✧ Bumps in the road ✧

Ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ｔｗｅｎｔｙ ｔｗｏ

Louis picked a perfect time to walk back in as fizzy was scolding phoebe for the messages she had been getting all week. "Fizz, stop yelling at your sister." Louis said as he sat down next Harry again. "What happened? I was gone for ten minutes."He added calmly to his husband.

Before anyone could answer Louis had a phone shoved in his face. "Did you know this was happening again?" Fizzy demanded.

Louis took the phone and refocused his eyes slightly, knowing he needed his glasses on. He read the messages quickly. "I knew about a few of these but definitely not all of them." He told the second oldest sister as he kept reading through them. "Phoebe." He sighed disappointedly as he kept reading over them.

"I really need to go." Lottie said softly not wanting to be late to the party but also not wanting get in the way of Louis helping her sister.

"I think you two should stay here." Liam hummed hinting at Harry and Louis who were now reading a series of messages. "I'll take you Lottie." He added getting up from his seat and walking out of the room with the girl in tow.

Louis just kept reading over the same messages. It hurt to see what some girls were saying to his baby sister. All he ever wanted to do was protect all his siblings.

The one that shocked him the most was the ones telling her to kill herself. "Okay, fizzy how about you take daisy to watch tv." Louis said gently deciding it was best to handle this alone.

As the girls were leaving the room he quickly showed the message to Harry. When he caught on to the messages he raised his eyebrows and sent Louis a sad look.

"Bug, why didn't you say anything?" The brother said sadly reaching out for the smaller girls hand. She pushed her hand into Louis but still didn't say a word. "Bug?" He questioned again.

Phoebe finally seemed like she was aware of what was going on. Her first look was if she was petrified. That scared both the boys, why was she scared?

"It just didn't seem important. Mum is trying to deal with all her stuff. Dad is busy with work. Fizzy is busy with school. Lottie is busy with boys and her friends. I've tried to talk to people at school but nobody ever believes me. So I figured if the school didn't believe me, it wasn't that important. So, I just stayed silent." She explained playing with the table cloth with her spare hand.

Louis closed his eyes briefly and mentally scolded himself for not checking in on her. "And you are busy, so I knew my issues were the last thing you needed." She said to herself.

Louis was hurt by that. He knew he had been absent for most of their lives but it still hurt to know they didn't turn to him. "Baby, I'll always have time for you. Come here." He said gently gesturing for a hug.

Phoebe reluctantly walked over to him and let herself be crushed in Louis' hug. "You're a beautiful girl, with a beautiful soul. I'm here to protect you as much I can. We can take this one day at a time but we can do this." He whispered to girl, mumbled by her shoulder. Louis genuinely meant every word of what he was saying. He hated seeing his sister getting undeserved hate.

"We are going to go down to the school and talk to them next week, okay?" Harry spoke up gently placing a hand on the small girls back. Even at the slight touch she flinched. Louis just squeezed her body tighter and sent a sad look to Harry over her shoulder.

After a few more quiet minutes Louis released just sister of the hug. "How 'bout you go talk to the others while we clean up." He said warmly. The brown eyed girl nodded and slipped out of the room.

Louis quickly stood up and began clearing the plates. "You okay?" Harry asked softly as he collected the other plates.

The shorter boy began to walk to towards to kitchen. "Yep." He said coldly scraping what was left on the plates into the bin.

Harry just sighed and placed a hand around Louis' waist. "Stop, darling. Look at me." He hummed gently. Despite how much he knew Louis didn't want to he placed the plate he had in his hand onto the counter.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked kindly trying to figure out the reason for the purging.

Louis disregarding the whole conversation however going back to cleaning the dishes only mumbling a small. "Nothing."

Harry just grabbed the plate out of his hand and raised an eyebrow at the other. "Therapy was just a bit intense today. Then I had to go see my mum and that was really hard. Then I came home and you seemed really cold. It just all sent me over the edge" he admitted truthfully.

Harry sighed softly bringing the boy into a tight hug. "So have you eaten properly at all today?" Harry asked softly trying to grasp if Louis was telling the truth.

Louis finally put down the other dishes. This was the part where he yelled. Harry didn't want an outburst right now.

To Harry's surprise Louis didn't yell. "Yes, baby. I ate this morning. That's was just before therapy." The blue eyed boy said simply.

Harry lent in and pressed a loving kiss to Louis' forehead which Louis happily leaned into. After a short moment there was a click from the front door opening.  "We will talk about this later." Harry said softly pulling away.

Mere seconds later Liam walked into the white lighted kitchen. "Did you get her to the party safely?" Louis asked sternly.

"'Course lou." Liam nodded softly. "What are the girls doing?" He added happily as he put the car keys on the table.

"In the living room 'bout to put on a movie. Then I'm hoping they will all just ,willing, fall asleep." The Doncaster boy laughed as he dried the last cup. "Are you picking her up or do you want me to?" Louis added referring to Lottie.

"No, it's alright. I can pick her up. You have had a long day." Liam said happily as they all wondered into the living room.

After two movies phoebe was soundly asleep between Louis and Harry. Whilst fizzy was slowly drifting off with a peaceful daisy sleeping in her lap. Liam had gone to collect Lottie twenty minutes ago so they should be back any moment.

Louis gently grabbed the remote not wanting to wake the brunette in his arms. He told Harry to get ready for bed as he tucked the girls in which sent Harry on his way.

He then gently lifted phoebe and laid her on the blow up mattress and kissed her forehead. "I love you bug, I need you to stay safe."the older brother said truthfully, knowing full well the girl wouldn't hear his comment or remember it in the morning.

Next he picked up daisy and laid her beside the other. Her eyes began to flutter open as Louis pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Love you beautiful." He hummed as he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

Surprisingly she hummed a small "love you Lou." Back and curled into the covers.

Finally Louis walked over to fizzy and quietly threw a blanket over her and put a pillow under her head. "Love you fizz. Keep protecting them for me." He said at a barely audible volume.

After turning off the light Louis skipped up stairs where he saw Harry already in boxer shorts reading a book. The older boy laughed fondly at the sight before walking into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

He couldn't help but to lift up his shirt and pull at the pudge on his hips, thighs and basically anywhere else on his body. He didn't notice he had been standing there for so long until Harry cane up behind him and pull down the old t-shirt. "Darling, you know you can't do that. Don't body check. You are stunning." The long haired boy hummed whole heartily. After another moment of standing there in silence Harry turned the smaller boy around in his arms and began to dry the underneaths of each his eyes. Louis wasn't even aware he was crying.

"I love you Louis William Tomlinson. You are perfect. Absolutely beautiful. I have loved you from the minute I laid my eyes on you. Okay?" Harry said to the half limp boy in his arms as he squeezed him tighter.

Maybe things would be alright maybe they wouldn't.

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What did you think of this chapter? Do you want more big brother Louis and Harry being  a protective brother in law?