Where Do Babies Come From?

The six-year-old was lying on the grass, his cousin next to him. Louis was thinking. He had been confused about this for a while, but he had no idea who to ask it to. But he decided James would know, because in Louis' eyes, his cousin and best friend knew everything.

"Jamie?" Louis spoke up, rolling onto his side so he was facing the blackhaired boy next to him. "You know how auntie Luna is preggers?" he continued, biting his lip. "How do you think the baby was put in her belly?" he asked, talking fast as he felt heat rise to his cheeks at the question.

James lay on the grass watching the clouds, wondering why they weren't having an adventure. Though his brain-juice was running low after running around madly for the past couple hours, and his body seemed to appreciate the break.

He turned his head towards Louis as his cousin begn to speak, waiting curiously for the question. It was a questioning tone. The question made him pause, hesitating as he tried to think. How did it get put in her belly? He'd asked his dad, but he'd just changed the subject. 'That's a good question, Lou,' he said, trying to sound older than he was. He searched his brain for an answer, shooting into a sitting position as he thought of it. 'Maybe we should do some snooping. What do you think? It'll be fun. Like an adventure. I bet we could find some where to tell us.'

Louis pondered this, pushing himself up as well as he folded his hands in his lap and looked at James nervously. Their adventures were fun, most of the times. But they also made him nervous, most of the time. But he still liked them, most of the time. Louis bit his lip.

"Don't you think we'll get in trouble?" he asked, just to be sure, as he curled a strand of his hair around his finger. It was nearly long enough to touch his shoulders. Louis was trying to make his hair just as long as his daddy's, but his mum said that he would have to cut it soon. That prospect had made Louis quite sad.

James waved off the question, scrambling to his feet, fully recovered from his tired state, brain in overdrive as he practically bounced on the spot, a large grin plastered across his face. Trouble? Who cared about trouble? They were trying to...become smarter! No one could fault them for that.

'Of course we won't!' James insisted, pulling Louis to his feet. 'We'll just go hunting. No one can get us told off for hunting! Besides, we'll just have to be extra sneaky about it,' he pressed a finger to his lips. 'Sneaky.'

Louis let James pull him to his feet, nodding. He did think that it would be fun. And slightly scary. But they were going to get smarter, and Louis liked getting smarter. And he liked it when things made sense. And right now the baby in auntie Luna's belly didn't make sense.

"Okay!" he bounced, crossing his arms over his chest. "Where do we start then? We could ask Vicky? But I don't think she wants to help us..." he started, before discarding his own idea. "Or maybe Domi, but she probably doesn't want to help either.. Maybe we could go look in one of my mummy's books!"

James came to a grinding halt as Louis asked where they started. Because he honestly had not thought that far. He crinckled his nose at the idea of asking Louis' sisters, pleased that Louis thought they wouldn't help him. He groaned out loud as soon as the word 'books' was brought up though.

'Do we haave to?' he whined, his energy all zapped from that single word. 'Books are boring. I haaate reading. And it'll take soo looong, Aunty Fleur has too many books. Isn't there a better way to find out? Do you know what book it would be in? It's got to have something to do with eggs, right? Cause birds have eggs, it's just that Aunty Luna's egg is inside her tummy instead of outside.'

Eggs. Could it have something to do with eggs? "Papa's says birds build their nests in trees. Maybe we should go see if one of those trees have nests? Maybe there are babies in there!" he said, his eyes slightly wide at the idea of a baby being in a tree.

"Jamie we have to save them what if they fall out!" he said worriedly, one hand reaching out to grasp James' arm. "They'll die!" he added. He seemed to have momentarily forgotten about the fact they were wondering how a baby appeared in a belly, because he was now too worried about the babies in the trees. "Come on, we have to hurry!" Louis said again, shaking James' arm.

James grinned brightly as Louis suggested they went to find a bird's nest. That sounded like a good plan. None of this books stuff. Hunting for nests. That was an adventure. He turned to look around the garden they were in, spotting trees before Louis started talking again.

He rolled his eyes. "They're not going to die. Birds can fly, remember?" though the panic in Louis' eyes made him realise this was a good motivational thingy for the other boy to search for the birds with. "But the eggs might crack if they fall out. So we best go find them, right?" he grinned again, pointing in two different directions. "You go that way, I'll go this way."

James didn't understand what he was thinking. Louis let out a frustrated sigh and curled his hand tighter around James' arm so the other boy couldn't move away just yet. Louis used his other hand to wave frantically in the air.

"I know birds can fly! But I mean, what if there are babies in there! Like real babies, like you and me! You said it yourself, they have to come from somewhere! What if they're in the eggs!" he tried to explain. It didn't make sense though, seeing as a baby was in a belly. But Louis seemed to have forgotten about this for a moment.

"We have to save them before they fall out!" he said again, nails digging in James' arm. "And how will I climb in a tree if you're not there? I'm not tall enough to reach the branches.."

James blinked a few times as he absorbed what Louis was saying. Real babies? In the bird's nest? Would real babies even fit in a bird's nest? Babies were a lot bigger than birds, weren't they? Though Aunty Luna's belly wasn't as big as he thought it would be...the baby in there might fit in a birds nest. Or something. He guessed. He frowned as he tried to figure out the size of a birds nest. Clearly this needed investigating.

Climbing trees sounded like a brilliant idea though. "Okay! Let's go find some nests! We have to know how big those eggs are! And how big a nest is, come on!"

James raced towards the trees, hands smacking against a trunk as he circled the tree, trying to see if there was a nest in the branches. "Louis!" he shouted, no idea if the boy had followed him or gone somewhere else. "You have to climb the tree!"

Louis was glad James finally seemed to realize how important it was. He nodded eagerly. He really hoped they wouldn't find babies in there though, their house was already quite full, it didn't fit more babies. And if they found them, they could hardly leave them in the trees. He wondered if his maman would be angry if he came home with a baby.

Louis ignored the fact James said they had to go in different directions and followed his cousin to the tree he had gone to. Louis jumped when James shouted, and he walked closer. "I'm right behind you!" he informed his cousin, looking at the tree hesitatingly.

"Do I really have to get in there? Can you not go in there? You're taller than me!" he said quietly, really not wanting to go up so high. What if he'd fall? His maman and papa would certainly not be happy if that happened. And if he broke something it would hurt. And Louis didn't like pain. Not one bit. It made him anxious. But they had to safe the babies, still.

James grinned as Louis announced he was behind him, even if it meant the boy didn't do what he was told. This was more better, seeing as now he was already here. James turned back to the tree, trying to decide the best way to get Louis up.

"Loooou," he whined when Louis began asking if James could go up. "You're smaller, you'll be able to get into the spaces better. And you're easy to lift up. Come ooon, you want to save the babies, don't you? If you don't go get them, they might fall! I can stay here and follow you so that I can catch any, 'cause I'm better at that than you," he squatted slightly, patting his shoulders. "It'll be easy. No problems. It's only a tree. You get on my shoulders, and then I can get you nice and high.

Louis felt really guilty. He did want to safe the babies. Did he really have to go up for that? He didn't want to. He gnawed on his lip and fiddled with his fingers. Nice and high. That wasn't nice at all. Do it for the babies, he told himself, and then he nodded. For the babies he would do it. They had to be rescued, Louis wouldn't forgive himself if they were to fall out while they were clearly there to save them.

"But don't drop me!" he said nervously, before taking a step forward, closer to James. He placed a hand on his cousin's head and one on the tree as he tried and lift himself up. He quickly held on to the tree branch as soon as he could reach it, managing to get his other foot on James' other shoulder. He held on as tightly as he could, nervously looking down with wide eyes.

"Okay so, what do I do now?" he said in a slightly squeaky voice.

James gave Louis a look. As if James would drop him. Please, James wasn't going to drop anyone. James was a master at not dropping people. Louis was just being a baby. "I'm not going to drop you, Lou, have a little faith," he said, steadying himself as he felt Louis put one foot on either shoulder. He held his palms flat against the tree, using all his concentration to keep himself steady.

"Now you have to try reach the branches," James explained. "I'm going to stand up. Hold the tree to stay steady," he advised, before he slowly began raising himself, wondering when Louis became so heavy. Though he wasn't that heavy, James guessed. Just kind of. He continued until he was at full height, looking up slightly at Louis. "Can you reach the branch? Pull yourself onto it. I'll stay under you so I can catch you if you fall."

Louis nodded nervously and held on tight as James raised himself, the branch was suddenly closer and Louis wrapped his arms tightly around it. He really hoped that he wasn't for James. That would be bad. When his cousin said to lift himself onto the branch Louis nodded nervously and shifted his grip. He could do this. This couldn't be too hard. He was forgetting for a moment that the amount of muscle he had in his arms was about nothing and he hoisted himself off James' shoulders and tried pulling up to the branch.

It wouldn't work, so Louis panicked. He flailed his legs around trying to get a hold of something, and then suddenly his legs were wrapped around the branch as well. As if he was lifted up. He would have preferred though, if he had been on top instead of dangling from it. Though he was not going to let go, and tightened his arms and legs around the branch.

"What now?" he asked in a panicky voice, trying to calm himself.

James huffed as he held up the weight of his cousin, letting out a breath of relief as the weight disappeared. Louis may not have been heavy, but he wasn't a feather. There was only so much a young boy could take. He looked up to see how Louis was doing, raising a brow when he saw the legs flailing around. This was going well.

But then his legs were wrapped round the branch, and he looked fairly secure. "Okay, now you have to crawl along the branch. Or like, wriggle round so you're on the top. You can do that, right? Easy. Getting up there was easy, right? Super easy. No problems at all."

James held his hands out for safety, though it probably wouldn't do much. He could totally catch Louis. "I'm right here to catch you if you fall!"

Crawl along the branch and wriggle on top. How was he even supposed to do that? Louis wished James was the one up here, he clearly knew what to do, so why wasn't he in the tree. The blond boy was very close to tears, and really wanted to just call for his father, crawl into his arms and refuse to come out of there for about two hours. But he couldn't, because they had to save the babies.

And James said he would catch him, and James didn't lie to Louis. So it was safe, right? Louis just assumed it was.

Louis started to crawl along the branch, trying to turn his body so he was on top, but it was a lot harder than he thought. And it required strength he didn't have. He was just about to call out to James that it wasn't going to work, when his arm got stuck on an out-sticking branch, Louis yelped in pain, and forgot he was supposed to hold on, letting go of the branch.

He screamed, trying to get his grip back, but failed.

James nodded encouragingly as Louis began to move, even though the other boy couldn't see him. He could feel the telepathic waves of encouragement that James was sending, he was sure of it. They were very strong. And telepathic. Obviously Louis would recieve the encouragement and then everything would be okay.

Though as soon as Louis screamed in pain James realised that the telepathic encouragements were probably not as telepathic as he had been hoping they would be. Or just not as encouraging.

James held his arms out, leaning back slightly as he prepared himself to catch Louis. He let out a scream of his own when Louis slammed in to him, knocking James back onto the floor, grimacing at the pain of being crushed. So Louis wasn't that light. He certainly looked it.

"Lou-!" he coughed. "Lou, you okay?"

Louis fell down, landing right on top of James, who didn't caught him like he promised. His hand and chest landed right on top of James, while his legs connected with the hard ground. Louis needed a few moments to recover from the shock of falling, but tears formed in his eyes nearly immediately after that. His knees felt bruised, but it was mostly the shock that had him crying.

His small shoulders started to shake as he shook his head at James. "I f-fell," he stammered, sniffling violently. "There weren't even babies in the tree," he added pitifully.

"I want my daddy Jamie," Louis muttered between sobs, shoulders still shaking. "Can we go back inside now?"

James groaned, trying to resist the urge to roll around on the floor in pain. It was kind of hard to move about when you had someone half lying on top of you. And crying. He looked down at Louis to check, confirming that he was in fact crying. Of course.

Sliding out from under Louis and pushing himself to his feet, brushing down his back, James spent a moment to mourn his amazing plan to find the babies in the tree. Maybe he needed Roxanne. Or to do it himself. He couldn't really think of anyone else, apparently Louis needed crossing off the list of people who can climb trees.

He held a hand out to Louis, trying to help the boy up. "Does it hurt anywhere?" he asked, trying to make sense of the words that were coming out between the sobs. "We can go back in, someone will be around somewhere. Can you walk okay?" that was what people asked when someone fell usually, wasn't it? His father had asked him it before at least. Not that he fell a lot.

Louis grasped James' hand and pushed himself off the ground, a wave of fresh tears rolling over his cheek when he tried to put weight on his foot. It hurt even more than falling from the tree, and Louis quickly tried to balance on one foot, not wanting to feel it again. He shook his head, biting his lip as he grabbed James' wrist, not wanting the boy to leave him alone there.

"I'm really sorry I didn't find you the babies Jamie, I tried really hard," he said quietly, not wanting his cousin to be angry with him. He nibbled on his lower lip again, using James' arm so he was able to stand on one leg.

"Please don't be angry," he asked, voice still soft as he looked up at James with hopeful eyes. "I'll," he swallowed thickly, not really wanting to say it, but he said it aynway, "I'll try again when my foot is better if you want. Maybe then we'll find the babies."