Superheroes 3

8

"I'm worried about Arthur. That kid is up to something." Louis said one night when he and Harry were getting ready for bed.

"He's not smoking weed anymore, right?" Harry wondered.

"No..." Louis replied.

"Why did you hesitate?" Harry wondered as he removed the many decoration pills on the bed.

"I have a feeling he might be on something else." Louis said.

Harry stopped midair and stared at his husband.
"What? Are you sure?"

"No, I'm not sure. I don't want to worry Niall before I am. He's got enough on his plate right now." Louis sighed.

"Yeah." Harry agreed, looking unhappy.

They got into bed and Harry lay his head on Louis' chest and held him tightly.
"I wonder if something else is going on as well. I think Arthur might be gay." Louis said.

"You think?" Harry questioned.

"Maybe. If that's the case, you know how confusing that can be in your teens." Louis answered.

"Oh, definutely. Should we talk to him about it?" Harry asked.

"Absolutely not! He might not be ready to address it. You know how delicate we had to be with Darcy." Louis said and smiled fondly when he mentioned their oldest daughter.

They had suspected early that she was into girls but had waited until she was ready to tell them.
"True." Harry chuckled.

"You should still try and talk to him though. He's always thought you're the one with the coolest ability and he's not wrong." Louis said and pecked the top of Harry's head. Harry kept it short nowadays due to increasing baldness and he missed his lovely curls a little but it didn't make him love him less. Nothing would.

"Says the man who can fly." Harry giggled.

"Yeah, I'm pretty cool too." Louis joked.

"I will try and talk to him but I think our abilities are the main cause of his troubles. Arthur has always been sensitive. It must have been a hard pill to swallow being the only one without special powers." Harry answered thoughtfully.

"Yeah. We don't know if our grandchildren will have abilities though. He might not be the only one in the future and I mean, most people don't have them. He's the normal one among us." Louis said.

"I don't think he sees it like that." Harry replied dryly.

"Yeah. Wanna have sex?" Louis asked.

"Smooth, Tomlinson. Come here." Harry laughed and turned his head so he could kiss him.

Harry talked to Arthur two days later but couldn't get through to him. They all tried. Arthur just pushed them away.

They tried their best to support Niall as well. Worrying about his youngest had made him age ten years. His hair was all grey now.

Arthur didn't seem to care about much these days. He went to school but his grades were dropping rapidly and he was failing several classes. Niall and Claire had to attend meeting after meeting at school sometimes in the company of Arthur and sometimes just the two of them. Nothing they did or said seemed to get through to him.

A couple of months later Avolon knocked at their bedroom door when they were settling in. She looked concerned and nervous.
"I need to talk to you."

"Alright. What's going on?" Niall asked.

Avolon closed the door behind her and took a seat on the bed.
"I've heard rumors about Arthur in school for some time but I didn't want to believe it."

"What kind of rumors?" Claire asked.

Avolon hesitated.
"That he's dealing drugs at school."

Her parents stared at her in disbelief.
"Arthur? Why would he...  No. That can't be." Niall said, visibly pale.

"I didn't want to believe it either, Dad but I'm sure." Avolon said and bit her lower lip.

"How can you be sure?" Claire asked.

"Because I decided to see if it was true. I changed my appearance to one of the known druggies in school and approached Arthur and asked him if he had something to sell and he did! Look." Avolon said and picked up a bag of pills from her pocket. She burst out crying.

Niall had gone white. He took the bag of pills and looked at it.
"What is it?"

"Arthur said that it's exctasy." Avolon cried.

"I'll get that confirmed. Thank you for telling us, Avolon." Niall said, visibly shaken up.

"I didn't want to rat him out. He's gonna hate me!" Avolon said upset.

"You did the right thing, sweetie. We won't tell him that you gave us this information." Claire said.

They hugged their daughter and tried to comfort her. When she had calmed down and returned to her room Niall turned to his wife.
"What are we gonna do?"

"I don't know. This is serious. Do we call the police?" Claire questioned.

"No!" Niall gasped. He shook his head in sorrow. "He's our beloved son. Maybe that's the right thing to do, I don't know... But I can't do that. Can you?"

"No." Claire said without hesitation.

"He must be getting these drugs from somewhere. Let's start there. Who is providing him?" Niall questioned.

"Right. How will we even find that out?" Claire wondered.

"Well, we happen to know someone who can be invisible." Niall said.

"Are you gonna let Eden spy on him?" Claire asked and stared at her husband.

"Do you have a better idea?" Niall wondered.

"No, but I don't like it." Claire answered.

"Me neither. Trust me. I'll call Eden right away and explain the situation." Niall said and picked up his phone.

Claire listened to Niall's side of the conversation. Five minutes later he hung up the phone.
"She'll do it."