Louis watched Liam fond over the blonde Irish boy laughing alongside Harry. He smiled at his older brother knowingly; Liam blushed, putting his head down to hide his rosy cheeks.

Louis sauntered over to the boys from the empty stands. He was waiting until mostly everyone had left, trying to avoid a run in with Stan and his new (maybe old) boy toy— Louis could tell Stan was cheating on him with the younger lad for quite some time, he just never mentioned it— before going to speak to his friends.

"I'm so proud of you, lads. Congratulations on winning Nationals," Louis congratulated with a smile.

"Thank you, Lou. I think we're going to dinner now, do you want to join?"

"Sure!"

Harry wrapped his arm around Louis' waist protectively, seeing Stan coming before anyone else had.

"Oh! Yeah!" Stan clapped sarcastically. "Congratulations," his voice was animated, "we sure did great out there, boys, innit? I mean, under the circumstances, right? We won, Harry got little slut over here, finally. I mean, I always knew Louis was a whore but never did I pin Harry as one to be into little twinks who like to be slapped around."

Tears flew down Louis' cheeks, feeling Harry's arm moving from his body. He knew it was too good to be true. Harry was just using him, wasn't he?

His thoughts left his mind the second he saw Harry's right fist come into contact with Stan's face.

--

"Ah," Harry seethed, the rubbing alcohol burning his knuckles.

"I'm sorry, daddy," Louis whimpered, trying to be more gentle.

Harry, Niall, and Liam froze. This was the first time since the situation with Stan that Louis had said daddy, let alone slip into little space at all.

"Um, what?"

Harry ignored Niall, too busy with Louis to answer to the Irish boy. "Louis, baby," Harry whispered. He reached up to touch Louis' face, look into his eyes, make sure he truly meant what he had said and this wasn't just Louis trying to satisfy him.

"Yes, daddy?"

Harry smiled at his boy, kissed his lips tenderly before letting Louis continue to wrap and clean his bloody hands from his fight with Stan.

"Sorry mates but I'm very confused. Daddy? Does Louis have a daddy kink or is it more of a DDLG— DDLB, sorry— type of thing?"

Liam sighed, dreading trying to explain his brothers...issue to his crush.

Liam cleared his raspy throat, the shouting he had done with Stan finally catching up to him. "It's only for Harry really— the daddy thing, I mean. But Lou," Liam hesitated, not even Harry knew what he was about to say, and he hoped Louis wouldn't get too upset. "Louis, he um, well, our parents really didn't give us much of a childhood and you know, Louis isn't the most mature and although I kind of adapted into being independent, Louis didn't. Our parents put so much pressure onto him when they noticed how well I was doing. They made him think I was so much better because I was getting better grades and played sports while Louis always invested time into his art and drama. I didn't mean to be better, we just liked different things and to our parents the things I did were more important. Louis started resorting back to childhood, or the lack thereof, to cope with the way they treated, and the way they still do treat him, sometimes. So Louis looked into DDLB after I," Liam gulped, "after I mentioned being into being a-a dominant."

Liam whispered the last word, hoping Niall wouldn't hear but by the look on his face, he knew he did.

"Wait so your parents that I've met twice made Louis this way?" Harry was getting angry. He didn't know Louis was being so degraded, and he understood why Louis relied on Stan so much— because no one else relied on or had faith in him.

Harry felt guilty. He had been so mean to Louis for so long due to his inability to accept himself; he didn't want to flaunt his sexuality or his liking towards Louis in public simply because he had a reputation to uphold.

But Louis was going through so much more and he had been so selfish to pepper him with his own self esteem issues.

Liam sighed and finally answered Harry's question, now regretting mentioning the last bit of the story. "Unintentionally, yes. They don't realize it, because they're never here so how could they? Always traveling does that to you. It makes you lose your own kids."

Louis stayed silent through the whole thing, focusing on the blood stained on Harry's finger nails, refusing to look up. He didn't want to see the disappointment radiating from their eyes. He was scared Liam was upset, knowing that he could've potentially just ruined things between him and Niall. Harry would be ashamed, he was sure, that Louis had never told him of their parents deprecation.

"So you like being called daddy? Like Harry does?" Niall questioned Liam but Harry corrected instead.

"I wouldn't say I like it, I wouldn't say Liam does either. For both of us, it's more of a lifestyle choice. I didn't even look into this stuff until Liam called me about Louis about a year ago, needing help while Louis was little. Li knew before anyone, he thinks the highest of it and although neither of us see it as a requirement in a relationship, it never hurts to hear daddy when Louis is riding my hips like-"

"Harry!" Louis and Liam shouted at the same time. Louis' cheeks were bright red while Liam was shocked, never wanting to hear about Louis and his sex life especially when it was with his best friend.

"Sorry!"

"So what does this mean for you and me, Li?"

They room went silent. Louis and Harry didn't know how much of a relationship had been established but based on the lack of PDA between Liam and Niall, Louis could tell Liam hadn't told a soul about his crush that had developed.

"W-What do you mean?"

"Well, unless I've been dreaming I'd say we fancy each other, love, and I would love for you to ask me on a date to see how far this can go."

Liam smiled shyly. "Y-Yeah. I would r-really like that."