Growth | z.m.

Chapter 3

By the time I was fully dressed, everyone besides Zayn and Aiden had left the bus. Zayn let me know that we had a few hours to hang out before the boys had to go rehearse at the venue.

"Ready to go?" I asked Aiden who looked like he had been waiting for ages. His bored expression lit up into a happy one as soon as he realized we were finally going outside. Zayn gave me a smile and took Aiden's hand as we made our way out. As soon as the door opened, though, chaos hit us like a hurricane.

Cameras were everywhere, fans were pushing, questions were being shouted out at us, but mostly Zayn, and I felt Aiden grab my hand as tight as he could from beside me. Even though this had been going on for his whole life, the paparazzi still scared him.

Security tried to block the way of anyone getting to us, but it wasn't enough. It never was. This was the one thing that I wished I could change about my life. This whole paparazzi, mob, huge crowds following us everywhere thing.

Even Zayn wasn't fully used to it despite the fact that it happened all the time. When he was by himself, it was really easy for him to lower his head and try to wave to the fans. But when he was with me or Aiden, he worried about our safety. Especially Aiden.

"Please move out of the way, my son is scared!" I heard Zayn yell while he picked Aiden up. It broke my heart to watch him cling to Zayn like his life depended on it. How insensitive could these people be? He continued to yell at the paparazzi about how they better not even lay a finger on Aiden or else.

Of course, pictures of Zayn and Aiden were being taken at an even faster pace. I couldn't even understand what anyone was saying anymore, much less hear myself think. It was complete chaos, and the worst part was that we would have to just accept it and get used to all of it.

***

"I'm so sorry baby." I frowned at my four year old whose face was covered in ice cream. When I tried to wipe it off, Zayn pulled my hand back and told me it was cute. He was right.

Once we had finally gotten away from the crowd like the others had, Zayn wanted to cheer Aiden up with some ice cream.

"I forgive you mummy." Aiden replied wholeheartedly. I smiled at him and turned to Zayn, who was sneaking a picture of Aiden in his messy state.

"You're not upset anymore?" I asked.

"No." He shook his head. "Ice cream made it better."

"Like mother like son." Zayn muttered just loud enough for me to hear. After rolling my eyes, I changed the subject.

"What do you suppose we should do today?"

"I don't care as long as I get to spend time with my family." Zayn shrugged.

I sighed internally at the word he used. Family. We were a family, no doubt, but I longed to make it official. Have Aiden legally be Zayn's son, and be his wife.

Eve Malik. Aiden Malik.

"What do you want to do little man?" The way Aiden looked up and smiled, showing his dreadful but somehow cute ice cream covered teeth, at his dad who smiled right back made me completely content.

"I want Uncle Ni." He decided. He called Niall Uncle Ni because for some reason Niall was just too complex for him to pronounce at first.

"Uncle Ni?" I furrowed my eyebrows a bit at him. "Are you sure, honey? Don't you want to spend time with mummy and daddy?"

I was surprised to see Aiden shake his head no. "No. I want to go with Uncle Ni so daddy can be with you."

Have I mentioned that my son is an angel? A perfect angel who says cute things, and does cute things, and is basically the definition of cute?