Words: 3,235
Louis was having one of those days. One of those god awful days where he just wanted to lock himself in the bathroom and cry about it because the day just never seemed to end. But he couldn't do that because it was just the start of his day at work, and he had a long 6 hours ahead of him in the office.
Honestly, he woke up that day thinking it was going to be a good day. His lovely husband, Harry, was being wonderful this morning, (even more wonderful than he usually is) he made the bed for once; he also made waffles for breakfast which were Louis' favorite, and took care of their son, Tommy, when he started to cry that morning. So when he gave Harry a kiss on the way out that morning and said, "I love you," to which Harry responded back, "I love you more," he thought that maybe for once it wouldn't be that bad of a day. Of course all of that changed when his co-workers decided to dump a part, or most of, their work on Louis to do since he still has to make up for the time he took off to have Tommy and raise him for a bit. His stress levels throughout the day steadily increased as work piled up one stack after another atop his desk.
And along with all of that work, someone ended up spilling their coffee down the front of his shirt which he would have to clean later. He tried his best not to punch his fellow co-worker square in the face by gritting his teeth together in a tight smile and holding his fists down by his side. The worker started to apologize but at this point he really couldn't give a fuck to listen to them, so he just said, "It’s fine," in the annoyed tone that he completely meant to slip out.
He could finally start counting down the minutes and the seconds as his work-day from hell came to its slow and painful close around 5. The drive home just added itself onto the top of his 'Day full of shit list' considering he was now stuck in traffic. Currently in gridlock, he put his head down on the steering wheel, closed his eyes, and took some deep breaths. He's decided that when he got home he would take a shower, get in bed and go to sleep as soon as possible to put this day behind him. But little does he know, at home Harry and Tommy were planning something else.
Harry had their son on the couch and was kneeling on the floor in front of him so that they were face to face. "Okay Tommy, when I talked to daddy earlier at work he didn't sound too happy. How about we cheer him up when he gets home, yeah?" Harry asked him.
"Yeah!" Tommy agreed clearly excited to which Harry smiled at.
"But papa," Tommy said with a concerned face.
"What is it bud?" Harry asked while poking his tummy earning himself a small giggle.
"How are we gonna make daddy happy?" Tommy questioned.
"Well bud, daddy loves nerf guns and I just happened to buy a couple of new ones just for us. One with your name on it and one with mine," he said and pulled the two nerf guns out of a bag from under the coffee table near the books.
Harry smiled to himself since he hid them in the most obvious place and they weren't found by Louis. But, he knew that Louis didn't read much so it was essentially the most perfect place to hide them for the past weekend.
"So, we're going to hide before he gets home, then when he walks through the door, we shoot him." Harry said.
He chuckled as he already saw Tommy testing out the nerf gun by making noises and aiming it in different places. Tommy aimed it at Harry's head with a smile and fired it straight at his forehead. Harry dramatically fell on the floor with the back of his right hand over his "gunshot" and sprawled his body in a way that made him look like a damsel in distress from a movie. He closed his eyes and tried to say without laughing, "I've been shot! Oh god this is it. Tell Tommy," he looked up at his son for dramatic effect before falling back to the ground, "I love him!" He stuck out his tongue and laid there for a few seconds before he felt a weight on his upper chest.
He peeked his eye open and saw Tommy sitting on him with a grin and the nerf in his hand, "Nice try papa but I saw you breathing," he stated matter-of-factly while aiming to take another shot.
"Woah, woah! I surrender. How about we save those for the real surprise, yeah?" Harry said while putting his hands up feigning innocence.
"Okay," Tommy said. Harry heard a car pulling into their driveway and the sound of the engine being cut.
"Just like we planned okay? Let's go hide behind the couch and when I say go we're going to jump and start to shoot. You ready?" Harry asked as he grabbed his nerf gun too as they hurried behind the couch.
"Ready!" Tommy whispered already aiming it for the door.
Louis outside was grabbing his bag for work from the back seat and ended up closing the door on his sleeve. Apparently god just didn't have anything better to do than to ruin Louis' day today so he added this to make it worse. Louis opened the door and let his sleeve loose to find a thread that was stuck on the inside that was slowly pulling the sleeve apart. "God dammit can this day get any fucking worse," he muttered realizing that he should just throw the shirt away since he would also have to clean the coffee out of it as well as repair the now destroyed thread of his sleeve.
He sighed as he opened the door, walked through it and heard, "Now!"
He was then bombarded by a bunch of foamy darts all around him some hitting him in the face, some in the eyes, but most of them hitting him all over his body. All the while this happening, he just stood there fuming because this was just the cherry on top of the best fucking day of his life. "Hold your fire," Harry said putting his hand up giggling with Tommy also by his side giggling.
"Harry. Do you think this is some kind of funny joke?" Louis spit out with venom present in every word.
Harry calmed down his giggling before answering, "Well of course it is, Lou, wasn't it fun?"
"Harry. I probably just had the worst fucking day of my life! And you think that this is all for fun?" Louis said his voice raising.
Harry said, "But Lou-"
"No Harry!" Louis cut him off.
"All I wanted to do when I got home from this shit day was take a shower and go to bed but do I ever get what I want? No! Instead I come home to you being an idiot and just plain making a mess in our home that I will most definitely not clean up later. This was the worst fucking thing you could've done for me. You knew that I wasn't having a good day yet you still do it to top off this shit day of mine sent from hell itself and-" Louis stopped short when he noticed his son hiding behind Harry's leg who sniffled quietly.
"Tommy?" Louis said softly as if his whole mood changed with that one sniffle.
Harry tore the upset gaze he had upon Louis to turn around and pick Tommy up and place him on his hip. "Tommy, it's okay what's wrong bud?" Harry said quietly but only was faced with Tommy quietly crying and hiding into his shoulder.
"Tommy, I-I didn't mean-" "Save it, Louis. Just because you had a bad day doesn't mean you need to take that home with you and take it out on us. Was it that worth it to make our son cry?" Harry said looking into Louis' eyes again with an angry look but visible tears in his own eyes.
He turned away with their son and headed up to their room. But not before Louis swore he heard Harry whisper, "Asshole," under his breath.
Louis sighed and ran his hands over his face feeling terrible with himself. He dropped his stuff on the couch and saw the nerf guns that they dropped when he started to yell. He picked them up smiling sadly noticing that they each had their own names on them. He saw an open plastic bag under the coffee table and picked up the box inside of it. He sighed deeply when he saw that Harry got one for him too that said 'Chop Suey' engraved on it. He smiled and laughed to himself as he remembered that one interview where Harry said that his favorite part of Louis, or Chop Suey--since all the guys were making different names for each other-- were his eyelashes and that was something Louis never forgot. He went to the kitchen and started to make tea while saying to himself, "God, I'm such a fuck up."
Upstairs, Harry brought Tommy into their room trying to calm him down. He had him in the middle of the bed and Harry lying next to him holding him in his arms. "Shh, Tommy it's okay it's alright daddy didn't mean any of it. He loves us very, very much and he just di-didn't have a good day and he was just angry..." he himself couldn't help but let a tear slip out because even he knows that when Louis got angry he would never yell at them.
Not only Tommy since he was just a child, but Harry too because the last time Louis yelled like that was in a heated argument that ended in Harry's heart being broken and a cold, empty bed to sleep in for a week. That was the biggest fight they've ever had and Harry has never felt more pain in his life than he did then. This memory made Harry tear up even more to the point where the tears began to run down his face in an almost constant stream. He wiped then away quickly and pulled Tommy in close stroking his hair. "Papa, what i-if daddy doesn't love us any-anymore?" Tommy asked quietly.
"Never bud, daddy loves us so much and he loves us more and more each day so don't ever ask me that question again, okay?" Harry assured him.
"Okay," Tommy said nuzzling his small head into Harry's chest.
"Go to sleep love and when you wake up tomorrow I promise that everything will be just fine. I love you," Harry whispered kissing the top of his head and continued to stroke his hair
Tommy's breathing seemed to slow down after a while with only a few hiccups from his past crying. Harry may have been able to calm their son down but that didn't help his situation considering the tears were still falling. He wiped his face and took a few breaths to try and calm himself down. He didn't know if he was right or not about everything being okay tomorrow morning but he needed some sort of reassurance. He decided to let his crying tire him out until he drifted off to sleep with Tommy still in his arms not too soon after.
Louis decided to let the whole situation cool off while he finished his cup of tea. He washed the cup and set it back in its cupboard after drying it. He decided that it would be best if he cleaned up all of the nerf darts as well, even though he said he wouldn't he figured this could be the first step in fixing this whole thing. He gathered all of the darts and placed them on the table next to the nerf guns. He walked upstairs to their bedroom and stopped in the doorway at the sight before him
Up in the middle of the bed was Harry cradling Tommy close to him with Tommy's head tucked in his neck. Harry had one of his arms on Tommy's back to hold him close and his legs curled up. Louis smiled because Harry would always make fun of him being the small and curvy one when he himself looked so small and vulnerable right now. He walked lightly to the bed and removed Harry's arm with ease to pick Tommy up setting him on his hip and laying his head on his shoulder.
He was taking him back to his own room when he looked back and saw Harry tighten his arm around the air since Tommy wasn't there anymore, so he settled to curling it around himself instead and made a small mewling noise as he curled himself smaller. Louis felt his heart swell with sadness and hurt but also so much love for the boy lying on their bed looking like a small helpless child. He had to force himself to look away since he remembered there was a child on his hip that still needed to be brought to bed.
He went to tuck Tommy in and saw him open his eyes a little and whisper, "Daddy? Daddy I'm so sorry please don't hate me."
"No, no love never. I'm the one who is sorry I love you so much please go back to sleep everything is okay I'll see you in the morning," Louis whispered kissing his forehead and letting him drift back to sleep.
He turned on the nightlight next to his bed and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. Louis went back to their room and stripped down to his boxers and climbed up to Harry and laid in front of him. "Harry, love," he said softly touching his arm and rubbing up and down it softly.
He saw Harry uncurl his arms from around himself and stretch out his legs before blinking and focusing on Louis' face. Louis could hear his heart breaking in his ears at the hurt and sadness easily visible in Harry's eyes.
"Harry, I'm so sorry," Louis said rubbing his thumb back and forth on Harry's cheek. "God you don't even know how awful I feel about what I did not only to our son but especially you," he paused and switched to rubbing little circles in his bicep instead, "You're just so special to me and I keep treating you like you're not and I can never say sorry enough to make up for it." Louis said now watching a few tears trail their way down Harry's cheek and onto the bed.
"Louis. You really did scare me a bit today. It reminded me of our last fight where you l-left me and I was so," he got cut off by his own sniffle and hiccup, "alone..."
"Harry shh, it's okay, it’s all over now… it was my fault and I was such an idiot. I was alone and so upset with myself for hurting you that I couldn't see something every day that reminded me of you without crying. I remember seeing those photos of you that week; it was like you were dead on the outside to the rest of the world. Seeing those made me realize what an asshole I was and I knew that I had to win you back and I was relieved when you forgave me because I honestly don't know how I can live without you. But that's not what I want to remember because that was one of the worst things I've ever done to you and I will never forgive myself for it. This time is no different..." Louis paused to take a shaky breath, "I really am sorry, Harry and I hope you know that because you deserve someone who won't yell at you when they come home, and someone who would appreciate the little things that you do for them, and I just never appreciate them. I'm such a terrible husband," Louis stopped and wiped a tear thinking that he shouldn't even be the one crying if anything.
"Louis, what you did hurt me but that doesn't mean that you're a terrible husband. You're a beautiful, loving, and a caring father and I've never felt so loved by another person. I’ve never met a person in my whole life that is so perfect like you. You're the love of my life and I don't need anyone else in this world except you, boo." Harry said smiling softly at Louis and kissing him on the nose.
Their foreheads touching and eyes closed, Harry whispered, "I forgive you."
"I love you so much," Louis said kissing Harry. "Forever and always," Harry said kissing him again.
They smiled, the love and happiness beaming from each other's eyes. Harry moved away to strip to his boxers then climbed back up to Louis. He pulled the covers up over them and Louis pulled Harry close to him; so close that there was soon no space left between them. Some days Harry likes to be the one holding Louis, but some days he likes to be the one being held; the one who usually receives the babying as well.
Louis carded one of his hands through Harry's hair, massaging his scalp. Louis smiled his crinkly-eyed smile--the boys usually called it his 'Harry smile' because it always comes out when he looks at Harry--as he saw Harry close his eyes and lean into the touch, practically purring like a kitten. He used his other hand to run it up and down his spine with such a light touch that emitted goose bumps from the younger boy. Harry had his left hand on the back of Louis's neck playing with his soft hair and moving his thumb in circles. His other hand is just under the waistband of Louis's boxers relishing in the warmth of his skin. He gave his ass a light squeeze and beamed when Louis giggled. He rested his hand there and said, "God how did I get so lucky to have the best husband in the world?"
"Don't flatter yourself Harry, I think I'm the lucky one in this relationship," Louis said smiling.
They laid there in silence for a little until Louis spoke up again. "I can never say it enough, but I love you," Louis said.
"And I love you more," Harry responded stealing a kiss.
"Not possible," Louis said stealing another.
They continued to lay there in each other's arms, kissing lazily and talking about anything and everything until they fell asleep.
Sure life for them has a few bumps in the road along the way, but what's life without a little excitement? Because it always works out; the compass always leads one home to the other. Wherever they are, as long as they're together, that's where home is. And nothing really matters as long as at the end of the day they are in the safest place together-each other's arms.