It had been three weeks since Zayn got out of the hospital and he was now back in school. Recently Liam had been working everyday almost all day, leaving Louis alone with Harry and Niall, seeing as most of the time Marcel and Zayn were gone. Harry was hard to handle by himself and with Niall there too, Louis was about ready to pull all his hair out. Niall was teething again and he was fussy all the time and Harry still had a broken arm and he was using it against Louis. Whenever he got mad he'd bang his cast against a wall or table trying to cause himself more harm which was something new for Harry and it worried Louis. Louis was currently trying to calm Harry who was throwing a tantrum and biting himself so hard that he broke the skin and he was bleeding. Louis finally gripped Harry so he couldn't move and Harry slowly calmed down. Harry was regressing for some reason. He had been meeting with his therapist Caspar, Joe's husband, weekly but he was only showing signs of a downward spiral and no one knew what to do. Niall was in the corner crying which is what Louis also felt like doing right now. The phone rang and Louis answered it while still holding Harry.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Paylinson? This is Nick Grimshaw, Zayn's maths teacher."
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah everything is great, parent teacher conferences are coming up and I'm just making sure that you're still coming for your scheduled time tomorrow at 3?"
"Yes I'll be there. Thank you for calling Nick."
Louis hung up and saw that Harry had fallen asleep so he took him upstairs and put him to bed and then picked up Niall and gave him a dummy that had been in the freezer to help him soothe his gums. Louis looked at the clock and sighed. Liam should have been home an hour ago. Speaking of Liam, he walked in the house of that exact moment.
"Liam where were you?! You should have been home an hour ago!! I've been struggling with these kids all day and I'm exhausted and frustrated and I needed you!"
"Babe I'm sorry but I had an important meeting with Simon and he offered me head of another record company he's starting and I'll be gone multiple weeks at a time but it has great pay, I'll be making about 2 million a year so I took it."
"....you took it?"
"Why wouldn't I? They pay raise is significant and it's an opportunity for me to finally do what I've also wanted to do."
"Liam I'm happy for you but why didn't you talk to me first? It's hard for me as it is handling Harry and Niall for the hours that you're gone but weeks?! I can't do that. We don't even need the money Liam, you're already making 1.5 million a year and we don't even use three quarters of it. You know I don't want the kids living in luxury that's why we live in this decent house in a family neighborhood, it's why we drive a mini van and a small Honda. Liam I need you here."
"I already said yes, I'll hire a nanny to help you out." Louis looked away as a tear slipped out.
"If I wanted a nanny helping me raise my kids I would have married one." He said quietly as he went upstairs into their room and locked the door. Liam sighed but just went to the family room and switched on the telly.
Louis was sitting in Mr. Grimshaw's room. He had been waiting for Liam, who promised he'd be here, for the past thirty minutes.
"I'm sorry Nick, he said he was coming."
"It's alright, let's get started. Anyway I decided to kill two birds with one stone so you don't have to come back. Both Zayn and Marcel are great to have in class, they always do their homework and never get in trouble, they're very polite as well. There is one big difference between them though. Marcel turns the homework in correctly done, Zayn's on the other hand doesn't even remotely make sense. At first I thought maybe he was just being lazy with his homework because that's how outrageous the answers are but I sat him down and gave him a test and asked him to show the work and....well I should probably show you." Mr. Grimshaw pulled a test out with Zayn's name on it and handed it to Louis. Louis looked over the first problem.
25+(25-10)+ 25x8=?
He saw that Zayn just added all the numbers together.
"Mr. Paylinson, this is simple maths and it's only going to get harder from here. He has time to raise his mark which is currently a C and it's only that high due to the fact that I give credit for doing homework, right or wrong. I highly suggest getting him a tutor, maybe Marcel could do it."
"Thank you so much Nick, I'll definitely talk to both of them about it." Louis shook his hand and drove home as quickly as he could because even though both Marcel and Zayn were watching the boys he was still afraid it was too much for them to handle.
Later that night when Liam got home, Louis was fuming.
"You know you missed the parent teacher conference today even though you promised you'd be there!"
"Well I had more important things to do at work."
Louis scoffed at him.
"Nothing should be more important that your family. You know what, if you're acting like this I'm glad you didn't go."
"Why? So you could cheat on me with Zayn's teacher?!"
"I would never cheat on you but if that's how low you think of me then maybe I should have!"
Before he could even register what he was doing Liam reached out and slapped Louis across the face, hard.
"Shit Lou I..." Louis cut him off by shaking his head as tears welled up in his eyes.
"Fuck you Liam!" Louis took off his wedding ring and threw it at Liam before throwing his clothes into a bag and then going into the kids' rooms and doing the same. He carried a still sleeping Niall and Harry out into the car then woke up Marcel and Zayn and told them he already had their stuff and to just get in the car and he'd explain later. After they were all in the car Louis went back in and grabbed a few other things the boys would need.
"Lou what are you doing? Babe i'm so sorry."
"Save it Liam. I'm leaving with the kids, you don't have time for us anyway. Hope you enjoy your new job." And with that he left.
When he got in the car, Zayn spoke up right away.
"Papa where are we going, and what happened to your cheek?"
Louis looked in the mirror seeing a bruise forming on his cheek already. He let a tear fall but quickly wiped it away.
"Your father and I just got into a small argument but everything will be okay, we're going to stay with Grandma Karen and Grandpa Geoff for a bit." Louis was always extremely close with Liam's parents and this wasn't the first time he went to them after a fight with Liam. His mum lived too far to drive to.
Louis wiped a few more tears that threatened to fall and continued driving towards the Payne residence in complete silence.
"Louis love what's wrong?" Karen said after all the kids had gone upstairs. Louis just broke down sobbing, telling her everything except the part where Liam had hit him but of course it didn't go unnoticed. She saw his cheek and gasped.
"Did he hit you?!" Louis just let out another sob and nodded. Karen got up and told Louis she'd be right back. She handed Louis a cuppa and grabbed her phone and went into her bedroom, closing the door.
"LIAM JAMES PAYNE! You have A LOT of explaining to do. Your father and I raised you to never hit anyone out of anger, woman or not, but you go and hit your own husband?!! What the hell is your problem?!" She heard Liam sobbing on the other end but she didn't feel bad for him.
"M-mum I don't know I j-just, I w-want him back." He took a second to compose himself.
"We've never fought this badly before and he even took off his wedding ring and threw it at me, I deserve it but I'm so selfish that I just need him back. I love him and I'm so sorry."
"I'm not the one you need to apologize to, I'm keeping him for a few days but you better hope he takes your sorry ass back." She hung up on him an went back to comfort Louis and to tend to the bruise on his cheek.
Three days later and Louis was back on his way home. He was alone though, Karen and Geoff forced Louis to let the kids stay two extra days so he wouldn't have to worry about them and could just focus on Liam. Louis eventually gratefully accepted.
" Lou? I-is that you?" Liam shyly stepped out of the bedroom, he had visibly lost weight and his eyes were bright red from crying and had bags under them as if he hadn't slept in days. Louis just stood there, looking at him. Liam came closer and hugged Louis who slightly flinched at the contact so Liam pulled away and backed up.
"O-oh god, y-you're scared of me now...I-i'm such a horrible person oh my god Louis I'm so sorry I love you so much and I can't ever lose you, I need you. I can't believe I hit you, I feel like the lowest level of rubbish because of that, I'll never do it again I swear. You and the boys are the best things that ever happened to me. You were right, I'm not home enough and that'll change starting now. I told Simon I changed my mind about the job offer and that I needed a set schedule for my current job so I could be home for at least awhile during the day to help with Niall and Harry and I just hope you forgive me because I don't know what to do withou-"
Louis cut him off by kissing him. He grabbed his wedding ring which was on Liam's finger and slid it back on.
"I forgive you Li....I love you too much to leave you. Thank you for giving up your job to help me."
"You're worth it Lou, I'd do anything for you."
Thank you to @Smol_bean_Louis for this prompt. What do you guys think about the arguments between Liam and Louis? Who do you think was right? Thank you for all the reads,votes,and comment. <3 I have a few prompts lined up but keep commenting more :)