Years passed by, and both Liam and Harry were going to school during the daytime while Greg went off to work and Mama stayed home with little Niall. He was three now, and the sweetest kid Liam or Harry had ever met. He had thick blonde hair and lashes and his eyes were exactly as magical as Greg's. He had a dimple on either side of his naturally mischievous grin and a few sparse freckles dotted around his nose and beneath his eyes. By looking at him, Liam knew there wasn't immediately anything about Niall that would make people think they were brothers, but the littlest boy and Harry both had the same dimples, and he and Niall both hated eggs for breakfast, and that was plenty enough to make them brothers. Plus, Mama would be devastated if either of them disowned Niall.
They were all gathered around the kitchen table, and Harry was filling Greg and Mama in on his day at school,
". . . And maths isn't too hard. Just addin' and stuff like we already do. Tommy said that his Mama didn't teach him how to add stuff, so I tried to help him." Liam glanced from Harry to Mama as she smiled at him sweetly,
"That's very nice of you, lovely."
"I know," he said simply, taking a large bite of the spaghetti that was on his plate and slurping a loose noddle that didn't make it into his mouth all the way.
"Table manners, Curly," Greg chided lightly, shaking his head disapprovingly. Harry frowned before nodding at Niall,
"He does it so, so much worse than I do. Why don't you make him have table manners?" Niall stuck out his lip from across the table, and Liam's heart swelled a little at the cuteness of the gesture,
"I don' do it bad," Niall defended himself, eyeing Harry with a scowl. Liam watched as Greg looked like he was holding back a chuckle,
"No, you do it just fine, Niall." Then to Harry, he said, "He's three. You're six."
"No, you just like him better is all," Harry pouted, poking at his food again. Liam looked down at his plate, knowing Harry messed up by saying that.
"Hey, baby, no one likes any one of you more than the other," Mama spoke before Greg could, her tone kind, but firm. Harry looked up again and Liam could tell that he was on the verge of crying, every bit of his earlier excitement melted away,
"That's not true. He never plays with me or Liam anymore. Just Niall. He hasn't even tucked me into bed in many, many years." The last part was an obvious lie, because just two days ago Greg had put them all to sleep, and he almost always did, last night being the exception because he worked late. Mama smiled sadly,
"Harry, baby, you know that Greg loves you. Where's this coming from?" Harry shook his head violently, swiping an arm across his face to brush his tears away,
"He doesn't love me. Not like he loves Niall. It's because he's not my daddy, isn't it?" He sniffed loudly, and Liam heard Greg's chair scoot back and he walked across the table and bent down beside the middle brother,
"Curly, I love you just as much as Niall. Nothing will ever change that. I might not be your dad, but you'll always be my little guy, okay?" Harry's bottom lip wobbled a bit, but he nodded a few times before throwing his arms around Greg. The man whispered something to him that Liam couldn't catch before the two let go, "How about I take you two big boys out for ice cream tonight?" He suggested, and Harry's reddening eyes lit up immediately, but before an answer could be reached, Niall stuck his lip out much further than before,
"I want ice cream too." Mama laughed and tussled his hair affectionately,
"You already had ice cream today, Boo. Remember?" The three-year-old's shoulders sagged in disappointment,
"I know, but I love it." Liam grinned at his littlest brother's antics while Greg gave him a careful look,
"I'll make it up to you and we can all go out for ice cream on Saturday." Niall's eyes lit up and fell all in a matter of seconds,
"But Saturday's a long time from now."
"That's only two days away, buddy," Liam said encouragingly, and that seemed to do the trick for the littlest of the bunch,
"Oh! I'm still not too good with numbers."
"That's okay, Niall," Harry said, sniffing away the last of his tears, "Once you're in first grade like me, I'll help you like I help Tommy." Niall's frown didn't last for much longer, and he went back to twisting his fork in the pasta like Liam had taught him to.
After dinner was cleaned up, Mama took Niall upstairs to distract him while Greg grabbed the keys to his car and Harry and Liam put their shoes on. He whistled to himself as he slipped his shoes on and waited beside the door, laughing as the oldest two brothers raced to his side,
"Maybe you two don't need ice cream after all, eh?"
They shared a mischievous grin before heading out the door and running to the car.
Once they got home, Niall was waiting by the door, pajama-clad, and arms folded across his chest with a stern expression glued to his soft face,
"D'you have fun without me?" Liam hid a smirk before holding his arms out to his brother for a hug,
"It wasn't nearly as fun without you, buddy." Niall's frown dropped instantaneously, and he threw his arms around him,
"I knew you'd miss me." In reality, Liam was grateful to have some time with just his full brother and stepdad, like it used to be, but he would never dream of disappointing his baby brother by saying so. Harry had yet to let go of Greg's hand after they had gotten out of the car, and it didn't look like he would make a move now, guiding him past Niall in a hurry to the stairway,
"You're going to read to me tonight, right? And tuck me in?" Liam stared past the blond boy's head and after Harry, frowning to himself as he realized just how clingy his younger brother was being. He made a silly face at Niall before popping his shoes off and heading to the living room where Mama was laying on the couch with an ice pack to her head.
Mama hummed gently as Liam climbed up beside her,
"How was ice cream?"
"Delicious," he replied honestly, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She brushed his mousy brown hair to the side of his forehead and pressed a quick kiss to the top of his head,
"Glad to hear it. Can you take Niall upstairs for me, darling? Mama's got a headache." Liam caught himself frowning, but nodded nonetheless and stood back up, turning for the kitchen again,
"Alright, Mama. Feel better soon," She murmured something back, but Liam didn't quite catch what it was she had said. He shrugged and found Niall pushing one of his toy cars around in circles under the table, "Hey, buddy. Time for bed," he spoke, putting a smile on his face as he knelt to make eye contact with his littlest brother. Niall made a face at him and slid further away,
"Not sleepy." He stated, eyeing him closely. Liam took a deep breath before making a move to climb under with him,
"It doesn't matter if you feel sleepy. You need to rest so you can get strong like Harry and tall like me." Niall giggled at that and rolled his deep ocean eyes at him,
"Haz isn't even that much stronger than me."
"Get some rest and you might become even stronger than he is," Liam encouraged, poking him in the side. Niall let out a yelp of laughter before crawling out from under the table, toy cars in hand. He followed quickly and offered a hand to the three-year-old as they approached the stairs, remembering their mom telling him that the littlest brother had fallen on them earlier. Niall took it instantly and bolted up them as fast as his little legs could take them, dragging him behind as they went. At the top of the stairs, Liam could hear the bath running from their washroom,
"S'that for me?" He asked quietly, wrinkling his little nose at the prospect of a bath. Liam let out a huff of laughter and shrugged,
"I don't know, Ducky. Let's go see what Haz is up to." He decided, leading him to the room the three of them shared, noticing the light was on. Niall let go of his hand and trotted into the room, making a weird animal noise as he did so. Liam shook his head, puzzled by his antics. Once he followed him in, he found Niall was already curled up on Greg's lap alongside a disgruntled-looking Harry as he read Jack and The Beanstalk aloud. Liam's stepdad glanced up and smiled, closing the book,
"How about we finish this tomorrow?" Niall didn't seem like he was listening anyways, reaching a tiny hand up to Greg's face, poking at his stubble, while Harry was quick to scowl,
"Why can't we finish it tonight?"
"Because I'm tired," he replied, tossing in a fake yawn. Harry pressed his lips together, clearly unconvinced, but didn't argue any further, scooting towards his pillow and dragging his duvet up to his chin. Greg smiled and led Niall to his bed while Liam quickly swapped into his Star Wars pajamas, tossing his soiled clothes into the laundry hamper and jumping into his bed, scrambling under his blankets hurriedly before it was his turn to get tucked in. He watched as Greg carefully laid a couple of Niall's blankets over his tiny body and kissed him on the forehead, then he turned to Harry and did the same, and closed his eyes sleepily as Greg laid a kiss to his forehead. Then the light turned off, and as the door closed, Liam heard,
"Love you, boys." coming from their father figure. They all returned the phrase in a chorus, and he thought he might have heard Greg laugh from down the hall.
Liam smiled to himself, snuggling deeper into his blankets.
Everything was good.
The rest of the week passed by in a blur of normalcy, sunny afternoons, easy classwork, and the joyful laughs of his family during their hours together. Saturday rolled around, and Liam was the first of the brothers to wake up, sleepily rolling out of bed and tugging one of his pant legs down to cover his ankle with the opposite foot. Downstairs, he heard the clanging of dishes in the kitchen mixed with the sounds of sizzling bacon, and a smile made its way to his face as he wandered over to his seat at the table.
"You're up early, eh buddy?" Greg greeted pleasantly, glancing over from his cooking with his usual grin. Liam returned the gesture and nodded a couple of times, rubbing the sleep from his eyes,
"Guess so."
"I made bacon and eggs," Greg stated more formally, tilting his head towards the frying pans, "but I know how you and Niall hate them so I also happened to have made pancakes." Liam hadn't even noticed the plate of at least ten pancakes on the counter, and found himself beaming,
"Thanks, Greg!" His step-dad smiled once again, forking a couple of the pancakes onto a different plate and flooding them with maple syrup, adding some blueberries and raspberries as well before laying the dish in front of him,
"Don't sweat it, buddy." Liam made a face as his father figure tussled his hair affectionately, playfully scooting away from the contact. Liam glanced around the kitchen and caught himself frowning,
"Where's Mama at?" Greg sighed quietly before jerking his head in the direction of their bedroom,
"She's not feeling too well, wanted some extra rest." Liam's frown deepened but nodded along anyway, concern twisting his insides unpleasantly,
"Is she alright?"
"Of course, she is," Greg responded quickly, in a tone of utter reassurance, "She just needs some more sleep, is all."
Liam was unconvinced, but before he could badger the man with any more questions, Niall and Harry came storming down the stairs and into the kitchen,
"Good morning, Daddy!" Niall greeted, grabbing his father's leg and clinging to it tightly, causing him to stumble a bit, nearly dropping the plate in his hand,
"Good morning, bozo," He replied, attempting to shake the three-year-old off-to no avail, the blonde-haired boy only laughing at the action. Greg shook his head good-humoredly before setting his dish on the counter and picking Niall up, slinging him over his shoulder and gently placing him in a chair at the table, "How about we get you fed, Monkey?" Niall made a noise that Liam guessed was meant to sound like a monkey as his stepdad cut up Niall's pancake for him. Harry blinked sleepily as he watched the interaction, covering his mouth with his hand in an attempt to hide a yawn,
"Morning, Daddy," he greeted for himself, sitting down next to Liam. He stared at his brother for a moment, surprised. Harry had only called Greg 'Dad' or 'Daddy' a handful of times in his life and always corrected himself immediately. Then he looked at Greg, who seemed equally surprised,
"Mornin', Curly." Was all he said, dishing up some bacon and eggs for the middle child, but the corners of his mouth were quirked up in a way that made Liam aware that he was ecstatic by Harry referring to him as his dad. Liam's frown returned,
"You meant to say, 'Good morning, Greg,' didn't you?" Harry looked over, brows furrowing together in either confusion or annoyance or maybe even a combination of both,
"What?" Liam took in a sharp breath of his frustration,
"You just called Greg 'Daddy,' Haz. That was an accident, right?" And like magic, Greg cut in, stepping across the kitchen and laying the plate in front of the curly-haired boy,
"Liam, whether it was an accident or not, there's no reason to interrogate him. He's said nothing wrong." That succeeded in making Liam even more upset, frown morphing into an angry scowl,
"He did say something wrong. You're not his dad and you're not my dad either," he dropped his fork on his plate and glared at his step-dad, making sure he put all of the venom he could muster into his tone. He saw Greg's face flash with hurt momentarily, but he masked it quickly with a more stern expression,
"Liam, you're getting violent. Do you need to go back to bed?" Liam shoved his plate further onto the table and scooted his chair back as loudly and aggressively as he could, his frustration building up more than ever,
"I'm not a baby, so stop talking to me like I am." Greg looked like he was becoming frustrated as well, and Liam felt slightly satisfied by it. His step-dad took a deep breath and recollected his normal calm expression,
"I can't help talking to you like you're a baby if you act like one." Liam felt his eyes widen in surprise at the comeback. Instead of shooting something clever back at him, he let out an angry yell,
"I hate you." He didn't wait for a response, pushing the table as he ran out of the kitchen and back up the stairs, his glass of milk spilling on the table and rolling off before shattering on the hardwood floor. Greg called for him to come back, his tone anything but sympathetic, but to Liam's relief, didn't chase after him. However, his relief didn't last long as he figured out the reason quickly: Niall's cries exploded from the kitchen. He almost felt bad, but was still riled up so he just slammed their bedroom door and hid under his blankets. Moments passed before he heard the door open, and he prepared himself to start yelling again but was surprised to see Harry standing in the doorway instead of their stepdad. His younger brother had a very upset look drawn upon his childishly innocent face,
"You made Niall cry." He shrugged indifferently, sitting up higher on his bed,
"So what? S'not my fault he's a baby." Harry's scowl deepened, his tiny arms folded across his chest in a way that made him look far too little to be intimidating,
"He didn't do anything wrong," his younger brother paused, green eyes narrowing at him, "And I didn't either." Liam rolled his eyes, turning his head away from him before letting out a bitter laugh,
"Fine. Go downstairs and be with your dad then, alright Haz? Is that what you've been on about these last few days? You think he's your dad?" Harry's tough demeanor melted, and his eyes went glassy, tears about to spill over,
"He's the closest thing to a dad that I'll ever have, Liam. Real Dad didn't want me, and Greg did. That makes him good enough to be my dad, I think."
"Greg only wants Ni and Mama," Liam said sternly, "It's only a matter of time before he decides he doesn't want us anymore too. We don't need a dad because we have each other." Harry stamped his foot and his hands flew to his sides, little fists balled up angrily,
"That's not true." Liam took a deep breath and dragged his gaze away from his brother again,
"Whatever. Just-bug off."