We'll Make This House a Home

02 there is a place where i don't feel alone

Louis wakes to the sound of giggling accompanied by the sensation of being jostled by a tiny body bouncing on the mattress beside him.

He smiles, and without opening his eyes, reaches out until his hands find their way beneath a certain toddler's armpits.

Harry lets out a gleeful squeal as Louis pulls him across to rest atop of his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around the two year old.

"Da-addy!" He screams, erupting into breathless laughter that never fails to make the man's heart sing.

He chuckles quietly, stroking the back of the boy's curly head of hair with an open palm and making a shushing sound. "Shhh, baby. It's early," he says.

Harry wiggles in his hold, still laughing happily. "Daddy! D'eres sun! No bed time," he stage whispers, giggling as if he can't believe his father's stupidity.

Louis laughs again, finally blinking his eyes open to a dimly lit room, sunlight seeping in through the thin curtains that had been hung when they'd moved in.

He lifts his head off of his pillow and grins down at the two year old held against his front, the boy looking up at him with his green eyes wide and bright at such an early hour. He bares his teeth and giggles again.

"Hi Daddy."

Smiling at the cuteness-overload, Louis cranes his head up further to kiss the top of the boy's head. He drops his head back down afterwards, rolling it to the side to where Ni and Liam are still laid down.

Niall still seems to be asleep, though his hat is in place on his head again as a signal that he'd roused at some point. Liam is awake, however, his eyes half-lidded and blearily. Niall is curled up in a tiny ball with his head against Liam's chest, the older boy's arm rested over the top of his little brother's sleeping form.

He smiles fondly at the sight; for all their bickering and biting in the day time, it's clear just how much the two of them love each other.

"Morning, Li-Li," he murmurs, watching as the nine year old blinks the sleep from his eyes and looks over Niall's head at him.

"Mornin' Daddy," he mumbles, his sleepiness reverting him back to the title he hasn't used regularly since he was seven.

"You ready to get up and at 'em, boys?" He asks, sitting up with a groan, Harry falling into his lap.

The toddler crawls off of his legs and across the mattress to his brothers, leaning over Niall's shoulder and pressing his nose against the five year old's cheek, peering at him closely.

He sits up on his knees and looks at Louis with wide eyes and a tiny finger held up to his lips. "Ni-Ni s'eepin'," he says, then shakes his head. "He ti-ti, Daddy."

Louis chuckles at that. "He is, huh?" He murmurs, reaching out to ruffles the boy's crazy curls. He smiles at Liam. "You wanna wake him up for me?" He asks.

Liam yawns, rolling onto his back to stretch before he sits up and nods, his dark hair sticking up at the back. He rubs at his eye with one hand, kneeling next to his little brother and reaching down with his other to pat his cheek gently.

Niall wrinkles his nose up and frowns, letting out a whine as he turns his face into the pillows.

"C'mon Ni-Ni, everybody else's up," Liam says, poking him in the shoulder instead now.

The idea of being left out is enough to rouse the five year old. He lets out another whine and blinks his eyes open, looking first at Liam and then immediately seeking out his father. Louis smiles and holds out his arms for the boy to climb across into his lap, rubbing his eyes, still half asleep.