royalty [l.s]

31

nausea flows in louis' stomach as he waits in Anne's office. His veins are bursting with emotions and anxiousness is blooming in his lungs, restricting his easy breathing.

he runs a hand through his soft quiff to try and relief the emotions boiling inside of him, but it all fails when he hears the door being opened. nausea flows into his stomach again. He turns around, facing the door and politely greats Anne with a smile. The smile feels heavy on his lips as he wants nothing to do more than to run out of the room.

"oh darling" she looks at him- eyes filled with nothing but kindness - as she gestures to the leather seats. "Please take a seat"

louis, despite being against the idea of sitting down, hating how his bones feel heavy when he sister down and his body restricted from anxious moving around, sits on one of the leather chairs placed in front of the desk. Anne smiles before she too, takes a seat on her chair.

"anything I can help with?" Louis starts the conversation when he notices Anne staring at him with her eyebrows furrowed in sadness.

she takes a few seconds to answer, but it seems like eternities. the atmosphere is heavy with silence, unsaid words haunting the room.

"I'm sorry."

Louis looks at her with confusion filling his eyes and with his eyebrows furrowed. he waits for her to elaborate, but when she doesn't, he shakes his head. "For what?"

"for everything" she quietly says, voice restricted with shame as she storages a deep breath in her lungs. "you really don't deserve this"

louis goes to talk but she cuts him off. "I truly wish things could've been different, and I truly think that Kendall is a bad choice for Harry, but Everytime I talk to Des about it he gets angry" she chokes out, almost as if she's holding back tears, and that was enough for Louis to jump out of his seat and go to her chair to comfort her.

he wraps his arms around her and hugs tightly, feeling nothing but content when she hugs him back just as tightly. "It's fine Anne, it's not your fault" he whispers softly, although he knows that his brain says otherwise. she looks up at him, tears decorating her eyelashes and smiles sadly.

"you really are an angel" she complements. Louis smiles at her, ignoring the emptiness roaming and haunting his chest. their moment was cut short when a knock was placed on the wooden door, resulting in their separation. Anne wipes away at her eyes and Louis just stands there, unknowing of what to do.

the door swings open and harry steps in, confusion and worry filling his eyes. "What's wrong?" He walks over to his mother and places his hands on her shoulders, noticing that she looks pale.

"nothing" she brings a hand up to stroke his cheek "was just having a talk with Louis" for the first time, his eyes fly to louis. Louis feels self conscious under his gaze as Harry assesses him, but he stands his ground.

"Oh–" Harry breathes out, noting that he still –after so many years– hasn't tamed the butterflies in his stomach when he looks at Louis.

"well, I'm just gonna leave you both to it" he informs and pats Anne on her shoulder in a comforting manner, getting a warm smile from Anne in response.

"Oh before you go" she picks up a pen and writers something on a piece of paper, protecting it from Harry and Louis but her hands before folding it and passing it to Louis. "Take care"

Louis pockets the note and gives her one last smile, sending a glance towards Harry before exiting the room. He walks downstairs with a smile on his face, biting his lower lip to avoid seeming like the Grinch , but that fails. He glues his gaze to the floor as he walks back downstairs, resulting in his bumping into someone's chest.

"oh shit" he whispers, looking up at the owner of the chest he had bumped into.

"I am so sorry i didn't see you there" the man says. he has nice features, Louis notes. soft brown eyes and defined blonde curls , a nice jaw lines and he's tall.

"Oh it's fine, I wasn't looking either" Louis stops himself when he notices the man staring longer than usual. "is there something wrong?"

"are you new here, haven't seen you around before"  he takes his time to assess Louis, memorizing each freckle on his nose, the way he shyly smiles, the way the crinkles show up besides his eyes when he smiles.

"yeah yeah, just came here a week ago or something, I'm Louis" Louis extends his hand for the man to shake, but their moment was cut short when Harry walks from besides the man and tightly grips louis' arm, not even giving the man the barest glance.

"he's taken."

Harry doesn't wait for someone to reply or ask , as he drags Louis away from the unknown man. "Harry let go of me" Louis tries to pry Harry's hand off of him but Harry's grip just tightens, painting louis' skin white with effort.

"harry!" Louis loudly says, snapping Harry out of his bubble as he let's go of louis' arm, eyes softening as he notices louis rubbing his arm, carefully examining the white mark Harry had left on his skin.

"Louis I'm so sorry-" he goes to apologize but Louis cuts him off. "it's fine, didn't want to talk to him anyways" Louis admits, finally letting his eyes wander up to Harry's, allowing himself to get lost in the rich green color of Harry's emeralds.

they both stare at each other, getting lost as every minute passes, until they hear the deep drawl of des' voice.

"What do you think you're doing?" He directs his words to Louis, narrowing his eyes at the younger boy.

"what do I look like I'm doing to you?" He scoffs. Harry smirks. Upon hearing the words from louis' mouth, Des shuts his mouth, not wanting to cause any trouble.

Louis smiles in victory, and nods towards Des. He nudges Harry's arm with a soft smile before walking away up to his room.