A Handcuffed Christmas

9

"The long lost brother returns! Just in time to help us with the oranges." Lottie grinned as they walked into the kitchen.

They took a seat. All of Louis' siblings were decorating oranges with clove and the kitchen smelled wonderful. Louis grabbed an orange with his right hand, pulling on the handcuffs. Harry grimaced in discomfort.
"Sorry, I keep forgetting." Louis apologized.

He put the orange in Harry's left hand and took another one, with his free hand this time, and put it in his cuffed one. He gave Harry a grin before he started to press the clove into the orange. Harry started to decorate his orange as well, making hearts. Louis was swearing a lot. He looked at him.
"It's not fair. You get to use your dominant hand." He pouted.

"Blame Niall for that!" Harry giggled.

"Oh, trust me. I will." Louis snorted but he was smiling.

They kept bickering but it wasn't mean comments as usual, only playful. Daisy interrupted them.
"Louis! Look at my orange! Cool, right?"

"Super cool." Louis smiled.

They finished decorating their oranges and tied red ribbons around them and hung them over one of the kitchen counters. After that, they headed outside to build a snowman. Harry and Louis tried to roll a snowball together and couldn't stop giggling. They were getting better at coordinating.

They sat down in the living room with hot chocolate and marshmallows and watched a Christmas movie together all of them after they had finished their snowman. Harry secretly loved every second of it. He liked Louis' big family.
He had always wanted one himself, and now he could at least pretend that he was a part of one. He loved his own, small family of course but there was something special about a house full of kids.

Jay came home from some Christmas shopping and greeted everyone before she headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner. The food was done at the same time as the movie ended and they sat down at the dining room table to eat.
"So I talked to Anne earlier." Jay said.

"And?" Louis wondered.

"They're coming over on Christmas. She has talked to your sister and grandparents, Harry." Jay smiled.

"That's great!" Harry beamed.

"Yeah! I can pay for the food, mum." Louis said.

Harry glanced at him.
"We can pay for the food."

"Sure." Louis agreed with a grin.

"That's very sweet of you but we got it covered. Don't worry. Anne will be here the day before to help me cook. It's actually nice to have some company when I think of it. Less stressful." Jay smiled.

"I always help!" Louis' sisters protested at the same time.

"Of course you do." Jay said fondly.

"Wait, what about my birthday?" Louis pouted.

"You're not forgotten, sweetheart. Of course, we're going to celebrate your birthday. 21? Where did the time go? I remember when you were a toddler. So cute." Jay said dreamily.

"Mum!" Louis whined.

Harry couldn't help but giggle. Jay was just like his mum. Louis stuck his tongue out at him.

They spent the rest of the evening playing board games with Louis' siblings while Jay was on the phone with Anne.