Zayn: 14 years old
Niall: 16 years old
Liam: 18 years old
"Dad he's fourteen, I don't think-" Liam starts only to get cut off.
"This is his first Christmas and I'm going to make it one to remember," Louis states with a somewhat glare before turning back towards the tree to lay out another present.
Let me catch you up a bit. At the moment it is currently 5:30 AM Christmas morning and Louis has brought it upon himself to catch Zayn up on thirteen missed Christmases in one day. He decided that the whole Christmas tradition that had died down in the household many years ago was to brought back once again just to bring a smile upon the raven haired boy.
Louis had already eaten the cookies as well as glass of milk, had Liam eat the carrots for the reindeers, and finally the only thing left to do was arrange all the presents. Harry, Niall, and Liam were watching on in amusement as the blue eyed man jumped around the room as silent but efficient as he could in order to leave a trail of footprints towards the fireplace.
"So is this how it was when me and Liam still believed in Santa?" Niall asks Harry and the man can only nod with a laugh.
"Pretty much, sometimes there was a bit of hitting cause I would start moving the presents," Harry said.
"Don't you dare think about moving this stuff!" Louis was quick to exclaim before pulling out a pad of paper. "Okay so when Zayn wakes up we'll do presents and hot coco. Then we're gonna go down to the little Christmas park down the street to take a picture with Santa, and from there we're having a brunch at the house with all the family and friends. And I was thinking we can host the snowman building contest again or even do the snowball fight we used to do. And maybe even-"
"Louis breathe!" Harry said with a laugh. "Everything is gonna be fine, but let's let it just happen. We've never been one for plans, remember?"
"Yeah and I don't think Zayn's gonna want a photo with Santa. It's a bit weird, dad," Niall threw in.
"All of you can stop being grinches and just let me live! This is going to be the best Christmas ever."
+
"This is the worst Christmas ever," Liam whines.
"The power will be back on any minute," Louis says as he continues to light candles around the house.
"How is anyone gonna get here? The streets have too much snow, there's no way anyone can drive here," Niall pointed out.
"No one's canceled yet, so all you can do is think-" And then Louis was cut off by his as well as Harry's phone ringing.
The two men excuse themselves to answer the calls, and Niall and Liam can practically see the hope on their father's face drop. A few I understand's and it's fine's were exchanged before Louis as well as Harry hung up the phones and turned to one another.
"My mum and Gemma can't get down here. There's too much snow," Harry said with a frown.
"Same with my mum and sisters. The highway is shut down for precautions," Louis said as he sat back down on the couch and groaned into his hands in frustration. "Why does everything always have to turn to shit for him?"
"To who?" A sleepy Zayn asks as he enters the family room while rubbing the sleep from one eye all while dressed only in a pair of boxers and one of Liam's big t-shirts.
Upon seeing the boy enter the room Louis immediately perked himself up and stood up from his seat before striding over to the boy to give him a hug.
"Good morning, baby, Merry Christmas. D'you have a good sleep?" Louis cooed as he kissed the boy's forehead.
"Merry Christmas, what's with the candles?" Zayn asks, avoiding the question about his sleep.
"Power's out cause of the snowstorm," Harry says as he grabs the boy by the waist and pulls him back towards himself. "Now how'd you sleep?" The man pushes, not liking the fact that Zayn was trying to avoid that again.
In return, though, Zayn kinda just puts his head in the crook of Harry's neck and whines a bit because he hates talking about his nightmares/sleeping problems when he's in front of Niall and Liam. Harry nods to himself a bit and kisses the boy's temple before telling him they'll talk about it later.
"Alright, well, it's present time now! And look, Zaynie, I think Santa stopped by. He ate all the cookies and carrots," Louis said in a coo like voice that had Zayn looking at the man as if he were crazy.
"Just go with it," Harry whispers into his ear, and Zayn nods as he gets up from the man's lap only to have Louis grab ahold of his hand.
"C'mon let's follow the footprints," Louis said as he grabbed Niall's hand as well and gestured for Liam to follow.
The four followed the flour made footprints that were left around the house as Harry filmed and took photos of the lot of them. Prior to arriving at where the gifts are the footsteps make a pitstop at the laundry room where inside were three sets of pajamas, all labeled with a name.
"Dad, seriously?" Liam asks with a raised brow as he lifted the set with his name on it.
Liam's weren't too bad, they were simply flannel bottoms with a Santa Claus shirt. Niall's were a bit more childish, red loose bottoms with snowmen on them and a one tshirt with Frosty on it. But then they got to Zayn's and Liam genuinely felt bad for the boy because this time Louis went too far.
"Oh, um, thank you," Zayn said while rubbing his neck as he held up the Elf on a Shelf resembled pajama set.
"Dad you didn't."
"Dad you can't," Niall and Liam both say at the same time as they see Zayn looking at them as if they were from another planet.
"They're cute and you're all going to wear them for the photos," Louis said as he pulled out a pair for both him and Harry as well.
Once everyone was dressed and ready in their pajamas, Louis continued to force the boys onto the flour footprint path before they finally arrived in the room where all the presents were sorted out into colors. Liam's were red, Niall green, and Zayn silver while Harry and Louis had miscellaneous christmas themed wrapping papers.
Louis as well as Harry immediately began to snap a few photos of the boys before allowing them to begin opening their gifts which Liam and Niall all but jumped at. The two older ones were quick to start with the smaller gifts, always appreciating to save the bigger ones for last cause those typically had the best presents in them. However, as the two adults stood watching their sons open gifts, they quickly noticed Zayn's presents had been left untouched.
"Zee, go open your presents, babe," Harry encouraged but Zayn just continued to stare at the large pile in awe.
Harry was about to walk over to the boy to show him it was alright to take the gifts when Zayn turned around and began to hug both Louis and Harry as tears streamed from his face. The boy was practically bawling as he mumbled out incoherent words, but eventually the older lads were able to make out the words thank you.
"Shh, baby, it's okay. You deserve all of this and more, and we just want you to have the best Christmas out there," Louis cooed as he took a break from recording the lot to console his now youngest son.
It took a few more minutes but finally Zayn managed to stop his tears and walk over to his gifts where Liam gave him a sympathetic smile and handed him one of the gifts. From there the boys managed to finish opening up all their gifts just a bit after Louis' designated time frame due to Zayn hugging Louis and Harry after each gift...even though Louis kept stating Santa brought them not us.
"Alright time to go to the Christmas park to get out picture with Santa!" Louis said as he clasped his hands shut, to which all the boys looked at him as if he were crazy.
"Babe, I don't think Santa was able to get to the park let alone anyone else," Harry said with a sympathetic look.
"But-but Zayn needs his first picture with Santa. You can't have a proper Christmas experience without at least one photo with a faux Santa!"
Harry was going to reply, however, he's cut off by a small voice.
"Um, actually Louis I already have a picture with Santa," Zayn says sheepishly before excusing himself up to his room only to appear back downstairs a few minutes later. "I was four and you had me play Tiny Tim in your school production. Harry was Santa and he gave me my stuffed toy, ZigZag. It's one of my favorite memories."
As Zayn hands the photo over to Louis and Harry, the blue eyed man can't help but look at the photo in awe because this just goes to show how long the boy has been in their lives without them noticing. All the while with Louis looking at the photo, Harry seemed to have gotten an idea and was quick to run up to his and Louis' room and rummage through the closet before finding exactly what he was looking for. Ten minutes later and the man is reemerging downstairs clad in the red suit, pillow under his jacket, as well as white hair and beard.
"Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!" Harry said in his jolliest voice as this time Liam and Niall pulled out their phones to take videos for instagram, twitter, and snapchat. "I heard we have a few people who need to get their photo with Santa Claus renewed."
And to that Zayn can only laugh because he can practically remember the first time as if it were yesterday. Harry sat himself in the most decorated area of the house before calling Zayn over to sit on his lap where Louis then snapped the photo before making Louis and Niall join for one, and then himself for a final photo.
Once they finish up the photos Louis decides it's best to not let the food go to a waste so he simply serves each of them a good sized plate while Harry sets up a fire. The family eats and talks about everything an anything all while making sure to joke about how crazy Louis went over the holiday. Eventually though everyone finished their food, so the two older sons brought it upon themselves to suggest a snowball fight.
"I want warm clothes on all of you though, especially you Zayn!" Louis said as the boys ran upstairs to change only to emerge back downstairs a few minutes later.
So the boys run outside clad in practically full ski apparel before each claiming their own territory and began to build a small fort around themselves as well as their ammo. And within ten minutes the front yard turned into World War III practically. Each of the boys kept switching alliances and targeting one brother, and to the surprise of everyone in the house when it Zayn being targeted they heard a voice calling out for the lot.
"I know you didn't start this battle without us!" Ashton screamed as he jumped from his car and ran over to where Zayn was beginning to be pelted with snowballs. "I got your back, Zee!"
And then Ashton was throwing snowball after snowball at the two older boys along with the other three band members.
"No fair, we're outnumbered!" Niall shouted out with a laugh.
"Every man for himself!" Michael yelled out as he began to chase down Harry and Louis as well.
For the next hour more people who were originally intended on attending the brunch began to arrive and join in on the battle until all the kids were practically drenched from all the snow that had been tossed onto them.
"Alright let's go inside everyone! We have a fire going and we managed to start the gas-top stove to make some tea and heat up some of the soup," Louis called and slowly but surely everyone began to make their way inside.
The three boys changed from their damp clothes as the joined the lot downstairs where everyone was cuddled on the couches with blankets and tea mugs while talking about how much fun it was to play in the snow. So as Liam and Niall sit down with the 5SOS lads, Zayn finds himself walking into the kitchen to help Louis with anything only to immediately hug the man when he saw him walking towards him.
"What's this for, kiddo?" Louis coos as he kisses the top of Zayn's wet head.
"Just a thank you. For everything, really. This was the best day of my life so far, I think," Zayn says with such a genuine look that Louis practically feels his heart burst. "I love you, Louis."
"I love you, too, baby, I love you so much."
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A/N: Merry Belated Christmas from where I am at the moment/Happy Belated Birthday Louis! Hope everyone's having an amazing holiday season :)
DB