Your Creation • Zarry

27. Daddy

When we arrived in Spain I was buzzing with euphoria. We had some time off and took the opportunity to lounge around the pool of our hotel in Barcelona before our show and I was feeling more relaxed than ever. Zayn and I had taken our friends with benefits relationship into a more emotional place and it was this joyous sensation and even though we were still hiding in secret, part of me was hopeful. We had finally broken down the barriers and we were becoming closer than ever. Of course, Zayn and I still had to ensure that everything remained hidden from literally everyone at all costs, as per condition one, including Liam, who still thought that we had ended it and I intended to keep it that way. But even so, despite the secrecy, just knowing that Zayn and I were now on the same page was what kept me going.

But there was still one enormous boulder in my path and that was Zayn and Perrie's relationship. It was this constant elephant in the room, the rain cloud looming in the distance on the brightest, sunniest day. The only thing Zayn had told me about his Perrie situation was that he was going to stay with her for a little while longer until he could speak with Jen, our band's publicist, to try and figure out how to go about ending the relationship publicly. Playing the waiting game wasn't my favorite thing to do, but I was slowly mastering the art of patience.

After we left Barcelona we ended up in Madrid, Spain. Liam, Louis, and Niall spent the morning having a little kick around and training session with Real Madrid, which Zayn and I missed out on because we stayed up far too late messing around with each other and neither of us were able to wake up in the morning. On the plus side, however, he and I got to spend some time together alone in the early afternoon before the football match we were all planning on attending later that day and it was nice to be alone together during the day for once.

But as much as we longed to lay in bed, order room service and indulge in some pillow talk, Zayn and I were still very much in the mindset that nobody could ever know about how close we actually were so that nobody would become suspicious, which especially meant not spending long stretches of alone time together, so we went downstairs and grabbed lunch and coffee with Lou and her adorable baby daughter Lux, as well as some of our crew members.

I sat across from Zayn at the table, bouncing Lux on my knee as she stole churros off my plate. I loved kids and I was always the first to volunteer myself as a babysitter for Lou whenever I had the chance. Lux was only a toddler but she was full of personality; I always envisioned myself having children one day and I imagined allowing them to be free, artistic and I'd teach them to be kind. I'd let them draw silly pictures which I'd get tattooed on me. Yes, I had thought about this a lot, actually.

"Think I'll make a good dad one day, Lou?" I asked, smiling at Lux as she tried to stick her finger in my nose.

"Better than good. You're incredible with kids."

I looked toward Zayn and he laughed, his eyes sparkling.

"It's only cuz he can relate to them."

"Heyyyy!" I whined, throwing a churro at his head.

Lux giggled and then mimicked me by picking up a churro off my plate and then threw it at Zayn. Okay, maybe he had a point there. I laughed and gave her a high five.

"Good job, Lux."

Then she proceeded to throw another one at him.

"Ahhh!" Zayn yelled. "I'm under attack!"

I watched as Zayn purposely slipped off his chair and dropped to the floor, causing Lux to start giggling. She started wiggling in my lap so I put her down, eying her as she ran over to Zayn and jumped on top of him.

"Zaynie!" the muffled voice behind her pacifier rang out.

"Get him, Lux! Get him!" I shouted, getting off my chair and handing her a couple more churros from my plate.

She threw them at Zayn's face and was giggling like mad while Zayn covered his face with his hands.

"Ahhh!!!" Zayn exclaimed dramatically.

"Are you really teaching my kid to throw food!?" Lou interjected.

"Don't be a fun ruiner, Lou!" I fired back, flashing her a grin.

Okay, I will admit that encouraging a food fight wasn't the most mature thing of me to do and I was certainly getting Lux a little too riled up, but I just couldn't help myself sometimes.

"Okay, okay. You win! I've been defeated!" Zayn exclaimed while Lux hopped up and down on his stomach, poking him in the face and still giggling.

I stood above the messy pair, peering down at Zayn on the floor, surrounded by churros, while holding onto Lux and thought about how adorable that image was. I had seen him play with Lux before, but he was fully invested in that moment and I may have felt myself adoring Zayn even more. I reached into my back pocket and retrieved my phone, snapping a photo because I just had to remember it.

"Have you ever seen anything more precious?" I asked Lou, showing her the photo.

Lou eyed my phone and then looked at me, smiling warmly.

"Can't say that I have."

After we finished eating and cleaned up the mess we made, Zayn and I retreated back upstairs.

"Is it odd that picturing you as a Dad kinda turned me on?" I asked Zayn while opened the door to my hotel room.

"Did it?" Zayn responded quietly as we walked inside.

I turned around to face him and he grabbed me suddenly, pushing me up against the wall with that look in his eyes. Oh God, not now.

"Zayn...we can't do this during the day," I said, wishing that it wasn't true.

"Get in the shower with me. Please. 10 minutes, 15 minutes max."

Sneaking around in the daytime was usually impossible and pretty much risking getting caught but we weren't exactly the most well behaved pair. The boys were gone, nobody seemed to be around so I thought about it for a half a second. What was 15 minutes, right? I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his, feeling that warm rush surging inside of me again. It happened every single time without ever failing.

"Okay, let's go."