Chapter Text
The radio is blaring incessantly and Louis lets out a tired groan at the sound disturbing his peaceful slumber. He reaches out blindly and flails his arm around until it makes contact with the button on the alarm. He peeks out from behind the blankets and sees that it’s a quarter to seven in the morning. He shakes his head and drops it back down onto the pillows to try and get a few more precious minutes of sleep.
He grabs the blankets and tries to pull them up over his head but finds it difficult. He can feel a weight at the end of the bed. He slowly peeks over the blankets and sees all three of his sons lying out on the empty spaces in his mattress.
Niall is lying at the end of the bed with his head resting against Louis’ cover clad calves. He has one small hand resting on top of Louis’ knees. Then there is Liam who is curled up in a little ball against Louis’ other pillows. He knew that Liam would be in here when he woke up since he hasn’t been feeling well lately. And then there is Harry who is lying out in starfish position right in the middle of the bed with some part of his body touching every member of his family. He has his head resting against the edge of Louis side, a foot sitting on top of Liam, and a hand touching Niall’s arm. He’s a wild sleeper, but the family makes do.
None of his children have woken up from his alarm so he figures that it’s okay to shut his eyes for a few more minutes before he has the tedious task of going downstairs and cooking them breakfast, and then while they eat he’d have to make their lunches for school, or in Liam’s case his lunch for when he’s dropped off the old lady next doors house.
Then after breakfast he’ll have to run around and try to get Harry and Liam dressed because at ten years old, Niall is perfectly capable of doing these things himself. Of course then he’d have to gather Niall and Harry’s backpacks together and be sure to throw their lunch bags inside because even though Niall is ten and can get himself dressed he can’t seem to ever remember his homework. Harry at five is way too young to do any of this stuff. He tries but he usually ends up getting something wrong and then throwing the bag across the room. It’s faster if Louis does it.
It’s tiring taking care of three boys by himself. It wasn’t always like this though. He used to have Eleanor around to help him. She was the mother to the three beautiful boys that Louis has sprawled out across his bed.
He and Eleanor met during college. She was beautiful with long, toned legs, and flowing chestnut hair. She was the nicest and funniest person that Louis had ever met and he found himself immediately attracted to her. If Louis had to describe it he would say that it was love at first sight. He had never seen anyone like her before. He had never met a girl like her before, a girl that could make him question his sexuality. He had always believed himself to be gay but then Eleanor came around and he suddenly found his mouth watering at the thought of being with a female.
Lucky for him Eleanor felt the exact same way, which is how after a year into their relationship they found themselves becoming parents for the first time with Niall. It was hard. Niall was a bright and beautiful baby and Louis still remembers the feeling of love that washed over him when Niall looked at him for the first time with those beautiful blue eyes. Louis doesn’t think he’s ever seen the sun until the day Niall was born. He was so bright and so happy that he created his own glow in every room even if he was only a newborn. It was the greatest day of Louis’ life but things got hard.
He and Eleanor had to move in together so that they could be together to take care of the baby. Eleanor had to drop out of school and a few months after Niall was born so did Louis. She got a job at a day care so she could be with Niall and they wouldn’t have to pay for that while Louis went off and got a job working construction with his father.
It wasn’t what they wanted for their lives but they were willing to sacrifice for Niall.
It was five years later when Harry was born. Eleanor was taking night classes to try and finish her degree while Louis picked up a second job working nights at the packaging factory. Things were rough which is why Harry was conceived during make up sex after a particularly bad fight. Niall was only five and starting kindergarten when he became a big brother for the first time.
Harry was a happy baby filled with giggles and love. His world revolved around touch and affection that the house didn’t realize it was missing. He was always laughing and smiling and bouncing around as long as there was someone there with him. Harry brought around a glow of his own with his curls and shiny green eyes. Louis world became even brighter the day he got his second son.
A year later Liam was born. Louis blames his conception on Harry because Eleanor and Louis had sworn they were going to put off having any more children until they were married and had stable jobs. But Harry demanded a house with more love and affection and that transpired into Louis and Eleanor’s relationship as well. But at twenty-seven years old they found themselves having their third child. Eleanor had prayed that if she was going to have a third that it better be a girl. They weren’t disappointed though when Liam was born. Not with his chubby cheeks and wide eyes.
Louis thinks back on it and realizes that Liam’s glow, while just as bright as his other two sons, is subtler. Liam isn’t as loud as Niall was as a baby. He didn’t spend everyday laughing in his bouncy chair nor did he spend everyday waving his arms around and demanding kisses like Harry did. Instead Liam was quiet and reserved and preferred soft touches and quiet giggles during quiet moments.
Liam was so unlike both of his parents and his siblings that it brought forth a breath of fresh air into the house. With Liam’s birth Louis felt like the world had suddenly clicked into place and that he had finally found everything he was ever missing.
Louis quits his job doing construction two years after Liam is born so that he can focus solely on working in the factory. The pay is better and they offered him a full time position with benefits. Eleanor has long given up her dream of getting a degree and stays at home to watch the kids. They moved out of their apartment and into a three-bedroom house on the edge of town.
Things go back to being hard and tense after the move. They fight a lot in hushed whispers while the boys are sleeping in their rooms. Eleanor had become resentful against Louis that she never got to finish school and never will get to finish school.
It’s hard and most days Louis knows Eleanor wishes this wasn’t her life, but they love each other and the kids so they stick together.
But not everything can last with just love alone and at the age of thirty after ten years of being together, and nine years after the creation of their little family Eleanor walked out the door. She left with merely a suitcase and four broken hearts. Niall was nine, Harry was four and Liam was three. None of them understood what was happening but as the days went on the demands for mommy became less frequent.
She wasn’t coming back.
It was a long time ago and Louis shakes those thoughts from his head as he drifts off back to sleep.
~~~
They’re late. They’re later than late. It’s almost eight when Louis wakes up again with a start. He flies out of bed and rushes downstairs so he can get started on breakfast. He makes something easy and is back upstairs in less than five minutes to wake up his three boys.
He starts with Niall.
“Ni, bug you have to wake up. We’re running late today and breakfast is on the table,” he says as he gently rubs Niall’s stomach. Niall stirs and slowly blinks his eyes open with a smile. Niall nods his head and rolls out of bed easily to make his way down towards the breakfast table.
He picks Harry next.
The key to waking up Harry is encouraging words and lots of kisses. So Louis leans over the bed and begins gently stroking his fingers through Harry’s curls. Harry lets out a whine and rolls over. “Harry, can you wake up for Daddy?” Harry lets out a deep breath but doesn’t open his eyes. Louis leans down and kisses Harry on the forehead. “How about now?” Harry shakes his head again so Louis leans down and kisses his forehead twice. “Open your eyes. Let me see them.”
Harry rolls over once more with a wide smile on his face as he blinks his eyes open to look at Louis. “Good morning, Daddy,” Harry says as he stands up on wobbly legs and attaches himself onto Louis chest.
Louis shifts him over to his side and walks around the bed to begin waking up Liam.
Louis reaches out and skates his fingers over the skin of Liam’s tummy that’s poking out from under the hem of shirt. “Liam, sweetheart.”
“Lili,” Harry sings. “Lili it’s morning.”
Liam pouts in his sleep before slowly opening his eyes and allowing Louis to scoop him up in his arms to balance on the other hip.
~~~
Louis gets breakfast finished, lunches made, boys dressed, backpacks ready, and dropping the boys off in their respective locations within record time. He feels like he doesn’t breathe until he runs into work with his navy blue coveralls on and stamps his time card.
Since Eleanor left his boss has understood the fact Louis can’t come into work as early as he used too. Normally Louis would be in at seven in the morning but now he can’t arrive until after nine and Louis thanks his lucky stars that Nick Grimshaw is an understanding boss no matter how much of a sarcastic ass he can be.
“Late again, Tomlinson.” Louis turns around and sees Nick leaning against the wall with a bored expression on his face. “Is this going to be a habit?”
“Oh shut up,” Louis replies with a laugh. “Unlike you I have children that I need to take to school.”
“How are the little darlings?”
“They’re fine. How are you doing? Any luck with that boy you’ve been trying to snag?”
“No,” Nick says with a sigh. “It turns out he’s straight and very much in a relationship with some little blonde.” Nick rolls his eyes and starts to lead the two into his office with Louis following behind. He doesn’t know what his position is in the factory anymore but he knows that he spends most of the time locked away in Nick’s office talking and organizing shipment invoices and occasionally being ordered to go and yell at someone screwing up. Nick is the boss but it’s Louis that they take seriously.
He steps inside Grimshaw’s office and closes the door behind him. Nick has a little television in the corner set on the news since it’s the only channel that the TV will pick up. He’s too lazy to invest in a DVD player so at least something good can play in the background.
Louis sits down on the opposite side of Nick’s desk and begins going through the file folders of all the things that they have to do for the day while Nick fools around on his computer, most likely not doing work for the company.
Louis is getting everything all the invoices organized when he hears something on the television that catches his ears.
“We’re here at Lincoln Memorial Hospital where we’ve just received news of the only surviving victim of last nights near fatal crash on highway thirty.”
Louis cranes his neck around to look at the television and is met with the sight of a man wrapped in bandages with tan skin. His eyes are closed but Louis can see he has long black eyelashes with matching colored hair sticking out from under the head wrap. Something stirs inside Louis as he listens to the news reporter talk about the accident and how the driver of the car has died from their injuries. But she keeps talking about this man that’s alive but not awake yet and how the authorities are looking for someone to step forward and help them identify the mystery man so they can learn his medical history before they can properly treat him.
They flash back again to the image of the man and Louis lets out a gasp because he knows that boy. He knows the man lying in the hospital bed unconscious. He’s the same boy that used to bully Louis through high school and made his life a living hell. The man on the screen is Zayn Malik.