I'm in Love With A Criminal

~5~

TW: homophobic slurs, threats, physical violence, cutting

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•

Harry rummaged through his closet, desperately trying to find something that would fit Louis, even just a little bit. He knew that everything he owned would drown him, and he'd be tripping over it a lot. He didn't mind putting Louis in his clothes, but he didn't want to see a single bruise on him. Louis stood in silence, unsure of what to do. He wished he was taller. It's not easy being short, especially when you're considered short for an 18 year old boy.

Finally, after a few grunts and groans, Harry stood up and held dark grey sweats with a white, long sleeve shirt that was 100% certain to give him sweater paws.

Harry reached out to hand over to clothes and noticed Louis was caught off guard and rubbing his clothed arm. He frowned and watched. "Hey, here's some clothes... are you ok?"

"Hm?" Louis jumped. He took his hand off his arm and smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little itchy."

Harry hesitantly nodded, knowing that wasn't the case. But, he placed his large hand on Louis' back and lead him to the bathroom. It was very beautiful; gold and grey theme with a huge bathtub and walk-in shower. The mirror was really big, with a mini vanity next to the shower.

Louis places the clothes on the counter in front of the mirror and let Harry start the bath. He turned to Louis and gave a small smile. "How is everything going?"

"You know, just kidnapped and locked in a basement. Nothing much."

Harry chuckled and took a seat on the bath edge. He poured in some bubbles as he continued talking. "So you're 18? I'm guessing you started Uni?" Louis nodded. "How's that going?"

"It's alright..." Louis lied, and Harry could obviously tell that. "The people are... nice, I guess"

Harry tilted his head to the side. "I know that's not true," he said. "What's going on?"

Louis shook his head and stared at the floor. "I don't know. Just some homophobic assholes."

He stayed quiet, and noticed Harry hasn't said anything and was expecting an answer. With a sigh, he explained everything. "I've always been around homophobic people forever, but at Uni, there's this one certain guy that's my age. I thought he was cute and I actually had a crush on him for awhile. We were pretty close, but when he found out I'm gay he just stopped talking to me."

"A few weeks later, he and his friends—mostly him—started bullying me. They started threatening me online. They kept me after school to beat me up behind the building, call me names, and threatened to kill me. Once, they pinned me down on the ground and held a knife to my neck and teased me by ghosting it over my neck, but they didn't do it," Louis' voice shook. "Instead, they grabbed my wrist and cut it, saying over and over again how I deserve it for being a fag."

Harry felt his blood boil. No one deserves to be abused like that, especially not his Louis.

He bit his lip to keep back anything as he saw Louis shake his head, obviously to keep back tears. He turned the water off and ran for him, engulfing the very small boy into a huge hug.

"Why didn't you talk to anyone, love?"

Louis sniffed and shook his head against his chest. "I couldn't. T-they threatened to do much worse than c-cutting my wrists if I told someone."