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A chicken sandwich.
No, sushi.
Or what about that new pasta place around the corner?
Yes, Louis thought, definitely pasta.
Just as he was about to give himself a pat on the back for making such a good decision, the door to his small office flew open, the gust of air from the movement sending a stack of loose papers from his desk tumbling to the floor. The culprit, Louis’ intern Niall, grinned at him from the doorway.
“Hiya Lou” he said. “You should really tidy up your office, there’s paper all over the floor.”
“I noticed,” Louis said, attempting to sound cross but failing miserably as usual in the face of Niall’s constant happiness. Niall had only been interning at the veterinary clinic for a few weeks, but he had won everyone over quickly and was now a firm part of the clinic family.
“What did you want, Niall? I’m about to head out on my lunch break.”
“Fish emergency.”
“I’m sorry?”’
“Fish emergency,” Niall repeated.
“Yeah, I heard you, I just don’t understand.”
“There’s a guy here with his pet fish, and he is asking to see a vet urgently. Ergo, fish emergency.”
“Okay, so get Liam to take a look. It’s my lunch break and I have pasta calling my name.”
“No, Lou, trust me. You’re going to want to take this one.” Niall’s eyes were wide, looking meaningfully at Louis over his fake prescription glasses (“They make me look smarter, Lou, obviously”). What exactly the meaning of the crazy-eyes was, Louis wasn’t sure, and he was too hungry to bother thinking about it too hard.
He sighed as he stood up and followed Niall resignedly through the clinic, the last shining images of warm pasta in a creamy sauce fading away from his mind.
“He’s in room 3,” Niall said, “good luck!”
“Did you just wink at me?” Louis asked, but Niall just laughed and walked away.
Louis blinked twice, then shook his head in amusement and opened the door to consulting room 3.
And, oh. The crazy eyes made sense now.
There was a gorgeous man in his consulting room, and it appeared that he had foregone the plastic chair next to the examination table in favour of sitting up on the table itself, long legs crossed underneath himself. He was staring intently at the small fishbowl he held in his hands and didn’t seem to have noticed Louis walking in.
“Um, hi” Louis said, watching the man snap his eyes up from the fishbowl to meet his own. “I’m Dr. Louis Tomlinson, I’ll be your vet today.”
The man’s mouth opened slightly but he didn’t say anything, staring at Louis as he crossed the room.
“So I heard you had a bit of a fish emergency? How can I help?”
“Um...yeah. I have my fish here. And it is a bit of an emergency.”
His voice was deeper than Louis had expected, contrasting with the sweet brown curls framing his face, and now he understood why Niall had been so insistent that this client was worth giving up his pasta.
“Okay,” Louis said, determined to act professionally despite the small army of butterflies that seemed to have taken up residence inside his stomach, “so what exactly is the problem?”
The man held the fishbowl out towards Louis. Inside was a small goldfish, swimming around in circles.
“This is Ron – “
“Ron?” Louis interrupted.
A sheepish expression crossed the man’s face. “Um…my name is Harry?” he said questioningly, looking over at Louis who had begun to grin. Not only was this boy cute, he was also nerdy enough to name his fish Ron. Louis thought he might be in love.
“And do you two get up to lots of adventures together fighting dark wizards?” he asked, smirking at Harry, who seemed thrilled by the teasing.
“My sister named him, she thinks she’s funny. But I mean even though he’s a fish, I still think of him as my friend so it seemed appropriate.”
And – that was sweet, in a very strange way.
Harry’s gaze went back to the fishbowl, and his smile slipped away again.
“Ron’s been swimming upside down.”
Now that Louis looked more closely at the goldfish, he saw that he was indeed doing laps around the bowl while upside down.
“I’m pretty sure he has flipover,” Harry said, and even from a short assessment Louis agreed with that diagnosis. He didn’t see many fish in his practice, to be honest, but this condition was pretty obvious.
“I’ve been to see three different vets already,” Harry continued, “and none of them have wanted to help. They all just told me that it wasn’t worth fixing and that I should just go to the pet store and pay £3 for a new goldfish.”
Harry had been staring sadly at Ron as he talked, but now he looked up at Louis imploringly. “I need you to help me fix Ron.”
Louis’ heart had swelled about six sizes listening to Harry talk. He had been a vet for a few years now, and he had seen many people who absolutely adored their pets, but there was something so endearing about Harry being so determined to find a vet willing to treat his goldfish.
“Harry…”
“Can you fix him?”
Louis hesitated before he replied. “The only treatment that we can try for flipover is a surgery to remove air from his bladder. It’s definitely risky, Ron is so small that surgery will be difficult.”
He didn’t want to get Harry’s hopes up so he tried to use his most serious vet expression, but when he saw the tears falling from Harry’s eyes he wrapped a (completely professional of course) comforting arm around his shoulders. Harry obviously didn’t care much about the professional vet/fish-owner relationship as he wiggled around to turn it into a proper hug.
“Thank you, Dr Tomlinson,” he said with a teary smile, “You have no idea how much it means that you’re willing to try.”
“Louis. You can call me Louis.”
“Then, thank you, Louis,” Harry said, grabbing Louis’ hand and giving it a little squeeze. His hands were warm, and Louis was embarrassed by how much he didn’t want to let go.
*
Fifteen minutes later, Louis was all scrubbed up and ready for Ron’s surgery. Niall had prepped everything that Louis would need, and it was time to get started.
Louis took a deep breath to calm himself. He never usually got nervous before surgery, but today felt different. He knew that he was an excellent veterinarian, and he always did his absolute best for his patients, but this surgery had the added pressure of a very attractive, curly-haired angel waiting a few doors down. Success was imperative here – there was absolutely no way that Louis was going to let Harry’s fish die.
“Okay, Niall, bring in the patient please.”
*
Harry was pacing the waiting room nervously. Louis watched as he nearly tripped over a tabby cat that was perched on the floor. Harry immediately crouched down and scratched the cat behind its ears, apologising profusely to both the cat and its owner. Both seemed completely charmed, the elderly woman blushing as her cat purred contentedly at Harry.
Louis tried unsuccessfully to wipe the fond smile from his face as he approached the reception desk.
“Harry?” he called, again unable to keep his facial expression neutral as Harry startled at the sound of his voice and promptly unbalanced himself from his crouched position, falling flat on his ass in the middle of the clinic’s waiting room.
He stood up quickly and brushed himself off, saying a quick goodbye to the tabby cat before following Louis back into the consultation area.
“How’s Ron?” he demanded, “Is he okay?”
Louis paused by a closed door and turned to face Harry.
“Ron is fine,” he said with a small smile, watching as Harry’s eyes lit up. “The surgery went well.”
“Can I see him?” Harry asked.
“Of course,” replied Louis, opening the door they were standing in front of and leading Harry through to the clinic’s small recovery area.
In the far corner of the room, sat on a table, Ron was back in his fishbowl and swimming around - the right way up this time.
Harry reached over and put his hand on the side of the bowl, eyes following Ron as he did slow laps. The relief was obvious on his face.
“Thank you Lou,” he breathed, grabbing on to the sleeve of Louis’ white lab coat and giving him a big hug.
“You’re welcome,” Louis whispered into Harry’s shoulder. Reluctantly, he moved back from the embrace and looked back at Ron in his bowl.
“He should be completely fine now. We have to keep him here for a few more hours to make sure he’s fully recovered from the surgery but then you can take him home.”
“You hear that, Ron?” Harry said, “You’re going to be okay!”
“And, um… In the meantime… I mean before you came, I was going to go get some lunch?” Louis said, with a nervous glance at Harry. “There’s this new pasta place around the corner and they have a really good carbonara, and since you have a few hours before you can take Ron home I was wondering if maybe you’d like to have some pasta? With me?”
“Pasta?” said Harry, tipping his head to the side.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Louis said quickly, “I shouldn’t have asked, I’m sorry, you probably have other plans and –“ He was cut off by a gentle hand on his arm.
“Louis,” Harry said, a smile slowly spreading across his face, “are you asking me on a date with you?”
“Um… yes?”
“In that case, I’d love to have pasta with you.”
“Really?” Louis asked, feeling almost shy all of a sudden.
“Yeah,” said Harry, “on one condition.” He reached over and grabbed Louis’ hand. “No seafood.”