Something in the World Today

10

“You know how I said that there was going to be a time that you were going to be bad?” Harry asks. His arm is resting dangerously close to Louis’ mouth. Louis considers biting it.

He doesn’t, because he has some sense of self-preservation, but he wants to.

He really fucking wants to.

He also doesn’t answer, unsure whether Harry actually wants an answer or if he’s just talking so Louis doesn’t drift off. “You’re being bad right now,” Harry continues. His hand moves from Louis’ knee to the back of his head, pressing down firmly.

Louis still wants to bite it.

“You’re being so bad that I don’t think that this is going to cut it, sweetheart,” Harry says gently. Unexpectedly, Louis’ eyes prickle. Harry nudges his cheek. “Hey. You remember what I said? Just because you’re being bad doesn’t mean that you are bad.”

Louis nods a little miserably into Harry’s thigh. He was being a brat again, even more than normal. It’s just so hard to control sometimes, even if he knows that he’s doing it.

“Okay. So I want you to get up and put yourself face down over my lap.”

The thought of it doesn’t make anything better, but he isn’t sure that he wants to find out what Harry would do if he refused, so he starts moving slowly, grudgingly, until he’s settled in place.

Harry’s hand comes down warm and gentle on the back of his neck. “Don’t think that I didn’t notice that,” he says. It would be more intimidating if he didn’t sound so bloody amused, but Louis isn’t about to tell him that.

There’s no warning for the first smack. One minute Harry’s petting slow, soothing circles over his back and neck and the next his bum is smarting, sharp heat spreading through it. He makes a noise that’s somewhere between a gasp and a hiss and only tries to squirm away a little bit.

“You know you’re not going anywhere, baby,” Harry says, not even a hint of apology in his tone before he lays Louis out, giving him so many slaps in such quick succession that Louis has no chance of keeping track of them, too busy pressing his burning face into the sheets and clawing his fingers into Harry’s leg.

It hurts - of course it hurts. Harry’s not using all of his strength, but it feels like Louis’ arse might be on fire regardless.

And that’s before Harry yanks his pants down, leaving his bare arse exposed to the cold of the room. It makes his arse feel even hotter, somehow, and he barely has time to gasp out a pleading, confused, “What,” before Harry’s laying back into him, even harder.

It’s like the flood gates have been opened. Harry’s hand comes down on his bare skin, sharp and stinging, and Louis makes a noise, which seems like it spurs Harry on even more, barely leaving Louis a chance to drag in a breath, much less get used to it. He definitely can’t get used to the way Harry hits him in different places just long enough to start expecting the hurt to be spread out, only to change it up and start spanking him in the same place, on the meatiest part of his bum where he would have thought that it would hurt the least.

Of course, he would have thought it would hurt the least if he was only getting a couple of slaps there. Not the way Harry’s giving it to him, so many so quickly.

“That’s it, baby,” Harry says encouragingly. It’s the only reason that Louis realizes that he’s crying, gasping out great big sobs that sound entirely too loud in the silence of the room. “You’re okay. You see how good you can be?”

Louis squirms some more. Harry doesn’t stop him this time, gentling his slaps but keeping the same pace. It feels - it just feels. Louis doesn’t know how to describe the way that it hurts, the way that it’s working to make him feel better.