Mr. Payne | Ziam (UNDER EDITING)

× Epilogue

Coming home to Liam cooking dinner for Zayn is something he's eternally grateful for. Especially when he comes home tired as hell.

"Hey, love," Zayn greets Liam, kissing him sweetly.

"Hey, babe," Liam responds, pulling back to finish cooking.

"I heard some rustling upstairs, I think Elijah's mad at his homework or something," Liam laughs.

"Hm... ok. I'll be up there," Zayn heads for the bedrooms but stops in his tracks to run towards Liam.

"Thank you for dinner, baby," he runs his hand down his torso, giving him his award winning smirk.

"No problem," Liam grins.

Zayn pulls back to rush to his bedroom. He changes quickly before walking to Elijah's room.

He walks in and everything is a complete mess. Papers are scattered everywhere, the desk lamp is on the floor and the computer chair is flipped over.

And there's one crying teenager on the floor.

He's rocking himself back and forth, his hands rubbing at his tear sodden eyes.

"Hey, hey what's going on?" Zayn ran to where Elijah was sitting.

"Eli, love, are you okay?" Zayn whispers, gently touching the boy.

He doesn't move or flinch. He just keeps crying and trying to cover his face.

"Breathe," Zayn whispers.

"Breathe for me," He goes on.

Elijah is trying to breathe and stop crying. But there's no stopping the way his body jerks a little.

"Are you alright, what happened?" Zayn grabs his forearm gently, trying to pry his hands from his eyes.

"Tell me what happened? Did someone do something to you?" Zayn struggles. His eyes search for a clue, becoming desperate because this was his only son, his 17 year old son crying his eyes out. And it's breaking Zayn's heart.

The boy finally pulls his hands back from his face.

"Dad, I can't tell you. It's just so embarrassing and I don't know how you would feel about it," the boy responds.

"What?" Zayn looks at him like he's crazy.

"Who am I gonna tell, Eli?" Zayn starts.

"Your dad?" He scoffs. Eli grins a little.

"Listen, I really don't want to be that parent, and I'm not. You think I'm gonna judge you? Yeah, I probably am," Zayn shrugs, making his son chuckle.

"But why should you care? Everyone judges, you just keep doing what you do. Unless it's something illegal or dangerous then don't do it," Zayn adds.

"Wow," Zayn hits his forehead.

"I suck at this parent thing," he huffs, making Elijah laugh.

"You don't. You want me to be myself and that's all I could ask for," he finally stops crying, although his face is red and his eyes are swollen, he looks happy.

"So you wanna tell me what's going on?" Zayn sneaks in the question.

"Um, I've sorta been dating this guy. And he's sorta a football player at my school," he murmurs.

Zayn's eyes widen. He knows how that goes down. Back then, football players were the biggest homophobics, and they didn't even look at other guys for fear of becoming gay. It wasn't something they approved of. But this is now, he doesn't know how much society has changed.