SILENCE AND SOUND | LARRY AU

04 | FAMILY ABOVE ALL

SILENCE AND SOUND | CHAPTER 04

Louis sighed in relief as he walked through the front doors of his ginormous house and heard the laughter of his sisters from the kitchen. As he walked in, all four of them shrieked in excitement upon seeing their brother's face after the long day and Louis almost hoped that he'd have had loss of hearing rather than speech.

"How was everybody's day?" Louis signed as he immediately washed his hands and started helping the eldest of the sisters, Charlotte, with the cooking.

"Well, that doesn't matter. What's more important that we heard from the great vine that Harry Styles is co-directing the play you wrote. Is that true?" Félicité inquired for the details eagerly and all Louis could do was roll his eyes. Typical Félicité behaviour, as always.

"Tell me something dear sister, must you always stay on top of whatever goes on in school? You're a sophomore, for god's sake."

"One, yes, obviously. And two, exactly my point. Do you realize how cute Harry and I would be? I'm a sophomore, he's a junior. We'd be like the perfect match." She said, dreamy-eyed and Louis stopped himself from signing a curse word at her. She was Louis' little sister and he loved her with all his heart, but that didn't mean he didn't hate how 'trendy' and 'cool' Félicité tried to be at all times. It was beyond annoying and Louis wished Fel would simply be her vibrant, original self instead of moulding herself to fit the position of Queen B.

"Well, it looks like maybe our dear famous Fel isn't so caught up with the gossip after all. Does Liam Payne ring a bell? Harry has a boyfriend, love. He's in my Chemistry class and I haven't seen one time where Harry isn't waiting by the door for Liam to come out so that they can walk to the next class together. They're pretty freaking adorable if you ask me." Lottie said as a challenge and Félicité simple rolled her eyes.

"That doesn't mean he –"

"– Wait, Harry has a boyfriend?"

Louis hadn't even processed the fact that Harry might've been involved with somebody. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that Louis felt weirdly uncomfortable with his sisters talking about Harry's relationship status.

Am I jealous?

No, it couldn't be. Louis had just met Harry 5 hours ago. Being jealous of something so trivial would be madness. Absolute madness. And Louis was anything but mad. He didn't do relationships, he never had. It wasn't because of his lack of speech, Louis had just never found somebody attractive enough to spend time with them, at least, more than necessary.

Louis had figured, at a relatively early age that he was simply not made for relationships. He wasn't made to hold hands with somebody and go on dates with them. He wasn't made to engage in these complex emotions of love, lust and jealousy. At least that's what he'd believed so far in his life. His younger self had thought otherwise once during middle school, but had quickly found himself to be wrong soon after he got into high school; and his thoughts hadn't changed since.

"Louis, you still with us?" Lottie said with a shake of his shoulder, and Louis nodded before turning around and putting the stir fry in the bowl.

"Lou?"

One of the twins, Daisy, came up to him and pulled at his pants. Louis' face immediately morphed into a soft smile as he looked down at the doe-eyed six year and old and picked her up to make her sit on the kitchen counter.

"Hi, Dais. Did you have a good day at school today, darling?" Louis signed slowly so that his sister could understand what he was saying. The twins had been learning sign language ever since they were old enough to understand Louis' problem. They were pretty good for their age, but Louis still made sure to go slower than his usual pace to aid them whatever way he could. It was bad enough that Louis couldn't hold a conversation with them without them learning sign language.

The younger sibling concentrated on Louis' hands and once she understood, a wide grin immediately came on her face.

"I did. Did you? How did the selection go? Did you find friends to play your roles?"

"I sure did."

"Lou, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Dais. But you can just speak, you know. I can hear you."

He reminded her sister with a small chuckle and Daisy giggled.

"I know. I am just practising this way."

"Okay, what were you saying earlier?"

"Oh, yes. Did you like Harry? Fel showed me a picture of him and he is really cute."

"Well, for one, don't listen to everything Fel says. And two, yes I did meet him."

"Is he your friend?"

"Of course he is. We're both directors, so we have to be friends."

"Does that mean I can meet him sometime?"

"Oh, I don't know about that, darling. Why do you wanna meet him?"

"Because I think we could be friends. In the picture, I saw him wearing a bracelet just like mine. That means we can be friends, right?"

"Well, the bracelet could just be a gift he received, my love."

"Okay, but it could be a gift from his brother or sister who could be my age. Then they and I could be friends. Please, Lou?"

Daisy pointed to her own rainbow bracelet that she wore around everywhere and Louis felt his heart melting slowly. The little girl didn't have a lot of friends at school because she was quite shy and often just stuck with Phoebe, who was a complete extrovert and often had a great time making new friends. The thought of Daisy wanting to make new friends made Louis really happy, and God knew he'd do anything for the girls.

"Alright, I'll ask him about it tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, thanks Lou!!" she grinned and signed with enthusiasm, almost signing something entirely different by mistake, but Louis understood. The younger one jumped into Louis' arms and he laughed before kissing her forehead and taking both her and the bowl of stir fry to the dinner table, where the other twin was joking around with Félicité and Lottie was serving out the food to all of them.

Louis may not have a mother and he may have an absent father, but he couldn't deny the fact that he still had the best sisters in the world and that this family, despite its imperfections and flaws, was the only one Louis would ever want to be with. After all, it was the only one that mattered.

As the five siblings sat down on the dinner table, none of them felt the absence of their parents. Even though they missed them, when it boiled down to what really mattered, happiness was nothing but remaining in each other's company.

~~

A/N. OKAY, SO WHAT ARE WE THINKING? I ACTUALLY REALLY LIKE THIS CHAPTER. 

HOPEFULLY YOU GUYS DID TOO, AND HOPEFULLY IT GAVE YOU MORE INSIGHT INTO LOUIS' LIFE AND HIS MIND!! THINGS ARE PICKING UP AND THE PLOT IS DEVELOPING, SO I AM REALLY EXCITED FOR YOU GUYS TO DISCOVER WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. I MIGHT JUST START UPLOADING TWICE OR THRICE A WEEK SINCE I'M DONE WITH MY END OF SEMESTER EXAMS!!!!

PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO VOTE AND COMMENT, I'D REALLY APPRECIATE SUPPORT.

~ Love, T.