Chapter Text
At 6 a.m. every morning Niall catches the train which takes him from Kent to London. By 7 a.m. he’s at the tube station which is always too crowded for his liking, given his claustrophobia, and by 7:30 a.m. he gets to work. Niall is a legal secretary at one of the best firms in London – Freidman-Styles-Payne. He’s worked there for two years and absolutely loves it. At 11:55 a.m. he goes to lunch with Louis, one of the paralegals at the firm.
Lunch with Louis was one of the highlights of his day. Louis, the eccentric that he is, always has some amazing story for Niall during lunch. They buy sandwiches from the sandwich shop near the firm and then cross the street to sit on one of the benches overlooking Canary Wharf.
“You would not believe what happened to me last night!!” exclaimed Louis.
Niall murmurs incoherently, mouth full of his cheesy chicken Panini, and that’s the only encouragement Louis needs to continue.
“So I was in zumba class last night and then in the middle of dancing our asses off to Latin pop someone’s crazy ex-girlfriend, well I’m assuming they’ve broken up, stormed in shouting for Kara to leave her man alone! Kara, who is actually in the class I shit you not, simply says without even batting an eyelid, that if Brent was your man then he wouldn’t be with me and just goes to get her water and towel. Big mistake!!! The crazy ex literally ran up to Kara grabbed a handful of her hair and started kicking and screaming. We were all too stunned to even part them until after a couple of minutes when it suddenly registered what was happening. Our zumba trainer grabbed Kara and some other people grabbed the ex and security was called and class ended early because Kara might have elbowed the zumba trainer and bruised his rib.”
“Wow! Can you imagine turning into a crazy ex and making a scene if you find out someone’s cheating on you?” says Niall shaking his head, genuinely curious because he can’t picture himself ever doing that. When he found out that his high school boyfriend was cheating on him with Barry from his Chemistry class, was he sad? Yes. Was he pissed off? Yes. Enough to ‘accidentally’ spill Acetic Anhydride on Barry during their Chemistry lab sessions? Nope. Not worth the effort.
“Can I imagine?! I’ve BEEN the crazy ex several times before!!!” exclaimed Louis “That’s a story for a night at the pub though. Need a few pints in me before going down memory lane.”
After lunch, as usual, they return to work until 5 p.m. He then commutes back to his home in Kent and does the same thing the next day.
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The next day, the office buzzes with excitement. Everyone looks enthusiastic which is weird because at 7:30 a.m. everyone there usually operates on autopilot mode at least until their second cuppa kicks in around 9 a.m. He finds Louis at his desk straightening his tie and checking his teeth using the front camera of his phone. Louis tells him that Mr. Style’s son will be joining the company today since he’s finally finished law school.
“Oh I can’t wait to see him Ni! Everyone says he looks like a model! All tanned and tall with green eyes and chocolate brown hair! I hope he likes blokes!! How do I look?!”
“As good as you’ll get. He’ll waltz in and fall in love with you the moment he sets eyes on you” smirks Niall as someone calls for them to all gather round.
Louis just rolls his eyes and they make their way to where everyone is gathered.
“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to my son, Harry. He’ll be joining our firm from today. Harry would like to say a few words.” Mr. Styles absolutely beamed with pride for his son who seemed to be an exact replica of himself at 25.
Louis was right. He did look like he stepped off a runway in his tailored St. Laurent suit. His voice was low and raspy and sexy and Niall was so enthralled by his voice during his little speech that none of the words even registered. Niall had no idea what Harry said until he stopped talking and Louis nudged him a bit. When he snapped out of his reverie, all eyes were on him, including a pair of piercing green eyes which made him feel like squirming.
“S-s-sorry. Can you please repeat that?” he stuttered, face heating up and turning pink under the all the attention.
Harry shakes his head and repeats that Niall would be his secretary from today and that he would like to start with a bit of a tour since his father didn’t have the chance earlier. With that everyone goes back to their desks to get back to work leaving Niall gaping at Harry, a bit like his goldfish at home. He’s definitely not made the best first impression.
“Shall we get on then?”
“Y-yes of course Mr. Styles.” Niall hates that his voice wavers so much but he is still in a bit of shock. He’s Mr. Payne’s secretary and Mr. Payne was the youngest named partner so he was not retiring any time soon, he was one of the hardest working lawyers there so there was no way he was fired. Could you even fire a named partner? Why was he now Harry’s secretary? Did he do something that upset Liam? Surely he would have told Niall if he did something wrong.
“Well do you want to lead the way anytime today? We’ve got lots to do today. And please call me Harry.” Harry snapped out interrupting Niall’s inner musing.
“R-right” stuttered Niall and he started the tour from the ground floor and worked his way back to the top floor where their desks were still unsettled from his sudden reappointment.
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Harry dove into work straight away, familiarizing himself with the cases he would be handling and giving all his clients courtesy calls letting them know he would be handling their cases and introducing himself and other lawyer-y things. He gave Niall an hour to move his stuff from his desk outside Liam’s office to his new desk still giving no hints as to why he was reassigned.
Exactly an hour later, Harry gave Niall a mile long to-do list of all the things he wanted taken care of - some things were definitely not part of his job description! While the list included regular tasks like doing some research for a few cases, organizing a couple of meetings with clients and setting up a few appointments, preparing a couple of legal documents and getting him some files on cases he wanted more information on; the list also included his coffee order, his lunch order, a list of his allergies and a few things he wanted for his office – a bonsai tree, an hourglass and a Newton’s Cradle. Niall never had to do any of this when he worked for Liam. Did Harry expect him to actually bring him his coffee and lunches at the times he wrote next to his orders?? Was he meant to order a bloody Bonsai tree of Amazon?!! He was a trained legal secretary who was damn good at his job if he might say so himself! Did Harry think he was his PA? His butler?! Maybe he was over-reacting, maybe this list is just for him to consider when making reservations for Harry and his clients. Yah, that’s all it was.
A call from Louis interrupted his mental tirade.
“What’s up, Lou?”
“Don’t what’s up Lou me! You didn’t tell me you’d be working for him! Tell me everything! You lucky, lucky duck! So what’s Mr. Tie-me-up-tie-me-down like?”
“I-I didn’t know! I’ll tell you about it over lunch! I’ve got to go! Got lots to get done.” Niall rushed out and hung up on Louis as he felt Harry’s eyes on him. When he turned, Harry’s eyes bore into him.
“I’ll be in a meeting until 1:30 p.m. Pick my lunch up on your way back from your lunch break today. All other days I’ll have lunch at my desk at the time on your list unless I tell you otherwise.” Without even waiting for Niall’s response, Harry walked out and left for his meeting leaving Niall for the second time in one day gaping at him.