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Rushing into the backseat of the car that’s waiting behind the private pick up spot of Manchester Airport, he almost forgets to put on his seatbelt as he yells at the driver to hurry.
"Welcome home to you too, Louis" an amused voice sounds from the passenger seat. Only then Louis recognizes the people sitting there and then "Paul!" he chokes up after that and pushes a hand against his mouth in an attempt to keep it together still. His eyes travel to the driver who is grinning impishly at himself and is occasionally throwing looks at Louis through the mirror in the front of the car. He takes a deep breath to calm himself down "JD, what-" he tries to reorganise his thoughts in a way that makes sense but it’s of no use.
"How did you- and Paul- When- How-
..What?" digging his trembling hands firmly into his thighs, he looks confused at the two men that are now full-on grinning at him.
"I just couldn’t miss my favourite boy becoming a dad for the first time, now could I?" Paul informs him. Louis laughs nervously "Harry will be honoured" he retaliates. This gets Paul to turn around in his seat and treat Louis to one of his sterner looks as he speaks "I am talking about you, Louis. Don’t be a shit."
"Sorry," Louis sighs, kneading his thighs nervously as he looks out the window distractedly. They are definitely going over the speed limit, he realises gratefully. As soon as the thought passes he reprimands himself, Harry would give him so much shit for being so irresponsible with his life, although he might let it slide this time, considering what he’s breaking the law for.
"I guess I’m just nervous, Harry’s all by himself there and I haven’t been able to check up on them since we got into some heavy turbulence on the plane, so I had to turn off my internet. I haven’t even told the boys I’ve gone home yet."
Sensing Louis’ distress, Paul turns his body around entirely and grabs onto one of Louis’ thighs, looking him straight in the eyes again. "Louis, it’s going to be okay. Harry is a grown man who can handle himself perfectly fine. We are on our way, we’ll be there in less than twenty minutes, so if there’s anybody you want to or need to call, you should do it now, cause you won’t get to do that any time soon."
Staring back at Paul, Louis feels himself calm down a bit, he’s glad Paul is here, happy even. He remembers what a mess Paul was when he got the news his wife was in labour. He thinks Paul is remembering it too, right now.
"You got this Louis. Just keep breathing." he reassures him, and as an afterthought "and for god’s sake, please, call your management and tell them what’s going on. I’m too old to deal with all of that for you." but he winks at him so Louis knows not to take his words to heart.
Just then, his phone rings, Matt Vines’ name flashes over the screen. With a deep breath Louis slides the green phone icon upwards. "Hello? Hi Matt, I’ve got to tell you something and I don’t have a lot of time.."
By the time he reaches their house, the cancellation of his tour through Asia is finalised and emails are sent out, Louis has no time to type out an apology message for his socials before he rushes out of the car and upstairs to the little nursery they’ve spent months carefully putting together. When he’s standing in front of the yellow painted door, he takes a second to catch his breath, another to gather his wits and then he’s inside.
"Hazza…" tears jump into his eyes as Louis gets a full view of what’s behind the door he just pushed open. There, next to the window in the corner of the room stands his boyfriend. He looks just as tired as Louis feels; his mismatched socks and rumpled tee that Louis vaguely remembers seeing in the dirty laundry pile yesterday, wordlessly giving away the rush he was in to get here, but god, if he isn’t the most beautiful thing Louis has ever seen. Even now, when his brain is anything but focused on his boyfriend, he has to stay still for a second and gather his thoughts before he can think to move towards him.
Towards him and the little bundle of joy that is keeping Harry’s arms occupied at the moment. At the sound of his voice, Harry has slowly turned around and when Louis is finally able to rip his eyes away from his arms, he looks up at the brightest smile he has ever seen. Dimples firmly planted on either side of his mouth and his eyes shimmering just slightly from the tears building up in there. Biting his lip, Louis closes the distance between them and reaches around Harry’s shoulders to softly pull him sideways until he lines up with Louis’ chest. His other hand hesitantly moves towards the bunched up cloth and pulls it down slightly to where a tiny face is hidden in Harry’s elbow. A gasp escapes his mouth as he looks up to find Harry’s face again. Tears are falling from his red rimmed eyes, he must have been crying since he got here, Louis realises. He also realises he, himself, is crying too when some of the salty tears make their way into his mouth. A choked off laugh rips out of him before he can catch it and he drops his arm to Harry’s waist to pull him in further and hide his own face in Harry’s shoulder.
"Lou" sounds Harry’s voice, oh so quiet in this unfamiliar embrace that somehow feels like he’s never done differently. A barely there press of lips on the crown of his head gives him the strength to pull away, but only far enough to tilt his head up to where his nose meets Harry’s’. Their foreheads push together and Louis softly presses his lips to Harry’s’. It’s a short kiss and when they part, he keeps his eyes closed a couple seconds longer, just breathing the moment in. "Lou, baby… Look at her." Harry’s voice coaxes him to open his eyes and follow his line of vision. Tightening his hold on Harry’s waist he burrows himself further into his side and when Harry shifts the baby in his arms closer to Louis, he reaches his hand out again to gently stroke her cheek with the back of his pointer finger. Tiny frowns jump into her wrinkled forehead when the finger stops stroking and a jerking motion flows through the little body. Almost as if to show her disagreement.
Harry seems to think so anyway and his soft chuckles pull Louis out of the trance he’d unknowingly gotten lost in. Frowning he looks up at him but they smooth back out when he sees Harry’s soothing smile and he turns his face back to trace the wrinkles out of the baby’s forehead. "I think she already likes you better." Harry whispers as the fussing baby quietens down in his arms as soon as Louis touches her again. "It took me ages to get her to calm down while holding her."
Disbelievingly Louis looks up at him "Somehow I find it very hard to believe that you are not a calming presence." Sheepishly Harry shrugs, or as far as he can anyway without wanting to disturb the little girl now soundly asleep again "I guess there’s a first time for everything." he mumbles.
They stare at each other for a second, both lost in thought; then: "Take off your shirt, I’ll hold her for a second." Bewildered, Harry looks up at him but dutifully hands over the little girl, who goes without a fuss. "Go on then" Louis presses, completely at ease now with a newborn in his arms and Harry has to admire him for a bit until Louis looks up at him again and arches an eyebrow to move him along. "I- Lou, I don’t think this is the right time to get naked, honestly." Harry says hesitantly.
Tilting his face down, he ignores Harry in favor of cooing at the little girl that he's now finally getting a good look at. "Hello little love, aren’t you the cutest little thing? You are, aren’t y- OH!" He looks back up at Harry who has finally taken off his shirt and at this point just wishes he had a camera on him to take a picture of this brilliant memory. "Did you see that? Hazza? Oh that is definitely your child, look at her scrunching her nose!" tearing up again Harry moves closer to the two and sees the tiny nose indeed scrunching up slightly before it smooths back out. "Oh Lou… She’s perfect" he barely gets the words out as is, and then there’s Louis again, his lips firmly pressed to his own, teeth clicking together when they both helplessly try to contain their smiles. It’s useless so they pull away and Louis tries to hand the girl back to Harry who, somewhat hesitant, accepts her again.
Noticing Harry’s hesitance, Louis pushes the three of them closer together again and lowers his voice to a whisper "Skin-to-skin contact can really help establish the bond between a newborn and her parents, it helps her adjust to the world outside of the womb. Mom used to do it a lot with the older twins and later with Ernie and Doris too." While whispering, Louis pushes away some of the layers on the front side of the baby and helps Harry to hold her against him, chest to chest, skin on skin, while gently wrapping the rest of the cloth over her back again. Sensing his body heat, the baby curls into Harry, her tiny hand all scrunched up coming to lay right over the bird tattoo.
A sense of peace settles over the entire room. Both men looking down at the tiny miracle now fast asleep again. Holding on to each other while the first beams of sunshine carefully seep into the room and drenches them in warmth and light. "Ours." Harry whispers meaningfully, knocking the side of his head softly against Louis’ forehead. Louis looks up at him, smiling one of his softest smiles, tilting his head questioningly at the tone. "You said she is definitely my child, but she’s just as much yours. Ours, Lou." Harry whispers at the unspoken question. Louis’ smile gets just a tad softer "Ours." he whispers back and kisses Harry’s temple as they both look down at the newborn. "Our beautiful, tiny miracle." He murmurs at the bundle of joy. The sunlight drapes them in light as the sun starts to rise, ready to start a new day. "Our pretty little Dawn" Harry coos. "Our pretty little Darcy Dawn." Louis agrees.
They don’t know how long they stay like that, or when they decide to sit down on the small worn-out, red couch, but that is how their sisters, who have brought the still tired surrogate along, eventually find them. All tangled up together, somehow safely cocooning in the little girl who is still peacefully sleeping on Harry’s chest, makes for the first ever picture of their little family, with many, many more to come.