salute [h.s]

the one with the pudding

"Louis! LOUIS!"

"What are you screaming about?" Louis sauntered into the entertainment room, running a hand through his hair and mussing it up completely. Considering it was a Friday night, he didn't seem too worried about it. He was also wearing joggers that had seen better days and a threadbare shirt. Piper presumed that his dinner plans with Eleanor had fallen through.

"I thought you were going out?" Piper asked him, scooping some of the pudding out of the huge bowl resting on her big belly and popping it right in her mouth, swirling her tongue on the metal until it was cleaned off.

Louis just rolled his eyes, as if he was exhausted just being around her. "El had to work so I'm home for the night. Why, are you inviting me to your strange little film session?"

"Nah, not a film. Just an old episode of Outlander." Piper pointed to the screen where Sam Heughan's glorious body was on display for anyone to see. "You're welcome to join if you like."

Louis shrugged and Piper imagined that he had nothing better to do and just wanted the company, even if he had to deal with a crazy pregnant lady who was eating an entire mixing bowl full of pudding. "Guess I might as well. Nothing better to do."

"But first —" Louis groaned like it was the end of the world and Piper frowned at him. "I was just going to ask for a cup of tea. You'd think, considering I'm growing another person and walking to the kitchen would take me at least five minutes just getting up and down from the couch, that you wouldn't whine about a bloody cup of tea!"

Louis's eyes had widened at her outburst, as if he wasn't used to it by now. She'd been a temperamental person beforehand, jumping from one emotion to another with little provocation but with her hormones all over the place and the fact that she was dealing with aches and pains from the moment she woke to the moment she went to bed, it wasn't uncommon for her to snap. Or cry. She cried a lot.

"No tea, petal. You've already had a cup today."

Piper groaned, letting her head drop back onto the couch as she stared up at the ceiling, praying for patience. She loved Harry to death but sometimes she just wanted to punch him right in the throat. She'd been so excited when he'd bought all those baby books when she'd first told him she was pregnant. He was taking it so seriously and she loved how enthusiastic he seemed about being a dad. What she did not love was how he seemed to have memorized every single fact in those books and took them seriously, restricting not only her tea intake but also adjusting her diet, forcing her to do gentle exercise, dictating how she slept, limiting her work — you name it and Harry was all over it, making sure everything was done properly.

"Harry," she whined.

"No, I'm sorry but I'm stepping in. You on caffeine is bad enough when you aren't pregnant but now it could affect not only you but the baby. I'm going to go ahead and dad veto that one."

She regretted ever inventing 'the veto'. When Harry had been in overdrive over the pregnancy, back when they'd first found out, he'd started making all of these decisions preemptively that Piper deemed unnecessary until the baby had arrived. The day he went out to sign up for an education savings plan at the bank, she'd introduced the parent veto. She'd used hers to stop Harry from having Liam act as her personal bodyguard, from putting her on a high protein vegetarian diet, and from registering their unborn child for preschool already. He used his to stop her from drinking her tea.

"We have some decaf in the cupboard," Louis suggested. Piper looked over at him with a grateful sigh, smiling warmly.

"Bless you, Louis."

He disappeared from the room and Piper was left alone with her husband who, at that moment, was stretched out along the couch with his head in her lap, angled toward her round belly. He'd been whispering stuff to the bump for ages but she'd been too distracted by Jamie Fraser to really hear what was being said. Now that the show had gone to commercial, she threaded her fingers into Harry's curls.