Chapter 24
Louis had a longer than usual nap after his birthday party, and it gave Harry and Nick time to finish putting up their Christmas decorations. They’d had a tree up for a few days, but they now had time to set the kitchen table with a mini tree, red and green place mats, and put up some stockings. The second that Louis was carried downstairs he started to breathe heavily, eyes catching the stocking that his grandma embroidered for him. Louis’ name was floating above Santa’s reindeer, and any other little boy would’ve loved it… but not him.
Harry cooed at the boy in his arms, bouncing him up and down to try and calm him down. “It’s okay, angel, daddy’s here. Let’s see your smile! Santa will be here soon.”
Harry’s stomach dropped at the way Louis’ cries picked up at the mention of Santa.
Louis choked out, “N-no,” tears rolling down his face rapidly.
Nick chose that moment to walk back in the house from the store, brows immediately furrowing at the sound of his little boy’s heartbreaking cries.
Nick grabbed a pacifier off of the kitchen counter, bringing it into the living room where Harry was bouncing Louis and putting it in between the boy’s lips. It did its magic as always, calming Louis down until his tears had stopped. The trio sat in silence for a bit, both daddies stroking some part of their little boy.
Surprisingly, it was Louis who spoke first, not bothering to take his pacifier out. “Santa not coming,” he said with all of the misery of someone who had just been told their dog had run away and was never coming back.
Nick probed carefully, “Why wouldn’t Santa come, love?”
Louis shook his head, his papa grabbing the pacifier out of his mouth so it was easier to understand him. “Santa don’t come to Louis. Bad boy,” he explained.
Nick and Harry shared a look above his head; how did they not realize that his mum would’ve ruined the concept of Santa?
“Has Santa ever come to visit, sweetheart?” Harry asked gently.
Louis looked down dejectedly, “Santa comes for Lottie and Fiz, not Louis. Louis is bad boy.”
Harry tried not to stiffen up from where he sat underneath Louis. Obviously, it was rare for someone to still believe in Santa at 22 years old, but for Louis to still believe in Santa and think the man wasn’t coming to him because he was bad? He felt like he could blow up from the rage he felt.
“Did your mum tell you that?” Nick asked. Louis nodded miserably in reply.
“Ah, papa will be right back, darling. I need to make a quick phone call,” Nick said, standing up and grabbing his phone.
Harry had no idea what he was doing, but he trusted that it would hopefully help change Louis’ mindset.
Nick walked back in the room a moment later, a smile on his face and his phone held to his ear.
“Louis, I have someone on the phone for you!” Nick said, stretching out his hand to the boy.
Louis grabbed the phone hesitantly, putting it up to his ear.
“Hello, is Louis there?” A deep, kind sounding voice asked from the other line.
“I’m Louis,” the little boy said quietly, wondering whom he was talking to.
“Ho ho ho! Hello, Louis! My name is Santa Claus.”
Louis gasped, turning to face his daddy. “How does Santa know Louis?”
“Santa knows all of the good boys and girls, Louis, and you’ve been a very good little boy!”
“R-really? Was I bad every other year? You never came.”
“Oh, no no! Santa didn’t know who you were. My elves never gave me any letters from you, but I got yours this year! And I see that you’ve been a very good little boy, so Santa will be there when you’re sleeping tonight! ”
“So you come?” Louis asked, hope evident in his voice. He spent years suppressing his hope that Santa would finally come visit him, and the mere thought that Santa might come was overwhelming.
“My reindeers and I will fly to all of the good little girls and boys’ houses, and yours will be one of them! Now, Santa must go get ready for tonight… happy birthday, and merry Christmas, young boy!”
Louis sat there a bit slack jawed, Nick smiling softly as he took the phone back from the boy’s hand.
The dom walked back into the kitchen before whispering, “Thanks dad,” and hanging up. Years of playing Santa at Nick’s family Christmas parties had definitely been of use tonight.
“What did Santa say, angel?” Harry asked, stroking his thumb across Louis’ cheek.
“He’s coming to visit me! Santa is coming,” Louis said as a smile grew on his face as though verbalizing the event made it real to him.
“You’re the best little boy in the world, Santa’s going to bring you lots of presents! Let’s eat some yummy dinner, then we can watch Rudolph!” Harry said, carrying Louis into the kitchen before placing him into his highchair.
Nick sat next to the little and fed him grapes while Harry finished up making Louis’ bottle and plating his and Nick’s salmon. They figured that a bottle was the safest option after Louis had had such a greasy and big lunch, knowing that a sick little boy on Christmas would not be fun to deal with.
Dinner was a calm affair, Louis quietly drinking his bottle while his daddies talked about boring things. Such as when Harry would start recording his debut album. He decided that he wanted to wait a while, not wanting to have to deal with the annoyance of a full schedule just yet. And most importantly… he didn’t want to disrupt Louis’ routine when he was just starting to get comfortable. It wouldn’t be fair to him. As much as Harry loved to sing and perform, he loved his little boy more. Louis would always come first now; his priorities had changed, and the label understood that.
Louis’ eyes were slowly blinking, the boy having the toughest of times not just succumbing to sleep. Luckily, his daddies were watching this happen, so they paused the movie and stood up.
“Sweetheart, let’s get the reindeer food ready for the reindeer!”
They’d made reindeer food (a mixture of glitter, carrots, and lettuce) right after dinner, and now it was time to throw it outside on the back porch for Santa’s reindeer.
Louis nodded, nuzzling his head into Nick’s shoulder. He’d had the longest of days, and something as exciting as throwing reindeer food couldn’t even wake him up.
“Here you go, Lou! Let’s go out back and throw the food around the porch.” Nick said, bouncing the boy a bit to try and get his eyes to open up.
Louis nodded again, the drowsiness he was feeling dissipating just a bit. Harry wrapped a blanket around Louis before letting the boy go outside, knowing that it was chilly.
“Need lots of food, so that all the reindeers can get some, papa,” Louis explained as he threw the mixture onto the back porch.
Nick let out a noise of agreement, “That’s a good idea, Lou. We want to make sure all of the reindeer get some food.”
“They have lots of houses to go to, so I wanna make sure they’re not hungry.”
“That’s very nice of you, love,” Harry said from where he was taking photos of the pair. He instagrammed a picture, unable to help himself. Louis was throwing a handful of the food onto the ground from where he was perched in Nick’s arms, the older man pressing a kiss onto his cheek.
“All gone,” Louis said as he threw the last handful. The trio headed inside, snuggling up on the couch after the glitter was cleaned off of Louis’ hands.
The little was asleep before the daddies had even finished reading him ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Harry’s eyes sparkled as he reminded Nick that they’d have many more Christmases where Louis would have a chance to hear the ending.
Louis was snuggled up in his crib, cookies were out, and Nick and Harry were working quietly to get all of Louis’ presents under the tree. Tomorrow would be perfect.
Harry couldn’t help but grin as he heard Louis wake up on the monitor, letting out happy little noises and whispering to himself that Santa came. The daddies had been up for an hour or so, happy to let Louis sleep in a bit after his long day yesterday.
The doms walked to the nursery together, shoulders bumping and smiles shared. It was going to be a good day. They would’ve liked if it snowed, but you can’t have everything.
“Merry Christmas, angel!” Harry said with a smile that grew when he saw Louis’ eyes open and eager.
“Santa come?” Louis asked as he was lifted onto his changing table.
“He did, little cub! Let’s get all nice and changed then we can go see,” Nick said excitedly.
“Stay in jammies?” Louis asked.
“We can stay in our jammies all day!” Harry said, Louis smiling as he saw that his daddies were in sweats and jumpers.
Louis could hardly stay still while his teeth were brushed by his papa, far too excited at the prospect of Santa coming.
Nick carried Louis down the stairs, Harry filming from the bottom of the staircase. He wanted to start recording family videos, and this wasn’t a day of action that he wanted to miss out on.
“Santa,” Louis said in shock, an incredulous smile appearing on his face as he saw all of the presents under the tree and around the living room.
“That’s right, Santa brought lots of presents for the best little boy in the world,” Nick said, Louis giggling as his papa pressed kisses all over his face.
Harry spoke teasingly from behind his camcorder, “Do you want to eat breakfast first?”
“No daddy, please no!” Louis said, wriggling to be put down.
“I’m just kidding angel, we’ll have a baba in a little bit. Let’s open your stocking first!”
Louis crawled over to where his stocking was hanging, gasping as he passed the glass table sat in front of the couch. All of the cookies had been eaten besides a small bite of one! And there was a handwritten note, ink red and glittery.
“Papa,” Louis said, holding out the note to the man.
“It says: Dear Louis, Merry Christmas! I hope your Christmas is magical and I brought you all of the presents you wanted. You’ve been a very good boy this year, and your daddies are very lucky to have such a nice little boy. Thank you for the cookies, they hit the spot. Chocolate chip are my favorite! How did you know?
My reindeer are outside eating the food you left for them; Rudolph was especially happy to see the glitter. It’s his favorite food.
I’m off to finish bringing presents to the rest of the good girls and boys around the world. Merry Christmas, Louis!
Santa”
The little boy was staring with his jaw dropped. “Santa,” he whispered.
“That’s right, baby. Santa wrote you a letter! You’re very special.”
“Love Santa. I open?” Louis asked, crawling to his stocking. At his daddies’ nods of approval, he carefully peeked into his stocking. He slowly removed the contents, smiling widely at the pacifiers, glitter pens, glow in the dark crayons, and other goodies he got. He couldn’t believe that there was so much more!
Nick and Harry sat patiently beside Louis as he opened his gifts from Santa, appropriately responding when he held up every single thing he’d received. They’d never get over how genuinely surprised he was to receive so many gifts.
They took a small break for breakfast after Louis finished up opening his gifts from Santa, Louis contentedly sucking on his bottle while wrapped up in his fuzzy new Mushu blanket. His favorite gifts included a keyboard that had keys which lit up to teach him different Disney songs, the boxed DVD set of every Bubble Guppies episode ever, and a Disney stamp set that he could use on all of his art projects.
“All right, love, let’s open some more gifts!” Nick said as they settled on the ground next to the Christmas tree.
“Papa and daddy open,” Louis said, handing them both identical presents that were clearly wrapped by him, wrapping paper crinkled.
Harry gasped dramatically, “Did you get papa and I presents? You’re such a sweet boy.”
Louis nodded, blushing lightly. “Nana help me.”
Harry and Nick pressed kisses on Louis’ cheeks before opening their presents. What they saw were little strips of construction paper stapled together, a picture drawn of Louis with the respective daddy on each cover. “Cuopn book” was written in crayon on the front of each. The daddies’ smiles grew as they looked through the book, seeing coupons for various activities. The most notable of coupons were those that offered an hour of quiet time, a morning of sleeping in, a Louis and nana sleepover, and a day with just Louis that each daddy got to plan. It was perfect.
Louis was sat wringing his hands nervously as if his daddies wouldn’t love his gifts.
“Thank you so much, baby,” Nick and Harry ended up saying at the same time. They took turns hugging and kissing him, letting him know how much they loved his gift.
Louis opened gifts from both sets of his grandparents, Gemma, and his daddies, unable to stop smiling. He opened his last gift, a thin parcel that he carefully unwrapped. There was a picture of lots of cats and dogs inside, and he looked to his daddy with a confused look on his face.
“Papa and I thought you might want to get a kitty or doggie, love. Would you like that?”
Louis’ eyes filled with tears at the thought of having a friend to live with, and couldn’t nod quick enough.
Harry cooed, pulling Louis on his lap.
“Thank you,” Louis cried, nuzzling his face into his daddy’s chest.
“We’re happy that you’re happy, darling. We love seeing your sweet smile,” Nick replied, rubbing Louis’ back. They sat there for a bit until Louis calmed down before Harry spoke quietly.
“We have one more present upstairs if you want to go see it, angel.”
Louis nodded, standing up slowly before being led to his playroom. There was a huge dollhouse now stationed in the corner of the room. The outside had light blue shingles and a dark brown roof, and Louis opened it very very slowly as though he was afraid he’d break it.
The inside already had some of his princess dolls stationed around it, Belle and Cinderella sitting at the kitchen table and Jasmine laying in the bathtub (which made Louis giggle… a lot). There was furniture in it, everything from a little toaster to a flat screen tv. It was perfect.
“Louis’ dolls have a house!” He said, turning back to look at his daddies.
“That’s right! Santa brought you lots of dolls, too, so now you have even more friends to play with in your new house!”
“I love my daddies,” Louis said as he stood up and moved to hug the men. This was the best Christmas of his life, and he didn’t know how things could get better than they were.
------------------------
“Make sure you hold onto papa or my hand at all times, baby. We don’t want you to get hurt,” Harry said as he unstrapped Louis from the car. Louis nodded rapidly, craning his neck to peer around his daddy’s large figure.
The trio walked inside the building, an older man with gray hair meeting them once inside.
“You must be the Grimshaws! Welcome to the London Pet Rescue. We’re happy to have you here with us, and I can show you around if you’d like. My name is Gary, by the way,” The man finished, shaking hands with Harry and Nick as they introduced themselves. He bent down to say hi to Louis, the little waving shyly before hiding behind his papa.
“Want to start with the cats, love?” Harry asked, Gary leading them down a hallway that was labeled with the word cats at Louis’ approval.
The cat room was huge, the floor colored with bright green carpet. There were open cages on the wall that had food and water bowls, and perches with beds for the cats to lie in. There were around thirty kittens and cats wandering the room, some lazing in bed and others playing with toys.
Louis’ jaw dropped and he immediately sat on the ground, cats curiously walking over to him. He pet all of the cats that he could, enthralled by how soft they were.
“They seem to love you, bud. You’re a natural cat man!” Gary said, winking at Nick and Harry.
“They make funny noises,” Louis said.
“It’s called purring, it means that they’re happy,” Gary answered. Louis nodded in understanding, giggling as the cats lavished him with attention.
They stayed in there for a bit before Louis asked to go see the dogs. Gary immediately took them to the puppies, litters of golden retrievers, black labs, French bull dogs, and chihuahuas taking residence in the facility. Louis played with them for a bit, but looked up curiously at the sound of scratching.
He stood up and walked over to a pen that held a big, black dog that was looking at him with big eyes.
“Ah, that’s Kia, she’s been with us for a while now. Her owners moved away and couldn’t take her with them. She’s an older girl, almost eight; so most people just skip by her. I’d take her home if I had room,” Gary said, opening up the door to her pen.
The dog didn’t rush out, simply padding forward to greet Louis as he entered the area. Louis giggled as she licked his hand, immediately making herself at home right by his side.
“What kind of dog is she?” Nick asked as he watched Louis fall in love with the dog before his eyes. He should’ve guessed that his little boy wouldn’t want a puppy like every other kid on earth.
“She’s a pit bull boxer mix, more pit bull than anything. Sweetest dog there is. Her previous family had a few real children, and she was awful protective of them. Treated the kids like they were her pups,” Gary said, hoping that the family would decide to take her with them.
“I love her, papa. Can she come home? It’s sad not being loved. Louis knows,” The boy said, words innocent, but the meaning behind them heavy.
“Of course, darling. If Kia wants to come home with us, she can,” Nick replied quickly. He didn’t need to think it over, he knew Harry was thinking the same exact thing.
“We can go up front with Gary and get some things for her so that she’s happy and has everything she needs,” Harry said shortly after, smiling at the sight of Louis and his new friend.
“Want to go home, Kia? We can play all the time!” Louis said as he stood up. The dog’s tail started wagging wildly as she followed Louis out of the pen patiently, as though she knew exactly what he was saying.
Nick couldn’t help but feel as though they were saving the dog in the same way they helped Louis. They couldn’t help how long it had taken them to get her, but they did eventually. And that was all that matters, because now… now she would get her happily ever after, just like Louis.