End Up Here (Ziam AU)

Chapter Forty Three

 Chapter Forty Three – Zayn

Zayn frowns as the movers Liam hired to move all his and Bella's stuff, ignore him completely in favour of loading the truck, "just relax Zayn, come play FIFA with me one last time" Louis calls from the couch. Sighing Zayn shakes his head and moves to sit beside Louis on the couch, taking the offered controller, and attempting to not get completely annihilated by his best friend. "Good thing your mum offered to take Bella today I think she'd be getting more in the way than you are" Louis teases, as his character scores on Zayn's. Zayn frowns shaking his head again, "I'm going to miss you Lou" he mumbles, making Louis pause the game and look over at him. "Zee I'm going to miss you too, but you're only moving across town, I'll still see you at school, and you know you and Bella are welcome here anytime" Louis murmurs. Zayn nods because he knows all this, he really does, but he doesn't know how he's going to handle not living with Louis anymore, "thanks Lou" he mumbles. Louis just nods, leaning over to hug Zayn tightly, "I love you Zee, remember that" he says, before unpausing the game and wasting no time in scoring once again. Zayn glares at Louis for a second , before sighing and shaking his head, "I love you too" he mumbles.

It's forty five minutes later before Liam arrives and Zayn makes a face as his older boyfriend walks through the door to the apartment and immediately starts giving orders to the crew. "Hey babe" Liam murmurs, stepping closer to Zayn, bending down to kiss him, Zayn kisses back "hey" he mumbles reaching up to let Liam pull him to his feet. "You ready for this?" Liam asks, once he's hugging Zayn tightly, "if I say no, are you going to tell them to move it all back in?" Zayn asks, biting his lip. Liam shakes his head, "are you changing your mind?" he asks carefully. Zayn whines and shakes his head, "no absolutely not, I was just kidding" he assures Liam who nods, nuzzling at Zayn's neck, "good. But yes I would have made them bring it all back up, if you wanted me to" he murmurs. Zayn laughs at that and is about to say something else but is interrupted by one of the movers approaching Liam, "Mr. Payne?" he asks carefully. Zayn watches as Liam switches from the carefree man he is around Zayn and Bella into 'Mr. Payne' business man, as he turns to eye the mover carefully. "We're done here, ready when you are" the man says quickly, Liam nods, "alright, you have the address?" he asks, "yes sir" the mover answers and Liam nods again, "good, I'll meet you there, just give me five minutes" he instructs. The mover nods and is gone as quickly as he appeared, "you still getting a ride with Lou?" Liam asks, Zayn nods because when Louis offered to drive him to Liam's apartment he had to accept, because for so long it's been the two of them, "yeah, I am" he murmurs finally. Liam nods, pressing a kiss to his forehead and holding up a key, "I'll see you there, then" he says, before striding back out the door.

Zayn watches after where Liam went for a minute before he jumps when a hand lands on his shoulder, "are you ready Zee?" Louis asks, chuckling a little at Zayn's obvious jump. Zayn sighs and nods, "yeah, just, give me a sec?" he asks, Louis nods knowingly and steps away, leaving Zayn to do his thing. Zayn starts walking the apartment then, starting with the front door, remembering, the first time him and Louis had crashed through into this apartment, each with a backpack slung over their shoulder, waiting for the rest of their stuff. He also remembers just how tiny and fragile Arabella had been, and just how terrified he was, the first time he carried her through that door. Zayn moves on to the living room, where he and Louis spent several nights avoiding homework for the Playstation, and where Bella took her first stumbling steps. Zayn then quickly heads to the bedrooms, stopping to look into his empty room, and sighing, before moving on to Bella's taking in the light pink walls that he and Louis had spent a weekend painting, and remembering how Bella went from a tiny, helpless infant, to a strong willed, and independent toddler, inside of it. He heads back to find Louis waiting patiently for him, keys in hand, "you okay?" he asks carefully and Zayn just nods, not trusting his voice. But the thing is, Louis knows him better than anyone else on the planet, so he steps forward to wrap Zayn in a hug, his face burrowing into Zayn's shoulder, Zayn squeezes him tightly. "Just remember Zee, all the memories will still be here, when you come visit" Louis murmurs, Zayn nods slowly, "thanks Lou" he mumbles. "Now let's go get Bella" Zayn decides pulling away, and Louis laughs but nods, gesturing for Zayn to lead the way out of the apartment.