I'll be home soon - Larry AU (boyxboy)

Chapter one

The spot next to him in bed was empty as Harry woke up at 7am, his sleep disturbed by the small noises of their youngest. It was nothing new for him to wake up alone, especially on the weekends when Louis always left at the crack of dawn to prepare for the match to come. At least he had been home at a decent time yesterday, providing the two with some much needed quality time with each other. Too bad the kids had already been asleep when he’d walked in the door.

He rubbed his eyes with his fists, trying to get rid of the blur of sleep and launched himself out of bed, crossing the room to let his daughter know that he was up and about, and soon would provide her with food. Amy’s bright smile was what made it all worthwhile, the long days, short nights and lonely times when Louis was away for his football. He grinned back at her and ruffled the short hair before he picked her up, pulling a face at the smell coming from her obviously full diaper.

Everything fell into its usual routine from then off, change the diaper, warm the bottle, feed Amy, wake up Jack and Beth, have breakfast with the eldest kids and get all of them dressed to go outside. It always was a struggle, Beth refusing to wear the dress Louis had picked out for her, Jack trying to get out of the clothes Harry had just put on him and to top it all off, Amy spitting all over the clean shirt he’d just pulled on. After an hour or so, he finally managed to get all three kids in the car and ready to leave, his own hair and shirt disheveled and wearing only one sock because he couldn’t find the other one, but at least they were on their way to the stadium.

Harry couldn’t remember when his life had turned into this. When he had met Louis 8 years ago, he was a promising football talent but not much more than that. Harry had just started law school and he saw himself as some socially engaged lawyer, maybe in environmental law in a couple of years. They got married right after college, and their decision to have kids was soon followed by adopting the 2 year old Beth. Harry had worked as an intern in a big law firm for almost a year, trying to juggle his job and his family and he liked to think he did a fairly good job at it too. That was until Louis got scouted to play for Stoke city, a premier league club, and of course he couldn’t turn that opportunity down. It would relieve him from the job at Tesco’s he hated and at the same time provide them with enough money to buy a bigger house. Harry tried working for a little while after that, but it became harder and harder. Louis would never make it on time to pick Beth up from daycare, causing Harry having to run after work and face the angry caretakers because he was late, again. He loved Louis, though, so he thought about it long and hard, talked it through with his mum, his best friends and of course Louis before he decided to resign and become a stay at home dad. That way, Louis could maintain and even build out his career without the family having to suffer from it. A year later, Jack came into their small family, he was adopted by them when he was only a couple of days old, and Louis even took a month off to welcome him home.

Harry’s quiet time reminiscing behind the wheel was soon interrupted by loud wails coming from Jack, accusing his older sister of taking away his teddy bear. Even though they weren’t biologically related, Jack had definitely picked up on Louis’ dramatic tendencies and it proved to be hard task to calm him down with only one free arm, reaching for the back seat while driving because they were almost late as it was. He tried really, really hard to calm down the three year old before Amy woke up from her nap and would start crying as well, and luckily succeeded after promising all of them ice cream and orange juice.

He parked in his usual spot - thank god at least Louis’ star player position came with that privilege - unbuckled the kids and made his way towards the dressing rooms with the baby carrier in one hand, Jack clinging to his leg and Beth reluctantly holding his other hand. The scowl on her face disappeared as soon as the door to the dressing room opened and she was immediately fussed over by Louis’ team mates. He was one of the few who already had kids and the other guys couldn’t resist a cute little girl’s face if they tried.