Barking Disasters

Oh why had he agreed to this again? He really didn't want to do this. Louis had been anxious for over an hour and in a few minutes he would have to floo over and face two big dogs. Pretty big according to Liam, which probably meant extremely huge in Louis' eyes. The boy nervously fiddled with his clothing and hair, the black finally started to grow on him. It wasn't as bad as he initially thought.

Finally he gathered enough courage, he was a Gryffindor after all, even if he usually did not look or act like one. "I'm gone! Be back later!" he called out, knowing his mother was in the sitting room. She called out a goodbye and Louis bravely stepped into the floo, throwing his powder into the fire as he called out the address.

"Hello?" he called out nervously, not sure if he was supposed to just enter. Not sure if he wanted to just enter. What if those dogs came and attacked him?!

Liam was walking to his garden as he heard the sound of someone calling out a greeting, moving backwards and looking into the living room. He had a relatively small house, but it was the price he paid for having a large garden on his income. The dogs were in the garden playing when Louis arrived.

He grinned when he saw his guest, walking towards him and clapping the younger male on the arm, pretending that it totally wasn't weird that he was hanging out with his best friend's little brother. Not at all.

"Hey, Louis. How've you been? Come on through, the dogs are in the back. Do you want a drink or anything?"

When Liam entered the living room, Louis stepped from the floo and anxiously checked the room for dogs again. But they weren't there. No dogs was good. No dogs was amazing. Yes, totally. He gave the man a smile and decided that no, it was not weird he was visiting his sister's best friend. Why would that be weird? It wasn't weird. And the fact he really liked his sister's best friend wasn't weird either.

Liam announced the dogs were in the back and Louis decided that the back was not something where he wanted to be. He was just fine inside, really. Maybe he could pretend he was cold. Though he doubted that would work because it was quite warm. He decided to try anyway when he had to.

"I've been good!" Louis answered, fixating his eyes back on Liam. "And you? A drink would be nice," he answered, figuring that meant they would go to the kitchen. Where there were no dogs. Louis had always liked kitchens.

Liam began to lead Louis through to the kitchen when he asked for a drink, trying to remember what was in his fridge. Not much, probably. There was only ever the bare minimum in his house. It was something he was never happy about.

"I've been pretty good thanks, not been up to much like. Do you know what you'd like to drink?" he got to the fridge and opened it. "I have juice and stuff if you want that?" he glanced up as he heard a bark from close to the door. "Probably Kai, he likes people. He'll be wanting attention no doubt."

Louis followed Liam to the kitchen and leaned against the table as the man opened the fridge. It was a slightly empty fridge, but Louis chose to not comment on it. Maybe he should offer to go grocery shopping with the man sometime. A fridge wasn't a fridge if it wasn't filled with products.

The dark haired boy nearly jumped when he heard a bark. Oh Merlin. The dog liked people, and wanted attention. Louis tried to ignore it, it was still behind a closed door after all. Nothing to worry about. Yet.

"Uhm, I don't mind really," Louis muttered, eyeing the products in the fridge a little warily. "I'll have water," he answered. "If that's okay," he added quickly.

Liam pulled out the juice for himself, nodding at the question of whether or not it would be okay to have water. Of course it would be okay. He got two glasses out of the cupboard, pouring the drinks before putting the juice away and handing Louis his glass.

"Here you go," he said, gesturing for Louis to follow him to the kitchen window, where they could clearly see the two dogs now playing together in the garden. "Likes people, but has a short attention span apparently. Do you want to go out and see them now, or finish your drink first?" he asked. He was always excited to introduce his friends to his dogs. "If you get on with them you could join us for a walk later," he added with a grin.

Louis started to sip his water when it was handed to him, he briefly wondered if he was supposed to be saying that the water tasted good, but it was water so it didn't really make sense. The boy decided to opt for silence instead.

"Thank you,' he muttered, following Liam to the kitchen window like he motioned. The first thing that he thought when he saw the two dogs rolling around was the fact that they were really, really big indeed. We would not survive going to see them. His eyes widened slightly and he started to feel a little nauseous.

"We should probably finish our drink first," he said quickly, deciding to buy as much time for himself as he could manage. "And sure, I doubt they'll like me though," he said, biting his lip. Oh Merlin he really hoped they disliked him.

Liam turned to look at Louis as the boy was speaking, raising a brow at the look on his face. He didn't notice before, but Louis looked a little...nervous? Yeah, he was going to go with nervous. He was a cat person, or at least he owned a cat. Maybe he wasn't used to being around dogs?

He bit back a smile at the boy's next sentence. Oh, there was definitely something amiss here. "Oh, I'm sure they'll love you. Kai's very friendly, like I said. Not met a person he didn't like," he couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corners of his lips as he continued to talk about his other dog.

"Ash, though, Ash isn't as friendly all the time. But I wouldn't worry too much. Her bark's louder than her bite."

Oh the dogs would love him. Did that mean they would come near him? That probably meant they'd come near him. Louis tried, he really tried, to smile happily at the fact that the dogs would like him, but all he managed was this small watery smile to show his excitement that wasn't really there. He really hoped they wouldn't bite.

When Liam mentioned that Ash, one of the dogs, barked louder than she bit, Louis' eyes went wide with fear. "S-she bites?" he asked in a shaky voice. Dear Merlin how was he ever going to survive this. Why would Liam even want dogs that bit people. Why did people even want dogs in general. How could Louis ever have said that he liked dogs. The answer to that question wasn't hard, but Louis wasn't quite prepared to admit that he'd lied about liking dogs because he wanted to spend more time with Liam.

He took another small sip of his drink, wishing that the glass would just stay full forever so he wouldn't have to go outside.

Liam shrugged casually at the question of whether or not Ash did actually bite. She chewed, more when she was a puppy, but these were small details. "Sometimes, you just have to avoid stepping on her tail, really. Hey, at least she doesn't have a muzzle, those things really make a dog angry," he grinned down at Louis.

Really, he was becoming less and less convinced that the younger boy actually liked dogs. Then again, he didn't actually like seafood, so it was only fair.

Liam swigged down the rest of the contents of his glass, before putting it down on the counter, heading towards the back door and gripping the door handle. "Shall we go say hello then? Unless, you know, you've changed your mind?"

Louis rocked back and forth on the heel of his feet, nibbling on his lip nervously. "I'll make sure to stay out of the way of her tail then," he said slightly shakily. He really, really didn't know why he agreed to this. If the dog bit him he was going to panic. What if it killed him? It was certainly big enough to killed him. Louis only just managed to keep himself from whimpering.

He was too nervous to say no, afraid that Liam would dislike him if the man found out that he didn't actually like dogs. So he drank the last of his drink and then nodded.

He made sure to stay behind Liam at all times. "Show me those dogs of yours," he said, trying to sound enthusiastic. He had a feeling that he failed quite miserably.