you're cold and I burn (on hold)

to Harry, Louis bets people are attracted to him like a magnet.
“Louis,” comes Zayn’s voice, breaking him from his thoughts, “Would you mind walking me
home? It’s getting late <strong>and</strong> Liam will probably be making dinner shortly.”
“Uh, yeah, yeah. Lemme just grab some shoes.” Louis answers, leaving them alone to walk into
his room. He finds more comfortable shoes, being as Liam lives a pretty long walk from here <strong>and</strong>
his feet will ache early in. He’s not as fit as he wants to be. He makes a mental note to start going
to the gym more often (he probably won’t).
When Louis returns, Harry is saying goodbye to Zayn, <strong>and</strong> Niall is walking over to grab Louis'
attention, “I’m gonna run home real quick, grab my phone charger <strong>and</strong> some more clothes, then
I’ll be back. You still want me to stay over t’night?”
“Course,” Louis nods, “yeah, I have to walk Zayn home, so we should be back around the same
time then.”
“Sounds good,” Niall raises his voice as he looks over to Harry, “I’ll be back in a few, just going
by my place real quick.” Harry gives him a smile of acknowledgment, going back to typing
something on his phone. Zayn gives one last wave as they're walking out the door.
The air outside is cooler than earlier, a bit too brisk <strong>and</strong> Louis debates going back in to grab a
jacket, but, eh, he decides against it. The sky has gone dark, the sun retreating from the city
already. Louis hadn’t realized they’d been here so long. But, the conversation just kept flowing
<strong>and</strong> no one really wanted to break from it. Louis’ guessing Zayn’s gotten everything he’s needed,
<strong>and</strong> they wait until they’re a relatively good distance from the flat before saying a word.
“Think ya got a pretty good reading?” Louis asks, scraping the front of his shoe over the crack
separating the concrete.
“Yeah, <strong>and</strong> Liam’s going to pick me up, I just said we’re walking to buy some time,” Zayn
replies.
“That’s great, because it’s fucking <strong>cold</strong> out here.”
“So,” Zayn stops, st<strong>and</strong>ing in front of Louis, “You wanna know what I’ve concluded?”
“Go for it, pal.” Louis ushers him on, sliding his h<strong>and</strong>s into his front pockets.
“Okay. So, first thing I noticed; when he first walked in, <strong>and</strong> you dem<strong>and</strong>ed to know where his
helmet was, his first instinct wasn’t to get defensive. Instead, he told you something he thought
you wanted to hear.” Louis nods along, Zayn continues, “He kind of shrunk back a little, eyes
going wide, right? So, second thing, I asked Niall to shake his h<strong>and</strong>, <strong>and</strong> then step in on him.
When he did, Harry averted his weight to his other leg, shifting away from Niall’s forward step,
he kind of backed away. Thirdly, he kind of looks over at you when confronted by something that
throws off the situation, which he appears to have complete control over, like he's looking for
some sort of self assurance in the way you are responding to things. He picks at things, he chews
on the inside of his cheek, he does this thing where he rolls his right shoulder <strong>and</strong> leans into it. It’s
an exertion of what he’s feeling, mostly overwhelmed, he did it when you said ‘not sure you’d
want that.’ Simply put, he wanted that.”
“So..” Louis drawls, “What’s your conclusion?”
“He exhibits multiple submissive behavioral traits, but it’s masterfully masked, which means he’s
either embarrassed by it or it’s something he’s not outward about just yet. Either way, he has a
submissive quality that he doesn’t want anyone to see.”