"Daddyyy, Papaaa!"

"Yes, love?" Louis asks, chuckling when he feels Gracie wrap herself around his leg. He holds a cuppa out to Harry, who thanks him with a kiss on the cheek.

"I need a picta' of me when I was a baby," Gracie says, giggling when Louis lifts his leg up with her still holding on. "For show n' tell."

"There's one in the lounge," Harry says, sipping his tea. "On the coffee table. 'S you, me and Daddy when you were a baby."

"Okay!" Gracie smiles, and Harry smiles back at her fondly. "Thank youuu, Papa!"

"Of course, G," He giggles as Gracie let's go of Louis and runs to the lounge. Louis takes his own cuppa and hops up onto the counter, sitting with his legs swinging over the edge.

"We need to stop giving her so much sugar," He mumbles, and Harry laughs into his cuppa. "So. Baby-making tonight?"

Harry rolls his eyes, cheeks becoming rosy. "Maybe," He says, and Louis pumps his fist victoriously. "I think our best bet's tomorrow, though. We've got Miriam on Wednesday."

"Why not both?" Louis asks. Harry shoots him a look, and Louis grins mischievously. "'M just saying!"

"We'll see," Harry smirks, stirring his tea. "If you're on your best behaviour."

"Oh, I always am," Louis says cheekily, lifting his leg and nudging Harry's bum. Harry glares at him.

♛

Louis is in the middle of his lunch break the next day when his phone starts to go off. He sighs a little, looking at the long line ahead of him. Who knew Nando's would be so busy at lunch time (he should have)? He sees that it's Gracie's school and sighs again, swiping to answer the call. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Mr. Tomlinson? Gracie's father?"

"Yeah, this is him," He can already tell by the tone of her voice that this isn't a good phone call. "'S something wrong?"

"Um, unfortunately. This is her teacher, Ms. Bringers. It seems as though she's gotten in an argument with a boy in class, and...well....she punched him."

Louis doesn't know whether to laugh, or sigh. "She...punched him?" He asks. "Like, hard?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. The boy has a black eye."

"Oh, my God," Louis mutters, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Where in the world did this child come from?

"We tried to give her a timeout, and then send her to the headmaster's office, but she's throwing a bit of a tantrum, so we think it would just be best if you came and picked her up?"

It seems as though Louis isn't getting lunch today. "Uh, yeah, I'm on my way," He says, leaving the line at Nando's and walking out of the restaurant. "I'll be right there."

"Great, thank you so much! She'll be waiting in the office."

"Alright, thanks," Louis gets into his car, leaning his head back and sighing. He supposes he should call Harry, and tell him their daughter now may have assault charges (just kidding (he hopes)).

"Hey, I'm on my way to a meeting, 's this important?"

"Gracie beat a kid up in her class," Louis says. He assumes that answers Harry's question. "I have to go pick her up right now. Just thought I'd let you know our kid is the next Floyd Mayweather."

"She...what?"

"She punched a kid in the face, and now he has a black eye," Louis explains. "And they tried to punish her, but she threw a tantrum so now I have to go pick her up."

"Jesus. Okay, uh. I'll be home right when this meeting is done, okay? We can talk to her about it together."

"Okay," Louis' pretty relieved he won't have to handle this by himself. "I'll let you know if she beats me up too."

"Try to set a camera up or summat beforehand so I can have a playback."

"Nice, Harold," Louis scoffs, and Harry laughs. "Real nice."

"I love youuu. I'm at my meeting, I'll talk to you soon, love."

"Love you too, talk to you seen," Louis chuckles, and they hang up just as Louis turns into the parking lot of Gracie's school. He looks kind of ridiculous, in his neon shirt and cargo shorts. Oh well. He supposes he'll have to call one of the other managers while he's driving Gracie home to let them know he won't be coming back.

Upon walking into the front office, he sees Gracie sitting on one of the chairs, sniffling with tears running down her cheeks. She looks up at Louis, her bottom lip wobbling. He'd almost feel bad if she hadn't deprived him of a chicken sandwich.

"C'mon," He sighs. "Let's go."

Gracie sniffles again, sliding out of the chair, her rucksack almost as big as her. Louis signs Gracie out with the secretary before leading her outside and to the car, both of them silent. Gracie must know she's in big trouble.

Louis helps Gracie into her car seat, buckling her in. "What you did was not nice, Gracie Mae," He says quietly, although he's sure Gracie already knows that.

"'M sorry, Daddy," Gracie sniffles, looking down at her lap. Louis' stern expression falters a little.

"We'll talk about it when we get home," He says, closing the door to the backseat before climbing into the drivers seat. He calls Zayn on the way home to tell him he's not coming back, and soon enough they're there. Louis helps Gracie out of her booster seat and leads her inside, throwing his keys down on the counter.

"Go to your room until Papa gets home, please," He says. Gracie doesn't respond, just sulks out of the kitchen and towards the stairs. Louis figures he could make his own lunch while he waits.

Harry comes home while Louis is eating ramen, his sunglasses pulling his hair out of his face, laptop bag in his hand. Louis thinks he looks proper sexy like this, though he feels like now isn't the time to say. "She in her room?" Harry asks.

"Yeah," Louis says, mouthful of ramen. "She didn't even try to argue with me."

"Odd," Harry comments. "Do we know why she hit him?"

"Nope," Louis shrugs. "Teacher didn't say, and Gracie was silent the whole way home."

"The teacher doesn't know?" Harry asks, frowning. Louis shrugs again. "Did she not give G a chance to defend herself?"

"Okay, before we get all lawyer-ish," Louis says, and Harry pouts. "Let's remember why we're here. Our kid punched someone. There's not much to defend."

"There's always something to defend," Harry points out. Louis just wanted to eat his ramen without attending a law-school lesson. Harry pouts again when he says that out loud, though.

"Alright," Louis sighs, setting his now-empty bowl in the sink. "Let's face her."

"You sound nervous," Harry grins, leading Louis out of the kitchen and up the stairs. "Afraid she's gonna get you next?"

"Absolutely," Louis says, and Harry giggles. Louis knocks gently on Gracie's bedroom door, opening it when he hears a soft "come in."

Harry and Louis walk in, seeing Gracie sitting on her bed, her eyes glued to her lap, face still red and puffy and teary. It takes everything in Louis not to scoop her up and hold her and tell her it's okay.

"Hi, Gracie," Harry greets gently, sitting down on the edge of her big, wooden toy box. "I heard something happened at school today."

"Mhm," Gracie nods, still not looking up at him.

"Do you want to tell me?" Harry asks. Louis doesn't know how he can be like this when he's mad–tender and light. This is why he lets Harry handle shit like this–otherwise it'd end up in a yelling-match between him and Gracie (Gracie usually wins just because Louis gets so frustrated).

"I-I showed everybody the picta' of you n' Daddy," Gracie sniffles, her bottom lip trembling. "'N at snack time Jack said that havin' two boys as parents is weird, a-and I should have a mummy instead of a Papa."

Louis watches as Harry's face becomes a little softer, his eyebrows furrowing a little. "He said you can't have two boys as parents?" He asks, his voice a little weaker than before. "So...you hit him?"

"Mhm," Gracie nods. "I know it was bad."

"I-It was," Harry says, tucking his hair behind his ear. "You should have just told Ms. Bridgers what happened, babe."

"She was busy," Gracie fiddles with the lace at the end of her shirt. "I-I told him to stop, but he wouldn't."

That's a sentence you never want your kid to say under any circumstances. Louis can tell Harry wasn't expecting this. He wasn't either. They've never really had a problem like this before, and never expected Gracie to punch someone over it–someone being homophobic towards her parents. Harry stands up off the toy box, walking over to the bed and squatting down in front of where Gracie's sitting.

"Baby," He says softly, and Gracie finally looks up at him. "I understand why you were angry. That was a mean thing for him to say, and I know you didn't know what else to do, but hitting someone is never the answer, and there are going to be consequences, okay?"

"M'kay," Gracie sniffles. "'M sorry, Papa."

"I know, G," Harry says, picking Gracie up and sitting on the floor with her in his lap. "And, you know, some people do think having two boys or two girls as parents is bad."

"Why?" Gracie sniffles.

"Because they're twits," Louis mumbles, scuffing his shoes.

"Louis," Harry scolds half-heartedly. "Because, bug, a lot of the time people have a girl and a boy as parents. I have Nana Anne and Grampa Robin, right?" Gracie nods. "And Daddy has Nana Jay and Dan. But sometimes, people have two boys as parents instead. Sometimes boys don't like girls, they like other boys. And that's okay. 'S just that some people are scared of things that are different, or that they don't understand."

"Like math," Gracie says. Louis stifles his laughter, looking down at the ground. Harry smiles weakly.

"Exactly," He nods. "But, you shouldn't let anyone be mean to you just because you're different, right?" Gracie nods, and Harry's smile widens. "And I think it's good that you stood up for yourself, but you shouldn't have done it like that. Next time, try and use your words instead of your body."

"Is anyone ever mean to you?" Gracie asks. "Because you like a boy?"

Harry swallows thickly, visibly trying to think of what to say. "Sometimes," He admits. "And sometimes I want to punch them, but I try to use my words instead."

Gracie leans into Harry's chest, and Harry holds her tight. "I'm so sorry someone was mean to you because of us," Harry says softly, kissing the top of Gracie's head. "And anytime that happens again, you tell me or Daddy, and we'll fix it."

"Okay," Gracie nods, and Harry squeezes her, and Louis can see from where he's standing that his eyes are wet.

♛

"You're not gonna let that ass-hat six year old bother you this much, are you?"

Harry doesn't say anything, arms crossed over his chest. Louis sits down on the edge of the bed, putting his hand on Harry's thigh. "Babe," He says softly. "'M pretty sure after today, he won't be crossing her again."

Harry twists his mouth, his eyes not meeting Louis'. "I thought she'd be a little older," He says, voice shaking a little. Louis frowns. "When we had to tell her that...homophobia is a thing."

"I know," Louis says, moving his hand up to Harry's face so he's cupping his cheek. "It's really shitty."

Harry leans into Louis' hand, closing his eyes. "Hey," Louis coaxes, and Harry finally looks up at him. "I love you, H. I don't care what some bigot six year old has to say about it."

Harry grins weakly. "I love you too," He replies quietly. Louis leans down and kisses him, grinning when Harry brings his hands up to his hair.

"You down for some gay baby-making?" Louis mumbles against Harry's lips, making him laugh. "Just in the spirit of bashing homophobes?"

"Let the baby-making commence," Harry giggles, leaning back and pulling Louis down by his shirt.