Edward locked the large black range rover as the three made their way into school. He wasn't feeling right this morning, he didn't know what was going on, but something felt off.
His brothers noticed it too. He was snappier than he usually was in the morning. And, although none of the Styles triplets were morning people, by the time they were ready to leave the house they were all normally fine and laughing with each other on the way to school. But Edward was silent in the car. He just couldn't shake the weird feeling in his chest and the little bit off cloud in his brain that was making him snippier and already tired at close to 9 o'clock in the morning.
"You sure you're okay, Ed?" Harry asked as he slipped his hand into his brother's. Edward rubbed his thumb over Harry's palm, stiffly, and took a deep breath.
"I'm fine, just feel a bit off." He sighed and removed his hand from Harry's again, wiped his palm off against his trousers and looked away from his brothers.
"Ed, maybe you should take a day for yourself. Take the dogs out a long walk and relax, if you're not feeling right you shouldn't be at school." He knew he should listen to Marcel, but he was extremely stubborn, and his current state wasn't reducing that at all.
"I told the two of you already, I'm fine." He snipped once again, turning his direction and walking away from his younger brothers.
"This is going to be a long day." Marcel sighed as they opened the door to the school.
❃
"Ed, what is wrong with you today?" Zayn questioned as he passed the ball between them. He had pulled the other alpha away at lunch, claiming he would get Edward to 'release some steam' and hopefully get him back to his normal self.
"I already told you all, Zayn, I don't know. I'm having a bad day and if all of you would just back the fuck off then maybe it would get better!" He all but shouted back to Zayn. He could feel his patience being tested to the limits in the moment.
"Ed, I swear to god. I'm not at any fault for putting you in this weird arse mood but I'm not going to stand here and let you be a dick when all I'm trying to do is help you." Zayn sighed, waiting for a horrid reaction from his co-captain.
"I didn't ask for your fucking help, Zayn! Can't I just be left alone, or do you think I'm going to murder someone?" Edward threw the basketball he had in his hands straight against the wall, his eyes following it as it travelled to the other end of the hall.
"Do you know what, Edward? Fuck this and fuck you. Liam is ill, that's stressing me out enough and I know you didn't ask for help but I'm your best friend and I'm worried that you're having a bad day, so I'm just going to leave you be like you want so fucking much and I'm going to go and talk to your brothers, who you've been treating like shit all day, by the way, and I'm not going to worry about you anymore." Zayn didn't speak another word as he picked up his bag and blazer from a bench before exiting the large gym hall.
Knowing that he didn't want to worry Marcel and Harry anymore, he decided to go and see Niall and Louis. He made his way outside to the school grounds and walked towards the place he knew the omegas liked to spend their breaks, on the small patch of grass just off to the side of the car park. Sure enough, he found the two of them sitting on the grass, Niall on the phone, presumably checking up on Liam and Louis reading a book.
Zayn sat down, waving to Niall who gave him the phone and mouthed a quick, 'Li'. "Hiya, babe. You feeling better?" All he got in response was a grunt. Zayn chuckled, "You rest, okay? I'll keep Ni from phoning you again." He hung the phone up and passed it down to Niall, who had migrated to resting his head in Zayn's lap, laying his face towards the sunlight.
"I just wanted to make sure he was okay, Z." Niall admitted shyly, the alpha smiled down at him.
"I know, Bub. Y've just gotta let him rest, though, he's not well. What're you reading now, Lou?" Zayn asked Louis as he ran a hand through Niall's messy fringe, doing his best to keep himself calm from the whole Edward situation only a few minutes before. He didn't want to take any of his own, fresh, anger on either of the omegas.
"Harry Potter. Goblet of Fire." He mumbled in response, his bottom lip between his teeth as he focused on his book. He didn't even realise it was Zayn asking him the question as he was in such a trance with his book.
Much to the omega's dismay though, he was forcefully dragged from his other world by the loud slam of a car door and a heavy groan from the side of the car park.
The three of them looked towards the commotion, Louis unhappily, and seen two boys who looked very similar to each other. Harry and Marcel Styles.
Zayn was able to conclude that the loud slam was Edward, who had finally taken the advice his brothers had been giving him all day and left. He was glad that the alpha was heading out, though, he wasn't in the right frame of mind for school today.
Louis, though, grew extremely anxious when Zayn called the two brothers over to them. He had been able to deduct from the past couple of days that there was a weird feeling he got around Marcel. Of course, he didn't know if he liked it or not, but it was new to him and he wasn't fully sure that he wanted to find out if he did.
He watched with worried eyes as the two alphas smiled and headed towards them. He was also quite surprised when Marcel made eye contact with him before turning to his brother and whispering something. Louis didn't know whether this was Harry or Edward but was shocked again when this unknown alpha gave Marcel a questioning look, one that said 'really?' and he nodded back to his brother.
Louis kept his eyes trained on the pair as they got closer to them, following their every movement right up until they sat down.
Niall glanced toward his friend, he could sense the anxiety from his place a few feet away.
"Hey, he okay?" Zayn asked, keeping a close eye on the two.
"Yeah, I'm just glad he left. He shouldn't be here today." The alpha Louis didn't know replied. He examined the older boy, hie eyes ran up and down his face, hardly seeing differences to Marcel, except from the obvious length of his hair that was longer than Marcel's and coming down past his ears. He also noticed the boy wasn't wearing any glasses, another difference he noted in his head. He had a gym bag with him as well, that was hard to miss if he was being honest.
"Hi, Louis," Marcel's voice pulled him from his thoughts, "this is Harry, my brother. Well, one of them." He introduced the two politely, looking between them and watching what they would do.
"Hi, Harry, it's nice to meet you." Louis stuck his small hand out, sharply, all 5 of the boys sitting around watched on as Harry's hand enveloped Louis', making it disappear for the short few seconds they were locked. Louis took a proper look at his face this time and took everything in; his milky coloured skin, the very light freckles that trailed over his nose and cheeks, his deep green eyes- which were darker than Marcel's- and the light pink tint to his lips.
Once he noticed that these thoughts were swimming through his head, he removed them quickly, scolding himself internally for already analysing the boy.
"Hi." Harry smiled softly to the omega and took his hand back, he lay down on the grass and let out a long sigh.
Marcel started talking to Zayn about Edward and his abnormal bad mood. Louis felt like he was intruding on the conversation, like it was something he shouldn't be hearing about, something private. So, to hide some of his anxiety and block the conversation around him out, he pulled his book off the floor and dove back in, easily getting into it and forgetting that there was others around him.
Just to prevent Louis getting a shock from the bell that was about to go off, Niall shook his shoulder, alerting him of the situation and letting him put his stuff away, "The bell's gonna go in a minute." Louis nodded and set to work, opening his bag and slipping his book in, taking his phone out afterwards. He texted Lottie, just to make sure they were all okay and once he got confirmation back from the girl, slid the phone into his blazer pocket.
After the bell had went, they all split off to go to their next classes. Once Louis and Niall made it to biology Louis slumped into his chair. "I'm sorry Z made you anxious." Niall apologised, he felt fine to talk to Louis about it now that they were alone.
"Wasn't his fault, you know what I'm like." Louis laughed slightly, trying his best to calm down again.
"How do you know Marcel anyway?" Niall asked as he laid his head down on Louis' shoulder, waiting for the lesson to start.
"He's in my French class, sits next to me. I met him yesterday." Louis shrugged, he gently placed his forehead on top of Niall's hair and rested his head for a second, letting his worries finally wash away now that he was with Niall and had something else to focus on.
"I'm still sorry about Z, y'know? I'll talk to him tonight, he should've thought before he called them over." Louis sighed, he didn't want to cause any bother, but he knew Niall was protective over him and there was nothing he could do to prevent Niall's guard from going up around him when stuff like that happened.
"Ni, it's fine. They're his, and your, friends, he's allowed to talk to them." He tried his best to diffuse Niall's worries about him, all the while knowing that in the end Niall would tell Zayn off anyway.
"He still should've thought." Niall muttered and Louis laughed. Niall was glad that he could cheer Louis up when he got like this but of course, he was going to talk to Zayn, it's something they've spoke about before and it really annoys Niall when Zayn or Liam do things without thinking about Louis. Especially when Louis is right there.
Louis is his best friend.
Of course, Miss Martin had to come in and ruin their calm by talking biology nonsense that neither of them were really interested in.
❃
"You were right, Marce. He's stunning." Harry grinned as they walked up to their door. They were finally away from Niall and Zayn, so Harry could talk about Louis all he wanted to Marcel.
They noticed the big black car in their driveway and prepared themselves, inhaling deeply, before Marcel pushed down on the front door handle. Locked. So, Harry got his keys out and unlocked the door, listening out for the dogs or any sign of their brother throughout the house.
"He's still out, took the dogs too." Harry said, walking upstairs to get changed, Marcel close behind him.
"I just hope he comes back in a better mood, something had to be going through his head today. It was really strange for him to be like that." Marcel replied as he sat on the bed.
He watched Harry as the older alpha came back from the other side of the room and placed a pair of joggers on the bed, as well as a gym t-shirt. Harry glanced down at Marcel and noticed his dilated pupils as he caught a glance at Harry taking off his school shirt, "take a picture, it'll last longer." He laughed, shaking his head as Marcel flinched and fell back onto the bed.
"Shut up." He whined, covering his eyes with his forearm in embarrassment.
"No need to be embarrassed, Marcy." Harry teased as he climbed onto the bed, putting one leg on each side of Marcel's hips. The younger boy took in a sharp breath of air, quickly realising what was happening.
Harry slowly leaned down until his face was only a few centimetres from Marcel's and the bespectacled alpha could feel Harry's breath on his face. Their lips joined in a slow kiss and Harry's hands moved to Marcel's hips, circling his fingers over them softly until he dragged them towards the loops on his younger brother's school trousers.
All of a sudden, they were interrupted by the barking of dogs and a loud slam of the front door. It was silent between them while they listened to Edward's hurried footsteps towards the back of the house.
Curiosity peaked their interest. Harry stepped away from Marcel and gave him a hand up before they headed towards the bottom floor of their house. They walked towards the back of the house, listening for any sign of Edward.
Marcel sped up when he heard the sound of gagging coming from the downstairs bathroom. His hand opened the door with force as he moved straight to Edward, placing a hand on his back.
Harry had kept going to the kitchen and got a glass of water for his brother before making his way back to the bathroom. Once Edward had let everything out of his system Marcel helped him up. Harry handed the glass over and moved his hand to Edward's forehead, feeling the heat radiating from it. The pair of them completely forgetting their interaction minutes ago, Edward comes first.
"Ed, why didn't you say you weren't well?" Harry's voice had become soft, much like it was this morning before Edward had become a huge arsehole.
"I didn't feel ill until I was bringing the dogs back, then I couldn't hold the sick back." Harry brought him into a hug, his hand moving up and down his back comfortingly.
He rested his forehead on Harry's shoulder, letting his body relax for a minute or so before he let his brother go. "We'll get you to bed and you can ride this out before you can even think about going back to school." Marcel told him sternly, gripping Edward's waist with his arm and leading him upstairs, back to bed.
Harry brought a bin up from the bathroom, as well as another glass of water and settling next to Edward in bed. The older triplet rolled over and put his head back onto Harry's chest, listening to his soft hums and trying to force his stomach to stop twisting.
The pair lay there for half an hour before Edward was sick again, only the water he had taken in coming back out, although it still left that horrible taste in his mouth and a fuzzy coating over his brain for a few minutes.
He fell asleep shortly after and slept through being moved into Marcel's arms when the two boys had to swap over so Harry could finish his homework. Marcel watched him sleep for a while, falling into a small daydream.
❃
He woke with a start, the sweat that lathered his body made his forehead shine, and pulled Marcel from his daze when he reached over the side of the bed and started dry heaving. There was nothing left to spew out, but his body wasn't letting up, so he kept his body leant over the bed with Marcel's hand retaking its place on his back and never leaving until his stomach levelled out. He sat up slowly and fell backwards into Marcel's hold, a small sigh huffing from his mouth.
"I hate being sick." Edward complained, pushing his face into Marcel's shoulder.
"I know, Ed. Just got to let it out of your system." He ran a hand up and down his older brother's arm before laying the boy back down and telling him to get more rest.
Marcel lay in the bed, book in one hand and the other occupied by drawing small absent minded shapes on Edward's waist from where his t-shirt had ridden up. He had got to about two thirds of the way through his book when Harry made an appearance, popping his head through the door quietly before entering fully. He sat down on the bed next to Marcel and placed his head on Marcel's shoulder, taking up his free side. The younger brother laughed softly, turning slightly to place a kiss on Harry's head.
Harry sat on the bed, relaxed, for 10 minutes before he got to the real reason he had come through and asked Marcel what he should make for tea.
The pair decided on spaghetti bolognese for themselves and thought they could just get a can of soup ready if Edward was up to it when he woke up. Harry went on his way and left for the kitchen, starting on their dinner.
While he waited for it all to cook, he sat with the dogs on the kitchen floor, like a literal child, and played with them. Just as George was about to jump right into his lap, the timer went off. "Sorry, baby." He apologised as he got up from the ground and danced over to the hob, the dogs at his feet.
He put the meal into a dish and into the oven to keep it warm, heading upstairs after. He took the stairs two at a time and skirted across the landing and into their bedroom.
Marcel was still reading, now almost completely finished the book, and Edward was still asleep, although he was sweating even more now, so Harry assumed he would wake up soon to be sick again.
"Tea's done." He smiled as he sat back down on the bed, this time on the other side of Edward. It was as though the unwell alpha sensed Harry in his sleep, as he shifted from leaning on Marcel to fitting himself right up beside Harry, curling into his side. Harry smiled down at him and pushed his hair back from his forehead, "He's roasting, Marce." Harry supplied, giving a concerned glance over to Marcel and watching as the other boy placed his hand back on Edward's forehead.
"He's warmer than he was last time I checked. I wonder how long this is going to last." He thought aloud, looking back to Harry and reaching his hand out for the other alpha to hold.
Harry took it in his grasp and ran the pad of his thumb over Marcel's knuckles before using his other hand to check Edward's forehead again. "Maybe we should take the covers off him." He suggested and stood up from the bed.
Once Marcel nodded, Harry pulled the covers off of the bed completely and placed them in the corner of their bedroom, watching as Edward curled into himself a little, obviously feeling the change in temperature, even in his sleeping form. Harry frowned at the action when he got back into the bed, taking Edward back into his arms gently.
"I don't want to wake him up, but I don't want to leave him here either." Marcel sighed, seriously debating of they should eat their dinner in their bed just so Edward wouldn't be alone. They knew it would be best if they woke him up, though, if they could get him to eat it would be even better. That way they could see if he could keep it down and if he couldn't hopefully it would get a bit more of the bug out of his body.
"We both know we have to wake him up." Harry said remorsefully, "Even though we really don't want to."
"Maybe you should carry him down and get him to the couch to eat, rather than the table. Might be comfier." Marcel recommended and Harry agreed, shifting himself before picking Edward's tall body up and slowly moving them downstairs.
The alpha grumbled lowly from Harry's arms, turning his head and stuffing it into Harry's neck as they continued toward the living room, "Sorry, doll. We're almost there." Harry whispered to him just as they entered the living room. He put Edward down on the large sofa gently, sat down at his head and delicately moved Ed's upper half into his lap, rubbing his hands up and down the eldest's shoulders.
Edward looked up at Harry through mostly closed eyes and yawned. "How you feeling now?" Harry questioned, pulling a blanket from the side of the couch and laying it over the two of them.
"I feel like I'm going to be sick again. Very soon." He whispered, incapable of being much louder.
With perfect timing Marcel came through with a bucket and another glass of water for Edward. Flitting out of the room quickly and re-entering swiftly after with two bowls of spaghetti.
Harry moved his arm from under Edward's head and reached up to grab the bowl from Marcel, giving a quiet 'thanks' and placing it on top of Edward's chest. The sick boy just laughed softly before closing his eyes again and trying to get back to sleep while his brothers ate.
❃
They sat downstairs for a while. The tele got turned on at some point and the dogs had also entered a while ago, Milo and Navy jumping onto the couch only occupied by Marcel and settling next to him. George sat in front of the other two alphas and kept his eyes on Edward's sleeping figure, as though he could tell something was wrong. Harry smiled at the German Shepard and reached forward to pet between his ears, "E's okay, George. Don't you worry."
Once the time got to half 10, Harry and Marcel thought it would be best to head to bed. Edward had woken up about an hour before hand and was sick again but after some coaxing and cuddles from Harry he fell back asleep fairly soon after.
Harry had the unfortunate task of waking Edward up, while Marcel got the dogs ready and took all of their stuff upstairs, so he shifted his position again, moving more of Edward's body into his lap and forcing him to sit up a little. He then ran his hand through the ill boy's hair and placed a kiss on his temple, "Ed, we're going to bed." He spoke softly, hoping to keep the alpha as calm and still sleepy as he could. Harry wasn't surprised when Edward cuddled into him further and mumbled a 'no' from his place on the sofa. So, the younger of the pair let out a small and breathy chuckle before he lifted up Edward's body from above him and stood up from the couch. In quick succession he had turned himself back around and leaned down to pick up the dozy triplet. He readjusted his grip, getting a good hold of Edward before he made his move to the staircase and the ascent up it too.
He lay Edward down in the middle of the bed again and checked his temperature, breathing out a sigh of relief when he felt the drastically cooler feeling that a few hours ago, before he got into bed beside him.
Harry waited for Marcel to finish getting ready as he ran his fingers back through Edward's curls. The boy turned to face him and smiled sleepily, "I'm sorry for being a dick today, Sun. I just felt so out of sorts."
Harry shook his head, replying, "It's okay, Ed, now we know why and that's completely okay. So... don't you worry, okay?"
Edward nodded and took Harry's hand in his own, playing with his fingers, "Tell me about your day."
"It was good. Really good, apart from you being ill. I met the Louis Tomlinson today and Marce was right, he's adorable." The older alpha felt an undeniable pang of jealousy in his heart, he didn't mean to be, but he felt left out that he was the only one who hasn't met Louis yet.
"That's good, I'm desperate to meet him now." He couldn't help but smile, though. Seeing Harry and Marcel so happy made him believe that hopefully something could happen here, the three of them had never really liked anyone before and now that his brothers felt drawn to this omega, he was intrigued to see how it all played out.
"Well, you might have to wait a bit longer, Doll. You're not going into school tomorrow." Harry said, a stern undertone in his voice showing his seriousness and concern towards his brother.
"Even if I'm not sick all night?" He bargained. Edward had never liked being ill, he hated that he couldn't do anything but lay in bed for a few days and wait for it to pass through, he didn't like the lack of control.
"Even if you're sick all night. You need to rest, your body will be tired after the day it's had. You can go in on Thursday, if you're not sick again tomorrow." Harry replied, letting his brother know that he wasn't taking any other argument about it, forcing Edward to nod in defeat and close his eyes.
He drifted off quickly, proving Harry's point about having a tired body, and had been asleep for almost a quarter of an hour before Marcel finally came through to their room. He stripped his top off and hung it over the chair in the corner and got into the free space on the bed. He slipped his glasses from the bridge of his nose, placing them on the nightstand and turning off the bedside lamp before he flipped onto the same side of his body as Edward and slung his arm over the boy's waist, pressing a kiss to his shoulder blade.
"What took you so long?" Harry questioned as he finally lay down, sliding down with him and pulling Edward along, so all three of them were lying in the bed rather than sitting.
"The dogs were taking ages outside and then I had to load the dishwasher." He explained quietly. Marcel closed his eyes and wished Harry a quiet goodnight, smiling at the soft response back as well at the hand that he felt slipped into his own.
Harry lay awake for a while after that, he had always been the one out of them that struggled to get off to sleep, but tonight he was worried. Edward didn't get ill often and that scared him because it's his brother and he's protective, he was also thinking about Louis. Now, he knows he's only met the omega once, but something drew him in, had drawn Marcel in also and would probably do the same to Edward, and that scared him because he'd never felt that way before. Harry has always hoped that the three of them would find an omega, but it was something he had never seriously considered because he had never been attracted to one the way he had been attracted to Louis. And then there was the whole situation of three alphas and one omega, maybe Louis would like one of them, maybe two, and wouldn't want the others, that was a high probability or Louis could like none of them at all.
The thoughts reeled through his head for almost an hour before he finally got tired enough to the point where he could sleep. He looked out the window one last time and took notice of the moon high in the sky, looking extremely bright, then he drifted off.
Hey lovelies.
How we feeling?
This was basically just brother fluff and I'm genuinely sorry that so much shit is happening and it's literally two days into their school year but we can ignore that :)
This is up really early today because I can't sleep.
I had planned for it to go up in the afternoon so I could have a chance at final editing when I woke up but I have nothing else to do with my time, so Happy Friday!
Holly Beanz <33