Snowglobe- Larry Family One Shot

Chapter 1

Christmas should be a time for family and laughter. Kids should be running around playing in the snow in excitement. They should try to wait up for Santa only to fall asleep a short while later dreaming about all the presents that will be under the tree when they wake up. Parents should be cuddling by the fire once their child is asleep and reminisce about all the amazing Christmases past. When the morning comes the child should be so excited they run in and jump on their parents' bed to wake them up. The parents will happily get up and watch with a fondness in their eyes as their child begins opening their presents. They'll spend all day together, even having a nice family meal in the evening before tucking their child into bed for the night then retreating back to their room to cuddle and talk about the day's events. That's Christmas. Christmas is a time for cheer but sometimes things aren't so jolly. Things can happen that are out of our control.

The Stylinson family had it all. Louis,who was 32, was a record company owner which made more than enough money to allow Harry, 29, to be able to stay home with their four year old son Liam. They lived in a huge house, some would even consider it a mansion, and owned many cars. They had everything money could buy and they thought that was all they could ever need. However, one day came where they desperately needed something that money can't buy, their son Liam's health. You see Liam was born with a kidney condition. One simply just didn't work. It was removed and Liam was on medicine to ensure that no infection would occur and that he could live a normal healthy life. When the Stylinsons adopted him at only two weeks old they knew he would require extra care but they were told he'd be alright. That wasn't the case. Now it was Christmas Eve and Louis and Harry were sitting beside Liam's hospital bed hoping for a miracle. His remaining kidney had begun to fail and he was hanging on to life by a thread. He'd been in the hospital for about three weeks now and at first the doctors were sure he'd recover but he took a turn for the worse when he developed an infection. He was hooked up to ventilators, heart machines, IVs, and tons of other machines that neither Harry nor Louis could identify. Neither of them had left the room since Liam had been admitted except to get food, use the loo, or to bring in presents for Liam that had now piled up around his bed. Louis grabbed his son's frail hand and kissed it as Harry came up behind Louis and put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "Liam baby, it's finally snowing outside. Remember when we first got here and you said you wanted to see snow?" Louis calmly said as he looked out the window to the snow-covered London streets. Liam opened his eyes at the sound of his papa's voice and slowly moved his eyes to look out the window. He smiled a weak smile then closed his eyes again. That simple gesture had taken all his energy.

Harry and Louis watched the boy sleep for a few hours before they saw him open his eyes again. They had decided while he was still sleeping that when he woke up they would allow him to open one present tonight. Harry walked over to the stack of presents and picked up a small, spherical shaped one. "Li? Do you want to open a present now?" Liam gave them a small smile and Harry took that as a yes, he and Louis sat down on opposite sides of Liam's bed and handed him the present. Liam took it and attempted to rip the wrapping paper but that task proved too difficult for him so Harry reached over and helped him get it off. Liam's eyes lit up at the beautiful glass snowglobe he now held in his hands. It had a glittery silver base and sitting on top of it was the actual globe. Inside of it there were handcrafted, perfectly detailed figurines of Harry and Louis on opposite sides of Liam walking through snow, holding his tiny hands. Liam's eyes watered and he let a few tears fall. "Baby boy don't cry, what's wrong?" Liam couldn't really talk due to the breathing tube but he mumbled out a raspy "I love you." Both Harry and Louis teared up at that and they both gently reached over to hug and kiss Liam. "We love you too, you'll always be our little snowflake." Liam fell asleep clutching the snowglobe to his chest.

That was the last time they saw Liam awake. At 12:01 AM December 25, 2011, Liam took his last breath with both of his fathers holding his hands and gently stroking his hair. The infection had spread to his lungs, causing them to fill with fluid and to his brain, causing it to swell. There was nothing they could have done. As they kissed his head one last time they noticed the snowglobe still in his hands. Louis slowly took it from him and held it tightly with one hand as his other hand still held on to Liam's. They stayed with him until the last possible second when the coroner came to collect his small body to be taken to the local mortuary. Both Louis and Harry decided that he would be cremated but they didn't want his ashes in an urn. It was so sad looking and Liam was an extremely happy child his four short years of life. As they drove back to their house it was completely silent, no words, no tears. They were both trying to stay strong for the other one. Upon arrival they both went into the house and without even discussing it they both went up to Liam's room and they laid on the floor, cuddled up with each other as Harry held Liam's favorite toy, a plush Woody doll which he had gotten at Disneyland on their family vacation this past summer. Harry couldn't stay strong anymore and he buried himself even more into Louis' chest, sobbing. Louis just stroked his hair as he let a few tears fall himself but for the most part he was able to keep it together for Harry's sake. They fell asleep in the early hours of the morning only to wake up shortly after at around 8am. Neither of them were joyous, they didn't cuddle by the fire, they didn't turn on their tree lights, they didn't open the presents they had gotten for each other. Instead they sat in on the floor in Liam's room with a picture of Liam that was taken on his fourth birthday in Harry's hands as Louis opened up all of Liam's presents, "showing" them to him. After that they took the picture of Liam back to their room with them and laid in bed,softly pecking each others' lips and then kissing Liam's picture before falling asleep again despite it only being noon.

"Niall be careful where you're running!" Louis yelled at his three year old son as he ran around the Christmas tree. It was Christmas eve and it had been almost four years since Liam's death and it had been three years since they adopted Niall as a newborn. The year in between Liam's death and Niall's adoption had been extremely hard on the couple. They were both grieving and it caused a lot of stress, almost resulting in divorce. However, they loved each other very much and they loved Liam, their little snowflake, too much to give up on their family. Time passed, they adopted Niall and they've spent three lovely years with him so far and they were finally happy. They made sure to tell Niall about his big brother Liam who was watching over him from up in the sky. Niall loved hearing stories about Liam and he idolized his big brother. "Papa?" Niall turned to Louis. Louis looked at Niall to see him holding Liam's snowglobe in his hands. Louis rushed over and gently took the snowglobe from Niall's chubby little hands. Harry walked in and sat down on the couch. "You have to be very careful with that baby, Liam is in there." "I Thought he was up in the sky?" Harry spoke up next. "Well he is love, his spirit is in the sky, watching over us but his body is in here so he can always be home with us." Niall didn't understand but he nodded anyway admiring the snowglobe in Louis' hands. Louis and had Harry decided after a lot of thinking that Liam's ashes would be put in the snowglobe. The look of pure joy when he opened the gift was something they wanted to remember forever. Liam was and always will be their little snowflake and with every gentle shake of the snowglobe the couple was reminded of that.

"Niall do you want to open a present now?" They had decided to make it tradition to allow their son to open one present on Christmas eve usually giving him something simple like a tin filled with popcorn or a new Christmas movie. Niall nodded eagerly and sat on the floor by the tree as Harry handed him a gift. Niall eagerly ripped it open and smiled widely at what he saw. It was a snowglobe with a gold base and inside the globe were figurines of Harry and Louis holding Niall's hands but attached to the top of the snowglobe was a cloud and on that cloud was a figurine of Liam, smiling down at all three of them.

    Ok so I was just laying down thinking about Christmas stuff and this idea came to me out of nowhere so I just decided to write it. I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry it was so sad.