𝘼𝙁𝙏𝙀𝙍 𝙒𝙀 𝘾𝙍𝘼𝙎𝙃𝙀𝘿 ↣ 𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝘿𝙄𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

28. DEPEND ON IT

[TWO WEEKS LATER. FEBRUARY FIRST.]

I heard Keenan shout "happy birthday!" before I was even awake. Her voice carried from her and Karter's bedroom across the hall to Louis and I's.

"Karter's birthday," Louis mumbled, pulling me closer to him. "He's sixteen now. That's so old."

"Harry's twenty-seven too," I said, "why is everyone so old now?"

"Donno," Louis sighed, "we should make breakfast though."

"Yeah," I laughed. I sat up and pulled him up next to me. I stretched and yawned, scratching my head to fix my hair. I looked back down at Louis, a sleepy smile on my face.

He stared at me, eyes glossy and and puffy from sleep. He smiled a tired smile.

"Good morning, beautiful," Louis said.

"Morning, honey," I hummed. I moved to roll out of bed.

"Wait," Louis said. He rolled to grab his phone and then, before I could protest, snapped a picture of me.

"What's that for?" I laughed, crawling on top of him to wrestle the phone away. "I look awful, I just woke up!"

"The sun colors you golden in the mornings," Louis giggled, sliding his phone under him. I sat over his hips and crossed my arms in a pout. "Seriously, baby. Look at your hands, they're gold!"

I sighed and looked down at my hands. They were, in fact, drenched in golden hour sunlight.

"I'm gonna love you until the end of time," I whispered softly. I leaned down and pressed my lips against his, moving them tiredly because neither of us were truly awake. "and then even longer after that."

"Keenan would you fuck off?" Karter's voice drifted into our room. Louis gave me a shocked look and bursted into a fit of laughter. I rolled off of him, laughing too.

"Breakfast," I said firmly. I quickly pulled on my prosthetic and gave Louis a reminder to hurry up before I left him in our bed.

I noticed the kids' door was open, so I popped my head in. Karter had Keenan in a headlock and was scruffing her hair around.

"Karter James," I said in a warning tone.

"She wouldn't stop jumping on my bed, it was either this or I was gonna swipe her legs so she would fall," Karter said casually.

"Let her go," I said. Karter kissed Keenan's head and then released her. She instantly started smoothing her red hair back down. "I'm making breakfast, do you want anything specifically?"

"Birthday cake?" Karter asked, raising one eyebrow.

"That's for tonight," I said.

"So?" he asked. "We're gonna eat it either way, aren't we?"

Honestly, I couldn't come up with a valid argument against that.

"Talk to Louis," I said, weaseling out of making the decision. Karter groaned.

"Pancakes?" Keenan suggested.

"That's more in the range I was going for," I said, nodding eagerly. Keenan rolled away from Karter and came to me. She nodded her head for me to follow, and I did so without questioning her.

We walked down to the kitchen together. She started gathering the ingredients for pancakes. I made an executive decision and pulled chocolate chips out of the pantry, setting them down with the rest of the ingredients.

I sat behind the island, knowing well enough that Keenan would want to make them alone. She was too much of a control freak to do anything else.

"Are the boys coming today?" Keenan asked.