Days after Louis' heart skipped those few damn beats, a knock sounded from his room door. He got up off his bed slowly, groaning in the process because it was raining and there was a thunderstorm on its way and the only thing Louis wanted to do was lay still on his bed, alone, in peace.
He opened the door cautiously and almost had a heart attack because the one person that he did not want to see, the one person that could disappear of the face of the Earth and it wouldn't bother Louis, was stood right in front of him.
"Hello Louis," Janet took Louis by surprise, it was possibly the first time she got his name right, "I just came to remind you that you agreed to have an extra session with Anne this afternoon, she told me to tell you to be there half an hour later because she's busy." She had the biggest grimace on her face and her eyes were unreadable for Louis but then again, that might've been because Louis did his hardest to avoid her dangerous glare.
Louis nodded slowly and when Janet began to back away and walk away from Louis' room, he closed the door. Just as the door clicked in to place, a bright and scary light lit up his room, seconds after replaced by a loud bang from the thunder. Louis shuddered and walked over to his closet-because keeping stuff in his suitcase was pointless, or so he made out from his conclusion-and put on a pair of clean sweatpants, a white shirt instead of his black one and picked up his grey beanie off of the floor to cover the messy nest on his hair.
He was supposed to have that meeting with Anne at two in the afternoon, originally at least, but since she pushed it back, Louis still had an hour and a half to spare.
Wanting to waste time, Louis sat on his bed, with his back against the wall, because his bed was a single and it was pushed against a wall, obviously, and looked down at his wrists. He hadn't cut for quite a few days and scars were beginning to form where crimson blood once poured out from. The fingertips of his right hand lightly traced the wounds because even though the weather was simply shit, he had seen Janet (who he didn't hate, oh no, he just wanted her to be fingered by the Wolverine) and he overall hated his life, he didn't feel at all like hurting himself, which was of course a good thing.
One of his fingernails got caught in between one of the wounds and he hissed from the sharp pain. Normally, he would’ve smiled and enjoyed hurting himself like that. But that day, it felt different, Louis had never felt like that or maybe he simply didn't remember the feeling of happiness. Maybe it was supposed to be a good sign?
*
Wearing nothing too formal, because it was a simple black vest and black joggers, he roamed around the corridors of the institute, his mind filled with everything and nothing, the nothings mainly to do with Harry and the everythings meaning home, Janet and her relationship with the Wolverine.
Louis didn't have an idea, he hadn't even pondered upon it, the idea of Harry being there with Anne. He hoped he was though. Why? Louis didn't know. Although his negative feelings were still there, there was something about that fucker which left Louis' mind dizzy. He had never felt like that before, it was odd but it was exciting.
There was an odd feeling in his stomach that he felt whenever a thought of Harry would illegally pass his mind or when that stupid head full of not-so-curly brown curls appeared around the institute. Louis himself wasn't sure if that's what hate felt like.
He thought it was wrong; he was supposed to hate everyone and everything to annoy his mum, to get Jay to take him away, but just thinking about it, it was all bearable. Apart from Janet, of course.
After he had walked for what felt like forever, he glanced at a clock on one of the institute's walls, the glass covering the inside of the clock slightly dirty and dusty but all in all, Louis was able to read that the time was twenty-five past two and so he had five minutes to find himself in front of Anne's office.
If Louis had to be honest, he still didn't know his way around the institute entirely and this alone earned a curse slipping from his lips because he really didn't want to be late and look bad in front of Anne, especially not if Harry was going to be there.
He spun around in a circle about four times before finally choosing the correct way in which to get to Anne's office, or at least he thought it was the right way.
He let out a large amount of breath that he didn't know he was holding when he saw that familiar, little plant outside Anne's door and ran his hand through his hair quickly, probably out of nerves (which hit him for no random reason at all) and knocked on the door.
"Come in Louis!" Anne's voice cheered from the other side and Louis had no idea how she knew it was him; but then again, their meeting was at a set time and Anne probably wasn't expecting anyone else.
Louis pushed the door opened and smiled at the scent of tea, milk and tropical air wick that he smelt as soon as he stepped in. He took a deep breath in, allowing his lungs to take as much of the smell as possible and looked around the room and wait-
"Hello Louis!" Harry, who was sat on one of the couches waved enthusiastically and grinned from ear to ear, his incredibly white teeth showing.
Louis waved back and seconds later, did the thumbs up to Harry, who returned the gesture along with a 'yeah I'm good'.
Anne, who was making tea (as she was every time Louis had a session since their first one), turned around and leaned across the small table so that she was facing Louis.
"Hello Anne, you alright?" Louis signed.
"Hello Louis!" She chirped, "Yes, I'm alright, thank you! Sorry about the whole pushing-the-session-back thing today and that I didn't tell you myself, or sent Harry to tell you, but Harry and I had a quite important thing to do and we wouldn't have made it for two."
"It's alright, don't worry about it." He smiled.
Anne gestured for him to go ahead and sit down on a couch opposite Harry, who was looking at Louis from the corner of his eyes, although pretending to look at his mother.
"Although it did cause me to imagine a pretty nasty scene involving Janet." He signed.
Anne laughed but didn't say anything, leaving her son oblivious to what was going on.
"Harry, you look lost?" Anne chuckled.
"That's because I have no idea with what you're talking about, you may be calling me a kangaroo tosser for all I know!"
Anne sent him the look of death for being inappropriate but Louis had to look down at his feet and bring his hand up to bite it to stop himself from smiling like a maniac.
"That's what our session is for today Harry. I figured Louis is sick of the therapy stuff so I thought of something different."
Oh, Louis thought.
"What would that be, mum?" Harry was quite shocked himself.
"I thought we could teach you, my dearest son," Anne smirked, "Some sign language so that you and Louis could communicate without technology."
"Sounds, erm, good?" It came out more of as a question and Louis couldn't help but look at the way Harry's lips twitched to form a small smile.
Louis only managed to nod because he was quite embarrassed to say the least. Anne was practically forcing Harry to be friends with Louis and Louis wasn't entirely sure if Harry was up for that. For all Louis knew, Harry could have bought a voodoo doll and named it after him and the only image in front of Louis' eyes was one of Harry stabbing the doll to death.
He shook his head to get rid of the image, because, obviously, or not so, Harry wasn't like that, right?
Soon, they were all sitting around the two couches in the room, quite comfortable, Harry and Anne sipping at their milky tea while Louis played with the hem of his shirt, twisting it in all ways, not knowing what to do. Silence fell upon them and it was a convenient silence and none of them moaned about it.
When Anne finally broke the silence, the lads looked at her, listening to every word. Harry was nodding his head along, showing that he understood and Louis kept his gaze still on Anne.
When Anne had finished, she looked from Louis to Harry and from Harry to Louis, who sat up, their backs straight, neither looking directly into the other's eyes.
"What do I do?" Louis signed confused.
"We'll teach Harry the basics first."
By the end of the session, both Louis and Anne had decided that Harry was a good student, having already learnt how to sign hello instead of doing a simple wave, how to sign a thank you as well as please, excuse me and Louis, much to Louis' dismay.
"Mum, how would you sign Louis' name?" Harry asked, leaving Louis hot and blushing, because-hey-he was not expecting that at all.
By the time they had finished, Anne had already asked Harry to walk Louis up to make sure that he got to his room safely although Harry felt that it wasn't that exact reason at all. Harry's mum wanted them to spend some time together and alone to 'bond' as she called it.
"So, bye Louis. Thanks for teaching me some sign language, it was fun." Harry smiled and was about to turn around when he changed his mind and embraced Louis in a surprise hug.
Louis was quite taken back and didn't know what to do for a moment, but when he gained whatever he lost when Harry's arms wrapped around him in a warm and safe manor, he hugged him back, barely touching Harry, still afraid that if he did something wrong, there would be consequences.
"Bye Louis, see you later." Harry said when they were still hugging.
Louis could smell Harry's soft cologne and his breathing became steady when they pulled apart. He waved at Harry who waved back and opened the door to his room, sighing. He took off his shoes and stood still, about a meter or so from his bed, biting his lip ever so slightly and took a few deep breaths.
Why he did that, Louis had no idea but it felt oddly comfortable and happy for some random reason, yet he couldn't put a finger on what the reason was. He looked down at his wrists but shrugged, whereas normally, he would either pick at the scars to make them bleed again or make a few deep cuts. But no, he didn't feel like it.
Still pondering upon many reasons, he fell asleep a few hours later, with a small smile plastered on his face, his wrists still untouched. Maybe Harry had the magic touch?