a/n: time for a bit of angry and protective Harry! Ayyeee
Harry checked his surroundings for the umpteenth time. If the boys knew what he was planning, Niall would probably join him but be too enthusiastic, Liam would shake his head and sigh, Zayn would be okay if Louis was and- ... Louis... Harry had no idea what Louis would do. He had no idea how his soft and lovely boyfriend would react if he knew Harry agreed to meet up with Nick Grimshaw.
The park they had decided to meet in was empty and it gave off a very eerie feeling. The swings moved due to a gush of air and the squeaking noise they made only added to the atmosphere. Even the sandbank looked abandoned with the little toys and plastic shovels.
Pebbles creaked behind him and Harry turned around, facing the silhouette of the newest addition of their school. Nick wore a pair of jeans that hang a bit lower than Harry was comfortable with and the muscle tight shirt was an insult to how Louis looked when he wore one of those. The green-eyed lad even gained a small dislike of snapbacks because the other had one.
"Harry, you came!" Nick sounded surprised and the other couldn't blame him. Harry didn't want to come at all, but after the whole story at the bar, he needed to have a chat with Nick.
"Why am I here again? You texted me, which brings up the question of, how the fuck do you have my number?"
"One of the cheerleaders gave it to me. A ginger, a bit short, huge bum but no match for that slut, I mean boyfriend, of yours." Nick shrugged, "Did he tell you anything? He owns me a few favours and promised not to lie to you guys and paint me as the bad guy, but I'm sure he tried to sell you his bullshit anyway."
Harry smiled, his hands balled into fist, but hidden behind his back, "I have no idea what you mean."
"It doesn't even surprise you that he lies, does it? He's a manipulative little bitch that should learn his place. You know I would be much better and-"
"Shut up."
Nick immediately closed his mouth only to open it again, but this time there was no sound. His eyes were wide and he looked shocked at Harry's sudden harsh tone, "Harry, are you okay, mate?"
"Can't even understand normal English, can you?" The taller lad spat, a small smile on his lips. He'd wanted to calmly talk to Nick and maybe ask him what happened when he was alone with Max (Liam and he agreed that it probably wasn't Louis who leaded the boy to a dead end), but his patience was already gone and they had only started.
"Did he tell me anything? Yes, of course he told me how despicable you are. He's my boyfriend, I'd be more offended if he hid the fact that he had a repulsive friend like you than with the other stories he told. He bullied, so what, it's not like he continues to threaten people because he's so petty himself because that's what you do. You twist his words and make it seem like he was the one that put nails in the wheelchair of some classmate. Did you really think everyone would believe you?" Harry laughed and shook his head, "If you dare to touch my Louis again, if you dare to even breath around him, I promise to treat you to the ride of your life... in an ambulance. Don't talk to him, don't even think about him or I'll be the one who's facing you. Louis might feel sorry because he thinks it's his fault things escalated, but I know that there's more behind it and we're not stopping until we can give karma a bit of help when it comes down to you."
It was silent except from the sound of the swings who were still being pushed by the wind. The two boys looked at each other without talking. Nick being taking aback by Harry's words. He had never thought the latter was anything more than a big, clumsy and cuddly puppy that followed the others around. It had been the reason Nick had picked Harry too (well that and the convenient fact that Louis' boyfriend wasn't an ogre and Nick had thought that he maybe could get some action out of it afterwards).
"The little twat got himself a proper prince I see." If one can't do it the nice way, he had to resort on plan B.
"If I'm the prince, I suppose you're the witch then. Should I call some dwarves to push you off a mountain or is a bucket of water enough for you?"
After their little exchange, Harry left a seething Nick alone in favour of going to the pizzeria with Niall. Nick kept shouting some unintelligent words and uncoherent sentences, but Harry didn't listen to him anymore.
When The curly haired boy walked into the pizzeria, he didn't only see a blond sitting at a table for him, but three others were with him at the table. Apparently, Niall had sent the message to everyone in hopes of having a lads' night. They ordered their pizzas and asked if they could take them home instead of eating inside so they could have a Fifa tournament between the five of them at Zayn's place.
Four hours later, they were all laying down, Niall on the floor and Zayn and Liam on the bed while Louis and Harry took the couch. And if Harry waited for the brunet in his arms to fall asleep to he could kiss his hair and whisper how he'd protect him with his life, no one needed to know.
****
A month had passed since Harry and Nick's conversation in the park and nothing had happened. It was the first day of spring and Niall and Louis were rolling in the schoolyard, Louis wearing a flower crown the blond had tried to make for him and Niall had a crown of clovers in his hair. Louis had claimed it matched his leprechaun image better.
"Harry, Zayn and I went to Doncaster last weekend. We talked to a few old classmates of them and we were right. Max had a blog on Tumblr under some weird name and when we visited his page, we saw posts about Nick and Aiden, but never about Louis. We even got their other friend, Stan, to visit Lou if he wants to. They used to be close, but then Stan left school for a while and Louis moved."
Harry looked up at his best friend, "Is this why you were so absent the last month? Lou thought you were mad at him."
"No," Liam laughed, "I know I was a dick to him quite a few times, but I do consider him a friend. He looked ready to jump a bridge himself when he told us about what happened and I don't want to fish you out some channel because you jumped after him."
"You like him." Harry smiled, "I know that you tried to hate his dramatic side, but the truth is that you can't help but think he's adorable." The curly boy chuckled, "Thank you. I know he'd appreciate it if you told him what you did... though he might get angry first."
"That's why Zayn is taking the fall."
"You're an awful boyfriend, Liam James Payne." Harry laughed while he looked at how Louis went from giving Zayn a punch to tackling him into a hug, "Coast is clear, superman, you can safe your boy from my evil boyfriend now."
Liam grinned and muttered a, "I've always liked batman better anyway," before walking over to the others and peeling Louis off Zayn with Niall's help.
Now, it wasn't completely true when it was said that nothing had happened during the whole Grimshit-free month. Louis' stuff had gone missing sometimes, but the others had always been fast enough to replace them with their own stuff or they found it before Louis had noticed it had gone missing. Apparently, Nick didn't tell them the truth about what Louis did, but he told them how he'd bully children who had limitations due to illnesses or injuries. He'd handed posters to people with a photoshopped picture of Louis hitting little kids and so on. It was some childish and sick way of revenge, but it worked on some people.
The boys and Ben did their best to counterattack and they got Nick to shut it down a bit, but it didn't stop completely. The cheerleading squat joined Grimshit and there were times where Louis was alone, but they knew he wasn't an easy prey (he might or might not have chopped Abigail's hair off when she took a nap during a free period and he might've thrown their make-up on the ground so the powders shattered and useless. Hey, he knew that stuff was expensive so it was good enough for him). The teachers knew, but as long as the parents didn't come with complaints, they ignored it and called it a little 'argument' between students.
Another thing that happened was that Harry noticed he still hadn't told Louis that he used Gemma's -Harry's older sister's- phone to text him a few times and that he had been too scared at that time to tell him he stole his number from Zayn's phone -hence why he said his real name was his middle name-. Louis had been surprised and amused by it when Harry told him and he still teased his tall and stupidly adorable boyfriend with it when he texted him and used Gemma's phone.
"Hazza," Louis waved his hand before Harry's eyes and sat down in the other's lap when he looked up, "Can you come over later? Mum is gone with the girls and I don't want to spend my evening being bored and lonely."
"So, you're asking if I could entertain you with my marvellous jokes?" Harry grinned and Louis groaned.
"Maybe dying of boredom isn't that bad." Louis laughed when he saw his boyfriend's expression and snuggled closer to him, "I'm kidding, Haz. I love your dorky knock-knock jokes, almost as much as I love you."
"Love you too, Lou."
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1731 words! I'm proud (and you guys didn't have to wait for more than a month for once!)
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Q: If you have read another story of mine, which one was it? And did you like it / do you like this story?
-my answer- Sometimes when I reread this story, I get irritated by Louis and how the drama seems to go on endlessly, but I've never seen anyone complain, so I continue writing the next chapter anyway ♥