"I must say, Doll. I am disappointed in you," Edward sighed, looking down at Louis in a way that reminded the boy of his father. "'Edward isn't here so I can do what I want'? That doesn't sound like you were being nice like I asked you to."

Louis looked up at Edward from his seat on the bed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't lie to me, Louis. I've just spent the day with liars, and I'm not looking to spend the rest of it with one too," Edward said, pouring himself a drink at his bar cart.

Louis stayed silent for a moment, doing nothing but playing with the hem of Edward's sweater that he stole.

"Now, I've had a bad day and I'm looking to forget about it, but I absolutely can't forget that you disobeyed me, yet again." Edward grabbed his glass and walked over to Louis. "Am I being unfair to you, Baby Doll? Is there something I'm missing that could be the cause of your behavior?"

"No."

"Mhm... So you can acknowledge that I've been pleasant towards you, but you can't follow my rules in return? That doesn't seem like a fair trade if I must say so myself." Edward downed half of his drink without a flinch before continuing, "what should I do to you, Louis?"

"I dunno," Louis mumbled, only looking up when Edward lifted his chin with the rim of his cup.

"Baby Doll, why must you behave so terribly? You put me in situations to be very mean to you, and I don't like that," Edward sighed, looking into the boy's blue eyes. "You're not going to eat dinner today, but you will sit with me and my brothers while we eat."

"Oh," Louis said sitting up straight, mumbling, "that's not all that bad."

Edward raised a brow and downed the rest of his drink, chuckling softly, "you're right, that's not all that bad." Edward sat down next to Louis, setting his cup down on the floor and pointing down at his lap.

When Louis moved to sit on him, Edward shook his head and laid the boy across his lap.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Louis laughed nervously, trying to turn around in Edward's lap.

"Louis, just shut up already." Edward lifted up the jacket Louis wore, and tugged down his shorts and underwear in one swift motion. "You only get into trouble when you open your mouth."

Louis squirmed around, throwing meaningless threats at Edward which only really made the man chuckle.

The loud slap that rang out was the only thing to pause Louis' mantra of cursing.

"Did you just fucking spank me?" Louis twisted his torso to look back at Edward, jolting forward in surprise at the second unexpected slap of Edward's hand down onto Louis' ass.

"Don't curse."

"I really fu-" Louis stopped when he saw Edward's glare. "Ugh... Okay."

Edward smirked and rubbed his palm against the angry red hand mark that was beginning to form, before smacking his hand down again on the same spot.

Louis whimpered into the bedsheets, wincing after Edward laid another slap onto Louis' tender ass.

"A-Are you done?" Louis sighed out, fluttering his eyes shut and humming in content when Edward's big hand moved against the stinging part of his ass.

"No," Edward mumbled. He rubbing his hands together, slapping his hand down with no mercy for the fifth and final time.

Edward looked down at the angry pink hand mark he created, proud of his work. "Beautiful... Alright, Baby Doll you can get up now."

Louis nodded gently and got up, pulling his pants up slowly over his ass. "I-I'm sorry"

Edward stood up and kissed the boy's cheek gently. "It's fine, Doll. Just don't give me reasons to punish you, I much rather make you feel good," he smirked, wiping a stray tear off of Louis' cheek.

"Now," Edward picked up the boy, loving the way his hips fit perfectly against the boy's. "Let's go downstairs, Baby Doll."

---

Louis hated Edward.
Or at least that's what he told himself.

Louis was currently sitting on Edward's lap while the man ate Mac and Cheese, Louis' favorite food.

"Doesn't this look good, Baby?" Edward said, dangling the fork full of creamy cheese and elbow pasta in front of Louis' face.

"Come on, Edward don't tease him," Harry said from across the table, stabbing the pasta with his fork. "The boy has had enough punishment."

"Shut the fuck up, Harry."

"No, you shut the fuck up. I wasn't even there but I can bet you he's already hurt enough," Harry dared, raising a brow and eating the pasta kebab.

"L-Let's n-not fight right now-"

"Shut up, Marcel!" Harry and Edward said in unison, making the youngest of the triplets shrink into his seat.

"Guys," Louis mumbled.

"You're just mad because you weren't the one who got Louis!"

"Guys."

"Oh yeah? Well you're just mad that Louis always liked me more!"

"Guys."

"Well he doesn't like you anymore, so whose fault is that?"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"It's your fault for being a fucking prick!"

"Guys!" Louis slammed his hands on the table, earning the attention of the identical boys. "Stop fighting all the time, Jesus! You don't need to argue every second of the day. It's annoying, just stop!"

"A-Actually," Marcel spoke up, pushing the liquid cheese around his plate, "they fight over everything more as a masculinity thing, th-they just try to out-do each other to indirectly win you over... a-and Louis wasn't mad at us because of anything we did, Edward... h-he just needed people to blame over what happened, s-so he blamed Harry for the shooting and me for you getting hurt."

"Well-"

"Don't try to defend yourself, Louis, it's basic psychology. You wanted to control everything you possibly could, since everything that's happening in your life is out of your control. That's why you didn't want Edward to leave without you." Marcel wiped the lenses of his glasses with the inside of his shirt, he put them on and furrowed his eyebrows when he saw everyone staring at him.

"What?" he took a bite of the macaroni. "It's true."