If I Could (N.S)

7- Wait, what?

Harry angrily stood up and walked down the stairs to grab a drink.

Night time was usually the time he found very easy to work at home but not today.

Today was a different day, no matter how hard he tried to concentrate on the emails on his computer, all he could see was blur. He didn't even know what had him distracted. Perhaps it was because Zayn was spending the night at his parents' house as he had missed his family, his mum especially, or because it wasn't raining that night. The pitter patter of rain on his window always helped him concentrate and with London weather, it was almost always a given. Almost.

And for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about the colour blue. It had stuck in his head since that morning. He got to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of wine then sat down on a stool in the kitchen sipping on his wine.

Blue, he could still that colour at the back of his head. Was it because Zayn left wearing a blue shirt? Blue. Blue. Blue.

But why? He couldn't explain it to himself so he sighed and continued sipping on his wine.

The kitchen light went on and Harry almost jumped out of his body.  He turned around to look behind him. "Mrs Baxter you scared the living daylights out of me." He said still holding his chest.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you were down here." She shot him an apologetic look and walked over to the fridge, grabbing a glass of cold water. "Why aren't you asleep? It's pretty late." She sat down across from him.

Harry chuckled, "it's only 10, I don't usually sleep until midnight. I was in the office trying to do some work."

Agnes nodded and continued to sip on her water. They sat in silence for a while, each lost in thought.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Agnes put her glass down and intently looked at Harry. She didn't need to be Harry's mother for her maternity instincts to kick in. It was clear as day, she could see that Harry was bothered by something and she hoped he would let her in.

"What do you mean?" Harry played dumb just as she had expected but was hoping he wouldn't.

"You can talk to me. Yes I may be your staff but I'm a good listener and I could give you motherly advice." She said and looked off into the distance. "Even though my daughter doesn't even know I exist."

Harry looked at her so fast that she was sure he had whiplash. "What do you mean?"

Agnes knew what Harry was doing; he was ignoring the question directed at him by asking her one of his own. But then again, maybe this is what she needed to gain his trust, talk about her own maternal problem. Also it would be very helpful to het as she hadn't talked about  her to anyone.

The only people who knew about how hard the past twenty-five years have been for her are the people living in the kingdom inside her head, where she rules.

"It's a long story." She finally sighed. Please don't insist.

Harry gulped down the rest of his wine and poured himself more then he looked at Agnes again, "we have time, don't we?" He smiled that charming smile that he knew Zayn was weak for, and what do you know? It worked!

"Fineee." Agnes's dragged out the word and Harry did an internal happy dance. "I was born in the US and growing up I had the strictest parents. They were all about work and good manners and proper etiquette and good grades. And when I was younger, I tried to obey everything that they told me but I would get in trouble for the littlest things and never got any compliment when I did well, which was almost all the time.

It really didn't help that my elder sister seemed to be the perfect daughter and was getting all the love and appreciation while I was just her shadow. Eventually, I realized that no matter what I did, my parents wouldn't be happy, so instead of doing what made them happy, I started doing what me happy.