Archive of Our Own ^beta

When Louis pulled up to the new house, the only feeling he got was a dark emptiness that he couldn’t shake. No porch light on, nobody waiting with dinner made for him and his daughter Lucy. They were on their own and it was hitting him hard what it was going to mean being away from his family.

For now he shook it off, exiting the car and gently transferring the sleeping 4-year old to his arms before walking up the steps to the front door. He had to carefully shift to find the keys, but he eventually got the door open and walked inside, turning on lights as he went.

He took a deep breath and looked around at all the packed boxes stacked in the empty rooms, some labeled in his own handwriting and some in his mother’s. After leaving university he vowed to never move his own stuff again after a 2-week long move from hell, but he hadn’t quite been able to take the step to have strangers box it all up as well.

His mind started cataloguing all that was left to do on the house, which was a lot, but he couldn’t think about it all now. Instead he carried his little girl up the stairs to her newly painted lavender room (also a professional job) and settled her on her bed with the teddy bear and pillow that she had taken along in the car.

He opened a box labeled “Lucy essentials” and pulled out a nightlight and her favorite blanket, trying to do what little he could to make it more comfortable for her, even though she had been out like a light since an hour into the drive.

He stood in the doorway for a moment to just watch his daughter sleep, at the same time sending prayers to the universe or God or whoever was listening that they would have a fresh start.

Louis went downstairs to turn off the lights, then into the bathroom to piss and splash some water on his face. He completely ignored the optimistically packed “first night!” bag with toothbrush and toothpaste and instead stared into the mirror before stumbling into his own bed, where he fell asleep without any sheets or blankets.

The next morning he woke to his daughter’s distressed voice calling out “Dad?”

He jumped up and stumbled into the hallway, momentarily disoriented as he tried to remember which door led to which room, but then he heard his daughter call again and found her.

Lucy was clutching her blanket and teddy when he entered, eyes round and threatening to spill over with tears. He went to sit on her bed before he said, “Good morning sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“Where are we?” She asked timidly.

“We’re in our new house! Remember the drive we took yesterday?” Louis put up a cheerful façade, trying to convince his daughter that everything was normal.

“Oh yeah.” She left it at that and instead of questioning her further he just opened his arms and waited for her to crawl into them.

Once she was settled in his lap with her head on his neck he gently started rocking back and forth, humming just like he had when she was a baby who couldn’t hold up her own head.

“This is the start of a new adventure, sweet, and it might be hard at first but we’re in this together.” He reassured after a minute or two of cuddling.

“I miss Nana Jo” came her muffled reply.

Louis felt his heart throb. He took a moment before he said, “I miss her too, but you know what we can do? We can make chocolate chip pancakes just like Nana makes on Sunday mornings!”

Lucy withdrew to look him in the eyes, face a bit splotchy from unshed tears. “But it’s Friday, dad” She said seriously, as if he was making false promises.

“Yes, but it’s a special occasion, isn’t it? We’ll have to get dressed and go to the store first, but you like going grocery shopping with me, don’t you?”

Lucy’s face brightened “Can we get gummies and orange juice?” she asked. Louis could see the gears turning in her head on the subject of which treats she could convince him to buy.

“Sure we can,” he answered laughing a little bit “but don’t get too carried away. We’re not even dressed yet! Can you pick out some clothes while I hop in the shower?”

“Duh” Lucy replied rolling her eyes. Louis narrowed his own wondering where she learned that before tickling her. As she shrieked he lifted her up in the air, with a little more strain than when she was younger, and gently tossed her breathless onto the bed.

“I’ll be back pumpkin. Pick out clothes please!” He called as he exited and went back into his own room.

He stared at the emptiness before opening the first box labeled “Louis’ clothes” and pulled out a basic outfit that would do for now. When he got in the shower, he momentarily let physical and emotional exhaustion wash over him, resting his forehead against the shower tile. After a few moments he pulled himself together and hopped out to get dressed.

After a slight debacle where both Lucy’s pants AND shirt were on backwards when he went to find her, they followed his phone’s navigation to the nearest grocery store.

Louis and his daughter had been arguing over pop-tarts that she had snuck into the cart when he felt a presence to his left. Lucy immediately went all over shy, causing Louis to turn around and step a little in front of his daughter.

What he saw was a tall curly haired man standing in front of an absolutely overflowing grocery cart and smiling warmly at both of them.

Before Louis could speak, the man jumped into a rambling speech. “Hiiiii, you must be the new person in town! Welcome welcome!” He gestured with open palms. “Some of our pack scented you when you arrived last night and we’ve been wondering who would be the first to meet you, so it looks like I’ve hit the jackpot. Is this your daughter? She’s so lovely, not wolf like you that I can tell though, but that’s awfully rude of me, I didn’t mean to pry, it’s just that our family is much the same. You two absolutely must come to family dinner sometime! We’re having one tonight, but that might be too short notice, but there will be another one next week and the week after that…”

When the man finally stopped speaking Louis found himself reeling with his grip tight on the handle of the cart.

“Oh, but how rude of me I didn’t even introduce myself, my name is Harry.” The man continued, oblivious to Louis’ discomfort, sticking out his hand.

Harry knew he was a werewolf. Harry knew his daughter wasn’t one. He had mentioned a pack? Louis’ mind was suddenly in overdrive with his mind shouting THREAT at him, so he grabbed his daughter and settled her onto his hip before almost running away, leaving Harry with his hand outstretched looking after him and a look of confusion on his face.

Liam heard the car pull into the drive and set down the newspaper to go help bring the groceries into the house. He shouted the names of kids he knew were around, calling for them to come help Harry as well.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, a couple small figures raced past him and swarmed around the car, grabbing shopping bags before practically sprinting back in the house, laughing all the way.

He was sure their main motivation was getting first dibs on the snacks, but it got the job done.

He went up to Harry and gave him a quick peck before grabbing the bag he had been carrying and shutting the trunk. It was then that he noticed the pout on his face.

“Harry, love, what’s wrong?” he asked, sidling closer and putting a hand on the small of his back as they walked back into the house.

Harry was delayed from answering as he shooed all the children away from the grocery bags that were on the floor and started putting things away.

Liam just waited until finally Harry sighed and started explaining, “You know the new wolf that we were just talking about? I ran into him at the store.”

Liam’s eyes got big and he immediately turned his full attention onto Harry, who continued, “Well I went up to him, nice as can be, and said we knew he had just gotten to town and couldn’t wait to meet him and invited him to family dinner. He had the cutest little daughter. Then he froze up, grabbed her, and ran out of the store like I was some sort of monster. I didn’t even get his name.”

Liam could tell that there was a spark of genuine upset behind Harry’s pout, and so went over and folded him into his arms before he said “Well, you know that people don’t have the same attitudes about wolves in other places. Acceptance is becoming more common, but it’s far from the norm, so being approached and talked to about it so abruptly might have scared him.”

“But he’s a wolf, why would he be scared of another one of his kind? I just wanted to welcome him, bring him to meet everyone so he wouldn’t feel alone in a new town.” Harry huffed into Liam’s neck.

“We don’t know his story, love, and I can’t answer for him, but it’s possible he’s never met another werewolf before. This town is overrun with our giant pack and everyone accepts it for the most part, but this area is the exception to the rule and he just got in last night. He probably hasn’t adjusted yet.”

“Yeah they accept us, but I did hear Gloria talking shit about our kids being ‘unruly’ the other day” Harry muttered darkly, momentarily derailed.

“These suburban mums talk about everyone like that, it’s not because we’re wolves. But I’ll make sure to sit next to her at the PTA meeting on Monday and see if she has anything to say about our family to my face,” Liam chuckled. “And as for the new guy, just let him be for now, if he has a daughter I’m sure we’ll run into him at various school things for one of the pack. We’ll wear him down with kindness.”

“Okay,” Harry answered on an exhale, releasing the tension from his body and letting Liam hold him up. But of course, that’s when there was a huge crash from somewhere in the house. Harry let go with a sigh and went to go sort out whatever just happened while Liam finished putting away the groceries.

Louis was lightly jogging with Lucy bouncing on his hip, only slowing when they reached the car.

“Daddy, why did you leave everything in the cart? Why was that man talking to us? What did he mean about a wolf?”

Louis settled his daughter in her car seat and then went around to the driver’s side and got in.

“I’m sorry for leaving in a rush, darling. I just thought, maybe we should go to the diner that I saw when we drove in last night! That way no one has to do the dishes and we can explore our new neighborhood!” He responded with faux cheerfulness as they were pulling out of the parking lot.

He could see Lucy’s face in the rearview mirror and she didn’t seem too sure about anything he was saying, but for the moment chose to stay quiet.

They had an easy breakfast at the diner, people were nice enough, but also definitely curious, since he caught a couple people staring from time to time. He kept his guard up, even though he knew it wasn’t necessary. Now that he had some distance, he had the distinct feeling that he had overreacted, but wasn’t sure how to go about fixing it.

When they arrived home, Louis decided that he needed to start unpacking so he sent Lucy to start on her room while he tried to tackle the kitchen.

He found her later with only half of one box unpacked because it was the one with her toys and she had become distracted trying to reconstruct her railroad tracks.

Louis sighed; he had been looking forward to taking a break, but could see that there was a lot to do. Instead he put on the newest Taylor Swift album (his daughter’s current favorite) and they sang along as they unpacked most of her stuff.

When he retreated into his own room, it was still completely bare, but he decided he could put off worrying about that for a little while longer.

For the next couple of days it went like that, generally avoiding other people while trying to get the house together. He did end up going back to the grocery store and buying food, so they weren’t eating take out every night, but boxed mac and cheese wasn’t necessarily that much better.

After the third day, Louis decided he couldn’t act as a recluse forever and would take the opportunity to introduce himself to the neighbors.

It was a much bigger house than his own and there was detritus strewn all over the lawn and the porch, tricycles, jump ropes, plastic toys and the like. Louis could definitely sympathize.

He brought Lucy with him because he didn’t want her staying on her own and thought maybe she could meet some of the kids that obviously lived in this house. So here he was, walking up to the front door with his daughter trailing a little shyly behind him.

He smoothed down his shirt, suddenly nervous, before ringing the bell. A young boy answered, no more than eight years old, and Louis was momentarily startled.

“Hello,” Louis addressed the child “are your mum and dad home?”

The boy snorted a little bit and said, “We don’t really have those” before calling over his shoulder “LIAM, HARRY, SOMEONE’S AT THE DOOR.”

A man appeared in response to the call, he had broad shoulders and concerned looking eyebrows that were indicating a level of surprise that Louis didn’t quite understand.

“Levi, how many times have I told you not to answer the door by yourself?” The man lightly scolded.

“Yeah but he smelled! So I figured it was one of the pack” Levi whined.

Louis stood there in alarmed silence as he realized he had stumbled upon yet another werewolf family. But, he reminded himself: this is why you moved here. Open acceptance of what you are. He glanced at his daughter realizing he hadn’t told her anything about any of the werewolf business yet and would have to soon.

He was just deciding whether to make his excuses and take Lucy home when the man said, “Please, come in. We can chat a little bit. I have tea and snacks if you’re hungry.”

Louis thought about it for a second and then acquiesced, following the man into a large sunny yellow kitchen with a huge breakfast bar that the man guided him to. “I’m Liam, it’s very nice to meet you. You’re our new neighbor, right?”

Louis nodded and stuck out his hand. “Louis, and this here is Lucy.” Liam shook it firmly before bending to gently shake Lucy’s hand, causing her to giggle.

For the time-being Lucy was in his lap, but she had already started squirming, a fact Liam noticed. “You know, she can go play with the kids outside. There are older ones who keep an eye on the younger ones and Ava is about her age, she would probably have more fun out there than with us grown ups.” Liam directed to both Louis and Lucy.

Louis hesitated, not sure about letting her out of his sight in a new environment, but Liam indicated the large window in the kitchen that overlooked the backyard where there were quite a few children playing. There was one of those miniature jungle gyms and a tetherball pole and lots of toys, which made Lucy’s eyes light up.

“Please daddy?” Lucy turned to him, putting both of her hands on his face like she did when she was asking for something. Louis let her down and walked to the door that Liam had opened to watch her run outside. She was a bit shy with grown-ups, but when there was fun to be had, she was happy to go up to the nearest kid and join in.

He watched her for a second longer before Liam asked if he wanted any tea, pulling open a cupboard overflowing with boxes and glass jars full of the stuff.

“Do you have Yorkshire?” Louis asked. It was his favorite and reminded him of home. Liam started to pull out boxes.

“I think we do, in the back here. We have so many different kinds and yet the one I’m looking for is always the kind we just ran out of. Not many Yorkshire fans around, except Nick of course, so you’re lucky. Harry just got into this peach green tea and keeps forcing it on me instead of my usual but damn it all if I haven’t grown to like it” Liam shakes his head ruefully.

As if saying his name summoned him, Harry appeared in the doorway.

Louis tensed, realizing it was the same man who had approached him at the grocery store. He was half out of his chair when he felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Liam looking at him with pleading eyes and saying “Please, stay, you’re safe here.”

He wasn’t sure he believed him, but he knew he had overreacted when he first met Harry, so he settled back onto the tall stool, muscles slightly tensed

Harry approached slowly as Liam took down three mugs and started making their tea. He came to sit next to him at the breakfast bar and turned to Louis.

“I’m really sorry that I blindsided you at the grocery store. I sometimes forget that this town is different from a lot of other places, and we’ve all been so excited to meet you that I think I came on too strong.”

Louis could tell that he was being genuine, and so he responded, “It’s alright, you’re right, it’s very different where I grew up. I was the only one of my… kind, and it wasn’t exactly in my best interest to make that knowledge public. I’m sorry about running out on you, I’m not used to people knowing right away when they meet me.”

Harry grinned at him, before sticking out his hand as he had before, saying, “I’m Harry, it’s nice to meet you.”

Louis laughed a little before he shook his hand. “I’m Louis, and it’s nice to meet you too.”

Liam chose that moment to come over with their mugs and a plate of crackers and cheese. He smiled warmly at them and placed it all on the bar, standing behind the counter.

“I don’t mean to pry, but you said you were the only werewolf where you’re from? Our type is usually in packs, when growing up at least, before they choose somewhere to settle down.”

Louis looked down at the question, lightly tracing his fingers on the rim of his mug.

Harry must have sensed his hesitation because he hurried on “You don’t have to tell us of course, we’ve only just met.”

Louis looked up and shook his head minutely.

“No, it’s okay, I just haven’t ever talked about it with someone other than my mum. I read online that most modern werewolves happen through birth and dominant genes or whatever and I wish that were how it happened for me. I was actually, um, bitten, I guess the term is.”

Liam and Harry both gave involuntary little gasps, eyes widening.

“That is the top of the list of bad form for a werewolf, it’s basically shunned,” Harry said fiercely.

“Well, this one was apparently a loner who was going mad after being kicked out of his pack. And of course he had to end up in my little town where everyone’s already intolerant of all werewolves so it just enforced their twisted views,” Louis said bitterly.

Now that he had started he felt as though he should just go into the whole thing, and it was a bit cathartic to talk about it with people who had some context.

“It was only a year ago, I was walking home from a pick up footy match at a park nearby. I usually get a ride but had to leave early this time to get home to Lucy. I saw a pretty rough looking man, and he shifted into wolf form right in front of me. Like I said, the town isn’t friendly to that sort so I had never seen it before. That’s the last thing I remember, because of trauma, mum says, but I woke up in a hospital room with my family around me. It felt quite dramatic, all told.” Louis chuckled without humor.

“We tried to keep everything hush hush, but small towns make that hard. We pretty much immediately had to make plans for me to leave. I had just renewed my teaching contract, so I stayed through the school year and took the rest of the time to get ready to leave. The time I spent in the town after everyone knew was horrible. Some people pulled their kids out of my class, and everyone else only dealt with me when they had to. I’d known those people my whole life but all of the sudden they couldn’t look me in the eye or even make polite conversation.” Louis shook his head.

“I looked for places that were more friendly towards my sort after that, and that’s how I ended up here. And that’s why Lucy isn’t a werewolf and I am.”

When he finished Louis felt embarrassed about talking for so long, so he kept his eyes fixed firmly on the countertop. Harry rested his hand on Louis’ arm, causing the man to look up at him in surprise.

“We’re glad that you ended up here.” Harry said with a surprising amount of feeling. Louis blushed lightly and whispered back “Me too.”

He shook himself out of his memories to turn the conversation to Liam and Harry. When he read about what it was like in other places, he couldn’t believe that there were entire families of werewolves, and he was incredibly curious as to how that worked, so he asked to hear their story.

Liam and Harry looked at each other, both turning bashful at the request. Liam let Harry tell it, knowing that he loved being the center of attention, even though his storytelling could be a bit rambling and his jokes were downright awful at best.

“Liam and I grew up together, you see. Our families have been here for generations, so even though not everyone is related, we ended up as one big pack. It just made it easier for all of us to support each other. Most people in the area have no problem with it, or have moved somewhere else by now, but it wasn’t always like that,” Harry started.

“Our families spent a lot of time trying to prove to people that we aren’t a danger and can coexist peacefully. Mostly it was our grandparents and it was settled by the time our parents took over.

Our parents, along with Niall’s, and Zayn’s, were the core of everything, with aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone else you can imagine on the sort of periphery. Each family acted as a pack in and of itself, but younger members of the family, especially the four of us would often stay wherever we ended up for the night like a big extended family.

Each house has about a million extra rooms, but this house” Harry gestured around him. “Was kind of like home base for all events, since occasions are usually celebrated together like birthdays, baby showers, and every full moon. It was my parents’ house, so it was where I grew up.

Liam and I eventually got our shit figured out and were the first to start thinking about a family, so the generations sort of shifted and we became the, um, new core? I guess you could say. We got the house and started adopting.” Liam reached over the counter for Harry’s hand at this point, which Harry squeezed before continuing.

“We thought about surrogacy, but there are so many children that are given up once it’s discovered they’re werewolves and can’t be placed with a foster family. Although not all of them are wolves, some just fell into our lives at the perfect time. We’re are at five children that are legally ours” Harry’s eyes twinkled and he winked before he said, “I could tell you were wondering, most people do. But we’re a pack so they all feel a bit like ours.” He sighed as he looked out at the backyard.

Louis was stunned and amazed by what he had just heard, generations of werewolves, and all of them together as one big pack! His own family was quite large with six younger siblings in his nuclear family alone, and he already felt himself missing them. He wasn’t sure how he would fit into this new dynamic, but he felt comforted knowing Harry and Liam were next door. Plus it seemed like there would be plenty of children for Lucy to play with.

After all of the heavy talk, Louis, Harry, and Liam dove into light chitchat about the local school and other neighborhood topics. Harry was quick to give recommendations for all the best places in town for this-and-that, while Liam fondly watched on, rolling his eyes only once in a while.

Finally it started to get dark and Louis realized that he had best be heading home with Lucy to get dinner ready. He fetched her from the backyard, obviously worn out, and everyone said their goodbyes.

When Louis and Lucy got back to their new home, Lucy was too exhausted for much of anything and went down for a nap. Louis spent the next hour brooding about how to best have the werewolf conversation with his daughter. It was important now, especially with Harry and Liam’s family right next door.

When his daughter padded down the stairs after waking up from her nap, still rubbing sleep from her eyes, he beckoned her over to the sofa and she crawled into his lap.

“Hi pumpkin, how was your sleep?”

“Fine, thanks dad.” She responded, laying her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something, sweet girl.” He took a deep breath before continuing on “I wanted to talk about our new neighbors, and also… something about me. Do you remember the Halloween book we always read where there are vampires and witches and… werewolves?”

She nodded, curling her toes into his thigh. “Well, um, werewolves aren’t only in books, they are also in our world. And our neighbors are a family of them, and I am… I am also one.” He waited a second for her to scream or some other such thing but continued on when he was met with silence.

“I never want you to be scared, because I would never hurt you and neither would they. Werewolves aren’t as scary as the books make them out to be, usually they’re just normal people.”

Lucy seemed to think about this for a second before asking, “Will you still make me pancakes and make up stories about princesses and dinosaurs?”

“Of course I will.” Louis responded pressing his face into the top of her head.

“And can I still play with the kids next door?”

He laughed a little, “Yes, you can play with them whenever we’re invited over.”

“Well that’s alright then. You’re still dad.” She said with a level of acceptance for the abnormal that only young children seemed to be able to accomplish.

He laughed in relief and squeezed her to his chest before tickling her toes.

The next morning Lucy was more awake and seemed to have a lot more questions about the whole werewolf thing. They were sitting down to breakfast and she said, “Dad do werewolves eat people?” Which almost caused Louis to spill the juice he had been pouring.

He carefully set the orange juice carton on the table before he replied “No sweet pea, werewolves don’t eat people unless they are very bad werewolves. You know how we see the news sometimes when a human will hurt another human? Werewolves aren’t better or worse, just different, so just like sometimes a bad person will hurt someone, bad werewolves sometimes hurt people.”

“Did the people who tried to take me do that because you’re a werewolf?”

Louis shuddered at the memory of the particularly horrible time where one of the neighbors called child protective services because they didn’t think Louis was fit to be a parent due to his new werewolf status.

Luckily there was no real case, but it was still one of the scariest things to happen to him.

“Not everyone thinks that werewolves are good. People get ideas in their heads that werewolves are bad and they get scared. When they’re scared they start acting different than they normally would. That’s why we had to leave, honey. Everyone in the town was scared, even though I was never a danger to them.” He finished a little sadly.

“Well I think that’s stupid.” His daughter concluded before going back to her toast.

“Yeah, me too.” He replied.

“What happens when it’s a full moon, like in our book?”

And like that Louis was snapped out of his melancholy contemplation. His eyes shuttered so his face was unreadable, but his voice had a sharp edge when he said, “That’s a grown up matter, Lucy.” His back was ramrod straight and even though he knew he was being harsh and unreasonable, he couldn’t separate his strong emotions from the topic.

The next full moon was coming up soon and he was dreading it more than he usually did, due to the new environment. But that was something to think about later, for now he just focused back in on his little girl.

Harry had strong-armed Louis into coming to their next pack gathering, of which there were many. Louis wanted to meet everyone, but he could acutely feel that he was not a part of this family, which made him reluctant.

Louis felt a bit nervous as he knocked on the door of their neighbors’ house. Laughter and light were spilling out from the cracks, but he only held Lucy’s hand a little bit tighter.

Finally, Harry answered the door, pulling Louis into a hug and crouching down to say hi to Lucy. As soon as Louis let go of her hand she went tearing into the house in search of the rest of the children, leaving Louis by himself with Harry.

His heart rate picked up and Harry seemed to sense his tension. Instead of commenting, he threw an arm around Louis’ shoulders and pulling him into the busy kitchen. Liam saw him first and gave a little cheer, coming over to give Louis a hug.

“Louis! You’re here! We’ll have to introduce you to everyone.” Liam said as he took over for Harry, guiding Louis around to meet what seemed like every single member of the very large pack.

He met aunts and cousins, grandparents, nieces, and nephews. He wasn’t sure how many of these people were actually blood related, but he just smiled and hugged and accepted any hands that were offered to him.

Finally, he was dragged to the back porch where a group of people was sprawled across lawn furniture, keeping an eye on the children and dogs running around the backyard.

“Hey everyone, this is Louis, our new neighbor," Liam said, addressing the group. He turned to Louis before continuing. "All of these lovely people aren’t really part of the pack, but they still are. Kind of like you really. This is Grimmy or Nick, Aimee, Ian, Alexa, Daisy, and Douglas. They’re good people.” And with that, he disappeared to mediate a brewing fight near the play structure.

Louis stood there awkwardly, not quite sure what to do now that Liam was gone and everyone was staring at him.

“You look a bit small for a werewolf, don’t you?” asked a long-limbed man clad in black skinny jeans and a band tee with a leather jacket. Louis thought he was actually quite handsome, with big eyes, an aristocratic nose and long fingers that in any other situation Louis would be happy to get to know more intimately.

Instead, he bristled and snapped “Didn’t know there was an ideal size, mate. You seem entirely too big to manage.”

The rest of the group snorted a bit, both at the unintended innuendo and the reaction to Grimmy’s comment.

“Leave ‘im alone Grim, we can’t all be giants like you.” Drawled a bottle blonde to Grimmy’s left before turning to address Louis. “You just ignore him, he sticks his foot in his mouth more often than not, especially around those as pretty as you.”

Louis didn’t know quite what to do with that compliment, so he just ran his fingers through his hair nervously, still feeling defensive, and took a step away from the group. Most had turned back to their side conversations, but Louis glanced up to see Nick watching him as he turned and made a hasty escape.

“So what do you think of Louis?” Harry asked when he cornered Nick later that night.

“I’ve only just met the lad, haven’t I?” Nick replied. In truth he was still a bit stung about the way his interaction had gone, even though it was his fault. He had been flustered at the appearance of this striking stranger.

Nick thought back to his initial observations of Louis. He was on the smaller size but obviously strong, with sharp cheekbones and pretty blue eyes. Nick’s mind had gone somewhere highly inappropriate when Liam had first brought him over. He had always enjoyed being a bit bigger than his partners, which was when he had made the offhand comment that caused offense.

Nick liked to think that he was usually smoother, but something about Louis threw him off.

Nick sighed and turned his attention back to Harry. “I don’t know Haz, we didn’t get off on the best foot. He’s… very pretty but I don’t know that we are going to get along.”

Harry smirked at him briefly then muttered, “Knew he was your type,” causing Nick to swat at him. Harry deftly ducked out of the way before turning on his reassuring voice.

“I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding and you two will be friends in no time.”

Nick wasn’t so sure about that.

After stomping away from the group on the back porch, Louis made his way to the front where there weren’t as many people. He was itching for a cigarette but he was trying to quit so he just stood there breathing deeply.

“You alright mate?” Came a voice to his left. Louis turned towards it and was confronted with a blonde blue-eyed man looking quite cheery.

Louis pushed down his irritation to respond, “Yeah, course. Doing great.”

The other man snorted, so Louis was clearly not as convincing as he had planned. “Whatever you say. You’re the new guy right?”

Louis realized that he was being fully engaged in conversation so he took swallowed his irritation and turned his attention to the stranger.

“Yup, that’s me. My daughter and I moved next door and Harry has been hounding us ever since to come to one of these things. Only I’ve had a run in with someone named Grimshaw and needed to make an exit.”

“Ha, hounded” was Niall’s eloquent response.

Louis snorted before he finally let go of the tension in his shoulders.

Niall grinned when he noticed Louis relax. “Don’t worry about Grimmy too much, he just sticks his foot in it sometimes. He’s an alright lad all around though.”

Louis shook his head in disbelief and made some vague grumbly noises. Niall just laughed and changed the subject.

Before he knew it, they had been talking for at least an hour and Louis had tears in his eyes from laughter. Niall was sitting on the front steps next to him looking pleased with himself and Louis was suddenly, intensely glad he chose this town to move to.

When Louis left later with a sleeping Lucy in his arms, Harry tried to convince him to come to the next party, a week from today. But as soon as Louis heard that it was a full moon party, a bolt of panic went through him and he refused adamantly.

Harry was clearly disappointed but didn’t push too far, simply telling him he would have to come to the one after, with a vaguely menacing expression.

After that, Harry kept slipping mentions of the full moon party into conversation, and it was making Louis feel incredibly on edge. Not only did he have to continually turn Harry’s offer down, but it was also a constant reminder of how close the full moon was.

It felt like ages ago that he had been at his mom’s house, instructing her which night of the month to make sure all the kids were inside and the doors locked tight. Ignoring the problem until he had to deal with it directly didn’t seem the best way to go, but Louis felt as though it was his only option; a problem for another day.

The night of the next full moon, Nick found himself once again at the Lirry household. After a couple of hours, Nick decided that he needed to take a break from it all, so he stepped outside to have a smoke. He was on his first blissful exhale when he heard a noise.

He listened more intently, and then definitely heard a whimper from somewhere nearby. He figured it must be one of Harry’s pack that had too much to drink before the change, but decided to go check it out just in case.

He blindly followed the direction of the noises through some bushes, focused only on the pants and high-pitched keening sounds, until he realized that he was now in the Tomlinson backyard. He winced and started turning around until he heard a particularly distressed sounding noise and scanned the yard, eyes landing on a figure on the ground some ten feet away.

He approached cautiously, maneuvering so he could see who it was, and his eyes landed on the face of none other than Louis Tomlinson.

Nick had a sharp intake of breath when he saw the pain on the man’s face. Louis looked like he was mid-transition, as early in the night as it was, but Nick had never seen someone look so… desperate before.

He was curled on the ground with his hands balled tightly into fists. Nick started to reach for him, trying to figure out where to start, what to ask, and how to help.

“Go. Away.” Louis snarled at him before giving a pained gasp and pushing his forehead into the earth.

Nick froze, horrified, as a convulsion wracked Louis’ body. The first change was hard for any werewolf, but from what Harry had said, it was over a year now for Louis. He should be able to easily change back and forth, especially on a full moon night.

“Nick!” Louis barked, drawing his attention back to him, clearly trying to get him to leave. Nick took a step back and thanked whatever powers had caused him to stuff his phone in his pocket before he dialed Harry’s number.

“Grimmy! Why are you calling me? I thought you were right around here somewhere!” Harry answered jovially.

“Harry,” He said shortly into the phone. “I need you to come to Louis’ backyard now, he doesn’t want me here but I can’t just leave him.” He glanced back at Louis’ trembling body before he added, “As soon as possible, preferably.”

Something in his voice must have made Harry pay attention because he heard Harry turn from the phone and issue a couple short commands before he hung up. He soon showed up with Liam and Niall in tow, all looking worried.

Nick gestured at Louis’ form and said, “I think he’s having trouble with the transition.”

Louis gave a particularly long groan at that point and all three boys’ faces became alert and concerned. They advanced towards Louis and Nick heard Harry start murmuring calming things as the three crowded around.

Figuring his duty was done, Nick swiftly exited, trying his level best to not let his worry for Louis overtake him when the boy so clearly wanted nothing to do with him.

Louis woke up the next morning in a pile of three naked men on Harry’s back porch. It took him a second to figure out what was going on and once he did he wished he’d never woken up.

He lay there staring at the sky thinking about what happened last night. He had gotten Lucy to bed early and then just sat outside on the back porch until he was overtaken by the overwhelming pain of all of the bones in his body breaking and reforming began.

He got a brief flash of Nick’s face for some reason, and that worried him. After that he remembered warmth and comfort, relief from pain, and a feeling of security. He looked at the sleeping faces surrounding him and knew they must have had something to do with it.

He wanted to say thank you but was still being pressed down upon with the weight of his shame, so he fled back to his own house to shower and spend time with his daughter, hoping to distract himself.

Harry’s eyes fluttered open and he groaned at the cool breeze over his naked skin and the soreness in his muscles. He turned his head and saw Liam and Niall lying with him, which wasn’t unusual, but it felt like something was missing.

Then Harry jerked upright when he realized something was missing. Louis. His head swiveled around looking for him, but when he realized he was nowhere to be seen he leaned back on his hands with a sigh.

He couldn’t imagine what Louis had been through in the past year, especially if every full moon was like that for him.

Sure, most wolves had trouble the first time and it hurt, but they had family around them to help and comfort them, and after that they learned to surrender to their inner wolf and the transition was smoother. But it seemed like Louis had never had that help and resisted the transition, making it difficult and painful every time.

Harry’s heart broke a little bit at the thought of Louis going through this alone in an environment where they didn’t accept what he was, but he couldn’t change the past. He could only make sure it didn’t happen again, Harry thought with determination.

Later he would go see Louis to talk about this more, but for now, he just nudged Niall and Liam awake and pushed them inside and towards beds while he started breakfast.

Louis was squirming uncomfortably under the intense stares of the three men on his porch after he opened the door only seconds ago.

“Well come in, why don’t you?” Louis said gruffly, opening the door wider.

Instead Niall, Liam, and Harry all threw themselves into a group hug with Louis at its center. The tight embrace muffled his noise of surprise, and he could feel his cheeks heating with embarrassment. Underneath that was a swelling of gratitude in his chest and the same feeling of security and closeness that he remembered from the transition the night before.

He was horrified to find tears welling in his eyes, overcome with how hard the past year had been, and the relief he had felt for the first time last night.

After the door was closed and Harry had wiped the tears from Louis’ face, they all sat in the living room, some unpacked boxes being used as impromptu tables for the tea Liam had insisted on making.

There wasn’t that much room to sit since he only had one couch, but at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to feel any regret since he was nestled between Liam and Harry with their arms on the back of the couch, almost protectively.

Niall wasn’t far off either, making sure to smile at Louis from the other side of Liam whenever he glanced over.

After the outpouring of emotion, Louis was left feeling a bit drained and vulnerable, at a loss for words. He was just glad Lucy was down for her afternoon nap, guaranteeing another hour of privacy.

Harry started simply, speaking quietly as if he sensed the mood Louis was in. “How are you feeling, love?”

Louis looked at the mug in his hands, trying to catalogue his own feelings. “I feel… okay.” Which was the truth. “Much better because of you lot.” Liam squeezed Louis’ arm encouragingly.

He started speaking again. “I just… becoming a werewolf was always one of the worst things to happen to me. People I’d known my whole life started hating me, being afraid of me, thinking I couldn’t take care of my daughter. I had to leave my entire family behind, the youngest are just babies who might not remember me when they grow up. And that’s not even mentioning the difficulties I’ve been having at the full moon.” He forced a laugh, eyes still glued to his lap.

“I thought it was supposed to be like that, I thought being hated and the intense pain that I went through were how it was supposed to be. I didn’t have anyone else like me that could help me through it or teach me, so I just assumed being a werewolf meant pain. I knew there were communities more accepting, which is why I moved here, but I didn’t realize until last night that something wasn’t right with my… transition.”

Louis was twisting his hands together, tea going in his lap. “So I guess I just want to say thank you for…everything.”

“Oh, Louis.” Liam said, squeezing him tighter into his side. “You don’t have to thank us, I just wish we could have helped you earlier.”

Harry squeezed him from the other side, saying, “You’re ours now, Lou. Welcome to the family.”

Niall reached over and squeezed his knee, following up with, “Sorry to say you’ll never be able to get rid of us now.”

Louis laughed wetly, squeezing his eyes shut and letting all of his feelings wash over him.

The four men stayed that way, chatting quietly, until a sleepy Lucy stumbled down the stairs and into Louis’ lap.

She looked around at the people in the living room, before looking again at Louis, slightly alarmed. “Are you okay, Dad?”

And Louis was. He was tired and still slightly embarrassed, but overall he didn’t feel as much of the weight on his chest that had followed him around since he was bitten.

He leaned his forehead against his daughter’s, “I’m fine, sweet girl.” He then stood up, and threw her in the air, although not as high as he was once able to since she was growing like a weed.

Her giggles seemed to lift the mood of the room immediately, and Louis finally set her down feeling content.

The three men shuffled out shortly after, all embracing Louis on the way. Harry was the last and held him close for a second longer as he whispered, “You should talk to Nick, by the way. He’s the one who called us to come to you.”

Louis tensed, remembering the flashes of Nick’s face from when he woke up. He had forgotten all about it, honestly, and didn’t know how to process this new information.

Harry was absolutely no help as he innocently smiled and shut the door, with Louis still rooted to the spot. Damn, he thought to himself.

Which is how Louis ended up on Nick’s front porch the very next day, frowning at the wood pattern of the door. Nick had actually seen him arrive about two minutes ago, but was waiting to see how long it would take Louis to knock on the door.

After several more minutes, he rolled his eyes and opened it, startling Louis whose eyes went wide, mouth falling slightly open.

Nick still thought he looked terribly pretty, which in itself was annoying. He was apprehensive and didn’t know where they stood, or why Louis was showing up to talk to him. He was also still worried about the lad. The last two nights it had been almost impossible to get to sleep with the images of Louis writhing in pain on the ground burned into his retinas.

Louis cleared his throat then looked at Nick uneasily, and Nick knew he had to say something, since it didn’t look like the other man was going to make any moves. He finally settled on inviting him inside for a cuppa, watching as Louis stepped carefully past him and peered around the house.

Nick busied himself making tea, “Yorkshire okay with you?” he asked.

A small smile flitted across Louis’ face that Nick only barely caught the tail-end of before he spoke. “Yorkshire would be great, thanks. Milk no sugar.”

Once they both had their cups and were seated at the kitchen table, Nick just looked at Louis for an explanation of his presence.

Louis seemed to understand this expectation and immediately went a bit fidgety before he took a deep breath. “So, about the other night. The um… the full moon.”

Ah. Right to the point. Nick tried to put on an encouraging sort of face, though he wasn’t sure he accomplished it.

“What…exactly happened? Harry mentioned you, but didn’t give any specifics.” Louis finally finished.

Nick blinked, surprised that Louis didn’t remember. He was also slightly offended, even though he knew that was ridiculous. There had been bigger things to worry about for Louis at the time, but it was hard to hear that something he remembered so vividly hadn’t even made it into the highlights reel of Louis’ recollection of the night.

He shook himself out of it, realizing he needed to give an answer.

“Well, I was at Liam and Harry’s for the party and just went out for a smoke when I, sort of, heard you?”

“I followed the noise thinking it was one of Harry’s lot, but I found you instead.” Nick continued quickly, as if speaking fast would make the whole situation less uncomfortable.

“You were on the ground, well you know what was happening at that point. You shouted at me a bit telling me to leave and that’s when I called Harry. Nothing too elaborate really.”

At some point during his recounting, Louis’ face turned pink at the edges, he was clearly mortified.

Silence filled the space between them, something Nick always hated. He was quite a chatterbox and always had friends over to help him cover the silence, so this interaction with Louis was starting to feel physically painful.

Finally they both started to speak at the same time, before Nick gestured for Louis to continue.

“Errr, I suppose I should thank you.” Louis started before wincing slightly and continuing in a firmer voice “Thank you for your help that night, I’ve been dealing with this alone for a while now and didn’t realize that other people could help.”

“Me and the boys had a big heart-to-heart yesterday about everything so I’ll spare you the mushy details, but I appreciate the role you played in getting them to me.”

Nick was actually quite interested in the mushy details. In fact, he was sort of fascinated with everything about Louis. He could tell, though, that now was not the time to be asking him to bare his soul. Instead he just replied with a simple but heartfelt “You’re welcome.”

Louis nodded once, seeming to feel as though he had accomplished what he came there for. He stood from the table, put his mug in the sink and made hasty goodbyes, speeding out of Nick’s house like he was being chased.

Nick could only stare dumbfounded at where Louis had once been seated, before heaving a sigh and slumping back into his chair.

Holy. Shit. Louis couldn’t believe he made it out of there alive. The entire experience had been so much more awkward than he had anticipated. The conversation had been uncomfortable, but Nick had been much more hospitable than Louis had expected after their last encounter.

Although, even though he didn’t remember it, technically they last saw each other two days ago, damn and double damn. He had never wanted anyone to see him like that, it was bad enough Liam, Harry and Niall had all been witness, but to find out Nick was there too… it was all too much. He usually had precautions set up but in a new place it was hard to get everything together when you are studiously trying to ignore what was going to happen.

Louis honestly wanted to dig a hole and bury himself. Maybe he could become a mole person, though Lucy might be upset with him.

Well, at least Nick liked Yorkshire, so he couldn’t be all bad. And he hadn’t been rude or even condescending like he had expected.

He had even looked sort of… beautiful in the light of the morning. He had been earnest and hadn’t made fun of Louis even a little bit. This endeared him to Louis in a way that he hadn’t thought possible.

He was probably still a twat though, so Louis shut that train of thought down real fast. It was best to keep to himself and not attempt any further involvement. Yes, that was exactly what he would do.

They formed a sort of uneasy truce after that, where they would acknowledge each other when they met in town or at Harry and Liam’s. The never exchanged more than a couple words and Nick couldn’t tell if that was a relief or an annoyance.

He kept an eye on the lad nonetheless, trying to figure him out. He wasn’t overly successful, but he did notice something a bit strange. It seemed whenever Nick showed up and Liam and Harry’s, there was a small change that Louis had implemented.

First was the institution of a “command center” as Harry proudly called it. It looked like something right off of Pinterest, with a big whiteboard calendar, chore wheel, neatly labeled hanging folders, and a corkboard with receipts and coupons already stuck on it.

Nick thought it looked absolutely ridiculous, but he wasn’t the one trying to keep track of five children in addition to other life stuff so he felt he shouldn’t make any outward comments.

Another time he showed up to see Louis on a ladder helping Liam clean the gutters. Nick’s dad had recently forced him to help with this chore at his parents’ house and he knew it was unpleasant.

His own family had guilted him into it, so he couldn’t quite understand volunteering to help a friend with such an unpleasant task.

Then, Nick was at a party at Liam and Harry’s and he noticed some picture frames on the living room wall. He turned to ask Harry about it, who replied that Louis had put them up yesterday.

Nick was two drinks deep and only just buzzed, which gave him the courage to approach the man in question. He was able to corner Louis on a settee that had recently been vacated, everyone else in the room already absorbed in conversation.

Louis seemed surprised when he approached, but not upset, so Nick sat next to him.

“Where’s your little one, then?” he said after a moment.

A fond smile edged its way onto Louis’ face. “She’s harassing Sophia in the kitchen. She picked up an interest in baking recently and is trying left, right, and center to get someone to help her make cookies.”

Nick couldn’t help but be a little charmed at the way Louis spoke of his daughter. From what he could tell, she was very similar to Louis in many ways: loud but sincere, and quick to wrap others around her finger.

He did have something on his mind though, that had been building over the last couple of weeks.

“So, you’ve been doing a lot of things around this house lately” Nick started, gesturing at the picture frames.

Louis just looked at him, slightly guarded.

“I’m just saying, you don’t really have to do that. I’m sure Haz and Li appreciate it, but they’ll love you either way. You don’t have to like, prove yourself.”

Louis’ eyes grew flinty and his words were curt when he replied, “That’s not... You don’t know anything about me, just because we had a moment a couple weeks back doesn’t give you the right to make comments and assumptions about my life.”

Nick was taken aback. He had been going for reassuring, wanted to let Louis know people loved him no matter what. It hadn’t even entered his mind that he might offend.

“No, I meant…” but Louis cut him off. “Yeah, no, I think I got what you meant,” the last word bitten out as he stood and walked away.

You’re an idiot. Nick thought to himself as he sat alone on the recently vacated settee.

Louis was fuming. How dare Nick be so…right. His indignation deflated a little, but not entirely.

It hadn’t even really been a conscious thing; he just wanted to show he was… worthy? He felt as though he had to earn a spot in this pack, that it couldn’t be as easy as just showing up. So he had started doing little things around the house, trying to amass proof that he was helpful, hoping desperately in the back of his mind that he wouldn’t have to give it all up.

And Nick, bloody Nick, had caught on to the fact and called him out on it. Although he had been saying they would love him no matter what, Louis felt exposed.

He could almost convince himself that it had been pity in Nick’s eyes, but he wasn’t able to make that leap. In the end, he knew it had come from a good place, but also knew that he couldn’t take it back now. Couldn’t turn up on Nick’s doorstep a second time with thank yous and apologies falling from his lips. Instead he stubbornly chose to ignore it and do nothing.

Harry had noticed a tension of sorts building between Louis and Grimmy over the past couple of weeks, and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. For a while it had seemed to be sexual, feelings-like tension, but something had shifted recently and Harry couldn’t tell what was going on anymore. The new dynamic felt like tension-tension.

Both men were so similar, that it drove Harry crazy to see them keeping a polite distance when he knew they would get along so well if they just gave each other a chance.

Both had a dry sarcastic type of humor, but loved fiercely. They could be stubborn and lovely in the same breath, for god’s sake they even liked the same tv shows!

He didn’t have any sort of a plan other than keeping a close eye on both of his friends, ready to intervene at any given moment. He definitely needed to consult with Liam about it as well, maybe get some of the kids to act as spies.

If Nick was honest, he was having a bit of a sulk. It had been over a week since The Settee Incident and as much as he didn’t want to care what Louis thought, he did.

Which was why he was lying with his head in Daisy’s lap having a proper long whine about it.

She was petting his hair consolingly, but he could tell it was only half sincere, since she thought he was being an idiot.

“I don’t know why you haven’t just apologized, love.” She said for maybe the hundredth time.

The thing was, he knew he had been out of line, but he also thought Louis was being a little unfair. He was holding onto that small grain of righteousness in an attempt to justify his refusal to apologize first.

It had definitely gotten awkward, to the point where even Harry was noticing something off about them. This town was not the biggest, and if they weren’t both spending time at Harry and Liam’s, they still ran into each other at the one coffee shop in town or the local pharmacy.

It wasn’t a refusal to speak, but rather a mask of icy indifference that they both put on when they had to interact, and it was bloody frustrating.

It all came to a head in a weird sort of way.

It was the next full moon party, which Louis actually attended this time, after a gentle promise from Harry, Liam and Niall to stay by his side when it was time for the transition.

Louis seemed to have more energy than usual, which he used to cavort around with the children for a while, much to his young daughter’s delight.

The thing was, Nick was watching him and he could tell that this energy was more manic than it was joyful.

Louis soon tired of running around with the children and instead sought out Harry, Liam and Niall, hanging off of them, throwing carrot sticks and generally making a menace of himself. Niall and Harry played right into it, while Liam looked on exasperatedly and followed after to pick up whatever projectile they had gotten their hands on.

Eventually, Louis turned his sights on Nick. Even though they hadn’t spoken more than a few words to each other in a while, Louis seemed to think now was the time to start throwing little verbal jabs at him.

Nick heard that his quiff was stupid, and his leather jacket was pretentious, and did Nick even listen to the bands he had all those t-shirts for.

Harry was watching on with worried eyes as Nick got more annoyed with every passing second. Finally he hauled himself up from the couch and strode over to where Louis stood, grabbing both of his wrists in one hand and saying to the room at large “Just going to borrow him for a sec, ta.”

He then pulled Louis down the corridor and into a game room Nick had made fun of a million times. He finally let go and gave Louis a little shove so he was standing before him.

Louis looked stricken, but clearly got his defenses back up quickly and crossed his arms across his chest.

“What’s this about then?” He asked loftily.

“Was going to ask you the same question, really.” Nick said mildly, keeping his eyes locked on Louis’.

Louis was the first to look away, turning his eyes to the ground in front of him, somehow looking both sheepish and annoyed.

“I’m fine, everything’s great, don’t know what your problem is.” Louis lied. Nick just kept staring at him, clearly refusing to believe any of his bullshit. And that was just the problem, wasn’t it?

Nick always seemed to know what was going on in Louis’ head before he did and it was infuriating.

First, it was Nick who knew that Harry, Liam and Niall would be the best to help him with his transition. Then, he had figured out why Louis was doing chores for Liam and Harry before Louis had even been able to articulate his reasoning to himself.

And even now, Nick clearly knew that there was more to his actions than just being annoying, even though Louis himself had only just figured it out as he was being stared down.

He also finally realized how ridiculous he had been acting all night, pulling pigtails, trying to get Nick to focus on him again.

His chest deflated and his arms fell to hang at his sides before he reached up to scrub at his face uselessly.

“Look, I’m sorry alright? I’ll lay off.” Louis finally said before he tried to make an exit. But Nick was standing in the doorway refusing to budge, which meant that they just ended up standing unusually close together.

“What else is going on?” Came Nick’s voice while Louis was trying to figure out how to get past.

“You’ve never been like this, there’s something else happening.”

A frown pulled at the corner of Louis’ mouth, “how do you know what I’ve been like?”

Nick sighed and rolled his eyes slightly. “Look, I know you haven’t been here for all that long, but that doesn’t mean that you’re shrouded in mystery. I know what you’re generally like, and this isn’t it. If you don’t want to talk about it, fine, but you chose to interact with me tonight, not the other way around.”

Louis sighed again, glancing at Nick’s face before looking away.

“It’s just…” he began before halting, indecision showing on his face.

“It’s my sisters’ birthday.” Nick looked surprised and confused, but Louis had gotten this far so he just kept going.

“They’re twin girls and this will be the first birthday in their lifetime that I’ve missed. I love my other sisters just as much, but I was older when Daisy and Phoebe were born and I remember all the birthdays I celebrated with them and I’m missing one now.”

“I love it here, but sometimes I just really miss home and wish that things hadn’t had to change, or that I could go visit as easily as anyone else.”

Nick was astounded with the honesty that was coming from Louis at the moment. He could appreciate how much it took for him to share something like this, since he was normally a more private person.

It was then that Nick noticed how close they were still standing, bodies only a few inches apart. He brought Louis into a hug, hoping he wasn’t overstepping his boundaries. There were other things that he could think to do in such close proximity, but figured this may not be the right time.

Louis all but melted into it, wrapping his arms tight around Nick’s waist. Honestly, he hadn’t had a chance to let himself really feel how much he missed his family, he was always trying to be positive for Lucy, but Nick made it feel like it was okay.

Louis loosened his grip first, Nick just a half second behind, but they stayed easily within reach of each other.

Nick finally broke the silence by saying “I’m sorry about what I said that time, about trying to prove yourself? It wasn’t really good of me to spring that upon you, and you’re right I don’t really know you all that well to be making statements like that.”

Louis had nearly forgotten, to be honest, focused on so many other things, but he still felt a wave of relief that he maybe didn’t have to act like he was mad anymore.

“I apologize too, for making things weird and everything tonight, I know I haven’t been the easiest person to be around lately.”

Nick just chuckled and drew Louis back into his chest. Louis went willingly, this time crossing his arms over his chest and putting his head down when Nick wrapped his arms around him.

Seeing Louis make himself smaller to better be held Did Things to Nick that he didn’t have the mental capacity to explore at this moment in time.

Instead he just rested his cheek on top of Louis’ head and whispered “friends?” which prompted a muffled reply of “friends.” from Louis.

They eventually separated and made their way back to the area of the house where everyone else was located.

Activity had resumed in their absence, but when they reappeared everyone seemed to halt for a second to look at them.

Louis immediately turned bright red and hid behind Nick a little bit.

“Alright wankers, nothing to see here,” Nick said loudly as he rolled his eyes. Honestly, he wished people wouldn’t make it weirder than it was already going to be.

Harry took the opportunity to approach. Nosy bastard, Nick thought to himself.

He looked hesitant but still spoke “So things are…good?”

Nick rolled his eyes again and pulled Louis to stand by his side instead of acting like he was a human shield.

“Things are fine, Haz. We worked through it a bit and now it’s all good.”

At that moment, Lucy came barreling through the door into Louis, already chattering about a thousand different things at once.

Nick could see Louis put on his Dad Hat and give his full attention to Lucy as he picked her up and rested her on his hip, even though she was clearly getting too big for that. Nick watched fondly, and Harry didn’t miss the soft look in his eyes.

“Things are really alright, then? I know it’s been a bit weird,” Harry pressed.

Nick just shook his head and said, “Things are good.” He walked away to decompress and update his friends who had heard him complain for the past few weeks.

He did find Louis on the way out that night though, and decided to take a risk.

“Erm, do you want to come over to watch X-Factor next week? They already had auditions and everything, but it’s better when they get to the live shows anyways.”

Louis was looking at him intently, but at the mention of X-Factor his face split into a grin.

“That would actually be wicked, I still haven’t had time to figure out how to set up the cable box and I was gutted that I was missing it.”

“So really, you’re just using me for my cable…” Nick teased.

“Hey! It was your idea first.” Louis defended, but with a small smile so Nick knew he wasn’t upset.

They walked out together and Nick knew he would be seeing Louis next Saturday night.

When Saturday finally arrived, Louis was pacing around his living room with his daughter happily putting together a puzzle on the floor, away from his worn path.

Friends… Louis could do friends. It was better than whatever had been going on with the two of them lately and he really did want to get to know Nick better.

A little thrill went through him when he thought about spending more time with Nick, but he pushed it down for now. No use getting too excited, it was only X-Factor.

Although…should he bring Lucy? Louis stopped pacing to look at his daughter intently, as if the answer would appear if he just looked hard enough. It would be easy to send her over to Harry and Liam’s, but would that be like showing he had expectations? He didn’t, but just in case, it was probably best she not be there.

“Dad, stop being a creep.” Lucy said, startling Louis out of his thoughts. As his eyes refocused he saw Lucy staring back at him, completed puzzle in front of her.

He sighed and sat on the ottoman near where his daughter was parked on the floor.

“How would you like to go over to Harry and Liam’s?” He asked.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at him for a second. “So does that mean I don’t get to watch X-Factor?”

Louis laughed a little, glad that of all the things she learned from him, a love of X-Factor made the list.

“I’m sure that someone will be watching it over there as well.”

Lucy took a second to think about this before replying “I guess that’s fine then.”

She clearly knew she was being a little snot, and Louis’ eyes filled with mischief as he slowly eased himself off the ottoman onto the floor, scooting closer to her.

She eyed him warily, and then shrieked and giggled when he lunged for her socked foot, drawing her in to squeeze her tight and pretend to eat her neck and shoulder.

“Daaaaad!” she protested breathlessly between laughs.

Eventually it just devolved into a cuddle on the floor as they both calmed down and got their breath back.

“Love you dad,” came a soft voice from Louis’ chest.

His heart filled at the words and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head before he replied, “Love you too Luce.”

Eventually they got themselves off the floor and fixed their messy hair and clothing.

Louis packed a little backpack with some toys and Lucy’s favorite snack, even though he knew that they had more than enough of both at Harry and Liam’s.

With that done, he took her hand and they went to the house next door. Louis knocked and after a short moment, Harry answered the door.

He smiled when he saw them and opened the door a little wider for them to step through. “Hi Harry, I was wondering if Lucy could hang out here for a little while?”

“Of course she’s welcome! You can stay too, if you like, we were just making popcorn and getting ready to watch the newest episode of X-Factor. It’s one of the only things we can get the entire family to agree on. Usually Grimmy makes an appearance as well, but I haven’t seen him today.”

Louis flushed at this information. Nick didn’t usually watch by himself, he usually was here… interesting.

As soon as Lucy heard the name of the tv show, she hugged Louis’ leg and disappeared into the house to find Ava and whatever other children were around to play with.

Louis fumbled a bit with his response “Oh um, thanks for the invite but I’ve got, uh, a place I’ve got to be.”

Harry watched him in amusement. In truth he was teasing a little because he knew exactly what was happening. Nick had called him earlier in a panic asking questions about what kind of food Louis liked and was his living room arranged alright or did he need to move the recliner to the other side of the room.

So when Louis showed up on his doorstep it seemed like the perfect opportunity to rib him a little. But if he wasn’t going to tell him what he was up to, Harry would leave him to it.

Louis stammered some sort of excuse and scuttled away to get ready, presumably. Harry just chuckled to himself as he closed the door.

Liam came up to him and rested a hand on the small of his back.

“What are you laughing about, then?”

“Louis just came to drop of Lucy.” Harry said while wiggling his eyebrows meaningfully at Liam.

“Oh did he? And did he say anything about where he was going?”

“Not a word.”

“Well, I hope everything goes well for them. It was terrible when they were fighting.”

“Me too.” Harry hummed in response, leaning into Liam.

Nick stared down at the table in front of him. It was covered in about ten different kinds of snacks and he had almost the same number of drinks waiting in the fridge.

He was being ridiculous and he knew it, there was no way snacks would make or break the evening. However, it was one of the things he had control over, so he had was striving to make it the best possible.

Now he was wondering if he looked like a weirdo who only ate snacks and had no real food.

Before he could fully decide, the doorbell rang. Nick’s heart jumped and he smoothed down his jumper, which was also an attempt to make his hands less sweaty.

When he opened the door, Louis was standing there, wearing skinny jeans, vans and an adidas jacket over a t-shirt. It was casual, but he everything fit him so well and Nick was incredibly attracted to him.

Nick forgot to speak for a second and they both stood there staring at each other before he finally invited Louis inside. They both went in for half hugs, like they weren’t sure if that was the proper protocol and could hedge it if need be.

They ended up hugging briefly and all Nick could think about was how good Louis’ shampoo smelled.

He sort of shuffled them into the living room, where Louis stared at the snacks on the table.

“Um, I know it’s kind of a lot, but I didn’t know what you liked?” Nick fidgeted.

“No, this is great, I’ve been trying to eat healthier around Lucy so I haven’t had proper junk food in ages. Don’t be surprised if I eat all of this.” Louis replied with a grin that had a slightly nervous edge to it.

The show wasn’t set to start for another half an hour, so they both sat on the couch with beers that neither of them drank.

“So, do you have a favorite on the season so far?” Louis ventured.

“Oh, hmmm, not at the moment, this is the first live show and I don’t like to pick before that.”

“Sensible. Like I said I haven’t been watching yet, so I’m a clean slate.”

Silence fell while Nick was rifling his brain for a topic of conversation.

“Tell me about your family” Nick blurted, thinking of it as a light chit-chat topic. That was, until he saw Louis’ face flash hurt for a second and he remembered their last conversation.

He berated himself and started, “Sorry, I...” but Louis interrupted him.

“No, it’s alright. I don’t mind talking about them. You’ve met Lucy already obviously, but I also have six siblings at home. I’m the eldest, with Lottie, then Fizzy, Daisy and Phoebe are the twins, and there’s another set of younger twins, Doris and Ernie, who are just babies.”

“My mum actually just got remarried to an alright sort of guy. Grew up with a stepdad after my biological dad fucked off when I was a baby and then my stepdad left as well.”

“So are you close with your mom?” Nick asked, trying to take in all this new information at once.

Louis took a deep breath before he answered, “Yeah, incredibly close. That’s why this is so hard, I think. For the longest time it was us against the world. I had a lot of responsibilities growing up, always babysitting and helping with things around the house. Sometimes I resented it, but I could tell my mom needed the help since she was also working as a nurse. It definitely made it hard sometimes, and we would fight a lot but I told her everything.

When she found out that the girl I had been dating was pregnant, she was happy for me, but also a little disappointed in the way it all worked out. The girl didn’t stick around and mum knew that things would be hard for me. Pile the whole werewolf thing on top of that and it was a mess. I haven’t actually talked to her since I got here. I keep meaning to call, but I feel like it might just make it worse.”

Louis looked up and realized he had been prattling on for some time. Nick had asked a polite question, he didn’t want his whole bloody life story.

He flushed, “Sorry for all of that, I haven’t really talked to anyone about my family since I got here, I didn’t mean to go on about it. You’re just… I don’t know, really easy to talk to?”

Nick’s heart leapt in his chest. Truthfully, he loved hearing Louis talk, especially about something that was important to him. He felt honored but didn’t quite know what to say.

The only thing he could come up with was, “You should call your mom.”

Louis looked at him, startled. “What, like, now?”

Nick snorted. “No, not now, X-Factor is on soon. Later, maybe wait to pick up Lucy for a little while and have a nice chat. The thing with moms is they love you no matter what. Well maybe not all moms, but it seems to me that’s definitely true of your mom. She might be a bit upset to not have talked to you, but I’m sure she will be happier that you called.”

And Louis believed him.

Just then, the X-Factor music started, jarring them out of the moment. They both turned to look at the tv instead, but surreptitiously glanced back every once and a while.

Once they really got into the show, the awkwardness fell away and they were bantering back and forth about the contestants. On the whole they had very similar opinions, although Louis seemed more skewed towards the groups while Nick rooted more for the boys. It was a nice mix of agreement and friendly competition to make it enjoyable.

By the end of the show they were much more comfortable with each other and agreed to meet up again next week.

When Louis finally left, they hugged for just a couple seconds too long to be completely platonic. Louis’ cheeks went a light pink before he scurried off to his house.

Nick went back inside and started putting away the numerous snacks left on the table. Only half of them had even been opened, but he supposed the rest would be eaten the next time Louis came over. He smiled to himself at the thought, slightly giddy at the thought of spending more time alone with Louis.

He tried to rein it in; they had only agreed to friends so far. But he couldn’t help it if he got a bit fluttery.

While he was still feeling brave, Louis decided to take Nick’s advice and call his mom on the walk home. Nick’s house was only about ten minutes away by foot, but if he got home, he would probably never do it.

So he took out his phone and found the contact titled ‘home’ with the little house emoji. He took a deep breath and then pressed call.

It rang twice before his mother answered, sounding distracted. “Hello?”

Louis sharply inhaled, not entirely prepared to hear her voice. His mom said ‘Hello’ again, in the way you do before you hang up on a dead line.

Louis cleared his throat and breathed out “Hi mum” into the phone.

He heard his mom’s tiny gasp before she said “Louis? My Louis?”

He shook his head while walking, it had only been a few months, but they used to talk every day when he lived at home, so that seemed like forever. “Yeah, it’s me. How are you? How are the girls?”

“Oh, we’re all fine sweetheart. Lottie has gotten herself a boyfriend, probably figured it was easier now that you aren’t around to intimidate them.” She chuckled before continuing.

“Everyone has started school, and the teacher they got to replace you isn’t half as good. All the people who were rude to you have had to stay silent about it, lest they show themselves to be hypocrites, even though we all know they are anyways. But how are you, my love? How is the new town, how’s my darling granddaughter?”

“Things are great here mum. I’ve met some really nice people and Lucy made friends already, you know how she is. I miss you and the girls terribly, but people have been so supportive and open. I can’t say I’ve always been the same back, but things have worked out.”

Louis and his mom chatted for the next 45 minutes about all of the things that had happened since he moved. When they got around to what he had done that day, he tried to avoid any questions, saying, “Oh, just the usual, watched X-Factor, did laundry…”

“And who were you watching with, pet?” His mom’s voice shifted into something slightly teasing.

He groaned, how did she always know? “I was watching with a friend, mum. His name’s Nick, we’ve had some ups and downs, and I’m starting to get to know him. I’m sure he doesn’t like me like that.”

“Interesting how you only say he doesn’t like you and not the other way around… but if you don’t want to talk about it, we won’t talk about it.”

Louis breathed out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t even been able to confront his feelings, he definitely wasn’t ready to talk to anyone else about them.

They finally rang off, both going to wrangle various children, as Louis headed over to Harry and Liam’s to pick up Lucy.

When he knocked on the door he was met with a smirking Liam.

“Well well well, you seem to be a bit late. X-Factor ended over an hour ago, where have you been?”

Louis rolled his eyes “I was on the phone with my mum, honestly you’re almost as bad as she is.”

Liam’s face softened. “How’s she doing then, how are the girls?” Liam knew about his family, although he didn’t know how much Louis had been missing them lately or the full details of his childhood. He had chosen to let Louis tell him naturally, but he knew that the man was incredibly close to his family.

“She’s doing well and so are the girls and the babies. She said they’re missing me a lot though, and that once things calmed down they might even be able to visit?” Louis smiled at this. “I haven’t talked to her since I got here, so it was nice to catch up.”

Liam raised his eyebrows “Oh, what made you decide to call her?”

Louis blushed, he seemed to be doing that a lot lately, and he was incredibly upset about it.

“Um, Nick suggested it.”

“Oh, did he? Hmm very interesting.” Liam crowed.

“Alright alright, don’t go on about it. We had a nice time, we watched X-Factor, nothing happened.”

“Okay.” Liam said, but his smug tone of voice made it obvious this conversation would definitely be brought up again.

“Anyyyyways, where’s my little monster?” Louis started looking around for his daughter. He walked further into the living room and found her on the floor, watching intently as Ava and another girl played a clapping hand game.

That was abandoned as soon as she noticed Louis standing in the doorway. “Daddy! Did you watch? I need to know your favorite.” She said as she came running over.

Louis laughed and scooped her up, waving goodbye to Liam on the way out the door. They chatted all about the different contestants and the funny things that had happened on the short walk back to their house.

As the conversation wound down, Louis said, “I talked to Nana Jo on the phone, sweetheart.”

Lucy’s eyes grew big as Louis continued. “She wanted me to tell you she loves and misses you very much. They might even come visit in a little while.”

Lucy pouted before saying “I want to talk to Nana Jo too, not fair.” Louis just laughed.

“I promise next time I talk to her, I’ll make sure you’re around so that you can speak to her as well. I’m sure she would love to hear from you.”

Lucy’s seemed to accept this answer and her pout dropped. Louis continued, a little nervously.

“Also, how would you feel about having X-Factor nights at Harry and Liam’s for a while?”

“Will you be there too?” She questioned

“Umm actually I was planning on spending some more time with Nick watching it. But of course I’ll talk to you about it afterwards and remember all my favorite songs so we can debrief, and we can watch the results show together.”

Lucy looked at him hard. “I guess that’s okay, as long as you still love me the most.”

Louis returned her look with a sincere, “Of course I love you best. You are the most important thing in my life.” Lucy seemed satisfied with that.

“Alright, time for bed, go brush your teeth.” Louis instructed. Lucy groaned but made her way to the stairs, with Louis close behind.

While Louis was collecting Lucy, Harry was talking to Nick on the phone.

“So how did it go?”

Nick rolled his eyes but answered. “It was really nice, bit awkward at first but he talked about his family and then we watched the show. He’s different than I thought. By the end we were getting on really well.”

“He talked to you about his family?” Harry seemed surprised.

“Yeah, for a bit actually. Told me all about his siblings and his mum.”

“Wow, that’s…kind of surprising actually.” Harry replied. “Liam and I realized pretty early on that that was a sensitive subject, so it’s nice that he opened up to you.”

Nick thought back to the conversation they had earlier that night. It had felt intimate at the time and Nick was flattered that Louis chose to share that part of himself after all the weirdness since they’d met.

In response to Harry, he just repeated, “Yeah, it was really nice.”

The next couple of Saturdays were much the same. Louis and Nick hung out and watched X-Factor while bantering about their favorite contestants and making silly bets on who they thought would be eliminated each week, paid in full in sweets and bragging rights.

As time passed, Louis and Nick grew much more comfortable and realized that they genuinely enjoyed each other’s company.

Harry and Liam noticed as they started to flirt more blatantly, but thought it best not to mention anything since both seemed skittish about it.

Things changed around the next full moon.

Louis transitioned with Liam, Harry, and Niall, as he usually did, but then he found his way to Nick instead of staying with his three friends. Nick typically spent his full moons with Aimee, Daisy and the lot, but he peeled away from them to meet Louis, who was coming straight at him.

They touched noses in greeting and Louis nipped playfully at Nick’s ear before turning and running a short distance away. He was feeling bolder in his wolf form. When Nick didn’t immediately follow, he stopped a short distance away and cocked his head in question.

Nick was overwhelmed by the attention, but quickly caught on that Louis wanted to play so he chased after him. Louis gave a sharp high bark and went tearing into the woods near Harry and Liam’s house.

They spent hours chasing each other around and getting into short wrestling matches before one of them would break free and take off running again.

Eventually they ended up in Liam and Harry’s backyard, exhausted from all of the exercise. Nick went over to a pile of blankets on the porch, left out for wayward wolves, and curled himself up. He made sure that there was enough room for another body, and after a couple long seconds, Louis approached and got ready to lie down.

He originally settled himself at the corner of the blanket, but then huffed as he felt the cold air of the early morning. Louis debated for only a second before he shuffled over to Nick’s form and pushed his nose under Nick’s head. Nick cracked an eye, but moved to accommodate Louis so they ended up close together with Nick’s chin over Louis’ neck.

It felt like…something, but Nick was too tired to think it fully through and fell asleep moments later.

When Nick awoke, he felt cool air on his back, but had a surprisingly warm front. As his consciousness slowly returned to him, he realized the reason with a start. Louis. He was curled around Louis with an arm around his middle.

And they were both naked. Greaaat. Nick was painfully glad that he never got morning wood after spending the night in wolf form.

He wasn’t sure the protocol in this situation, usually he was with his friends who had all seen him naked about a million times and there was no awkwardness. It’s just a reality that when you’re a werewolf, you spend a lot of time without clothes, so you get used to it.

But Louis was a new friend as well as… something else. Something that Nick definitely didn’t want to mess up by freaking him out if he woke up in Nick’s arms. So Nick carefully extracted himself and made his way to find clothes and breakfast.

He was sitting at the breakfast bar sipping a cup of coffee when Louis appeared on the threshold, apparently also having located some clothing.

Louis approached and said, “Why were you gone when I woke up, prick” and then punched Nick in the shoulder.

Niall snorted a laugh from where he was standing looking into the open fridge, then quickly turned it into a cough.

Louis shot a quick glare in his direction but then turned his attention back to Nick. He didn’t seem full on angry, but he was annoyed, he stood there with his arms crossed and a crease between his eyebrows.

Nick was stunned and didn’t know quite what to say, he thought they would both pretend like nothing had ever happened. Louis didn’t seem to be on the same page as him at all as he huffed and said, “I remember falling asleep with you last night and yet you were nowhere to be found when I woke up, bit rude innit?”

“I just thought if might be weird if we both woke up… in the situation that we were in.” Nick finally got out.

Louis shifted his footing before conceding “Well alright, but wake me up next time.” He then stole Nick’s cup of coffee and sauntered off to find his daughter.

Nick could only stare dumbfounded after him. Next time, he had said next time. As in the next time that they woke up next to each other? The next full moon they spent together?

“Hate to see them leave but love to watch them go, isn’t that right Nick” Harry said with a sly grin as he sidled up to rest his arm on Nick’s shoulder. Nick just elbowed him in the stomach before getting up to get another cup of coffee.

Even though he gave Nick grief, Louis wasn’t quite sure what to think about the previous night. He remembered them in their wolf forms and the joy he felt, as well as the comfort when they both fell asleep together.

More importantly, he remembered the way that Nick had responded, playing along and giving his full attention to Louis. If only they could be that bold as humans. Realizing that all he ever wanted was Nick’s attention didn’t entirely surprise Louis, but it did raise some questions he had thus far avoided answering.

When he woke up alone, he had felt equal parts disgruntled and relieved. Louis wasn’t sure what he would have done if he had woken up naked with Nick’s arms around him, that didn’t feel like a step he was ready for, but there was a part of him that wanted to cross that boundary with Nick.

They were in a weird limbo where neither had copped to their feelings, but they were acting like more than friends. Pre-relationship pretty-sure-it’s-mutual limbo.

Louis sighed, unsure of how to progress with Nick. Last night felt like a shift, but how should he continue the momentum forward? How fast was too fast and what was the next step? It had been so long since he dated that he didn’t know the proper protocol anymore (if he ever did).

Louis finally stumbled upon Lucy in one of the bedrooms upstairs and smiled ruefully to himself as he looked upon the exact reason that he hadn’t dated in a while.

He had tried a little when she was a baby, but he had been tired all the time from having a newborn in the house and decided it just wasn’t somewhere he wanted to devote his energy.

There had also been another teacher at the school where he worked, they made eyes at each other in the halls occasionally, or sat and joked together during the lunch period, and always ended up paired when supervising field trips. But he had never let it get too far, Lucy was his sole focus and he didn’t know if he was ready to introduce someone new into her life.

Louis was heavily influenced by his biological dad leaving, and then his stepdad as well, and he wanted to always show that he was there for Lucy. Obviously there were ways to successfully date and raise a well-adjusted kid, he just wasn’t sure if he was someone who could pull it off, always falling too deep too fast.

And then the whole werewolf thing happened and anyone who had even the slightest interest in him wouldn’t look him in the eye, afraid to be seen with him even if they personally didn’t care about his shift.

But this time felt different, Nick felt different. For one, he was also a werewolf. That made a lot of things easier since he wouldn’t have to explain anything, he was pretty sure that he could even learn from Nick about what it meant to be a wolf.

Another thing was that Nick had shown that he could be a good friend. He hadn’t only pursued him as a romantic interest, although there had been a spark from the beginning. Louis was sure that if he changed his mind or said he wasn’t ready, Nick would still want to spend time with him as just friends.

Louis’ thoughts were completely tangled as he walked out of the house with Lucy’s hand in his, shouting goodbye over his shoulder. It only made him more nervous for the next Saturday when he would be spending time with Nick.

I’m still coming over tonight right?

Louis held his breath as he sent the text. He knew it was a silly question but he wanted to make sure that nothing about their regular meeting had changed.

Ever since he and Nick had cavorted around in their wolf forms, their relationship had shifted in some imperceptible way. He caught himself staring at Nick more, and Nick’s eyes seemed drawn to him as well.

They had only seen each other once since then, but their flirting had definitely become more obvious and Louis was always thinking of some excuse to get right up in Nick’s space to muss his hair or some other teasing gesture.

Which was why he was double-checking half an hour before he was due at Nick’s.

yeah, of course! unless you have something else going on...

Louis let out a breath, reading and re-reading Nick’s response. He could hear Nick’s hesitation mirroring his own and let some of the tension out of his shoulders. He tapped out a quick reply while calling for Lucy to get ready to go over to Liam and Harry’s.

nope, nothing else just wanted to check. see you soon :)

Nick’s response came as Louis stood on the porch, watching Lucy make her way to their neighbors house. She had demanded a little more independence because she was “almost a big girl, dad. I’m turning five really soon.”

Louis had agreed to a couple small things, almost entirely because it was so cute when she stomped her foot to make a point, but also because he was more familiar with the neighborhood now and knew there were usually pack members around to keep an eye on her. Walking to the neighbors by herself had been one of the agreements, as long as he was allowed to watch until she got into the house.

Louis saw Ava open the door and both of the girls run into the house, mischief surely following them. His gaze lingered but then he turned his attention to the text.

great, getting the snacks ready now

He grinned at the accompanying picture of two bowls of popcorn (necessary after they realized they were incapable of sharing a single bowl without squabbling) and his favorite candy.

He could feel the nerves bubbling up slightly, but they were mixed in with an excited anticipation. God, so this is what it’s like to have a crush. He’d almost forgotten the mix of terror and elation that was causing him to grin like a madman at the thought of spending time with Nick.

He had to tell himself to rein it in as he finished getting ready then grabbed the customary six-pack contribution on his way out the door.

Louis had just plopped down on the couch, beer in hand and reaching for his popcorn bowl when Nick said, “Hey, Lucy’s birthday is coming up, right? I saw this on sale and got it for her but I wanted to check that you thought she would actually like it? I can return it if you don’t think she would…” Nick trailed off as Louis stared down at the child-sized apron and chef’s hat, accompanied by a cookbook with easy recipes for kids, that Nick was handing him for inspection.

Louis set his beer on the table because otherwise he was sure he would drop it. He couldn’t believe that not only had Nick remembered that her birthday was soon, but he had also bought her a present she would love based on something Louis had only mentioned once.

He hadn’t known that Nick was paying attention, but now that he thought about it, Nick had always been paying attention to him.

From the little things, like always preparing his tea right or buying the snacks he knew Louis liked, to the bigger things like noticing he was trying to prove himself to Liam and Harry and letting him know it wasn’t necessary. And Nick was always asking about his daughter and how she was doing in school, and now he was buying her presents for her birthday…

Nick had started babbling about still having the receipt, interpreting Louis’ silence as disapproval when Louis finally looked up at him and placed the presents on the coffee table.

Nick stopped talking, an anxious expression on his face, but Louis still didn’t say anything, just pulled him in by the back of his neck and kissed him.

At first, Nick forgot to kiss back because he was so surprised, but he quickly got with the picture and moved his mouth against Louis’.

For several minutes they kissed, alternating between frantic and soft, hands roaming through hair, down each other’s backs and then intertwining their fingers.

Finally they pulled away, keeping their hands together and neither going too far. Nick looked at Louis in awe before Louis broke the silence saying, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

Nick laughed, stroking Louis’ neck with his thumb absentmindedly. “I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first saw you, even when you were yelling at me.”

Now it was Louis’ turn to laugh, a fond look in his eyes. He breathed in and decided he should lay it all out on the table.

“I want to date you. We don’t have to fully define what’s going on, but our lives are too entangled to do this as a casual thing.”

Nick looked surprised but appreciative of his directness. “I agree. We don’t have to label it right away, but it would be nice to go on dates and spend time with each other outside of watching X-Factor and parties at Liam and Harry’s.”

Louis chewed on his lip, “I’d like to wait a little bit to tell Lucy, if that’s okay. I don’t know that I’m ready to introduce you to her in that way when we don’t know how it’s going to go. Not that I think it won’t go well!” He rushed to add.

Nick just laughed and shushed him when he attempted to go on. “That’s fine, Louis. I understand why you would want to wait to tell her. You’re just being cautious and I can respect that. We can tell Liam and Harry though, right?”

“Yeah, definitely, and Niall as well. I think they would be able to figure it out anyways. And you can tell your friends of course. But let’s wait on telling everyone in the pack maybe?”

“The fewer busybodies asking questions the better. I want to get to know us together first. Although I’m sure it will spread quickly whether we want it to or not,” Nick finished as he tugged Louis into a cuddle.

Louis tucked himself under Nick’s arm before he tilted his face up for another kiss. “Okay X-Factor time.”

They decided that they should just tell Harry and Liam that night to get it over with. Also because Harry might kill them if he wasn’t the first to know. The look on their faces when Nick came with Louis to pick up Lucy that night were just as incredible as Nick thought they would be.

They were immediately pulled into the kitchen for some semblance of privacy and Harry was grinning manically, looking at where they had clasped their hands together.

Liam was more subdued, but there was a pleased sort of vibe rolling off his as he surveyed Louis and Nick.

Louis decided to speak first, “So, yeah, as you may have guessed we are… dating?”

He turned to Nick, his voice going up at the end of the sentence as if asking a question.

Nick looked down at him fondly, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth before he confirmed “Yes, dating.” He turned to look at Liam and Harry before he said “could you keep it sort of quiet though? We don’t want everyone and their mum knowing just yet and you know how fast news travels in a pack.”

Harry was now smirking while Liam continued to smile contentedly. “Yeah, we’ll try to keep it under wraps, but let the record show that I totally knew this was going to happen.”

Louis rolled his eyes before monotoning, “Yeah yeah, you’re brilliant Haz, a real psychic.”

Harry just brushed it off, grabbing Liam and instigating a group hug with three rather unenthusiastic participants.

That just caused him to grip them harder until they relented and all squeezed each other tight. Nick finally broke the embrace and pulled Louis out of the room with him.

He ignored the catcalls from Liam and Harry as he tugged Louis to the front porch with him. He knew that Louis still needed to collect his daughter and that he wasn’t ready to explain their relationship to her, so he wanted to say goodbye privately.

Finally they stood facing each other, both hands held together between them.

“I’m glad we’re giving this a try.” Nick said, pulling Louis closer. Louis let himself be pulled, looping his arms around Nick’s waist and whispering “Me too.” He tightened his arms until his head was resting on Nick’s chest.

They breathed together for a couple moments until Nick pulled back and tipped Louis’ chin up for a kiss. They kept it soft and light, aware that they were probably being peeked at through a curtain by at least Harry if not both Harry and Liam and various children.

Nick and Louis smiled at each other before they reluctantly let go. Nick headed down the steps with one last smile and a wave and Louis waved back then wrapped his arms around himself with a happy sigh.

The moment was ruined when Harry threw open the door cooing, “Ahhh young love! I remember those days, don’t you Liam?” Harry fake sniffed and swooned into Liam’s arms before Louis punched him in the shoulder. “You’re younger than I am, twat. It wasn’t even that long ago.”

“You’re all gooey eyed, just look at you!” Liam teased.

“Not you too” Louis groaned “I thought you were on my side.”

Liam just gave him an innocent smile that turned soft around the edges when he said, “Seriously Lou, I’m happy for you. I know you’ve been through a lot, and Nick’s a great guy.”

Louis grumbled but submitted to the headlock-cuddle thing that seemed so popular within this pack.

“Thanks Li, I’m happy for me too. It’s just the beginning though, we don’t even know if we’ll actually like dating each other.”

“It’ll be fine,” Harry reassured as he draped himself over Louis’ back. “ I know it’s going to work out.”

“Thanks guys. Alright, I’m off to find my little rascal. I haven’t heard a peep from her and I find that awfully suspicious, who knows what she could be doing at this very moment.”

Liam and Harry both released Louis, allowing him to climb up the stairs as they returned to the living room to pick up the detritus that was left when the household scattered at the end of the show.

“So, you and Grimmy, huh? I remember the first night we met, you were certain that he was the worst person on the planet,” Niall laughed.

Louis scoffed and replied “I still stand by that statement. He was being a twat.”

Niall only swung his arm around Louis’ neck from his seat next him on Louis’ couch and gave him an affectionate squeeze.

“I’m just saying, if I had told you at the time that you guys would be planning your first date, you would have punched me and called me an idiot.”

“Well you are an idiot.” Louis said as he gave a soft punch to the side of Niall’s thigh.

“I’m happy for you, Lou. I know a lot has happened since you moved here but I think Grimmy could be really good for you.”

Louis sighed, “I hope so, I really want this to work. Not least because it would make things super awkward with the pack if we had a big falling out.”

“So basically you have to get married or one of you has to move away forever is what you’re saying.”

“Shut up, I don’t even want to hear the word marriage. We haven’t even gone out yet, just snogged a bit in between arguing about Simon Cowell.”

“Oooh very sexy,” Niall replied as he wiggled his eyebrows.

Just then Louis phone buzzed in his pocket. Niall released him and asked, “Is that him then? I can tell because of how you’re blushing at just a text. Christ Louis, how are you going to survive a whole date?”

Louis looked up from the screen of his phone, red to the tips of his ears as he sputtered a denial.

“No, I mean, yes it is from him but I’m not blushing. It’s just hot in here, I’m positive Lucy has been playing with the thermostat.”

But Niall could tell that he wasn’t even making a full attempt at denial, eyes once again glued to the screen of his phone.

Niall watched as Louis typed something out, then erased it, then typed something else before erasing it and locking his phone. He lightly threw it on the couch in frustration then leaned back against the cushions with his hands over his face.

“You really like him don’t you?” Niall questioned, smiling genuinely.

“I do, but I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s been a while since I’ve dated and I keep second guessing what I say and do. It’s so stupid because I know Nick, he’s not some stranger and yet it’s like I’ve forgotten how to talk to him without feeling weird.”

“Aww Lou!” Niall cooed with a wide grin as he pinched his cheeks.

“God, shut up!” Louis said, batting his hands away from his face.

“I’m sure he’s nervous too, plus he’s seen you in all sorts of situations and he still wants to date you so there’s nothing to really worry about. He’s met your daughter, he knows you’re a werewolf, it’s all good.”

“I know you’re right, I’m just having trouble getting myself to believe it.”

Louis picked his phone back up, navigating to the text before typing out a quick reply and hitting send before he could think about it any longer.

“Okay, we’re going out on Saturday, he said he had someplace in mind already but won’t tell me what it is.”

“Well let me know if you ever need someone to watch Lucy overnight” Niall added lasciviously, smirk curling his mouth.

Louis looked like he was going to hit Niall again but instead he covered his face in a pillow.

“I haven’t had sex in so long, Niall,” came Louis’ muffled voice from behind the pillow.

“How long is so long?”

Louis mumbled something but he wasn’t speaking loud enough to be heard through the fabric and stuffing.

“Speak up, Lou.”

Louis sat for a few more moments before removing the obstacle and saying clearly “Since before Lucy was born?”

Niall looked surprised “What, nothing?”

“Well not full on at least, there’s been stuff on nights out but only what could be done in a club bathroom and that was never really often anyways. I don’t know, it just wasn’t a priority.”

“Well I can see why that would make you nervous then, first time in at least five years!” Niall whistled.

“Absolutely not helping, mate” Louis groaned.

It was going to be fine, he told himself. Nick was a friend, someone he knew. A very hot, tall someone with beautiful fingers that Louis of course never spent more than a passing moment’s thought on…

Nope. Everything was great.

Louis shook himself out of it and changed the subject to something that didn’t make him feel so many things.

Even still, Niall made fun of him whenever he looked at his phone for the rest of the night.

The first official date, set up by Nick, took place on a chilly evening the next week. It wasn’t raining, but everything was still wet from a storm earlier in the day.

Nick knocked on Louis’ door at 6 o’clock on the dot, while Louis himself needed a couple more minutes to get ready.

He invited Nick in, who ended up standing awkwardly in the foyer while Louis went to grab a jacket and give a swipe of deodorant and one last look in the mirror at his hair.

He ran back down the stairs and skidded to a stop in front of Nick.

“Okay, I’m ready to go.”

“You look great. I like the um, the hair.” Nick winced right after speaking, as if mentally hitting himself in the forehead.

Louis opened his mouth with a slight smirk but then shut it again and looked troubled. He had made a promise to himself that he would try to be nice for the whole date, so instead he simply responded, “Thanks, you look good too. Shall we?”

They both turned towards the door and as Nick waited for Louis to lock it, he blurted out, “Is it completely silly that I’m nervous right now?”

The lock gave a final click and Louis turned to Nick, who was wiping sweaty palms on his jeans.

“I mean, we have been hanging out for a while now, so really this is just an extension of our friendship. Friendship Plus, if you will.”

Nick looked about to say something, but Louis hadn’t finished.

“That being said, I am absolutely bricking it.” He confessed with a chuckle.

Nick breathed out shakily before they smiled at each other. If he had to be nervous, at least they both were.

“Well, that’s good to know.” Nick said as he boldly grabbed Louis’ hand and interlaced their fingers.

Louis only squeezed his hand and gave Nick a sideways smile. “So, where is it that we’re going?”

“I told you it’s a surprise. Actually, I’ve never been there either, Harry recommended it. It’s only a short walk from here.”

Louis groaned internally at the thought of Harry choosing their date location, but decided to withhold his judgment until they got there.

They chatted amiably for the fifteen minute walk and then Nick was pulling Louis down the pathway of a park.

The path wasn’t paved but it had enough pebbles in it that it wasn’t a muddy swamp either.

Louis thought it was actually quite pretty with a nice canopy of trees above where they were walking. He’d never been to this area since there was another park a little closer that had a playground for Lucy.

Finally they diverged from the path and walked through some grass until they found themselves next to a fairly small body of water.

“Here it… is?” Nick seemed unsure, but he had started so he had to follow through.

Louis looked at the water incredulously. “You took me to see a pond?”

Nick turned red and tripped over his words as he rushed to explain. “Well I thought it would be romantic or summat! I told you Harry suggested it, plus it’s part of the town that you haven’t seen. He described it as more of a lake when we were talking about it… I had no idea it would be so underwhelming.” He drooped a bit as he finished speaking.

Be nice. Be nice, don’t make fun. Louis repeated to himself in his head trying to retain his composure. He took in his surroundings in full. It was a nice park, if the water wasn’t counted as a main feature. And there was a bench it would have been nice to sit on and talk if it hadn’t just rained, leaving the wood soggy.

“It is a part of town I haven’t seen and look! Isn’t that a duck?” He asked while squinting over the very small surface of the water.

“I think that’s a stump actually.” Nick responded morosely.

A helpless giggle escaped Louis at that. He just couldn’t contain it anymore and burst into a full-on laughing fit.

Nick just stared, not quite sure what to do.

“I’m not laughing at you, I promise. It’s just, I can’t stop thinking about Harry describing this puddle as a lake and thinking it was really romantic.” Louis forced out around his laughter.

Nick started to smile then. “I know, and he said that he had taken Liam here before, do you think that Liam lied to him and said he loved it?” Nick asked, beginning to laugh as well.

This started Louis off again and soon peals of laughter from both of them rang through the air, interspersed with impressions of Liam and Harry making increasingly grandiose romantic claims.

“I would swim across this ocean for you, Liam.”

“No Harry, let me move this mountain to block the sun from your eyes.”

As they collected themselves and wiped the tears from their eyes, Louis turned his commentary back to the park. “There’s a pond but no ducks, only one bench to sit on, who designed this place?”

“It’s the most shit park of all time.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that, but it does leave something to be desired. I can’t believe Harry suggested this.” Louis marveled yet again.

They traded grins before grabbing each other’s hands and making their way out of the park. They decided to not try anything else too out there, instead finding a burger place nearby that Nick looked up on his phone while Louis peered over his shoulder and pretended to be helpful.

At dinner the conversation flowed easily now that they had both gotten over their nerves. Louis found that a lot of the pressure had lifted and he wasn’t focused so much on everything going perfectly and not messing up as he was on enjoying getting to know Nick in a different way.

He was sharp and bitingly funny, unashamed of his opinions and quite flirty. Louis liked every layer that was revealed and it made him excited to know more.

They eventually started the walk back home. The atmosphere was settled and quiet and their voices lowered to match it, speaking softly as though telling secrets.

As Nick walked Louis to his front door, he felt his nerves come back. Louis seemed to be really slowly putting his key in the lock, which Nick took as an invitation.

He gently pulled on Louis’ arm, who seemed to have been waiting for just that because he turned around into Nick’s arms and raised his chin. Nick kissed him softly, smiling into it until they had to break away because both of their grins were too big.

“Normally I’d invite you inside, but I think I want to wait a little while longer.” Louis said as he looked nervously at Nick through his eyelashes.

“That’s completely fine, love. We can go at whatever pace you want to.” Nick reassured, wrapping his arms tighter around Louis’ waist.

“Thanks. I want to keep this night as it is now. I had a great time, puddle and all.” Louis smiled, and Nick could tell that it was genuine and not mocking.

He couldn’t help himself when he leaned down to kiss Louis again, deeper this time. When he pulled back he said, “I had a great time as well. I don’t know about you but I’m definitely interested in doing this again.”

“As long as you never take Harry’s advice about date locations again.”

Nick laughed and agreed, finally letting go of Louis and giving him room to turn around and enter the house for real.

Louis opened the door, but turned around on the threshold for one last kiss.

“Goodnight, Nicholas.” he whispered.

“Goodnight, Louis.” Nick whispered back.

As Nick walked down the steps and disappeared in the direction of his own home, Louis closed the door and all he could think was, I’m in trouble.

There were several other dates, less eventful than the first but still full of laughter and growing feelings from both parties. Nick found himself enchanted with the crinkles by Louis’ eyes when he smiled and their senses of humor really complemented each other.

Louis discovered how genuine and open Nick was, finding very few traces of the arrogance that had been his first impression.

Every date ended with them making out on one of their respective porches and then going their separate ways and Louis was over it.

The end of their fourth date, Nick tried to kiss him goodnight but Louis stopped him with a hand. He quirked an eyebrow and unlocked the door before pulling Nick in with him by the front of his shirt.

Nick quickly got the message Louis was sending and pushed Louis up against the door as soon as it closed, licking into his mouth and aligning their bodies. Louis moaned into his mouth as Nick covered him with his body, grinding against him. He felt like he had been waiting forever for this.

Nick’s hands found their way to his ass, pulling him even closer while Louis tangled his fingers in Nick’s hair and pulled slightly.

Louis broke away and grabbed Nick’s hand, all but dragging him up the stairs to his still undecorated room.

The next morning, Louis woke up with one of Nick’s arms slung across his waist. Louis turned to look at his sleeping face, thinking about the night before.

They had had a nice date and what came after… well Louis was smugly satisfied about that as well.

He wouldn’t mind waking up next to Nick more often.

Nick stirred as Louis poked his cheek. He groaned and turned his face further into the pillow.

“Nicholas” Louis said and poked his cheek again.

Nick finally cracked his eyes open, squinting sleepily at Louis.

“What do you want, you menace.”

“So, I’ve been thinking.” Louis started and Nick was suddenly alert.

“So early in the morning?” Nick asked, a ball of nerves developing in the pit of his stomach.

Louis ignored him, “I was wondering if you want to be...more official. Like I want to tell Lucy and my mum and everyone else about us. I want to be exclusive.” Louis finished nervously.

Nick was so relieved to not be broken up with that it took him a second to realize what Louis was saying.

When he did he just rolled on top of Louis and kissed him, morning breath be damned.

“So is that a yes then?” Louis asked with a grin.

“Yes, of course. I would love to be your boyfriend.”

“Hmmm, I don’t know if you’ve earned the title boyfriend quite yet…” Louis teased. Nick responded by poking him in the ribs until he was breathless with laughter.

“Alright alright, I guess you can be my boyfriend. If you’re that desperate…” Louis said.

Nick rolled his eyes and kissed him to shut him up.

“Lucy, sweetheart, will you come sit by me on the couch?” Louis asked, patting the space next to him.

She looked up from her blocks somewhat suspiciously, seemingly trying to figure out if she was in trouble for something.

Cautiously she approached and sat next to Louis, expectant eyes turned towards him.

Louis took a deep breath before he said “Love, I want to let you know that Nick and I are dating. I know I haven’t dated much since you came into my life so this will be a new experience for both of us. It means Nick will spend more time around here and we might kiss when you’re around. But I will still make special time for you and love you just as much.”

Lucy thought about this for a second. “When will I be old enough for a boyfriend?”

Louis laughed at her reaction. “Maybe when you’re in high school, sweetie. But you can date whoever you want, boys or girls.”

Lucy scrunched her nose, “I don’t want to date anyone. I’m busy with my toys.”

“You might never want to date anyone and that is perfectly okay. But are you going to be alright with me dating Nick?” Louis tried to steer the conversation back on track.

“That’s fine dad, I like Nick. He spins me around really fast if I ask him. Don’t kiss too much though, kissing is gross.”

Louis hauled her in for a cuddle, relieved, even though he hadn’t really thought it would be a problem.

“Let go of me dad,” Lucy said in exasperation. “I have to go back to building a barn for my animals or they will have to sleep OUTSIDE.”

Louis let go as she went back to her barn and smiled before he got out his phone to text Nick that he had told her.

The second that Louis had mentioned his daughter’s upcoming birthday, Harry insisted that it be a pack event.

Louis was sure that Lucy would be overjoyed with all the attention, but planning something that big made him tired just thinking about it.

Luckily Harry and Liam were both used to hosting large gatherings so they took care of most of the logistics, just asking Louis’ opinion on colors and theme and food Lucy liked.

The one thing he did have to deal with was his mom and siblings coming into town for the event a couple days early. Their house was overrun with family and they were driving Louis crazy. His mom was scolding him for not being done unpacking even though he had been here for months, and his sisters were all asking a million questions and generally wreaking havoc. Lucy was happy because there were more people to play with and she had missed everyone since they moved away.

After a day of chaos, all the kids had been put to bed and Louis was sitting with his mom at the kitchen table, steaming mugs of tea in front of them.

“I forgot just how much energy they all have.” Louis griped without any real heat behind it.

“They’re just excited to see you. They’ve missed you since you moved.” His mom replied. He could see in her eyes that she was chastising him for not calling when he first arrived and taking so long to invite them up here.

“Mum,” he sighed. “You know that I needed to settle in and figure out what I was doing. You’re always welcome here but I needed to shake off what happened before I left.”

“I know, and you’ve made a wonderful little family here.”

“You haven’t even met the pack!” Louis laughed.

“No, but I know they’re taking good care of my boy. You’re much happier and more open than I’ve seen you since you were… injured.” She skirted around the term bitten.

“Yeah,” Louis smiled down at his cup. “I’ve made some really great friends here, and the town is so accepting. I thought life as I knew it was over, but I’ve been able to get back to a normal life. Well about as normal as you can get with a huge pack of werewolves in town.”

“I’m happy for you sweetie.”

“And uh, there’s something else,” Louis stated, a bit awkwardly. Jay only raised her eyebrows in response, letting him know she was listening.

“Or rather, someone else. I’m dating someone, his name is Nick and he’s really great.” He rushed out.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner! Is this the ‘friend’ that you mentioned on the phone?” She tutted. “Is he nice? Is he handsome? Will I get to meet him?” His mother’s eyes glinted.

“I knew you were coming up here and wanted to tell you in person. Yes, he’s the friend. Yes, he’s nice. Yes, he’s handsome. You’ll meet him at Lucy’s birthday which is why I wanted to tell you now. Please don’t be weird.”

“So is he… like you?”

“Yes, he’s a werewolf too, if that’s what you’re asking. He’s been there for me a lot recently when I was trying to deal with the move and the wolf transition and everything else.”

“Well I’m glad he’s good to you, that’s what matters most.”

“He is, he really is. I’ve got to get to bed though, mom. It’s been a long day. I’m really glad you’re here though.” He said as he walked to the other side of the table to give her a hug.

“Goodnight my love.”

Louis traipsed to his room, his feet dragging, and fell face first into his bed, out cold.

Louis met Nick at the door on the day of the party. He had been at Liam and Harry’s for a while now setting up, but they wanted to walk in together.

“So this is going to be our big debut, I guess.”

“It sounds weird when you put it like that,” Louis said as he wrinkled his nose. He could tell Nick was just a bit nervous, and he was too, but he tried not to make it a big deal.

Instead he just gave Nick a quick kiss before grabbing his hand and walking into the backyard.

They walked out holding hands, announcing their relationship with a simple gesture. Time didn’t stop, people didn’t stare, but Nick’s friends along with Niall did start whistling and cheering, mocking them lovingly.

People did look a bit then, but when they saw what was happening they just smiled fondly and went back to their conversations.

Both Nick and Louis let out a breath then, grinning at each other before going to mingle.

Louis saw that Lucy was holding court as the birthday girl, bossing around the other kids and then getting swept up in a game of tag.

Louis left Nick’s side momentarily to check in with Harry that everything was going according to plan, and when he returned he had a pretty older woman who must be his mother in tow.

Nick was aware that she wanted to meet him, but he was still a little scared since he knew how much Louis’ mother meant to him.

When they finally ended up right in front of Nick, Louis walked back to his side and took his hand once more.

“Nick, this is my mum, Jay. Mum, this is my boyfriend, Nick.”

“Hello Nick, it’s lovely to meet you. Louis has been telling me all about you,” she said warmly.

“Nice to meet you as well, Jay. I hope Louis has only said wonderful things.”

“He told me you were the reason that he ended up calling me after months of silence.” She gave Louis a hard look that quickly warmed.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck with the hand Louis wasn’t attached to.

“Well I’m not sure about that, I think he would have done it himself in a little while anyways.”

“Well thank you anyways, I can see you’re taking good care of my boy.”

Louis seemed embarrassed that they were talking about him and let go of their hands to pull Nick’s arm around his shoulder instead, burying his face in Nick’s chest. Nick just looked at him fondly and gave the top of his head a quick kiss.

Jay looked on with a smile and decided to move on elsewhere. She squeezed Nick’s arm and made her way over to Harry and Liam to see how the cake was coming.

Louis wrapped his arms around Nick so the were standing together and said into his shirt “See that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Nick laughed for a second. “No it wasn’t bad, we didn’t talk for a long time though, so all the scary stuff could be coming later.”

“I want to say thank you as well,” Louis said as he pulled away from Nick slightly to look at his face. Nick frowned and opened his mouth to reply but Louis cut in.

“I know that you’re going to say there’s nothing to thank you for, but there is. You’ve helped me so much since Lucy and I moved here and I’m glad that you’re a part of my life.”

“There really isn’t anything to thank me for, but I am glad that you let me in enough to get to know you, even if we didn’t start out on the right foot.”

Louis kissed him before pulling away fully. “I’ve got to go find my little monster. She’s been complaining I’m not giving her enough birthday attention, as if she doesn’t have every person at this party wrapped around her finger.” Louis rolled his eyes.

“Alright love, I’m sure I’ll see you later.” They parted with another quick kiss, and Nick watched as Louis wandered over to his daughter and scooped her up to blow a raspberry on her cheek.

Louis ended the day with his daughter asleep on his shoulder, crashed from her sugar high. He walked back to his house with all his siblings and mum trailing behind.

“They’re lovely people, Louis.” His mom finally said after a couple minutes of silence.

“I can see that you have made another family here. Nick treats you well and all your friends seem to genuinely care about your well-being, while not taking any of your shit either.” She winked at him.

“Mum!” Louis groaned.

“Listen, dear, I’m just glad to see you settled somewhere. I know that when you were living with us you didn’t have as much room to spread your wings, always helping me and taking care of your own little one. I’m not glad of what you had to endure beforehand, but I truly think it was good for you to move away.”

“I’ve been thinking that same thing recently, after I got over some of the hurt that I was feeling.”

“You’ve really found your… pack here. And I couldn’t be happier.”

“Thanks mum.” Louis said as he shifted Lucy so he could put his arm around his mother.

As Louis went to bed that night, he found that for the first time in a long time, he felt complete and excited and ready for what was next.