The Future Is Now - Larry Stylinson

Chapter 22

A month later and it was December and Louis was even more stressed trying to sort things out for Christmas. Both Anne and Jay (Louis' mother, Harry had learned) wanted them for Christmas, but Jay now lived so far away from Holmes Chapel that they weren't able to have a joint family Christmas like they had done years before.

Eventually they settled on spending Louis' birthday and Christmas with Jay and then spending a full week with Anne to make up for not being able to spend the actual holiday with her. Luke was excited to see both his grandmothers again and Annie was still too young to understand anything, all she knew was her Papa was busy a lot.

Harry had met Jay once and she seemed nice enough. Apparently she and Anne were close friends and had been ever since Harry and Louis met, and he was glad at least that his mother had a good friend. The drive to Jay's place, though, the day before Louis' birthday, was almost six hours and Louis had to do it all himself because Harry couldn't drive.

Annie got fussy in her bumper seat two hours in and Luke could barely sit still. He had a little game device that Harry didn't recognise to keep him occupied but he lost interest in it pretty quickly. Harry ended up moving to sit in the back with them so he could try to keep Annie quiet and amuse Luke at the same time to give Louis some peace.

It was still weird being with them but he'd mostly gotten used to it. He'd started automatically referring to the kids as his own children and while he still hadn't gotten the hang of calling Louis his husband (he blushed and stuttered a little every damn time) but things with him had started feeling more natural. Harry still wanted to kiss him all the time but Louis was always stressed and busy, and seemed a bit wary about it anyway. Harry didn't blame him- he was just a sixteen year old kid wearing his husband's skin after all.

When they finally got to Jay's, all of Louis' siblings were already there. Harry had been told there were six of them (not including his half sister Georgia) and five of them were girls, and one lone brother. Two sets of twins seemed a little excessive, but Jay had handled them well. The older girls (Charlotte, Felicite, Daisy and Phoebe) had all been told about the state of Harry's memories. The youngest set of twins (Edward and Lily) weren't old enough to know yet, though, and Edward would probably have Luke following him around everywhere so it was just better if they didn't know. Harry didn't like pretending but he'd gotten enough practise that it came easily now.

Luke ran into the house almost as soon as Harry freed him from his seatbelt and he chuckled as he undid Annie's booster seat and lifted her out of it. Louis looked tired and drawn as he got out of the drivers seat and Harry pressed a hand to his back. Little touches like those had become a thing for them now, because Harry knew Louis needed it and he himself kind of craved it because of his childish crush. "Your family and I will look after the kids if you need to rest," he said softly as Annie reached out and tugged at his hair.

"I think I'm okay," Louis said, shaking his head and smiling. "It'd be nice to relax on the couch with the girls, though, if you can keep an eye on Annie so I don't have to worry about her."

"Yeah, of course," Harry smiled back at him and there was a short moment before Louis turned away and locked the car before they went inside. Harry was used to having a small family, just his mother and sister, so it was a bit weird to have so many people in the house. Luke was already in the living room playing with toy monster trucks with Edward, who was proudly showing him how to do it 'properly'.

Jay came out from a different room and gave Louis a hug before directing him to the couch to sit down and rest. She hugged Harry too and promptly took Annie off him, and Louis' sisters dragged him outside to talk.