The Future Is Now - Larry Stylinson

Chapter 20

Zayn and Perrie came round on the weekend to take the kids again and Harry leaned close to Louis as he was bundling Annie up in her tiny little coat. "Why are they always asking to take them?" he asked softly, brushing Annie's straight black hair from her eyes.

"Pezza can't get pregnant," Louis said with a little sigh, doing up the last button before patting Annie's belly and picking her up again.

"Oh, really?" Harry said quietly. He thought about how affectionate Perrie was with the children and how she almost melted every time Annie so much as smiled at her. It seemed a cruel trick to leave a woman who clearly loved children unable to have them. "That's awful. Have they thought about adoption?"

"Zayn's family is a little weird about it," Louis answered, handing Annie over to Harry who took her automatically. After over a week with Louis and the kids, he was starting to get used to playing the role of husband and father. "I think they're taking these two so much so they can see if they really definitely want kids before they outright defy Zee's grandparents."

"Sounds complicated," Harry murmured, kissing Annie on the forehead and smiling when she gurgled.

"Tell me about it," Louis said with an eye roll. "You figured the least we could do was offer up our own children."

"I did?" Harry asked, blinking at him.

Louis smiled a little, getting that sad, far away look in his eyes he did whenever the reality of the situation became to obvious to ignore. "Yeah. Before you, ah, forgot everything."

"Oh," Harry nodded, dropping his gaze to Annie. He didn't miss the frustrated look on Louis' face.

_-_-

"Here, let me-" Louis was letting out giggles as he tugged the laptop from Harry and quickly typed 'The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction' in the youtube search bar. Harry was kind of high off Louis' laughs and the way he curled his body close to his, so he was laughing softly as well, even though he didn't know why.

They'd had a little wine with dinner because Harry had admitted to never trying it before (that he could remember, anyway) and because the kids were staying at Zayn and Perrie's so it was just them for the night. Louis had drunk a lot more than Harry but he only seemed tipsy, cheeks flushed as he started to play the video and laugh into the back of his hand.

The cartoon versions of themselves were hilarious, Harry had to admit. And even in a bloody cartoon that had come out before he and Louis had, it was still obvious their characters had more chemistry than the three other boys. There were three more videos in the 'AAoOD' series, and the last one had been made after they had come out so it included their relationship. It was kind of sweet to see Cartoon Harry and Cartoon Louis have a spat and then make up and kiss at the end.

"Did we ever fight?" Harry asked a while later when the laptop was on the coffee table and playing music at a low volume. Louis was still curled into his side and Harry had wrapped a hesitant arm around him and it was a little awkward but mostly warm and right.

"Hmm?" Louis glanced up from where he'd been staring into his wine glass, only a few mouthfuls left.

"You and I," Harry said, and immediately broke off into giggles because Louis had snorted. Right, that was one of their songs on the third album. "I mean, fuck. Did we ever fight? Like married couples fight, right?"

Louis let out a loud laugh and had to hide his face in Harry's shoulder for a few moments. Louis was a lot more handsy when he'd been drinking and Harry got the feeling it was because the older man missed the physical intimacy they must have had. He'd seen from videos that he and Louis were a very hands on couple, and to have that suddenly stop must have been hard for Louis.