End Up Here (Ziam AU)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three - Zayn

Zayn groans as he feels small fingers tapping against his forehead, and hears giggles from beside him, he fights it, he really does, but then he feels stronger, larger hands pulling on his ankle and he ends up on the floor. Zayn glares up at Louis who smirks and points a finger towards Arabella where she's practically in tears from laughing so hard, Zayn sighs and pushes himself to his feet, before stalking, playfully towards the bed and scooping the giggling toddler into his arms. "Oh so you think this is funny?" Zayn asks, and Bella nods "Baba fall floor" she laughs and Zayn shakes his head before pressing a noisy, sloppy kiss to her cheek. Zayn climbs back onto the bed with Bella in his arms, situating her in his lap where she snuggles into his chest, before he glares up at Louis, "may I ask why you two felt the need to literally drag me out of bed this morning?" Zayn asks. Louis chuckles and sits beside Zayn, reaching over to tickle Arabella's foot, she giggles and kicks it out, before settling back into Zayn's chest. "Someone, remembers her Baba promising to take her shopping for a big girl bed" Louis explains, and Zayn arches an eyebrow, nodding, "and she came to get her Uncle Louis first" he adds on. Arabella's eyes widen as Zayn frowns slightly at Louis' words, "did you climb out of your crib...again, monster?" Zayn asks slowly, Bella looks away but nods her head slowly. Zayn sighs, it's been a week since he decided to buy her a real bed, instead of the crib, and in that week, while he's been busy finishing six assignments, and working everyday, Arabella has been busy figuring out how to climb out of her crib, and terrorize the apartment.

Zayn sighs and moves Arabella around so he can look into her eyes, which are a mirror image of his own, "what did Baba tell you about climbing out of your crib?" he asks. The two year old shakes her head, but doesn't say anything, "it's not safe, Boo. Baba doesn't want you to get hurt" Zayn adds, Bella nods and squirms until she can press a kiss to Zayn's scruffy cheek, "I sorry Baba, I no more, climb" she grins. Zayn shakes his head and laughs lightly, pressing his own kiss to her cheek, "right, so we'll eat some breakfast, get dressed and then we can go find you a bed. One without three foot bars for you to climb over" he chuckles, clapping his hands together. Louis laughs from where he is sitting by Zayn's feet, "breakfast is on it's way, Harry's bringing it" he says, blue eyes sparkling and Zayn rolls his eyes, but knows it's pointless to argue, today is going to be all about Louis spending his money on Arabella, and there's nothing he'll be able to say or do to stop his friend. "Uncle Harry!?" Bella cheers, before wriggling out of Zayn's hold and running off out of the room, Zayn watches her go before turning to look at Louis, one eyebrow raised, Louis shrugs, "What?" he asks, and Zayn shakes his head, "nothing, just...please don't go too overboard today. We need a bed, and sheets, possibly pillows. That's. It." he pleads, Louis nods, as if he heard him, but Zayn knows, as soon as Louis mutters under his breath and follows Bella's path out of the room, that he didn't, not really anyways.

Zayn showers quickly, and gets dressed in some comfortable clothes, when he arrives in the kitchen, he sees Bella sitting in her seat, eating what appears to be waffles, and berries, while Louis and Harry sit on either side of her, with plates of their own. Bella grins at him, when he walks in and he smiles at her, before grabbing himself a mug and pouring some coffee and coming to sit across from his daughter. Zayn furrows his eyebrows because there's no take out containers, before he arches an eyebrow at Harry, "you made us waffles?" he asks picking up his own fork. Harry bites his lip and nods, "Yeah, Lou wanted waffles, so I made a bunch and brought them over" he explains, taking another bite of his waffle. Zayn nods slowly, but doesn't say anything else, just pours syrup all over his plate, and starts to eat, Bella grins at him before she picks up a blueberry and throws it across the table towards Zayn. Zayn raises an eyebrow at her, he's not sure whether she's trying to share with him, or actually throw her food at him, he decides it doesn't matter and shakes his head, "Arabella, we don't throw food" he scolds lightly. Bella narrows her eyes, and shrugs, "Bella not, Baba throw food" she says decidedly, taking another bite of her breakfast. Zayn sighs, but ignores the comment for now, this is another new thing for his daughter, whenever she gets scolded for something she tries to tell Zayn that it's him doing whatever it is he doesn't want her to do. His mum told him when he picked her up last night that it's normal and not to worry, but Zayn can't help it, not really anyways, Bella is his whole world.