"Hi, baby girl. Hi, Isabella."
Louis cradled Isabella in his arms, Isabella's wide brown eyes looking up at him in wonder.
After the whole extravaganza of celebration and nerves piling up with Zayn's and Liam's first child, they had gotten Isabella settled down enough that she was familiar with her surroundings and a lot, lot, lot less crying. They figured it was as good time as any to invite the two lads over considering Isabella was behaving and acting like an angel this past week. Harry and Louis though...weren't quite up to par yet.
Harry pinched his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger, inching closer and making a move to grab Isabella.
"Hold on, Harry, I just got her. She's with Uncle Tommo now," Louis scolded, his soft blue eyes clouding just by looking at Harry.
"Pal."
"Fine." Louis rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion and gave in to Harry's protests. "Careful, Harry. Gently," he warned as he tentatively placed Isabella in Harry's arms.
Whereas Louis was holding Isabella like she was fine china that costed a fortune, Harry was pressing her tightly to his chest, all snug and warm and tucked in. Louis tried not to think how good Harry looked with a baby wrapped to his chest.
"I got her. I got her," Harry sighed contently.
Louis' breathing regained into even, deep breaths that was until Harry fake dropped Isabella to the floor, his dimples deepening with mischief.
"Woah!"
"Harry."
Louis pinched the bridge of his nose, his other hand propping on his hip.
Jesus, Harry is this close to giving him a heart attack.
Harry outdid Louis' dramatic gesture with an innocent bat of his eyelashes, bright green eyes peeking through. Honestly, who the hell gave him the right to do hellish things and get away with it with one endearing look? It's fucking inconsiderate, is what it is.
Liam laughed right alongside Harry's breathy chuckles. Louis looked towards Zayn whose expression was mortified and worried. For once, Louis sided with Zayn on this.
"Babe." Exasperation hid in Zayn's voice, Zayn looking at Liam with pleading eyes.
Liam's giggles died down. He schooled his face into mock seriousness and tackled on the role of a responsible parent.
"Uh, yeah, you're right."
Louis had to give Liam credit for trying.
"She's fine," Harry shrugged them off and swung tiny, gurgling Isabella in his arms back and forth, a bit too forceful for anyone's liking. "She's like a little football."
"Will you stop it? Harry. Hazza! Stop it, seriously."
Louis threw his hands up in the air only to let them fall limp in his hair, tangles getting caught between the gaps of his fingers.
Louis didn't know when the roles were reversed. Naturally, he loved to take the piss out of people, always riling them up to get some sort of reaction out of them. It was amusing and he considered it his personal form of entertainment. Harry was way different in comparison. He was gentle with people, always ushering nice words and complimenting them just so he could see the bright smiles on their faces. With little kids, it was a whole other different story.
Louis loved humming to toddlers at night, helping them color on the walls and giving them encouraging words. Harry, on the other hand, loved playing with the kids. Not in an innocent way, no, he lived for shoving them while playing a hard fought game of football and not even giving them a chance to score. Harry was there hoisting children upside down and hiding with them in dangerously high places in a game of hide-and-go seek. He was mental with kids.
Now, with Harry smiling stupidly at Louis and Isabella drifting off to sleep, Louis couldn't find it within himself to take back Isabella. Louis didn't think he could even if he wanted to because Harry had a death grip on her.
*
Harry's finger wiggled back and forth on Isabella's pouted lips, Isabella gurgling a bubbling sound that was more endearing than not. Isabella then stayed quiet in her seat, touching her little toes and bobbing her head to the music that overflowed the inside of the Honda.
Liam was filming Louis and Harry with Isabella all huddled together in the backseat, Isabella's car seat snugly wedged between them. They had on a cringeworthy children's song playing on repeat and Louis was sure his ears were bleeding. Louis touched his earlobes just to make sure there wasn't any actual blood on his fingers. There wasn't, but that still didn't justify the reason why he had to endure a slow, painful death of listening to that song on loop it took during the one hour drive from Tesco.
"Cats have kittens. Doggies have pups. Horses have pretty foals and sheep have lambs. Cows have calves and I bet you didn't know that elephants have calves too!"
Zayn and Liam sang along to the song off-key as Liam shut off the camera and faced forward, Zayn smiling in a pleased little way and singing louder. Louis was not sure the song would have sounded good even with perfectly pitched riffs.
Harry smirked and looked over to Louis, who rubbed his hand on his face and groaned aloud. Louis pulled his cap lower on his face, hiding his embarrassment from being forced to listen to a song meant for babies and not grown-ups.
"Lions and leopards have cubs which is the proper name for them to do!"
The song continued to play inside the Honda and Louis wished he could jump out of the moving vehicle without warning. Louis was positively sure dying from a fall to the street would be less torturous than having to tolerate that horrid song.
The SUV finally pulled up to a halt and thankfully the song did too. All four men, and one cute baby, got out of the car as Zayn and Harry made their way into the house with boxes of baked goods while Liam and Louis stayed behind in the patio, opting to set up the tables and chairs instead.
Louis pulled up a chair and plopped himself down with Isabella, Liam offering him one arched eyebrow as he set out to do all the work by himself. His method of helping Liam was sitting down and supervising him work because, you know, safety precautions and all that. He was there to keep a watchful eye on him in case Liam got close to any suspicious, sharp objects. He was such a good friend honestly. Liam could thank him with a fruit basket at a later time.
Louis hoisted Isabella up into the air, an outburst of giggles escaping Isabella's blubbering mouth. She seemed to love the height so Louis lifted her higher, Isabella squealing in a half-open smile that could only be from pure thrill. Louis was also such a good uncle.
"Mate, she's gonna blow if you keep doing that. She's in a puking phase," Liam warned Louis.
Liam continued to set up the tables for Isabella's first birthday party that Zayn and he were hosting later that evening.
Louis thought it was a bit ridiculous to throw a party for a one-year-old much less a baby. He had argued that Isabella wasn't going to remember the expensive party or the fancy cake or the baby clothes she would soon outgrow. Liam had countered how Zayn and he wanted to make it a tradition. Celebrate every birthday no matter how young or old Isabella was, alongside celebrating the amount of years they stayed together as a family.
"Nah, she loves it." Louis sat Isabella down on his lap, pulling on the balloon strings that were lightly wrapped around her arm. "She loves it. Don't you, Bella?"
Louis wondered if Isabella could fly if he tied enough balloons to her small body. He might put it to the test later on and if deemed successful, try it out on Harry. It would be pretty facinating to see Harry fly.
"You're the only girl I'd shave for, you know that?"
Louis pressed three kisses in rapid succession on her baby soft cheeks, Isabella murmuring incoherent noises into his chest.
"Speaking of, why didn't Danielle come? I thought you guys were getting serious."
Liam reached for another table and unfolded it, smoothing his hands on top of the surface.
"Nah, we ended it a few weeks ago. It wasn't working out."
"What happened?"
Louis knew Liam was trying to pry him open about his feelings as per usual. You didn't have that kind of familiarity with your best mate of six years without noticing the first signs. Still, it was an unspoken game they played. Liam would slip in some noncommittal questions and Louis would either brush them off or answer them coolly. It worked for both of them.
"Oh, I don't know. I just didn't see us on a long march towards death together."
Sarcasm threatened to mock Liam, Louis bouncing Isabella up and down on his leg.
"Oh my bad, I thought you really liked this girl."
"No, that was you. I just thought she was hot."
Louis bopped Isabella on the nose, Liam pinning Louis with a bored expression. Zayn came out of the two open patio doors with his hands resting on his hips, his bottom lip jutting outwards in a pout.
"Babe, don't forget to tip the castle lads."
Zayn nudged his chin towards the two castle boys and trotted back inside. Liam's eyes traveled down Zayn's swaying hips and up his retreating back.
"They show up an hour late and made me do all the work. But, sure, let's tip the castle guys."
They approached the two foolish boys messing around and pushing each other, a steely expression playing on Liam's face and Louis, who remained impassive, carrying Isabella on his arm and hip.
Back inside the house, Harry was fixing the red velvet cupcakes to perfection, squeezing creole cream cheese frosting as a final touch while Zayn followed him trying to appear helpful. If Harry wanted somebody to stand around and do nothing, then he could have just called in Louis.
"So I started taking Isabella to this new family practice."
"Mm-hmm."
Harry rolled his eyes, continuing to plate the decorated cupcakes on a silver platter.
"There's this doctor there. He's so cute. I may have finally replaced my Leonardo Di Caprio crush."
Harry sighed and hip checked Zayn out of the way. He breathed noisily through his nostrils, his slender finger flicking off the creamy frosting and bringing said finger to his mouth for a quick taste. He hummed around his digit, the taste of tangy creole cream cheese melting on his warm tongue.
"Anyway, I noticed no ring...so I started a conversation with this nurse—"
And here it was. Once again, Zayn was trying to ease Harry into the whole, 'It's time to put yourself out there,' talk which wasn't much of a talk anyway. Zayn would mention a random name amidst conversation and Harry would simply roll his eyes at him as he would add how the bloke was nice and so forth. It had become a usual routine for them both and Harry was honestly getting tired of it. Harry was perfectly content in being single and instead being focused on his career without getting laid in the past six months. Yup. Perfectly content.
"No." Harry shook his head, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear. "No, no, no, no. We agreed to a moratorium on setups."
"You're not even listening to me. You might like him," Zayn protested, murmuring a sound of disapproval. "Why not?"
"Because you have the worst setup track record of anyone..." Harry shot Zayn an apathetic look, going to check on the gingerbread eggnog cocktails for the adults. "Ever."
"Like who?"
"The Shoplifter." Harry raised his eyebrows, circling Zayn to get to the other unattended pastries. "Adult Braces Bloke."
"Unbelievable. You are still holding that over me," Zayn bemoaned deliberately.
Zayn plucked out the rest of the creole creme cheese frosted cupcakes out of the bakery box.
"That's nothing. I'm not even gonna get into the Tommo Debacle Blind Date."
Harry fixed Zayn a quick glare, Zayn staring unblinkingly back at him.
"Well, that was Liam. I hardly even knew him then."
"You knew he called himself Tommo."
Harry smiled halfheartedly, pausing, the corners of his mouth quirking up at the faint memory.
Even if it was execrable at best, it was still a good story to tell at parties. Harry would go on and on about how Louis set chivalry back a thousand years and Louis would object, arguing, "Haz, you have high standards for someone who doesn't put out on the first date." The people gathered around them would laugh and Harry would playfully nudge Louis in the ribs. Banter was something they did regularly since it was all in good fun.
At first, Louis bickering with Harry twenty-four seven was a nuisance and then suddenly it was not. The days where Louis didn't make fun of Harry's colorful headscarves or twenty-six inch women jeans were strange. Louis had a way of making people crave his friendship even with all the sass, insults and attitude it came with.
Harry frowned, his voice tightening to add, "You're supposed to be my best friend and you can't be like those men who come into my shop and judge me because I don't wear an engagement band anymore."
"I'm not," Zayn's voice clipped, the line of his shoulders stretching into a taut bowstring.
Harry looked from Zayn's pressed lips to the way his muscles fluttered underneath bronze olive skin.
"In the meantime, you keep having gorgeous babies and I will keep spoiling them with this."
Harry brushed off Zayn's glare with a genuine smile, placing an edible duck to top off Isabella's resplendent cake.
"Seriously? This is way better than my wedding cake," Zayn's voice dripped in somber, Harry's humorless face looking at him.
"I made your wedding cake."
"It was a little dry," Zayn proclaimed bluntly, Harry huffing out a scoff.
Zayn remained serious until he broke, his face betraying him as he exhaled gentle laughter. Harry pulled in Zayn for a one arm hug, Zayn leaning in with his solid weight pressed against Harry. Complain all Zayn wanted, but the matter of the fact was that Isabella's cake turned out better than Harry expected. Harry knew he'd be the first one Zayn would call during any kind of baking fiasco although he would never admit it.
Outside, the two castle boys were giving Liam and Louis a few cystic safeguards about the inflatable bounce house.
"Don't let any fat grown-ups in while the kids are inside," one of the boys drawled out in a suspicious whisper, his friend behind him bursting into abrupt laughter.
"Have you boys been smoking marijuana?"
Liam peered into the boy's eyes and sure enough the whites of his eyes were replaced by unmistakable redness.
"That's illegal," the boy sniffed, looking down at his scuffed shoes to ignore Liam's unwavering stare.
"You're stoned. What are you holding? Let me see it." Liam extended his hand, wiggling his fingers for emphasis. "C'mon, you want me to call the cops?"
"Please don't." The boy fished out a small bag of illicit drugs and dropped the baggie in Liam's open palm. "My dad's a pastor."
"Ha!" Louis shook his head in amusement, mirth twinkling in his eyes.
Liam stared at the small bag in disbelief, raising his head to look into the boy's hazy eyes. He sucked in a sharp breath and exhaled heavily through his nose, putting on his best deep, intimidating voice. Louis stifled a throaty chuckle by pressing one closed fist to his mouth.
"Alright, I'm taking this. Next time, you guys are gonna be in big trouble," Liam warned, his chest puffing in and out. Louis looked seconds away from collapsing out of choked laughter. "Now go on and get out of here."
"That's—" the closest boy began to protest.
"Go on. Get out of here," Liam pressed.
"Get out of here!" Louis yelled, the two kids running away at the fluctuated pitch of his voice.
Once they were gone, Liam turned around to face Louis. Liam threw the bag in the air and caught it, clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth in a stern tsk.
"Totally unacceptable. Delivery kids, they all show up stoned out of their minds. Who needs a dealer?"
Liam shook the packaged illicit drugs with a smile playing on his lips before shoving the baggie into his back pocket for sake-keeping.
"Aren't you supposed to be respectable now?" Louis narrowed his eyes at Liam, carrying Isabella to the inflatable castle.
"Relax. Once a year...under the right circumstances...Zayn and I like to relive our missed spent youth."
"Once a year?" Louis widened his eyes at Liam, his curved eyebrow raising impishly.
"Yeah, once a year," Liam stuttered out the words in one quick breath, bringing his hands up defensively.
"Yeah, right."
"Yeah, well, I mean...maybe twice a year. Thrice." Liam squinted, cocking his head to the side like a dumb, confused puppy. "Frice?"
Louis stepped foot on the bounce house, testing its ability to bounce and trying it out for himself with Isabella wrapped in his arms. He began jumping around, Isabella's words sounding bubbly and unintelligent.
"Tommo, do not bounce her too much."
"She's fine! Look, she loves it."
Louis raised Isabella high in the sky, Isabella's laughing face brighter than the sun.
"Tommo, I'm warning you."
Liam's voice edged towards firm, Louis ignoring him and continuing to jump up with Isabella tucked in his arms.
"Ah, c'mon, she's fine—" At that exact moment, Isabella chose to splutter milk all over Louis' face, Louis groaning with his mouth open. "Oh my God!" Louis spat out the milk that snuck into his mouth, wiping his face clean on his shoulder while Isabella laughed at him.
"Oh my God."
Back inside, Louis cupped his hands with water and scrubbed his face. He rinsed his mouth and spat in the sink again, cleaning off Isabella's mess on his shirt with a wet flannel.
"Don't worry, Isabella, you're not the first girl to throw up on Uncle Tommo."
Harry hugged Isabella to his chest, smirking at Louis whose shirt was drenched with the last remnants of baby puke.
"Hey, Isabella, look. Look! That's what bitter looks like."
Louis pointed to Harry's smiling face with a prominent scowl, continuing to dry his face with a paper towel.
"Tommo, go up to Liam's closet and grab something before everyone gets here," Zayn said amusedly as he filled four glasses with fruity mimosa.
"Why? What time s'it?"
"It's eleven. Though it's only ten in Tommo Time. Now I'm surprised you're even up right now," Harry teased, cooing at Isabella and tilting his face to take a good look at Louis.
Louis was such a picture. His eyes were squinted in that infamous Tommo way, his shirt soaked in baby spew. A flush crept up his neck and cheeks, Louis biting the inside of his lower lip and crossing his arms against his chest. Harry wanted to take a photograph of Louis and frame it in his flat.
Beautiful? Not quite. Hilarious? Absolutely.
"You keep your watch on during sex, don't you?" Louis growled, resting his fists on the kitchen island, a clear challenge ablaze in his narrowed baby blue eyes. He scrunched his bitten lips in thought before continuing. "Do you even have sex? Wait. Who am I kidding? Of course you don't have sex."
"Well, at least I don't wear my baseball cap everywhere. You know you can take it off now, Tommo, we all know about the receding hair line," Harry whispered like a secret, stifling a victorious grin.
"It's a widow's peak," Louis hissed through gritted teeth, his cheeks pink, obviously affected.
Harry knew a won battle when he saw one.
"Hey," Zayn interrupted, nearing closer to Louis who poked his tongue out at Harry.
Wow. What a mature adult.
"I don't have a receding hairline, okay?"
"Hey. Baby's birthday. Neutral corners. Mutual grown-ups take a glass."
Zayn handed Louis a glass of mimosa and knocked his cap off before reuniting with Liam at the other side of the kitchen island, both men facing Louis and Harry.
"First birthday, you can take your hat off for pictures."
"There it is."
Harry pointed to Louis' hairline as Louis self-consciously covered his forehead with his hands.
"Before everyone gets here, we wanted to give a toast to Isabella's two favorite people," Zayn said happily, slipping his hand to Liam's lower back.
Louis eyed them, making his way towards where Harry was sitting with Isabella in his lap. Harry looked up at Louis and shrugged, grabbing ahold of his own glass along to their friends' toast.
"And to our best friends. We made it through her first year with most of our sanity thanks to you lot," Liam finished saying, raising his glass as Zayn mirrored his movements. "We love you boys."
Louis and Harry raised their glasses before drinking them empty. Louis scrunched his lips to the side until he glanced at Zayn's face. He squinted his eyes at what seemed like a teary-eyed Zayn.
"Are you crying?"
"Mothers cry," Zayn said at the same time the doorbell rang. "Thank God, the babysitter's here."
"Why do you need a baby sitter? You're both here." Harry knitted his eyebrows together, gently bouncing Isabella on his lap.
"'Cause he's a genius. When Bella goes nuclear he's the only one who knows how to calm her down. We call him The Baby Whisperer."
Zayn turned around and headed towards the front door, his shined shoes clicking on the polished floors.
"Ooh, The Baby Whisperer, huh?" Harry hummed, his eyes crinkling from amusement.
"Hey. Is he hot?" Louis asked, narrowing his eyes and licking his lips in anticipation.
"Totally hot," Liam said with a wink and a short nod.
"What's wrong with you?"
Harry's ears burned hotly, frowning at Louis and shaking his head in usual disapproval.
"Hey, everybody. This is Mathew."
And oh Mathew was young.
Zayn walked back into the kitchen with what appeared to be like a thirteen-year-old beside him. Louis' jaw dropped, his body going pliant as Zayn and Mathew approached the group.
"Hello, Mathew," Harry whispered smugly, his left dimple poking out.
Louis stood motionless as Mathew came closer, his face twisting into a grimace and stepping back discretely a few feet away.
God, he's being ridiculous.
"Hi, Bella." Mathew picked up Isabella in both arms and started walking in the direction of her room. "Let's go get you changed, hmm?"
"Thank you," Zayn uttered gratefully, Louis still gawking after Mathew.
"Are you serious?" Harry chuckled once Mathew was out of earshot. His deep, raspy voice rumbled to say, "That's The Baby Whisperer?"
"Really, if he was old enough to have sex with Liam I'd be obsolete," Zayn breathed out on a quiet laugh, one hand settling on his hip.
"You'd never be obsolete, babe. C'mere."
Liam pulled Zayn into his muscular arms and enveloped him in a tight embrace. Liam leaned close to press a soft kiss to Zayn's puckered lips.
Harry stared at them in what could only be admiration. Being around Zayn and Liam only encouraged him to have his own epic romance going on. Harry didn't even remember the last time he had a proper date without recalling the mess of the Tommo Debacle Blind Date. Has it really been that long ago? Jesus, he really does need to get back out there.
Harry slowly shook away his thoughts, wrinkling his nose when Louis inched closer.
"Oh my God. Can you step away? You reek of baby puke."
"Oh, really?"
Louis bit his bottom lip, his smile widening into a wolfish grin. He came close behind Harry and attempted to brush himself on Harry's back, his shirt still sticky and clinging to his wet skin.
"You do. Get away from me!"
Throaty chuckles escaped Harry's mouth, Harry pushing Louis away until Louis gave up and skidded across the floors like the child he truly was.
Hours after a few banters, talking to the neighbors and making sure everybody had their glasses full and plates filled with food, Louis and Harry found themselves singing happy birthday to a more than joyous Isabella bouncing in her seat.
There was cake frosting smeared on jeans, clothes that reeked of spilled drinks, fingers sticky-sweet from accidentally touching wet surfaces and Louis didn't know when he let his life get this much out of control. Louis knew his life would drastically change once Liam and Zayn married and adopted Isabella. He had even been a tiny bit skeptical for trading his blacked out nights over baby birthday parties. But when he sat down and really thought about it, he couldn't find a reason to complain when it filled the empty spaces in his life. With Isabella, Liam, Zayn and even Harry to some extent, Louis could get used to it.
"Happy birthday dear Isabella, happy birthday to you!"
Zayn leaned down and blew out the lit candles, lightly pinching Isabella's cheek and moving back so Liam could continue filming her for their home movies.
"Guys, c'mon. I want a picture of Isabella with her godparents."
Liam ushered Louis and Harry to heel next to Isabella which they couldn't object.
Who can ever deny taking a picture with the cutest baby in the world?
"Okay."
Harry bent down and smiled wide, Louis' arm coming up to hug Harry's shoulder solely for photographic purposes of course.
"Alright, on three, say, "Tommo has a widow's peak!""
Liam smiled at them through the camera, Zayn laughing loudly beside him and hanging off his shoulder.
"One, two, cheese!"
The shutter went off, Isabella hitting Harry's face with her toy duck.
"Oops," Harry said lowly, his eyes squinting almost completely shut from his goofy smile.
Louis dropped his arm to his side. Louis and Harry shared a smile, smiles that were hardly shared between them on rare occasions such as Isabella's first birthday.
Even with Isabella bringing fistfuls of cake to her mouth, even with noisy people filling up the room and moving past them, even with Zayn raising one surprised eyebrow at their motionless bodies, Louis couldn't tear his eyes away from Harry.
Harry's bottom lip tucked into his mouth, reappearing with a coat of saliva. Then Louis did look away.
Louis didn't remember how or when things changed, but all that time spent fighting with Harry suddenly felt closer to home than it ever did in years.
And, yeah, he can definitely get used to this.