for fairly long stretches of time, thankfully, so he recovered his breath with a few deep breaths.

"hey liam?" he walked through a connecting door at the end of the hall. "you see zayn come through here? or where he went?"

liam glanced up from his phone. "try the ugc?"

"yeah, that makes sense. thanks, mate."

he clapped his friend on the shoulder, then was out another door and down the stairs.

ugc- underground center. built for training and/or containment.

louis opened the door to the ugc. sure enough, across the massive domed-roof room, he caught sight of two figures. bingo. he picked up his speed to a jog, passing the multiple target dummies and a small fountain for show.

"hey zayn!" louis knocked on the bars that cut off zayn's own little section of the room.

zayn poked his head between two bars, underneath the backs of paper that were taped to the bars. "oh, hey! i'll let you in."

he walked over to the door and unlocked from his side. "and head's up, too."

louis walked in to two things: kris fifteen meters away and a large tiger only a meter away. on knee-jerk reaction, he jumped and sent a fast mini-blizzard at the cat's face. it blinked, frost coating it's face and whiskers, and wiggled it's nose in confusion.

"for god's sakes, don't scare him." zayn locked the door again.

louis gave him an incredulous look. "little ol' me scared big ol' it?"

"to be fair, you do scare the hell out of me on most days."

louis rolled his eyes. then he glanced across the room. kris was staring at him with wide eyes and a blank face. louis waved shyly.

"alright, let's start getting you up to speed on all this. got to admit, though, you're taking what i've shown you pretty well." zayn scratched the nape of the tiger's neck. "anyone you see here, kris, has some kind of power. for example, jack frost over here."

"piss off, divinci."

"go ahead, name anyone." zayn ignored him.

kris thought for a beat. "the guy at the entrance?"

"that's liam. enough strength to knock you across town, probably farther."

"harry..?"

"he's basically the real-world version of the human torch."

"his sister, too." louis added.

kris frowned. "sister?"

"he and courtney have the same mom. same hot-headedness, too."