As promised Zayn stopped the flirting and Liam stopped with the boobs comment. But if he sneaks a look when Zayn is changing out of his PJs, no one has to know.
Zayn goes down after changing without waiting for Liam and Liam walked into the dining hall to hear-
"I can make a decent omlet!"
"And my kitchen would look like a tornado passed through it! No thank you baby!"
"Morning!"
Liam said smiling at Trisha who was ruffling Zayn's hair.
"Morning Beta! We were waiting for you. Come sit!"
Liam goes to sit next to Zayn.
"No, don't sit next to me. Go sit next to Ammi's chair. She loves you more anyway!"
Zayn huffed and Liam was confused. He knows Zayn gets like this when Badi Ammi shows a bit more love to Liam in her words or actions, but what happened today?
Trisha hit Zayn softly on his arm with a "behave!"
"Don't worry Liam. Bhabhi just told Zayn the truth about his cooking skills and he is sulking because he can't take the truth."
Zileh snickered when Zayn mocked her, making a face.
"I don't understand.."
Liam smiled politely. Why are they making fun of Zayn's cooking skills?
"Ay mera baccha! We have one more rasm to do and after this you two are finally free and can start going to work."
Zileh smiled at Liam's excitement and Zayn's dreadful look. That nalayak has never gone to the office before.
"Do you know what pehli rasoyi is?"
It was Doniya who asked Liam. He had some idea, but not sure.
"It's basically the first kitchen experience for the daughter-in-law in her husband's house. We didn't want to show any partiality but you know we value this house and our life a bit more than equality, so we can't make Zayn cook anything without extreme supervision. And both of you cooking together would be disaster on an entirely different level. So.."
"I have to cook?"
Liam is glad to cook. He loves cooking, and he has got praises before from everyone for his cooking. It's a piece of cake for him.
"Only if you are okay with it."
Trisha put in not wanting her son-in-law to think she's making him work instead of her own son.
"I would love to, Badi Ammi. Don't worry. You know I love cooking!"
"You know I love cooking! Who are you? Gordon Ramsay?"
"It's not my fault you can't cook."
"Did I say it's your fault, Mr. I Can Do Everything?"
"And this is exactly why Liam will be in the kitchen and Zayn, you will watch him work from here. You are Not allowed to go in and disturb him. You are Not allowed to go do something else either. Understood?"
Trisha gave her best "no drama" look and Zayn had no choice but to agree. He will play Candy Crush to waste time. Liam can do his Master Chef Malik version.
Everyone got excited because Liam is cooking. Once in a while Liam gets this cooking fever and that will be the best time for both families because he would make for both of them. Even Zayn loves Liam's cooking, he would never admit it though.
But there was one person who was watching everything silently, planning to spoil Liam's rasm, at least this one before she is to go back tomorrow. She can't spoil the food since everyone knows Liam's skill in the kitchen and they would doubt if something went wrong. But she can distract him from the cooking enough that it gets burned or he hurt himself. She has the perfect plan.
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Liam was enjoying the cooking. He had his Spotify playlist on shuffle and he was moving around in the kitchen with ease. He was in his element. As Liam was finishing up the main course and started working on the dessert, Zeenat was acting on her plan.
She flooded the laundry room next to the kitchen, and the soap water from the washing machine was getting into the kitchen and Liam, unaware of this, did a small dance step going to the fridge and-
"Ouch!"
He slipped and fell on his butt. And it hurt. Zayn looked up from his phone and saw Liam on the floor and he started laughing. He would go and help Liam up, but unfortunately he has been banned from entering the kitchen. So, it's not his fault that he is not helping.
Liam glares at Zayn and tries to get up again. Only to slip and fall back again and Zayn has stomach ache from laughing. Liam was so sure this was done by Zayn.
"How brave of you Zayn! You can't fight from the front so you're stooping this low?"
Zayn stopped laughing. Did he just?
"You fell down because you are a clumsy little monkey! Why are you blaming me?"
"Excuse you! I fell down because you flooded the kitchen! There's soap water every where! No wonder you were put in Slytherin, you are so evil!"
Now Zayn can take an insult to himself. But an insult on his house? Damn the Gryffindor!
Zayn walked quickly to tell Liam to keep his mouth shut if he doesn't know better but he couldn't get much out because the moment he entered the kitchen he slipped and fell on his ass, much to Liam's pleasure.
"Stop cackling like Bellatrix, you moron! Ouch my bum!"
Zayn winced and Liam laughed more.
"Bum? Zayn, you haven't got any! You're flat like this kitchen tiles!"
That's it! Zayn doesn't have much patience. So he did what he had to do. He splashed the soap water on Liam and-
"Now you're not laughing!"
Zayn was expecting for Liam to do the same thing to him. What he did not expect was for Liam to move forward and grab Zayn's hair. His precious hair!
And then they were fighting like they fought on the football field all those years ago, when they were 6 and 7 to be exact and they were covered in mud when they got back home. Except, this time it's soap water.
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"Why aren't there any noises?"
Trisha wondered out loud. She has zero trust in her son. By this time he must already have started a fight with Liam.
"I'm wondering that too Ammi. Why haven't we heard Zayn's "Ammi! Liam is throwing eggs at me!" when it's actually him throwing eggs at Liam?"
Doniya laughed. Honestly though, why can't they hear anything? Peace and Ziam won't go together..
"Let me go check. I don't want to have to call the fire department or an ambulance by the end of the day!"
Trisha said before walking to the kitchen area and found her son and son-in-law sat on the kitchen floor, cross legged, styling each other's hair.
That's right. Once they started the fight, Liam started laughing at how Zayn's hair looked wet and Zayn laughed at Liam's hair too. Then they challenged each other who does the best hair styling and ten minutes later Trisha walks in and they're still playing salon.
She smiles fondly at them. Well at least they're not wrestling or boxing like she expected. She was about to walk into the kitchen when both Zayn and Liam yelled at the same time-
"Ammi, no!"
Trisha's eyes fill up with happy tears. This was the first time Liam has called her Ammi.
But Zayn didn't find it so amusing. Of course.
"Ammi? Excuse you, she's my Ammi!"
Liam narrows his eyes at Zayn.
"What?"
"SHE IS MY AMMI! NOT YOURS! JUST MINE!"
"AND YOU ARE MY HUSBAND, SO SHE IS MY AMMI TOO!"
Zayn is shocked because, did Liam just call him his husband? And Liam is shocked because, did he just say that out loud?
"Okay, calm down you two! What happened here anyway? Where did the water come from?"
Liam looked around. Yeah, where did it come from?
"I think the laundry room. The washing machine is broken, I guess."
Zayn said and Trisha frowned. But the machine was fine yesterday.
"Alright, now get up, and careful! Don't fall again. I'll clean the mess and do the rest. Go freshen up and we'll eat, okay?"
"Oh, um, everything is done.. Just the dessert.."
"We can have ice cream for dessert."
Zayn said before he could stop himself. Liam had already made everything else. They don't need another dessert. Ice cream is fine. But he won't say that out loud now, will he?
"I'm just craving ice cream."
Trisha nods her head in understanding. Of course. He wants to eat ice cream. It's not because he doesn't want Liam to do anything more. Understood.
"Okay, now off you go. Shoo!"
Liam got up first and gave Zayn his hand to pull him up. They carefully stepped out of the kitchen and walked towards their room.
"I'll shower first!"
Zayn ran up the stairs and thank God he didn't fall.
Liam sighed and slowly walked up stairs. He doesn't have the energy to fight with Zayn for the shower now. He'll wait.
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Liam was bored waiting for Zayn to finish his party in the shower and come out so that he can go shower. That was the only reason he opened Zayn's drawer and found the copy of Sons and Lovers. The copy in which he-
The rose is still there. It's dried and shriveled now. But it's still the dark red colour and-
"What are you doing?"
Zayn came out of the washroom, drying his hair, careful to wear clothes because he still doesn't trust Liam and his boob obsession.
Liam turned with the rose in his hand. A slight smile on his face.
"You kept this!"
Zayn had completely forgotten about the rose in the middle of getting married and moving into his husband's house and doing the rituals all over again.. Someone must've put the book in the drawer because he doesn't remember keeping it there. He definitely wanted to throw it out once he saw the rose in Jelena's hand but then he forgot.
Liam looked at Zayn's clueless face and realized.
"You didn't know.."
Zayn looked at the rose and then he looked back at Liam.
"Wait.. That was you? You kept the rose in my book?"
Liam felt blush creeping up his face. Shit! He shouldn't have brought this up.
"Yeah...?"
"But.. Why??"
Zayn is surprised. Pleasantly and he's feeling a lot of feelings right now, but he needs to know why.
"You were whining that day, how I didn't let you buy the red roses instead of white.."
"So you went back? Just to buy it?"
Zayn's heart was doing the things Zendaya did in The Greatest Showman. But he hasn't got a Zac Efron to catch his heart if it falls, or has he?
Liam grinned sheepishly.
"Actually, I had already bought two from the shop when I saw you staring at them. I wanted to give it to you right then, but you were being such a pain-"
"Heyyy!"
"-I decided to just keep it here."
Zayn Malik does not blush. What he was feeling right now was an allergic reaction to the new Dove soap he used. Yes. That's it.
"You said two. I only got one."
Damn, does he sound jealous?
Liam blushed again.
"I um.. Didn't want you to be all smug about being special and stuff, so I bought two, in case you started annoying me I could tell you I bought two, and it wasn't just for you.."
Zayn gasped. Where are the cameras!? This is the Liam people needed to see! This guy has got too much tricks up his sleeve.
"And you gave that to who?"
"I wasn't going to.. give it to anyone. But then Zileh saw me, and I had to escape her questions.. So.."
"But I saw one in Jalapeno's hand?"
Zayn needs to know!
"Oh yeah, Zileh made her hold it until she cleaned her dupatta, she got some stain on it."
Okay now Zayn can relax. But also, golden boy really bought him a red rose? And kept it in his book? Gosh if Louis knew he would release a poster about this!
"So you bought me a rose huh. Because I liked it.. When are you confessing Liam?"
Zayn looked smug as Liam blushed even more. He had promised no flirting, but he can't help it.
Liam grabbed his fresh clothes off the hanger and walked to washroom. Before closing the door he turned to Zayn.
"If you bring this up, I'll make Roo tell everyone how she got your Hublot watch."
Liam chuckled as he watched Zayn's smile disappearing. Roo really can't keep a secret, can she?
Roo thought telling Liam how it was Zayn who sent her with the cream that day would make Liam see Zayn in a better light. All it did was Liam gaining one more thing on Zayn that he can hold as a blackmail.
Liam is loving it.