three hearts in one home (l.s.)

41. Sprinkles and swings

I get woken up my Jonah’s voice from downstairs, shouting something about Christmas and presents. I open my eyes slightly and try to get used to the light.

“Morning”, Louis mumbles besides me and moves so he’s right next to me.

“Good morning”, I say, not being able to talk more just yet, it’s way too early for that.

“How are you, baby? Any better?”

I nod, not even having thought about yesterday in the first place. Now that he says it, of course the words are still there, lingering in the back of my mind, but it’s nothing compared to yesterday, it’s nothing when Louis is there.

He wraps an arm around me and pulls me in for a short kiss before someone opens our door and comes running into the room, jumping onto the bed without hesitation.

“Good morning”, Jonah shouts and falls down between us, “You never guess what happened.”

I smile as I watch Louis pull in Jonah for a kiss on the cheek. “Tell us.”

“Anne sayed we can bake cat cookies and dinosaur cookies ‘cause they’re my favourite!” Jonah grins and sits up before ruffling through my hair. “You gotta brush it Harry, you look like a crazy chicken.”

I laugh and try to look offended. “Excuse me, darling, don’t you dare talk to me like that.”

He giggles, throwing his head back what makes him look even more adorable. He keeps brushing through my hair while telling us all about the cookies and the ingredients they need to buy.

“That’s only why I came upstairs. To tell you I am leaving for shopping.”

“Alright, love, have fun and tell Anne thank you for taking you with her.”

Jonah rolls his eyes as he climbs out of bed. “I don’t tell her that because I am her help so she doesn’t have much work.”

Louis laughs. “That’s true, of course. Bye, honey, have fun.”

“Bye daddy, bye Hazzie.”

He storms out of the room again and the noise of his barefoot feet keeps getting quieter as he runs downstairs.

“Now, what are we gonna do then?”, Louis asks, closing his eyes, still looking tired.

I shrug and pull him in for another kiss. We stay like that for some time, chests pressed together and breath synchronized, lips moving against each other lazily.

“Okay, yes, not the worst activity”, Louis says after a while, “But we can’t stay in bed all day.”

I shrug again. “Why not?”, I ask, voice still sleepy, “I’m tired anyways.”

I am also finally done with Christmas and birthday preparations. Louis really had to be born on the worst day so that I now had to find two presents for him. He insisted I shouldn’t gift him anything and I agreed, only so he’d shut up.

He kept telling me that everything I did for him was enough already, but it wasn’t. That had nothing to do with Christmas or his birthday so I knew I would get him something anyways.

Louis sits up. “Because we won’t waste our time like that. I’ll shower now, you coming or not?”

“No”, I grunt, “Too tired.”
He just laughs and shrugs before disappearing into the bathroom and I wait in bed for him, staring at the ceiling and wondering how I got so lucky.

~~~

“Now”, Jonah shouts and I get up from the couch with Louis to walk into the kitchen where we weren’t allowed in for the past hour.

“Look at my masterwork.”

We both laugh as Jonah shoves a plate of colourful cookies into our hands, all shaped as dinosaurs and cats, covered in chocolate and colourful sprinkles.

“This looks amazing”, I say and take a bite from a cat with blue ears and chocolate dots as eyes.

It’s way too sweet and sugary and the taste will stay the whole day but I have nothing against it because Jonah made them for us and it tastes like Christmas and happiness and home.

“Delicious”, Louis says and ruffles through Jonah’s hair, “Fancy a walk to the playground?”

Jonah nods and places the plate back on the table before he runs of to the hallway to get dressed.

“Thank you, Anne”, Louis says as soon as Jonah left the room, “It means a lot, knowing he likes you and you take care of him so well.”

Mum just smiles and nods. “Of course, Louis, I know how hard it can be to raise a little child alone and I love taking care of Jonah, he’s lovely. Now you three can go for a walk and I’ll tidy up here.”

I nod and say goodbye to the other three sitting in the living room as well before walking to Jonah who’s already fully dressed.

I lift his beanie a little so his whole forehead isn’t covered anymore and help him tie his shoes before getting dressed as well.

“Louis, your cast is off and you’re still taking ages, baby.”

I look at Louis who’s just now slipping into his jacket and he rolls his eyes. “Harry, don’t be mean, my shoes are just so hard to get into. I swear it takes minutes to get them on my feet.”

I chuckle and he crosses his arms in front of his chest, poking his tongue out at me.

“Not funny”, he mumbles as he grabs my hand and we walk outside where Jonah is already waiting for us, trying to climb up the tree in our yard.

“There you are, let’s go”, he calls and runs towards us, smiling and taking my hand in his left and Louis’ in his right hand before we start strolling towards the playground.

“Are you so excited for your birthday, daddy?”

Louis shrugs and laughs. “I’m getting pretty old”, he says, “Got nothing to be excited about.”

“Yes, you do”, Jonah says, “I got the best present and you get to be with your whole family all day, we can even do something fun like feed the ducks if you want.”

Louis smiles broadly. “You’re so right, my darling, I got a lot to be excited about. And I’m not that old, am I?”

“You are”, me and Jonah say at the same time and giggle. “I mean twenty-five, that’s closer to thirty than it is to twenty.”

“Harold, shut up”, Louis says, “I don’t wanna hear anything about that. Besides, today I’m still twenty-four, young enough to go to a playground, so who is swinging with me?"

We all walk towards the swings and Jonah sits down on my lap before we’re trying to get to swing higher than Louis.

In the end we make it and jump off the swings, running towards the slide and I didn’t know going to the playground could be so much fun, but with those two, it is.

~~~

<3