Reason To Be (A Zouis Family AU)

Part One, Chapter Two

It's a long process to adopt one child, let alone two.

First there's all the paperwork. And by all, Louis means a lot. Like, one hell of a lot.

They have to sign a million forms that tie them to the boys and make them the soul carers for them after their visitations and probation period is up. Then there's the full history of the boys, and that takes a while.

Not because there's a lot of it, but because Louis' a sensitive idiot who has to stop reading to calm himself down every other minute.

And as big of a softie as he has always been, he knows that it's within his rights whilst reading those files because it just doesn't seem fair that two innocent babies should have to have lived through such rubbish already. He reads words like 'domestic violence' and 'child abuse' and it breaks his heart all over again.

How anyone could hurt children is something he will never understand and something he knows Zayn understands far too well. He holds his husbands hand beneath the desk the entire time they're in the office with the social worker and Mabel.

It turns out that Niall had been one and Harry three when they'd been brought into the home, and thankfully neither of them are able to remember much of what happened. Though the files state that Harry suffers nightmares and that it's likely down to the suppression of certain memories.

He knows himself through raising Liam that oftentimes, memories reappear through dreams. There are still nights when the kid will wake up crying over his Mum despite only being three when she had passed.

They move through the rest of the files pretty quickly. He makes sure to remember little things, like how Niall won't go to sleep until he's physically worn out from running around, how Harry is naturally very shy and struggles in social situations, how both boys are allergic to peanuts and love to steal cookies from the top shelf - which Zayn laughs out loud at. He also tries to remember the things like their favourite colours and foods and books, how Niall has a red teddy bear which is, rather fittingly, called Red that he loves probably as much as Harry.

And most blatantly obvious, that he can tell without even looking at the files, is that the two of them are close. It's clear in the way that Harry takes care of Niall and Niall does exactly what his brother says in return.

He just hopes that they'll be willing to accept them into that little circle of theirs.

After all the paperwork comes telling Liam. They sit him down at the kitchen table and tell him all about the two little boys they met that day, showing him pictures of the two.

He seems a little uncertain at first, but Liam always is. He picks up the photographs with gentle fingers and stares at them for a moment before he sets them down on the table again. "Didn't their real family want 'em anymore?" He asks, looking a little sad, and then comes the tough task of trying to explain to the boy the situation with Harry and Niall's parents without scaring him.

Liam's more of a sensitive soul than Louis has ever been and that's saying a lot. It doesn't take much to upset him.

"Well," Zayn begins, thinking his every word through. "Their Mummy and Daddy weren't very good at being parents. They didn't really know how to take care of them and so Harry has to take care of Niall all by himself. Which isn't very good for someone so little, is it?" He asks, and Liam shakes his head immediately.

Louis smiles and squeezes his husband's hand before turning to look at his nine year old son with a smile. "So they had to go to a special home for a while and now they're going to be coming to live here with us, we hope. And as long as you're okay with it," he adds.