Until I Met You

(Louis’ POV)
I put my hands on my hips, in a huff, “Will you lot PLEASE sit still?” None of them paid me any mind. “Finn, put that down- where’s your brother anyway? HUGH! Toby, no. Finn, don’t encourage him!”

Now I knew how Liam felt around the rest of us. I made a note to myself to show him a bit of appreciation later.

“Uncle Louis! Look what I can do!” Hugh finally revealed himself. He ran down the hallway, banging a tin bucket on his head with a wooden spoon.

Silly ten year olds.

“Have you lot seen Rorie?” I asked the group of children accumulatively, trying to grab the back of Hugh’s shirt to slow him down. “Rorie! VICTORIA!”

“Yes, dad?” her head poked out of the kitchen door.

I stopped to address her, “Can you please pick up Toby for a moment?”

She nodded enthusiastically and grabbed her five year old brother. “Uncle Lou, do you need help in there?” Diana called from the kitchen. The two girls had been baking cookies.

“No!” I hollered. “I’m fine thanks!” Grabbing one of the twins by his shirt collar, I put him in a head lock, “Gotcha! Now which one are you?” Hugh had taken the bucket off of his head and now the two were completely identical.

“Finn, obviously,” the little boy laughed manically.

“Or am I Finn?” the other one asked and ran off down the hall.

How frustrating. The oven let out a loud ding and Diana’s voice rang out, “Cookies are ready!”

This immediately stopped the chaos as all of the children ran into the kitchen. I took a head count. All right. Rorie and Toby were sitting at one end of the table, my nine year old little girl blowing on one of the sweet treats for her brother.

Finn and Hugh were fighting over the biggest cookie. “Don’t make me call your father,” I threatened to no avail. Sometimes, I felt like they spent too much time around me. Niall’s two twin sons were here and accounted for.

Diana handed me a napkin with one of the treats. She was a sweetheart, Niall’s oldest. “Thanks, love,” I nodded to her as she sat down. I never knew a more polite thirteen year old.

Niall and Isis had gone out traveling, on tour I presume.

They often left their three kids here with me. I couldn’t say why. We all know I’M not the responsible one.

“Hey, Uncle Louis- UGH. The twins are STILL HERE?”

And enter Beth.

“Good to see you too!” the twins responded happily and simultaneously.

Beth, Liam’s daughter, who was a year younger than Diana, walked into our house unannounced frequently. I didn’t mind, as long as she let me know she was here eventually.

Diana and Beth exchanged a hug. They were good friends. The latter turned to me, “I hope you don’t mind, but I told Uncle Zayn that you all were here and he’s bringing over Alliah for a play date.”

“Now I’ll have SEVEN of you to look after?” I whined humorously.

Hugh and Finn shared a laugh just as there was a knock on the door. I got up and expected to see Zayn, but instead found Harry.

“What are YOU doing here?” I asked, fondly ruffling his hair. “Shouldn’t you be in the states?”

Harry broke out into a large grin, “Actually, the wife and I came back for the holidays. Her family went traveling again. So we decided we’d like to have a date night and I was wondering if you could keep an eye on Darcy…”

“What’s one more?” I shrugged and watched as she jumped out of the car. She and Rorie were the same age and they got along brilliantly.

“Harry! Could I stay over too?” someone else shouted.

Harry turned toward the car, “You shouldn’t be asking me that question. Ask your uncle.” Joseph jogged to his sister’s side and took her hand politely, then looked to me, “You mind? I wanted to spend some time with Diana, we’re working on a school project.”

“Well at least you can take care of yourself,” I motioned for him to come in and they both sprinted for the kitchen. “So, Harry, date night?” I wiggled my eyebrows.

Harry bit his lip, “Yeah, we’re not really sure what we’re doing-”

“Or whom.”

He gave me a smack but had a good laugh. “No, you know she’s not like that. We’ll probably be watching a film. I’ll come pick them up by nine.”

“Nine? How are you supposed to do anything fun before nine?” I teased.

Rolling his eyes, Harry blew a kiss to Darcy who smiled, “Bye daddy!”

“Have fun then,” I gave him a rough pat on the cheek and waved as he drove off.

Eight kids in total… how hard could that be?

Just as I was about to close the front door, Zayn drove up. He walked his daughter to the door. “Hey,” he greeted me with a hand shake. “Vas Happenin?”

Make that nine kids.

“Looks like I’m babysitting today,” I turned my head as a high pitched scream ensued from the kitchen. I couldn’t tell if it was one of the twins or one of the girls. Maybe it was Toby…

“Need any help, mate?” Zayn peered over my shoulder.

I had been about to ask for assistance, but now that he had questioned my ability to handle the situation, I knew I was FULLY capable of doing so. “No, no, no!” I held up my hands. “I’ve got it! Come here Alliah! Uncle Louis’s got cookies in the kitchen!”

She gave her dad a hug, but she could only reach up to his stomach. “I’ll see you around seven, alright?” Zayn knelt down, holding her shoulders gently. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” she gave him another hug, this time around wrapping her arms around his neck. Zayn smiled.

“You take good care of her, Louis,” he warned humorously. “See you around.”

“No worries,” I winked. “Go home and have a fun night with the wife for me! Not that I’m living through you or anything, but my better half is out running errands and…” My explanation faded as he continued to stare at me with an amused look. “Alright, bye!”

My friend gave me a pat on the shoulder and walked down the snowy sidewalk to his car.

Going back into the death trap that was the kitchen, I found chocolate smeared on every single one of their faces. Not a cookie remained. “It looks like you lot killed something in here!” I exclaimed, motioned to the mess.

“Sorry, Uncle Louis,” the general chorus rang out.

“Now how am I going to keep you tykes occupied?” I started pacing, my socks sliding slightly on the tiled floor.

Joseph had begun wiping the chocolate off of his sister’s chubby face, but stopped momentarily to answer my question, “Why not tell us a story?” Because he had lived half of his life in the states, Joseph had a mix of the two accents.

“Ever the clever boy!” I raised my index finger up into the air and jumped onto a chair, squatting down so I was level with most of the eyes in the room. “I agree with a story.”

“STORY TIME!” the twins shouted.

“Now, the only question is: which to tell?”

Rorie clapped her hands, “Why not how you met mum? I always love that one.”

“Okay. So, it was just after I ran away from the band that-”

“You ran away from the band?” Beth asked.

I frowned, “Do NOT interrupt MEEEE. But yes, I did.”

“Why?” Toby asked in his high pitched, still babyish voice.

“Well, because we had to enter into this singing competition after our ratings started to drop,” I explained.

Diana rested her elbows on the table, “And your ratings dropped because…?”

“Because all of the drama YOUR father and I were making in the press after him and your mum moved in together,” I pointed at Beth.

“Oh yeah, Harry told me about that,” Joseph ran his fingers through his hair. He was the only naturally blonde one in the group. “Rather nasty stuff.”

“Ha! But we can’t leave Harry out of THAT story either,” I shook my head. “He didn’t exactly help the situation- being in therapy and all.”

“Daddy went to therapy?” Darcy asked.

Beth nodded, “And that was when my parents met. Why don’t we get to hear THAT story?”

“Why does Joseph call Uncle Harry ‘Harry’ and not dad?” Alliah asked quietly, ignoring Beth’s question.

Diana pursed her lips for a moment, “Alliah, Harry’s not Joseph’s dad.”

“Then who is?”

“Do you want to hear the story or NOT?” I felt like I was arguing with toddlers- well, I guess I KIND of was.

All of the kids looked at me expectantly.

“Okay, since we have all these questions,” I tapped my chin, “why don’t we start a bit earlier? Let’s see, I had just gotten rid of my intern when-”

“You had an intern?” Rorie tilted her head to the side in a gesture of curiosity.

I kicked my feet out from underneath me and sank into the chair, “I’m never going to get to tell the story, am I.”

“Hold on,” Finn scratched his head. “You never told us-”

“Why Uncle Harry was in therapy.” Hugh finished for his brother.

I gave a heavy sigh. “Well there was this girl, Sophie, who he really liked and she ended up dating Niall-”

“SOPHIE’S OUR MUM?” the twins shouted together in exasperation.

“No, you idiots!” Beth sounded thoroughly annoyed. “She’s Joseph and Darcy’s mum!”

“FINE!” I threw my hands up. “I’ll just start at the VERY beginning.”

Notes

New FanFic, hope u like
~L