Adopted

Halloween

"What are those," Louis asks, pointing to the tray on the bottom shelf of the oven.

"Sweet potato fries. I thought their orange color would look cool for it being Halloween."

The boy smiles. "Cool!"

"These are only going to take a few minutes to cook. Would you mind waking up your brother," Liam asks.

"Okay," Louis says. Before exiting the kitchen, Zayn helps him wash his hands one more time.

Louis walks through the living room and into the lounge. Harry is still passed out on the ground, squeezing the pillow Louis had been using extra hard. Louis walks over to the younger boy and kneels beside him. He almost feels guilty for having to disturb him, knowing it was his fault Harry didn't get as much sleep as usual last night. But he wants to talk and play and eat with him, so that's motivation enough to wake him as he was instructed to do.

"Hazza," Louis says quietly, running his hand up and down Harry's arm. "Come on, Sleeping Beauty. It's time for dinner."

"Mmmph," Harry whines into the pillow.

Louis grins. "Don't you want to wake up? We're going trick or treating after dinner."

Harry's eyes flick open at the reminder that is indeed Halloween. He rolls his body over so it's facing Louis. His forehead rests on the older boy's thigh as he wills himself to wake up fully.

"Louwee," Harry hums.

"Hazza," Louis says in response. "Come on. Daddy wants you up now."

Harry sighs, " I'm up...I'm up."

"Then let's go sleepy head! You're gonna love dinner!"

"What is it," Harry asks.

"It's a surprise," Louis tells him with a cheeky grin.

Louis stands and helps his brother from the floor. They hold hands as Louis takes him to the kitchen. The daddies look at them both with big smiles. Harry walks over to Liam and wraps his arms around the man's waist.

"Hi, Baby," he says in the boy's ear.

"Hi, Daddy," he says, now fully awake and eager for the nights activities. "C'n we go trick-er treating now," he asks.

"You haven't even eaten your dinner yet. Need fuel to go out, yeah? Just like a choo choo train. Besides, it doesn't officially start for an hour and a half."

"Aw, fooey" the boy pouts.

Liam chuckles. "Plenty of time to have fun tonight. And if you boys behave we'll even let you stay up a little past your bedtime."

Both boys mouths drop. "Really," Louis asks.

The daddies nod. "Yay," they cheer in unison.

Zayn helps the boys into their highchairs and ties their bibs around their necks. He refills Louis' water and fills Harry up a cup of his own. He also gets two tall glasses of water for himself and his husband, setting those glasses down on the far sides of the high chair trays. The timer on the over dings and Liam opens the door, filling the air with the comforting scent of baked crescent dough. Zayn and him arrange the food on the boys' plates. The two watch with curiosity as they carefully add two dots of ketchup on the mummies, making little eyes. They each are given a handful of the fries and the plates are set down in front of the littles.

Harry gasps. "Mummy dogs!" He turns to face his brother. "Daddy made these last year, too!"

Zayn and Liam bring the ketchup bottle over and squirt some on the side of each plate for dipping before Zayn puts it back in the fridge and sits down in front of Harry.