Just One Little Favour

Nineteen

Louis watches as Joseph begins cracking the eggs into a bowl, pieces of shell plopping into the slimy yolk before them. Joey huffs, sticks his full hand into the bowl in order to chase the shell out. Louis smiles at him, watches as Grace helps aid the shell out by using the big piece of shell. She tosses it into the bin, grabs the electric whisk and pushes it into Louis' chest.

"You asked to help make cupcakes, Louis. So you're helping, too," she states, clicking her fingers and pointing to the pre mix bowl consisting of sugar, butter, and now egg and flour. 

Louis sighs. "By me helping, I meant I'd be the sacred spoon holder. They have the most important job. Hold the spoon and eat the batter off of it once the cakes are in the oven. 

"But I wanted to lick the spoon," Joe whines, rubbing his little eye. 

Louis pouts, sticks his tongue out at him. "You can have the bowl to lick from. Spoon is Uncle Loulou's pride and joy to eat."

Grace mumbles something under her breath that Louis doesn't quite catch besides the small whisper of the name Harry. 

"What was that?" Louis asks.

Grace raises a brow, shakes her head. "Nothing, love, nothing." A smile breaks through on her face, pulling her purple glossed lips upward.

Louis drops it for now, sticks the whisk inside the bowl and puts it on full power, flour dusting the surface and their clothes. He lowers the power, letting the whisk gently mix their cake batter together for them, the handle vibrating and making his whole hand shake. 

"When Mummy comes, can we give her cupcakes?" Joe asks.

"Whole point in us making them, lad. How about we start making the sandwiches once these are in the oven?" Louis suggests, handing the bowl to Gracie to pour into the paper cases, not trusting himself on making them even. 

He knows how much of a control freak Grace can be when it comes down to cooking. 

Joe gets into a strop when the bread he tries to butter breaks, Louis showing him the great skill of using the flat end of the butter knife to spread the butter carefully, knowing he's pretty good in this subject. He got a gold star in school for making the best jam sandwiches of his class — got all the corners buttered and jammed up n all. 

At one point, Joseph hits Louis with a hand full of flour goopy mix, earning a splodge back which ends up in an awful food fight that Grace has to clean up once they finished.

They both go upstairs to clean up, Louis chasing Joe up the stairs, both of them laughing gleefully.

They come back down the stairs dressed in a matching tracksuit set— blue joggers with green stripes, the hoodie blue with green sleeves, one Louis thought would look a little different compared to his normal plain black joggers and jumpers. Their hair's damp, sticking to their foreheads, Joe's hair sticking to his ears.

Joseph just about finished talking Louis' ear off about how rubber ducks are so much more fun in the bath than the rubber sharks (he's very passionate about what he stands for) when the pair look up to see Lottie standing in the kitchen, laughing easily at something Grace has said.

Joe gasps, running quickly toward her, little bare feet pitter pattering against the hard floor. He pounces, Lottie catching him quickly and swaying them side to side, kissing his cheek.

"Hi, darling boy," she bumbles into his hair, eyes gazing over at Louis with a small smile.

Louis doesn't miss the way that the black eye she got has turned slightly green with speckles of yellow and brown around the cheekbone. It looks painful to say the least.