Rule Forty-Seven

Niall was a dog person.

I’d found that out some time in the fourth month, when I’d taken Louis and Niall shopping for clothes.

“Louis!” Niall squeaked, his nose pressed up against the window as he stared down at the German Shepherd puppy. “Look how cute this one is!”

Louis laughed, wrapping an arm around the younger boys waist.

“Come on, Ni, we still need more clothes.”

But Niall had disappeared into the shop and was already talking to one of the young employees about holding the small puppy.

Louis and Niall both found themselves smiling and laughing in joy as the young pup bounded all over them, licking their hands and whacking them with its wagging tail. I watched with a small smile.

“Looks like a handful,” the female employee standing next to me said. I glanced over at her, grinning at the look on her face. “The boys, I mean.”

“So does the dog.”

“It’s a cross between a Siberian Husky and a German Shepherd if you were wondering,” she stated, looking down at a file in her hand. “Called a Gerberian Shepsky. A bit of a mouthful if you ask me.”

I laughed softly. My eyes were back on the three in front of me. “How much is it?”

The woman, whose name was Shelly, talked me through the expenses for the next couple of minutes. From the care products to the beds and the toys and the dog itself.

“I just need to call my other housemate,” I said after, nodding my head and smiling at the woman.

“Hey,” Liam breathed as he answered the call.

I smirked when I recognised the shortness of breath in his voice. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I Liam?”

“U-uh, nothing that important,” he whispered.

“Why are you whispering?”

“Zayn’s sleeping.”

I made a noise of understanding. “Okay. How much money do we have spare? On hand I have about two thousand.”

“Quiet a bit. Why? What were you thinking of doing?”

Glancing over at the two boys and their new found love, I sighed. “Something really stupid. Would we be able to afford a dog?”

~~~~~~

“I can’t believe you let them rope you into it,” Harry laughed.

We were sitting down on the couch, watching with smiles as Niall, Louis, Liam and Zayn played around with the small pup they had subsequently called Aztec. He was running a muck around them, tearing up cushions we had only recently bought and pissing all over the floor.

“Hey, it was a deal.” I replied, smiling at him. “They wanted the dog, they look after the dog. They clean up after it, train it, what not.”

“It’s a good plan,” Harry sighed, “but what’s going to happen when they leave?”

My eyes found the ground. “Isn’t it better to let them live a little? Before they go back into nothing?”

Harry had a hand under his chin now. My legs were folded under me as I faced him, and his were curled to the side as an arm was thrown over the back of the couch.

“We could always buy them out of the contract,” he offered.

“We don’t have enough money to do that.”

“It depends on how much they’re worth.” Harry’s voice was drawn, almost tired now. Like he couldn’t believe what he was saying. “They may be worth millions to us, but people are sold for extremely cheap prices in human trafficking.”

My blood boiled. It wasn’t enough that they had to be defiled and mortified, but they were sold for money that couldn’t even measure to their personalities alone. They were slaves and were treated like nothing more than personal items. It wasn’t just or right and something that so easily got under my skin.

“We need to contact Ian.”