drowning on a dry land [ls]

Chapter 7: Monopoly sucks

"I knew it!" He snatches the notes from his hand and sets them down on the table. "You're cheating!" Mason gasps and turns his head to where he is dramatically pointing his finger at Louis. "You're cheating in a game we're supposed to let our future children win."

Was he?

"Love, I think that you've been mistaken." he tries.

Harry shakes his head adamantly, dismissing him. "No I'm not." A second later, Louis has a hand on his lap. Without letting it linger, Harry pulls out a ̶M̶ 100 note; by all means, he has no idea where it came from.

"You've used up all the ̶M̶ 100 notes then how on the earth do you have another one lying here, huh? " He flared his nose and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Unbelievable!"

"I swear I didn't do anything love," he looked Harry in the eyes. Only for the latter to roll his eyes and groan. "I have no idea where it came from but I didn't cheat."

"Sounds like something a cheater would say," he looks like he is on the verge of stomping his feet and throwing a hissy fit.

Mason was sitting awfully. Louis could swear on his life that he saw that the kid was averting his eyes. Louis coughed and scanned his eyes. "Mason, do you wanna tell us something?"

"No, I'm good." The kid promptly replied with a shaky voice. Harry rolled his eyes discreetly.

"You sure?" He further probes. The kid hesitates for a minute before speaking.

"I think we should end this game right now. You win, you cheater!" Louis cleared his throat and Harry looked like he could burst out laughing.

"Fine! I wanted you to win because my mom said that 'this boy gets a little whiny when he loses; about either one of you while talking to Dad. At first, I wasn't sure which one of you was she talking about, then I saw you being sad that you didn't get a note from him-" He points vaguely in Harry's direction, "and concluded that it must be you."

"I'm sorry I didn't want to see you get sad." Mason lowers his eyes.

"She was talking about him," Louis pulls a face and points at Harry, the very moment Harry says, "That's kinda nice."

Mason must have sensed the tension in the room. The next second he is bolting out, mumbling something about making a card to welcome his sibling.

"I'll never cheat Harry. I know how whiny you get when you lose." He teases

"Do not!" Harry reverts

"Do too!" Louis insists "You'd never win a single ludo match if it wasn't for me letting you win," he draws dramatically.

"Alright, let's play a match. The blue pawn's mine and yours is green," he declares before dashing through the door to retrieve the board game.

༺❀༻

"Let it go bub, you're losing this one." Louis coaxed Harry as mercilessly cut Harry's pawn (the one which was ten spaces away from completing a full round and placed it back into his house.

Harry sulked into the seat. Just when Louis had started being nice to him the boy goes ahead and does this. How dare he?

"Let's ditch this stupid game. I'm getting bored," he mumbles, already standing up to leave.

Louis shrugs infuriatingly with his head tilted. Harry is about to comment on it, but before he could open his mouth, a notification goes off. Louis's eyes are transfixed on the text and he exhales softly. "Don't hate me luv. I really have to go. Boss called and it's really important for me to be at the office in twenty minutes."