Stop Crying Your Heart Out - McLennon AU

5.

12th April, 1963

It was 3 hours later when John finally began to stir in his sleep, slowly opening his eyes. At this point, he wasn't surprised to not see Cynthia lying down next to him. Instead of tearing up this time, he just sighed, turning away from the side she used to sleep on.

John felt himself dosing off again, when his eyes opened wide in surprise at a noise from downstairs. It was a giggle, a light one, but John heard it nevertheless.

Who was...?

"Paul." He whispered to himself, those words being enough to force himself out of bed and towards the door. He didn't care how he looked, just running a hand through his hair and shoving his dressing gown on.

The little laughs got louder as he got further down the stairs.

"Paul? You in the living room?"

"Yeah." He could almost hear the smile on the other man's face.

When John walked back into the living room, he almost melted at the sight. Paul was leant back on the sofa, Julian on his knee, lightly bouncing him.

"Look, your daddy's here." Paul turned to John, giving him a smile. It made John want to cry.

"Hiya baby..." John smiled back, best as he could, taking a seat next to Paul. "How long's he been up for?"

"Probably around an hour. He'll need feeding soon."

John's eyes widened at that.

"Shit." He cursed, hitting himself on his head in frustration.

"Hey... Whats wrong?"

He needed to buy more more baby milk, he'd used the last of it for Julian's dinner.

"I-Oh God..." He choked back tears. "I used the last of it this afternoon... Oh God, I was going out to buy more but I just completely forgot!"

"Oh John... Don't get upset over that." Paul soothed. "C'mon, we can just go out and get some now."

"B-But I should have remembered." The man sighed to himself.

"John, it doesn't matter. The shops are only down the road, they'll have some baby milk in." But when John didn't move and just curled up to himself more, Paul didn't give up. "You need some fresh air too."

John decided to go along with Paul. He needed to buy the baby milk, so he really had no choice.

"Alright." John nodded, head still in his hands.

Paul stood up, Julian still in his arms.

"Where's his pram?"

"Oh it's uh just under the stairs. I'll go and get it." John said, standing up to leave the room.

As he was pulling the pram through the door, he came to a realisation that shocked him and made him think again.

Julian wasn't being held close by me, but he didn't cry?

Why didn't he cry when he was on Paul? He seemed in his element with him.

But then again, maybe he just would rather be close to someone; he doesn't care who that person is. After all, the only people who had ever held him so far were John, Mimi and now Paul. And he didn't cry with any of those people.

So it was probably nothing special.

Murmuring could be heard from the living room, sweet sounds of Paul talking to the baby filled John's ears. He couldn't help but give a smile at that.

"Got it. Come on." John called to Paul.

The other man joined him in the hallway, placing the baby in the pram.

"Lucky it's not raining, I don't think." He said. "I couldn't tell, your curtains are shut."

"Oh yeah. I just can't be arsed opening them." John shrugged, staring looking down at the pram.

Paul took the handle of the pram, following John to the door, who stopped when he heard a chuckle from  behind him.

"What?"

"You're still wearing your dressing gown." Paul smirked.

"W- Oh shit." But after seeing the smile on the other man's face, John couldn't help but smile at his mistake. He shook his head, reaching for his coat and taking the gown off.

"Is your daddy going crazy?" Paul joked to the baby, who just stared back quizzically at him.

But even though Paul was joking, John felt that he slowly, truly was going insane.