Ships of High School - Larry AU

Chapter 4

//Not spell checked. Please notify me if you see mistakes.

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Harry did find out what shipping was. He had turned on his computer and typed it in the Google bar.

“What is shipping”

The first page was actually Wikipedia. Harry clicked on the link and waited patiently for his oh so slow internet to load the page. When loaded he leaned a bit in and started reading.

“Shipping, derived from the word relationship or friendship, is the desire for two people, often fictional, to be in a relationship, romantic or otherwise.”

So that’s what it meant. But he was rather confused still. Did that mean his students had a desire to see him and Louis together, as a couple? Why? The girl saying that everyone shipped “it” ran through his head. How did that even become a thing?

As Harry read through every page he could find about shipping he read about various fictional couples. Even couples with band members, or real people in general. He found it rather weird, to be honest. Who wrote it, and who read that? He also discovered that a lot of the couples consisted of two males and it was mostly referred to as “slash”. Harry became more curious and clicked in a website called Tumblr.com.

He discovered the tag shipping and it seemed kind of hilarious to him how much people were into it. As Harry was scrolling through the tag he stumbled upon a very peculiar post.

“Holy shit guys I just watched my two male teachers snog each other! I even got a sick picture, look!”

And below was the picture he’d seen on the girl’s phone. Harry was fuming. No wonder that the picture was out to the whole school, and worse, it was posted on public website! He looked at the username “Irishcraic”.

“Who the fuck owns a blog called Irishcraic...” Harry mumbled to himself as he clicked himself onto the user’s profile. As he scrolled through the he found it consisting mostly of various musicians and personal posts. It wasn’t until he stumbled upon a post mentioning the names Zayn and Liam that he realized who it was.

“Niall fucking Horan” Harry said. He should have realized sooner with Niall being the only Irish student whom was taught by both Louis and Harry himself, and the user name being “Irishcraic” and what not. He still wondered what “craic” meant though. He decided to creep further into his student’s blog and came across the word “fanfiction”. Once again he got curious, which led him to the Google bar once again.

The results were frightening though. He came across two particular websites called Wattpad.com and Archiveofourown.com. Both contained heavy amount of stories, written by fans, about various couples, both hetero and homo. Some about fictional characters and some about real people. He clicked on one and accidently jumped to the middle of the story where a literal sex scene was written. Harry clicked the close tab button horrified by what he’d just read. He closed the laptop quickly and flew out the door. That was enough Internet for today, he thought. He had papers to grade anyway.

Louis had went out to the club again. He didn’t drink though, he didn’t want to make the same mistake as last time. Also it was a school night and he’d very much prefer if he could avoid a headache. There wasn’t many people, but a few. Louis had set a goal. He’d find a beautiful girl, woo her and take her home for the night.

In the small crowd on the dance floor he spotted a blonde girl. She looked absolutely gorgeous with her long hair and naturally perfect looks. Louis started to make his way towards her and when he reached her he grabbed her hips to follow her movements. She didn’t seem startled by the sudden touch. She’d probably seen him eyeing her earlier. She turned around and pushed herself flush against Louis.

“The name is Hannah.” She said. More like yelled over the loud, thumping music.

“Louis” He answered.

Their dance got quite sweaty, quite quickly. They sent dirty looks to each other and Louis even put his hands on her arse. The whole deal breaker was when she leaned in and placed her lips on his. It lasted nearly two seconds before Louis broke it off.

“I- I have to go, I’m sorry!” He said before turning on his heel and running off towards the bathroom. He locked himself into a toilet stall. He had found the kiss absolutely disgusting. It had felt wrong and dirty, and he absolutely hated it. Why did he hate the kiss so much? Some guys would kill for a girl like Hannah, so why wouldn’t Louis? He started crying, because no he wasn’t gay, he really wasn’t…

The next months of school the looks from the students didn’t die down. If anything there were more students who dared looking at him. It also seemed like the whispers were louder. Like nobody had anything to hide. Louis felt like he was walking a walk of shame every single day, and when he finally got to his office, he always let out a sigh of relief.

Harry felt the same, but he didn’t let it bother him. He did however, the night after he’d discovered Niall’s blog, approach Niall and his boyfriends. He’d come to them in the lunch break and looked at them sternly.

“I need to speak with you three.” He’d said. The whole table, where both they and all their friends sat, had gone quiet.

“Sure Mr. Styles.” Liam had said. Niall didn’t even look regretful, but rather smug about the situation. Zayn just seemed worried for his boyfriends. Harry led them to his office and asked them to sit down.

“Now boys, I’d like to know how on earth a picture of me and Mr. Tomlinson ended up on a public website and spread to the whole school? Does anyone want to say anything.” Liam turned swiftly towards Niall and whisper-yelled:

“You put it on tumblr you big dumbnut?!”

Niall just shrugged as Zayn jumped to his defense. “Oh leave him alone Li.”

Harry looked between the three waiting for any response besides that.

“I would also like to know how on earth three underage students managed to actually take that picture. Because surely they wouldn’t sneak into clubs, which they of course know is illegal.” Harry said with a disapproving voice and raised eyebrows. The boys sunk down in their chairs and had their eyes in their lap.

“We’re sorry Mr. Styles.” Liam said.

“I sure hope you are. You’re lucky I didn’t tell Mr. Tomlinson it were you who did it. I think he would have given you detention, as well as a very explicit, homophobic rant.” Harry said. The boys nodded.

“You can go now. Let me just express how disappointed I am in you. I quite liked the three of you.” Harry said with a sigh.

“Does that mean you won’t give us any punishment?” Niall inquired.

“Well if you’d like one I can surely-“ Harry said with a smirk, but was interrupted by Zayn.

“No, thank you Mr. Styles. We will leave now, sorry about the whole thing.” He said and pushed Niall and Liam out the door. When Harry was alone he put his head in his hands and sighed. What was he going to do…

The three boys also let out a breath of relief when Zayn closed the door.

“Why the fuck did you put it on Tumblr, Niall? That’s like a public website and probably illegal!” Liam said. Niall once again shrugged.

“I’ll take it down don’t worry Li.” He said and kissed Liam on the lips. Liam just looked kind of dumb-founded because he hated affection when he was mad at Niall. It made Niall laugh as he kissed Zayn too and then started to walk towards the cafeteria.

“C’mon lads there’s still time left to eat.” He yelled. Zayn was smirked at Liam’s expression.

“You look weird right now Li.” He said as he put his hand behind Liam’s head and kissed him deeply. Liam’s face slowly lost the sour expression and started to kiss back. Zayn backed away and smiled at Liam. He took his hand and led him down the hallway towards Niall, who had probably already gotten his food.