Bonded

Chapter Twenty Four

Harry walked along the corridor of the fourth floor of the office building, making his way towards the room that Mr Wilson had set up for Louis. His arms swayed gently as he walked, showing off his bubbly good mood. Isaac had been nothing but nice and accommodating to him on their drive in that morning. Even going so far as to hold open the office door for him and walk in, side by side, together. As far as Harry was concerned, this day was already a win just based off the morning alone.

It felt like Isaac had only left his side because he had to rush to get to an important business meeting that he was running late for. Harry knew that he was the reason Isaac was late but he was too tickled over how Isaac wasn't mad at him for it, to feel any guilt. His feelings of being cared for gave him an extra pep in his step that even his lack of sleep couldn't diminish. 

While Harry was blissfully off on cloud nine, walking without any real awareness, he turned a corner and almost bumped right into Noah. Noah was also preoccupied with a huge stack of files but luckily enough he caught himself in time and jumped to the side leaving a startled Harry frozen in place. 

"Harry!" Noah exclaimed, slightly breathless from their near miss. "What are you doing up here?" 

"I'm-," Harry started but paused, confused as to why Noah was even asking. "Isn't Louis up here? I asked him but he hasn't returned my text yet."

Noah slowly shook his head and sighed, "He stayed up all night for some reason and is grossly overtired. James put a little couch in his office and, last I saw, Louis was still sleeping on it." 

Harry felt a twinge of responsibility as he turned to look away. He probably should have tried to end their conversation at a more reasonable hour. 

A knowing smirk lined Noah's face as he watched Harry's tired eyes flit around the hallway. "Was it you he was talking to? Did you let that punk keep you up all night?" 

Harry's cheeks reddened as he shrugged his shoulders in reply. 

Noah nudged him gently with his elbow, "You could have told him when you wanted to go to bed you know, he wouldn't have minded." 

Harry nodded, agreeing out of habit, but the more he nodded the worse he felt about it. Noah was assuming that Louis was to blame for them staying up late but the fault shouldn't only be on his friend. The thought of saying something about it caused his stomach to turn but he couldn't do nothing.

Harry raised his head and nervously glanced at the A before him. While he now felt comfortable talking to Noah, being confrontational was never something he could handle well.

"Louis didn't keep me up last night," he quietly declared while squeezing his hands into fists in an attempt to stop them from shaking. "I kept myself up because I wanted to, and it's probably more my fault that we were up so late." 

A part of him felt instantly regretful and stupid for admitting it out loud. Noah and James cared more about Louis than him so even if they didn't really care that Louis had stayed up, they might care if they knew it was Harry's fault.

Harry took a small step back and watched as Noah pulled his phone out of his pocket to checked the time. "There's still a while before you guys have to go," Noah said as he put his phone away. "You want to go lay down on the couch up here till it's time to leave?"

Harry's tired brain couldn't compute Noah's lack of disappointment and he looked up at the A in confusion.

"Come on," Noah said gently, "You got to be just as tired as Louis is, and he flat out refused to leave the bed this morning. I'm pretty sure James ended up carrying him to the car."