It was Thursday afternoon and Niall, Harry and Haley were sitting in Harry's bottom bunk, talking about the upcoming maths exam, when the door swung open and Liam entered. But instead of a greeting them, Liam only barked, "Niall, I've been intending to talk to you. Harry, Haley, out."

"Why?" Niall asked, but his two friends already got up and walked to the door.

"I'll tell you as soon as we're alone." Liam said, sitting down next to Niall on the bunk bed and waving for Harry and Haley to leave.

"Wow, you're abnormally rude today." Niall commented, watching his friends leave the room.

"Well, I can tell you why." Liam turned to face him. "Because I am the one who had to comfort our heartbroken friend the last 35 hours or something. What the fuck are you doing, Ni?"

"What are you talking about?" Niall asked, although he already had an idea where this was going.

"Look." Liam said. "I'm really not good with all this social stuff, but it's even obvious to me that Louis and Harry love each other. We've even talked about this. And now I have to hear from a crying Lou that 'His Hazza'", he tried imitating Louis' voice, "is dating you. You, who were always supporting them. How the fuge did this happen?"

Niall took a deep breath. "Look, it's not what it looks like. It's just, Louis almost found something out that I don't want anyone to know. Not even Harry knows the whole truth even though he's the one helping me. This was just the easiest way out."

"So..." Liam frowned. "You're dating Harry to keep a secret from Louis? So you're using Harry?"

"No." Niall shrieked indignantly. "I- we're not really dating. I just told Louis that so he would stop asking."

"Okay, so when can you stop, because Louis is pretty damn depressed." Liam said. "Also, what did you tell Harry so he would agree with this? We all know that he would never even consider dating anyone but Lou."

Niall let out a heavy breath. "Many things. That I don't want anyone to find out what we're doing. But you're right, that wasn't enough reason for him since I don't want him to know the whole truth, but I also told him we could make Louis jealous so that he finally admits his feelings. It's a pretty awesome side effect."

Liam laughed, though there was no real joy behind it. "A side effect that is not needed anymore."

"What?" Niall asked. "It is absolutely needed. Louis finally needs to get his head out of his arse any admit that he is in love with Harry. Our plan will help brilliantly."

"It's a pretty stupid plan." Liam commented.

Niall grimaced. "Yeah, Haley said the same, but it's a classic movie move to make someone realize-"

"That's not why I said it's stupid." Liam interrupted. "It's just, Louis already knows he's in love with Harry. He was about to tell him that evening, but then you told him that you are already dating Harry. He was properly messed up."

"What?" Niall asked in disbelieve. "Why didn't he tell me?"

"Well, because you're the one supposedly dating Harry."

"No, I mean, why didn't he tell me he realized?" Niall specified.

"Well, he came to me to talk about it. Is that so hard to believe?" Liam crossed his arms.

"No, no." Niall hurried to say, but Liam could see it in his eyes. Niall was disappointed that Liam had known before him. He could not blame him though. People normally always chose Niall over him, because he was cute, funny and knew how to socially integrate himself.
There was a small silence that Niall interrupted. "Anyway, so just to get this straight. The only thing separating Louis and Harry now... is me?"

Liam laughed. "I guess."

"Damn, me and Harry have to break up." Niall cursed. "But... then I need another excuse for mine and Harry's... meetings."

Liam furrowed his eyebrows. "What's the problem anyways?"

"I can't tell you, Li." Niall said.

"Why can Harry know, then?" Liam wondered.

"He doesn't know everything." Niall argued.

"He obviously knows enough to go along with it even if it means lying to his best friend." Liam said. "That has to be pretty damn much. So why can he know but not me or Louis?"

"Because he's my friend." Niall saw the flash of hurt in Liam's eyes. "Not that you're not my friend." He hurried to add. "Just, I, uh."

"No, it's okay. You don't have to tell me." Liam assured, once again appreciating in his head how Louis had come to him to talk. It seemed like no one else told him anything. "So are you at least gonna tell Louis that it was all just played and that he can finally have Harry?" He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Niall's hesitation. "Why do you think Harry can keep your secret but Louis can't?" Liam pressed.

Niall pressed his lips together in deep thought. "I don't even know." Niall said after a while. "You're completely right. It's not like Louis is gonna announce it to the whole school. I don't even know why I thought telling Louis would be dangerous. Thank you, Li." He hugged him. "I get why Louis came to you to talk."

Liam beamed at him.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Niall ended up sitting down both Liam and Louis and told them what he had told Harry. He told them that they were both practising to participate in the musical, that's why Harry taught him to sing and Niall taught Harry how to play guitar.

"You play guitar?" Liam wondered.

"Yeah." Niall blushed, "A bit. But anyways..." He told them how he did not want anyone to know, because he wanted to surprise Haley with his guitar skills and he was scared that he would chicken out last minute before the musical try-outs and he did not want to disappoint anyone-

"You don't need to be scared, Ni." Louis said. "I will be there. And Harry now apparently too. I can't believe he didn't tell me."

"Because I told him not to."

"Still," Louis insisted. "He tells me everything. I don't see why this is different."

And Niall told them the most important reason why he had made such a big deal out of it. He told them about his father and how he was strictly against Niall doing anything that was not productive, which included playing guitar, participating in musicals or art or drama or whatever belonged to that department. And he was scared by telling to many people, his father would find out. He somehow always did.

Back in the second year on this school Niall had chosen dancing lessons as an extracurricular activity. His father went mental when he found out about three weeks in. He yelled at him, cancelling their winter vacation to Austria that year and told him if he had another stupid idea like that, he would send him to a military school. And that was really the last place in the world where Niall wanted to be.

"Oh." Louis said. "But what if you get a role in the musical? Then the whole school will know you're there then."

Niall smiled sadly. "I was hoping to keep it under the rock until it would be too fatal for me to be missing that my father has to let me stay to not get the reputation to be untrustworthy or something. I've already prepared a discussion with him but that only works if I'm already important for the play. And I would really love to be part of something like this. Just once."

"We get it." Louis smiled.

"You know we'll always have your back, right?" Liam said.

"Same to you." Niall smiled, then stood up and hugged them both. "Now go get your man, Louis."

They pulled away and Louis looked scared. "I'm not so sure anymore."

"Louis, I swear to god." Liam threatened.

"Okay." Louis said shakily. "I'll think of something. How about we get through the third task first."

The third task of the partner project was scheduled this weekend and still nobody knew what it was so they had no chance of preparing. The only hint they had was the task topic 'Teamwork and Communication', but that helped as much as mosquito spray on the north pole.

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The whole Saturday, announcements sounded through the school, asking pairs to come to the gym in regular intervals.

It was now six in the evening and Louis, Harry and Liam were sitting in the common room. Liam had asked them to question him for the upcoming history exam even though he already knew everything. Still, now Louis and Harry were cuddled up in a beanbag, holding Liam's folder in front of their faces while looking for things to ask him. But Liam could tell they were distracted, which was understandable.

Niall was currently in the 'Teamwork and Communication' Test with Ellie. Liam had already been there, but he refused to tell them what exactly the task was. Not because he tried to be mean, no, Liam did not even know how to be mean. Louis and Harry had both agreed on that. But he had to promise to Mrs Wanke and Mr Busse not to tell anything to anyone or else the test would not work. Mr Styles had told everyone that it would have serious consequences if anyone told a pair beforehand. One consequence was that this pair would be disqualified and excluded from the PhD work.

They had not spotted Niall yet when the announcer interrupted Louis' question about the people who were included in the polish conference after one of the world wars, Louis was not sure.

"Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles. Please find the gym in the next ten minutes, thank you."

It was always the same announcement, just different names, and it had been heard so often today that it was starting to get on Louis' nerves, but now, a wave of excitement mixed with anxiousness bubbled through him and he stood up quickly, letting Liam's folder fall to the floor, whose indignant "Hey!" Louis ignored, and held out his hand for Harry, who took it gladly and let himself be pulled up.

"See ya, Li!" Louis said briefly before hurrying to the gym with Harry, never letting go of his hand.

They were not disappointed with their excitement for the task. It was a very complicated parcour, that started in the equipment room. The first task was to get out of it by looking for the right key as a team. Then, they had to go through the parcour as quickly as possible, but it had nothing to do with strength or how fast they could run. It was made of riddles and high walls which you could only be overcome with good communication.

When they were finished, Mrs Wanke and Mr Busse's eyes widened when they typed in their results into the Computer. "Wow, boys. You got the highest score. The fastest time." Mr Busse said, and Louis and Harry grinned at each other, then falling into each others arms and rocked from side to side like they had just won the football world cup.

They remained with the highest score, even after everyone was done, but, as Mrs Wanke was sure to emphasize in her report, it was not because they were boys. The second fastest pair was a pair of girls, Cara and Tamara. It just showed that sometimes, communication between the same gender was easier since they could understand better the was the other one thought.

Which was also not always the case. You could see that in the first task, where boys and girls often evened each other out perfectly in the teamwork for information and presentation.

But, seeing the really big space between the first pair any everyone else just showed that the pair had a really strong bond, there was no doubt there.

So now only the last task was left. Creativity.