Hot Chocolate☕ || L.S. (Complete) ✔️

☕seven☕

"You had one job! One bloody job, Louis and that was to do well in school. Now you're working towards having a criminal record like your no good father? Louis William Tomlinson, when will you learn?"

For God sakes, Louis' mum could drag things on. The woman sure made an ass of herself, especially when she was angry. Often times, the most hurtful words are expressed in her time of rampage, and that was Louis' cue to make indirect comments telling her that he's leaning towards homosexuality because of her. Hm. No wonder people didn't like him all that much? He was a little shit but Louis was damn proud of it.

As she kept rambling and digging her heel into the ground, placing the key into their lock of the small house whilst Louis taps his foot impatiently.

"I had to not only pay a $300 fine for disturbing the peace, but I had to sit in that jail and apologize for my only child's rowdyness! And to top it all off, you wouldn't even tell me why you hit him in the first place! His mother wanted to chew my head off, and his father might have even wanted to sue me with the look he gave you! I thought you were too scrawny to fight, and you seem to have a satisfaction in proving me wrong. Always trying to embarrass me, son, why is that?"

Louis glared at the back of her head, tapping his foot harder with his mother not opening the door fast enough. He didn't want to talk to her right now. He was eager to see the lack of Christmas gifts under the tree just because of this one little problem he had all year. That would give him all the ammunition he needed to call her out for her failing to properly file her taxes, or how she always "forgets" to ask to see his immaculate report card every year. Or how she got so drunk after partying with her boyfriend and accidentally flushed her pad. Even Louis knew women weren't suppose to do that (don't ask him why).

"-And all the bloody stores will be closed tomorrow, but I have no money to buy a new outfit for Vincent's Christmas party."

Holy crap! Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, which meant most stores wouldn't be open.

After finally opening the door, his mother turned to face him with fiery eyes, only to find him gone, as if he were never there to begin with. The car ride home was awfully quiet.

Maybe she'd left him at the station by accident? Oh well. She needed a drink. He can find his own way home.

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It was honestly one of Louis' favorite pastimes, startling his younger friend. So it was nothing new when Harry nearly jumped out of his skin seeing a figure by his two-story side window.

It would have amused Louis if Harry's face wasn't shiny with tears. Louis' already tightened grip on the vines gracing the ladder by Harry's window (safe, innit?) tightened even more once he'd seen Haarry's current state.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to see you, but I got into a fight with Brandon and I got arrested and...and-"

"Wow! You got arrested! That's so cool!"

Louis couldn't help but smile at the silly little boy, immersed in a comic book world where crime fighting is done in the style of super power usage and people get saved by flying men in tight tights. He longed for an ignorance such as this.

"What did you get arrested for? Did you bore somebody to death?"

"Hardy har har. Real fooking funny." Louis had to be careful with his language. Harry deserved better than that. "I'm sorry, that slipped out."

"Thank you for coming, Lou." Harry's face lit up, until he looked to see who was around and leaned in. "I was just crying because.....because my mom took all my money. All of it. I thought she was being bitten by some guy and when I went to get him off of her, she yelled at me and- and....."

Harry broke down in quiet sobs. It looked to take the life out of him as he held onto something to keep from falling over and falling apart even more.

Louis couldn't even comfort him properly because their was a window in his way. There was always a barrier between him and Harry, life seeming to have a secret vendetta against him. It was probably something he'd done in his past life, as he was almost certain he had been reincarnated.

"H....."

"I know you don't know what to do, but I don't know who to talk to," the boy sounded truly devastated. Crushed. It brought Louis back to a time when another broken little boy's father left him, and he'd taken comfort in reading and books. Imagination that can only strummed up by a child's mind.

Maybe he and Harry weren't so different after all.

"Have you caught up on your writing lessons, then?"

Harry nodded, curls bopping.

"Good, I saw your little distracting messages in my book- which I'll kill you for later- and I must say I'm very impressed."

Harry's lip poked out, like he did when he was in deep thought. "Impressed, I-m-p-r-e-s-s-e-d. Impressed." He then counted out the syllables in his mind, calculating and seeming to agree from his earlier doubts.

Louis's face probably cracked having not smiled this big in so long. "OK, now I'm impressed, truly. You've caught onto reading and writing better than kids twice your age, and I'm not saying that to flatter you."

Harry leaned his head on the freezing glass with a toothy smile, Louis followed doing the same.

"You're wonderful, Lou."

The smell of rain brought Louis back to the reality of the impending rain that would come soon. Which would turn to sleet. He wished Harry didn't have to lose that perfect smile, because when it was gone, he knew he'd dread the younger's next statement.

"She beat me, too, but she's not finished. Said I'm not getting anything for Christmas, now. Her new boyfriend can, but not me. I hate him, and I hate her, so much. I wish I had your mum."

Louis sighed. Harry shouldn't hate him mother. He shouldn't learn to hate. Otherwise, he'll be just a corrupted version of Louis, and he'll have nothing to fall back on later in life if he resorts to drugs and ruins his body. Hate does that to people.

The blue-eyed elder was prepared to go on a long rant about the neglect he gets from his own mother, which is in no way compares to Harry's demon of a guardian, until he heard the drunken yelling of Harry's name and the boy lurched away like his life depended on it.

"I- I gotta go." Before he ran to his mother, Louis caught him saying one last time that he'd hated her. This was some shit off of a Sci-Fi film, that's how senseless the whole ordeal was.

"I don't want you to go."

It would have been nice to get a kiss goodbye, but Louis will settle for a wave of dismissal.

This was Harry's life. Not even 10 years on earth and he has to deal with people like his mother, and a father going through some type of sexuality faze instead of a mid-age crisis like normal dads. He'd done nothing whatsoever to deserve any of this, especially so close to Christmas.

As for Louis, he realized he was no better; a selfish asshole himself, just with more brains.

He stood on that ladder for a good while (if his sore legs were anything to go by), then snapping from his daze and slowly climbing down. An idea had struck, and before he knew it, Louis' brain had already disregarded him, formulating a plan.

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