As You Are » Zarry ✔

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"Here, Harry. Eat up." Zayn said as he sat a plate down in front of Harry who was sitting at the dining room table in his parents' house.

"Thank you."

He kissed Harry's temple. "You're welcome. I'll be back."

He went back into the kitchen where his mother and father were so he could fix his own plate.

"I'm so happy." His mother said. "I was so worried they wouldn't let you take him. I thought they might call the police or something."

"His Nana pushed it. But when I told them he was eighteen, that we were married and then had Harry tell them who he wanted to go with, they didn't really have a choice but to let me take him."

His father smiled. "I know I was skeptical about you marrying Harry at first. But I think you were very smart to do that."

"I just hate that we couldn't really give the wedding and reception we wished for you." His mother said sadly.

"Don't worry sweetheart, we can still do that when they renew vows or something. At least we were able to be his two witnesses at the wedding. So we didn't miss out on that."

"True." She smiled and had to wipe her eyes because she let a couple tears of joy slip. Her son was officially going to move out and away from them. She felt it was too soon. "Well are you sure you don't want to stay here and just leave out in the morning? It's been a full day and you have an hour's drive."

"I'm sure." Zayn said once his plate was fixed. "I want go now so we can spend our first night together there. I'm ready to show him our new place and he's been excited to see it all day. I don't want to keep him waiting any longer."

"Well he's going to love it." She said. "And I know he's going to be happy there. Also it might be a good thing you decided move a little distance away. It gives us a place to visit now."

"Yep. It does."

They all went into the dining room together. Zayn sat next to Harry and his parents sat across from them.

"How does the food taste, Harry?" His mother asked.

"Really good."

Zayn smiled. "You're a great cook mum. Everyone loves your food."

"I certainly do. Look at what the years of eating it has done to my perfect model figure." His father said and he rubbed his belly to show what he was talking about. Zayn just shook his head and used his spoon to pick up food from his plate. After eating the spoonful, he looked over at Harry who was eating silently as he always did.

He still couldn't believe Harry's mother and grandmother tried to keep him away from him all because they wanted to hide Harry. They really tried to keep him from loving this precious boy next to him but nothing could stop him from doing so. No matter what, Harry would always be his boy. He would never ever stop taking care of him.

*

*

*

"Don't peek, Harry."

"I'm not."

Zayn took the key and unlocked the door, then opened it. Afterward, he took his hand and pulled him inside the apartment. When he locked the door and turned on the light, he was ready to reveal. They were already in the living room. "Okay. You can uncover your eyes now."

Harry took his hand from his eyes and looked around. There was a lot of stuff in the middle of the living room yet to be placed in their proper places. But he gasped when he saw what was on the little sofa. "My alligator!" He ran over to it and picked it up, cuddling it against his chest.

"I knew it was your favorite stuffed animal. So I bought you a new one. This time it won't get thrown away."

"I like it Zayn."

"Good. I'm glad. And you can see that we're in the living room right now. This is where you can sit in front of the TV with your alligator and watch all the cartoons you want. Can you wait?"

"No." He said excitedly.

"Good. And there, you see." He pointed from the living room where it opened to the kitchen. "That's the kitchen. I'll do a lot of the cooking but I'll probably teach you some things and let you help me prepare a few things. You want to do that?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

They passed the small dining area and went in the short hallway. "We just passed the bathroom. But I know that you know how it works. However, this is the bedroom. We share it."

"Share it?"

"Yep. I know it's just my full sized bed from home but it's enough room for us both to sleep comfortably for now and when I save up, I'll get us a bigger bed."

Harry nodded. "Will you um- will you read stories... To me... When I go to bed?"

"I'll read stories to you every night you want them read to you. I also brought all your books here and I'll get new books as time passes."

"Can we read one now? Harry asked.

"Of course we can. But you have to put your pajamas on first so you can get in the bed."

"Okay."

All of Harry's things were in the living room and hadn't been placed anywhere else inside the house yet, so Zayn went there to get his pajamas and a book. When he came back, Harry was already undressed down to his underwear. Zayn smiled. Harry's mother and Grandmother would be furious if they knew this. And they would have been even more furious if they knew Zayn saw him naked when he took a bath earlier today.

Harry soon got dressed and was in bed with the covers pulled up to his chest and he had his alligator too. Zayn knew that stuffed animal would end up taking up even more room in the bed. But he didn't care.

"A nursery rhyme book. You've always loved this one." He opened it up and began to read. "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall..."

Every time he finished a nursery rhyme, he showed Harry the picture to go with it. And he still loved the pictures no matter how many times he saw them. Zayn read the whole nursery rhyme book all the way to the very end. "...The clock struck one. The mouse ran down. Hickory dickory dock. And that's the end."

After showing him the picture and closing the book, he bent down to kiss Harry's forehead. "Goodnight, Harry. Sleep well."

"Goodnight, Zayn."

He turned over to go to sleep and Zayn figured that while he was trying to get to sleep, he'd go outside and bring in the rest of the items in from the car, even though he knew he wasn't going to put anything where it belonged until tomorrow. He kept thinking about how it was so weird for him to be on his own though. His intentions weren't to ever move out so soon. Especially not at age nineteen. But here he was, married and completely independent from his parents.

Zayn had found these apartments when he was looking online for a place to stay. They were new and had only been built for a year. The rent here had income restrictions and since he would be the only working spouse, it was perfect for them. He could afford to keep up with their one bedroom apartment along with the other expenses he had and not be forced to live in an old apartment with crappy appliances just to do it.

It didn't take him long to finish bringing everything inside but when he went in the bedroom again, Harry was already asleep and his alligator was in the middle of the bed. After undressing down to his underwear, turning off all the lights and getting in bed, he took a long and deep breath.

For the first time in a long time, he was actually going to bed calm. He wasn't wondering what Harry was doing or how his mummy and Nana was treating him at home because he was with him and he was home. Harry was truly home and he was safe and sound the way Zayn had pictured him to be the day he suggested running away with him.

He realized he forgot to tell Harry he loved him when he kissed him goodnight. But he knew that even those three words couldn't really explain how much he loved him. His love was more than superficial. It was real. And Zayn knew he would be spending a long time proving it to him.