The Corruption | N.S AU

3 - Harry's problem

They continued walking further through the clearing until Louis noticed that Harry was visibly lost in thought. He attempted to pull Harry out of his trance to no avail.

"Harry?"

"Hazza bear?"

"Haz?" Lou called tentatively once more, finally pulling Harry out of his trance.

"Hm?"

"What's up?"

"The sky," Harry responds, smirking lightly.

Harry sighs lightly, dropping his slight smirk to continue, "In all honesty, I feel useless compared to you two."

Upon hearing this, Liam and Louis stopped abruptly, sharing a concerned glance before gently grabbing Harry and leading him over to a nearby log.

"What made you think of this Haz?" Liam gently questions, "You've seemed to be travelling alright thus far."

Harry pauses for a moment, mulling over all of the possible ways to explain himself. His lips stutter over silent words before he was finally able to manage out a quiet 'before', hanging his head and looking over his now, very interesting hands.

"With the map?" Liam presses, prompting a small, barely noticeable nod from Harry. "Harry, you did phenomenally organizing and reading that map, that was only a small hiccup towards the end--"

"That hiccup could have killed us all, Li, god knows what would have happened should that Mithril Devil caught up to us!" Harry cut Liam off, standing up from the log abruptly. 

"Haz, it's not your fault." Louis continues gently, hoping to calm the youngest man down.

"Yes it is Lou, if I didn't have possession of the map, we wouldn't have even had to deal with that beast. We could have ended up being killed." Harry spat, his disdain for the beast obvious. 

"I just-," Harry cuts himself off to sit back down between the pair again. He sighs trying to find his words once more.

"It's hard trying to figure out what I can contribute to the group... no, Liam, let me explain." He shushes Liam, who opened his mouth to oppose Harry's comment.

 "Lou," the boy turns around fully at the mention of his nickname, "you're extremely good at describing various creatures and beasts, their strengths and weaknesses and how to best combat them, or run from them should we face them." 

"And Li, You're good at reading maps,  you can tell when there are safe spaces, where is safe to  stop and where all the zombie hotspots are located."

Both boys smile, Liam shyly and Louis like the Cheshire cat after hearing Harry's previous sentences.

"Me? I just come along for the ride. I feel bad just.... not being able to do anything." Harry slumps his shoulders, defeated. 

"Haz, there are numerous things we haven't seriously done yet, you could be good at one of those," Liam says.

"Yeah?" Harry hopefully raises his head. "Like what?"

"Fighting?" Louis suggests.

"Have you seen me? I wouldn't hurt a fly. Sure I may box, but what good am I in a fistfight when rifles and knives are more the way we fight now?"

"Setting up camp?" Liam suggests.

"Nah, I think Lou has that all sorted." Harry cracks a smile, receiving a punch in the shoulder and a 'shut up' from Louis.

The boys fall silent for a few minutes, causing Harry to appear more crestfallen as each minute passes by. 

"See what I mean, It's hard," Harry mutters again, making Louis smirk.

"That's what she said."

"This isn't the time for 'that's what she said' jokes Loubear," Liam says sternly, scolding his boyfriend, trying to conceal his own smile. As he scolds him, he reaches out and lightly pinches Lou's cheek, but just before his fingers met their target, Louis' hand swatted it away.  

Harry huffs, "That doesn't really help either."

"What?" 

"You two being all cute and couply and adorable and sweet-"

"Ahh, I see what's going on here," Louis smirks.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Harry says flatly, spinning on the log so his back was facing both boys.

Liam's eyes light up in recognition but let his boyfriend do the talking. 

"You are loneelyyyy, oh so lonelyyy, you have noboddyyyy to call your ooowwwnnNN" Louis sings, purposefully making his voice crack towards the end of the line.

"nO--" Harry says, his voice unintentionally cracking. He feels the tips of his ears burn as he gets slightly flustered, "I mean, No. I'm not."

Liam giggles at the reaction, noting the pink hue on the tips of his ears.

"It's alright Haz," Li says, chuckling lightly when Harry jumps as he places his hand on his shoulder. "Everything happens in its own due course, besides, you're adorable. Anyone would be mistaken to ditch you. You'll have lads falling on their knees as we walk by."

Harry whines as his head falls into the palms of his hands, "Liaaaammmmmmm, nooooohohoo." He pauses for a second before saying, "I think we are the only ones on this planet anyway, save for a few zombies trying to eat our brains."

"You'd be surprised, there may be a cute guy at the safe haven, Haz." Liam wiggles his eyebrows when Harry raises his face just enough to slap his shoulder. 

"C'mon, it'll be nightfall soon, we better get going. Harry can lead the way so everyone we walk past can swoon." Louis says, starting to skip off, clasping both hands together by his cheek and swinging his shoulders from side to side as he skips. 

"Louis. Shut up." Harry says, following Liam in standing up. He attempts to fall behind but is immediately pushed in front of Louis by Liam as soon as they were within distance of him. 

Harry just huffs, accepting his fate as he called over his shoulder: "If I die from a zombie, when I turn, You two will be the first I come after."

He speed walks ahead as the two boys dawdle behind him, cackling maniacally. 

---***---

After a while, the boys fall back into a line. The closer the boys get to the safe house, the more Harry hides behind Liam. 

"You good?" Liam asks, smiling over his shoulder at the younger boy.

"Just peachy," Harry responds, tucking further behind Liam as Louis pulls the door to their safe house open. 

Upon entering their safe house, Louis pauses immediately.

"Uh... Guys? You might wanna check this out..."

Filled with curiosity, the two trailed after, entering their humble abode, but they didn't expect to see what they saw...