I've Been Watching You All Night

Chapter 59

After dinner, the eight of them retired to the living room to eat dessert and exchange presents. Harry settled down on the floor with the twins, his pregnancy pillow tucked underneath his bum. Louis sat on the couch behind Harry, his legs framing Harry's body on either side. The girls curled up on the couch with Louis, surrounding him on both sides. "Alright girls, we go in order from youngest to oldest. One present at a time." Louis stood up from where he was trapped and grabbed the bag of presents that the girls had brought from beside the door. He carried it over to them and set it in front of Harry, going over to get another stack of presents from under the tree.

Louis handed each person one present and then sat back down on the couch with his own gift in his lap. "Haz, could you help the twins unwrap their gifts? Doris first, she's 5 minutes younger." Louis rubbed Harry's shoulder and the boy leaned forward, helping Doris tear off the paper on her present. Harry tossed the balled-up wrapping paper to the corner of the room and opened the box, handing the girl the brand-new Woody doll. Her old one had been chewed through by Zayn's dog when Louis had brought the twins over to his house.

The small redhead displayed no emotions when she was given the new doll. Of course, she was only two years old. She didn't exactly have a good grasp on what Christmas or presents were. Harry cooed as he watched the girls just put one of Woody's plastic hands in her mouth to gnaw on. He then helped Ernie open his present, which was a Jessie doll to go with Doris's Woody. Harry and Louis found a great deal on Toy Story stuff at Big Lots, so that's mainly what the twins were getting. "Alright, Pheobs, it's your turn, darling."

Phoebe barely waited for the words to leave Louis's mouth before she started pulling the tissue paper out of her bag. The small girl let out a squeal close to the pitch of a dog whistle when she saw what was inside. She dug her hand into the bag and pulled out a Barbie princess with all of the special add-ons. There were dresses in all colors, shoes, and lots of little plastic handbags. "Thank you, Louis, so so so much! I love love love it!" The girl tackled Louis and hugged him fiercely, placing a sloppy, wet kiss on his cheek. "It was all Harry's idea. He picked out all of the dresses and everything."

The girl hugged Harry from behind, kissing his cheek as well. "Thank you, Harry. I promise to let you play with it later." Harry smiled and patted the girl's head. "I'm gonna hold you up to that. I really want to play with that Barbie. Almost bought one for meself." The girl giggled and handed the box to Louis for him to open. Louis told her he'd open it later and then said it was Daisy's turn to open her present.

The opening of presents went on for a while (the boys went a little overboard with buying gifts), with a small break halfway through to get dessert served. The girls all loved their treats, and Louis sat down next to Harry on the floor to feed him some tiramisu. Once they finished with their cookies and tiramisu, the girls all whispered among themselves and Lottie left the room. "Lotts, where are you going, love?" Louis got no response and Harry just shrugged at him. The blonde girl came back a minute later with something behind her back.

"Uh, we, well, us girls, we umm, got you a little something extra." Lottie came closer and stood right in front of the two boys who were still on the floor, an empty plate balanced on their knees in between them. "We all chipped in but Fizz came up with the idea." Lottie gestured toward her younger sister. Fizzy blushed and ducked her head. "We hope you like it." She took her hands out from behind her back and handed a small gift bag to the couple.

Louis took the bag from her and set it in front of him and Harry. "Would you like to do the honors, baby?" Harry nodded and took the tissue paper out of the bag, pulling the bag closer so he didn't have to lean as far. He slipped his hand into the bag and pulled out what was inside, his eyes widening as he saw what it was. "Oh my god. This is...this is incredible. How did you girls afford these?" Louis took the slips of paper from his hands and read over them, his mouth dropping open. "Y-you guys bought us tickets to the Rolling Stones final tour? How did you pay for this?" Louis looked at the girls with a look of shock on his face.

"Fizzy and I have been cleaning the neighbor's house for her. She's a little old and can't get around too well, so we go over there a couple of days a week. And the twins made a few batches of cookies with mum and sold them at that fair a couple of months ago. We all pooled our money and bought the tickets, with a little help from mum and Dan. They're not great seats, but you can see the stage. I know how much you like the Stones, Louis, and you told me that Harry likes them a lot." Harry nodded, still lost at the thought that he would get to see the Stones live. "Hazzy loves them even more than I do. We have an agreement that he's allowed to leave me for Mick Jagger if he ever gets the opportunity."

Harry giggled and put his head on Louis's shoulder. "The concert isn't for a couple of months, so it'll be after the baby comes. Fizzy and I offer to babysit when you guys go if you want us to." Louis nodded and stood up, pulling Lottie into a hug. "This is so great, love. I love them so much. Come here, girls. Bring it in." The other three stood up and gathered into a group hug. Harry struggled to get up and once the girls had released Louis, he opened his arms for a hug from them. Louis took the opportunity to gather up all of the plates and take them into the kitchen. Otherwise, Harry would try to do the job and Louis didn't want that.

Louis hated when Harry was on his feet for too long. He thought that Harry should just be pampered like the princess he was. "Louis!" Louis winced as he heard Harry yell from the living room. "I said I would clear the dishes! Get your big bum back in here with those things and let me clean them up!" Louis shook his head and chuckled at how annoyed the boy sounded. He jumped a little when he heard feet stomping into the kitchen. "Get out of my kitchen!"

Louis dropped everything he was doing and held his hands up in surrender, backing away from the counter. "I'm sorry, baby. I was just trying to be helpful. I'll go back into the living room and clean up the trash in there. You may have your kitchen back, m'lady." Louis bowed and walked out of the kitchen, shrieking when he felt Harry whip him with a tea towel. "Girls, do you think you could help me gather up the trash and put it in this bag? I promise that after that we can all cuddle up and watch some tv." The girls all jumped up and helped him collect the wrapping paper, stacking up all of the gift bags under the end table.

"Thank you, loveys. Let's watch some tv now, yeah?" Louis handed the remote to Lottie and she switched on the box tv set up on a crate. They couldn't afford a real entertainment center or a new tv, so they worked with what they had. Louis sat down on the floor, leaving a space next to him for Harry, and pulled Ernie into his lap. Ernie and Doris were both getting tired and Louis knew that they had to be kept in comfortable positions or they would get fussy. Harry came back in and cuddled up next to Louis, allowing Doris to crawl into his lap and rest her head on his belly. "Merry Christmas, Louis." Louis hummed and pressed a kiss to the top of Harry's head. "Merry Christmas, baby."