Baby Boy | Zustiall AU [COMPLETE]

Thirteen

"I'm nervous," Niall mumbles to Zayn as they leave the house. They'd already swung by Niall's place so he  could change, and now they're heading to the laser tagging place.

"Nervous? Why?"

"I dunno what to expect," Niall mumbles, blushing. It sounds stupid, he knows that, but he doesn't want to embarrass himself in front of Justin and Zayn.

Zayn squeezes his hand. "Don't worry, baby boy. You'll be just fine and you'll have lots of fun, I promise."

"Okay," Niall mumbles, lower lip poking out.

"Hey, what'd I say about pouting?" Justin's voice asks, and when Niall looks up, Justin is raising an eyebrow at him. Niall squirms a little, but stops pouting, chewing on his lower lip instead. "Baby," Justin says gently, lifting Niall's chin. "Sweetheart, we don't have to go laser tagging if you don't want to."

"No, no, I wanna," Niall objects quickly. It does sound fun, he just gets in his head too much sometimes.

"Okay, if you're sure," Justin nods, kissing Niall on the forehead quickly and getting in the car. The laser tag arena isn't far from where they live, and soon enough, they all get out of the car. Niall's hands are shaking as Zayn signs them up for the next round, and Justin gets an idea.

"Hey, doll, wanna see something cool?" he asks the sweet blond gently, and Niall nods. "All the lights in there are really cool, they make stuff glow in the dark...if you draw on me with highlighter, it'll glow while we're playing."

Niall stares at him with wide eyes. "You want me to draw on you?"

"Sure, baby, why not?"

So Niall takes the highlighter Justin hands him with a tiny smile, and starts to doodle cute little hearts and stars and clouds on Justin's arms. Justin watches, smiling a little -- clearly, this distraction has worked to ease Niall's anxiety. He's super focused on what he's doing, his tongue even poking out of his mouth due to concentration.

"Oh, is he drawing on you? I want to, too," Zayn exclaims, and takes the highlighter when Niall's done with it. He doodles something on the free space on Justin's bicep, and then they go into the quick info session before the game. "You okay, cutie?" Zayn asks Niall.

Niall nods, starting to get excited now. "Ooh, I wanna be on the yellow team!"

"Alright," Zayn chuckles, pulling the red jersey over his head. Justin chooses blue, and then they make their way into the actual arena. The timer starts to count down until they can shoot, and Niall runs off, giggling. "I'm coming for you, you little cutie!" Zayn shouts after him.

"Zayn, I'm gonna kick your ass," Justin laughs somewhere from the opposite direction of Niall. Niall quickly hides himself under one of the structures just as the timer says zero, and he shoots a few practice shots before he goes still. There are a bunch of other people in the arena besides just the three of them, and Niall starts to rack up points shooting them from his secret spot.

"Niall, where are you?" Justin's voice calls. Niall holds his breath, though he has the odd sensation that he should respond. "Come on out, baby..." Justin walks past where Niall is hiding, and Niall can see the doodles he made earlier glowing, and it makes him smile. Justin turns the other way, looking for Niall, which exposes Zayn's doodle, which reads, "I'M A GIANT FUCKING LOSER," and it makes Niall laugh. "Gotcha!"

Suddenly, Justin's in front of him, and Niall squeals and giggles, trying to squirm away from Justin's hand reaching for him. There's not much space, though, and Justin eventually manages to tug Niall out of his hiding spot. 

"No fair!" Niall pouts, "My laugh gave me away!"

"Yeah, it did," Justin chuckles, and holds his laser gun up to Niall. "Any last words?"

Niall hesitates, and then goes on tiptoe and presses his lips to Justin's. Justin, startled, forgets to shoot, and mid-kiss, Niall pulls his own gun's trigger. Justin breaks the kiss as the lights on his vest go dark, and Niall starts giggling even harder than he was before.

"Did you just --" he begins, too shocked for words. "I cannot believe you just did that!" Justin yells as Niall runs away, a laugh in his voice. "Zayn, shoot Niall!"

"Nooo, don't shoot me!" Niall yells out in response. Unfortunately, before he can find Zayn, the lights in the arena go up, which signals that the game has ended. Pouting, Niall makes his way to the arena closet where he hangs up his vest.

"...You won't believe what he did," he hears Justin's voice saying as they exit the arena. "He kissed me and then shot me mid kiss!"

Niall can hear Zayn laughing, and then jumps when he feels arms wrap around his waist. "Way to go, sweetheart. He had it coming," Zayn says, a smile in his voice, and kisses Niall's cheek. "Oh, sweet, score cards!"

"I bet I beat you," Justin tells Zayn.

"No way, babe, I hit all the enemy bases," Zayn smirks. 

Justin's jaw drops. "You what?!" he demands. "No way!" But when he gets his score card back, it in fact is true -- Zayn's beat him by nearly a thousand points. "Zee, you had to have cheated!"

"Nope. I'm no cheat," Zayn grins. "Looks like I get the first solo date with you, cutie pie. Lucky me!"

Niall blushes and covers his face. He's excited for it, though.

"This is so unfair," Justin huffs. "I need to drown my sorrow in ice cream."

"Ooooh, ice cream!" Niall cheers, forgetting to be shy for a second out of his excitement.

"Yeah? You want ice cream, too, baby boy?" Justin asks, and Niall nods. Zayn can't say no to both of them (or one of them, really), so they head to Baskin-Robbins. "What flavor do you want, Ni?"

Niall hesitates, unable to choose. "You pick first," he suggests. Justin orders cookie dough, Zayn mint chocolate chip. After some more thought, Niall decides on cotton candy, mostly because the pink and purple swirls are pretty.

"Good choice," Justin smiles, and kisses his cheek. They sit in the sun eating their ice cream, Niall smiling at the sun hitting his face.

"So where do you wanna go for our date, sweet pea?" Zayn asks Niall.

"Oh, I think you should --" Justin tries to input.

"You don't get any say in this, loser," Zayn interrupts him, which makes Niall laugh. When Justin frowns, dramatically pretending he's hurt, Zayn leans over and kisses him quickly. It makes Niall's heart go soft -- he's so used to seeing them playfully insult each other, seeing them be soft with each other is absolutely adorable. "You know I'm kidding, babe. You're not a complete loser, just a loser in skeeball and laser tag."

"And mini-golf," Niall adds, giggling.

"Honestly, how dare you?" Justin asks dramatically, and gets up from his seat and moves to a different table.