Reason To Be (A Zouis Family AU)

Interlude Two, Chapter Two

Oh, God.
He's spiralling. Majorly.
And Zayn isn't there to help. He's out there doing who knows what with who knows who whilst his family waits for him at home.

Only, he's never been anything less than entirely faithful before. Neither of them have. They've always loved each other unconditionally and he doesn't understand why that would change now.

Because it won't, he tells himself. Zayn would never do that to you and the boys. Never.

Before he can fall deeper into the black hole within his mind, a shrill cry sounds from upstairs and he jumps up from the couch without a second's hesitation. He runs up the stairs and into Harry and Niall's room, switching the light on as he goes.

Harry's bed is still empty and surprisingly, so is Niall's. He winces at the sight of the ten year old sitting on the floor by his bed with his knees pulled up into his chest, duvet tangled around his small body as he sobs into his arms.

"Oh, baby," he breathes, crossing the room to sit beside him, hushing the child as he burrows into his side, hands moving to grip on his t-shirt. "It's okay. I got you."

Niall just cries against him, shaking slightly from the effects of the nightmare. "W-wanna sleep w-with you," he chokes out, and Louis nods without pause.

In fact, his bed would feel far too empty tonight and so the thought of having his littlest to cuddle up with is a comfort to him too.

"You can, baby," he says softly, carding his fingers through the child's sweaty hair as he whimpers. "Hey, hey. You're okay now."

"W-where's Papa?" He asks quietly once his cries die down slightly, and he pulls away to peer around the room with tired, teary eyes.

Louis' heart breaks at the question before the sadness turns to anger. Zayn should be here. He should be home to comfort his son after a nightmare, not spending the night at work.

"It's just me I'm afraid, blondie," he murmurs apologetically, reaching out a hand to cup the boy's face, rubbing away his tears with his thumb. He leans forwards after, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "You can take Papa's side of the bed, hm?" He offers, trying to keep his voice light so as not to further the kid's worry.

Niall gives a small nod as Louis climbs to his feet, holding onto his hand tightly and following along to their bedroom.

He gets Niall tucked in on Zayn's side before he turns out the lights and climbs in beside him, facing the boy and smiling softly, one hand carefully rubbing up and down his arm. "You want to talk about that dream?" He asks quietly, and Niall sniffles, shrugging with his eyes half closed.

"Don't remember it," he mumbles. "I was scared though."

Louis sighs at that, wrapping his arm around the kid instead. Niall lets out a shaky breath, raising a hand to tangle up in his shirt.

"I miss Papa," he whispers.

"Yeah, baby," he admits quietly as his youngest drifts off. "Me too."

The next morning he wakes to the ringing of his phone, sitting up with a start and waking Niall in the process. The boy whines and he shushes him quickly, watching with a small smile as the ten year old buries his face into the pillow and drifts back to sleep whilst patting around for his phone.

He finds it in the pocket of his pyjama bottoms, slipping it out and frowning when he sees the caller ID of the summer camp. He winces upon realising that it's barely five am, ready to scold Harry on his time keeping skills.

He holds the device to his ear with a tired sigh. "Haz, honey, it's really early -"

"Oh, is this Harry's father?" A young sounding girl asks on the other end, and his heart instantly races as his mind floods with every bad thing that could have happened to the thirteen year old overnight.