The Balloon Man (Larry Stylinson)

Chapter 8

Louis let out a deep breath as he felt the last of the sun rays soaking into his skin. With it setting, the warm air and soft breeze that came through every few minutes it was more than enough to relax him.

His gaze shifted down to the dock where Harry was pointing something out to Arabella in the water, a smile almost too easily coming over him.

He put the dock in and bought a boat after his boyfriend mentioned wanting to get out on the water at least once over the summer. They've been coming for 3 weeks now and Louis was happy the dock was finished by the time they arrived for this weekend. Harry on the other hand was more or less shocked and seemed like he was a second away from having a heart attack. Louis had no problem defending himself by saying it only added value to the house which made it a good investment, the curly haired man couldn't argue. Plus Louis knew Arabella would love it and it gave them another thing they could do while here.

When Louis glanced at his phone and saw the time though he released a small breath. Hating that he had to grab Harry, but it was about time they had to get ready to go to dinner.

He pushed himself out of his lounge chair and made his way down to the dock, letting his toes dig into the sand as he went along.

"What're you looking at Bells?"

"Fish!" she squealed, jumping up and down excitedly as she pointed down at the water, "daddy I wan go on boat and see big fish."

"Maybe we can tomorrow sweetheart," Louis grinned down at her, "Harry and I are gonna go to dinner so it's time to go inside."

Arabella quickly pouted at him and crossed her arms over her chest, clearly about to protest before she was scooped into the green eyed man's arms.

"How about you help me pick out an outfit, hm?" Harry said, clearly trying to avert the small tantrum that threatened to come.

Louis sent him a grateful look as Arabella muttered a "fine." His boyfriend was a God sent when it came to diffusing his daughter, him always finding a way to distract her.

And it worked of course as Harry took Arabella to their room and showed her different options. The curly haired man always took what she said very seriously, but Louis understood, toddlers are cruelly honest and his daughter was no exception.

When it was time for them to leave though Arabella was close to tears, the blue eyed man doing everything in his power to calm her down. He knew she was having one of her classic 3 year old moments, and after having a more than fun day together she didn't want it to end. But after promising to go on the boat all day tomorrow and go out for a nice dinner her cries quieted to hiccups.

The two of them made sure to give her plenty of kisses and hug her tight before they left.

"I hate leaving her when she's upset," Harry said once they were settled in the car.

"You're telling me," Louis chuckled as he wrapped an arm around him, "I haven't been without her for more than two days since I've had her. Don't know if my heart can take any longer than that," he tried to joke.

"Your heart can barely take not having breakfast with her," Harry teased him.

Louis rolled his eyes as he heard that, but he couldn't fight him on it. He's gone to Harry's apartment a few times, but only to help him grab more clothes. The thought of sleeping over there and not seeing his daughter or taking her to daycare in the morning only gave him anxiety about not seeing her enough. He didn't need any more reasons besides work to not be there for her.

"I think you'll like this place, I used to come all the time," Louis smiled at him once they pulled up to the restaurant.

"Why'd you stop?" Harry asked as the older man opened the door.