Finding The Courage (a Ziam Mayne AU)

Chapter Twenty-Nine "Flight & Shelter"

Zayn's POV

My hand still hurt a lot because Liam had held on to it that tightly but right now it was the least of my worries. Liam was walking towards his father, clenched fists and fury in his voice as he talked. What if he was going to attack him? I couldn't let him do that. That would be exactly what his father wanted.

I got a hold of his arm, which stopped him from moving. "We're going now.", Liam hissed very slowly, without turning around. "I'm leaving. And I'm going to forget you."

He now looked at me and held out his hand. "Let's get out of this place.", he whispered, only for me to hear.

I took his hand and we walked to the door, not looking back at the man lying in the bed behind us. "Liam.", Stan mumbled, complacently, when I reached for the door handle. Liam stopped but didn't turn around. "You are never going to be able to forget me."

Liam gasped, jerked the door open, pulled me outside with him and slammed the door shut again, all quicker than I could really comprehend until we stood in the empty corridor again. He pulled me towards him and hugged me tightly, pressing his head against my shoulder, without saying a word.

I put my arms around him and gently patted his back. "Are you okay?", I asked quietly. I felt him nod and began stroking the back of his head. "It's over now."

He sighed and pulled back to look at me. "Let's just go.", he said, his lips trembling.

I nodded and we left the building.

In the car, he just sat there for a few minutes, silently staring at the glowing dashboard in front of him until he slowly reached for the key in the ignition.

I saw how his hands were trembling and how his eyes were so empty and took his hand before he could turn the key. "Liam.", I said quietly. "Maybe we should stay here. It's in the middle of the night. We're both very tired. I think it's best if we just rest for now. Find maybe a hotel or something. What do you think?"

He leaned forward to let his head rest on the steering wheel, bringing his hands up to brush them through his hair. "Yeah.", he breathed out. "That would be a good idea."

We changed seats and I drove us to the first motel I could find. It was only for one night, we couldn't be picky.

The motel was alright. We payed and trotted to our assigned room. Since we didn't plan to stay we came completely unprepared. Liam had a pair of sweatpants in his car but I had to sleep in my underwear and t-shirt. "We'll just keep each other warm.", he said as I cuddled up next to him in our bed, placing my head on his shoulder, letting him wrap his strong arm around me and pull the blanket up to my chin. It was almost like we fit together perfectly, like two matching pieces of a puzzle.

"Good night.", I hummed blissfully and closed my eyes, falling asleep only seconds afterwards.

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I got up very early the next morning to get breakfast. And by very early I meant way too early for me. It cost me a lot of effort to get my tired arse out of bed before the sun had even thought about showing itself and on top of that not wake Liam up. I wanted to try to surprise him, lift his spirit a little after yesterday's encounter with his father.

I'd never been to Wolverhampton, so it took me a while to find a bakery or a coffee house or anything because our motel didn't have a breakfast offer.

When I returned, fingers frozen, cheeks bright red from the cold outside, hair all wet because it was raining, a bag with croissants in hand, Liam was still asleep. Lying on his stomach, all fours stretched away from his body, so he looked like a starfish, the blanket tangled around his legs. I smiled incredulously at the sight of him. He's yours, I thought to myself. He's yours and your his now.

I put our breakfast to the side, threw my jacket into a corner and sat down on the edge of the bed. I caught myself staring at him for way too long. I let my eyes wander from the small if his back up his spine to his messy brown hair.

Leaning forward, I ran my icy fingertips over his warm skin, making him twitch slightly. I grinned. He might not be completely awake, but he wasn't sleeping anymore either.

I crawled towards his face, and kissed him on the cheek, letting my hands glide over his bare arms. "You're really cold.", he mumbled into the cushion, eyes closed, and turned his head away from me.

I smirked and started kissing his back. I placed little pecks on every centimeter of his skin, following line of his spine, making my lips all warm and tingly. When I reached the scars on his lower back, I hesitated. I noticed him clinging into the bed sheets and holding his breath. He knew why I paused, but I didn't know what he wanted me to do now. Should I stop? Should I go on? Will it hurt him?

He didn't tell me where the scars came from. His father seemed very rough and brutal and blunt, he didn't seem like the kind of person who would use a tool, something sharp, to attack or hurt someone. He would use his bare hands to feel powerful and feel the damage he was doing.

So what did he not tell me about?

There were probably equally as many things I didn't know about him as he didn't know about me. Things he would discover someday and hopefully learn to love, like I will love everything about him. Nothing could ever make me love him any less and that assured me that it didn't matter that he didn't tell me. It didn't matter that there were still things he kept from me. Because we had all the time to let each other know everything that was important. Or even not so important. By the time he figured he should tell me, I would listen to him. But for now...

I bowed down again and kissed the web of white lines as if it wasn't there. I felt the uneven skin on my lips but continued as he didn't push me or pull away.

Then he suddenly turned around, smiled at me, his eyes glistening and looked at me for a while. When I didn't say anything, he sat up, pulled my face to his, his lips hovering over mine, and pushed a gentle hand into my still moist hair. "Morning.", he whispered and kissed me tenderly until I slowly pulled away.

"I brought breakfast.", I breathed onto his lips and got back up again.