#that storage space under the stroller for baby stuff? yeah

[fimbry]

Flowers are back after the freeze so I've been pressing a bunch for the wood paintings! I have another monarch painted, just waiting for the purple flowers to finish drying in another 1.5 weeks. Flower pressing is a test of patience that's for sure.

[larryfanficwriter98]

Chapter Three

Fake It Until You Make It Real

Harry got home Wednesday afternoon excited for the night ahead. He had let the dogs out when he got home a Harlequin Great Dane named Gizmo and a brown Newfoundland named Bear. The large dogs thought they were lap dogs still despite their big size. Harry had sent the gate code and his address to Louis during lunch and Louis had told him they'd see him in a few hours. He kept his glass sliding door open and headed to the playroom that held a lot of toys. The room was originally going to be the family sitting room with the large space, but it ended up being Maddie's toy room. There was play furniture like a grand walk on kitchen, a play grocery store, a play doctor center, and a small nursery area with many play cribs and strollers and storage for her baby things in the corner.

There was a logo table with her Legos under the Lego board for easy storage that also flipped to be a real table to color on or play with playdoh or whatever else she decided to do. There were six storage cube organizers lined up on the longest wall with a reading book and bookcase in the middle so three were one side and three on the other. Some of the bins were empty, some over filling, and others half full. Harry had to go through some of the toys that Maddie no longer wanted so he could donate them, but he never had Maddie here to figure out what stuff she still wanted and what she didn't. Sighing Harry did a quick cleaning of the room making sure everything was cleaned for Freddie if he wanted to play in there.

He then headed to the outdoor playset and made sure no spiders or bees had made it it's home glad to see they haven't. He headed back inside with the dogs following and just before he was going to start dinner his cameras that displayed the live view onto his tv alerted him of Louis entering the gated driveway. Grinning Harry headed to his front door and swung it open watching as Louis parked beside his Murano and got out smiling at him.

"He hasn't stopped talking about coming over just so you know. Everyone at Nursery knows." Louis said as he helped Freddie out of his booster.

"Harry!" Harry spread his arms open wide and knelt down to catch Freddie as he ran into them, "Papa let me bring some of my toys because he said you have a lot of toys I may not want to play with."

"Is that so?" Harry challenged looking at Louis who shrugged.

"Pretty sure your daughter and my son have different tastes." Louis said as he grabbed a Spiderman backpack from the backseat.

"Freddie, I have so many toys you won't even want your other ones come on." Harry said as he carried Freddie, his arm wrapped under his bottom as he entered the house. The dogs perked up immediately and came running over wagging their tails and licking Freddie's leg and shoes, "alright you mutts get off. Back up."

"Papa you didn't say Harry had dogs!" Freddie said excitedly as he wiggled down and was immediately kissed all over his face as he giggled.

"Sorry you're not allergic, are you?" Harry asked looking at Louis

"Don't worry about it and no I'm not. Neither is he. I'm never going to get him to leave now though." Louis told him with a grin as he stood beside Harry, "he's been wanting a dog for years."

"What kind of dog?"

"He wants a Dalmatian."

"Maddie wants one too. These two dogs are mine, got lonely so got some dogs. Gizmo is the Great Dane and Bear is the Newfoundland." Harry said before he grabbed both dogs harnessed and pulled them off of Freddie before they knocked him down, "alright before you see...everything....just know that half of the stuff she doesn't even play with anymore or even knows is here since she's never actually here. I buy things periodically to be prepared and so she's not...bored. I don't have her here to help make a donation pile, so it looks like there's more than there actually is." Harry said looking to Louis.

"You're going to come home every week with a new toy, aren't you?"

"No...maybe." Louis rolled his eyes grinning as he knelt down to help Freddie out of his shoes, "I know I went overboard with the outdoor playset. So, don't even tell me. I know okay."

"Lead the way then Harry." Louis said after slipping his own shoes off and place both pairs by the door. The living room was directly to the right and was a fee inches sunken in. There was a brown plush modular sectional and a swivel cuddle chair to match the sectional. The tv was curved and sitting nicely on a tv stand with the drawers filled with movies.

"The only thing you're missing is a fireplace." Louis said

"Other living room. Well technically it's just a sitting room with a smaller tv for background noise. It will most likely be where our families will gather because it has more seating. Let's first show Freddie to the playroom then we can go on a quick tour." The playroom was directly across from the living room on the left side of the front door. It had a sliding door that had a hook lock on the outside where only someone five feet could reach it. Freddie stood in shock of all the space and storage that had toys in it.

"You spoiled her." Louis said looking at Harry noticing he was looking sadly at the room, Louis stepped into his side and wrapped his arms around his back rubbing it, "Hey we can always elope in secret and-" Harry cracked a smile before he laughed shaking his head.

"No that'll look bad. Thank you though...for doing this." Harry said as he wrapped his arm around Louis' waist and pulled him in closer to his side, "come on I'll give you that tour."

********

Louis watched Freddie from the kitchen windows as he played on the playground with the dogs outside laying in the shade. The whole yard was fenced its, but Harry has still made sure Freddie knew not to go outside with the dogs. Harry was cooking and they kept talking about anything they could think of that still needed to be discussed."

"Wedding day. What day do you want to get married?" Harry asked

"January 19? It's six months after our anniversary?" Louis suggested

"Yeah, works for me. So, I was on Pinterest-“

“Figures.” Harry playfully glared at him before he continued chopping up some carrots.

“I was on Pinterest looking at winter color schemes we could discuss and found some that I liked. So, in order you don’t picked something just because I like it, I pinned every one that interested my no matter how little and you are to pick your top three.”

“Three?! What!? Why three!?”

“Because it’ll be easier to narrow it down. Here passcode is Maddie’s birthday 0520.” Harry said handing over his phone, “Pinterest is in the social media folder on the second page.” Louis nodded as he unlocked it then swiped to the second page and found said folder. Clicking on it he saw the usual Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat apps.

“You have Snapchat?”

“Maddie likes the filters. Seriously I think the only time I’m on it is when she’s with me or if she uses Julie’s, her babysitter’s phone to send me pictures. She’s under Princess with a heart emoji in case it ever shows up.”

“Don’t worry I’m not want to jump to conclusions because of emojis and contact names. My mom’s contact is five heart emoji’s and there’s been a lot of weird accusations. Especially since she has a nickname for me which I refuse to divulge.”

“Did you just use divulge in a casual sentence?” Harry asked amused as he looked at Louis

“Moving on.” Louis said pointedly as he found his boards, “You realize you have a wedding color board for every season, right?”

“I like to plan ahead. Moving on. It's the winter one...the second winter one. The newest one." Louis grinned as Harry blushed a dark pink shade. Louis clicked on the board that was made over the past few days and saw a lot of color schemes.

"There's twenty schemes...really?"

"I went a but overboard." Harry admitted, "to be fair I've been planning my wedding since I was five so be glad you have a say at all." Louis laughed shaking his head.

"I'll make a new board of the ones I like then we'll go from there."

"Sounds good." Louis looked through them all twice before he started moving them to a separate board.

Obviously, a lot of them were red and green or a light blue which he did like, but it was just so traditionally done it sort of irked him. He knew winter weddings weren't that common, but the colors were, and he wanted something different and he knew that Harry did too considering some the color palettes were for the Autumn season and Spring season. The colors would still work for the winter and he did like some, but it was the copper and greenery that kept his eye. Considering Harry had three copies of the similar color scheme he assumed it was safe to say Harry liked it too.

"Papa!" Louis turned and grinned seeing Freddie come running in with the dogs not far behind him.

"Hi Hun." Louis said lifting Freddie up onto his lap, "are you having fun?"

"Yeah, Harry's house is the bestest!" Freddie said excitedly as he bounced lightly on Louis lap.

"Hey Freddie, can you be the biggest boy?" Harry asked quirking an eyebrow.

"Yes. Yes, I can." Freddie said

"Great you have to get off your Papa's lap though." Freddie immediately slid down and came over to Harry who gave him the stack of players.

Two glass and one reusable plastic plate with Thomas the train on it. Louis made to stand already opening his mouth to tell Freddie to give him the plates, but Harry gave him a look that had Louis sitting down before he was even out of the seat. Harry then played a handful of napkins on the plates with two adult utensils sets then one tinier set for little hands.

"Put a plate on each placemat then divide everything equally. The little set is yours, got it?"

"Okay Harry." Louis stared at Harry who didn't look at all worried as he turned away and opened the fridge door.

"Are you insane? He's going to drop them." Louis whispered walking over to Harry as he watched Freddie head to the square dining table set for four but only had three placemats.

"No, he won't. He's four years old, plenty old enough to help set the table. Maddie started setting the table at three and did fine." Louis swallowed looking over at Freddie who indeed looked completely comfortable as he set the plates down on the table and started setting it as perfectly as any four-year-old could, “Relax he can handle a few chores.”

“He does chores.” Louis defended weakly because he knew he really didn’t make Freddie do chores if it meant a fit. Usually, Freddie picked up his toys but that was it.

“Minimally picking up toys is baby word compared to what Maddie did at four. I don’t make her slave away, but I make her bring her hamper to the stairs where I carry it down then I have her take it to the laundry room and organize them. I have her feed the dogs, she makes her bed in the morning, she puts her clothes away. Tiny things that make her have responsibility. I absolutely will not step on your toes when it comes to Freddie and parenting styles will sometimes clash no matter what, we’ll have to talk about our dead set no’s obviously, but…” Harry trailed off as he pulled Louis closer to him by his hands and held eye contact, “Just know that as your husband your son is my son, and my daughter is your daughter. Chores, and we can discuss this together and build Freddie up to it slowly, will be done by each child. Freddie will have a fit and a tantrum and he will hate us but believe me when I say in time it will have massive improvements on his behavior. He’ll have a good list of responsibilities and he’ll feel like he’s needed, it’ll be good for him. I respect you as a parent, I commend you as a parent and I’m positive if I had Maddie more often, I probably would have spoiled her too much in the earlier years. Not having her gave me a lot of time to research and study and find a parenting style I wanted to stick with when I had her over. Her adjustment here won’t be easy either, her adjustment to just a few chores was hard so I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when I get her regularly. We’ll work through this together as a couple, as a family.” Louis smiled softly and nodded, he wrapped an arm around Harry’s neck and hugged him feeling his arms wrap around his body immediately returning the hug a tad tighter.

“Are you two going to kiss? Should I cover my eyes?” Louis and Harry pulled away blushing and Louis looked over at Freddie who looked between them, “Papa is Harry your boyfriend? Is that why you asked me if I liked him?”

“…Sort of…” Louis said cautiously as he and Harry looked at each other not actually having talked about when they’d address it to the kids let alone Freddie.

“That’s not a real answer Papa. You told me so.”

“I did say that didn’t I.” Louis said

“How would you feel if I were your papa’s boyfriend?” Harry asked like the saving grave he is as he knelt to be at the same level as Freddie, “How would you feel if we told you we had been dating for a long time and we might want to get married?”

“Married? Like a big white dress married?”

“Well neither one of us would be in a dress…I assume, but yes something like that.” Harry said glancing at Louis briefly.

“Would you move in with us?” Freddie asked almost excitedly, “Will you bring the dogs? And the playset?”

“Actually, you and your Papa would move in here. You’d have a bedroom you can decorate anyway you want and the dogs and the playset and the playroom. My daughter would join us here too sometimes.” Harry explained

“Oh…but what about my toys?”

“We’d bring them with us Freddie Bear.” Louis said kneeling beside Harry and looped his arm around Harry’s, “What do you think?”

“Will Santa know we moved so close to Christmas?” Freddie asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, Santa will know where to find you on Christmas. I promise.” Louis said amused as he grabbed Freddie’s hand.

“Well then…okay. I guess. When do we move?” Louis opened his mouth then closed it and looked at Harry.

“Whenever. When is your lease up?”

“November so we have a few more months. When is your first court hearing again? I feel like you told me already, but I can’t remember.”

“November fifteenth. By then hopefully you have met my lawyer and he has met you and Freddie. Just a routine meeting nothing to worry about. He’s upset with me that I didn’t tell him I had a boyfriend until now, but he told me us taking the precautions we did will look good for us.” Harry said carefully as he looked at Freddie who looked to be paying close attention to their conversation. Louis nodded in understanding, “Freddie tell your papa what juice you want, and I will bring the food to the table before it gets cold.”

*********

Freddie fell asleep halfway through Finding Nemo and after a bit of reluctance, Louis finally agreed to let Harry show them to a guest room so they could sleep the night considering how late it was. Harry closed their guest room door behind him after wishing them a goodnight and Louis crawled into the bed beside Freddie falling asleep within seconds.