three hearts in one home (l.s.)

5. Pinky promises and honey milk

Liam looks at me a little shocked when he opens the door.

I’m carrying Jonah again, he fell asleep on my arm, dark blond, sweaty hair sticking to his forehead and his eyes closed shut. He frowns a little as if he even worried in his sleep.

He didn’t cry but was close to tears when I told him his daddy was a little sick and he had to stay with me and my friends for some time.

“Harry, what the hell?”
I shrug then nod and shake my head at the same time. “I know.”

Liam steps aside and then holds my door open so I can lay Jonah down at my bed. I carefully cover him with the blanket and tug it up to his chin before slipping of his shoes.

We quietly walk back to the living room and sit down at the couch.
“Where are Niall and Zayn?”, is the first thing I ask because I could really use all of my friends support right now.

“Out. Grocery shopping. They’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I sigh and sink into the couch before sitting up and burying my face in my hands.

“What’s going on?”
I shrug and suddenly feel like crying of exhaustion.

“I have no idea what happened, the fucking doctor wouldn’t tell me a lot. Louis is in coma. His mum’s dead so they don’t have any emergency contacts of him. If I didn’t take Jonah, he’d have had to go into foster care. So I filled out some papers, I don’t even remembered what they said, so I could take him. Fuck, I don’t even know, Li.”

It takes him a while to process everything I said.
“Good. It’s good that you took him.”

I wait for him to say anything else but when he doesn’t continue talking, I add: “I’m fucking worried, Liam. I don’t know Louis, yes, but I like him, mostly in a friendly way and I’m scared he won’t be alright.”

Liam sits next to me and pulls me into a hug. “It’ll be okay. Did the doctor explain anything?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug. “I forgot what it’s called but some head injury. That’s why he’s in coma. And they can’t tell when he’ll wake up. And they only will be able to tell what’s wrong when he wakes up. He couldn’t tell me more. Confidentiality, you know.”

He nods slowly but doesn’t let go of the hug just yet. I pull away because I feel like I’ll break down completely otherwise.
“It’s late”, I say, “I think I need to get some sleep.”

~~

I don’t know what the hell is going on for a second when I’m woken up by a child crying who’s laying in my bed.

It takes me ten seconds to remember the last evening and that I dropped into bed feeling dead after talking to both Niall and Zayn too.

Jonah is quietly whimpering, probably still asleep and rolling from one side to the other.
He’s mumbling something I can’t understand and he’s kicked of the blanket I had to share with him.

“Hey, love, wake up”, I mumble, softly putting my hand on his shoulder, “It’s alright, just a bad dream.”

I can’t help but look at my phone while he wakes up slowly, just to check if Louis maybe already wrote me a message but of course he didn’t.

“Daddy?”, Jonah whines, “I want my dad.”
I slowly brush through his hair that’s all sweaty and try to calm him down a little. I don’t really know how to deal with kids. My sister is older than me and I don’t have any baby cousins I could’ve taken care of when I was younger.

“Harry?”
“Yes, it’s me. It’s okay, darling. Were you having a bad dream?”
He nods, his whimpering getting quieter and his breath more regular. “Yes. Something about my daddy.”

I could cry too seeing him this worked up over everything that happened.
“I’m sorry, love. I’m here, okay? Your daddy is gonna be so much better soon, I promise.”
I feel pretty bad saying that. I can’t just promise things I can’t keep.

“Pinky promise?”, he asks, a bit if hope in his tiny voice.
He searches for my hand another the blanket to lock our pinkies and it makes me feel all warm.
“Pinky promise, darling.”

He sits up in bed and ruffles through his hair.
“What happened to him?”
I sigh, knowing that this will be a long night. What am I even supposed to tell him? I don’t know anything about it myself.

“How about we get you a glass of milk or water from the kitchen? That always helps me fall asleep”, I avoid the question.

He nods eagerly and climbs out of bed. “Honey milk?”
I nod and take his hand to lead him to the kitchen where I lift him onto the counter.

“Okay, how do you like it? Warm or cold? Freezing or hot? Cow milk or maybe from a sheep?”
He giggles quietly and I’m happy to hear that sound again so I go on.

“Do you want it in a cup, sir? Or rather in a golden goblet? A silver one?”
He chuckles and slaps his hand in front of his mouth, he must have picked up that habit from Louis.

“Harry, you being stupid. I want normal honey milk.”
“Oh, normal? I didn’t know.”
He giggles and then turns quiet while he waits for me to finish the milk.

After some while I hear footsteps in the hallway.
“Oh, look who’s still up”, Zayn says when he enters the kitchen, “Making so much noise I wake up.”

He glares at Jonah and tickles him a little what causes him to laugh.
Zayn’s always been good with children since he has a younger sister.

“Harry can’t do honey milk”, Jonah explains and rolls his eyes.
Zayn gives me and empathetic and proud look before inspecting the honey milk I’m preparing.

“Oh, no, Harry”, he says and grins, “You better make your milk by yourself the next time, Jonah.”

He giggles and nods before contently taking the cup from me. “Thank you, Harry.”
“You’re very welcome.”

And somehow, I love this child already.

~~~

my dumbass uploaded the wrong chapter before this one so please don't be confused in case you saw that i accidentally uploaded another chapter before this one heh

hope you enjoyed<3