Birmingham Disciplinary School for Male - L.S.

6

MONDAY

As Liam walks into the living room with a worried look on his face, Louis has the immediate feeling that something is wrong. So he stands up and asks where Harry is.

"I-I... He has some kind of breakdown or whatever." Liam says, breathing quick. "I-I told him to-to give this lifestyle a chance and I- and I told him he can stop acting all bad boy a-and that he should finally get over his father and--"

"You said what?!" Louis exclaims shocked. "You are his best friend! You should know better than to bring that up!" he says before leaving the living room to get to his sub.

"I-I just wanted to help." Liam says quiet, looking pleadingly at Zayn.

"Harry?" Louis enters Harry's room, finding the boy sitting as small as possible against the wall.

The dominant closes the door as he carefully walks over to Harry, crouching down in front of him. He can hear mumbled words escape the curly haired boys lips and sobs. It is truly heartbreaking to Louis.

He places a cautious hand on his sub's knee. "Oh Harry, what's wrong?" Stupid question. He knows what's wrong.

Harry doesn't answer - as expected - , just continues to silently cry and once and again letting out a heartbreaking sob.

Louis sighs and moves to sit next to Harry. He places a hand around his shoulders and one around his knees as he pulls the crying boy onto his chest, rubbing his hand comfortingly up and down on the back.

"Ssh, Harry. It's alright, I got you." he says soothingly.

Harry at first doesn't want that. He doesn't want to get comfort in a guy he doesn't know except the name. But then he just gives up, the crying weakening him. So he doesn't push him away and listens to Louis' words.

-

Louis groans as he streches his legs and arms 45 minutes later. He just closed the door to Harry's room after putting the sleeping boy into the bed. They just sat there, Harry in Louis' arm, crying silently. Louis just held him. He swayed from side to side with soothing words and gestures. Then Harry finally fell asleep and the dominant managed to lift him up and bring him to bed without waking the sleeping boy. He didn't need to think about consequences if he changes Harry, because he didn't need to. Harry was wearing sweatpants and a shirt, so that's comfy enough for bed.

Louis walks back downstairs, running a hand through his hair as he steps into the living room. All eyes are on him immediately. "He is asleep." Louis says, leaning against the wall.

Liam gets up from his spot next to Zayn and walks over to Louis. "I am so sorry, sir." he says genuinely sorry. "I feel horrible for what I said to him. I shouldn't have."

Louis glares at the brown eyed submissive. "You damn right you shouldn't have. I don't even know what happened between him and his dad, but I know that he doesn't like to talk about him or that he gets even mentioned." Louis says.

"I-I'm sorry." Liam stammers, looking at the floor.

Louis runs his hand through his hair once again. "It's fine. You only wanted to help." He pushes himself away from the wall. "I'm gonna call Longwood and tell him we won't be able to come around."

-

An hour later Louis is in the kitchen, making himself a cup of tea. Zayn, Liam, Calum and Michael are gone and Luke and Ashton are at Luke's dad place for dinner. The dominant has his phone on his ear, talking to Mr. Longwood after he didn't answer the first time he called.

"No, he is still asleep." he says. "He was really exhausted after the day and everything."

Mr. Longwood hums. "I totally understand. You can come to me after school tomorrow. We can also talk about the weekend, when your parents come to visit." Louis nods.

All parents of the first year submissives and third year dominants come visit their kids on the first weekend just to meet the dominant or submissive their kids are paired up with and to asks how it's going. Louis thinks one week is too soon for telling how it goes.

"I think that's a good idea. Maybe he wants to tell you about what happened." Louis says.

He doesn't notice Harry standing in the doorway, leaning against the white frame with crossed arms. Louis says goodbye to Mr. Longwood before hanging up and sighing. He takes his tea and turns around, stopping in his movements as he sees Harry, who looks down at the floor.

"Do you want some tea?" the dominant asks, not wanting to make the boy uncomfortable by bringing up that he saw him in a very vulnerable state. He is sure that everything that happened is a little embarrassing for the green eyed boy. Someone he doesn't know or trust saw him having a breakdown...

Harry looks up and nods before sitting down at the kitchen island. He doesn't say anything, not sure how to start or what to say, really.

"Luke and Ash are out for dinner and because I'm shit at cooking I thought about ordering pizza. How does that sound?" Louis asks as he gets another cup and prepares another tea.

He turns to look at Harry as he doesn't get an answer. The curly haired boy looks at his hands, fiddling with them.

"Harry?" His head shots up, eyes on Louis. "You wanna order pizza or something else?"

"Pizza is fine." he answers quietly.

The dominant takes a piece of paper - the menu of a closest and best pizza place that delivers. "Choose what you like. You can also choose cheese inside the crust, what I personally love." he says, turning back to the tea he is making for Harry.

The submissive looks through his options and quickly settles for a simple pizza margarita.

He looks up as Louis places the cup of hot tea in front if him. "Thanks." he mumbles as he wrappes both of his hands around the porcelain to warm them up even though it's September and still pretty warm outside.

Louis smiles before sitting down on two bar stools down from Harry. He takes his phone and scrolls through his Instagram. Both hate the awkward silence between them.

"Uhm..." Harry clears his throat, looking into his cup. "Who were you talking to, if I'm allowed to ask?"

Louis locks his phone, turning slightly towards Harry, who isn't looking at Louis. "Of course you are allowed to ask, always. I talked to Mr. Longwood. I told him we are not able to sign the contracts today, due to personal reasons - I didn't tell him what happened. We will be going tomorrow after school and if you want you can tell him what happened. You don't need to though."

Harry frowns at his steaming tea. "I thought you are the one making the desicions in this... whatever it is we're having." He looks up to find a slightly smiling Louis.

"Not at all, H. You are still your own person. It's true that there are times where I will tell you something and expect you to do as told, but I try to do what's best for you." The blue eyes study Harry's face, who seems to be in thoughts.

The green eyed boy sighs before looking at Louis with determination written all over his face. "Can you tell me everything I need to know about this whole BDSM lifestyle? What your role is and what is expected from me?"

Louis would lie if he'd say he isn't surprised by that request. It is true that he is very happy about that. Harry asking for an explanation about this lifestyle is one step into the right direction.

So he smiles at Harry and nods. "Sure, but let me order pizza first, deal?"

A small - very tiny - smile forms on Harry's lips as he nods. "Deal."

With this Louis gets up and starts to look for the number of the pizza place in his contacts. He asks the curly haired boy what he wants before making his way to leave the kitchen.

"Louis?" Harry calls out before Louis can disappear. He looks at the green eyes questioningly. "Thank you. For, uh, helping me through that panic attack."

Louis smiles. "Any time." Then he has to leave to place his order.