Chances - 1D KidFic

First Day of School

"Daddy! Papa! Blocks!" Harry shouts, pointing to an unattended pile of blocks on a table. "Can we play?"

"Of course, sweetheart," Liam replies.

Harry leads us over to the block table and starts stacking blocks with Liam. I watch other parents say goodbye to their children. Some goodbyes go better than others. One child says goodbye and doesn't even look back. Another pouts, then goes to play. Another child is desperately clinging to his mother. The little girl from earlier has stopped crying. One child keeps mumbling 'mama' and pouting. One child has fallen asleep on the floor. 

Well, it's now or never. We had contemplated slipping out while he wasn't looking but decided against it because that might scare him. We don't want him to think we would abandon him or something.

I look at Liam and he sighs. He kisses Harry's forehead and looks on the verge of tears again.

"Harry, bug. Daddy and I are gonna leave now. Okay? We'll be back..."

"You leaving?" Harry asks, immediately dropping the blocks in his hands, fear in his eyes. "But... but..."

"We'll be back. It's only for a couple hours. You're gonna have lots of fun and make new friends, and..."

"No..."Harry whines. "Papa, Daddy stay."

"No, baby. Daddy and I are gonna leave, but we'll be back. I promise."

Harry starts crying and jumps into my arms. 

"Shhh... You're okay," I soothe. "No need to cry. It's okay. Look. I'm not crying. Daddy's not crying."

Harry sniffles and points at Liam, who has a trickle of  tears running down his face. 

"Dang it, Liam. You had one job."

"I'm sorry," he apologizes, wiping at his eyes. 

"How about you go to the car?" I suggest. "I've got this."

Liam nods and kisses Harry's forehead and hugs him one last time. "I'll see you later, sweetheart. Be a good boy. No more tears, okay? I love you."

Harry just continues to cry as Liam leaves the room. "Daddy!" he cries. 

Liam doesn't even turn around. He'd probably start sobbing if he did.

"Hey, shh... Papa's here. You're okay. I'm right here."

"Papa, don't go! Stay! Please! Please! Please, Papa!" Harry begs. 

"I have to, bug. Papa has to go to work and you have to be in school."

"Papa, no leave. No leave Harry. Don't leave me, Papa" he pouts and buries his face in my neck.

I didn't think I would cry, but this kid is good. I can feel my heart splitting in two. The easy thing to do would be to just take Harry back home, but I can't. Harry needs this.

"Harry, look at me. Look at Papa."

Harry picks his head up and rubs at his eyes, still sniffling.

"You're okay. It's only for a little bit. Daddy and I will come back in a few  hours, okay? I promise. Remember when we first met? I know it's been a while, but you asked me and Daddy if we'd come back. And we did. Right?"

Harry nods.

"And we kept coming back and eventually brought you home. Remember when we left you with Nana and Granddad? Daddy and I came back, right?"

Harry nods again.

"Okay, and we'll come back in a few hours. We'll always come back. But right now you've gotta be Papa and Daddy's brave big boy. Can you do that?"