love, cheater ➳ ziam au

|twenty five|

It was all a blur. One moment, he was holding his son, cooing and lost in a world of awe. In the next, though, he was a frantic mess, shouting profanities at an obliviously guilty Karen, before jumping into his car and jamming his key into the ignition.

And, really, Zayn shouldn't be blaming himself for this. He wasn't the one who forgot Louis at school, no, he wasn't even allowed to pick him up on most days. Considering he couldn't blame Liam; because the poor soul had gone into labor, what could he possibly do?- Zayn chose to blame himself. He was used to the blame being on him anyway.

Screeching to a halt in front of the small playground and preschool, Zayn bustled out of the car, sighing in relief as he spotted a familiar mop of feathery hair. He chided the school mentally, angrily making a mental note to write a complaint about shutting down the building when there was a small toddler waiting.

Louis' back was towards Zayn as he sat on the steps, and the closer he got, the more his heart broke as he heard his son's sniffles and sobs.

"Papa an' Daddy, hate Lou. Lou take all love. Lou bad." And then, Zayn's world crumbled.

He took bold steps as he tried to reach his son quickly, only to halt as he saw a man, dressed entirely in black, pick his son up and rush away.

Zayn was frozen for a moment, his eyes wide before Louis' defiant screech broke his trance.

"Oi! What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Zayn yelled, running after the man. The kidnapper halted and turned around, his grey eyes shooting daggers at him.

"Daddy!" Louis sobbed, as he tried to wiggle out of the stranger's grip. Zayn shot him a reassuring look, trying to muster up a small smile for Louis, which was proven difficult due to the anger bubbling inside him.

"Give me my son." Zayn seethed, stalking forward with threatening strides. The man put Louis down, and raised his hands, the small boy sobbing as he hid behind his father's legs.

"Listen, mate. Don't call the police, yeah? Shouldn't have done that, I just--" Zayn cut the man off, fishing his phone from his pocket.

"What the fuck? Of course I'm calling the police, you tried kidnapping my child!" Zayn barked, brushing off the fact that he had used a curse word in front of his influential child. He was livid, he didn't care what he was doing.

He hurriedly pressed the Police's emergency number, but before he could hear a ring, the man had swooped down, his fist colliding with Zayn's nose.

Zayn's head snapped to the side, his nose beginning to bleed as his phone flew from his hand and skidded down the pavement.

"Daddy!" Louis screeched, and before Zayn knew it, the man had punched his jaw, making him fall onto his knees.

"Lou," Zayn croaked urgently, "Go talk to the police on the phone, yeah? Daddy's going to be fine. Go, Louis, go!"

Louis was uncertain but the small boy nodded quickly and dubiously, running over to his Daddy's phone.

The man seemed to notice and tried running after Louis, but Zayn was already on his feet, his fist colliding with the man's hard jaw. He stumbled back, but before he could attack back, Zayn had pounced on top of him, slamming his fists into the man's face- making sure to leave some broken bones, cuts and possibly, dents.

"Daddy, police come!" Louis shouted, his words mixed with tears.

The man, though, seemed to take advantage of Zayn's briefly distracted phase, and flipped them around, digging his knee into his stomach. Zayn let out a groan, his vision blurry, his nose and head throbbing as pain coursed through his body as the man delivered punch after punch.

"Daddy!" Louis screamed, pleading the police to hurry.

Trying to defend himself, Zayn feebly raised his arms in front of his face, the man delivering a punch nonetheless on Zayn's already-broken nose.

The grey-eyed demon was about to send another punch, but someone pried him off of the raven haired lad who managed to catch dark blue uniforms from his blurry vision.

His ears ringed as the siren of the ambulance was heard, mixed with the man's yells as he got handcuffed, Louis' shouts and sobs, the police men's comforting voices, but, ironically, the only sound going through Zayn's ears was Liam's heartbeat.

His eyes became unfocused, and his breathing became ragged as the paramedics hauled him onto the ambulance. The last thing he saw was Louis sitting next to him, tears streaming down his cheeks, Landon's hand curling around his finger and Liam's eyes crinkling as he smiled before everything went black.

--

That's literally the most cliché cliffhanger ever I'm sorry ;-;

~Harry