End Up Here (Ziam AU)

Chapter Forty Five

Zayn makes his way back towards where he can hear Liam in the other room,and he finds his older boyfriend sitting on the couch staring blankly at the wall, his phone discarded beside him on the couch. "Li?" Zayn asks carefully, coming to sit beside him, "you okay?" he asks. Zayn pats Liam's thigh, making the older jump, "yeah, I'm fine" he mumbles, Zayn furrows his eyebrows unconvinced, "No you're not, what is it Li?" Zayn murmurs. Liam sighs and passes Zayn his discarded phone, confused Zayn looks down at the screen, to see another article like the ones a few weeks ago, except this one is questioning the fact that the couple have moved in together. Zayn narrows his eyes as he scans over the utter nonsense in the article, only reading about half of it, before he tosses Liam's phone to the side and moves so he's kneeling in front of the gorgeous man he gets to call his boyfriend. "Hey" he says softly, and Liam half smiles, his lips barely twitching up before the frown returns, "why do you read this garbage?" Zayn murmurs. Liam shrugs and Zayn sighs, "do you think it was a bad idea, to move in together?" he presses. Zayn watches as Liam's face twists, before he's shaking his head quickly, "exactly, neither do I, so who cares what some random reporter thinks, about it" he affirms. Liam is suddenly pulling Zayn up and into his lap, "thank you" he mumbles as he hugs Zayn tightly, "I don't know why I read those things, when Elise sends them to me, they're always garbage" he sighs. Zayn chuckles and pulls away a little to nod at Liam, "exactly, so stop it" he laughs as Liam rolls his eyes, and reaches for the TV remote.

Zayn frowns pulling away from where he's snuggled into Liam's chest, watching some mindless show on TV, "what is it?" Liam asks, concerned, Zayn sighs, "I have a huge paper I need to work on" he pouts. Liam chuckles "why don't you go work in my office for a bit?" he asks, and Zayn sighs, nodding, "you sure?" he asks quietly. Liam chuckles nodding his head, "yeah. Bells is sleeping, and I can send some emails from my phone, you go do your paper" he assures him, Zayn sighs again before standing up, "thank you" he mumbles, leaning down to press a kiss to Liam's lips, before leaving the living room, heading towards their bedroom to grab his bag and laptop, before heading down the hall to Liam's home office. Zayn glances around the slightly messy room, before settling into the desk chair and turning on his computer, he smiles when he sees three pictures of Bella sitting in frames on the desk, along with one he remembers Liam making Louis take of the three of them. Once his computer is ready he opens the document pulling his notes from his bag and getting to work.

Three hours later, Zayn clicks save and smiles happily as his assignment is now finished, before frowning when he realizes Bella still isn't awake, or he would have heard her moving around. Stretching, Zayn closes his laptop and heads out of the office, peeking into Bella's room, frowning when he sees the toddler isn't there, and wondering how he never heard her wake up. Zayn hears giggling, and follows the sound to find Liam and Bella in the kitchen making something for dinner. When he gets closer he can see that it's homemade pizza and Bella's giggling because somehow she's managed to flick flour all over Liam. "What's going on here?" Zayn asks, making his presence known, Bella turns to him grinning "Baba" she cheers, jumping down from her stool to charge at him, wrapping herself around his legs. "Did you get your work done?" Liam asks, wiping the flour off his cheeks, Zayn chuckles, nodding as he scoops Bella into his arms, "yeah, I'm finished, thank you" he murmurs. "How long have you been up?" he asks Bella, who shrugs, snuggling into him, Zayn chuckles shaking his head at her response, not that he really expected anything different. "Did you cover Daddy in flour?" Zayn asks, looking around the messy room, Bella bites her lip as she giggles, before nodding slowly. Zayn chuckles "you aren't in trouble, but why?" he asks. Bella just shrugs, "she thinks she's funny, that's why" Liam teases, sprinkling a little flour over Bella's head.

Bella gasps and looks up at Zayn "Baba, look" she whines pointing to herself and then Liam pouting at the older man slightly, "oh so it's hilarious when you do it, but not when I do?" Liam asks. Zayn chuckles as Bella scrunches her nose up at him as she thinks, before nodding slowly and snuggling into Zayn a little, "Baba, tell Daddy no. No flour Bella" she huffs and Zayn laughs, kissing her head. "Why don't you say sorry for doing it to Daddy, and then Daddy will say sorry to you" Zayn reasons, sending both Bella and Liam a stern look. Bella sighs shaking her head, but looks up to Liam, "sorry Daddy" she mumbles, cuddling even closer to Zayn as she does, which worries him a little, because even though she's always been a cuddler, it's not usually this much. Liam steps closer wiping his flour covered hands on his pants, "I'm sorry Princess" he murmurs smoothing back her hair, and pressing a kiss to her forehead. Zayn looks around the now messy kitchen, and frowns "alright why don't we go get you cleaned up, while Daddy finishes making dinner" he asks. Bella sighs, nodding her head, "just cheese, Daddy" she reminds Liam who laughs, "I remember baby, you go with Baba" he grins, and Bella nods gesturing for Zayn to carry her out of the room.

Zayn and Bella return just over twenty minutes later, both of them in new clothes, because Zayn's got just as wet while Bella was having a bath as Bella did, and Bella with freshly washed hair. They find Liam in the kitchen wiping down the counters as the pizza cooks in the oven, "all clean?" he asks with a grin, and Zayn smiles as Bella reaches out towards him. Liam steps closer to pull the toddler into his arms, "Daddy?" she asks and he hums to indicate he heard her, "watch movie?" she asks and Liam chuckles "I don't see why not" he agrees, Zayn catches his eye and shrugs, because he doesn't see it as a problem either, really. Zayn notices Liam frowning as he kisses Bella's forehead, "what?" Zayn asks slowly Liam shrugs, "might be nothing, but she feels warm" he mumbles. Zayn frowns and steps closer pressing the inside of his wrist against Arabella's forehead, and frowning, she does feel warmer than normal, but not so hot he needs to worry too much. Zayn pouts and looks into Bella's eyes, "you not feeling good?" he asks and she shrugs, cuddling in to Liam a little more, and Zayn sighs, because now how cuddly she is makes sense, she always wants extra cuddles when she's sick. Liam passes the toddler back to Zayn, "why don't you and Baba go get settled and pick out a movie, and I'll bring the pizzas out" he asks, and Bella nods, "okay Daddy" she mumbles snuggling into Zayn who frowns. He really hates it when his baby girl is sick in any way.