Zayn directed his words to all three people, yet his eyes only stayed on his father. When Xavier held their gaze, Zayn had to sit down. Liam's hand landed on his thigh immediately, also needing support.
"We will explain first" Sylvia said, smiling softly at Liam. Spenser scratched at his beard and tried to smooth knotted hair from his face.
"M- Maybe you should get showers first, and something to eat, and clean clothes," Liam suggested. After nine years, his parents were free to do all those things, yet he was making them wait. Reminding himself that he had lived without them for so long brought more tears to his eyes.
"You should get comfortable" He quickly wiped a tear away, but one was enough to trigger his mother's sorrow.
"Oh Liam, come here!" She held out a weak arm, and Liam imped across the room. More tears fell as he climbed onto the bed and fell into her arms.
"I can't believe you're actually here" he sobbed.
"This- this is just so... i-it's too-" Liam's floodgates didn't just open, they crumbled away completely, and he broke down. Liam had held on for the sake of making sure Zayn was okay. But now he had the space and the time to let his emotions engulf him.
Zayn looked away. The sound of Liam's sobs brought the lump back to his throat. He pressed his thumb into his palm. He wanted to do the same, cry until his head hurt, but he still doubted that his father sat opposite.
I watched you die. Zayn had lost his voice.
"Can you help me to the bathroom, Zayn?" the familiar voice said. "A bath sounds glorious right now."
Zayn couldn't just sit and stare at the black carpet. So he helped lift him off the bed, managing to avoid his eyes. He weighed barely anything, and trembled weakly with each step. Zayn's father had been a big man, tall and muscular and very fit. He was an Alpha that lead by example, but now he was barely fit enough to keep his own eyes open.
Behind the bathroom door was a corridor with three black doors, each labelled as bathroom: 1, 2, and 3.
Zayn entered the nearest one and gently lowered the man onto a stool by the sink. He glanced at his face just fora second, and the man wasn't just any man, he was Zayn's father.
Zayn swallowed thickly and busied himself by turning on the brass taps in the bath. He rummaged for soap and sponges, all the while he felt those dark intense eyes following him around the room.
"You're taller" his dad said. "And leaner. Is that for your mate?"
Zayn almost dropped the razor. He had often wondered about his father's reaction to him having a mate, and how embarrassing he would be. Zayn felt the heat rise to his cheeks, but the situation was too urgent for him to reject his teasing.
He turned and stared so intensely, Xavier's soft smirk fell.
"I watched you die." Zayn's voice was frail.
"Yes." Xavier stared distantly at the bath filling with water and bubbles. "That day.. It's hard to remember all the details, but I passed out in my office, or rather, I knew I was dying. I felt my wolf slipping. Did Jaiden whisk my body away?"
Zayn nodded. "He forced me to get mum. When we returned to the office, Jaiden and your body were gone. Mum stopped him when he was almost at the gate. Mum just.." Zayn had tried for the past two years to forget the sound of his mother's cries that day.
"Jaiden was quick to get me away." Xavier grimaced at the mention of his mate.
Now that Zayn had Liam, he could only imagine the pain of being separated.
"And I assume Mira was driving the van I was revived in. Did you not think that the body van arrived rather quickly?"
"That night was the worst fucking night of my life. That was the last thing I thought about."
Xavier nodded, frowning. "I woke up in the van briefly. I saw Mira's face, and felt that I had no wolf, then I must have passed out again. I woke up later when I was in the cave. Mira told me your mother had died, and that was why I lost my wolf. She let me believe it for almost a month."
Zayn clenched his hands and ground his jaw. The lump in his throat was growing.
"Two years." He shook his head. "It took me two fucking years to figure all of this out."
"You thought I was dead. I wouldn't blame you if you never found me."
Zayn gripped the front of his hair. "You knew about Mira before you died. I've been such a shit Alpha that I didn't even find the clues until you had been locked up for almost two years!" He started pacing.
"I should have figured it out. I should've- god mum, she nearly- the pack, I almost ran it into the ground. And Niall, and Liam, fuck, everyone suffered because I just couldn't do the one thing that I was supposed to be good at!" Zayn stopped abruptly, looking straight at his father. His whole body trembled. "I'm sorry."
Xavier's shoulders rolled forwards. His brows pulled together, and he lifted his weak arms. "Son, come to me."
Zayn's bottom lip quivered, and he hurried to his father, kneeling by the stool and burying his head into his dad's chest.
"I'm so sorry!" he muffled, crying into his top.
Xavier held him. "The only person who should be sorry is dead now."
He ran bony fingers through Zayn's hair, smiling weakly at the grey steak, a uniqueness from his mother. "It's going to be okay now. We'll all be back together soon."
Once Zayn started crying, he couldn't stop and had to let his tears run their course. Though he sobbed hard, as though the emotions from the past two years were finally surfacing and bleeding into his father's top. The tears were a relief and he felt much lighter when they eventually slowed.
He kept his head on his chest and his arms around his dad's back long after the tears had dried.
Xavier was silent too, occasionally sniffing from his own tears, rubbing Zayn's back and softly massaging his hair.
With his eyes closed, Zayn could sometimes smell his father's scent, the same scent that invaded his office long after his death, and the scent his mother tried so desperately to keep alive.
Water suddenly spilled over the sides of the bath, tearing them apart. Zayn sloshed over the tiles, muttering swearwords as he twisted the taps. He rubbed his face and breathed deeply before facing the man he had cried against.
His father was just as emotional. His brown eyes still dribbled tears, but he also tried to wipe them away.
"I'd hoped that we would reunite like this one day. Well, I'd hoped I would be stronger than this." Xavier looked to the bath. His skin tingled for warm water. "I'll need help for a while."
Zayn didn't mind. He was glad to be the one to help restore him. He stripped his dad of his dirty clothes, and his skin was just as dirty. Zayn lifted him into the bath and flakes of mud peeled away.
Xavier sighed heavily with relief. "I took the simple things for granted." He held the small yellow bar of soap, lathering it between his thin fingers. "Such a luxury"
Xavier washed where he could, and Zayn helped with his shoulders and his back and his feet. Zayn washed his dad's hair and his beard. The water was black when he lifted him out and wrapped a towel around him.
"I'll get you some clothes." Zayn returned to the bedroom to see Liam still lying with his parents, still teary and emotional. Their eyes connected. Liam knew Zayn had broken down. His smile was sad and knowing.
The seven Omegas all sat together on the floor by the door. They watched their Alpha stride through the room for the fresh clothes folded on the furthest bed. Zayn didn't say anything and slipped back into the bathroom. He didn't know where to begin with an explanation.
He helped his father dress and found a pair of scissors in the cupboard. Zayn knelt in front of him and trimmed back the dark beard so he could shave it off.
As Zayn clipped near his ear, Xavier said, "So, you have a mate now. He's not what I expected."
"What did you expect? Don't say a woman."
"Hey now, my mate could have just as easily been a man."
Their eyes connected.
"The first thing mum said to Liam was 'that's a boy!" Zayn mocked. "And human."
"The human part surprised me, and his- calmness. I expected an Alpha wolf so you could cause chaos together. I guess fate had other ideas for you."
"Like what?" Zayn mumbled. "To have a mate too good for me, so I constantly let him down?"
Xavier was silent for a moment. Zayn had always been, and always would be very pessimistic. "No, fate gave you that damn bucket of water to put out the raging fire in your soul." Xavier tapped Zayn's chest. "I'm pleased."
Zayn swallowed down his emotions, not wanting to cry on him again."I always wondered what you'd think of Liam. He inhales books. You'll like him."
"I'm sure I will."
Zayn switched to the razor and shaved off his father's beard. He looked more like himself, but tired and weak. Zayn wanted to be done so his father could sleep in a bed for the first time in two years.
He gazed hopelessly at his long dark knotted hair, wondering where to start. Liam often trimmed Zayn's hair, so he returned to the bedroom for his mate, still bundled up with his parents.
Liam quietly slipped from the duvet, stopping Zayn in the corridor from the room to the bathroom, reaching up to touch his jaw.
"How are you feeling?" he whispered.
"A little better."
"You don't look so sceptical anymore."
"It's definitely him." Zayn said, closing any distance between them. "Is it definitely your parents?"
Liam nodded.
Zayn leaned down, connecting foreheads. They closed their eyes, sharing a small intimate moment after a few mad days. "I can't believe this is happening"
"Neither can I." Liam kissed him for a long second, then allowed Zayn to guide him into the bathroom before another wave of tears washed over him.
Xavier sat peacefully on the stool. His eyes dropped to their intertwined hands, and he smiled, tilting his head forwards to say hello. He looked better clean, and a little less run down.
"Can you help cut his hair?" Zayn asked.
"I can try. I can't promise it'll look good."
Xavier chuckled. "I'm sure anything would look better than my current state."
Liam had seen old pictures of him. Xavier's hair was like Zayn's, shorter on the sides and longer on the top, but Xavier's was never quite as messy on the top like his son.
While Liam got to work on his hair, Zayn sat on the floor by his father's feet, crossing his legs.
Xavier watched him the entire time, peacefully, and with a small content smile on his old familiar face.