The Way We Do (Ziam)

Chapter 8

"She is," Zayn admitted, trying not to think about how many dark corners there'd be at the club for him to push Liam into, so that he could-

"Perfect! It's a date then," Liam declared, sending a flutter of excitement through Zayn at the word date. "Niall and Harry and whoever else you want to invite can come too."

So, not a date then. Which was totally fine with Zayn, it really was. Better than fine. The only way he'd want it, honestly.

Liam ran his hand up and down Zayn's back a few times before standing up. "I'm gonna call Don and let her know you're alright, and I'll see you Friday. Try not to put yourself in any life threatening situations before then, okay?"

"Okay, Dad," Zayn grumbled, though he was secretly pleased at how worried Liam seemed to be.

"Good boy," Liam praised him, and god fucking dammit why did Zayn like the sound of that? He ran a hand through his hair as Liam walked away, reminding himself that immediately following a trauma was not a good time to develop a new kink.

Fucking Liam.

***

By the time Friday night rolled around Zayn couldn't fucking wait to get out of the house. It'd been nice being on leave from work for the first day or two, especially with his sisters fawning over him, but Liam'd had to switch his shifts around in order to be able to go out tonight, meaning that they hadn't been able to hang out all week. Not that Zayn missed him or anything. He was just sick of being surrounded by women.

Women who were surrounding him at that very moment, all of them weighing in with their opinions on what he should wear. He ignored them all, having already decided on the black v-neck sweater that showed off his tattoos, and the upper edge of his bruise, which he figured made him look even tougher than normal. He grabbed a few rings from the box he kept shoved under the coffee table and sat back, pretty fucking confident that he looked downright irresistible. Not that he was planning to seduce anyone or anything. He just had a reputation to uphold.

He eyed Doniya, who was already dressed in the skimpy black dress her boss claimed was a uniform, a question occurring to him. "So Don, do you like, like anyone at the moment?"

She paused where she was flipping through Safaa's workbook to glance up at him. "Is this about Liam?" she asked with a sigh.

"Of course it's about Liam," Waliyha cut in. "Zayn talks about him constantly."

Zayn glared at her, unable to believe what he was hearing. "I do not," he scoffed.

"Oh, come off it, Zayn. Yesterday I mentioned that Calum's parents might get him a car for his birthday, and you were all like 'Liam's got a car, blah blah blah.'" 

"Well, you were talking about cars and Liam does have a car so...I'm failing to see your point."

"My point is that you like him. Like, like him like him. Otherwise you wouldn't bring him up all the time, and you wouldn't have just spent an hour fixing your hair," Waliyha pointed out.

"It took me that long to fix it because someone  used all of my gel and didn't tell me," he reminded her. "And anyways, none of that means anything."  

"Okay, Zayn, keeping telling yourself that," she murmured dismissively.

"I like Mr. Liam," Safaa said as she climbed up onto the sofa to sit next to Zayn. "And he likes me best."

"I dunno, Saf, I think he might like me best," he told her gently, because it wasn't right for someone to go around spreading lies, no matter how young they were.