Back to Where We Started

Chapter 6

By the time the boys returned to their hotel suite, they were all ready to call it a night. It wasn't late, but they'd had a full afternoon, during which, all three of the younger boys ended up in varying degrees of trouble.

"I get that we all agreed this would be a difficult period of adjustment, but did all three of you need to act up in the same afternoon?" Louis moaned as he flopped down on the couch and ran a tired hand over his face. "You could've at least planned to spread it out a bit."

Niall snorted at that but quickly schooled his features when he caught Zayn's thoroughly unimpressed look directed his way.

"I want all three of you to gather your night things and take showers. By the time you come back, Louis and I will have decided what to do with you lot." Zayn instructed.

"But, there's only two showers." Liam pointed out.

Louis nodded at that, a thoughtful look on his face. "Unless one of you would like to plant your nose in the corner while the other two shower, I suggest you work it out and get your sorry bums back out here in the next 20 minutes."

The boys quickly snapped into action at that, hurriedly gathering their belongings and agreeing who should hop in the shower first before dashing off towards the bathrooms.

Once the boys were out of the room, Zayn looked over at Louis, impressed with how the older lad had handled the situation. "Remind me never to get on your bad side."

Louis chuckled darkly from his spot on the couch, where he'd once again flopped onto his back, this time with an arm thrown over his head.

The pair sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, both of their minds racing as they tried to figure out what to do about the boys, who they could hear rushing around as they tried to do what they were told with the time constraint Louis had put in place.

"If they have any sense of self preservation, the boys will be back soon." Zayn mumbled.

Louis grumbled an unintelligible response.

"What are we gonna do?" Zayn asked from the wall he was leaning against.

Louis sighed dramatically before sitting up and once again running a tired hand over his face. "We're gonna punish them, that's what."

Zayn quirked an eyebrow at that. "No kidding, Lou, but we need to decide how we intend to do that before they come back out here."

Wanting absolutely nothing to do with the conversation they were about to have, Louis took a moment to think about that. "Alright, alright." Louis conceded. "Let's start with Liam, shall we?"

When the boys returned from doing as they were told, making it back with just under a minute to spare. Zayn and Louis, who had managed to agree on how to handle them, stood facing the group as they returned, arms crossed and stern expressions on their faces.

"Before we even left the hotel this afternoon, I warned all three of you that you would be on probation for the foreseeable future." Zayn started. "Now, I understand that I didn't have the chance to explain what that meant, but I know you're all smart enough to have realized that you shouldn't expect any leniency."

A/N: So sorry for the incredibly short update! I really wanted to be able to post something on the one year anniversary of when I posted chapter one. This is all I was able to pull together so far. I will try to update the chapter again in the next day or so with the full chapter. 

Thank you to everyone who had read my story so far! You are the reason I've continued to write it :)