i'll show you

thirty five

11:02

"are you staying the night?"

zayn hums in response. he doesn't know why he's so tired but he can barely keep his eyes open. he hears liam chuckle before feeling the bed dip beside him.

"don't you want more comfortable clothes to wear?" liam asks. usually, zayn hates wearing jeans in bed, but the thought of getting out of bed to find other clothes to sleep in is immediately shut down. he settles on just taking off his jeans and sleeping in his boxers. he feels the rough material pool at his ankles before he's kicking his jeans off the bed.

"come here." zayn mumbles tiredly.

"i am here." liam jokes, although he knew what zayn meant. liam lays on his side so that they're spooning and zayn drapes his arm over liam's waist.

this was it for zayn. he felt himself quickly starting to doze off. well, that was until liam's door opened, illuminating the room.

"liam?" a voice, who zayn assumed belonged to niall, called. niall's voice sounded deeper than usual, but zayn didn't care. he just wanted to sleep.

much to zayn's dismay, liam gets out of the bed. "i'll be back." he whispers to zayn. zayn just groans and grabs a pillow to hug. by the time the click of the bedroom door shutting sounds, zayn is fast asleep.

-

zayn rouses from his sleep when he feels liam get back into the bed. he doesn't know what time it is and he doesn't really care. his back is facing liam and he's still hugging the pillow. his eyes start to droop, but not before catching the numbers showing on the alarm clock.

2:56

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it's almost noon when zayn wakes up. he doesn't know where liam is, but what he does know is that he's fucking starving. he makes his way downstairs and into the kitchen, pausing when he sees that's it completely empty.

right, everything is down in the basement.

zayn walks down to the basement, immediately picking up on the sound of liam's giggles. zayn smiles at the thought, but it drops as soon as he sees the picture in front of him.

liam and harry were both sitting on the couch, facing each other. they were way too close for zayn's liking and harry was resting his head on his hand as he looked at his boyfriend dreamily.

"hi baby." liam says, smiling. "i didn't think you were ever going to wake up."

zayn ignores this, walking over to liam and grabbing his hand, dragging him to the other side of the couch and most importantly: away from harry.

zayn pushes liam down on the couch and sits in his boyfriend's lap. liam giggles before wrapping his arm around zayn and kissing his cheek.

"y'know," zayn starts, "it's pretty fucking annoying that i have to walk all the way down to the basement for some cereal."

"oh, so you're cranky and hungry?" liam realizes. "let's get some food in you." liam tries to get up, but with zayn refusing to get off his lap, he can't. "zayn." liam giggles.

"no." zayn whines. normally, zayn wouldn't act like this. usually it's liam, but something is telling him to play it up in front of harry. zayn runs his hand through liam's hair and says, "don't forget: my family is expecting you tonight."

"i know. i'm so excited." liam confesses. zayn's family was having another family night. they haven't had one in a while, back when zayn, liam, louis, and dylan were all friends. "i had so much fun last time."

zayn hums. "yeah, my sisters loved you. practically begged me to invite you."

"they're so cute."

"they're obsessed." zayn corrects.

"seems like i have that effect on the malik's." liam smirks.

zayn scoffs, shaking his head lovingly. "i love you." zayn tells him.

"i love you too." liam winks and zayn can't help it. he leans forward and captures liam's lips with his.

when he pulls away, he immediately looks over his shoulder to see harry's reaction, but harry isn't there anymore.

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"liam!" safaa and waliyah shriek when they see liam walk in.

"hey girls." liam says and he brings both of them into a hug. the two girls giggle at each other as liam's wraps his arms around them. "how are you?"

"good." they say in unison, causing them to giggle even more. zayn rolls his eyes and grabs liam's hand, pulling him away from the fangirls he calls his sisters.

they walk into the living room where his family was, including louis, ernest, and doris, which didn't surprise zayn. zayn had invited louis over, wanting him to be able to get away from everything just for one night. he invited all of his sisters actually, but louis declined, not wanting to leave his mother alone.

doniya was the one entertaining the kids while louis was talking to zayn's parents. doniya was doing doris's hair while ernest was playing on doniya's phone.

"hi liam," trisha greets him, "it's nice to see you again."

"you as well. thank you for having me again." liam flashes her a smile making zayn swoon. zayn settles on sitting on the couch while liam walks over to doniya, sitting on the floor next to her. zayn watches in awe as liam introduces himself to the twins.

louis comes over to zayn and sits next to him. "hey loser."

zayn snorts. "hey asshole."

a whine slips through doris's lips as she squirms on doniya's lap, clearly over getting her hair done.

"i was wondering when that was going to happen." louis chuckles. they both watch as liam sits in front of her, starting to sing kid songs to distract her. "he's good with kids."

"yeah, he is." zayn agrees as they watch the duo play patty-cake.

"i wonder how long that'll last. they're a bit cranky. they haven't had a nap today." louis says and just like that, ernest throws doniya's phone before whining himself. "see?" louis chuckles. he stands up to retrieve his siblings, but liam beats him to it.

"how about we go outside? let's go outside! we can play with chalk, go on a walk, collect pretty flowers..." liam trails off because the twins already love the idea.

"i'm coming!" waliyah decides.

"me too!" safaa follows.

liam chuckles. "that's fine." liam turns his attention to ernest and doris. "come on little ones, let's get your shoes on."

"hold on just a second sweetheart," trisha says, "i need to figure out how many pizzas i should order."

"you go overboard every time anyway." doniya comments. trisha sends her a playful glare.

"is dylan coming tonight, sweetie?" trisha asks.

all the blood runs from zayn's face. it's quiet, apart from the twins putting on their shoes, and his mom is waiting for an answer. he doesn't want to look at liam, he can't, but his eyes betray him and they flick over to liam. liam's face is emotionless, zayn can't detect anything and that scares him.

"i meant to ask him when he was here last night, but it must've slipped my mind." trisha decides to add, making things worse.

"no," zayn starts, his heart pounding, "he's uh–he's not coming."

zayn looks back over at liam again and this time, he looks dejected.

"let's go guys." liam mumbles, grabbing ernest's and doris's hands. his eyes never leave the floor as he walks out of the living room and eventually, out of the house.