lifedance.

one.

                   

"You can take that file and shove it up your ass."

The manila envelope dropped to the table with a thud. The noise took Louis Tomlinson so off guard that a few drops of his usual morning tea fell from his cup onto the floor and, with his luck, onto the sleeve of his scrubs. His eyes narrowing, he ran his damp wrists over the similar shirt Niall was wearing, resulting in a few spots of the light purple turning to a darker shade. Blue eyes met blue. A second of silence passed, and then they were both smirking at each other, the fake hostility passing easily. The envelope, however, was still lying in the place where it had fallen. A single drop of liquid had plopped onto the cover, but it remained otherwise unscathed from its sudden altitude drop.

Niall, feigning hurt, gave his best mate and coworker a pout. "Please? It's nothing. You're my best friend; you're s'posed to be savin' my ass when duty calls."

"You won't save my ass when I end up dead," Louis pointed out, taking another sip of his tea before setting it down.

His eyes flickered to the file. Without more prompting, he reluctantly picked it up. The writing on the tab read Styles, H. in a slightly messy, slanted writing style that he recognized immediately as Niall's. Everyone knew what was in that file without even having opened it yet. The horror stories of what Harry Styles had done to his victims rang through the halls in a continuous loop, seemingly gaining momentum in the time since the man had arrived. Thinking back, it had only been about a month now. Not much time at all.

The tone of the hospital had changed ever since Harry's arrival. It began as a general stir - more patients acting up than normal, an increase in anxiety and moodiness among staff, nothing too out of the ordinary. Of course, all of that had begun before their newest patient had even stepped foot inside. In the weeks leading up to his admittance, his case had still been in its trial phase. While nobody could be certain that he would end up there, the consensus among everyone inside and outside of the institution's walls was the same as the end result. Instead of a regular prison, he would be thrown in there with them, and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could do about it after the courts had made up their minds.

Niall's eyebrows furrowed. The comical aura about him had dissipated. "Lou, I'm beggin' you here. It's only for a week."

A week was a long time in Louis' opinion.

"Niall," He said slowly, running his fingers through his hair. "Look, it would be different if you were asking me to, say, babysit your cat. This is an insane murderer. I don't even know how you would be able to get permission to hand his file over to me."

"I already got it," The blonde piped up. "I put in for it as soon as the family plans were made. Nobody cares if he's included in your rounds as long as I'm still overseeing the whole thing."

"You're unbelievable."

The joy that appeared on Niall's face was enough to force Louis to agree. It was impossible to refuse him when he hadn't seen his family in, what, months now? Almost a year? It was too long, surely. As someone who saw his mum and siblings at least once per week, he knew there was nothing on Earth like that kind of love.

Using all the patience he could muster, he tucked the folder under his arm and reached for his tea. "Let me think about it."

"You can do more than that," Niall chirped, patting him on the shoulder. The cup of tea flew out of Louis' hand and crashed onto the floor, covering the cream-colored tile in liquid and the leftover fragments of the cup. The Irishman had the decency to give a light blush, at the very least, before pulling his hand away and dropping his arms at his sides. "I put him under your schedule for today."