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The alarm goes off and Niall groans pitiably. It’s his turn to take the kids for a school run and he still is getting used to waking up early again. He knows that if he waits this out, at least two kids will come barrelling through the bedroom door and he does not want to deal with it when Harry and he are still naked from last night’s activities.
“Mornin’,” he croaks and presses a kiss to Harry’s eyelid. His husband murmurs something incoherent and squirms, clinging onto Niall’s arms as he sits up. Mornings like these, Niall is so tempted to text Zayn so that he’ll take his kids to school instead. He and Perrie love being around kids anyway.
It takes inhuman effort but he manages to extricate himself from Harry’s octopus grip and drags his feet to the bathroom. He just rubs water over his face once and just barely brushes his teeth.
By the time he gets out to the kitchen, Maeve, their oldest daughter, is struggling to take the cereal box out of the cupboard. Niall rescues the box before it falls onto the floor and spills cereal everywhere for their dog, Jason, to gobble up. He’s just had a stomach surgery and apparently animal surgeries cost a fortune.
“Mae, what did da say about taking out the cereal box yourself?” Niall admonishes.
“But I was hungry!” Maeve retorts. Niall puts the box on the table and takes the milk out of the fridge. As if summoned by the sound of the fridge door opening, Sam and Keegan walk into the kitchen.
“Morning everyone,” Niall puts on his best smile. The kids grumble a ‘good morning’ back and dig into their cereal. It’s a pain having to buy three different kinds of cereals because they refuse to settle on one common brand. In the meanwhile, Niall makes their sandwiches, a cuppa for himself, and cuts up some fruits for them.
When it’s time to walk them to the school, Niall sneaks into his and Harry’s bedroom to steal one more kiss. Watching Harry sleep soundly is tantalising enough for him to reconsider having Zayn and Perrie go in his stead. He has to slap himself out of it and nearly force himself out of the house.
Now that it’s been quite a while since One Direction officially retired, paparazzi don’t stalk them so viciously anymore. Of course, there’s an occasional bloke who politely asks them for a picture when Niall and Harry are out for a fancy dinner or invited to some music affair but those days are few out of the year.
“I’m home,” Niall announces as he walks into the house. As expected, there is no answer. He strips as soon as he steps inside their bedroom and wraps his arms around Harry’s warm body. Harry shifts back, burrowing into Niall’s arms and Niall kisses his nape before drifting back to sleep.
-
The next time Niall wakes is to the sensation of Harry nipping at his lower lip and tugging slightly. He opens his eyes slowly and then shuts them against the bright sunlight streaming through the curtains.
“We need to buy black-out curtains,” he whines.
Harry’s response is to kiss him sweetly. “When we go grocery shopping this weekend, then. I’m hungry though. Make me something, husband dearest.”
Niall scoffs. “We both know that you’re the better cook between the two of us. Let’s not forget when we got back from our honeymoon, I nearly burnt down our kitchen in an attempt to make pot stickers. How do you even do that with a stove top that’s a glass that heats up without physical flames?”
“It’s a natural talent,” Harry kisses him on the nose. “Now up you get. At this rate, we’ll be sleeping ‘til the kids are home.”
“Don’t see nothing wrong with that,” Niall grumbles.
“Wake up or I swear I’ll attack you,” Harry declares.
“Whatever,” Niall buries his head in the pillows again, inhale Harry’s scent that is engrained into Harry’s side of the bed.
Harry’s lean fingers grip Niall’s side and then they start wriggling madly. Harry knows fully well that Niall is very ticklish and helpless against his assault.
“No, no, stop!” Niall cries out, laughing and gasping for air. “I’m gonna piss meself at this rate.”
“I’ll call your bluff,” Harry doesn’t slow down with the tickling. Niall has to force his eyes open and locate Harry for the counter-attack. Niall rolls them over so that Harry is now situated under him. He makes sure that Harry is immobilised before he digs into Harry’s armpits with his fingertips.
“Hey no fair!” Harry protests as Niall reciprocates tenfold. “Everyone is bloody ticklish in their pits!”
Niall evades Harry’s long arms and continues with his retaliation. “Should’ve thought about it before you went and started this tickle war, babe.”
“I give, I give!” Harry throws his hands up in defeat. Niall swoops down with a grin and kisses Harry’s red cheek before getting up.
“I remain undefeated,” he gloats. “I’ll make you breakfast as your consolation prize. But don’t blame me when I inevitably burn down our lovely house.”
By some miracle, Niall manages to make omelettes without any accidents. He does get a piece of eggshell in the omelettes but no one is going to be fatally wounded from it, so. They take turns feeding each other lazily, which somehow leads to a lazy snogging session on top of the table. Since they have no desire to re-enact a lyric from one of their songs, they move it to the bedroom.
-
“But dad,” Maeve whinges. “You promised to let me go to Topshop with Amy this afternoon.”
“Sorry, love,” Niall soothes. “But we forgot that Keegan’s footie match was also today.”
Weekends are a blessing and a curse wrapped up in one. On one hand, they don’t have to wake to super early in the morning. But no school also means that they have to deal with kids all day long. Given the fact that Maeve is twelve and entering the danger zone of becoming a teenager, shopping is something that they need to monitor closely.
“Maybe you can take the tube?” Harry reasons.
Maeve crosses her arms across her chest, a pout forming on her lips. “It’s stuffy and it’d take forever.”
Harry waves his mobile around. “Louis says he can take Kee to his match. We can drop Mae off in the meantime. Sam, do you have anything to tack onto our day?”
Sam grins. “Nope. I’d much rather laze around on the sofa and play violent games you disprove of whole-heartedly.”
Both Niall and Harry sigh. Sam is a sweetheart, but also a total tomboy. She has more guy friends than girlfriends and protests the aspect to dressing like a typical girl. Once when they had to dress up for a friend’s wedding, they had to bribe Sam with lots of sweets and video games to get her into a dress and flats. It takes another ten minutes to get into the car and double-check that Keegan has all of his football gear. Maeve manages to weasel out way more pocket money than she probably needs but it’s not like Niall and Harry can’t afford it.
“Let’s go in there,” Harry points out to a cosy little café that hasn’t got many customers.
“Mr Styles-Horan, are you asking me out on an impromptu date?” Niall gasps, hand on his heart for the effect.
“It’s been ages since we last had some free time. Plus, Liam says that they have the best short cakes in town.”
“You know me too well,” Niall grins.
The barista recognises them, which still happens sometimes apparently, so they give her autographs graciously. The short cakes seem to arrive with extra ice cream on the side but Niall dismisses it.
“I still can’t believe that I ended up marrying my best mate from my former band,” Harry smirks.
“Some would say that it was fated. Remember that weekend when I spirited you away to Ireland? My family loved you. I think Ma knew then that I had the biggest crush on you. Come to think of it, you were the one that made me realise that I fancied blokes too.”
“Only blokes with curly hair and green eyes, I hope,” Harry jokes.
Laughing, Niall leans over the table and kisses the corner of Harry’s lips. Red mottles his cheeks and it really is adorable how ten years after marrying, he still manages to garner that reaction from his husband. “There was a crumb there,” Niall explains.
“Of course there was.”
Niall grins. “You love me just the way I am, though.”
“Yup; still feel the same around you all the time. I think it’s a permanent condition.”
“And I’m perfectly fine with it.”
“Good,” Harry leans over and steals a kiss back. “’Cause you won’t be getting rid of me anytime soon.”