Just One Little Favour

Four

Harry physically growls under his breath when he reaches the door to get out the school—some of his class filing behind him in order for them to go home. The remaining of his class going back to their dorms.

He spots the fawn hair wisping against the ears, familiar Ray Ban's shielding his eyes, resting on his button nose.

That God awful very formal suit still on. He wonders if the guy ever washes it or if he just has the same outfit hung in his wardrobe.

The children rush down the stairs, jumping into their parent's arms.

Harry watches as Joey darts straight to his mum, flinging his arms around her neck.

The other guy with them, stands slightly further away from Lottie, which wouldn't be weird if Joey didn't go in for a kiss and a hug, screaming, "daddy came for pick up today!"

Louis tosses Joey in the air, swaying them side to side in their hug. Louis looks up, spotting Harry staring. Harry narrows his eyes when Louis does.

He flips him off.

Harry wants to flip him off back.

So he does, for the first time.

Louis seems a little taken back, eyes wide and a challenging smirk comes into play, a quirk of a brow.

The hell is he smirking for anyway?

Harry's phone buzzes. He fishes it out of his pocket, bringing it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hi, love! How's everything?" His mum asks down the phone, voice like honey.

He smiles, kicking a stray pebble along the pavement. "Alright, just finished work."

"Awesome. You excited for next weekend?"

And yeah, fuck.

He doesn't know how he's supposed to get out of this one. He needs a plan before the weekend comes up.

He swallows thickly. "Sure, yeah, we're all very excited!" He couldn't sound less excited.

Thankfully for him, Anne doesn't pry with his tone of voice. "How's my little grandson?"

"He's fine, he's fine." Harry waves her off, heart thudding heavily against his ribcage, hands trembling ever so slightly.

"Daddy, come on!" Joey screams, Harry looks up quickly to see his dad sticking his tongue out at the boy, Louis snatching him up and running away with him.

"Was that him, then? He sounded very persistent, where you headed?" Anne asks from the other end.

"I was going to take him to soft play tonight, Jonny is doing overtime at work."

"Well, I'll let you guys off. Oh, don't forget to put flowers on your grandad's grave for me, it's his birthday today. Nana loves you, John!" she yells out at no one.

"He says he loves you too and will do! Bye, mum, love you." He ends the call, taking a deep breath.

He needs a hot bath.

A hot bath and a whole bottle of wine.

Yeah, that'll be good.

He sets off toward his car to go home.

...

"Louis, can I talk to you?" Lottie asks quietly, pouring water in the mugs.

Robert and Joey are outside, playing on the trampoline.