Take Me Home

Chapter Thirty-One

Another family member was introduced just a couple weeks after the adoption was settled.

"Daddy, Daddy!" Niall yelled as soon as he burst through the front door after being picked up from school. Liam hurried from his spot in the kitchen to see what all of the commotion was about, and saw Zayn smiling widely, Louis clapping and Niall bouncing about wildly.

"Whatever's the matter? You almost gave me a heart attack," Liam said, eyes wide.

Niall grinned. "Sorry, Daddy, but guess what!?" he shouted, and then continued without even giving the man time to guess. "I'm in the big class now!"

Liam grinned, engulfing the small blond in a tight hug. "Nialler, that's amazing! I told you you'd do it!"

Niall smiled and hugged his father back. "I got all the answers right in maths, and - and the teacher asked me to stay behind at the end. I thought I might be in trouble for something, but she said I could join the rest of the class for the rest of my lessons and see how I do," he rambled excitedly.

"He did really good, Daddy, he put his hand up for every question!" Louis piped in, grinning at his brother. The two of them stood side by side, grinning from ear to ear with their blue eyes equally wide made them look like twins, and the two men's hearts swelled with pride.

"Come on, Ni, I wanna watch telly," Louis said, grabbing Niall by the hand and dragging him away.

Liam smiled and shook his head. "Dinner's gonna be ready in half an hour, boys," he called after them.

"Okay, Daddy," they chorused back.

Zayn and Liam smiled at each other. "Are you really proud right now? Because I am," Zayn said.

Liam smiled and looped his arms loosely around his boyfriend's neck, pressing their lips together softly. "Of course I am. It's crazy how much they've all grown since we found them..." he trailed off. "Harry seemed happy when he got home," he said.

Zayn smiled. "He did? He's been kinda anxious the last few days, with going back to school and everything," he said.

Liam nodded. "Yeah, I know. But he looked almost hazy, like he was thinking about a certain someone," he said, smiling still.

Zayn let out a soft laugh. "Who do we think? Ashton?" he asked.

"Who else?" Liam replied with a grin. Everything seemed to be falling into place. Life was going well, the boys were happy, they were happy. Life had never seemed better.

#

Dinner was half an hour later, like expected.

"Boys," Liam called as he set the plates down on the table. Zayn and Harry got there first, laughing about something. Louis and Niall followed, Lou with a smile on his face and Niall looking rather down all of a sudden.

Liam frowned as they all sat down to eat, and that frown deepened when he saw that the blond boy didn't participate in the conversation around him, resting his cheek on his balled up fist and poking at the food on his plate with his fork.

He nudged the boy softly from opposite the table, not wanting to draw attention from anyone else. When two sad blue eyes looked up at him, he felt the familiar parent instinct to know exactly what was wrong with his youngest son, who had been so happy earlier.

"You okay?" he asked, softly.

Niall chewed his lip, then nodded. "Just tired," he mumbled, before dropping his gaze back down to the table and continuing to look upset.

He frowned, wondering what had happened in the space between being in the kitchen earlier to sitting down for dinner. He turned his attention to Louis, who was happily munching on a chicken nugget beside his blond brother.