One direction imagines and prefences (request open)

you go on a long car ride with you kid

HARRY: “Mom, mom, look at that horse! Mom, look! Where are we? Can we move here? I wanna have horses in my backyard too. Mom, can we get a horse? Mom? Mom, can we?” Carson rambles on in the backseat. “Harry, I think you were supposed to turn back there,” you mention, watching as the GPS starts to recalculate. “That’s alright, we’ll get there; it will reroute us,” Harry reassures you, “Mom, are we there yet?” “Does it look like we’re there yet, Carson?” you retaliate playfully, despite being a tad annoyed by his constant chattering. “How should I know? I don’t know where we’re going,” your three year old sassily remarks. You and Harry bite back laughter, not wanting to encourage that kind of behavior, but finding it too amusing to be able to properly scold. “Harry, this thing isn’t rerouting very quickly. Maybe you should pull over so the satellites can find our location faster?” you suggest. “Nah, we’ll be fine, we’ll get there.” “How much longer?” Carson whines. “Just a little bit,” you reply. “That’s what you said forever ago!” he complains, growing more bored by the second. “Ok, we’re lost…” Harry mutters, approaching a deadend street that the GPS had told you would be a way back to where you should be. “I told you we should have Googled our route as a backup,” you rub in. “Mom, I have to go to the bathroom.” You and Harry exchange troubled glances, now in a race against the clock to get your son to a restroom. “This trip is not going well,” Harry mumbles, attempting to find a place to turn around.

NIALL: “What is all this? It’s a three hour car ride, he’ll probably sleep most of the way,” Niall mentions as he watches you load several games and toys into the back seat next to Cole’s carseat. “And in case he doesn’t, he’ll have plenty to entertain him the whole time,” you counter, mentally checking to make sure you have everything you wanted to bring. “What is this for?” Niall asks, holding up a silver tray. “Isn’t this a baking sheet?” “Yeah, it’s for his puzzle in case he wants to do that,” you inform matter-of-factly. “And this?” he asks holding up a plastic shower caddy. “I’m gonna put some of his little toys in there; like his cars and dinosaurs.” “[Y/N]…” Niall says on a sigh. “What? He’s never been in a car for this long before and he’s bound to get bored. I’d rather have plenty to keep him entertained than have him whining and crying the whole time.” “You’re packing like you’re sending him away for a year! I mean, a puzzle? In the car? Really?” “It’s that magnetic one that he usually makes on the fridge.” Niall rolls his eyes at you, but you just continue to pack things away, unfaltered by his nagging. “We ready to go?” Niall asks once the three of you are settled into the car some time later. “Ready. Let’s get this show on the road,” you confrim, stealing a quick glance at your young son, who’s happily looking out the window, waiting for his dad to pull out of the driveway. Niall backs the car into the road and begins the journey to your destination three hours away. You notice Cole spends the first 45 minutes quietly watching the scenery go by before the soft motion of the car lulls him into sleep for the rest of the trip. “Told you,” Niall points out goodnaturedly, receiving a swat to the arm from you.

LIAM: Liam carefully places a sleeping Makenzie into her carseat while you load the bags into the trunk. “How long to you think this will last?” Liam asks, an amused smirk on his face as the two of you settle into the front seats. “Probably not long,” you joke as Liam slowly rolls the car out to the road and begins your journey to your vacation destination several hours away. As expected, Makenzie wakes up before long. At first you think things will be ok because she quietly carries on a conversation with you both and plays with her favorite doll that’s come along for the trip. It’s not until halfway to your destination that things go awry. “Should I pull over?” Liam asks. “And do what? That will just prolong this,” you reply over the wails of your crying daughter. “Kenz, what’s wrong?” Liam asks, almost desperately. “I want to get out of the car!” she hollers, pronouncing each word distinctly seperately. “We’ll get out when we get there,” you reason with her, but to no avail. “Maybe we should just pull into a rest stop where she can get out and walk around a bit. Maybe some fresh air will settle her,” Liam suggests. “Just keep driving,” you direct, turning more of your body around in your seat to face backwards. You reach for a bag on the floor of the backseat containing Makenzie’s favorite snacks and another one of her favorite toys. You hand them to your daughter and within minutes she’d soothed and happy once more. Liam sneaks a pointed look at you out of the corner of his eye. You simply flash him an all-knowing smile. After that, the rest of the ride is a calm one; Makenzie returns to happily chattering away in the backseat to you both and to her dolls, all meltdowns long behind her.

LOUIS: “Hey, Lea, what did the blanket say when it fell off the bed?” “Louis, stop,” you scold, cutting him off. “What?” “That one’s inappropriate.” “How is that one inappropriate?” he challenges, gaining a laugh from your daughter. The three of you had been passing the time by telling each other silly jokes and competing to see who can tell the best ones. “I wanna know!” Lea squeals happily, wanting to hear the punchline. “You haven’t told one in a while; do you have another one?” you try to distract her, which manages to work as she wracks her brain for another joke to tell. Your friendly competition continues right up until you’ve pulled into your parents’ driveway, having finally made it. Lea immediately hops out of the car, running to the door to greet her grandparents, while you and Louis head for the trunk and begin grabbing bags out. “That went much better than I thought it would,” Louis reflects on the trip. “Me too. I expected at least one temper tantrum, but she was having a ball with the jokes.” “Hey, Grandma, what did the blanket say when it fell off the bed?” you hear her little voice trill across the yard. You cringe for a second before remembering that she doesn’t know the punchline. “I dunno, sweetie. What did it say?” your mother asks the little girl. “I don’t know either. I was hoping you would tell me,” she replies innocently. You and Louis laugh at this before joining your family on the porch.

ZAYN: “Alright here’s a good one!” you announce, pressing play on your iPod. The opening chords to ”Life is a Highway” fill the car. After the fit Lane had pitched, you quickly discovered that a family sing along was the only way to keep him entertained on this trip. “More ‘Cars’!” he requests once the song is over. “Did we bring that DVD with us?” Zayn thinks to ask, being reminded by the song. “Yeah, both of them are packed in his bag,” you reply. Lane had been playing both of the “Cars” movies on repeat for the last two weeks; there was no way you’d risk the week from Hell without them. As the song ends it’s second play through, you immediately start another one of his favorites - “Hakuna Matata.” The entire way to your vacation spot, the three of you have fun singing songs at the top of your lungs - receiving more than a few strange looks from other people on the road. With only about a half an hour left to go, Lane tuckers out and falls asleep. This leaves some quiet time for you and Zayn to talk. “Other than the first 20 minutes or so, this has actually been a pretty fun trip,” Zayn mentions. “Now that we know the trick to keeping him happy during long car rides, we shouldn’t even have to deal with the 20 minute tantrum,” you agree on a laugh. Zayn steals a glance at your sleeping son through the rearview mirror. “I think my favorite part of all of that was when he started playing air guitar and told me that he was gonna show Niall how it’s really done,” he says with a laugh. You laugh too, saying, “I’m sure Niall would love the challenge.”