Chapter 29
Nick was planning on letting Harry sleep in while he and Louis- who would do more watching from his high chair than anything else- cooked him a birthday breakfast, but his plan was spoiled when both daddies woke up to Louis happily babbling on the baby monitor.
“Was gonna cook you a fry up while you slept,” Nick murmured, kissing Harry’s lips softly.
“Ta, love. Guess I’ll be spending an extra hour with my baby,” Harry said with a smile as he sat up in their bed.
“If you want to grab him then I’ll start up breakfast. Happy birthday, love,” Nick said as they walked over to the sink and began to brush their teeth.
Harry garbled an unintelligible reply, his smile still evident with the toothbrush in his mouth.
Both men put on sweatpants, Harry heading to the nursery as Nick went downstairs.
Leaning against the door of Louis’ nursery, Harry smiled as he watched the little babble to Dusty and Lacy in his crib. Kia let out a bark from where she was curled in front of the crib, alerting Louis to the fact that he wasn’t alone any longer.
“Da!” Louis said excitedly, banging his beloved stuffed animals against the bars of his crib.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” Harry said with a bright smile as he unlatched the side of the crib. He was greeted with a cooing baby who pressed slobbery kisses on his cheek as soon as he was situated in his arms.
“B-bir’day!” Louis garbled out. The doctors assured Harry and Nick that it was completely normal for Louis to have regressed fully after being ill. The weakness that he felt caused his guard to lower enough for regression to completely set in. Surely there was a medical reason for it, but the doctors didn’t bother trying to explain it in any other way than plain English.
“That’s right! It’s my birthday!” Harry said as he gently laid Louis on the changing table, pressing a kiss to Louis’ rounded tummy. The little boy let out a peal of giggles at the feeling.
Once Louis was changed and his teeth were brushed, he was brought downstairs and carried into the kitchen. The little boy squirmed in his daddy’s arms, tears coming to his eyes. He couldn’t help but be confused at the change in routine. He was sat on his daddy’s lap on the couch every morning while he nursed. Then he was put in his favorite swing while his daddy ate breakfast.
Sensing that Louis was getting upset, Harry shushed the little. “It’s okay, sweetheart. Daddy’s going to feed you in the kitchen today, don’t worry!”
Louis’ worries were quelled when Harry sat down at the kitchen table and took off his shirt so that he could nurse only moments later. Nick and Harry shared a smile at the happy noises that Louis was making, Harry still unable to believe the gift that he’d received when Louis was sick. It was still hard to wrap his head around the fact that something in Louis’ biology called out to him and his body knew to reply. It was fate in its truest and finest form.
“All right, a spinach and tomato omelet, bacon, and a glass of orange juice for my favorite birthday boy,” Nick sang out as he carried two plates over to the table.
“Thanks, love,” Harry said as he beamed up at Nick. It was no surprise that he loved being pampered by his fiancé, but he couldn’t help but feeling especially loved on his birthday.
Louis finished up nursing a few minutes later, leaning back drowsily against his daddy’s chest. Harry took that as a sign that it was okay for him to eat. The men talked quietly over breakfast, Harry trying to be extra cautious as to not spill any hot food on Louis. He couldn’t think of a worse way to spend his birthday; they’d had enough hospital visits for a lifetime.
“Your parents should be here a bit after noon. How about you open some presents from Lou and I now?” Nick asked, enjoying starting out the day slowly. Working in the mornings was draining, so his days off were always special. It was nice to have energy come 8pm. Although Louis was in bed by half seven, it was nice to have some… alone time with Harry once in a while. Intimacy was essentially nonexistent for the first few weeks after Louis got sick, so they appreciated downtime more than ever. They weren’t quite ready to leave Louis alone until the current week, but they’d be close by regardless. Now that he was completely regressed he was more helpless and infantile than ever, and the thought of something happening to him while they were out enjoying themselves was unthinkable. Of course they trusted Anne to watch Louis, but it was still tough to think about the what ifs.
“Lou make!” Louis said excitedly, straining his neck to see his papa grab the presents that he helped wrap. He was proud of how much he helped his papa and how secretive he was, both in buying and wrapping the presents. Harry didn’t have the heart to tell him that he knew exactly what the pair was up to when they kicked him out of the daddies’ bedroom and shut the door.
“Did you?” Harry asked in an excited voice, “Can you show daddy which ones you wrapped so I can open them first?”
Louis pointed out the three sloppily wrapped packages that Harry could have pointed out as the little’s with his eyes closed. Part of the fun of being a parent was seeing the excitement on your child’s face when they were proud of something, so why would Harry take that away from his son?
“All right,” Harry said as he grabbed one of Louis’ packages, “Do you want to help daddy open his presents?”
Harry chuckled as Louis shook his head quickly, endeared by his boy’s excitement at watching his daddy open up presents. It was another reminder that Louis was the most selfless little boy, and person, for that matter, that he had ever met. Louis solely wanted the best for his family and friends and would always put them before himself. Nick and Harry enjoyed having the chance to spoil Louis as they knew he had never been spoiled before.
The first present turned out to be a running leash that he could use with Kia. He’d been talking for weeks about how he’d like to take the dog on a run, but didn’t have the proper leash to do so.
“Oh wow! Did you make this, sweetheart?” Harry asked with a smile overtaking his face at the gift in front of him. It looked as though Louis had glued beads into the shape of a flower onto three different metal rings. Louis nodded with a huge smile on his face and pointed to his daddy’s fingers where rings were indeed littered onto his fingers. Harry put one of the rings onto his index finger and handed the other two to Nick.
“Will you put these in a drawer, love? I don’t want to lose them!” Harry said as Nick met his gaze with a knowing look. Louis choking on his own crafts was not on today’s agenda.
“Of course! Look at that, the blue of your shirt and the ring match! Our Louis is so smart,” Nick praised as he put the rings in a drawer and heads back to the table.
Louis blushed at his daddies’ praise, happy to see how much his daddy liked his crafts. He and his papa spent hours looking for the perfect craft to do, and he knew how much his daddy liked rings, so he knew it was the perfect craft! He and his papa went shopping for rings to use as his papa said they needed to be comfy for his daddy to wear them. He used flat, colorful buttons to make the flowers and they looked perfect. He was overjoyed to see how much his daddy enjoyed his gift.
“Hm, what’s this?” Harry asked as he picked up the poorly wrapped, flat package that was still sat on the counter. As he opened it, the smile that grew on his face was instantaneous. “You didn’t!” Harry said as he looked at Nick.
“I did- we did! It’s time to get shopping for clothes, we’ve got a photo shoot next week!” Nick exclaimed, his excitement completely over exaggerated. Harry had been begging Nick to book a family photo shoot after seeing one of his friends post professional photos with their true child on Facebook. Nick knew he’d be inconsolable until he said yes. He also knew that Louis would be inconsolable 15 minutes into the shoot.
“I already have our outfits planned out, I just need to buy them. Oh Nick, thank you so much,” Harry said, beckoning Nick over to kiss him. Louis was given a kiss as well, of course, the man never wanting to leave his son out.
Louis was asleep in Harry’s arms just minutes after they settled into the couch to watch the morning news. An upside of Louis’ regression was his concrete schedule and knowing that he’d be asleep at 10am, 3pm, and 7:30pm everyday. It allowed the men to form their schedule around their little boy’s schedule and actually get work done.
Harry gently placed Louis in his swing after swaddling him in a soft blanket. He had the better part of 90 minutes to spend with his fiancé, and he was damn well going to use them to the best of his abilities.