Just One Little Favour

Seventeen

The sound of giggling bounces through the door, alongside running footsteps, signalling the awakeness of a child.

Louis rubs his nose against his pillow, getting at an itch there, feeling too cosy to move. He peeps an eye open despite himself and sees that the time has just turned to 8:32 in the morning. He should probably get up and occupy the little devil.

But staying in bed sounds so good right now, especially when it means he won't get to start the day yet, especially when you're about to go fake love at your fake boyfriend's mum's house. It's a lot to figure out, clearly.

There's a shriek of laughter that travels from downstairs, and Louis is sure that Joseph is probably brewing some sort of mischief down there. So with all the heavy weight in his shoulders about the day's events, he sits upright, grunting as he goes.

He peels his eyes open once more, the sun beginning to filter through the curtains, warming up the space by his left side. He watches through the crack in the curtains as silhouettes of birds fly by, tweeting a song as they go.

He quickly gets dressed into some jogger bottoms and a grey hoodie. Once he's somewhat fixed his hair (he looked at it for a hot second, patted it, then when it did fuck all, he decided to leave it) he goes downstairs to find Joe.

The smell of something burning hits his nose halfway down the stairs, and he's quick to feel his heart drop and his feet to move quicker through the corridor and into the kitchen.

There, he's met with Joey sitting at the island, cackling with his head flung back and mouth full of toast, Grace taking out a slice of toast from the toaster and tossing it into the bin.

Louis puts a hand to his heart, feeling as though he might have just shat himself slightly. "Jesus, Gracie, forgot you were in today. Thought the bleeding kid was burning me house down!" he states, walking further into the kitchen and ruffling Joey's hair.

Joe wiggles his nose, taking a big munch out of his Nutella covered toast. "Gracie said there's breakfast sausage rolls in the oven, but I was too hungry to wait. She gave me some toast!" He flings his hand in the air with the toast in his little grasp, pointing it at Louis' face.

Louis takes a bite of it, earning a scowl from the child. "Mmm."

"Sorry for the smell, Louis, Joseph wanted to know what the dial did on the toaster so I showed him. Think there's some old crumbs in the bottom needing a clean out, I can do that later after the laundry," Gracie explains, giving Louis his mug of tea, earning a kiss on her cheek in return.

"Thanks love. No need to do toaster shit, I can do that later if you want." If he remembers that is.

"We play with cats!" Joseph exasperates,  eyes comically wide and full of glee.

Louis nods, copying the wide eyed look teasingly. "Yes, we are." He takes a sip of his tea and perches himself next to Joe. He bumps his elbow lightly into the boy. "What do you say we ask to take them home and keep them," he jokes, not being serious one bit. He's sure it's noticeable with the way his voice is laced with sarcasm.

Joseph's eyes widen further and he gasps. "Really?" he squeaks. "Can we really do that?"

Louis shakes his head. "I was joking, Skimbleshanks."

Joe's smile drops dramatically, and he huffs out a sigh. He picks up his last bite of toast and shoves it in his mouth sullenly.

Louis must admit that the kid is so much like Lottie when she was his age that it physically hurts with the love that pools through his veins. He just hopes he doesn't grow up to hate him, much like Lottie seemingly does, making crude remarks every now and then about how his mum would be disappointed in him. Just thinking about it shoots a pang of pain to jab at his chest.