Bonded

Chapter Thirteen

"You don't need to be sorry." Louis said as he patted Harry's hand in reassurance. "Were you talking to Isaac? James told me you two were bonded."

Harry tentatively looked up. Levi had turned around, and was no longer paying attention to them, busying himself with the cars GPS instead. Harry felt slightly better, since Louis really didn't seem to mind. Actually no one seemed mad at all, he was probably just being dramatic, again, wrecking the atmosphere.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He often felt drained on days when his emotions took him for a roller coaster ride. Today was definitely one of those days and Harry was starting to wonder if he'd even make it till the end of the day.

"Yes, it was Isaac," Harry started. "He was just worried and wondering what was going on. I don't think he knew that Mr. Wilson was going to ask me to accompany you."

"Is he okay now? Noah said he seemed mad this morning."

Goosebumps trinkled down Harry's arms. He didn't think anyone heard their conversation that morning but Noah did appear behind him suddenly. He felt embarrassed at the thought of people knowing how Isaac spoke to him. Isaac had never spoken to him like that before, and a large part of Harry wanted to keep what happened that morning a secret.

"He was just stressed, but not at me, really, just .... the .... situation." He really hoped Louis understood what he meant by that. He didn't think he could say out loud that Isaac was stressed because of Louis's partner.

"Does he always talk to you like that when he's stressed?" Louis asked.

"No, never actually," Harry said as he shook his head in added emphasis. He was still a bit unnerved over it. He would have been fine if it was Daniel who talked to him that way since Daniel always did and he was more then used to it, but Isaac was different. Anger was almost a part of Daniel's personality, so it was easier to not take it personally but Isaac never used anger while talking to him, he always appealed to Harry's emotions instead. Harry always considered Isaac to be calm, but that morning Isaac's anger seemed to solely be caused by him, which is probably why it hurt so much. "But .... it's okay now, he's even going to drive me home later." Harry said out loud, but he wasn't sure if it was Louis or himself who he was trying to convince.

"Isaac doesn't always drive you home?" Louis looked shocked as he turned to face Harry with wide eyes.

"A no - I mean we - he's done later then me, I take the bus."

"The bus!" Louis's eyes somehow got even bigger.

"I take the bus to the subway ..... then another bus after .... to our home." Harry never considered it a negative to take the bus home, but he felt flustered at the need to make sure Louis had a good impression of Isaac. "I still get home at least an hour before he does so it makes sense to do it that way." Harry picked non-existent lint of his pants as he spoke. Isaac was a good partner, and would be willing to drive Harry home but Harry was the one who didn't want to wait around. He was always afraid he'd get pulled into doing extra work while he waited and the bus ride just felt like the better option.

"But why doesn't he go home with you and finish remotely. James does more work then any of his employees but he does a large chunk of it at home for me."

Harry was silent for a moment as he didn't quite have an answer for that. Daniel worked from home all the time but Isaac never did, and Harry never really questioned it. "Isaac has always only worked at the office. I'm not really sure why but even before he had his current position he'd still choose to stay late over work from home."

Louis only nodded and the two slipped into silence. Harry immediately wracked his brain for the perfect thing to say. Nothing he thought of felt one hundred percent safe to say and he was slowly growing paranoid that he'd mess up and say the wrong thing.