euphoric (n.s. AU)

f i v e

*Harry's POV*

"Mr. Horan, what happened to your face?" I ask him. He blushes under my gaze and looks down, playing with the strings of his hoodie. I step closer to him, thinking back to the bullying idea I had in my head earlier - it seems a lot more likely now.

"I'll sound stupid..." He admits. I chuckle, shaking my head in protest.

"You wont, I promise." I respond, making my voice softer in hopes it will ease his nerves.

"Well..." He starts, looking around. "I ran into a wall." He tells me. I laugh slips past my lips before I cover my mouth. He frowns at me before looking back down at his hoodie strings.

"Tragic." I say. He bites his lip and nods. I gesture to the chair he usually sits at, and he occupies it swiftly.

"Now, there is a new stack of papers over there, if you want to continue what you were doing yesterday." I tell him, and he turns his head to look. He looks back at me and nods.

"Is this all I'll be doing? Stapling and stamping papers?" He mumbles, gesturing  to the things needed to do his task.

"No, not always. For now, though, yes. Your credits are based off of you showing up and how seriously you take this, not how difficult each task is." I explain to him. He sighs and nods before grabbing the stapler from my desk and getting started. I watch him for a moment, looking at his small frame sitting in the big chair, before I make my way to my desk and sit down, powering on the computer in front of me. I click on an email that I had received and lazily skimming over it before turning my attention back to Niall. I watched as he stapled papers together and then stamped them, moving them to the side and doing it again, his blue eyes showing a hint of determination underneath the sadness. I cross my arms across my chest and stare at him, having no interest in hiding it. His skin grows bright pink under my watch, but he continues to work regardless.

"You have so much potential, why don't you ever show it?" I think aloud. His head shoots up and he furrows his eyebrows, slightly startled from the sound of my voice in the quiet room.

"What?"

"You attempt to put up this," I stop to think of a decent word to use. "This facade. As if you don't have a care in the world. That's why you've been showing up late, isn't it? To prove a point? That's why you don't talk much? That's why you don't make eye contact with people when they're speaking to you? That's why you've let yourself fall behind in school? I mean, Mr. Horan, I can read you like a book. Its not hard to tell that you care quite a bit, about a lot of things, including your future." I say, looking him in the eyes the entire time. He seems taken aback by my rant, but sighs and nods either way.

"Hah, I guess you're right." He replies, scratching the back of his neck. A satisfied smile creeps onto my face, proud that I have partially figured out the strange, younger boy.

"Why?" I ask. He raises an eyebrow at me, leaning back in his seat, finally removing his hands from his work.

"I mean, why do you want people to think you're different than who you truly are?" I rephrase.

"I don't really wanna talk about me." He answers sharply, turning away from me to continue his work. I sigh before shaking my head, glancing at my computer screen quickly before turning my attention back to him. The sight of the spreading bruise on his eye sends a chill down my spine, similar to the one I experienced the other day while riding the elevator. The injury reminds me of something that I can't quite grasp, and before I delve too deeply into my sea of thoughts, I shake my head to rid myself of them.

"You're gonna be one tough nut to crack, aren't you?" I ask no one in particular. He turns back to me and narrows his eyes at me, seemingly annoyed at my continuous interruptions from his task.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He hisses, his tone changing from its usual polite one to an angry one. Another grin forces its way onto my face; enjoying my time taunting the boy in front of me. It beats working on the daunting project I have yet to finish, anyway.

"Well, you're emotionally closed off. Its gonna take a while to break through that wall of yours." I shoot back, smiling widely at him. His eyes relax from their once annoyed state back to their normal state, and he shoots me a cheesy grin back. It looks like the first genuine smile I've seem from him since he started working here. I notice the set of clear braces on his teeth, something I hadn't noticed before. They suit him quite nicely; they really tie his features together.

"Oh?" He asks, stapling a stack of papers together and setting it in front of him. "You know nothing about me." 

"You're not that complex, Mr. Horan. I can see right through you." I tell him, breaking eye contact for a short second to drink the rest of my water. He watches me intently, as if he has something to say, but stays quiet. I toss the empty plastic bottle in the bin next to my desk, and return my attention back to Niall. 

"Oh, and you are?" He questions, stamping a stack of papers and putting them in a pile with the others. 

"I like to think so, at least." I retort, shifting in my seat slightly. I feel a small pang of pain at the base of my spine, and reposition myself until it goes away. Niall takes notice of this, watching my every movement.

"Based off of you writhing around in your seat, I think that you work too much. I also think that when you're done working, you go home to your big house and your boring wife. I also think that you and your boring wife have boring sex every night at 9pm on the dot, and then you go to sleep, come here, and do it all over again." He proclaims, shooting me a fake smile before grabbing another stack of papers. I scoff at his interpretation of me; more amused than I am offended. 

"That is so far off." I laugh, watching his gaze turn from his stack of papers to mine again.

"I guess we're both wrong about each other, then." He replies, breaking eye contact once again to return to his work. His statement makes me wince slightly, instantly regretting how I labeled him before. I watch him for a few more moments, before turning my attention back to my computer, because the once inviting atmosphere didn't feel so inviting anymore.