haven ☞ l.s

0.3

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Harry wakes up feeling groggy and regretful. He'd stayed up late last night, researching everything that he possibly could about BDSM and being a submissive. It was hard to find ones not directed towards women, but once he did find one for men, he'd read the whole website from top to bottom. Which would be fine, except it forced him to stay awake hours after when he would normally be sound asleep.

Still, he gets up dutifully when his alarm goes off, mostly getting ready with his eyes closed as he tries to hold onto precious moments of calm. He makes sure he's got his bag of candy—fully stocked, this time—and hurries out the door.

In the hallway at school, a few students wave at him, making him think he didn't do a half-bad job yesterday. He can only hope that he'll keep up his streak for the next two days.

When he makes it to the classroom door, he pauses to look through the window, because he can hear voices inside. He wouldn't want to walk in on Louis talking to the principal, or something. He hears Louis' voice, and another one that has to be a student—his voice is deep, but squeaky in some places.

"I need this class to graduate, sir," the boy pleads. "You can't fail me."

"Perhaps you shouldn't have cheated, then," Louis says. Harry can tell he's struggling to hold in a laugh. "I've got work to do, Stan. If you don't have anything important to say, I'd rather you left now."

An enraged groan sounds the room as the student whips open the door, disregarding Harry as he storms away.

"Um," Harry whispers, poking his head through. "Is it, uh, safe?"

Louis' previously stressed face morphs into a grin. "Harry!" he cries. "I sort of thought you'd have stayed home today, or transferred."

"No can do," Harry shakes his head. "My professor assigned me this class, so here I am."

"So you're only here for your professor?" Louis teases, standing up from his desk and cocking his hip against it as he thumbs over a copy of The Taming of the Shrew .

"Among other reasons," Harry giggles, stepping closer. "This is all your fault, by the way. I was up all night studying. Not studying for any classes , mind you—studying weird sex and different ways to make people cry."

Louis raises his eyebrows. " You want to make people cry?"

Harry narrows his eyes and frowns. "What if I did?"

Putting his hands up in a surrender position, Louis shakes his head. "Your choice, man."

Finally relenting, Harry slips back into an easy grin. "I'll leave that to you, I think," he directs his eyes down to Louis' book, asking, "What's that for?"

He doesn't expect the heavy sigh that leaves Louis' mouth upon being reminded of Shakespeare's play. "Unfortunately, this is our next school-mandated teaching material. I, personally, think this play shouldn't be taught to impressionable young women, but I have no say in the matter."

Harry can't help but laugh at how dramatic Louis is. "What's so, uh, bad about it?"

"Do you want me to rant about sexist themes in The Taming of the Shrew or do you want to talk about something more interesting for the five minutes you have me today?"

Harry has to scrunch his nose up to keep from smiling ridiculously. "Right. What's the deal with that Stan kid?"

"Well, I have to say, he was quite clever," Louis smirks. "The assignment was for every student to memorize twenty five lines of any Shakespeare play, and act them out for the class. If they brought a prop, they got extra credit. Stan, here, made his own sword out of cardboard, and he was looking at it pretty intensely as he said his lines. After class I asked him if I could keep the sword to hang above my desk, and, sure enough, his entire monologue was written on the blade. Creative, don't ya' think?"