Moriarty Brother oneshots

Bullied

At the age of fifteen, Louis realised he was different from other boys. Up until then, he had only ever really known and spent time with his older brothers William and Albert, and because of his illness, Louis’s social interactions and experiences had been very limited, so the thought that he was different from others - not in the sense of class, but in nature - had never occurred to him before. But in the prestigious world of young nobility at Eton, even after proving his worth by winning a scholarship alongside William and Albert, he felt like an intruder.

Inferior, even. It didn’t matter, that he wore the same school uniform tailored perfectly for his size as everybody else, or that he had the highest grades in his year (it wasn’t a challenge for him really, the classes were surprisingly intriguing), earning him the favour of even the strictest teachers in the school, he knew he had no place there. Louis felt as if he were a shirt turned inside out, the same as everyone else, yet still an outcast.

Despite the long nights Louis had spent with Albert and William, practising the etiquette of high-class society, in his heart he was only a poor, sickly orphan. How could he ever fit in with the sons of counts and dukes, whose core belief was that they were inherently better than everybody else? How could he disregard his own past, pretend like he didn’t still feel the fear in his bones at the sight of violent drunks, or at the sound of children crying, reminding him of the screams of little girls who were taken in the dead of night?

Still, every day Louis kept his perfectly carved facade of a nobleman on, walked through the halls as quietly as possible, with his head down and eyes strained on the clean tiles as he hurried to his next class, where he sat in the corner, as far away as he could without seeming rude or strange (and as the social rules let him).

He only talked if he was spoken to, and never once tried to make friends. It is better this way. No one would like me anyway. But unfortunately, staying quiet and keeping to himself was not equivalent to being invisible; in fact, his silence and shy nature in such a place as Eton where the norm was to be loud, pompous and arrogant only drew unwanted attention to him, the same uncomfortable, prying attention he was trying so hard to avoid.

It started with small accidents, like a classmate bumping into him, or knocking the books and papers out of his hands in the hallway. Although it was annoying, Louis paid it no mind most of the time; still, there was that bugging feeling in his chest that told him something was not entirely right, but he brushed it aside.

'Stop overreacting! It’s nothing, you’re just paranoid.'

Then his homeworks started disappearing. At first, Louis thought he had just misplaced them, or left them in one of his books, but no matter how much he searched in his room, bags and notebooks - he even checked the closet, just to make sure he didn’t miss anything - he simply could not find them.

The first time he went to history class with having only a half completed assignment to hand in (Louis had stayed up all night trying to rewrite it, still he couldn’t finish it in time) his teacher, Professor Morrow not being one to excuse any student lacking in his class, whipped his palms and told Louis to write an extra five pages long essay in addition to the homework they were assigned that day.

Louis gave the academics his all, he really did. He didn’t necessarily like studying, but he enjoyed learning about new things, a trait he had his brother William to thank for. Louis knew he too, had to be more than perfect for the sake of his brother’s plan to work, and the thought of disappointing William, who was so out of his reach, so beyond perfection was enough to form a lump in his throat and send his heart racing with panic.

Each day became harder to bear. Despite Louis’s best efforts, his grades dropped from excellent to barely passing. During the breaks in between classes, the other boys would sit down next to him, asking questions like