Lifting You Up

Louis hummed to himself as he stood over the stove making breakfast for all of his brothers. It was Tuesday, his day off (or one of them anyway), and he always made breakfast for everyone on busy weekday mornings. Around this time every day, Zayn would be up and getting dressed for work and Harry would be helping Liam get ready for school. Liam was five and went to kindergarten at the same school that Zayn was an art teacher at. Harry was 21 and a junior at the local community college studying to be a music teacher. This obviously made transportation easy in the mornings, and on days that Louis had to go to work and Harry was in class, Liam would go to Zayn's class and stay in there until the end of the day after his half-day class. On those days, Niall, who was three, would go into the studio with Louis. It was a good thing everyone at the studio loved Louis and Niall because usually there was a strict no-children policy. Louis was grateful that he was best friends with the boss, Nick, outside of work every day.

Louis finished spreading some grape jelly on the toast just as he heard the sound of running little feet coming down the stairs. He turned and smiled as he waited for either of the little boys to come bounding into the room.

"Lou!" Liam giggled, running into Louis' arms.

"Li!" Louis mimicked as he picked Liam up and spun him around once before kissing his cheek and setting him in his own kitchen chair. Liam went on to talk animatedly about how his morning had gone so far in the short twenty minutes that he'd been awake. Louis shook his head fondly at how much of a morning person Liam was. He was so different from the oldest three boys, and Niall was very similar.

Louis supposed that the difference between Liam and Niall's personalities compared to those of his own, Zayn's and Harry's came from the obvious fact that they had different fathers. After Zayn had moved out of state to go to college, his father had left his mother. Harry was 14, Louis was 16, and Zayn was 18 at the time, but they weren't really bothered. They completely sided with their mother as their dad was abusive, and they were all old enough to know it. Louis was the only one that really tried to stay in touch as he felt the closest to their dad and still wanted to have a relationship, but after he'd cried on the night of his graduation about his father not coming after he promised that he would, he gave up on the hope, probably for the better.

When Harry was a senior in high school, their mother got pregnant with her then-boyfriend. It was a surprise to say the least as she had already had three kids, all of whom were technically adults. Nonetheless, the guy, who all three boys, but especially Harry since he had met him more than once or twice, hated. The guy, whose name was Will, stuck around basically because he had lost his job and didn't want to pay any bills himself. While their mother was with him, however, she became careless, especially for a woman that had a baby. Harry found himself at home with Liam more than either of them were since he had opted to live at home, but not necessarily by choice. His grades were too poor to get any scholarships, and he didn't really have many special talents so he went to a community college.

When Liam was almost two, Will left for some other woman apparently. Everything seemed to be changing for the better, really, until their mother found out that she was once again pregnant. Zayn thought that it was incredibly immature of her to have accidentally gotten pregnant twice, but he tried to support her and leave his judgmental opinions out of it just at the other boys did. When Niall was born, everyone's minds were changed. He was the most beautiful baby. As Louis thought back on it, he could remember being in the hospital when some older nurse had see him holding Niall.

"You know," she said, "I'm obligated to lie when I say that a baby is the most beautiful one I've ever seen. But I do believe that baby is absolutely the most gorgeous child I've ever laid eyes on in my twenty years of doing this."