Chapter Text
“Hey guys,” Harry said.
Everyone looked up.
Harry gestured to Niall and Liam, “Mind if we chat?”
Zayn narrowed his eyes at being excluded, “About what?”
“Early preparations for… Christmas”
“That’s not for another 5 months!”
“Like I said, early”
Zayn shot Harry an unimpressed look.
“Well gifts, actually,” Harry stammered, “Birthday gifts! … for your birthday. Wait no, Louis’. Yea, that’s around Christmas.”
Seeing four blank stares, Harry threw up his arms, “I give up. Niall, Liam, just, please?”
“You’d make a shit sub, Harry,” Zayn said, “You need to be able to lie to …ow!”
Zayn winced at the sharp spank Niall gave him.
“…have fun around here.”
“No lying!”
“Yes sir,” Zayn grumbled.
“You really aren’t subtle,” Niall remarked as the Doms settled in the office.
“I think I know that,” Harry replied dryly, “Anyways, I wanted to tell you guys, the number worked.”
Liam looked up quickly from the files he’d been mindlessly rearranging, “Worked as in..?”
Harry ran a hand through his curls, “As in someone picked up, Louis’ mom, actually. We talked about Louis for a bit, she misses him”
“Poor woman,” murmured Niall.
“So,” Liam said, “Now that we’ve found her, I guess she wants to see Louis?”
“That’s the thing,” Harry said, “She thinks he’s dead, I suppose that’s what she was told. And she seemed, well, like she’s made her peace with it. And, she was going on about how bright, and lively, and mischievous, naughty even, Louis was. And I, I couldn’t. I thought about Louis now, they’re not even the same person, it sounds like. Fuck, I just couldn’t, couldn’t tell her what happened to him, how scarily obedient he is, I couldn’t break a mother’s heart again. So I said I was sorry for her, and hung up.”
Liam and Niall moved beside Harry, stroking his hair.
They sat like that for a moment, then Harry broke the silence.
“His mom told me, you know one time, when some Doms had made fun of one of his sisters — he has six siblings, by the way — Louis marched right up and yelled at the Doms until they nearly started crying?”
“Oh Louis,” Niall said, sounding choked up.
Harry looked up wearily, “So what now?”
Niall and Harry both looked at Liam, and they all realizing this, laughed weakly.
“We don’t need to decide now,” Liam said, “We see how it plays out.”
“I think,” Niall said, “It’s up to Louis. It’s his mum, after all.”
“Right,” Harry said, “We can let him know sometime.”
“Yeah,” Liam agreed, “We should get back to the subs, though. Zayn’s probably already planning his revenge for us holding a Doms-only meeting.”
“Hey!” Niall started to defend his Zayn, but then scrunched up his nose, “You’re probably right, actually.”
But when the Doms returned to the living room, no such mischief was apparent. Instead, quiet murmurs could be heard, where Zayn and Louis were lazily playing Fifa.
“Ayy nice goal!” Zayn cheered, “Damn, how are you so good at this? Literally, Niall always makes me play and I’m still so shit.”
Louis smiled a bit, “Can’t argue with you there.” Louis suddenly tensed, as if realizing what he just said.
But Zayn just laughed, “Touche, Lou,” and leaned his head on Louis’ shoulder. Louis smiled, relaxing into Zayn comfortably. The Doms’ eyes softened, watching the two most important people at peace.
“Lou?” Harry said softly.
“Yea?”
“I got in contact with your mom.”
“Shit!” Zayn exclaimed. Louis had dropped his controller, and it knocked over the glass of water on the coffee table.
Louis didn’t move.
“Go clean it, boy,” Niall ordered Zayn, who obediently went.
“My mum?” he whispered.
“Yeah, babe,” Liam said, moving in to cuddle Louis. Louis leaned into Liam’s arms, a drastic change from when he first arrived.
“Does she know…?”
“She thinks you’re, well…” Liam said hesitantly.
“With the angels,” Harry finished.
Liam scrunched up his nose, “Sure, yeah, let’s go with that.”
Louis finally looked up, resolutely, from where he was buried in Liam.
“I don’t want to see her. It will just hurt her.”
Four heads snapped up quickly.
“You don’t need to decide now,” Liam said.
“I’ve decided already,” Louis responded, “she’s my family, she always will be. But I have one here.”
—
Three Years Later
Remnants of his dream — not a nightmare, just a confusing sequence of events — floated away as Louis awakened. He could feel the warmth of bodies around him, not suffocating but loving.
It was too dark to see their faces, but Louis went over them in his mind’s eye.
Harry, with so much love to give. Always empathetic, caring, and sweet. Liam, understanding, and patient. Seeing what Louis needed, staying calm when everything was falling apart. Zayn, willing to push his Doms, but also comfortable with his sub instincts. Niall, with his lightheartedness and jokes, but also fiercely loving. His relationship with Zayn, the little echoes of love always ricocheting between them, showed that such love was actually possible. And, Louis suddenly realized, such love was really possible. And he knew because he was living it.
“Lou, it’s 7 am on a Saturday,” Harry whispered, having just awakened and checked his phone.
“Oh, sorry,” Louis said, “I didn’t realize.”
Harry hummed, “Penny for your thoughts?”
“Just thinking about how much I love all of you.”
Harry smiled, “I’m always thinking about that, babe.”