these bountiful silences

3 // mastery

"Watch your step, love, one wrong move and everything could go crumbling down."

Chapter 3 // mastery

When Harry gets to work, his usual seat is already taken.

There's a man with brown hair and sharp, blue eyes, dressed in the crisp white kit that can only mean Superior, leaning back on Harry's chair with his chin tipped towards the ceiling. He's moving his hands as he talks amicably to Zayn, whose surprisingly early (for once) and seems to actually be at complete ease with the Superior.

Harry clears his throat and nods at the Superior and Zayn before punching in the code that makes the divider between the area behind the desk and the lobby slide open. He dumps his battered satchel into his cubby that has 'Styles, Harry E.' labelled on it in a pristine font.

When he turns around, the Superior is out of Harry's chair and has his hand stuck out for him to shake. Harry takes it and shakes it firmly, once.

"Hello," The Superior says, with a smile that is bright and wide and different than all of the other Superiors' that Harry has ever met. "I'll get out of your way, then. Have a nice day."

Harry nods mutely, fighting down the urge to just let the Superior have his seat, even if he willingly gave it up. He hovers around his own chair for a bit until Zayn turns around and pats at the leather, signaling for Harry to sit.

Harry powers up his scribe and scrubs beneath his eyes. He could barely get any sleep last night, Dusty was mewling all night because Harry let her sleep too much during the day. There isn't any kids scheduled to come in until hours later, and Harry could probably sneak in a quick nap, but he doesn't want to chance getting caught by a Superior that might come into the building.

He feels a hand on his shoulder and turns to see Zayn holding up his old, thick scribe. Harry nods in recognition, and Zayn slides the scribe over to Harry.

Harry rubs his eyes again before he starts reading; 'Be careful with what you think today.' Harry reads it again before trying to swallow down the uneasy feeling that rises up his throat. He slides the scribe back to Zayn and nods his head minutely.

Zayn knows nothing, really. Zayn's probably just trying to scare Harry, make him think that he's still being watched. And it doesn't matter if Harry is being monitored, because Harry has absolutely nothing to hide. But the injection only stays in everyone's system for two weeks, so how could anyone even know what Harry's thinking, now that the two weeks are over.

Zayn is abnormally quiet for the rest of the day. He doesn't try and cheat the system to get more words, and Harry tries to not think too deeply about why Zayn's having a sudden change of heart. Maybe Zayn realized how unfair he was being to others by getting more words than he deserves, while everyone else follows the rules.

Harry isn't complaining.

;;

The man with the brown hair and the blue eyes keeps coming around to the lobby. He doesn't really talk to Harry, just sometimes spares him a greeting or a nod in recognition

The man is kind of really intriguing, he's unlike any Superior Harry's ever been around before, and it's kind of addicting. His smile is so radiant and he doesn't act depreciative to anybody. Harry likes him.

But, today, the Superior seems a little off. He's scrolling over his own scribe mechanically, sparing a few quick glances towards Harry and Zayn's way. After five minutes of the cold silence that always seems to envelop the lobby when a young child isn't there to fill the air, the Superior looks up and smiles apologetically at Zayn.