Dim Lights and Butterflies

Five

Louis barely slept a wink last night. He's not sure what caused it this time, but the closer he is to Harry in the sense of proximity, the more aware of his surroundings he is. He heard a cat fight all early morning and was sure he heard one of them dying, which had his heart leaping out his throat.

He could hear Orion cry out at one point in the night, so he took it in his hands to tend to him as Harry probably wouldn't. The lad didn't even fucking wake up. But he did, however, notice that Astrid had crept into Harry's bed last night, curling up into his chest and falling asleep. Louis' surprised Harry didn't scream and chuck her out as if she was a random woman's knickers left in the bed.

He's got a pounding headache this morning and has been set with a sour mood. He'd be a lemon if he was reincarnated right now. Probably an unripe lemon, where it's still green and too tough to even pull delicately off its branches. He'd be the type of lemon that if you were to squeeze it, the juice would intentionally aim for your eyes instead of the dish before it.

Harry is gone by the time he's up, which isn't late, mind you. It's eight thirty, and he's been hyping himself up to get out of bed for thirty minutes before then. There's room service breakfast in the lounge, Astrid and Orion happily chomping away at the fruit and croissants, watching whatever is on the TV.

"What you watching?" Louis asks.

"Shh!" Astrid hisses. "I'm watching."

"Yes, but what are you watching?" He sits down beside them, snatching a small yoghurt bowl and piling the top with some granola and fruit. He tucks his legs under him.

"Vamparina," she replies, slowly chewing on a melon stick.

Louis notices now that the whole thing is in Italian as they haven't changed it to the English channel. "Do you actually know what they're saying?"

She nods her head.

"Wait, you know Italian?" Louis asks, bewildered.

"No. I know French and a little Spanish, now Shh!"

"Then... how do you know what they're saying?" Louis is so fucking confused and it doesn't help his already hammering head.

She huffs a sigh. "I've watched it before. I know what they're doing."

And oh. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Louis can't say how many Power Rangers episodes he watched as a kid to the point where he would memorise the script so when his mum had to be on the phone and muted the TV, he'd still know what was going on.

Kids are just clever like that.

Louis rubs his palms on his suit trousers—yes he is going to milk wearing this suit, and what about it—ridding the crumbs there. He leans his arm over the sofa. "So I was thinking we go to the lakes on a boat today. Do some sightseeing," he speaks to the room, his voice questioning.

Astrid looks to him with pursed lips. "Can we just go see Daddy instead?"

Louis shakes his head. "We can see him later, but it'll get a bit boring waiting around for him to finish. How about we go boat after breakfast and then pick him up to go for lunch. Would you like that?"

Her eyes light up instantly. "Yes, please!" She claps her hands, Orion copies her. "RiRi, we're going to go see Daddy."

Orion kicks his little feet on the sofa, bouncing up and down. "'Ease!"

Louis melts.

They're on a gondola. Louis has never been on one before, and he's sure the kids haven't either. He grips to Orion for all it's worth from where he sits on his lap, looking over the edge as the water laps up the wood of the gondola. The canal is narrow, buildings in colours of red and blue look down on them as they pass. There's a gondola coming the other way, and the passengers wave, clearly another set of tourists wanting to see the world.