Zianourry Family Fluff (One Direction)

the best things happen when you least expect them

Niall: Dad

Liam: Papa

Harry: 11

Louis: 11

Zayn: 10

_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:

Zayn was used to having life served on a golden platter. He was used to getting his way, forcing his way, and overall just having everything done exactly the way he wants it. But really what else can you expect when you're the only child of two highly acclaimed parents: one being CEO of one of the largest corporations in England and the other being chief of cardiothoracic surgery in the very hospital where every member of the royal family has been born. For Zayn, anything he wanted was given to him because his parents simply didn't have the time to care about what the boy was requesting regardless of the extent.

For the first five years of the boy's life he was raised by nannies, chauffeurs, chefs, and butlers. When the boy wanted ice cream for breakfast he got it, when he wanted a new swingset all he had to do was tell his nanny who would then charge it on the family credit card, and when he wanted to ride the London Eye all he would have to do is crawl into his carseat inside his personal chauffeur's car. To an extent no one can blame the boy for being a spoiled brat because everyone who worked for the family was raised to not say no to the boy because it "caused less problems in the workplace".

However, things changed when Zayn was supposed to start kindergarten. At first the young boy had assumed he would be attending the same school that his neighbors– and closest things to friends– attend which was really just a preppy little primary school that required five year olds to wear ties. Unfortunately, though, Zayn's parents had other plans for the boy.

"Papá, no se quiero," a five and half year old Zayn whines as his father continues to roughly drag him by the arm towards the high, scary gates.

"Nada de eso, ¿me oyes?" Zayn's father says as he stops walking to grab the boy's chin. "Sigue niño, no tenemos todo dia."

And with that Zayn continues to walk as he drags his power rangers book bag across the floor.

Now, I'm assuming you're confused on the Spanish? Well, being a businessman Yaser has found it more than helpful to know multiple languages, however, he had no intention of teaching those to his son because who has time for that? What he did have time to do, though, was hire Spanish and French speaking personals for the young boy to teach him, so that by the time he was old enough for school he was practically fluent in the language. And much to his luck that ended up working perfectly– especially with Spanish– which is how Zayn ended up at the gates of a school titled La Masia de Can Planes, otherwise known as FC Barcelona's Youth Academy.

La Masia is a highly renoud academy that is known for being the home of what many call "the future" of the football team FC Barcelona. To put it simple, when Lionel Messi was 12 years old he was recruited to go there because they knew that he was going to be the best football player in the world. Typically the school does not accept anyone under the age of 6, however, the one time Yaser had decided to play with his son he noticed his natural ability at playing football and decided to record it. That along with the amount of money he was ready to donate to the school made Zayn a shoo in, and even better it allowed him eligible to be one of the 60 students– there being 300 in total– who's allowed to live on campus.

Eventually the father and son make their way over to the front office where immediately Zayn finds himself trying to hide behind his father because of all the tall figures in the room, however, Yaser was having none of it as he pushed Zayn to be in front of him.

"Julio! It's good to see you," Yaser says as he greets the man with a hug which confuses Zayn because his father always tells him that hugs are disgusting.

"As to you, Yaser. Now where's our little prodigy?" the man known as Julio says in a loud boisterous tone as he looks down towards the mini Yaser.

"Dice hello," Yaser says as he not so lightly taps the back of the boy's head.

"Hola, señor," Zayn mumbles as he sticks a hand out which causes the man to laugh.

"Ah, he's cute. He's got your businessman attitude," Julio says. "Vamos then, let's go get him settled."

"I actually need to run, I have to be in Paris by tonight, so do you think you can just take him to his room?" Yaser says as he checks his watch to which the man nods at in understanding.

Yaser then shakes the man's hand before beginning to turn away, however, he's stopped by a small voice.

"Papí, no te vayas," Zayn whimpers as he runs to hug his father's waist.

"Zayn, enough. I need to go work so I can pay for you to be here ¿entender? Mamí will be visiting in a month and she'll take you to get lunch if you're good. Now go with Julio before you make me even more late," Yaser says in his version of softness.

And of course Zayn let's go because that's the tone he's grown to interpret as his father being sincere. So as Yaser walks out the door Julio gently grabs the boy's hand as he then leads him through the crowds of boys who are probably three times his age. Eventually the two arrive at a small brick building that kinda reminds Zayn of the cottage they stayed at when the family went to Switzerland. Upon entering it, though, that idea quickly changed when the boy found the front area to be just like any other office building, except for the fact that behind the glass window he could see some teenagers playing foosball.

"Maria, this is Zayn," Julio says as he reaches down to pick up the boy and place him on top of the glass counter which of course freaks the young one out a bit.

"Oh, Zayn! I've heard so much about you, and I've been so excited to meet you," the young woman known as Maria greets the young boy.

"H-Hello, s'nice to meet you," Zayn says quietly as he continues to look around now that he's higher off the ground and can see things.

"So you do speak English," Julio jokes as he pokes the boy's side. "I was wondering why this British little boy was only speaking Spanish to me."

"Papá says it's polite to speak Spanish when I'm in Spain," Zayn explains as he now makes eye contact with the man.

"You can speak whichever one you want with us, we speak both English and Spanish," Maria explains as she now gets up from the desk. "Should we introduce him to the boys?"

Instead of answering, though, Julio just places the boy back on the ground as he begins to guide him back towards where the older boys were watching TV and playing foosball and air hockey.

"Niños, este es Zayn, y va a vivir con ellos," Julio says which causes a couple of the guys to chuckle while others just look at the small boy in confusion.

"Julio, es un bebé. ¿Por qué vive aquí y no con sus padres?" one boy speaks up as he points at Zayn with a slight chuckle.

"Porque su padre de este chico es Yaser Malik," Julio says with a raised brow and as if that answered every question in the world and the boys just stopped talking. "Jose Tomas y Gabriel, he's with you two."

And before any complaints can be heard Julio begins to take Zayn over to his new room. When the boy enters he automatically notices how the room is just about the same size as his room back home, only difference being he now shares it with two people who to him seem like a million years older.

"Zayn, this one is your bed," Julio says as he points out a bed that appears to be like the top of a bunk bed, however, the bottom bunk area is replaced with a desk. "Tu papí envio toda tu ropa y juguetes, and Maria's gonna help you unpack."

"How do I get up there?" Zayn asks as he notices there to be no ladder for his bed, and it seems that Julio notices at the same time.

Without a second thought, though, Julio pulls the boy's desk from underneath his bed and places it to be at the very front of it.

"Allí, now all you have to do is climb up on your desk and then you can use this part like a ladder," Julio says with a proud smile, however, before he can leave he notices just how unhappy the boy appears. "Your Mamí and Papí love you very much that's why you're here. It's going to be fun."

+

Zayn quickly learned he did not like La Masia.

Nothing against the facility because anyone could tell you that it is incredible, but the matter of the fact is Zayn is only five years old...how the hell is he supposed to know how to live on his own let alone like it? Luckily for him the home he was living in only had ten residents, and of the remaining nine– him being the tenth– they all found Zayn to be like a little brother. Unfortunately, though, once the "school season" started the people living at the school were hardly ever in their rooms. For them school started at five in the morning where they would do a group 5K, before having a quick break to shower and eat breakfast from 6:00 to 7:00. After that the remaining 240 students who didn't live on campus would arrive and the children would break off into their age groups/classes.

Zayn was part of the 6 to 7 year olds group which means his day "officially" starts with another 5K run alongside all his other mates. Then from 8:00 to 12:00 the children attend class which entails an hour of math, an hour of reading, an hour of writing, and an hour of alternating history and science depending on the day. Then for the next hour the boys had lunch time, but if they misbehaved during their morning lessons they only received half an hour for lunch because the first half hour was spent doing suicide runs outside on the field.

From 1:00 to 3:00 the boys would then have football practice where they did drills and practiced basic skills before being allotted an hour of free time. During this time most of the boys found a place to take a nap, however, for Zayn it's when he had to do all his homework. That is because from 5:00 to 7:00 they do scrimmage practices, then they do an hour of conditioning, before finally everyone gets to go home. For Zayn, though, his day still doesn't end. At 8:00 all the people that live there receive dinner, and at nine they go on a quick "daily cool down" two mile run. Even though by the time they're done with everything it's only around 9:30, Zayn's usually so tired that he's basically asleep while he's in the shower. On a number of occasions, the boy's sure some of the older lads have carried him back to bed, which he appreciates, but at the same time he just wants it to end.

As time goes on Zayn begins to adjust to the routine, however, as he adjusts he begins to loathe the sport he plays more and more. For his first two years there Yaser and Zayn's mother didn't bring the boy back because they were going to be "away on business" so "what was the point?" but eventually Zayn got Julio to convince them. So when Zayn was eight years old he was finally brought back "home" for the summer.

At first the boy was ecstatic because that meant no more 5:00 AM wake up calls, but soon enough he realized after being gone all this time that he no longer had any friends here. During his first few days of being back Zayn found himself running to the local football field where he would play by himself for a while before going home, but then one day the boy found a group of 7 other boys around his age playing there.

"Hey can I join?" Zayn finds himself asking them hesitantly because this is first interaction with new people since he moved into La Masia.

"Yeah sure! We were uneven anyways," the boy with a buzzed head says. "You're on skins, though."

And without hesitation Zayn throws his shirt to the side as he begins to play with the boys. For awhile they're all having fun, but when Zayn sees the boy in front of him approaching him without looking up Zayn knows he can easily get away with a slide-n-steal. So without hesitation the boy pulls the move that he's practically been trained to do in his sleep, only thing is it seemed to scare the other boy as he ended up slipping back and hitting his head.

"Hey! That wasn't cool!" the same boy who had told Zayn he could play said as he shoved Zayn. "We're playing clean football!"

"That was a clean slide, I do it all the time," Zayn defends but all the boys argue back.

"You clearly suck at football then cause you hit him right in the ankles!"
"I did not! It was a clean steal, he's just being dramatic!" Zayn remarks, however, that just causes everyone to continue to scream at him. "Fine, whatever! You call it what you will, I'm done here!"

And from that day forward Zayn didn't play football with any other kids until he got back to La Masia when summer ended.

Zayn had his best year at La Masia when he got back that Fall semester. In fact, he was so good that Julio and the other coaches had even agreed to allowing Zayn to be a full time member of the 10 to 11 B Team rather than an alternating member of 8 to 9 A and 10 to 11 C. Of course the boy remained in the classes where boys were his age, but when it came to training nothing was held back. The boy was so talented that he even began to gain the respect of the people who live in the dorms with him even though he's technically lived there longer than most of the members inside.

Even after all that intense training, though, when summer came around the boy was still requesting to go home much to the distaste of his parents. That summer Zayn continued on with his daily routine for the most part. He woke up at 5:00 AM, did his 5K run, did some generic drills on the local football field, before running home. Once he got home, though, all the boy did was read. Sure he could probably play video games, but after living in that dormitory for all these years the boy's gotten quite sick of the sound of a PS4 turning on.

So basically Zayn's summer was spent reading, running, and doing drills. For the short amount of time that Yaser was home he always managed to yell at the boy that he could be doing this exact thing from La Masia but instead he's forcing his parents to pay for a nanny to look after him, which if Zayn's being quite honest they shouldn't be doing. Over the past couple of years he's grown to know how to take care of himself, and even if he couldn't do it properly he did it better than this good for nothing nanny who just watched TV all day and occasionally would make the boy a bowl of oatmeal. And yeah, Zayn knows he could be doing this same thing from La Masia, but that would also mean seeing the same 20 people for an entire summer and being watched by the coach Zayn hated the most.

Again summer ended and again Zayn went back to La Masia where he moved up to the next age group only this time in Team A. Obviously the boy was proud of his achievement because he was competing with the best of the best, but even with all these achievements neither Yaser nor Zayn's mother ever attended one his games. Unfortunately for the boy, though, mid-way through the year he was tackled by a cheap slide and steal and completely broke the boy's leg. Luckily for him his leg snapped at the knee so all they had to do was put it in a cast, but this also meant that he was done for the year.

Julio and Maria called Zayn's parents that night while the boy was in the hospital about his injury, but instead of asking if he's alright they both asked how long will he be out of football. The coach disregarded the question as he explained that because Zayn's tuition was already paid that they'd continue to house him for the remainder of the year as well as get him going on physical therapy. So that's how Zayn spent the next five months as he basically acted as a water/towel boy while occasionally sneaking in a PT session while his mates were scrimmaging.

When it was time for Summer there was no question that Zayn had to go home, however, the boy was quite surprised when he arrived home to hear the sound of children as well as a vaguely familiar deep tone.

"Papá?" Zayn shouted out as he only slightly limped into the house due to the brace still on his knee with his chauffeur bringing in his bags behind him.

"Ven aca," Zayn hears his father shout from the living room.

So slowly the boy begins to limp his way towards the scarcely used living room only to be surprised when he sees four just vaguely familiar faces.

"Dile hola a tu tío," Yaser says as he pushes the boy forward which causes him to bite back a hiss.

"Hola tío Liam, ¿cómo estás?" Zayn says shyly as he extends a hand out.

"Nada de eso, dame un beso," Liam says as he gently hugs his youngest and only nephew while placing a small kiss to his cheek.

"Dad, what's Papa saying?" the cousin that Zayn thinks is named Louis asks with a confused expression.

"They're just saying hello, sweetheart," Zayn's Uncle Niall says.

"Papá, ¿por qué están aquí?" Zayn asks with just a hint of snarkiness in his tone which causes Liam to chuckle.

"Because your mother and I are going on a work trip, and your nanny wouldn't come take care of you because of your leg. You're going to be staying with your uncles for the entirety of summer," Yaser says as he pulls out his blackberry to respond to an email.

"I didn't agree to that," Zayn exclaims but his father just shushes him.

"You don't have to agree to anything. Soy tu papá y tú haces lo que digo. No se hicieron preguntas," Yaser says before turning to his brother. "Just make sure he goes to his PT sessions because his next semester is already paid for, and I'm not about to have him downgraded to another team."

"Yaser, I've got this. Go enjoy your work life," Liam says as he turns to Zayn. "Why don't you go pack up a bag, and once you're ready we'll be on our way."

For a few moments Zayn just stands there. He stands there as he looks into the direction that his parents had left in while only briefly looking to see his uncle watching him expectantly. When the boy doesn't do anything Liam sighs before bending down to be eye level with his nephew.

"Sé que no esperabas esto, pero te prometo que no será tan malo con esperas," Liam says quietly to the boy. "Venga, vamos a empacar tu maleta."

As Liam tries to grab the boy's hand, though, Zayn quickly pulls it away before his uncle could touch it as he began to make his way upstairs while mumbling something along the lines of I can pack by myself. Now while Zayn was upstairs the family of four remained downstairs simply just looking around at all the luxuries this house held. All the luxuries that Liam didn't allow to be in his home.

So you see Liam and Yaser are half brothers through their father's side, and their father was basically twice the businessman that Yaser is today. With that being said, both men were looking at quite a large trust fund to be held in their names. The funds became active when each man turned 25, so for quite a few years now they've had access to them, however, rather than jumping to use his Liam saved them. Sure he bought a house for himself and Niall, but other than that he's left the money pretty much untouched. The same cannot be said for his brother, though based on the items in their house. And Liam knows Yaser works as does his wife, but there's just no way they've been able to afford this all on their own.

Eventually Zayn made his way downstairs with his La Masia duffle bag hooked over his shoulder. Upon seeing the boy struggle a bit getting down the stairs due to his knee brace Liam made his way over to help the begrudgingly accepting ten year old. Once everything was settled– Zayn just having to grab his sketch journal from his backpack– the five began to make their way out to Liam and Niall's car where immediately Zayn's cousins began to race to get the "better" seat.

"So Zayn, how's school been? I feel like we never get to see you because we're always over there," Niall says while taking the boy's duffle bag.

"Uh, it's good. A lot of training," Zayn mumbles as he finally gets to the car only to see that it's just the middle seat left open.

"Boys, Zayn isn't supposed to be bending his leg too much right now, so one of you is gonna have to move to the back," Niall says which gets both boys complaining. "None of that now. Come on it's for your little cousin, you can be a bit nicer."

And then begrudgingly Harry began to crawl his way into the back seat leaving Niall to help Zayn climb into the car. He made sure to tell the boy if he needed anything just to let them know because Zayn's father had already given them his pain medicine prescription. So now the five began their trek back to Liam and Niall's house, however, as they began to drive Zayn realized he didn't even know where Liam and Niall's house was.

"Uh, tío?" Zayn says hesitantly because he didn't want to interrupt his uncle.

"Yeah, bud?" Liam speaks up immediately.

"Just how long is this, uh, is this drive gonna take?" Zayn asks skeptically.

"It's a pretty decent drive, about four and half hours maybe? We'll stop for lunch on the way, though, so don't worry about getting too cramped up in here," Liam explains to which Zayn nods at.

For about a minute the boy expects the car ride to remain silent, however, just as he appears to be pulling out some headphones the cousin sat behind him speaks up.

"So you're in some kind of boarding school, yeah?" Harry asks into his cousin's ear which causes Zayn to jump a bit.

"Uh, it's a boarding school of sorts," Zayn answers.

"But like you're younger than us," Louis then jumps in. "Dad, how come he's allowed to live away for school, but we need to give you a week's notice if we want to go to a sleepover."

"Because that's what Uncle Yaser and Aunt Trisha decided would be best for him," Niall says with a smile.

"Were you like super bad or something and that's why they sent you away?" Louis then ask which causes both parents upfront to freak.

"Louis!"

"Callate la boca," Both Niall and Liam say simultaneously.

"Louis you idiot! He goes to boarding school not military school," Harry explains to his twin brother as though it was obvious.

"Sorry I didn't know there was a difference," Louis says.

After that it's quiet again, and this time it remains like that for a bit but eventually the two twins in the back get talking. To Zayn they were talking just stupid nonsense, but to anyone else it would probably be the average conversation of any eleven year old. As time passed on Zayn began to feel the exhaustion that always hits him after coming home begin to creep up, however, he did not want to sleep in front of his cousins. Every time he ends up falling asleep in front of stupid boys back at La Masia he always wakes up with something drawn on his face. It seems that Liam noticed his exhausted state, though, because he managed to point it out to Niall who then grabbed a blanket from his bag before gently reaching back to lay it over his nephew.

"Go on and take a nap, love. We'll wake you up before we decide to stop for lunch," Niall says gently.

For a bit Zayn continued to fight his tiredness, but eventually it catches up to him to the point where sleep is inevitable.

+

Zayn feels like he'd only been sleeping for ten minutes when he's abruptly woken up by the two arguing brothers. Being in a bit of a daze Zayn can't tell what they're arguing about, however, he has realized that they've stopped driving and Liam is no longer in the drivers seat. Before he can question where the man went, though, Louis' door is being ripped open only to reveal an angered Liam.

"Out of the car now! Both of you," Liam says with a face that Zayn thinks looks drastically similar to his father's when he's talking to business people on the phone.

For a moment Zayn was confused as to what was happening, however, upon seeing his nephew now awake Liam's face immediately softened.

"I'm sorry, love, not you. You can go back to sleep if you like," Liam says, though, he knows he probably won't.

After that brief pause of rage, though, Louis and Harry immediately climbed out of the car. So now with Zayn more awake he begins to look around only to see that they're still on the highway which makes him all the more so confused.

"Uh, Uncle Niall?" Zayn mumbles while rubbing his eyes a bit.

"Yeah, hun?" Niall answers while putting his phone away.

"Why are we stopped?"

"Your cousins were just having a bit of an argument as to where we should have lunch. Don't worry about it, yeah?" Niall says to which Zayn nods. "Do you want anything in particular? Anything you can get here that's not over there in Spain?"

In reply, though, Zayn just shrugs before looking a bit out the window only to see his uncle talking to his cousins with not the happiest of expressions. Eventually, though, everyone gets back in the car only for them to stop ten minutes later, but this time outside of a restaurant. So now the family all got out of the car this time around and walked into what Zayn could only assume was a fast food restaurant– he couldn't be sure though cause he's actually never had fast food. Liam and Niall led the boys to a little table next to one of the windows before Liam began to ask everyone for their orders.

"Cheeseburger, please," Louis says.

"Chicken nuggets!" Harry follows and now Liam is looking at Zayn who only looks back in confusion.

"Zayn? What do you want to eat?" Niall asks the boy when he doesn't say anything.

"I don't know, I've never been here," Zayn replies simply which causes his two cousins' jaws to basically drop.

"We're at Maccas! How have you never been here before?!" Louis exclaims in shock.

"I've never been allowed to eat fast food," Zayn says casually but still his cousins look shocked.

"Come on up with me, Zee, we'll look at the menu together then."

So now Liam and Zayn began to make their way up to the front of the restaurant where there was a slight line, so Zayn had time to look. As he was looking, though, he realized that just about the only food on the menu was either burgers, fried chicken, and french fries which is something that he was rarely allowed to have. Luckily though as the boy continued to look he managed to find one thing that he could possibly make healthy.

"Can I get the chicken salad?" Zayn asks while looking up to his uncle.

"You sure you want a salad?" Liam asks a bit surprised because he's just used to his kids hating all vegetables.

"Yeah m'sure."

So of course Liam doesn't push and instead just orders the boy what he wants along with what Louis, Harry, Niall, and himself were going to eat. Zayn waited with his uncle to help bring over the food and once it was done and brought to the table Louis and Harry looked about ready to jump Liam for the tray of food.

Once everything was passed out Harry and Louis dived into their grease filled food whereas Liam and Niall ate theres in a more civil manner. Zayn on the other hand basically began to dissect his food. He was expecting the chicken to not be fried so he had to remove all of that before adding just a drop of the caesar dressing to it and mixed it around a bit. It was about a five minute process before Zayn was ready to eat it, but when he finally was ready his cousins seemed to notice his "weird looking" food.

"You got a salad from McDonalds? Seriously?" Louis says with an unimpressed look.

"And you took out the good part of it, too," Harry says while lifting up a chicken strip.

"Boys, that's enough. He's allowed to eat healthy if that's what he wants to do," Niall says before turning to his nephew. "I wish your cousins would like to eat as healthy as you do."

And Zayn wants to say he doesn't necessarily like eating healthy because there are some foods he hates; it's just a matter of he's grown used to eating this healthy and his body can't as easily adjust to other foods.

So eventually the family finishes eating and they make their way back to the car to complete the last two hours of their drive. In those last two hours nothing too interesting happened other than Louis and Harry attempting to get Zayn to talk more, but the boy just wasn't a big talker. Once they arrived, though, Harry and Louis couldn't care less about talking to their cousin and instead ran straight to the front door.

"Boys, remember no video games tonight. That was our deal," Liam says as he takes Zayn's duffle bag from the boy's shoulder. "Zayn, let me show you where you're gonna be staying."

As Zayn passed his cousins he heard them groan in annoyance, but still he continued to follow his uncle up the stairs until he found himself in a rather large room.

"You three are gonna share a room for the summer, but I don't think it'll be too bad considering this room is big enough. We would put you in the guest room but the AC is broken on that side of the house so it's way too hot," Liam says with a smile as he puts the bag down on the bed in the corner of the room. "Harry and Louis sleep on the bunk beds. I'm sure they wouldn't mind switching one night if you want to sleep on the top bunk."

"I'm fine without, my bed at school is a top bunk," Zayn says as he begins to unzip his bag and remove the clothes he had packed.

"Alright, bud, well I'll let you unpack. How about when you're done you come join us downstairs? Once I deal with your cousins you'll all be able to go play outside," Liam says to which confuses Zayn just a bit.

"What do you mean deal with them?"

"Don't worry about that, love. I just need to talk to them a bit about their arguing from the car ride over here."

And with that Liam left Zayn alone in the room. So now the boy began to unpack everything from his bag which honestly was mainly his football clothes because that consisted of 90 percent of his wardrobe anyways. It didn't take long for the boy to finish unpacking due to the fact that he's grown used to always having to pack and unpack his bags when he goes on weeklong tournaments. Rather than going downstairs right away, though, Zayn decided to take this time to do some of the stretches he was supposed to be doing on a daily basis.

So gently Zayn removed the brace from around his leg and grabbed the giant yellow rubber band from his backpack and began to do some of the stretches that Julio had taught him to do. The boy continues to do that for the next fifteen minutes before strapping on the brace back on and making his way downstairs where he found both his cousins cuddling into Liam's sides. Not exactly sure what happened Zayn continued to limp into the kitchen area where Niall seemed to be cutting up some apple slices.

"Hi Zayn, all unpacked?" Niall asks to which he receives a nod in return. "Good job, bud. Care for an apple slice?"

This time Zayn just shakes his head before beginning to fiddle with his fingers a bit.

"Whatcha need, babe?" Niall asks with a smile when he notices the boy's uneasiness.

"Can I have some water?" Zayn manages to speak which causes Niall to smile and nod as he began to grab a glass for the boy, however, Zayn stops him. "Can you put it in here actually?" Zayn asks while handing his uncle a water bottle that had an off white powder at the bottom

"Is that protein powder, Zee?" Niall asks with a chuckle as he grabs the water bottle.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to drink three to four of these a day," Zayn explains.

And of course Niall didn't really care to have the boy drinking protein shakes but he wasn't about to up and change his usual routine. So instead Niall just began to fill the water bottle before giving it back to Zayn who began to drink it with a gag-like look on his face. Before the man could tell him he didn't have to drink it, though, Louis and Harry were rushing into the kitchen to grab some of the apple slices.

"Come on, Zayn, let's go outside!" Louis exclaims as he grabs his cousin's arm.

"Louis, don't pull him! He has a hurt leg," Liam chastises.

In return Louis just rolls his eyes as he now begins to gently pull his cousin outside where Harry was already waiting with a couple of nerf guns. Immediately Louis runs to grab one, however, Zayn just finds himself finding a nice seat on the grassy area.

"Zayn! Come on we need to prepare for our nerf gun battle with the neighbors! They're gonna be over in five minutes," Harry says as though it's obvious.

"I can't run, what's the point?" Zayn retorts which causes his cousins to nod in agreement.

"You're right, you'll probably just slow us down," Louis says before turning to Harry. "We'll gate Shai to be on our team instead."

Slowly the backyard began to fill up with boys from the neighborhood and Zayn can hear all of them ask Louis and Harry who he was but his cousins just shook the questions off. Eventually the "nerf gun battle" began and Zayn could only roll his eyes at the childish game. Seeing as it was a nice day out, though, the boy removed the brace from his knee as well as his shirt and laid down on the grass to take in some of the sun's rays.

+

Zayn assumes it was a mix of the relaxing sun as well as the soft grass but after a few hours passed Zayn found himself laid out on the couch with a little blanket draped around his body. The boy yawns as he sits up but once he is up he can hear the sound of all the boys from earlier talking in what he remembers to be the kitchen area.

"Have a nice nap, baby?" Liam asks, startling the still dazed out Zayn.

"H-How'd I get here?" Zayn asks unsure while rubbing his eyes.

"I carried you in after finding you asleep outside," Liam chuckles. "You didn't have to go with your cousins if you were tired, love. It's okay to take the occasional nap."

Zayn in return just shrugs as he goes to stand up but cringes a bit when his knee pops.

"We have a PT session scheduled for tomorrow, maybe they can massage some of the tense muscles in your knee," Liam says as he notices the uncomfortable look on his nephew's face.

"Yeah maybe," Zayn mumbles as he stretches in place a bit.

The boy's pretty much quiet the rest of the day which is pretty common for him. Louis and Harry's friends stayed until just after dinner– which was pizza and salad but really on Zayn, Liam, and Niall had the salad. At the moment, though, Liam was making sure Harry and Louis each properly showered while Zayn sat on the couch downstairs with Niall right beside him. The black haired boy had been on the verge of sleep for the past twenty minutes, but he was staying strong much to Niall's surprise. Eventually, though, pajama clad Harry and Louis' were downstairs saying night to their dad before running upstairs to their room.

"Zayn, time for you to show-" Liam starts only to be cut off by Niall shushing him.

"He's about to fall asleep," Niall whispers as he runs a hand through the boy's hair that was now leaning on his shoulder.

"He didn't do too much today, he can shower tomorrow after PT," Liam says as he lifts up his baby nephew and begins to carry him into the room where Harry and Louis were each already in their beds.

Once Liam had Zayn down on his bed for the summer he made his way over to his two sons and quickly kissed them goodnight before making his way back down to where Niall had just turned on the news.

"He's a lot more quiet," Niall says as he snuggles into Liam's chest.

"I know," Liam sighs. "I'm not really sure what I was expecting though. I mean he's lived on his own for five years now, that's not healthy for a child so young."

"Hopefully he learns to open up more while he's here."

The next morning Liam woke up at around seven seeing as he was always an early riser, however, he's quite surprised to find Zayn already downstairs when he arrives at the bottom of the stairs. The boy was dangling from a door frame as his face remained focus while lifting himself up and down. And even though Liam himself has done that he couldn't help but release his inner-dadness as he ran towards the boy and lifted him from the frame.

"Zayn, we don't do that! You could have seriously hurt yourself," Liam chastised as he placed the boy down.

"Tio, I always do that stuff," Zayn says with a huff as he's placed onto level ground.

"Not here you don't," Liam says sternly while looking the boy in the eye before sighing. "What are you doing up so early anyways?"

"I always wake up at five to work out, six on the weekends," Zayn explains.

"Why don't you sleep in, love?"
"I've never been allowed to, so I've just grown used to waking up at these times."

And of course Liam isn't going to force the boy to sleep in, but he does want to try and encourage him that sleeping in isn't the worst thing in the world. Regardless, though, the man just remains silent on the subject and instead tells his nephew to go get dressed for his first PT session at the new office. It doesn't take long for Zayn to get ready, so Liam that they could actually pick up some coffee on the way to the doctors office.

Eventually the two make it to the car and Liam drives thru the closest Starbucks– getting Zayn a cuppa tea upon his request– before finally pulling up to the physical therapy doctor's office. Liam helped the boy climb down from the high car as he guided him into the office that was mainly filled with adults and elderly people.

"Hi, appointment for Zayn Malik," Liam says to the lady at the front desk who smiles in return.

"Right on time, your trainer was just about to come out here and look for you," the woman says as she guides the two into the back room that has a bunch of people stretching out different limbs. "And this is Dr. Torres."

"Hi, you must be Zayn," the woman known as Dr. Torres says while extending a hand out.

"S'nice to meet you," Zayn says while shaking the woman's hand.

"And you're his uncle?" the woman asks to which Liam nods at. "Great! Before we get started I just want to take a quick look at your file to see how far you've progressed with your past PT doctor."

So now the three were seated in a little room in the back– Zayn on the observation bed while Liam sat in the open chair. Dr. Torres began to review the file to herself before turning to Zayn with a smile as she began to remove his brace.

"Your trainers have been having you move fast haven't they," the woman asks but it was more of a rhetorical question. "So you're a footy player?"

"Yeah," Zayn says while looking down.

"Why don't you tell me how you hurt your knee?"

"I was playing a game and someone slid trying to get the ball, but they missed and hit my leg that then buckled out and apparently snapped."

"That had to of hurt, huh? Well, Liam you can go wait in the waiting room, and we're gonna get started here," Dr. Torres tells Liam who smiles, gives Zayn's temple a quick kiss, before walking back out to the waiting room.

The woman guides the boy over to a machine where she has him press the wait up and down a couple times with both legs and then a couple of times with the leg he had broken. Over the next hour Dr. Torres– who eventually told Zayn to refer to her as Callie– had Zayn do a lot more exercises and stretches before she was taking Zayn over to a table to massage some of the muscles in his knee. Once she was done she guided Zayn out to where his uncle was waiting, however, rather than the brace being on Zayn's knee it was in Callie's hands.

"He did great in there, and I think it's time we move him off of the brace," Callie says with a smile. "I'll leave it with you in case he starts to complain but I really think he should try to start and walk without it."

"Alright we can do that, anything I should be having him do from home?" Liam asks.

"He knows the stretches he needs to do, I guess just make sure he does them everyday when he wakes up and before he goes to bed," Callie says with a smile. "Alright, Zayn, I'll see you next week."

And with that the two make their back to Liam's car and back towards the house where it seems that Louis and Harry had just woken up.

The rest of the day was quite similar to the day before, in fact the whole first week seemed pretty much the same. Zayn would always be the first up, he'd do whatever exercises he'd been allowed to do by Liam, and then he sat outside and read while Louis and Harry would be running around with either themselves or friends. The first two days of being with the boy the cousins invited Zayn to play with them, but eventually they realized Zayn wasn't much for "playing" and simply stopped inviting him. And even though Zayn was the one to say no, he still felt a bit disheartened because the one day he actually wanted to try and play and his cousins didn't even acknowledge him.

So now Zayn had been living with his uncles for nearly three weeks and he had just finished his third PT session. Like usual once he was done he went out to the waiting room to look for Liam, but this time the man wasn't there. Having been used to being left behind by his own father Zayn just assumed that something important came up which made Liam have to go, so he decided he could just walk home. So now ten year old Zayn began to walk the familiar path home, however, as it began to rain he soon regretted his decision. By now it was too late to turn back so Zayn just continued to shiver as he walked the nearly ten mile drive, but luckily for him he wouldn't have to finish this cold, long walk.

"Zayn Javaad!" Zayn hears Liam yell as the man's escalade pulls up right beside him.

The boy freezes as he sees his uncle's car, but doesn't make a move to approach him. Instead Zayn stays perfectly still as Liam gets out of the car and runs straight to the boy before lifting him into the air.

"Zayn why did you leave?! You never leave anywhere without me!" Liam says as he kisses the boy's forehead.

"It's fine, I was just gonna walk home," Zayn mumbles, however, he wasn't expecting for his uncle to leave a hard spank onto his bottom upon saying that simple sentence.

"No, Zayn! You should have stayed at the office, do you know how stupid it was to just up and leave like that?! Do you know how many things could have happened to you?!" Liam exclaims but Zayn remains silent.

Without another word Liam places the boy into the car as he gets back in the driver's seat, and the turns the air all the way up on heat. Once they arrive home Zayn opens up his door, however, before he can leave Liam's grabbing his arm and dragging him all the way up into his and Niall's room. The older man sits on the bed and pulls Zayn between his legs as he holds the boy's drawstring in his hands.

"Zayn, have you ever been spanked before?" Liam asks the boy because he wasn't about to completely traumatize him. When Zayn nods with his head casted down Liam continued to untie the drawstring as he pulls the boy's football shorts down leaving him clad in just his undies. "Okay, good, then I will be giving you a spanking for leaving the doctor's office without anyone and endangering yourself."

The next thing Zayn knows he's being lifted onto and over Liam's lap as his uncle begins to smack his little bum. The whole time Zayn laid over his uncle's lap Liam lectured him, but the boy didn't hear any of it. From experience at La Masia he's learned to just block out everything that's yelled at him and simply focuses on not making a sound or even moving an inch. However, just as quick as it began it managed to stop leaving Zayn quite confused. When the boy remained over his uncle's lap, Liam simply lifted him up onto his feet and forced the boy's eyes to look at him. Liam was about to start comforting the boy who had tears pooling in his eyes, though, just when he seemed to speak up.

"Is my punishment over?" Zayn asks with an emotionless voice.

"Yes, love, you're all forgiv-"

"May I be dismissed now?" Zayn then cuts off his uncle with the same emotionless voice.

And this time rather than responding Liam just nods which to then Zayn walks out of the room where Niall had been waiting at the door. Once the husbands heard the boy's door close, though, Niall immediately walked over to Liam.

"Babe, what happened?" Niall ask in concern.

"He left the doctor's without permission and just started walking home, so I gave him a quick fifteen spanks over his undies. He said he had been spanked before, I don't know why he's reacting like that," Liam says confused. "Should I go speak to him?"

"No, I'm sure he's fine, love. Just let him be for now," Niall says as he guides his husband down to where their two boys were just beginning to eat their breakfast.

Upstairs with Zayn, though, the boy had removed his shorts as well as shirt and was now stood in the corner of the room with just his boxers on. You see, back at school whenever you've been punished you were supposed to go to the corner of a room and the only thing you were allowed on was your underwear and that was only if you'd been lucky enough to keep those during punishment. Seeing as Liam hadn't given the boy a time frame before he left Zayn assumed he was supposed to stand there for the usual 90 minutes which is exactly what he did.

For the next 90 minutes the boy stood in the corner of the room with his hands on the back of his neck as he continued to force all the tears away. Eventually, though the alarm Zayn had set on his phone went off which is when the boy finally slid back on his shorts as well as the t-shirt he had on before. Seeing as Liam didn't even go half as hard as the coaches back at La Masia go Zayn knew his face wouldn't be red, so he simply made his way downstairs into the living room where he found his cousins seated with their friends playing some video games.

Liam and Niall had been in the kitchen starting to make lunch for the boys when they saw Zayn come down the stairs, and immediately the two began to watch the boy. They saw how hesitant he looked as he began to approach his cousins, and they couldn't help but frown when they realized neither Harry nor Louis were about to say anything to the boy. For a minute Liam thought Zayn was gonna sit next to Harry on the couch because he was the only one with an open seat, but he's proven wrong when Zayn turns away and plops himself onto the floor beside the love seat and even Liam and Niall could see the boy flinch up a bit.

"What do you want, Zayn?" Louis says as he looks down to where he just heard his cousin hiss out a bit.

"N-Nothing, m'just sitting," Zayn mumbles.

"Woah! I kinda thought your cousin was retarded seeing as he's never spoken in front of us," one of Louis and Harry's friends says with a laugh.

Instead of defending their cousin, though, Louis laughs whereas Harry remains quiet as he looks over to where Zayn had now begun to hug his knees to his chest while looking down. Over the next ten minutes the boys' friends as well as Louis began to say teasing comments to the boy who was sitting on the floor before finally Zayn seemed to have enough as he walked towards the kitchen. The boy got himself a glass of water before going back up to his temporary room. For a little while he sat quietly on his bed, but eventually he found himself pulling out his phone and dialling the number that for the most part is pretty foreign to him.

"Yaser Malik," is the first thing Zayn hears after a couple of rings.

"Papí?" Zayn asks in a small voice, trying to test the waters to see if his father was busy or if he'd actually talk to his son for a few minutes.

"Zayn, ¿qué tú quieres?"

"Nada Papá, sólo quería llamar."

"No tengo tiempo para hablar, Zayn. Por eso estás con tus tios."

"No quiero estar con ellos. Quiero ir a casa o de vuelta a La Masia."

For a few minutes it's silent on the other line, and honestly Zayn almost thinks his father might actually cave into his request and bring him back. Key word, though: almost.

"Deberías haber pensado en eso antes de irte y te rompiste la pierna. Es tu culpa no la mía."

And after that the line went dead. For a few more minutes after Yaser hung up Zayn remained on his bed, but just as he was about to get off he's cut off by the sound of someone knocking on the door.

"Zayn? Can I come in?" Niall asks as he gently pushes the door open.

"I mean it's your house," the boy says which causes Niall to chuckle only slightly.

"Were you just talking to your daddy?" Niall asks the boy seeing as he had heard him speaking Spanish.

"Yeah," Zayn says. "Just wanted to say hi."

"That's good, babe, now I just wanted to check up on you. Uncle Liam told me what happened this morning."

"I'm fine," Zayn mumbles.

"I know, I just wanted to make sure you know you can talk to both me and uncle Liam about anything."

Instead of replying, though, Zayn just nods while releasing a rather large yawn which causes Niall to coo. "Why don't you take a nap, baby? You had a rough morning."

And though Zayn tried to protest once he was tucked under the covers sleep just seemed to be inevitable.

+

Zayn doesn't know how long he's been asleep, but what he does know is when he wakes up all he can hear is the sounds of mischievous giggling. At first the boy ignores it, but then he notices his hand submerged in warm water and immediately he was springing up from the bed.

"It worked!" Louis exclaims as he and his friends begin to laugh all over again now that Zayn was stood up from the bed.

And for just a second Zayn was confused before he felt the fabric of his footie shorts sticking to his thighs. So as the boy now stood beside his bed he swore everything just froze. He could see Louis and his friends laughing but he couldn't hear them, he vaguely recalls feeling a hand touch his arm but he didn't turn to see who it was. All Zayn knows is once sound began to make his way back to his ears all he could hear was the sounds of Louis grunting and screaming as Zayn continued to stuff his face into the ground. Before Zayn can process anything else he finds himself being lifted off of Louis and into the air where he immediately begins to kick his legs in protest.

"Enough!" Zayn hears Liam scream which causes him to stop struggling. Eventually the whole room goes quiet aside from a few whimpers from Louis. "Harry take your friends downstairs, and you young man I want you in the corner of my room immediately!"

And without questions Harry began to guide all the boys downstairs, Zayn ran to Liam and Niall's room, and Liam stayed making sure Louis was alright. With Zayn once the boy got to the room he couldn't help but be ashamed...not for fitting Louis because he fucking deserved it but for the fact that he actually wet his pants. Sure he knows it wasn't his fault, but after living on your own for five years and the last time having had an accident was forced to clean it up himself he just couldn't help but be ashamed.

Once he was done moping though the boy began to remove all his clothing and folded it up nice and neat before making his way to a corner where he then bent forward and grabbed his ankles. When you were told to go to a corner before your punishment at La Masia this was the position you were expected to be in once a coach came into the room. So as Zayn waited for some reason he couldn't push aside the nerves in his stomach, and when the door opened not even a minute later it seemed as though those nerves tripled. However, Zayn was quite surprised at the reaction he received.

"Zayn, baby, what's going on here?" Niall says in concern as he goes over to the boy and tries to get him to stand up, but Zayn was persistent with staying leaned over.

"Tio Liam told me to come to the corner, m'gonna be punished," Zayn mumbles from his position.

"Baby, stand up please, even if you are gonna be punished you don't need to do this," Niall persuades but Zayn remains firm.

With a sigh Niall was about to leave to go get Liam, but before he could said man comes walking into the room only to freeze just as Niall had at Zayn's position.

"He said he's gonna be punished and he refuses to stand back up," Niall says to his husband before noticing how Zayn's body immediately began to shake upon realizing Liam now being in the room. "Baby, baby, it's okay. Stop shaking, love, you're gonna be alright."

Without even saying a word Liam rushes over to the boy and lifts him which only results in Zayn letting out a small scream.

"Please I'm sorry. L-lo siento, estoy tratando de dejar de llor-llorar," Zayn whimpered as he tried to push away from Liam's grasp.

"Shh, mi amor, está bien," Liam cooed.

Zayn continued to cry/hyperventilate for about five minutes before calming himself down. Once he was calm though he began to squirm from Liam's grasp, however, the man wasn't letting him down.

"Mírame," Liam says gently and much to his benefit Zayn does look at him. He looks him dead in the eye and just shows his uncle the eyes that are holding fear but at the same just look as though they've given up.

"What have they done to you?" Liam asks more to himself as he runs a hand through the boy's hair.

For the next five minutes or so Liam just holds Zayn's still naked figure to his chest as he gently rubs the boy's back. At one point Niall sat down with the two and held onto Zayn's hand to help stop the boy from fiddling his fingers. Eventually, though, the adults know they have to talk.

"Zayn, hunny?" Niall starts. "Why are your clothes all wet, baby?"

"They put m'hand in warm water," Zayn mumbles with red cheeks into Liam's chest.

"Who? Louis and his friends?" Liam asks this time, but when Zayn says nothing the adults knew they got the answer right. "And that's why you got mad and jumped on top of him."

"I wasn't bothering them," Zayn whines as he pulls away from Liam. "I just wanted to try and..." But the boy's sentence couldn't be completed as for the fact that he mumbled out the rest, but really Liam and Niall understood.

"Let's go get some new clothes on you, love," Liam says as he stands up with Zayn in his arms as he begins to carry his nephew back into his room.

"B-but m'supposed to be punished," Zayn mumbles which causes Liam to sigh.

"No you're not. We'll have a tío to Zee talk tonight," Liam says as he grabs the boy a new pair of undies, shorts, and t-shirt.

Once he was dressed Liam brought him back downstairs where he saw Niall doing a quick glance over at Louis while also chastising the boy who only seemed to be glaring at the floor.

"ZeeBub, how 'bout we have a little kick around outside? Dr. Torres said you're supposed to start playing with it a bit," Liam offers and Zayn just nods because he still is a little shook up.

So now the uncle and nephew were stood outside passing the ball back forth with Zayn occasionally passing the ball with his injured leg very gently. Eventually Liam got Zayn to start playing a bit more intensely, and soon enough the man was actually able to see just exactly what La Masia had been able to teach this boy over the past ten years. To say Liam was impressed would be an understatement because what this boy could do literally took Liam's breath away and that's saying something.

In fact, eventually he wasn't even just impressing Liam but he was impressing Niall and Harry and Louis and all of their friends who had migrated outside to play but got distracted by the grace the boy showed while kicking the ball. Soon enough, though, and Liam was calling it quits because he just couldn't keep up with Zayn anymore.

"No wonder your Dad keeps you over there in Spain, you're an incredible player, Zee," Liam compliments as he lifts the boy up and tosses him a bit in the air.

And of course Zayn knows his uncle is complimenting him, but still he can't help but frown at the statement of understanding for why he has to live off in Spain instead of at home.

"Papa, you should sign Zayn up to be in our footie camp next week," Harry says as he walks over to where his papa had just put Zayn down at.

"That sounds like a fun idea, would you want to do that, Zee? Wanna go to camp for a week?" Liam asks, however, the previously smiling boy just shrugs. "We'll talk about it tonight, yeah?"

And to that Zayn nods.

+

Much to Zayn's dismay night time comes around far faster than he was intending for it too which meant he was gonna have to have a sit down with his uncle soon enough. At the moment the three boys were seated on the sofa watching a movie while in their pajamas. Zayn was in the far corner of the sofa while Harry had himself laid out across the rest of it, and Louis was in the love seat every now and then glaring at Zayn. Before the boy knew it, though, a hand was being placed on his shoulder and it belonged to none other than Liam.

"Let's start getting ready for bed, baby," Liam says as he then lifts his smaller than average nephew up.

So Liam carries the boy up the rest of the stairs before placing him down on the bed he had been on just a few hours before. Liam shut his door as he sat next to his nephew, but could only sigh when Zayn just continued to look down at his lap.

"What you did to Louis earlier was completely unacceptable," Liam decides to start off by saying.

"I know," Zayn mumbles.

"I know you lot bicker, but when it gets to the point where you feel the need to hit someone then that's when you come to me or uncle Niall, got it?" And Zayn can only nod. "With that being said, though, you're not going to be in trouble because Harry told me what Louis and his friends did as well as said to you."

Liam looked at Zayn for a few moments to try and find a reaction, but the boy sat motionlessly.

"Zayn, what they called you was a very mean word, and they never should have said that."

"It's fine," Zayn finally mumbles.

"But it's not, love bug. That was a hurtful word and you shouldn't have to have people call you that."

And this time Zayn nods which Liam counts as somewhat of a success.

"Now, do you think you'd want to join Harry and Louis at their footie camp? It's a lot of fun," Liam asks in an excited voice, however, Zayn just shakes his head. "How come?"

"Because when I play with other kids they always yell at me that m'not allowed to do stuff or that I'm cheating when I do a trick," Zayn mumbles. "They never let me play with them."

And yeah, now Liam kind of gets it. I mean what else did he expect really? Zayn's ten years old but plays at an advanced high school level, so of course it's hard to try and get other kids to want to play with him.

"Well at camp everyone always has to play, so you won't have to worry about people not letting you. I promise it's a lot of fun, plus it'll be better than hanging out with Uncle Niall all day," Liam tries to push.

"I don't care, I'll do whatever," Zayn mumbles which leads to Liam sighing as he lifted the boy onto his lap.

"Zayn, I'm not gonna force you to do anything. We'll only make you go if you want to go."

And soon enough Zayn found himself nodding just so slightly.

+

A couple days have passed and Zayn and Louis have said just about the bare minimum to one another. Luckily for the boy Harry has stuck with him a bit more, but at the same time when it comes to picking a side Harry always has Louis' back. Right now the three boys were being driven to where their day of camp is supposed to begin, and to say Zayn was nervous would be an understatement.

He's never had to show off his moves to anyone but the coaches he's grown up with. Now all of a sudden he was the new kid, in a new town, playing for people he's never even met before. Upon pulling up to the field Louis and Harry sprint from their seats over to the check in area where Zayn can see the people sitting smile animatedly at the two boys. Once the car was officially off is when Zayn finally began to get down from his seat, and just as he hit the ground he was met by Niall's awaiting hand.

Liam grabbed the three boys' cooler lunch bags that had drinks for throughout the day, their lunch, snacks, and in Zayn's case his medicine and inhaler. Once the man had everything the three began to make their way over to where Louis and Harry were standing in excitement.

"Hey Jackson, hey Beck," Liam says to the two teens who sat with papers in front of them meant to check the kids in with.

"Hey Liam, Niall, how've you guys been?" the one Zayn thinks is named Jackson answers.

"All is good, did you get Louis and Harry in?" Niall replies to which the two teens nod at with a smile. "Great, and we have one more actually; this is Zayn, last name Malik."

The teens look through the papers a bit before one claims to have gotten him in.

"Thanks so much boys, now where's Nathan?" Liam asks only to be cut off by a voice.

"Hey guys, are you ready to get back to playing footie?" a tall man with a shaved head says with a smile as he high fives both Louis and Harry.

"Yeah!" The two exclaim before running off to where they had seen some friends.

"Nathan, this is our nephew Zayn; he's the one I was telling you about," Liam says as he gently guides Zayn to be in front of him.

"Ah so you're the famous 'prodigy' that Liam can't stop bragging about," the man known as Nathan says as he crouches down to Zayn's height. "I'm Nathan it's very nice to meet you."

"M'Zayn," Zayn says while shaking the man's hand.

"Uh, so he just recently got the all clear to play after breaking his knee pretty badly, so if you could just keep an eye out for that," Liam says to which the man nods at. "Also he has an inhaler in his lunch bag and some medicine in case his leg starts to cramp up."

"Alright, Liam, I think we got this covered. You two can take off now," Nathan says with a laugh as he guides Zayn over to where all the other boys had begun to kick around a football. "How old are you Zayn?"

"M'ten," the boy mumbles which causes the older man to nod.

"Alright we'll start you off with the ten and eleven year olds, but maybe eventually we can move you up to be with your cousins," Nathan says obviously not convinced by Liam saying the boy was a prodigy on the football field.

So eventually the day begins by running two laps around the football field, and, well, let's just say Nathan along with the other camp counselors and coaches were definitely surprised by the small boy who had just finished his second lap by the time the rest of the kids finished their first. Once that was done, though, all the kids were split up into groups, and Zayn immediately took notice of being in the youngest group. That didn't last long, though.

When Zayn was able to do the cone drill without even looking at the ball once the coach immediately moved the boy up. Then this coach moved the boy up again when he was able to steal the ball at one end and take it all the way down on his own to score three times in a row. During their first break, though, some boys were playing a game of keep ups so Zayn decided to go and join. Of course they allowed him to join, but when he started to get fancy and spin his foot around the ball before bouncing it back up the group was quick to tell him he couldn't continue to play with them.

That's when Zayn decided to start taking it easy on everything he did basically. He would run at a jog to stay at the same pace as everyone else, he'd keep the ball far in front so someone could easily take it, and basically he just wasn't playing like himself. By the time lunch time came around Zayn was ready to go back home and just sit on his own because he definitely wasn't having fun.

So as Zayn grabbed his lunch of course the first person he went up to to see if he could join them was Harry and Louis, but even though the curly headed boy wanted to say yes there just wasn't any room in their table even if they tried. So then the boy made his way over to another table of boys his age, but they remembered him as the show off so they quickly told him no. Eventually the only tables left to sit at were the ones with the older kids, the ones with the counselors, or the ones that had no one at them. It didn't take much debating before Zayn walked straight towards an empty table and began to pick at the food Niall had packed for him.

He smiled a bit at the note left in there as well as the dinosaur gummy pack he was given, but other than that he couldn't help but frown because eating alone sucks. At La Masia he was lucky enough to have a few friends so he always ate with someone even if they sometimes fell asleep at the tables. But here Zayn was alone and it wasn't really by choice. Eventually, though, Zayn felt someone sit down in front of him.

Nathan.

"Hey, bud," Nathan says with a small smile that Zayn can only half return. "Why're you eating all alone?"
"Just cause," Zayn says as he removes the bread from his sandwich and uses the lettuce to make a mini wrap.

"Well do you mind if I join you then? The other counselors don't care for little old me to sit with them," Nathan asks to which Zayn just shrugs at with a nod. "So your uncles tell me that you don't go to school here."

"Yeah, m'from Bradford," Zayn says.

"What school do you go to there? I used to coach over at one of their high school's so maybe I know your primary school."

"I don't go to school in Bradford, I go to school in Spain," Zayn says which causes the man to look confused.

"How come?"

"Cause my mamá and papí travel a lot, so I go to a sleepaway school."

"What's the school called?"

"La Masia," Zayn says simply but the man in front of him looks shocked. "Do you know it?"

"Yeah I do, it's a really famous school for football fans," Nathan says. "How long have you been going there?"
"Since I was five," Zayn mumbles just as all the other kids begin to get up to throw away their trash. "Uh, coach Nathan, can I call my uncles? I wanna go home."

And that immediately shook the man from his thoughts.

"How come, hun? You feeling alright?" Nathan asks in concern.

"No one likes me here, they keep saying I'm trying to show off. I just wanna go home," Zayn mumbles which causes the man to frown.

"But the fun part of the day is just about to begin," Nathan says. "We're just about to start scrimmaging. How about you try that out for a bit, but if you still wanna go home in an hour we'll call, yeah?"

And of course Zayn agrees because he's always been taught to agree with your elders. So now the boy was being put onto a team of primarily fifteen year olds to which definitely had him receiving some odd looks. But once the boy scored a goal without even trying the odd looks immediately disappeared. Zayn plays the whole game and even makes a goal from the mid point of the field to win the game. Just as the boy was going to get some of his gatorade, though, he hears someone.

"God Louis, your cousin's such a showoff. He barely passed the ball to anyone," Zayn hears some random voice, and immediately the smile is gone from his face.

"S'probably a spoiled brat, too, yeah? I bet he's got a fancy private coach and everything," another boy says as Zayn's frown deepens.

Zayn walks across the field over to where Nathan was standing talking animatedly to another coach, and just as the boy approaches them the group of coaches can't help but smile.

"Zayn, you played amazing! You're a natural," Nathan says with a smile.

"Can I go home now?" Zayn says with a defeated voice as he looks up to the coach with just the saddest eyes he's ever seen.

And of course Nathan along with the other coaches were confused, but Nathan was a man of his word so he quickly guided the boy to the front and began to dial up Liam's number. When he didn't answer he tried for Niall, and luckily the man answered and agreed to coming to get Zayn. Once he arrived he didn't even look that shocked, instead he looked remorseful as he lifted up Zayn and grabbed ahold of his bag. With a quick goodbye Niall has Zayn strapped into his seat as the two began their drive home. What really surprised Niall, though, was the sound of whimpers soon coming from the back of the car.

"Zee, baby, it's alright," Niall coos as he notices the red, tear stained face boy in the rearview mirror. "Shh, love, we're almost home."

And true to his word not even five minutes later and Niall was pulling into their home only to immediately rush to the back seat and lift the boy out. So now Niall has Zayn balanced on his hip as he attempts to console the boy while also beginning to make their way inside. The thing is, though, Zayn is trying to calm himself down on his own but he can't, and that's just causing him to freak out more simply because never before has he had trouble with this. Any time before this where he cried– which was a rare thing– he always managed to calm himself down quickly because if any of the guys saw him in that state they'd just laugh at him. But now he just doesn't know what to do.

"Alright, Zayn, alright. You're okay, you're a brave one, yeah? Shh, you're gonna be fine," Zayn could hear Niall cooing in his ear, but even though he was trying to stop crying he just couldn't.

Zayn feels Niall sit down and soon enough his face is pulled from his uncle's neck until he is seated straight up and able to look Niall in the eye. As Zayn continues to sit straight up in his uncle's lap he can feel the man lightly bouncing him up and down while also placing a caressing hand on his back. Every couple of moments Niall would reach forward to wipe away some tears, and each time Zayn would whimper which basically just resulted in Niall cooing yet again. Soon enough, though, Zayn was just hiccuping which is when Niall found it to be a good time to talk.

"Oh, baby," Niall sighs. "What's got you this upset? I thought you were gonna have a blast at camp? It's just like being back in school in Spain and playing football all day just with your cousins there as well."

"I hate school," Zayn whimpers as a few more tears fall from his eyes.

"But you were doing the fun part of your school today, there wasn't any reading or maths or that stuff," Niall tries to say but Zayn just shakes his head.

"I hate the football part of school," Zayn says quietly. "I like the reading and writing and maths part."

And if Niall's being honest, this was something he had kinda always thought about. I mean sure his kids love to play football, but that's because it's a way for them to make friends and to avoid doing homework for a bit. But with Zayn football isn't about making friends it's about training until you are literally the best there can be, and this decision to be put in that school was made for him at five years old.

"Have you talked to your mum and dad about that, bub?" Niall asks, now in a much softer tone.

"H-he doesn't listen! Él nunca escucha! Le digo y- y él me llama desagradecido," Zayn says as his voice becomes closer and closer to sounding like he's about to cry.

Soon enough Zayn begins to start crying yet again, but this time he doesn't really try to stop himself. So as he cries into his uncle's shoulder he continues to mumble on a bit in spanish, but the thing is Niall doesn't speak a lick of the language so it's not like he can even understand what the boy is saying. Eventually, he felt the boy's breathing go even, so he assumed he fell asleep and decided to carry him up to his and Liam's room. Once the boy was settled, though, Niall was immediately calling for Liam.

+

"Me odia y no sé lo que hice," Zayn whimpers into Liam's shoulder as the man continues to hug him to his chest.

"Shh, no te odia. Tu papi es solo una persona complicada," Liam tells the boy.

"Todo el mundo en el campamento me odiaba."

"Tampoco te odian. Fueron creados diferentes que tú."

"I wish you were my Papí, porque no me harías jugar al fútbol."

"Zayn," Liam sighs as he sits up and lifts the boy to be in his lap. "Your Papá loves you very much, believe me, and I'm sure if you told him that you don't want to play football anymore he'd listen."

"No he won't tío!" Zayn says in an exasperated manner. "I've told him before and he doesn't listen."

And of course Liam wants to argue but he knows it doesn't come of much use because for the most part Zayn is right...his father won't listen to him. So the man decides to switch the conversation a bit.

"Baby, why didn't you tell me or Uncle Niall that you didn't like football anymore? We wouldn't have made you do the camp," Liam says softly to the boy who is now trying to turn away from him.

"Because I was hoping it'd be different, but it was the same as always."

"What do you mean, babe?"

"I mean I thought I'd be able to just play with Harry, but then they kept moving me up and up and up until I was playing with the really big kids. Everyone gets to hangout with their friends and have fun, but I always have to keep playing up because it isn't fair to everyone else."

"So if I talked to Nathan about having him keep you at where Louis and Harry are would you want to go back tomorrow?" But once again Liam sighs when Zayn shakes his head. "How come?"

"Cause Louis won't let me hang out with him, and then whenever I talk to Harry he always drags him away so I won't talk to him either," Zayn says while playing with the end of Liam's tie. "Why doesn't Louis like me?"

"Louis likes you, baby, he's just being a stubborn, big cousin. He's used to being able to boss Harry around, but Harry's starting to learn that he doesn't have to do everything that his twin does."

"Es un malito," Zayn mumbles which actually causes Liam to laugh.

"I will talk to Louis. In fact, it's just about time to pick them both up from camp, how 'bout we go get them and then have a sit down over some ice cream?" Liam offers.

"But then it'll look like I tattled," Zayn whines which causes Liam to coo.

"The fact that Louis had been hurting your feelings doesn't make it tattling."

So now Zayn was back in the car driving the same route he had seen twice now, and made it back to the field he had left not too long ago. As Liam parked and let Zayn out of the car he could tell the boy was nervous as he was trying to hide behind Liam's much bigger figure, so the man decided to just lift him onto his hip and allow Zayn to hide his face in his shoulder. By the time Liam got to the front desk area Louis and Harry were already up there waiting with sunburned cheeks.

"I thought I told you boys to put on sunblock during lunch time," Liam says as he leaned down to kiss each boys' cheek.

"We forgot, Papa," Harry says as his father stands back up and begins to talk to Nathan.

"How's this little one doing? S'he gonna try to join us tomorrow?" Nathan asks as he rubs Zayn's back.

"M'not too sure," Liam says as he bounces the boy. "He plays football year round, and I think he likes to make summers not so much about the sport. We'll see though."

And with that Liam began to guide all the boys back to the car where he then told them about their little ice cream adventure. Louis and Harry seemed ecstatic but Zayn just looked nervous. Eventually they pulled up to the ice cream parlour, and both twins could hardly hold back their excitement as they ran into the shop. Zayn followed behind them at a calmer pace while holding onto Liam's hand. The older man then had the boy's claim a table while he got everyone the ice cream they wanted– chocolate for Louis, cookie dough for Harry, strawberry for Zayn, and mint chip for himself. Once Liam handed out all the ice cream he allowed the boys to enjoy it for a bit before he decided to talk again.

"Louis, you like being a big brother, yeah?" Liam asks to which his eldest is quick to nod at. "What do you like about it?"
"I get to protect Hazza and I get to shower after him, so technically I stay up later," Louis says easily and Liam smiles.

"But your favorite part is protecting Hazza, yeah?"

Louis nods.

"So as a big cousin how come you don't like to do that for Zayn?" Liam asks as he notices Zayn stop eating his ice cream and began to cower a bit.

"I would protect him if I had to, but I haven't had to," Louis says but Liam just shakes his head.

"I don't think that's true. I mean, when Zayn had no one to sit with today I think you could have protected him by inviting him over, or when your friends were calling him mean names you could have said something."

As Liam speaks he notices his son's mood dropping, so he knows his point is being made.

"This isn't all on you, though, because Hazza you could have jumped in just as much as Louis could have," Liam continues. "All three of you are cousins, and you don't have too many of those. So Harry, Louis just like you'd protect each other, you have to protect Zayn, and Zayn the same goes for you. You have to protect your cousins too."

For the remainder of their ice cream outing it's pretty silent, but from the way that Louis grabbed Zayn's hand when they were leaving back out to the car he knew he had gotten his message across to the three of them.

+

If Liam's being honest he didn't really think his talk with the boys was going to last. He thought that maybe they'd get along for a night or two, and then Louis and Zayn would find something to argue about making them start this little war all over again. However, they were now hitting three weeks of friendliness, and both Liam and Niall couldn't be more surprised. Zayn didn't go back to camp and instead stayed home with Niall where he would typically spend the day reading, drawing, and helping Niall around the house; and then when Louis and Harry got back the three would play together. The parents genuinely were surprised how well the boys were getting along now, but they weren't going to make any comment on because they didn't want it to go to waste.

The thing is, though, with the boys now so close Liam and Niall knew taking Zayn away would crush them, but that still wasn't going to stop Yaser from showing up in a week's time to take Zayn back to school. At the moment Liam was out with Harry and Louis buying the boys some new sneakers for before school starts, and Zayn was coloring a picture in the kitchen while Niall prepared the family a nice lunch. It was a peaceful day that Niall was sure would end with the boys outside on the trampoline, however, those thoughts were cut short by a hard knock on the door.

Zayn looked up from his drawing for a minute and looked at his uncle as to see if he could go open it, but Niall shook his head as he made his way towards the front door. He quickly looked out the peephole, but after not recognizing the man he slowly opened the door.

"Hi, can I help you?" Niall ask as he keeps the screen door shut.

"This is the Payne residence, yes?" the man in the black dress pants and white dress shirt asked as he looked at his phone briefly.

"It is," Niall says a bit skeptically.

"Mr. Malik sent me to come pick up his son, Zayn. There's been a change of plans in his flight schedule, and he's to report to the airport for his flight back to school tonight," the man behind the door says easily, but Niall's reaction wasn't easy.

"Um, I'm sorry, Zayn's supposed to be here 'till next week, and I don't feel comfortable sending him away with some stranger," Niall says. "If you'd like to come in you can wait in the living room, and once my husband gets home he'll call his brother."

"Mr. Payne, we're on a tight schedule here. We still need to go back to Bradford so Zayn can get his football gear, and then get to the airport. We really don't have time to wait and make a call to a man who receives thousands of calls on a daily basis," the driver says but Niall stays stern to his answer.

By this point Zayn had made his way over and he heard what Niall as well as the other man had said, and immediately his once happy demeanor turned sad again. Niall noticed Zayn's appearance but he didn't comment on it, and instead led the boy back to the kitchen so he could finish his drawing while also grabbing his phone to call Liam. The conversation was brief because it didn't take much explaining for Liam to understand he needed to get home ASAP. So not even ten minutes later and Liam was entering the house where he found Zayn's driver waiting impatiently on the sofa.

"Did you call Yaser?!" Niall asks quietly to his husband as he walks into the house, but Liam can only sigh in frustration.

"Yeah I called, but it didn't do much. Yaser wants Zayn to go back up a week early so he can get some extra preseason training in seeing he was out quite a bit last season. I tried getting him to hold off, but you know my brother," Liam says quietly so that only Niall could hear, and now it was the other man's turn to deflate in frustration.

"So the boys have to say bye now," Niall says sadly as looks over to where he notices his two sons sitting on either side of their sad looking cousin.

"Looks like it," Liam says as he walks over to Zayn and lifts the boy up. "Come on, love, let's go upstairs."

So Liam carries the boy upstairs into the room he's been living in the past month and a half, and just as they enter the room Zayn squirms from his arms and begins to repack the bag he had brought at the beginning of summer.

"Zayn, I wish there was something I could do, but your father just wants what's best for you," Liam says even though he knows this isn't what's best for Zayn.

"I know," Zayn mumbles as he packs away the last of his clothes.

"Just because you're going back to school, though, doesn't mean you can't call us all the time. I'd be happy to set Harry and Louis up on skype so you guys can talk and keep up with one another."

"Yeah I guess."

And that was basically the end of the conversation. Zayn finished packing everything and began to make his way downstairs where his driver was quick to grab his bag and make his way out to the car. So now it was the family of four and Zayn standing in the living room not really knowing what to say or do. To the shock of Liam, though, Louis was the first one to make a move at doing anything as he walked forward and pulled his baby cousin in for a hug.

"Don't become too much of a show off over there cause I don't know if I'll be able to handle it when you come back next summer," Louis says as he hugs his cousin while pressing a kiss to his cheek. "I'll miss you."

"Miss you, too," Zayn mumbles as he feels another set of arms wrap around him that he assumes are Harry's.

"I'll miss you, too, Zee," Harry says now.

And the process continues on with Niall– the man saying a couple extra words to him– until the only person left to say bye to is Liam, and Zayn's not too sure he's ready to say bye to his uncle just yet. When the man crouches down with open arms, though, Zayn immediately finds himself running into them.

"Te extrañaré," Zayn mumbles into his uncle's shoulder.

"I'll miss you, too, baby. But remember I'm just a phone call away. Whatever the time, wherever you are, you can always call me even if it's just to say hi or if you want me to talk to you until you fall asleep. I'm always gonna be here for you, love," Liam says as he looks the boy in the eye.

They hug for a few more minutes, but eventually Zayn has to go. So now the four stand outside as they watch the black car drive away, and though none of the boys cried he knew this definitely was going to affect them.

+

School's been back in session for two weeks, and Zayn's really regretting not doing any type of training once he got his brace off. The boy is now in the 13 to 14 A league which is a huge achievement, however, it also means the training has increased to an extreme manner. He still does the morning 5K, but now instead of another 5K warm up before morning practices he has a 7K and lunch is only half an hour because the first half hour is dedicated to conditioning everyday. But the worst for the boy is probably the fact that their "free hour" is now meant to be weight training, so he has to stay up even later to do is homework.

Maria– who still works at the receptionist at the front of the dorm rooms– has noticed the boy's exhaustion, and she's attempted to help but there isn't much she can do. If she asks for the boy to have a day off, Zayn can be looking at a week of just conditioning as well as constant teasing from the other boys who live in the house. It's not fair to the boy though because he still is the youngest in the house, and those extra runs truly do affect his overall health but none of the coaches seem to get that.

Until they do.

It was the weekend which meant days were spent doing nothing but intense training from seven in the morning till seven at night with only thirty minutes in between for a quick lunch break. It was nearing noon and the sun was at it's highest point, and it was probably the hottest day of the year. Boys had been pouring water over their heads the entire day trying to cool down, but nothing seemed to be working.

Zayn was playing at mid-field like usual when it happened. He swears he had barely stopped for a second to catch his breath when one of the hardest impacts hit his head. In an instant the boy was on the ground, however, the ball hitting him in the temple wasn't even the most painful thing. As he was on the ground he saw the other boys begin to run in his direction, and Zayn knew it wasn't to go see if he was okay because he could see the look of concentration on their faces as they chased down the ball. Next thing Zayn knew he was being trampled by the two teams, and he screamed out in agony as one stepped directly on the side of the knee that had just recovered from being broken.

Zayn hears a whistle being blown before a couple sets of hands were laying him out properly on the field. Zayn thinks he could hear Julio talking to him, but because of the intense pain he couldn't really be sure. The first thing he hears, though, when the pain began to diminish was the sound of an ambulance pulling up before being lifted up onto a gurney. No one came in the ambulance with Zayn– which he didn't expect– but before he could even arrive at the hospital he remembers finally passing out from the pain.

The boy doesn't know how long he was out, but he can hear Julio talking outside his door so he knows it must be after seven because the man wouldn't come while training was still occurring. Eventually the boy's coach walks in along with the doctor and the two begin to explain the extent of his injuries.

In short he suffered from a major concussion that needs to be monitored closely as well as a re-broken knee that will require surgery to replace his knee cap, and a torn ACL. It was from the last injury, though, that the boy immediately knew what Julio was going to tell him next.

"I contacted your father, Zayn, because it's best if you go home for the year. You won't be able to do anything for at least nine months with that ACL surgery, and there are people who would kill to have your spot in the house. Your room will be available for you next year, but I'm sorry we just can't have a spot go to waste for an entire year," Julio says in the most sincere way he could.

"I know," Zayn says because he does understand. "When- when's my dad gonna come get me?"

"We're still working that stuff out, bud, but you won't be going home for at least a week because that's how long the doctor wants to monitor your head. Maria's gonna come over here to spend the night with you tonight, do you want her to bring anything?"

"My phone and some headphones?" Zayn asks to which Julio obviously agrees.

The man had to leave eventually but soon after Maria was arriving at the hospital along with Zayn phone, laptop, and headphones. She made sure the boy was comfortable before going out to get some food for both herself as well as Zayn. In that time, though, Zayn decided he should call his uncle. So quickly the boy pulled out his phone as he began to look through the contact list until he found the name Tío. The boy hesitated for a minute because he hadn't really been in contact with the man due to being so busy with training, but eventually he convinced himself to press call.

The phone rang and rang and rang, and Zayn was pretty sure t was about to go to voicemail. However, just before Zayn can click "end call" he hears the familiar voice.

"Hey, buddy, it's good to hear from you," Liam says in a happy voice, but because of the slight echo Zayn can tell Liam's currently driving. "How are you?"

"Uh, estoy bien, tío," Zayn mumbles into the phone.

"You keeping up with all your classes?"

"Yeah."

And then it's silent, and if Zayn's being honest he kinda regrets calling his uncle because he doesn't really know what to say. Being with the man was so much easier than talking to him over the phone because Liam could always tell when Zayn was down just by his expression. After a couple more minutes of silence Zayn hears his uncle sigh.

"Zayn, what's wrong?" Liam asks in a concerned tone.

"I think Papí's gonna be mad at me, tío," Zayn finds himself saying as he fiddles with the edge of his blanket.

"Why would he be mad at you, love?" Liam asks, confused now.

"Because m'getting sent home," Zayn mumbles out quickly, but Zayn knows Liam understood because his uncle immediately responded.

"Babe, what happened? Why are you being sent home? Are you alright?" Liam asks because he just has a feeling that Zayn isn't being sent home for not being good enough or for getting into a fight of sorts.

"M'in the hospital again, and coach Julio says m'gonna need surgery that has a nine month recovery period," Zayn explains quietly. "And I hurt my head bad."

"Oh, baby, when are you coming back? ¿Está tu papí en camino a recogerte?"

"Julio dice que está ocupado, así que estamos tratando de resolver las cosas."

After that Liam goes silent which worries Zayn a bit, however, his uncle was soon speaking up again.

"Zayn, love, I'm gonna call tu papa and I'm gonna settle this myself. I have to hang up now, though, so why don't you call uncle Niall? Or maybe you can take a nap? Rest your head a bit?"

Once Zayn agreed to taking a quick nap Liam immediately began to dial his brother's personal number that only a select few people have because he was not about to allow this man to treat his ten year old child like dirt.

+

Liam ended up calling Zayn back, however, the boy had been so exhausted that when he fell asleep at seven that night he didn't wake up till seven the next morning. Upon waking up, though, the boy realized Maria wasn't with him, so he assumed she had to go back early that morning. Having kinda forgotten the extent of his injuries the boy made a move to get out of the bed so he could use the loo, however, with one move of the left leg and he was crying out in pain which of course alerted a nurse to entering the room.

The man got the boy settled back into the bed and made sure he hadn't move around his leg too much. Once he did a slight glance over he checked on what the boy needed, however, Zayn was just too embarrassed to ask to be taken to the loo. So instead the boy chose to hold it in until someone he knew arrived and luckily for him Julio got there not too long after.

"How are you feeling, bud?" Julio ask sympathetically to the boy who is basically engulfed by the bed.

"Everything still hurts," Zayn says with a sigh which causes his coach to nod in understanding. "Uh, Coach Julio?"

"Yeah, bud?" Julio ask as he makes his way to be next to the boy.

"I really need the loo," Zayn says with a blush, however, the man understood.

So now Julio called in a nurse who helped him disconnect Zayn from his IV and any other machine before carrying him into the bathroom. Julio waited outside the bathroom with the door open until he heard Zayn clear his throat before going back in to carry the boy back to his bed. Once Zayn was situated once again the man decided to address the question he knew Zayn was wondering about.

"So I talked to your father," Julio starts. "He's currently on a business trip in Australia and your mother's at a conference over in the states, so neither of them is gonna be able to come for at least a week."

And Zayn's mood– if even possible– deflates more at the statement.

"However, your uncle called me, and he's on his way now to come get you. He should be getting here within the hour."

To which now Zayn was smiling wider than Julio swears he's ever seen the boy smile before. And true to his word within under an hour Liam was arriving at the hospital and rushing into the room to go check on the nephew that he grown so close to this past summer.

"Oh, baby, thank god you're okay. Thank you so much for calling me, yeah?" Liam coos as he kisses the boy's face all over.

"Did you talk to Papí?" Zayn asks because he's sure once his uncle called his father probably made him some sort of offer.

"I did, love, but we'll talk about that at a later time. For now you're just gonna rest here for a couple of days, and then we're gonna head back home."

And that's exactly what they did. Zayn stayed in the hospital for about four more days before he was discharged for travel. Of course their first stop was at La Masia to start packing up everything in Zayn's room to which Liam had to do most of the work. Once everything was packed though, the boy said a couple of goodbyes to the people he had befriended whether that be coaches, Maria, or even a couple of the older lads that lived in the dorms with him.

However, soon enough the two were at the airport making their way back to not Bradford but this time Wolverhampton. Liam had explained to Zayn that he'd be staying back at their place for a bit until his father could come back, to which they would then settle on something a bit more permanent. As the week went by, though, Zayn began to get more and more nervous for his father to arrive, but once he did for some reason he wish he hadn't. He wasn't allowed into the "meeting", but from uncles expressions when they walked out of the room Zayn knew what his father said couldn't have been the best.
"Zayn, you're going to be living with your uncles for the remainder of the year," Yaser says simply. "Your mother and I aren't in the position to put our entire careers on hold, and because of your surgery you'll need someone to watch out after you."

"What about school?" the boy asks because last year when he got injured he didn't have to worry about that cause he stayed at La Masia.

"I work down at Harry and Louis' school, so I'm gonna talk to the headmaster but I'm sure there won't be a problem in getting you enrolled," Niall answers the boy.

"Great, now I have a flight to catch, so if you don't mind," Yaser says as he goes to leave only to be stopped by Zayn.

"Y-you're not gonna stay for my surgery?" Zayn asks in an innocent, though, scared manner.

"Zayn I just said-" Yaser starts only to get cut off.

"Me and Uncle Niall are gonna be there, love. You won't be alone," Liam says before looking at his brother. "You can go Yaser, we don't need your help here."

And without even a look of regret Yaser walked away from house leaving Zayn to try and wipe away the forming tears in his eyes.

"Baby, I know you love your daddy, but I think you and I both know things are going to be a bit different from now on. And because of that I just want you to know that I will always be here for you and so will Uncle Niall, Louis, and Harry. We're your family, baby, and we're never gonna leave you behind."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:_:

A/N: my spanish is choppy and sometimes provided by google translate...I apologize for any mistakes

DB