Waifs and Strays [Larry Stylinson]

Chapter Two

"You really knocked him out there, Carlos, didn't you?" Liam says with a slightly amused tone.

"You gotta understand, Payno. That kid is more on the soft side as far as I can see", I chuckle and give him his handcuffs back, after I've retrieved them from our new prisoner.

Harry Styles is his name. That much I know. And that he is the son of one of the rich families in town. And by rich I mean filthy rich. There are not a lot of rich people around, but the ones that have money could not spend all of what they have if they lived for a thousand years; while the rest of us are eating our own shit to survive.

Well, everyone that isn't fortunate enough to have people that help each other out. At least the kids that live in gangs have a purpose to live, and help each other get by. That's why I've joined the Sparrows when I was about eight. Yes, it was more like a former member of the Sparrows picked me up off the streets when I was about eight and I didn't have another choice, but I'm glad it happened. I probably wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for them. Now I am in charge and I have sworn to myself to keep my people save and sound the same way that the earlier generations of the Sparrows have kept me save over the years.

That's why we had to kidnap that Styles boy. We had to.

He is currently lying in the small dog cage where Zayn and Carlos had unceremoniously thrown him into a while ago. He is still unconcious. Come on, it must have been like an hour since the punch.

The sack that Evan had pushed over the boy's head had been replaced by a headband over his eyes, his long curls hanging in and over it.

He must not see what we look like. Ever!

"What are we going to do now?" Evan is standing by my side but seems to not be able to turn his eyes away from our prisoner. He's fairly new to all of this "active stuff", and that is even though he's sixteen already. He's always been such an innocent kid. I wasn't surprised that he wasn't ready for going out there with us up until a few months ago.

"We wait a little," I say. "His parents probably only now are realizing that he's been away for far to long for his usual run. We'll have to wait until they get a little anxious, you know," I tell him and put my arm around his shoulder. "Then we can send them our message."

Evan only nods and sits down against the cave wall next to Carlos since I've assigned the both of them for the first shift to watch Styles.

As we leave the part of our cave where we put him, Liam slings an arm around my shoulders an smiles.

"Shit, I'm lucky to have had an early shift today," he says. "Poor Niall was sooo on edge when he came to work. He's worried he might slip a call by the Styles family and blow this whole thing over."

I chuckle lightly. "Well, I'm glad I have two of my best mates on the inside," I reply as we walk to the camp fire in the center of the cave.

This has been the home of all 29 of us for almost a year now. We have to switch locations every once in a while since other gangs or the police sometimes get onto us or stop ignoring our stealing and trespassing.

Niall and I found the cave last summer when we went on a longer trip to find new hunting grounds. It's a little further from the city than all the previous hide-outs of the Sparrows but that might be a good thing. We've been left alone down here for now; which helped settle down and get set up.  Especially important for the kids.

When Zayn who's sitting by the camp fire sees us, he toastes his bottle at us and we sit down next to him.

"I got each of you guys a beer, too," he beams.

Liam scoffs and raises an eyebrow in amusement.

"Look at that, Zayn, you're actually starting to learn", I say in mock astonishment.

"Dude, it's not even noon." Liam shakes his head.

I take the bottle Zayn hands me and immediately take a huge gulp of the beverage, I don't do kidnappings everyday.

"So," I start as Liam finally accepts his own bottle of beer and we clink them. "How are we going about this?" I say, taking another sip.

"I got today's newspaper from one of my co-worker's desks", Liam informes us.

"Good," I say. "I suggest we tie him to a chair infront of the camera. And I think we should leave the headband off so his parents can really see him."

Liam nods in agreement. "Meaning we need disguises for ourselfs.", he says.

As we plan the next few steps of our undertaking, Zayn piles up the wood of the camp fire to really get it going again for lunch. While the girls usually do the cooking, us guys always get the food and attent to fire making and grilling the meat (if we can get our hands on that).

After some time Carlos walkes up to us with a kind of official posture. When Liam sees him, he stops speaking and looks up to him.

"Just wanted to let you guys know. Styles came to", he informes us with a tiny grin. I know he is proud of himself that the kid took so long to come back to consciousness.

"Thanks, mate," Zayn replies. "Will you tell Perrie and Kim that the fire's ready?" he says. Carlos nods and hurries away.

I take a last gulp off my beer and get up. "We have work to do, lads," I say in a humorous tone. "Wouldn't wanna make the rich guy wait now would we?" I chuckle.

The other two get up behind me and we start walking through one of the cave's tunnels that lead further into it to get ready for shooting the ransom video. We've put up small camp fires in all of the parts of the cave that are lived in to keep it lighted, but we take a lit torch with us for the part of the cave where we keep our various supplies.

"It'd probably be best even if we were wearing all black and put masks over our faces, get the kid a bit antsy," Zayn suggests. "I mean, if we're going to put disguises on, anyway. Might as well do it right."

I'm not crazy about the idea of frightening that boy more than necessary. He'd be having nightmares for life. And I must know what that is like.

"Alright," I conclude, "but let's not stretch this out for too long, though."

I want this over quickly and I want to forget about it. I know we get into a lot of trouble at times but we try to keep it subtle. This is nothing subtle.

"Any bet his parents are already all flustered and worried about their little sunshine, anyways," I scoff.

Zayn laughs along, but Liam who's carrying the torch only smiles uncomfortably. I get him.

Doesn't mean I have to show it, though.

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