The Duke's Son

•Chapter Five•

Achoo!

Louis rubbed his runny nose on his sleeve.

He completely spent the night sleeping on his desk, forgetting to close the window and now his body was paying the price.

'Screw this' Am I going to catch a cold just because of that? Why is this body so weak, back when he was Henry Lee he was able to stay up for three days straight cramming for exams and he was right as rain—okay, maybe not that okay, he may or may not ended up looking like a zombie but hey, he didn't get sick just sleep deprived.

Achoo!

"Are you alright?"

He turned to the boy sitting next to him, the boy—Isaac (he heard one of his classmates call him) was looking at him with a concerned gaze.

"M'fine." He mumbled before barely holding back another sneeze.

He remembered how Maxwell reprimanded him earlier this morning, imagine the old man's horror finding his young lord sleeping on his desk in front of an open window. He quickly ordered the servants to prepare a hot bath, mumbling under his breath about 'catching a cold' but apparently it was all in vain as Louis was now sitting inside his classroom with a runny nose and a growing headache.

He grimaced slightly at the memory, making the other boy furrow his eyebrows worriedly.

"Are you sure? You don't sound fine." The boy insisted and leaned closer towards Louis who had his head buried at the crook of his arm.

"I'm really okay." Louis waved his hand before flashing a smile towards the other.

The boy blinked and offered his hand.

"I'm Isaac."

He looked at him in surprise, and shook his hand.

"Louis."

~~~~~~~~~~

Louis sneezed for the nth time and wiped his nose, Isaac has lent him his handkerchief earlier since he didn't bring any, he tried to decline the other boy and return it but the latter just shoved it back to him saying,

'You need it more than me anyway. Besides are you really going to wipe your snot with your sleeves all the time?'
Which Louis promptly glared at the other boy before grumbling his thanks.

They somehow ended up eating together for lunch as well since Isaac stuck to him like glue, why? He doesn't really know but he wasn't against his company so he let it be; as he made it clear that he doesn't deal well with a crowded area, add the fact that he had a growing headache, the other boy suggested that they go to the courtyard since most people like to spend their lunch at the cafeteria.

Louis was intrigued at Isaac, he wasn't mentioned in the book so he literally knows nothing about him so he guessed he was a mob character.
At first the other boy gave off a cold and mysterious feeling, but that quickly crumbled down the longer they were together. He noticed that he likes to talk a lot, chattering about some random things that Louis knows nothing about (you don't know what raisa tart is? Did you live in a cave?) and that it looked like he wasn't bothered by his reputation and skin color which he was really grateful for (finally! Perhaps, his first friend?) , as far as he knows Isaac was from the Byron's Barony—he barely suppressed a chuckle when he heard it on which the other boy gave out an indignant 'hey' and smacked him in the head before going off about whatever he was talking about again.

"Louis? Are you listening?" Isaac waved his hand in front of the dazed boy.

"Huh." Louis looked at him, "Yea sure, Of course."