Work Text:
Harry read over his notes again and again, having never been so great at presentations. Well, no, in his opinion, they were amazing, but other people might disagree. He quite liked giving presentations in class, especially if he could get some laughs from it.
That's what he was hoping for today, at least. The jokes he'd written into his speech were really good, he had to admit. He'd spent all night coming up with some great fucking puns - he was throwing it out there - because they were, and his mum found them funny, so.
It was their first round of presentations for this class, and he hoped college kids found his jokes just as funny as high school kids did. They were still the same, he was a college man now. Yeah, his jokes were funny, he just needed to be confident in them. His teachers and classmates used to love when he cracked a joke through a powerpoint or in assembly, people used to go nuts for him. He even amped his English grade up to a B from a C just for his verbal presentation.
Harry let out a sharp breath, stacking his flash cards together as the guy who had been sitting next to him for the last three weeks finally walked in, taking his seat and pulling out his laptop, always seemingly at least ten minutes late or so. He didn't know his name, their class was so big, and God, it dawned on him just how big the class was. Fuck, not everyone was gonna laugh. Maybe no one at all, maybe if just one person laughed then he'd be fine.
Lightbulb.
"Heeeey," he drawled out quietly, turning his head to look at the guy with a ridiculously slow twist of his neck, which the guy responded to with a raised eyebrow, lips hidden behind the hand they were pressed into.
"Yes?" Stupidly good looking guy responded.
Harry cleared his throat a little, shifting in his seat and leaning a little closer. "For this presentation, right, I, uh. Well, I've put a couple of funny, like, really funny jokes in my speech, yeah? And, uh. Well, I know people are gonna laugh, but if, y'know. Well. Y'know. If that doesn't happen, could you do me a favour and maybe laugh? Though, they are really funny, so you won't need to fake it."
The lad just kind of looked at him for a moment, sizing him up with narrowed eyes and a low hum before nodding without a word.
That's all Harry needed, letting out a relieved breath, hoping it didn't come to the cute guy with a nice face laughing out of pity, but it was definitely reassuring, something cushioning to fall back on if his jokes didn't hit the spot, but fingers crossed it didn't come to that.
He rubbed his hands together again and again like a chill was in the air as he waited for his name to be called, waiting for his opportunity to shine.
God, please let him fucking shine.
When his name was finally called, he stood up and gave the guy next to him a nod, who returned it with a salute, giving him a little bit more reassurance as he tried not to stumble down the stairs to the front, plugging his laptop in and making sure his presentation was visible on the projector before giving his professor a nod.
"Of all the introductions I've received, that was by far the most recent."
Silence for a split second before he heard a casual laugh, lifting his gaze from his laptop to look at the cute guy he sat next to, lips twitching when he was given a thumbs up. He smiled to himself as he dropped his gaze back to his laptop, bringing up the right slide before facing the class.
So far so good, Geography was a pretty versatile subject with plenty of opportunities for jokes. Plus, this presentation was more light hearted, was more so that they could present their talents, express their interests, and it just so happened that his talents and interests were jokes.
A couple minutes in, he threw in a:
"Did you hear about the Frenchman who jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing a parachute and landed in the river? The police didn't arrest him because he was clearly in Seine."
His heart was instantly racing when he got only a few tiny laughs, worse than no fucking laughs at all, honestly - but he wasn't disappointed for long when he was given a loud laugh from the back, his worried frown instantly turning into an amused smile as he looked at the guy; head dropped back, hand on his chest, definitely over doing it, but he loved it.
And if he thought that was overdoing it.
The other lad's reactions seemed to get more ridiculous with every pun he threw out there, and honestly he was beginning to struggle to keep himself composed, having to pause every now and then to clear his throat or take a breath.
"Speaking of pencils-" he wasn't even on the subject of pencils "interesting fact about them, they actually all originate from Pennsylvania." His gaze immediately dropped to his feet with a snort at the sound of Zayn - apparently, from what the professor kept referring to him as - laughing his arse off again, giving a loud howl.
"Pennsylvania!" He wheezed out, clapping his hands together, before pointing down at Harry, one finger resting on his nose. "That was beautiful!" He called down, going above and beyond of wiping away fake tears. The rest of his classmates were definitely confused, clearly wondering what the fuck was wrong with the kid in the back laughing at these stupid jokes. And they were stupid, each one more so than the last.
You lied, mother.
Harry's presentation really was just turning out to be more jokes than actual facts, though the last few people who had given theirs had literally mumbled so quietly and gave so little interest that he was sure this blew them out of the water. Or he hoped, at least.
It was so hard to try and concentrate when Zayn continued to wheeze and make ridiculous noises all through out, even when he wasn't tossing in an obvious, dad joke pun into the mix, and despite the laughs being canned and fake as fuck, they were still making his stomach ache with the need to crack up.
He cleared his throat as he opened up another slide, a simple question asking what place was mentioned in the question, the 'c' in the word place highlighted red. He clicked next before anyone had a chance to point out the terrible joke, turning and face them as the answer obnoxiously bounced onto the screen, reading:
"The Red Sea."
His head immediately lifted to look at Zayn as the other lad literally stood up, belting out a laugh so loud that it bounced off the walls, watching him as he paced back and forth on their row, clapping the guy on the shoulder in front as he wheezed out a hard laugh, students turning to look at Zayn as he doubled over, hands on his hips as he 'struggled' to catch his breath, hand going to rest on his chest.
"My God," Zayn laughed, coughing into a fist as he slumped back down in his seat. "Tha-That. I'm using that one!" He yelled down to Harry, banging his hand against the table.
Harry snorted out a ridiculous laugh as he finished up his presentation, his smile so wide that his face hurt and his cheeks burned and his eyes stung with tears.
"Thank you for listening," was what he finished up with along with a, "stay safe, use protection."
Which sent Zayn into an uproar of laughter as he stood from his seat again, clapping and cheering for him so loudly that it felt like he was performing for a stadium, made him feel like fucking Jimmy Carr, giving a bow before he packed up his equipment, their professor yelling out, "That's quite enough, Mr. Malik." Just as Zayn toppled over his seat backwards in a fit of giggles.
By the time he'd taken his seat again, class was coming to a close, Zayn was perfectly silent again, scrolling through a Domino's website, and before he even had the chance to thank him as everyone was leaving, Zayn was up on his feet and slinging his bag over his shoulders and leaving.
Harry felt almost defeated again, having wanted to thank the lad for being such a good sport and overdoing it, but his mood didn't drop too low before he was lifted his head at the sound of an, "Ay."
"Come on, pun master, you're buying dinner."