The Freak-Family (Zianourry)

Chapter 35

The next months were hard on everybody. Louis hated being separate, causing his mood to be permanently negative. He was crying more often than not: wanting to spend the night with all of his boys, blaming himself for the situation, hating himself for crying all the time instead of being productive. For Niall, that meant he was basically always at Louis' side. Even though he didn't mind, it did tire him out. Having to comfort his boyfriend all the time and trying to not get affected by his down mood cost him energy. On top of that, his therapy sessions were much more intense, trying to prepare him for everything to come. Hopefully he'd be able to go less and less frequently once the five of them had found a new home. He and Sasha tried to aim for a maximum of six months after the move. After that, he'd be on his own two feet without her help. And that scared him senseless but also made him feel proud since he'd never thought he'd get to that point. Ever.

It was really incredible how it all went. All the parents came over and worked non-stop for their boys. Anne pulled all the strings she could pull in this town and the dads scoured every website, paper and estate agent shop there was. And while the boys had prepared for this to take ages, they actually had looked at three possible new homes within two weeks. The only problem was money. For the mortgage they needed a loan and for a loan they needed credibility. The boys with jobs all had conversations with their respective bosses, trying to find out whether they could be sure of a contract extension. That certainty would be enough to get them a house, but they really did need an increase of income somewhere to live somewhat comfortably. Mark offered to help with sorting out the finances and pretended not to see Louis heave a big sigh of relief.

And then, a little over a month after they'd heard they had to move, they were signing the contract of their new house. All five of them would legally live there. They got the keys six weeks later and when all the parents came over again, they filled up every car with their stuff and left. They said goodbye to Mr. Stadder, who looked remorseful.

"I'm really sorry it had to be like this, boys."

Liam smiled and shook the man's hand jovially. Even Louis mustered up a kind smile. "It's alright, it's better this way. We're happy with what came out of this." Liam assured before they parted for good. The two boys turned and were immediately wrapped up in three sets of arms. The three illegal residents of the apartment smiled shyly at Mr. Stadder, who returned it kindly. As he walked through the apartment, now stripped bare of any belongings, he wondered how five grown men could've ever lived here. He guessed that personal space just wasn't an issue for those boys.

In their new place, they had more space than they even knew what to do with. Three decent sized bedrooms, a bathroom with a separate shower and bath. A second toilet downstairs, an open kitchen with a small bar to sit at. And then another room they'd make the dining room, and a spacious living room that could fit another couch next to their current one, if they were to buy it. It was a bit bare in some places and their rickety furniture looked even worse on this new shiny wooden floor. There were bigger windows that had no curtains yet and the garden (they had their very own garden!) was an overgrown patch of weeds. But the house was filled to the brim with flowers from siblings, parents, grandparents and the new neighbours, so it smelled like the fresh beginning that it really was. And the house had so much opportunity, there were so many dreams they could create and plans they could make. They wanted to build a bed that would stretch all the way from one wall to the other in one of the bedrooms, so they could finally all cuddle up together and have some room left. Zayn was thinking of all the things he wanted to do with the garden; maybe he'd even ask Liam to build them a porch or a gazebo or something. All in all, they were floating on happy moods for solid months, almost still in disbelief about how all this was theirs.