ink and innocence // l.s.

sixty two

"ooh-la-la," zayn hummed, twirling his finger as a cue for the boy in front of him to spin. "look at all those layers! this is so cute on you."

he ran his hand through louis' freshly cut hair. "so soft, too. i love your hair. it's so pretty."

"thank you," louis beamed. "think harry will like it?"

"oh yeah. wanna send him a picture or surprise him?"

"i'll surprise him. he kinda knew how short i was wanting to go, so he's expecting it."

zayn fluffed the front half of louis' hair with his fingers and grinned. he mainly got rid of his dead ends, with a bit of a touseled shaggy look to follow.

"nail time?"

"yes, please."

the boys got matching manicures since they never go on "boy's days" anymore. having kids and all makes it kind of difficult to find the time to just chill out and be themselves for a little while. with zayn having two babies, it's even harder. when one's sick, the other is healthy until they catch what the other one had and it's back and forth from there. the twins are like day and night now. when one sleeps, the other is wide awake. once the second one conks out, the first is ready to tear the town apart with how much energy she has.

it's gotta be a twin thing.

"how are my girls?"

"they're great, for now. diana's got another tooth comin' in but it doesn't seem to be bothering her just yet."

"aw, bless her," louis cooed. "give her extra lovin's from me, please."

"will do. what's my olly been up to lately?"

louis tapped his feet in excitement. "he said mama last night."

"no way!" zayn gasped. "oh, my heart. he's not allowed to start talking. i need him to stay little and chunky forever."

"that's what i said! but it was the sweetest thing, zaynie. harry said he's been trying to teach him how to say it, and he finally did."

"olly loves his mama," zayn smiled. "he's a mama's boy."

"he sure is. i wanna find him some outfits while we're out, if that's okay."

"why, of course."

after their nail appointment, louis took a picture of their freshly painted baby blue nails and sent it to harry, who complimented the color by saying it matched his eyes. he asked to see his haircut, but louis told him he had to wait. the boss didn't like to wait and he knew that but it would be worth it.

zayn managed to get them into a shoe store and spent ten minutes deciding on which boots he wanted. they were the same style but different colors. he was stumped because he had plenty of outfits to match each pair. he finally said screw it and got both.

louis got lost looking at baby converses. he had to think about what colors olly already had before grabbing the blue ones and finding a blue pair of high tops for himself. harry told him to go crazy today. he didn't want to go too crazy, though getting matching shoes with his son made him think twice. he could have bought out the whole store if he wanted to.

they stopped for lunch about an hour and a half into shopping because it had already hit noon. the food court in the mall had plenty of options to choose from. zayn settled on chinese while louis opted for pretzel bites from a popular kiosk.

zayn squealed out of nowhere and showed louis his phone. "liam took a picture of the girls and olly napping together."

"how cute," louis gushed. "please send me that."