The Freak-Family (Zianourry)

Chapter 25

The boys fell back into their chairs and looked at each other in silence for a while. “Well, that’s a lot to think about.” Liam mumbled, hands running over his face once. “Any first thoughts?” Harry asked, playing with his fingers giddily. “Well, my hearts screams a solid yes, but we need to think about this rationally.” Louis sighed, earning contemplative nods and hums from the others.

Deciding to let everybody think about the situation at hand for themselves, form an opinion about it before they’d discuss anything together, the four boys slowly rebooted and continued their day. Zayn stood to take that shower anyway, mulling everything over underneath the warm spray of water.  

At the end of that same day they piled onto the couch together, Louis squeezing in lastly with a notepad and pen in his hands. “So boys, how do we feel about another flatmate?” Louis started, looking at the three boys respectively for a moment to gauge their initial responses before they could school it into anything else. He didn’t detect any apprehension or dread, so he knew they were on the same page. “I feel like I don’t have a clue what it means when Niall moves in, apart from him physically being here.” Harry confessed, plucking at his fingernails because he felt a bit stupid for being so naive.

“That’s a very good point, Haz.” Liam said, curling an arm around his waist and squeezing softly. “We should make a list, which I think you already thought about.” He spoke, looking at Louis and the empty paper on his lap. Louis smiled and nodded. “I think we should make a list indeed, because I reckon we’ll be stuck with a lot of questions that will influence our decision.” He explained. Zayn’s head was resting on his shoulder, peeking up at his boyfriend. He sounded so mature and smart, Zayn was sure he was looking at him with so much awe it was ridiculous. It just always felt very domestic to him when Louis talked about money or things that needed to be done, he felt secure and reassured that Louis was taking care of him and doing such a good job at it.  

He stayed mostly quiet as Louis and Liam started to rattle off things they needed to ask or needed to alter if Niall were to come live with them. “Will we get a subvention or do have to take up more hours at work to support him?” “Do we need to buy him essentials or will those be settled when he comes?” “Will we have to pay for his dentist/ GP/ therapy?” Harry started to understand what it truly meant to add someone to their flat, apart from setting up a bed for him. Especially money would become a big issue if they wouldn’t get an amount from his guardian or social security, because Niall didn’t have money of his own from his parents or from work. The list was going on and on and they had made a different list with costs that would heighten if Niall would live with them; food, electricity, water. If they would have to drive him to therapy it would mean more gas for the car. By the time Louis and Liam were done, Harry was feeling a bit dizzy. Did Louis always worry about supporting them that much?

“Zayn? Harry? Anything we forgot?” Harry bit his lip as he shrugged, but Zayn sat up a bit as he scanned over the list once more. “Yeah, actually.” He mumbled. “Will we become his guardians now?” Louis nodded and quickly scribbled it down too. “And will we be included in his therapy or get help about handling him?” “Good one.” Louis mumbled as he wrote it down as well. 

They took a bit more time to think of anything else, as they had agreed to schedule an appointment with a social worker the next day to get everything sorted out. Even when they were sipping their teas a while later, they were still inside their own heads to check if they missed anything. They had each called their parents- apart from Liam, who’d shrugged it off with a tight smile- to ask for advice. As Harry hung up on his mother, he turned to his boys with a pensive look. “Are we going to tell Niall about our relationship?” A bit dumbstruck, the boys remained silent. “I don’t know if it will influence his recovery,” Zayn mumbled. “but are we willing to keep it secretive if it is bad for him?” “Or is it the deal-breaker?” Liam tagged on to Zayn’s train of thoughts. “Exactly.”