Dim Lights and Butterflies

Six

A week rolls over back into Saturday once more. Harry has practically gone back to his old ways despite his arguments against it. It has Louis screaming into the pillows half the nights, wanting to rip his own hair out. He's just glad that Harry actually allowed Astrid to try out for football, and didn't say anything more on the horse riding. It's small wins, Louis guesses. 

Astrid is up, already dressed in her football gear, bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. Louis yawns into his hand. It's so early, he wanted to make sure they got up in time for the match, and Ads didn't seem to mind about waking up early on the weekend, she seemed pretty happy about the fact that she's going to do something new. Louis was debating whether to take her to the evening game or the early game, but he decided on the early one so she can have the rest of the day to wind down. 

Orion throws his oatmeal to the floor, frowning. Poppy decides to help clean up by being a mop, slurping up the oatmeal and blueberries.

Louis tuts. "Now, why did you go and do that?" he questions, pushing some watermelon in front of Orion who eats it gladly. Louis rolls his eyes, turns to Astrid whilst sipping at his tea. "So, Tills, you excited for today?"

Astrid pouts up at Louis. "Tills?"

He shrugs with a smile. "The 't' in Astrid and the 'li' in Elise. Put it together, Tilly. Tills. Ali, Als."

"Addie." Astrid shakes her head but giggles. "I like Tilly."

"Tilly it is, Addie." Louis nods once.

Astrid bounces in her seat, the spoon flicking oatmeal by accident. "I'm so excited! I hope I meet some new friends."

"Anything wrong with your other friends?"

Astrid shakes her head. "Evie is fine. Molly isn't so nice anymore, she goes off with Maisie and leaves me out."

Louis strokes Astrid's cheek. "'m sorry, boo." He pecks her head. "People like that don't deserve your time of day." He looks to the clock. "Right, chop, chop!" He places his cup in the sink. 

Astrid charges up the stairs, grabbing her new cleats and skipping over toward the front door. Louis can see her bubbling excitement from here. The way she jiggles on the spot, skipping from one foot to the other, head swaying side to side to a tune in her own little head. She whips her head round, staring at Louis. 

"Well, come on!" she snaps impatiently, shoving her feet into some of her old Crocs for the time being. 

Louis snorts, picking Orion up from his high chair and setting him down, taking the pink bib from around his neck and chucking it on the table. He'll clean all that up once he's back. He takes a quick glance up the stairs, wondering if and when Harry will be awake. He was certain that maybe he'd want to see the practice run for Addie, considering this is new and exciting for her, too. But the dim lights of upstairs stay dull, only the natural light coming from the windows illuminating the space, a thin layer of dust wakes up to dance within the rays of the sun. Everything stays still, quiet. Louis sighs a little to himself, reverting his attention back to the children. 

"Louis, think RiRi's pooped," Astrid mumbles, scrunching up her nose. 

Louis hooks a finger over the nappy waistband and pulls, taking a peek. He sighs heavier now, the clock telling them that if they don't leave right now, they'll most likely be late. "Right, cheeky monkey. Astrid, take the keys to the car, and get yourself in your car seat. Orion, we're going to change this nappy in record time, that your face will be put on the next edition of the Guinness World Records." 

He scoops Orion up, rushing him to the utility room where the nappy changing station is. 

He wishes he could say that they got it done in record time. Though, Orion had other plans. He decided that each nappy Louis got out, would be a great hat, or great to practice his throwing with. Not only that, he also decided that this was the worst case ever to have his nappy changed, screaming at Louis and slapping him on the head every time he tried to lift his legs up. It was a struggle, and to stop the tears from falling in the end, he had to give in that this child wasn't wanting to wear his trousers any longer.