Don't Need Them - John Laurens x Reader {DISCONTINUED}

- 43 -

~ nine months later ~

Your POV

It was weird to say nine months flew by so quickly. But it was amazing. For the most part.

Something I had noticed was each time John and I had a conversation with the guys (which luckily wasn't overly often at all), they seemed oddly... negative sometimes. But when Frances was with us, they seemed to adore her. It was weird. And slightly off-putting.

Frances was an active baby. She was already crawling everywhere and John and I were trying to teach her how to walk. And for a nine-month-old baby, she had quite a bit of curls. Definitely John's little girl.

We were all in the living room. John was sat on the ground a couple feet away from Frances and I. I was knelt behind Frances, holding her tiny hands and helping her walk across the floor.

"Frances~" John called in a sing-song voice, making her look up. The tone of his voice made her start giggling, making John smile.

My husband reached out his arms. "Walk over to Dada, birdie!"

I couldn't help but smile. John calling Frances 'birdie' as a nickname was one of the cutest things ever.

"Can you walk to Dada, Frances?" I asked, making the baby girl look up at me with big eyes. I smiled, making a smile cross her little face. She turned, starting to take a step forward.

When she took a couple steps, I let go of one of her hands. She slowed down a bit, but kept going. Frances looked back at me a moment before looking back forward, gradually getting closer.

"That's it!" John smiled. "You're almost there, birdie!"

Once Frances was within at least two feet of John, I decided to let go of her other hand. She swayed a moment, babbling to herself, but stayed upright.

John looked momentarily surprised, but I saw the look of pride in his hazel eyes. I also couldn't help but smile. "Almost there, Fran! You got it!"

Slowly, Frances stepped over. When she was in John's reach, she finally tumbled into his arms, giggling. "Da-a!"

John was practically beaming. He scooped her up, making her squeal. "Atta girl, Frances!"

Frances kept giggling, tiny arms resting over John's shoulders in what looked like a hug.

After a couple moments, he set her down, and helped repeat the process to get her over to me. Once she was close enough to me, I pulled her to me, laughing. "You did it!"

Frances grabbed my hand in both of her little ones, babbling. I smiled as John made his way over, sitting next to me. I adjusted so Frances was sat on my leg, feeling John slip one of his arms around my waist.

Frances made a grabby motion to a teething ring about a foot away. I leaned forward, grabbing it and holding it out to her. She made a happy noise and took it, putting it in her mouth.

John chuckled, and I looked up at him. "She's too precious. I can't believe she took her first independent steps today."

I smiled. "She's so happy for not even a year-old. And active."

"Even if that does make sleeping hard sometimes, it's amazing," John added.

I snickered. "Yeah. I couldn't be happier with this though."

John subconsciously held me closer. Looking back up at him, I saw the usual sparkle of love and pride in his hazel eyes. Even though we had been married for over a year now, and together for a total of about five years, I was always reminded of the day of our wedding seeing that look in his eyes.

Flashback -

I had just put my dress on, looking in the mirror.

"This is surreal.." I muttered.

"I can't say I didn't see it coming as soon as it did," Mama commented, laughing.

I looked at her through the mirror. "Oh?"

"One, maternal instinct, and two, I feel like it's just in plain sight; the way he looks at you. I can see just from how he looks at you any day, that he'd do anything. And when you have a family, he'll still do anything for you guys. He wants to give you the world, sweetheart."

"Looks can show a lot, huh?" Mom piped in.

I snickered. "I guess so. I mean, I can't say I didn't see it myself, but.. now that I know others can see it.."

Mama smiled. "Just remember that, (Y/N). He's always gonna be there, even if at some point you don't like it for some reason. You two have something I've rarely seen anywhere else." She paused. "Hold onto John, sweetheart. Don't ever think of letting him go."

"I.." I paused, laughing slightly. "I don't think I could ever do that, even if I tried."

-

"I love you," I spoke randomly after a moment.

John looked down at me, seeming a bit surprised at the sudden comment. But he smiled, leaning down and kissing my nose. "I love you more."

"Impossible."

My husband smiled his usual confident smile. "Nothing's impossible, chickadee."

~

"I swear they know what they're doing to us..." I muttered.

"They probably do," Alex replied. "Actually, I know they do."

"But why?" I think it was the first time one of us had actually asked that aloud.

"Because..." for once, my boyfriend seemed stumped. "Because that's just how they are, love. They take pride in seeing us look at them longingly and wish we were with them." He stopped a second, thinking. "But that's why we showed up at the wedding ceremony that day. Once and for all, they'll understand. They'll go through what we go through every single day...

...we're gonna make their life a living hell, Herc."

I remembered back to when I left. The mix of betrayal in John's eyes when we yelled at each other. The anger when I yelled at (Y/N) to shut up.

Since that day, there was a barrier between John and I. We were setback farther apart than compared to the others. But I still loved them. We all did, and that was why we were like this.

But sometimes, love was pain. And someone was getting hurt one way or another soon enough.