"I heard you more than once, Niall. You want pancakes, and I'm making your pancakes," I said, finishing the third pancake on his plate. I’d already prepared eggs to go with them. It took only five minutes, so when his breakfast was done, I poured him orange juice, placed the dish and drink in front of him, and he dove in. It made me chuckle before I turned to the sound of the kitchen door opening.
Louis burst in, hiding behind me. "What's going on, Lou?" I asked, and he pointed at the door. I looked and saw Zayn Malik, soaked and furious. He walked straight up to me, glaring. I sighed. "Guys, we don't have all day. We have a meeting today, and it's important. You can kill Louis when we get back. Just go get ready because right after I finish eating my breakfast, we are leaving." I commanded, adopting the tone of a parent.
"But I didn't eat!" Louis whined. I rolled my eyes. "You left your plate on the breakfast table, it’s in the microwave now, so go ahead and heat it up. Zayn, you get ready, and your food will be ready when you’re out." He huffed and walked out of the room. Louis sighed with relief, heating his food and sitting next to Niall to eat.
"Do we really have to go, Liam?" Niall asked. I shrugged. "I mean, if you don't want a job anymore, we can skip it," I replied, and Louis groaned. "I think I'd rather lose my job than work with a bossy ass bitch," he said. "Language, Louis. We don't spread that type of hate, especially when we're talking about our boss's foster son." I told him, and he sighed.
"I know, but I won't like him if he ever uses that tone with me," Louis said, and I nodded. "We'll just have to get through it and be happy with the result," I said, starting to make my own breakfast as well as Zayn's. Two omelets. I managed to get them done before Zayn walked in. I pointed to the seat next to Niall’s, and he complied, sitting next to our blonde friend who had already finished his food. "Could've seasoned the eggs a bit, mate," Niall said, and I glared. "Then go hire a chef to cook your breakfast for you," I retorted, and he immediately backed off.
Louis didn't, though. "Maybe the boss's son could cook and shit...even though he's a—" "Louis!" "Okay, I'll stop talking about the boy like that…" he said, picking up Niall and his own dishes and putting them in the sink. Louis went to put on his shoes while Niall was engrossed in his phone, playing video games. Zayn was the next to finish, and when I was done, we were all ready to go. We chose to take Zayn's car to Simon’s headquarters.
It took about an hour to get there, but when we did, we were on the lookout for a cafe because Niall was, predictably, hungry. "I think it's over here!" Niall shouted, heading towards a store. "Niall, that's a pop-up shop. It's not even selling food," Louis said, and we all laughed as Niall slowly backed away. We continued to look for a cafe, but just couldn’t find one.
"Let's just ask someone," I said, and they all agreed. I looked around and spotted a tall guy on his phone. He was taller than me, easily six feet, and attractive, but that wasn’t on my mind right now. I walked up and tapped his shoulder. He looked up and smiled when he made eye contact. "Sorry to bother you, but we need help finding a cafe if you know where it might be," I said, and he nodded. "Follow me," he said. I noticed his deep, slow tone. It sounded… appealing, but I couldn’t be thinking like that.
He led us to the escalator, and all four of us followed up to the second level. He walked to a set of doors right next to Simon's meeting room. I facepalmed and groaned at my own stupidity. "How the fuck did we not see it?!" Louis asked, and the guy shrugged. "It's no big deal. A lot of people get lost in this place." He opened the door, and we followed inside, ordering something. Niall was the only one who got food, though.
We decided to sit with the tall lad, and we started talking to him. "So what are you guys doing here today?" he asked, and Louis frowned. "Simon wants us to do this project, and he's putting his foster son as the boss like normal." "Oh? And what's wrong with that?" He asked, and we all groaned this time before Louis replied, "Because the dude is a bossy ass bitch!" The guy tilted his head. "What made you think that?"
"Well, lots of people who have worked with him have said he's so controlling and rude," Niall said, and the guy nodded, understanding. He looked at his phone and smiled when he looked back at us. "Well, it's about time for me to head to my meeting. I wish all of you the best, but I best advise you not to listen to those rumors and give the lad a chance. Alright?" He requested, and we shrugged before he walked out of the cafe.
"That lad seems pretty cool," Niall said, and I agreed. "And he did save us from getting lost in this place," I said, and Zayn chuckled. "Sad that we didn't even get his name," Louis said, and I shrugged. "He looks like he works around here, so we may get it another time," I stated as Niall bit into his lemon cake.
We threw away our trash and walked next door into the meeting room. An assistant handed us our papers, and we looked at them. Apparently, there was a hidden kingdom we needed to discover? There was a lot of evidence, and it seemed very interesting. The door opened, and our boss, Simon, walked in. "Good morning, boys," he greeted, shaking our hands.
"Morning, Simon," I said before we took our seats, but Simon didn't. "Now, I won't be here for long since I want my foster son to explain what this project is all about. He'll be here in a few, and I want you to listen to him. He is very wise, and when he tells you to do something, there is a reason behind it, okay?" He said, writing the project on the smartboard. We sighed but nodded, not wanting to lose our jobs.
Simon adjusted the table for his son, and when he was done, the doors opened, and we looked to see the same guy we met earlier. He smiled at us, and we smiled back. "Harry, you're a bit late, kiddo," Simon said, and I was confused. "Sorry, had to pee before we got started. It was really urgent too," he said, walking up to Simon.
"What's going on?" Louis asked me in a low whisper. I shrugged and looked at the two of them. Simon put a hand on Harry’s shoulder, facing us. "Boys, this is my foster son, Harry Styles, and he will be the boss of this mission. I hope you will give him the same amount of respect you have given to me, but if you give him any problems, I will not hesitate to remove you from this project and let me remind you that if you are removed from this project, then you will lose your jobs," Simon warned us, and we paled. Simon didn’t pay attention to that though.
I looked at Harry with fear in my eyes as he looked at the papers. He organized them and looked right at us when he was done. He smiled at the whiteboard. "Hidden Kingdom… my dad is so straightforward, my god," He said with a giggle. It sounded really cute, but I didn’t dare say it aloud. I just stared at the boy as he erased and wrote ‘The Kingdom in the deep sea.’ "Do you guys think that sounds a bit more catchy?" He asked, turning to face us.
We kept silent, and he shrugged. "Oh well! It’ll have to do for now. Are you guys hungry?" Harry asked. Niall slowly raised his hand, and Harry smiled brighter. "Okay, so all I have is my lunch, but I can give it up," he said, handing Niall a container. Niall took it, opened it, and started to eat.
"Okay, so first things first, are you guys okay with sleeping on a boat?" He asked. I tilted my head. "You're not going to demand us to sleep on a boat?" Louis asked, and Harry shook his head. "As I told you, you shouldn't listen to rumors. It is actually pretty rude, so I’m a little offended that you judged me before even meeting me. I am not even remotely close to bossy. I am friendly and laid-back," he said, smiling. "We see that now, mate," I said, and he chirped.
"Well, let's start over. Hi, my name is Harry Styles, your new friend," he greeted, extending his hand to each of us. We shook it, and he looked at the board again. "So do you guys mind sleeping on a boat? This mission is going to take weeks, and I don't want to lose track of anything," Harry said, and we shrugged. "We don't mind, no," Niall said, and Harry nodded before writing ‘medium size boat required.’ "Now we have an idea of where the underwater kingdom is at, so we will hit that first thing in the morning, okay?" He asked, and we nodded with a soft smile.
Harry isn't so bad after all… I thought to myself as Harry tried to tell us a joke. It was easy funny, but it was bad. Like the joke was so bad that it became funny, you know? Kind of like dad jokes, but his jokes weren’t THAT bad. Anyways, the entire meeting was filled with chats about the mission, but we also had random conversations at times. It was an actual meeting that I loved being in for the first time ever. Harry’s so friendly, cute, se— wait, I can't be thinking that way.
I DON'T have feelings for the lad. I DON'T!
Right?