Niall kept his head down as he sat in Zayn's car, he kept his word and was driving him to his job. He appreciates his kindness and feels like he can trust him enough, enough to tell him his past but he won't. Not yet anyway.
"What's wrong?" Zayn asks not being able to handle the silence.
"A bit nervous if I'm being honest." He glances over to him only to drop his gaze once again.
"Don't be, everything will be okay." He says even if he was a bit anxious as well. He parks the car and smiles when he finally looks at him. "Have a great day, mate." He steps out of the car as well to take a quick smoke break, he watches Niall slowly walk into the house.
"Oh my god! What happened to your face!?" Ornella shrieks when she sees Niall's bruised up face.
Harry looks over his shoulder, his breath hitches when he sees the state that Niall was in. He had bruises on his face and neck. "Niall?" He turns around to face him.
"I.. uh.. hi." Niall gives them a shy smile.
"You look like shit. What the hell? Is this why you didn't show up for a week?" She scrunches her nose leaning close to eye him better.
"Ornella, go help Maison with the garden." Harry gives her a glare when she tries to protest, she leaves with a loud groan. "Who hurt you?" He asks as soon as they were alone.
"Some guys, I didn't know them." Niall answers even though he didn't want to talk about that right now. He had something else to worry about.
"Are you okay to work?" He reaches over cupping his cheek. "Where else did they hurt you?"
"Harry, I'm okay." He looks behind him because he couldn't look him in the eye. "I'm fine." Liar.
Harry brushes his thumb over the cut on his lip quickly drawing his hand back when Niall hisses in pain. "Sorry."
"Harry, I have to—"
"Why didn't you call?" Louis comes barging in with a scowl on his face. "Why didn't you tell us you weren't going to work?"
"He called me." Harry goes to his defense.
"Yeah after the day was practically over," He looks over his face. "I would've understood. But you never called me, and because of you we fell behind."
"Louis." He raises his voice to let his mate know he was crossing the line.
"I'm.. I'm sorry." Usually it wouldn't bother him getting told off, Niall was used to being blamed for things that weren't his fault but being told off in front of Harry made him want to cry. He felt humiliated.
"And I am too, you're fired." Louis turns on his heel to leave but Harry stops him.
"You can't be serious?" Harry gripped his arm glaring at him when he notices how serious he was.
"Nothing personal, it's just not working out." He shrugs. "You can stay for the day or leave now, I don't care."
"I-I'll leave now." Niall nods pushing away the need to cry.
"Okay." Louis nods. "Harry, I'll be working in the bathroom if you need me— oh! I almost forgot, Astrid called me to let you know her ultrasound appointment got pushed back for another month. You won't be seeing your baby in two weeks like you thought you were."
"What? I talked to her this morning and she told me she had it on the twenty third. Why was it pushed back?" Harry didn't understand why she wouldn't tell him that, why did he have to find out through Louis?
"Something about the doctor going on a holiday, not really sure. Anyway, get back to work." Louis turns his gaze to Niall who looked like he was about to cry. "Niall—"
"I'll leave." Niall rushes out not letting Louis finish what he wanted to say, he felt a rush of relief and comfort when he sees Zayn leaning on his car smoking. "Zayn."
"Yeah bud— what's wrong?" He drops his cigarette on the floor putting it out with his boot as he hugged Niall tightly.
"They.. sacked me." He cried into his shoulder.
"What the fuck? Why?" Zayn rubs his back in hopes he would calm down.
"I didn't call." Niall whimpers. "Harry is having a baby with her, why didn't you tell me?" Niall lets go of him feeling pathetic for crying.
"No he's not." He frowns. "Who told you that?"
"Your husband." He falters his gaze down to the ground.
"No, he... I didn't know." Zayn couldn't believe Astrid was actually pregnant. "Did you talk to Harry?"
"I didn't get the chance." Niall was surprised when Zayn grabs his hand and pulls him towards the car, he opens the car door and tells him to get in.
"I'm taking you home, you need to rest. Fuck everything else, okay? Don't stress about anything." He starts the car and drives off. "You'll find a new job and well, yeah."
Niall leans his head back and silently lets tears fall, it seemed like he was never meant to be happy. Every time he thought his life was was going well something bad happened. He was tired of that. He wanted to leave everything behind and maybe have a fresh start. Maybe then he'll find someone and fall in love.
"Niall, why don't you come work for me?" Zayn asks as he parks the car in front of Niall's flat complex.
"No, that's okay." He shakes his head. "You don't need to stick around, I won't be seeing Harry ever again and I think it's best we—"
"You're my friend, I'm not going to leave you alone." He cuts him off. "So don't even try."
"Why?" Niall fiddles with the hem of his shirt.
"Why what?" He looks down at Niall's hands.
"Why do you bother with wanting to be here for me? I'm not worth it." He notices Zayn's stare on him and he sighs. "You don't have to feel obligated to help me out, you know?"
"It's not that, you remind me of me. Well, of young me when I desperately needed someone there for me, to listen to me and comfort me. I want to be there for you. I want to be that someone." Zayn pauses. "Please come work at my music shop, it's very chilled and you'll get to meet Liam."
"Thank you," Niall gives him a watery smile. "I really appreciate it."
"So that's a yes?" He looks at him and smirks.
"Yeah." He laughs at his excitement.
"Great! You can start tomorrow." Zayn reaches to place his hand on top of Niall's. "Rest and eat well, yeah?"
"I will, thanks."
.......................................................
"You two are in deep shit." Zayn says as soon as he arrives at Harry and Louis' office.
"What are you on about?" Louis looks at him unamused with his husband's outburst.
"I don't know, you tell me." He kept his eyes on Harry who only shifted uncomfortably on his seat.
"You're not making any sense, Zee." He rolls his eyes and goes back to replying to some emails.
"You're having a baby." Zayn stalks over to Harry.
"I am, yeah." Harry could feel the anger coming out of his mate but he tries his best to ignore it.
"Hmm." He sits on the edge of Harry's desk. "Isn't it great timing?"
"Zayn—"
"Are you actually pissed Astrid is pregnant?" Louis shoots him a glare.
"Pissed? No." Zayn pauses. "I want to speak to you alone." He points his finger at Harry.
"If you're going to give him shit for—"
"I'm not, it's something else." He cuts him off. "Come on." He stands up and heads out of the office and out of the building, he leans his back on the brick wall fumbling to take out a cigarette, he needed one so bad.
"I know you're pissed at me." Harry says once he's standing next to him looking out at the busy road.
"You told me you weren't going to let Louis fire Niall, why did you fucking lie?" Zayn spits out. "And why didn't you tell me Astrid is pregnant?"
"I'm sorry." He breathes out, he knew how fucked up this all was.
"Don't apologize to me." He lights his cigarette up. "You know what this all means right?"
"No?" Harry turns his head to look at him confused.
"You can't see or talk to Niall ever again. This is it. This is the end of whatever you wanted to have with Niall. Forget him." Zayn knew he shouldn't be saying any of this because there was more to the story but he was angry. This wasn't fair to Niall.
"I know I have to forget him but I also know that it's going to be hard. When I was with him —although we only had sex— I felt like I could be myself, there was no judgement. I... I wish things were different." He runs his hands through his hair. "I feel like if I had met him before I had met Astrid, he and I would've been something more."
"Don't do that, don't think about the what if's and shit like that. You're having a child with Astrid and... yeah, focus on that. You have to be there for that child." He takes a few long, slow draws of the cigarette before blowing the smoke out through his mouth and nose.
"Every time I'm with Astrid I feel overwhelmed, frustrated even. She's very controlling and it's exhausting." Harry's mind starts to drift back to Niall, he wonders if he hadn't married Astrid would he be happier?
"She deserves to know." Zayn looks over at him. "Maybe then you two can decide on where your relationship stands."
"I was going to leave Astrid to be with Niall, I was going to risk it all for him. Fuck, I don't even know him that well. I'm such a fucking idiot—"
"I didn't know Louis that well either, shit, we only fucked and I still ended up falling in love." He starts to think about Niall, he debates on whether or not he should tell Harry.
"You think I'm in love with Niall?" Harry frowns, he has never felt such strong feelings towards someone before like he did with the small brunette but he surely wasn't in love, he barely knew the lad for fucks sake.
"I think you were falling for him, yes." Zayn could tell his mate was having a hard time with all of this, he wished he could help him out but he couldn't. Harry was having a child.
"But how? We just shagged, only talked a bit."
"Ask yourself that, mate. If you were willing to leave your wife for someone you 'just shagged' means you're either in love with him or falling for him or that you're a heartless fucker, which I know you aren't so.." He points out. "But now you have to put that child first—"
"Are you two done talking? I want to head home." Louis steps out to shoot them a glare.
"Yeah, we're done talking." Zayn puts the cigarette out before pulling Harry into a hug. "Congratulations on the baby or babies. Could be twins ey?"
"I need to see him one last time." Harry whispers into his ear.
"Not sure that's a good idea, H." He pats his back one last time before letting him go. "Take care, see ya soon." He walks over to Louis to peck his lips and pull him towards his car.
"You know I have my own car, right?" Louis points to his parked car.
"Why didn't you tell me your cousin is pregnant?" Zayn asks once Harry is as gone, he let's go of his hand.
"She didn't even tell me, had to find out through Harry. And I've been too busy with the house I honestly forgot." He gives Zayn a small smile. "I'm still in shock."
"Shock? Why?" He couldn't help but reach out and wrap his arms around his waist.
"Didn't think she could get pregnant, I swear I thought she had told me she had an appointment to go over some options. Guess it's a miracle baby." Louis leans in to kiss him.
"Yeah, miracle baby." Zayn was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.
"Do you ever want to have children?" He smirks at Zayn's blush.
"I uh yeah." He nervously said, he wasn't expecting Louis to ask him that.
"Me too." Louis smiles. "Should we go?"
"Yeah." Zayn gives Louis a squeeze before releasing him. As he drives back to his home he couldn't help but think about Niall and Harry. And the more he did the more he thought it was best they saw each other one last time.
..................................................................................
Hope you're all staying safe ❤️
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