Christmas music was playing in the background. Liam and Zayn were curled up on the couch, both with a mug of coffee in their hands and legs curled up beneath them as they watched their boys sitting on the floor around the tree, opening the last of their gifts.
Louis was already stuffing his face full of the chocolates that he had been given, Harry was wearing the new hoodie he had been given with the hood tugged up over his curls, and Niall was trying to get Cooper to sit still so that he could put his new collar on him.
The morning thus far had gone well. Granted, it had been a little quieter - everyone had been more tired than usual after the late night disturbance, and Niall was clearly anxious about Nana and Gramps coming over as he hadn't said a lot other than 'thank you' for the gifts, eyes constantly glancing at the clock hung above the mantle piece.
Liam set his empty cup down on the coffee table, sitting up with a stretch. "Right, I'm gonna make a start on breakfast before I start the dinner," he said, stretching.
Before he could stand up though, Harry quickly shook his head.
"Wait, Dad!" he called, reaching beneath the tree and pulling out a medium sized box, wrapped up with plain paper that had been coloured in with felt tips.
He held it out for the two men to take, and Liam sat back down with a confused look as their three sons moved a little closer to the couch.
"Sorry about the paper, we couldn't afford any wrapping paper so we had to make our own," their oldest son explained with a shy smile.
Liam smiled back and shook his head as Zayn let out a soft laugh.
"I love it...I take it Lou drew the Christmas tree over here," he said, pointing at the green and red scribble on the side.
Louis pouted at that, folding his arms over his chest. "Hey!" he huffed. "That's meant to be an elf, we can't all be good artists," he added with a grumble, which made everyone laugh.
Liam looked over the paper for a while longer, the carefully drawn lines of a reindeer that Harry had clearly added, the precisely coloured details that Niall must have filled in, the giant 'MERRY CHRISTMAS DADS' written in Lou's handwriting. It made his chest feel all warm.
"You know you boys didn't have to get us anything," he said softly. They had never received a Christmas gift from the boys personally before. When they were younger, Zayn and Liam would buy presents for each other and sign them from the boys. This was new, and it meant a lot to him, regardless of what was inside. He didn't care about the present, he cared about the thought that had clearly gone into it.
"It's not much," Harry said softly, rubbing the back of his neck. "We didn't have much. We sorta had to put all our change together and do what we could with it...and we got Cal to help a little," he explained.
Carefully, the two men peeled back the paper, neither of them wanting to rip through the artwork of their sons. After a few moments, Louis let out a huff.
"Jesus, it's like watching a couple of pensioners trying to open a packet of crisps. Just rip it!" he sassed, and Liam almost snorted at the exasperated tone of the brunet boy's voice because that was the sound of the old Louis coming back - the one who was sassy and loud and funny, not angry and miserable all the time.
"Alright, alright," Zayn said with a chuckle, holding up his hands as if in surrender as Liam peeled away the last of the paper and set it aside gently.
Inside was a photo frame, white and delicately crafted. There were gentle patterns in the wood, swirls and crevises that made it look like it cost a little more than 'all their change put together'. That wasn't what drew Liam's attention though.
Instead, his eyes were glued to the picture within the frame. It was one from the start of summer, only a month or so before everything had fallen apart.
He remembered the day like it was yesterday. They had woken up to find that the sun was high in the sky, it was hot but with a gentle breeze, and the whole world had just felt right. They had wound up going to the beach, completely unplanned. Just chucked a couple of blankets in the boot, bought a bucket and spade or two from a shop on the way, and they had driven for nearly three hours to the seaside.
The boys had actually gotten along for the entire journey there for once, no bickering about who was sitting where or what song was staying on. Instead, they'd had the windows open so that their hair was blown away from their faces and colour was painting their cheeks, laughing and joking about some video they had seen, playing I-Spy, all leaning in to take photos with funny faces on Louis phone in the middle.
They had stayed at the beach all day. Running around, wading into the sea, building sand castles and searching through the rock pools for the most interesting things they could find. Harry had been pinched by a crab and been about as dramatic about it as he could possibly be. Louis had had his chips stolen by a seagull, Niall had been knocked over by a particularly harsh wave and ended up bundled up in blankets beside his parents whilst his brothers wrote their names in the sand around him.
They'd had icecream and laughed and teased and talked about everything.
The picture in the frame had been taken in the evening, as the sun was preparing to sink beneath the horizon. It's final rays were bright and golden, reflecting off the green of the ocean and giving the sand a hazy sort of glow.
They had stopped a passerby and asked her to take a photo for them.
Zayn was on one end, striking a pose with his arms flexed, pretending to kiss his biceps. Liam was beside him, looking across at his husband with a mixture of love and amusement, one eyebrow raised, lips pulled into a smirk, eyes looking ready to roll and tell the other man to behave himself with his sunglasses pushed up on top of his head.
Their three boys were on the other side of them. Harry at the back, curly hair glowing golden brown in the sun, icecream cone in one hand, the other folded up into bunny ears behind Louis' head, face scrunched up in a laugh.
Louis was completely unaware; he and Niall had their arms slung over each others shoulders. He was sticking out his tongue, eyes squeezed shut, ball tucked beneath his other arm and one leg sticking out, barefoot covered in sand.
Niall was grinning too, looking down slightly at Cooper. With his one arm wrapped over his brother's shoulders, sun-kissed blond hair all scuffed up and usually pale cheeks all red and sunburned. His eyes were so happy, crinkled by his smile, one hand reaching down to stroke dog at his feet.
Cooper was a brown smudge in the photo. He had sat still until the very last second, when a wasp had flown by and he'd decided to jump up to try and catch it in his mouth.
Just seconds after the photo had been taken, Niall had taken off running after the dog and accidentally dragged Louis along with him, the two of them landing on a pile in the sand with Harry laughing so hard that he had ended up on the ground right beside them, the two men laughing at the scene as they thanked the lady who had taken the photograph for them.
She had offered to take another, but they had assured her that the first picture was perfect. It was perfect. It had been a perfect day...
They had driven home late, once it was dark. The car had been silent on the way back, and when Liam had looked over his shoulder, he had found all three boys fast asleep, curled into each other with a blanket thrown over their legs. Even Cooper, in the very back, was nowhere to be seen, stretched out across the back seats, clearly just as exhausted by the perfect day as his owners were.
Liam found himself getting a little misty eyed over the photo and all of the happy memories that came with it. It made him determined to get back to that, back to that perfect scene, that perfect feeling.
Hell, it didn't have to be perfect. He just wanted to see all of his boys that happy again.
He glanced up with his teary eyes to see that Zayn was wiping a thumb across his own cheeks to brush the tears away and he smiled at their three sons, holding out his arms which none of them wasted any time leaning into.
"Thank you boys...its perfect," he murmured.
#
Nana and Gramps arrived just before midday. As always, Liam's mother wore her softest smile and pulled each of the boys into a hug in turn. When she reached Niall, her face grew even softer than Liam was sure he had ever seen it, taking him so gently by the shoulders and lowering her voice a little.
"Hey, baby...I'm so sorry," she murmured, and Niall let out a small breath and leaned into her whilst Liam watched from across the room. The twelve year old clung onto her with delicate hands, closing his eyes as he rested his head beneath her chin slightly.
Liam couldn't help but think back to what that asshole Joe had said at the football match. That maybe Niall needed a female figure in his life to help with the situation (though he hadn't worded it quite like that, the little -)
And maybe all of the boys did. He would be lying if he said it wasn't something he had thought about quite a lot in the past, the fact that none of the boys had really had a mother figure or even an aunt or someone who was around often enough to have a big enough impact in their lives. Sure, Harry had had his biological mother before he had joined them, and Louis had had his grandmother. Niall had only ever known big, abusive men like Keith and Richard...
And yeah, they were good parents - he wasn't dismissing that. They were gentle and soft and kind and loving, but they were both men. What if they were harming the boys by not having a female role in their lives?
Then again, none of them had ever said much about it before. It had been mentioned here and there, mostly on events like mothers day, just questions like, "why don't we have a mum?" when they were much younger.
He shook his head to himself. He was being stupid - it didn't matter that he and Zayn were both men. They were as good of parents as any others, and in that day and age, the idea of a female role seemed quite traditional and sexist anyway.
They were doing their best, and they loved their boys with all of their hearts - that was all they could do.
Still, it did make his heart ache a little to see the way Niall looked so relaxed in his Nana's embrace, muscles untensed in a way that they hadn't been so long. Whether he liked it or not, he knew it must have been difficult for the boy to be living in a house full of other males when he had been abused by two men (or rather, monsters) previously.
He watched as his father, the boys Gramps, walked in with a huge bag of presents clutched in one strong hands.
"Woah, are those for us!?" Louis exclaimed, trying to peer into the bag.
"Lou," Zayn said, shaking his head. "At least say hello to the poor man first," he added with a chuckle.
Gramps just laughed, ruffling the twelve year olds hair. "For you? Why would they be for you? No, they're for all of our other grandchildren," he teased, causing Louis to squint at him with a half smile before he gave him a hug.
When Niall pulled away from his Nana's embrace, Harry quickly took over in leading the older lady over to the couch, the two of them instantly jumping into conversation about university and school. Liam smiled at that, because their oldest son had always loved to sit with his grandmother whenever she was around.
He watched tentatively as his father approached Niall, the small blond instantly hunching his shoulders anxiously. His hand waved at his side slightly and Cooper was there instantly, pushing his head into the boys palm in a way that always calmed him. He and Zayn had taken the first steps in getting the dog formally made into a therapy dog for the boy, so that when he went back to school eventually, he would be allowed to have the animal with him should he feel he needs him.
"Hey, Champ!" Gramps said, keeping his tone cheerful though his eyes were gentle. Liam noticed how his father didn't reach out to scruff up the blond's hair the way he had with the other boys. Instead, he set down the bag of gifts and kept his hands by his sides instead. "You know, I think you might've grown. Just a little," he said with a smile.
Niall managed a small smile at that, because everyone knew he hadn't grown a single inch since the last time Gramps had seen him. Still, the words cheered him up slightly, though he still didn't say anything.
Gramps held out a hand hesitantly, and Niall took a deep breath before he stepped into a one armed hug from his grandfather, eventually relaxing slightly and wrapping his arms around the man in return.
Liam let out a small breath that he wasn't even aware he had been holding in relief, catching his father's eye and the two of them sharing a soft smile.
A couple of hours passed. Louis and Gramps were playfighting on the floor, and Liam had no clue how his father still had as much energy as he had when he had been a kid but he was grateful for it, because Lou was laughing harder than he had done in a long time. Harry was still curled up next to Nana, one of his school sketchbooks in his hands, showing her his drawings as she asked questions with interest.
Zayn was attempting to set up a new console that the grandparents had bought for the boy, TV all pulled out and wires scattered everywhere in a way that looked beyond confusing and so everyone simply left him to it.
Niall had been plucking at the strings of his new guitar in the corner of the room, and even though it was difficult to hear over the loudness of the rest of the family, he was surprised to hear how good the boy had gotten at it. Apparently the lessons he'd had at school had been paying off, and the man knew he would eventually have to get the kid back into lessons so that he could continue learning.
He had been going to and from the kitchen to make sure that the dinner was cooking okay. Everything seemed to be coming together, and he didn't mind watching everything from an outside point of view.
Sure, the dynamic was a little different now than it had been in that photograph.
But when he looked at the frame that had been set up in the middle of the mantelpiece, he no longer felt that longing for things to be that way again.
Things were different. They were harder. They had a long way to go - Harry still had his dark days and he was worried that his son was going to struggle with going away to university the following year; Louis still had issues that hadn't yet been faced, even if the alcohol didn't seem to be a huge issue anymore, it was the reasons behind the drinking that they still had to get to the bottom of; and Niall was finding everyday life tough, there were a lot of days where he was silent, days where he wouldn't let anyone come even close to him, days where the flashbacks took over and it felt like they were never going to get their son back.
But despite it all, he couldn't help but feel like everything that had happened had only pulled them closer together. It had only made them stronger.
After all they had been through, he wasn't going to give up hope. No, maybe they would never have that perfect day on the beach again.
But Liam was certain that there would be many days just as wonderful as that one yet to come.
They were a strong family.
And after that mess of a year, there was almost certainly nothing that would be able to tear them down...
THE END