Found a better way to explain what's happening with these-- a collection of single chapter epilogues about how life happened after the last chapter.
and wrote this instead of finishing 24 for GG because LOU is my favorite human today sooooo :D
"Guess we made it this far. Guess we're doing alright. Looks like we made it out alive. Yeah , we made our mistakes. But we followed our hearts."
For Always, Forever
by Every Avenue
"You lost him already?!" I screech.
"I did not lose him," he scoffs a laugh. "We're just playing hide and seek."
"He can't even crawl, stupid," I snap. He presses his lips into a thin line.
"I set him down somewhere, so he's definitely... here..."
"You forgot where you put him?! How do you even do that! He's not car keys!"
Louis just shrugs with big eyes, looking just as lost as I am in the whole situation.
Hunter is seven months old now and rambunctious for an infant. Even with that being so, he can only cause a certain amount of trouble when the most damage he can do requires him to be stationary, or merely in possession of a spoon. Therefor, watching him is more a case of watching the boys and making sure they aren't idiots using the kid as a toy. In this case, a one sided hide and seek with his Uncle Louis.
"Okay, well, before I snap your neck, retrace your steps. I was only in the kitchen for about ten minutes, so I don't know hard it can be to find him," I tell him. Not to mention, my flat isn't that large to begin with.
Louis starts mumbling to himself as he paces in and out of different doorways. I stay in the living room, collapsing back against the couch.
There are times I think it was probably a blessing in disguise that Louis and I didn't become parents six months ago, with our friends. I've been able to accept that more and more, recently. Louis and I decided about a month ago, reaching our one year test mark, that we can make it.
But really, Harry and Hailee have been gone for two weeks and I'm exhausted. When I volunteered--not that I would have been given a choice, anyways--to watch Hunter while they went on their all-paid vacation Anne decided to give them a month ago--not that they couldn't pay for it themselves, but more as an excuse for them to get out and relax--I never expected it to be this exhausting. I mean, I've spent plenty of time watching the kid with and without help, but watching him while planning out the wardrobes for the next tour starting in a few months that needed to be done soon so we can get everything together, and trying to get all my Christmas shopping done, and trying to keep the flat sanitary--I gave up on 'clean' after two days--it's a struggle.
Not to mention that Gen, Annie, and Katie are visiting for the holidays. They spent the last few nights at Niall's flat, though. They said that they missed him, but I said they missed sleeping. Hunter tends to cry every few minutes in his sleep.
That's right. Minutes.
Luckily they should be back in an hour or so, along with the other boys. In other words: twelve more helping hands.
"Goal!" Louis' voice in the other room startles me and I sit up straighter.
"I swear, Tomlinson, if you through the kid through a net, your ass is dead!"
I hear him laugh as he walks down the hall and into the living room. I breathe out when I see Hunter in his arms.
"You do realize there would literally be hundreds ready to kill you if that boy died, right?" I chuckle and he plops down next to me.
"Oh, please, I can handle a baby for a few measly minutes," he laughs. "He doesn't do anything, anyways. He's more or less an American football."
"I've gotten so used to football being soccer, I don't even think of actual football when I hear it," I joke, playing with Hunter's little toys hanging over onto my lap.
"What do you mean 'actual football'?" he scoffs.
"You know what I mean," I groan, knowing he won't let this go just to have something to pester me about.
"I don't quite think I do--"
"We're home!" Annie's voice cuts him off and I scurry off the couch to say hi.
"Hey you guys!" I squeal and give then all hugs.
"Ew," Annie scoffs, forcing me off of her. "Why are you all happy and can you stop?"
"I'm escaping a pointless argument about football with Louis."
"Oh... okay," she says, clearly knowing exactly what I mean.
"So, yeah. But come in!" I say, leading the three into the living room.
"Nice save," Louis chuckles as we enter.
"I know," I chirp, winking at him and wandering into the kitchen to finish making dinner. Figuring I have seven mouths to feed, plus an extra for Gen, Annie, and Niall, I'm basically cooking for ten people in my little kitchen.
I listen the boys talking about football and I roll my eyes when I hear Annie slap Niall and tell him to shut his yapper.
The three of them have grown strangely close since they first met. It's actually a little scary seeing as Gen and Annie were already the same person to begin with, but now adding on a third one to the mix is just frightening.
I continue chopping the lettuce when my phone goes off, Hailee's ringtone Happily playing through the kitchen. I grab the phone from my back pocket and press it between my shoulder and my cheek.
"Hey, babe! How's Cancun?" I ask into the speaker.
"It's perfect!" she squeals.
"I bet," I chuckle. "Are you brown yet?"
"Surprisingly, yes."
"Why surprisingly?"
"Well, given the amount of time we've actually spent outside verses in the room, I mean--"
"Okay!" I stop her. "I get it! I love you but I have your kid in the other room and don't want to be thinking about the disturbing side of how he got here."
She starts cracking up into the phone and I have to reach up to pull it away from my ear.
"Calm down, woman," I laugh and give her a few seconds to control herself.
"Okay, I'm good," she assures with a final giggle. "I'll just give you all the deats later."
"I would expect nothing less," I chuckle.
"But how is Hunter doing? Is he sleeping?"
"He's doing good. He still wakes up every few hours, but what else is new... It was actually the cutest thing," I giggle and give up on trying to toss the salad, turning around to lean against the counter and holding up my phone. "The other night, he woke up early in the morning and so Louis went to check on him and I fell back asleep. Then Louis wasn't in bed when I woke up later on, so I went to go check on Hunt and I found them curled up together in his crib."
"Awww!" she coos. "He's so precious!"
"Which one?"
"Both!" she squeals. "But how did he even fit in there? That can't be comfortable."
"When we were pregnant, my mom told us how she spent the first year of my life sleeping in my crib because she was afraid I'd roll over and stop breathing," I chuckle. "I'm pretty sure he got it from that."
"I love Mama Will!" she groans.
"Mama Will loves you, too."
"That makes me so happy!"
"You're weird," I laugh.
"Don't judge our love!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay well, unless you want to volunteer your child for sacrifice, I should probably finish making dinner."
"Niall's there?"
"Yep."
"The little ones?"
"Yep."
"You'd better go."
"Yeah."
We both laugh and tell each other to say hi to everyone on the other end. We say bye's and love you's before hanging up and I start finishing the salad.
"Liam just texted that they'll be here in a few minutes," Louis says as he walks into the kitchen, coming up and resting his chin on my shoulder with his arms wrapped around my waist.
"Dinner's almost ready," I sigh, leaning into him. "Hailee says hi."
"How are they liking Mexico?" he asks, turning to press a kiss to my cheek.
"They haven't seen too much of it, from what I've heard," I laugh. "Although their room is nice."
He chuckles into my shoulder. "Weird to think they're parents, isn't it?"
"Extremely." We sit in comfortable silence while I finish cutting the strawberries and dusting them into the bowl.
"Do you ever think it's maybe a good thing we aren't parents right now?"
I sigh and rest my hand on top of his across my stomach.
"I think there's a reason we're not, you know?"
"Other than him?"
"Yeah. Other than him," I breathe. "There's a time and place for everything. It just wasn't ours."
"Do you think it will be someday?" he mumbles against my skin.
"I like to think so. Maybe in a few years. You know, when we're older like how it might've been if it was all planned."
"Maybe we'll have a big house and a dog. We can live together and have our own bedroom for ourselves."
"What are you talking about?" I laugh. "I don't think either of us have slept alone in at least six months."
"No," he says. "There was the day you made me sleep on the couch."
"Yeah, well, you deserved that one," I huff.
"All I did was ask there you were sure there wasn't a girl in the band?!" he screeches.
"I have told you that so many times! There are no females in Sleeping With Sirens! Kellin just has the voice of an angel!" I yell back. "You think you'd be smart enough not to smack talk my boys by now."
"We're your boys," he whines. I roll my eyes and turn around in his arms, latching my arms around his neck.
"You have a voice of an angel, too," I pacify. It seems to work and he smiles wide.
"And better hair," he quips.
"If that's what you need to hear," I giggle.
"And better eyes."
"Okay, well, I do love your eyes."
He smiles big in victory, giggling under his breath as he pulls me closer to him.
"That's what I thought," he giggles and I nod at him, patronizingly. He rolls his eyes and leans in to press his smile against mine. We chuckle as we try to pucker our lips only to have them stretch across our faces with every attempt.
"I'm so conflicted," a voice 'whispers' from the behind us. We pull back and give each other a confused look.
"Why?" another one says. I look over Louis' shoulder to find Annie and Gen crouched beside the doorway.
"There's the food and what makes it come back up in a very small space," Annie complains, ignoring the fact that both Louis and I are staring at them.
"I want food," Gen whines.
"We need to separate the food and the puke."
"Oh, knock it off," I huff a laugh. "Dinner will be ready in a minute."
"Well then stop contaminating it with your cooties," Annie sneers.
"Go set the table," I order and point as their cue to leave.
"I can't wait till they're older and I can flip them off," I whine, resting my forehead against Louis'.
"We heard that!" Gen yells from the other room. I groan and lean my head back, only to have it collide with the kitchen cabinet.
"Owww..." I whine.
"Awww..." Louis coos through giggles and I pout at him. He tilts my head forward to kiss the part that hurt. He pecks it a few times before pulling me to my chest and wrapping his arms around me. I cuddle against his heartbeat and close my eyes. I take a deep breath and enjoy this feeling. This is my perfect happy place.
"Okay!" Niall yells as he barges through the kitchen door, startling us both. "Lou, grab the food and you can have this back after dinner."
"What?" we question before Niall suddenly bends down to throw me over his shoulder, already walking out the door by the time I can process what's happening.
"Okay!" he announces as he stops next to the table. "Let's eat!"