More than friends (A Harry Styles FanFic )

 Chapter one

"Fucking hell, Sav!"

I chuckled quietly at Tony's outburst as I finished wiping the disinfectant across the gash in his arm for what seemed like the hundredth time. The man was constantly requiring cleaning up as he was easily the clumsiest person I had ever met. That, mixed in with the fact that the shelter we worked at always seemed to have an abundance of stuff lying around, meant Tony was always an accident waiting to happen. 

"You don't want this one to get infected, do you?" I asked, quietly reminding him of the first time he had been hurt on the job and refused my help. Which had, obviously, led to quite the nasty infection on his right palm. He sighed and then kept to mumbling his complaints under his breath. Until he remembered that he had an appointment coming in at 3 to look at a few of our dogs. 

"Sav…" he trailed off, making me look up and become immediately aware of the look he had in his eye. I knew that look too well, it meant I was about to be guilt tripped. "Would you maybe consider please taking this appointment for me? My arms killing me now and I'd really, really appreciate it."

Before I could even think of saying no he began to speak again, "I mean, I wouldn't really have to even ask if you hadn't left out Lulu's food bowl for me to trip over…"

"Course Tony," I sighed. "How about we finish the clean up before the appointment gets here and then you can head home? I'll close down and lock up once I'm done, it'll be the last of the day anyways." Tony happily agreed. 

After moving to London, I got an incredible job at a dog shelter and our boss, Lily, was currently out of town for the week. Thankfully, she made sure that she made the bare minimum of appointments while she was gone so that Tony and I wouldn't feel too overwhelmed since she had taken the two other employees with her. It was a small dog shelter, Lily handled almost all the rescues on her own or with her husband along, but every now and then she'd have one of us tag along to help out. For the most part, I stuck with dealing with adoptions for the dogs already with us. I loved seeing a dog really connect with a possible owner and having them get permanent homes, especially the dogs that have been with us for a long time. 

I looked up the notes for the last appointment of the day, seeing it was a man did make me slightly regret sending Tony home. I tended to be quite anxious around new people, add in the fact that I was now completely alone didn't help much in calming me down. Being around the dogs did wonders for my anxiety though so I just hoped the guy was friendly and could make a quick decision. 

As I walked into the front room after setting up our small “meet and greet” area I found a guy sitting by our check-in desk. I assumed he was my appointment, looking like he fit the description of the 31 year old male I was waiting for. I couldn't help but think right away that the guy standing in front of me looked strangely familiar. He was quite tall although I couldn't tell if it was all his own height or an illusion due to the staggeringly high quiff he was sporting. 

He stood up immediately and plastered a huge smile on his face, reaching a large hand out to greet me. The second I heard his voice when he spoke to introduce himself is when it all clicked. 

“Hiya, I’m Nick Grimshaw. I’ve got an appointment to look at some dogs today!” He all but shouted. 

"Hi there, I'm Savannah Pond. I've just got a few questions for you I've got to get through then we can get on to meeting some of the dogs we lined up for you." I explained. I whizzed through the basic questions we ask all potential adopters. Ever had a dog before? Got one right now. Would you prefer a puppy or adult dog? Either works. Where do you live, i.e. house, flat, etc. House. And so on.