With Open Arms

Coming Home

Louis doesn't sleep at all that night.

Liam cries over Niall being gone, because the men can't promise for sure that he's coming back (and that hurts, god, that hurts), whilst Harry mumbles something about the kid not even saying goodbye before he locks himself up in his bedroom to stare at an empty bed all night.

And Zayn tries to reassure him, tries to tell him that Sally will call in the morning and everything will work itself out. That Niall will be home again come tomorrow evening - but Louis can't thinking of all the what-ifs. What if Niall doesn't come home? What if they never get to make him feel as loved and safe as he deserves to be?

And what if the kid never speaks out about what he's been through? He won't even tell them, so the chances of him telling anyone else...

He gives up on the tossing and turning in the early hours and leaves Zayn asleep in their room to go downstairs. Tucker curls into his side on the couch in front of cartoons, but Louis can't ignore that longing feeling trapped inside of him screaming that someone is missing.

He falls to sleep with an emptiness in his chest.

The feeling holds out till the next morning, and it's clear he isn't the only one feeling the effects of Niall not being at the table during breakfast.

Harry rests one cheek on his hand as he eats his toast, chewing lazily and looking down at the table rather than winding Liam up the way he usually would. And Liam is no better, the kid spoons up a mouthful of cereal and then tips the utensil so that the food drops off and splashed back into the milk.

Louis watches with a small frown, tapping his fingers beneath his thigh underneath the table until a hand rests atop of his and halts the movement. He glances up and Zayn gives him a small smile.

He just blinks helplessly at the man before turning back to their children and the one empty chair opposite his. He gulps.

"Li, sweetheart, you need to eat," he says softly.

The ten year old pouts and he expects some sort of fight from the kid, but he just takes a mouthful of the food and looks away. It's Harry who speaks up, dropping down his crusts and turning to frown at his parents.

"You shouldn't have just let him go," he states firmly, and the words make Louis' chest hurt.

Because the kid is right; their fifteen year old son is right. They shouldn't have just let Niall leave like that, they should have followed him out to that car and made sure he knows how loved and wanted he is in their family.

"We couldn't just stop him, Haz," Zayn breathes gently, but the kid glares at him defiantly.

"You could! It's not -"

They're cut off by Zayn's phone ringing, and Louis watches with a sigh as his husband wordlessly stands from the table and disappears from the room to answer it.

Harry watches him leave before turning back to Louis and letting his shoulders slump.

"He was starting to settle in, Dad. It's not fair that he had to go," he murmurs.

And Louis feels awful that he's only been focused on his own guilt since last night, because of course the kids would be upset - Niall has become their brother somewhere along the line, and that isn't something they can just get over.

He reaches across the table to try and take one of the boy's hands, but he pulls back. The action hurts Louis' more than he's sure Harry knows. "He didn't have to -"

Liam speaks up then, pushing away a half empty cereal bowl. "I want him to come home, Dad. You gotta make him come home," he says softly, brown eyes wide and pleading as he looks up from the other side of the table.