As It Was ~ l.s

12: babysitting

7 episodes of How I Met Your Mother later, there was another knock on Harry's door. When Harry opened the door, he was surprised to see Briana, holding a small blonde child, at the door. 
"Hey, haven't seen you in a while. How've you been?" Harry smiled warmly at her. 
"I've been good. It's good to see you Harry." She smiled back. 
"I heard you got engaged. Congrats." 
"Yeah, I did. Thank you." She slowly dropped her smile at the awkwardness in the air. "Uh- is Louis around? He was supposed to have Freddie this afternoon. Liam said to check your room." 
"Oh- uh- yeah. He's here. He's just napping." Harry looked worriedly in Louis' direction, "Did you need me to wake him up or something?" 
"No no, it's okay. Ummm... Is it okay if I leave Fred with you? It's just that I have an appointment in half an hour that I'm probably going to be late for." 
"Yeah, of course." Harry grabbed the sleeping five-year-old from Briana and she dropped his bag down beside the door. 
"Thank you so much Harry, I owe you!" She smiled, "I'll be back at 7:30 to pick him up. He has spare clothes in his bag just in case, and he's got a bottle in there too. He's not allergic to anything but he will throw a spoon at you if you try to make him eat carrots. Here's my number, call me if you need me to pick him up earlier or if you need anything else." She handed him a business card as she walked out of the hotel room. 
"See you later Bri" 
"Later Styles" She smiled and made her way back down to the lobby. 
Harry smiled at the blonde child in his arms as he made his way over to the bed. He gently placed Freddie beside his dad and tucked him in. Though he tried his best to be quiet, he woke Louis up. 
"Hey," He mumbled "Oh- hey, I'm so sorry! I forgot I had him this arvo. I can take him back to my room, you don't have to take care of the both of us. I have to call Briana and apologize, she already barely lets me see him and now I bet I'll see him even less." 
"Lou, it's alright. You can both stay here. To be honest, I don't want to leave you alone right now." 

If he was being brutally honest, Harry didn't want to leave Freddie on his own with Louis in the state that he was in. 
"No, I don't want to be a burden. I'll just take Freddie and go to my room." Louis got off the bed and picked up Fred's bag. Harry stopped him from taking the sleeping child from the bed. 
"You're not being a burden Louis. And I don't want to leave you alone. Not when you're like this." Harry took Fred's bag from him and placed it back where it was. 
"Not when I'm like what? I'm fine Harry. And Fred's my son, I won't let anything happen to him. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my own son for a few hours." Louis challenged. 
"You know what I mean Lou. You walked in here stumbling, you poured your heart out then passed out before I could even respond. You reek of alcohol still Louis. I don't want to leave him alone with you while you're like this." 
"So you don't trust me? Is that it?" 
"No, that's not it Louis." Louis looked up at Harry, unconvinced. "Okay, yes. To tell you the truth, I don't trust you. Not like this. I'm worried about you. Louis you haven't been taking care of yourself and I seem to be the only one that sees it. If you can't take care of yourself, I'm not sure that I should leave a five year old in your care." 
"He's not just a five year old. He's my five year old. I'm aware that I may have not been in the best headspace lately and I haven't been looking after my own wellbeing, but when it comes to my son, best believe I pull through. So don't you tell me whether or not I'm in any state to look after my child." Louis was pissed. Harry didn't have a kid. Why was he telling him how to look after his own? 

"I'm not saying you can't look after your kid. And I'm sure you're a great dad Lou. I'm just saying I don't want you looking after him alone. If I leave him alone with you, I'd start to worry. Not just about him but about you too." Harry remained calm while Louis was more visibly irritated. 
"Look Styles, I'm grateful that you're expressing your concern about my son. But he's my son. I don't need you telling me what's best for him."
"I get that he's your son Louis. You don't need to keep reminding me." Harry rolled his eyes but kept his calm composure. "But I want to remind you that at one point he was meant to be our son." 
"I'm aware of that. But you walked away Harry. You left us. He was four months old without a father." 
"He had you didn't he?"
"That's so shit Harry! You can't just leave and then come back and tell me how to look after my own son!" Louis raised his voice. This really set him off. Just because Harry was meant to be Freddie's dad doesn't automatically mean he can tell Louis how to parent. He already barely had time with his son and in the minimal time he had with his son, Briana always lectured him or gave him a million instructions on how to take care of Fred. He knew. He read about a gazillion parenting books and he had a practice baby for the entirety of the third trimester and he was fine being alone with Fred the whole week after he was born, but still he felt like no one trusted him with his child. 

"Look, Louis-" 
"No, I won't look! I'm sick of everyone thinking I'm a shit dad and I can't take care of my kid because I have my own problems! I'm really trying here! I'm doing my best, and the fact that no one trusts me or believes me when I say that makes me feel like shit." Louis' voice broke. He was going to cry. Harry sighed. 
"Dad?" Freddie sat up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Louis looked over to him and the tired look on his son's face seemed to push him over the edge. Tears started to spill out of his eyes and he let out a choked sob. 
"Dad, are you okay? Why are you crying?" Fred's little voice came out croaky and confused. 
"I'm okay bud. Dad's okay." Louis walked over to him and hugged the small boy. He buried his nose in Freddie's hair and inhaled the scent of his 3-in-1 watermelon shampoo. Harry felt bad. 
"I'm sorry I woke you up. Are you still tired? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you need to use the toilet?" Louis spoke softly to his son, pulling away from his head and brushing his blonde hair with his fingertips. Freddie nodded and leaned into his father's touch. 
"Which one bud? I'm gonna need you to be specific." Louis chuckled. 
"Juice." Fred smiled. "I'll go get it! It's in my bag." He hopped off the bed and ran toward his bag. 
"What did I say about running inside Fred?" Louis reminded before following behind him. Freddie pulled his spider-man themed bottle out of his bag and took a sip of his orange juice. 

"Have you eaten dinner yet? Are you hungry?" Louis asked him. Fred shook his head no, his mouth still occupied with the juice bottle. 
"What do you feel like bud?"
"Can you make that chicken? You know the one with the cheese?" 
Harry chuckled at Fred's request. Louis still made that.
"Of course I can. But maybe another time, uncle Harry doesn't eat chicken anymore." Harry frowned. He's the reason Fred can't have the dinner he wants and he hated himself for it. 
"I can make an exception for one night." Harry offered. 
"No you can't." Louis declined, without so much as a glance in Harry's direction. "We can have chicken on Wednesday. Is there anything else you want?" 
"Why doesn't he eat chicken? Does he have allergic? Because I have a friend at school who has allergic to nuts. He says that if he eats nuts he has to get a shot and go to the hospital." Harry smiled endearingly at the boy. That was quite possibly the cutest thing he'd ever seen in his life. 
"No Fred, he's not allergic." Louis chuckled. "He's a pescatarian. It means he doesn't eat meat or anything. He eats fish, vegetables and stuff like that. It's so he stays healthy." 
"But why?" 
"To be honest with you buddy, I don't know. Your dad's not disciplined enough for that stuff." Louis smiled. "Now, dinner. What do you want?"
"Can uncle Harry eat spaghetti?" 
"He sure can." Harry smiled and made his way over to the kitchen. He started putting various ingredients on the bench and looked through the cupboard for a saucepan and a chopping board. 
"I can do that. You don't have to-" 
"At least let me do this. Watch TV, play a game, do whatever. Just please let me make dinner for you and your kid." Harry furrowed his brows as he placed the chopping board on the bench gently. 

Louis sighed and let Harry do his thing. He walked over to the couch, where Freddie was already situated, and turned on the TV. 
"If I could give up, if I could just, you know, take the whole world's advice and- and move on and find someone else, that wouldn't be love! That would be some other disposable thing that is not worth fighting for!" Ted Mosby showed up on the screen. Louis frowned. He remembered how Harry used to love watching this episode. They'd used to curl up together on their couch while Harry recited Ted's love speech verbatim. He quickly turned the show off, switching it to The Good Dinosaur, AKA Fred's favourite movie. 
"Dad, where is mom? She was here when I was sleeping. Did she go home?" Fred made casual conversation with his dad. 
"No bud, she's got a job at the moment. It's not too far from here, I'm sure she'll be coming by to get you after dinner." 
"Are you sure?" 
"Of course bud, she'd never go home without you." Louis tried not to frown at his son. This happened every time he had him. Fred would ask where his mom was and Briana would drop everything to come and get him. But he didn't want his time with his son cut short. So he decided that Briana didn't need to know that Fred missed her for now. 
"Good." 

Harry frowned as he heard their conversation. He knew about Louis' custody problems and how he wasn't allowed to have Fred overnight. He hoped one day he could help him change that. 

(a/n: this is a shorter chapter, but i feel bad that i low key abandoned this fic and haven't updated in two months... sorry y'all, please forgive me.)