Chances - 1D KidFic

I Just Know

"Harry, slow down. You're going to get a brain freeze," I laugh.

"I can't, Papa. It's too yummy," Harry says and continues to shovel ice cream into his mouth. 

"Here, let me have a bite so you can have a little break," I say, trying to take the spoon from Harry. 

"But it's my ice cream, Papa," Harry says, licking his face. 

"Well Niall was a good boy and shared his ice cream with Daddy. Don't you want to share like Niall did?" I ask. Harry thinks about it for a few seconds and shakes his head no. "No? What do you mean no? I want a bite!" Liam starts to giggle. 

"Ask Niall," Harry smirks and eats his ice cream.

My jaw hits the floor.  Where did this sass come from?!?! "What have you done to my child?" I demand. "You turned him into a sassy little monster." Well, not a monster, but sassier than usual.

"Says the original 'sassy little monster' himself. That's all you. That is your child. He got that from you," Liam asserts with a snide little grin on his face. 

And damn it, he's right. I am quite sassy. Maybe it's from having a billion sisters. I resort to pouting because I can't win the argument. "I just wanted one bite..."

Liam takes a little spoonful from Niall's ice cream while he's not looking and give it to me. "Here. Now stop whining."

I am not whining... but at least I got my ice cream.

"Papa, I'm done," Harry says, producing a licked clean bowl and ice cream all over his face. 

"How did you manage to get ice cream on your forehead?" Liam asks, helping Niall finish his last few bites of ice cream.

Harry just shrugs and tries licking the ice cream around his mouth. I wipe his mouth and clean his face with a baby wipe so he's not sticky. 

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We're finally home and the boys are in bed (it actually went a lot easier than we thought it would). Liam is in the kitchen making us some tea while I'm trying to pick something on Netflix. They need to invest in a randomize button or something because it's just to hard to pick anything. 

"Tea delivery," Liam announces and hands me my mug. "How is it?"

I take a sip. "Perfect." Milk, no sugar. I'm a bit picky about my tea, but Liam's gotten pretty good at making it for me over the years. 

"Good. Did you pick something?"

"No. There's too many choices."

"Here," Liam takes the remote from me and just presses play on some random movie that I happened to land on. "Problem solved."

"Liam... you realize I was in the foreign film section and this movie is probably not in English."

"Well, it's always good to learn new languages."

"Yeah, I don't think Netflix is that great of a teacher."

"Well we don't have to watch the movie... we could do something else..." Liam wiggles his eyebrows. 

I know what he's thinking... but I'm really not in the mood. Shopping really tires you out. "Like cuddling?" I suggest. "I'm really cold."

"I guess that could work. Come here."

He wraps is arms around me and he's so warm. Who needs a heater when you have Liam? He's basically a soft, warm teddy bear. 

"Better?" he asks.

"Much," I reply.

We lay there for a little while, listening to some people talk in (what I assume is) Russian or something like that. 

"Hey, can I ask you something?" I ask.

"What?"

"Why the big sigh when you mentioned Zayn earlier today?"

Liam sighs again. "I was hoping you'd forget that."

"I never forget. So what's wrong? Please, tell me."

"I don't know. I just... I think about him sometimes. He seems very isolated. He doesn't really talk to anybody. I don't know if he plays with the other kids or if they even like him. I don't know. He's been there a while and I don't know... I guess I worry about him sometimes."

"I didn't know that. All this fuss over a kid you met once?"

"Hey, I met Niall once and knew I wanted to bring him home. And we knew we wanted Harry the minute we read his name and saw his picture. We didn't even have to meet him."

"Are you saying you want to bring Zayn home?" I sit up and look at him. This is not the kind of conversation you have with your back turned.

"I don't know. That's a lot to take in. He's older than Harry and Niall. He's clearly got social issues and probably some psychological issues. That's a lot to handle. I don't know if we're cut out for that. We just became parents a few months ago. We just brought Niall home last month."

"I don't know babe. We've been going pretty fast. We need some time to settle."

"But then I think about Zayn and how kind and caring he was to Niall. How he actually talked and interacted with me. Me! There was a connection there."

He looks near tears.

"But then I think of my boys. My... Our two beautiful little boys. Bringing someone new in so soon could put a lot of pressure on them. I don't want to do that to them. I know Harry was excited for Niall to come home, but I know he's had to adjust. I know he's felt a little jealousy. I know he realizes all of our attention isn't on him anymore. I know that bothered him. I saw it on his face when you two would leave to take him to school and I stayed home with Niall. I saw the little pouts. He's probably told you."

He did. He had a little cry in the car the other day. He loves school, but he missed staying home with Daddy. His Daddy and I were paying a lot of attention to Niall when he came home. Harry felt a little left out. I know. 

"And that doesn't at all mean I regret bringing Niall home when we did. My sweet baby Niall. Our beautiful ray of sunshine. I just wish we had handled it a little better. You know?"

"Yeah," I manage. I'd burst into tears if I said any more. Liam talking about our babies is going to make me cry.

"And then I think about Zayn and what can happen to him if we waited. What if the other kids are mean to him and he won't tell anybody? What if they hurt him? Does he even have friends at school? Why won't he talk? We know he can. He talked to me. Shouldn't he be in a home with people who love and care about him? He doesn't deserve to be in there. None of those kids do."

"Babe, we can't bring home the whole place."

"I know that, but those kids deserve somebody that loves them. They deserve some place to call home. I just..." he can't continue. His face just crumbles. 

He buries his face in my neck and I rub his back soothingly. "Shh... I know. I know. It sucks. But they're strong kids. They'll be okay. They deserve good things, and good things will eventually come their way."

"How do you know?"

"I just know."

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*Author's Note*

So did you like it? I know, I'm punching you right in the feels. Sorry, but I'm a very sappy person. The beginning bit was a bit of a filler, but it was kinda needed for the ending. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave me comments. 

I don't know how often I'll be updating this because school started again and schedules are weird, but I will to update as soon as possible. 

Also, in case you haven't noticed, we've had a title change!! 😱 😱 😱  Thank you to London_Boy1D for our new title. I feel like it fits the story much better than the old one did. 

Happy reading!