ᑕᕼᗩᑭTEᖇ 162
[Harry]
Louis' birthday was celebrated with a blast. They went ice skating, which was a completely new experience for Zayn. But he and the twins got to play in the kids area and drink hot cocoa later. It was also Christmas Eve so they ate a wonderful dinner, which was why Harry felt so bloated as they walked up the steps to the house.
"Home sweet home," Felicite groaned, kicking off her heeled boots. Zayn jumped up and down excitedly, clutching Benny tightly in his arms. They had convinced him to leave the bear home where he couldn't get sick. "Open pwresents, Louis!"
"Alright, Alright. The best part of today," Louis said happily. He smiled innocently as his family sent him a look. The familiar Tomlinson glare.
Dan laughed and clapped him on the back. "I wish my birthday was on the 24th. Receiving presents two days on a row must be fun."
Louis made a whiny noise. "Except I don't most of the time. People just give me one."
"I gave you two," Harry said cheekily. "Perhaps three, even."
"Yeah, but you don't count, you were hopelessly in love with me," Louis said dismissively. Harry flipped him off and Louis smiled sweetly. "I'm kidding, I loved them."
"Pwresents!" Zayn yelled again as he kicked off his boots and threw his scarf and mittens in the basket. "Louis, open mine."
"Aw, you got me a present? When did you get me a present?" Louis wondered happily. Zayn grinned at Harry, trying to be discreet. "Don't tell," he whispered. Very loudly.
"Is it a blue pencil?" Louis deadpanned. Zayn's grin faltered and he frowned defensively. "No." He turned to Harry panickingly. "He knows!" he whispered.
"I can hear you. I'm right here, buddy," Louis teased. He picked Zayn up. "What's up with the blue pencil anyway? You gave one to Niall too on his birthday."
Zayn gasped. "I not tell you pwresent. It's not blue pencil, Louis."
"Okay then, is it a blue eraser?" Louis chuckled and Zayn pinched his cheek. "No, I not like you. Hawryyy," he whined. Harry rolled his eyes playfully. "Ah, Louis' annoying, isn't he?"
Zayn nodded and reached for Harry. Just then, Louis pulled out his chiming phone. Johannah grabbed the phone from his hands. "No phone yet, dear."
"Agreed," Phoebe groaned and plopped down by the Christmas tree. She grinned up at them. "Can we open the presents now?"
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After opening up all the presents, Louis was found on the living room carpet surrounded in socks, boxes and a packet of blue and red pencils. Zayn looked proudly at them, and Harry had to admit he didn't understand why Zayn was so fond of them either. He and Zayn had gone out for a walk two days ago and that's when they'd bought their respective presents.
When everyone started getting busy, and Doris went to sleep, Harry scooted to Zayn who was now sitting alone. "Hey, Zayn?"
"Yeah?" Zayn looked up, and he looked tired. He'd refused to go to bed, wanting to be a part of Louis' birthday. Especially when Liam and Niall had called earlier to wish him.
"Remember the blue car we saw? Why didn't you want to give Louis that? Why specifically a pencil?" Harry wondered, genuinely curious.
Zayn looked confused. "Evewyone give pencil on biwrthday, Hawry."
Either someone had taught this kid wrong or Harry wasn't up to date on the new trend. "Are you sure?" Harry asked carefully, not wanting to upset him by telling him that's not true. Zayn nodded firmly. "I got..." he looked suddenly very confused as if he was trying to remember something.
"You got a blue pencil?" Harry wondered softly. He didn't think any of the boys or him had given Zayn a blue pencil for something special. And it had almost been half a year since they had adopted the little guy.
Zayn shrugged slowly, face scrunched. Harry let it go and instead put on a smile. "Hey, don't you think it's time for bed? It's Christmas tomorrow, if you want Santa to come by with your presents, you should head to bed."
Zayn gasped excitedly and he turned to Phoebe. "Cookies and milk!"
Phoebe matched his enthusiasm with a big grin. "Oh yeah, Zayn. Why don't you go grab the cookies from the kitchen and I'll pour some milk."
As the boy ran off, Phoebe sent Harry a grin. "I told him Santa won't come unless you feed him some cookies."
Harry chuckled as he watched Zayn excitedly bring out some cookies in a plate. They wobbled slightly, Zayn had it under control judging from his focused expression.
Harry and Louis crept under the covers a few hours later. They talked in hushed voices, Zayn curled between them. He looked even tinier when sleeping, and Harry planted a soft kiss to his forehead. He then told Louis about what had happened last night, not having the opportunity to do it before.
Louis sat up abruptly, his face shining. In the lamp light, he looked so joyous. "He really said that? I'm the first example that came to his mind?" he asked incredulously.
Harry smiled down at Zayn fondly. "Yeah." He looked back up at Louis proudly. "And you said you couldn't handle this parenting stuff," he teased.
"Oh god, this is too soon," Louis said, his eyes bulging in his head. "I can't be a dad. I don't know a thing about...being a dad. I mean, parenting is easy, but becoming a parent is not easy. He's going to look up to me for every thing. I have to be a role model, I-"
"Louis," Harry cut him off with a soft laugh. "Relax. He's still figuring it out. He's young, and has a lot of time to do so. Besides, we're with you. Just keep doing what you've been doing so far and you'll be fine."
Louis let out a breath, eyes still wide. "Okay. But just for the record, I'm counting this as his first 'dad word' being Louis. Ha! Gonna so rub that in Niall's face."
🍼🍼🍼🍼Zayn🍼🍼🍼🍼
Zayn didn't sleep very well last night. He'd had nightmares and different flashes. But they disappeared and were all forgotten when the Tomlinson kids jumped in his bed. He woke up with a start to see that Phoebe and Daisy were waking Harry and Louis up excitedly. "Hey, lazy bugs, wake up!"
Ernest was sitting on Zayn's legs, clapping his hands happily. "Chwishtmas."
"Zayn, wake up," Doris said, tugging on Zayn's hand. She stumbled and fell on Louis' nose. Louis groaned and turned on his back. "I'm 28 years old, give me a break."
"Zayn, guess who came by last night?" Felicite said enthusiastically. She was standing with a hot mug in her hands, watching the whole spectacle. Zayn looked at them groggily, his mind thinking hard.
"SANTA," hadn't even left his mouth before Doris had screamed it. "But mum say, we not open pwesent. We wait Zayn."
"That's right, so get up," Daisy ushered. Zayn sat up excitedly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Hawry! Louis! I not be naughty boy, Santa bwring me pwresents!" he exclaimed.
Harry sat up, his hair askew on one side, but there was a smile on his lips. "Really!? That's great, let's go check them out!"
After brushing his teeth with Harry, Zayn hurried downstairs, still wearing the christmas onesie he'd slept in. He tripped down the stairs a couple of times, and frowned as he hit his head on the banister.
"Slow down," Louis laughed from the top of the stairs as he slowly trudged down. How was he not excited about this!?
Zayn jumped from the last step and rushed into the living room. Johannah and Dan were already awake, sitting with mugs in their hands and delicious looking cookies in front of them. Usually, Zayn would have rushed towards the gingerbread men on the plate, but this time he was too caught up with the Christmas tree. He gasped loudly, hands flying to his mouth.
Their Christmas tree, which he had helped decorate, was surrounded by tons of presents. And even the milk and cookies on the table were gone. As everyone exchanged 'Merry Christmas'es, Zayn jumped up and down. "LOOK, look, the the pwresents and and cookies gone, and-" He rushed forward to the fireplace, gawking at it. "Hawry, we buwrn Santa?"
Harry choked on his glass of milk. "Heh, no. No, the fire wasn't burning last night."
"Oh," Zayn said distractedly as he turned and watched as the Tomlinson kids rummaged through the heap to find their presents.
Johannah scratched the back of her neck, a habit Louis often did. "A lot of these presents came for Zayn, sweethearts."
"Me?" Zayn asked, baffled. He looked at the presents tentatively. Louis smiled, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "Why aren't you tearing them open?"
"Which one mine?" Zayn asked shyly, eyes still wide as he gazed at all the presents. Harry sat down cross legged by the tree and patted the space beside him. "Let's find out, shall we?"
"This one says Zayn," Felicite announced and handed it over to Zayn. It was a small round present, packed in green paper with a bow on top. Lottie handed him another, this time square, present. Zayn grinned elf-like and looked up at Harry. "I a vewry nice boy."
Harry grinned back at him and accepted a hot cup from Louis, who sat down beside them, a happy look on his face. Zayn looked around excitedly as he watched the Tomlinson siblings open their presents. Lottie pulled out some weird painting stuff, Daisy and Phoebe pulled out new phones, Doris gasped as she and Ernest opened their identical Play Doh sets, and Felicite jumped up and down as she held up two pieces of paper.
Soon everyone was hugging everyone, especially Louis, who was being assaulted by his sisters in hugs and kisses and thank you's. Harry laughed and hugged them too before turning back to Zayn. Now everyone was focusing on Zayn, who was surrounded with lots of presents. Zayn was feeling so many mixed feelings; shy, ecstatic, excited. He just wanted to tear open everything, but he didn't know where to start!
"He looks so overwhelmed," Dan remarked with a chuckle.
"Hey, buddy. You need help opening your presents?" Louis said, rubbing his back. Zayn shrugged. "What I open fiwrst?"
"Okay, so this is from Liam," Harry said, setting aside one present. "And these are from Niall," he said, seperating two other presents from the pile. "These are from Santa," he said pointedly at a big present and the round one. Louis frowned. "Wait, I thought my present was from Santa."
Johannah facepalmed and Lottie burst out laughing. Zayn was too busy staring at all the presents wide-eyed. "O-okay," he told Harry and leaned forward to pick up one of Niall's presents. Niall had sent two presents for him. He started unwrapping the first one, curiosity burning in him. Slowly, his motions turned quicker and he was pulling out a Lego Duplo set, Batman figures adorning the front. Zayn gasped loudly and he waved it around. "It's Batman Lego!"
Louis gaped. "That sly leprichaun, he said he was getting some stupid blocks. He tricked me!"
"Louis had a bet who's present Zayn would like the most," Harry explained to the Tomlinsons. Zayn hugged the set to his chest. "I love Niall," he said dreamily and he glanced down at the pack, looking at all the cool Lego stuff it consisted of. It has Bat-mobile too!
"Okay, next present!" Louis announced and Daisy clapped. "Yeah, we have to give the Secret Santa presents too."
Zayn reluctantly put the Batman Lego set aside and started opening Niall's second present. He was on his knees, tearing the wrapping paper as fast as his small hands could do. The second present was a small pack of Lego figures! Zayn grinned happily as he jumped up and down, unable to control himself. He had LEGO BATMAN. Batman in Lego. Now his Batman could save Gotham city and work with the police legoman he had back home.
He then moved on to the next presents. He had received a set of Hot Wheels cars from Santa and though Zayn wanted to just open it and start playing, everyone urged him to open the next one. Zayn set down the Hot Wheels set in dismay, but grinned widely when he unwrapped a Ben 10 ball. Wow, it had all the aliens on them.
"Now, you can play football when the snow clears," Phoebe said and Daisy high fived her. "And it's Ben 10."
"Nex pleasant," Ernest yelled. Louis cooed and lifted him up. "Gotta listen to the little man."
Minutes later, Zayn had torn open the next one. He gasped as he pulled out the markers he had wanted so terribly bad a few days ago, but Louis had said no. Zayn couldn't help himself, he jumped up and threw himself around Louis' neck. "I got mawkers!" he said joyously. Louis laughed and hugged him back. "And a new pad since your last one is finished."
Zayn thought nothing could top the presents he had already gotten, but then he opened Harry's present and gawked at it, eyes wide in awe. Crayola art kit with all the world's colors and a Ben 10 coloring book.
"I love it, I love it, I love my pwresents. I gonna colowr with my fwriends in Landon," Zayn babbled as he jumped around. "Thanks Santa!" he hurried over to the fireplace and yelled. He then hugged Johannah and Harry- who was making a video- and even little Ernie.
"Well, aren't you super happy," Louis said with a fond smile. He pointed to the last present. "Hey, you forgot Liam's present."
Zayn didn't want to abandon the crayon art kit but he kissed it softly and put it down. He then grabbed the last present, which was neatly wrapped in Green Lantern paper. Zayn grinned at the wrapping paper. "Look, tiny Gwreen Lantewrn." He carefully unwrapped this one, but ended up tearing it anyway, especially when he peeked and saw the Ben 10 logo. Zayn's heart raced in his chest as he teared the wrapping off to reveal the present he loved the most already.
"No, he topped mine," Louis cried out dramatically. Zayn gaped at the present, his hands waving around frantically. H-how?
Louis leaned forward to close his mouth. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Liam's a genius."
"ITS BEN 10 WATCH," Zayn yelled, gaping at the magical watch in front of him. There was no calming him down now.
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