War Front Letters (Lilo Mpreg AU) -Watty Award Winner-

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two.

(Jace is three months old)

Louis had Jace perched on his shoulder gently, on hand positioned on the shopping trolley and the other underneath his son's bum, he had his phone wedged in between his ear and shoulder. Jace had his fist stuffed in his mouth, a long trail of drool travelling out from his lips as he stared alertly at Niall who was wondering slowly down the row behind them.

Jace could hold his head up on his own now, and Louis gives him frequent tummy time to strengthen all his muscles. Louis paused for a moment when Jace leaned over and took a grasp of his hair, he was tugging at it, small gurgles leaving his lips. Louis tilted his head slightly with each time Jace tugged at his hair, trying to prevent his son from ripping it from his skull.

"Hang on a second. Jace has a handful of my hair he is eager to rip from my skull" he spoke to the person on the other end of his mobile phone. He gently removed the small toy from Jace's bag and attempted to hand it off to his son "ow. Jace, let go" Louis sighed managing to gently uncurl his son's fingers. He slowly placed Jace back into the small seat at the front of the trolley and placed the toy on his small chest, his fingers now undoing the buttons on his jumpsuit and smacking his feet against the plastic seat he was in, creating a loud noise, and Louis had to pause for a moment and place his finger in his ear to hear the caller better.

"Of course, I rehearsed that with the kids before I left. I usually sang- uh yes there was this song- I can perform that, of course." He blushed "it was a song I kinda wrote kinda cried, kinda sang, you have to listen to it to understand and it just happened I sang it one day and the kids made up a dance with each other to go with it, we kinda made it a regular thing as a warm up before we performed our drama" Louis blabbered. Niall now pushing the trolley for him and he wondered how Liam had managed to get out of this hectic shopping trip.

"Sounds like a plan, see you on performance night" Louis chirped before he hung up and grabbed a few boxes of tea off the shelves before trying to catch up with Niall and Jace.

"That was a long phone call" Niall spoke once Louis had gotten into the baby section of the store, Niall resting Jace on his shoulder and the alert baby playing with the string that hung down from his blue beanie.

"Sorry, it was the school" Louis replied, slowly unhooking Jace from Niall and pulling him against his chest, pressing his finger against his button nose and cooing when he let out a big burp and half a squeal, Louis was pulling one of his usual faces and Niall was quick to snap a picture when the happy baby started smiling back at his chirpy father, his fist dropping from his month to press against Louis' forehead, the other clasping and unclasping Louis' nose. Louis was nearly crying when Jace let go and turned his attention to something else.

"He interacts so much now, I can barely contain my excitement" Louis squealed, bouncing Jace slightly. The two had been trying to encourage Jace to giggle for a while now, and they had gotten as far as the alert baby opening his little mouth and smiling, Louis is certain he is so close.

"I want him" Niall smiled, pressing his finger against Jace's tiny nose, the baby latching onto Niall's pinky finger quickly, and Louis was practically crying now, his spare hand dialing Liam's number, his bottom lip quivering, Louis had been like this each time Jace did something overly cute.

"You can't have him, I still some days question weather or not he is actually mine." The blue eyed boy breathed, eyes glistening as he started pushing the trolley back down the row, stopping to buy some nappies and a couple of rattles for Jace as they headed for the check out, his phone back in between his shoulder blade and cheek.

"I'm not even going to say Hello, you just missed your son smiling, like legit, he grabbed onto my nose and I nearly died, I nearly died Liam, actually I think I may have died for a second there. You missed it" Louis squealed down the phone, placing his items onto the belt, the checkout chick smiling at him politely as he swiped his discount card across the scanner. "I can't believe you missed it, it was probably a one off thing and he'll never do it again" Louis sighed, watching Niall hold Jace above his head and cooing at him when he gripped onto his hair.