Don't Focus on the Pastel {5SOS;MALUM&LASHTON}✔️

Twenty Four: "Connect the Dots, Pretty Boy."

The older brunet stared at Harry in shock, never having heard Harry swear or seen him get so angry about whatever was on his mind. He was almost relived when he saw Cory, the bumbling examiner seemingly pleased as he huffed from his run across the hall to see Harry and Louis.

"When the moon is out, towards the night I howl. When the rabbits are about, the forest I prowl. What am I?" He questioned seemingly unable to speak without having a riddle but height cop cared and only  anted to figure out what he needed to say.

Harry furrowed his eyebrows, looking to Louis who was more clueless than him. They usually always brushed over his riddles, leaving them to Calum because he always fed into what Cory wanted to beat around instead of a direct answer. Harry pulled at his bottom lip, racking his brain before snapping his fingers and catching Cory's eager attention.

"Wolves. They howl at the moon and hunt rabbits."

"Correct, Officer Styles. Follow me." He smiled in a proud sense, making Harry smile back to in a cheeky manner.

Cory clapped his hands together once and rushed from the medium sized office before Harry and Louis could respond. They both ran from the office, slipping through the bustle of women and men officers as they chased after a surprisingly fast examiner. He was in his messed up office, Harry having to duck under the wires and cords the hung from one wall to the next. Multiple pages were strewn across, reflecting his messy mind when he was usually so put together and collected. Calum's disappearance was effecting the precinct more than he could even imagine wherever he was.

Louis and Harry slowly walked around the clutter of cases, cautiously moving to avoid messing up whatever he took from his mind and scrawled across the room in the way he needed to function properly. They kept quiet as he muttered to himself, shuffling through a few papers and pictures before turning on his heels. He pushed the papers and photos into Harry's chest, asking the brunet to hold them before he impulsively pushed everything off the metal table and took his things back from Harry, laying them across the desk. Louis stepped forward, careful of the mess that Cory told him not to mess up though it was already on the floor in an awkward pile of his liking.

He angled the light over the table, setting up the photos and papers properly to help Harry and Louis see what he was trying to do. Harry eyed the photos, vaguely recognizing the pictures of the three males but decided to wait for what Cory needed to say on the matter.

"There's three as you can see. Michael Gordon Clifford, nineteen. Ashton Fletcher Irwin, twenty. Luke Robert Hemmings, twenty one. They used to be close with Calum. Ashton's a childhood friend and Luke's Ashton's boyfriend. Michael is Calum's ex. Now, how would you presume the rankings?"

Louis stepped forward, putting Michael first, Ashton second, and Luke third. He stepped back, looking back to Cory, who shook his head and switched Luke and Ashton around, much to the cerulean eyed man's confusion. Harry watched closely, Louis crossing his arms as he questioned to what Cory was getting at.

"It's the same two, lead by one. Alpha, beta, Omega." He pointed at Ashton, Luke, then Michael as he spoke. "Luke has a record of mental psychosis;diagnosed with ASPD when he was six, diagnosed with both Undifferentiated schizophrenia at eight, Schizoaffective disorder at nine and and was labeled as a Sociopath at ten years old."

He laid the file out for Louis and Harry to read over what he was explaining to them before passing Michael's to them, "Michael has a hidden record, due to the status of his parents and his ex boyfriend, Calum again. Labeled as a Sociopath, diagnosed with ASPD, Michael turned himself, on his own account they assume, to Tightnendom Asylum for unknown reasons at fifteen, he was permitted to leave at seventeen but his mother, for reasons unknown, had him stay until he was nineteen, two months after he turned nineteen to be exact."

"I'm going to assume Ashton's the worst one of them all?"

"Your assumption would be correct, Tomlinson. Ashton Irwin, neurological psychopath, also diagnosed with ASPD at age six. With the mind of a psychopath, traits of a sociopath, and the perspective of an empathy disorder, Ashton is, in simple words, the Alpha. He's been under the radar for fifteen years, assumed to have been diagnosed from this mental problem at age five but a "mysterious' disappearance of his files have left it up to chance as his parents refused to be reevaluated or put back on file."

"So, you're telling me, Calum is in the hands of a psychopath, a sociopath, and a neurological psychopath? And, I'm going out on a limb, Calum has something wrong too?"

"No, not from what I looked at or what I could search through. Calum's-"

"Not sane. He's a psychopath too, well it's brief psychotic disorder but still." Harry butted in, making Louis and Cory look at him to finish speaking, "I...might've helped him clear his files and falsify new ones when he moved with me. He always told me I couldn't tell anyone but I feel like I should now?"

Cory looked at his work, seemingly running over what Harry had revealed as Louis stared at him dumbfounded. The taller brunet looked away guiltily, scratching at his neck as he sucked his bottom lip between his teeth. He knew he should've said something that night he stayed up for hours with Calum to change his records and destroy the old ones, it's just he trusted Calum. Calum was his brother, well not technically but practically, and Calum promised that this was needed.

It had paid off too. Calum was able to get his dream job, he protected the streets, and he was an amazing example to other cops. Hiding his past was the way he got to his future but it seemed like now Harry had to expose his past if he wanted Calum to live and see anything else in his future. Cory seemed to check out his story, saying it went along with everything else and next thing Harry knew Louis was hounding him for answers and demanding a statement on everything he kept secret from Louis personally.

{~~~~}

Writing this chapter from Harry, Cory, and Louis' discovering is probably my favorite thing in this book.

Buuuuuttt thank you for reading. Cory seems to be quite the bright light in uncovering our three hidden past, doesn't he? Any thoughts on what Cory revealed or what Harry might?

Until next chapter, funky freaks. Adios.....