Take Me Home

Chapter Eleven

Zayn stayed over that night, sleeping on the couch, and the next morning both men are up early, sitting in the kitchen both wearing sweats and a t-shirt with a cup of coffee each - simply talking.

Zayn finds it odd, how they seem to find something new to speak about every time they have a conversation, despite spending most of their time together.

Zayn had been sleeping at Liam's for the past week and the two had a sweet dynamic going on, their routines never colliding in a disruptive way. They just seemed to fit together perfectly. He was surprised to say that he felt closer to Liam than he had since he had first met him.

"So this lady starts screaming her head off over a splinter and I mean, I can't exactly tell her not to be a baby - I could lose my job. So I just have to hush her like a child and tell her to sit still so I can take a look and get it out," Zayn started on another story of one of his shifts in A&E, and Liam laughed, quietly so as not to wake the kids who were still asleep upstairs. It was a Sunday, and they always slept in late on a Sunday.

"Hey, splinter's are painful things, you have to admit," he joked, and Zayn grinned in return, shaking his head.

"Painful enough for the hospital? I've had teenagers come in with literal foreign objects protruding from their stomach who just sit there and wait for someone to come to them even though they could die, and then this middle aged lady acts like a tiny piece of wood is about to end her life," he said, then he hid a laugh with his hand and shook his head. "That's not even the worst part. I take a look at her hand and the splinter isn't even there. The skin isn't even broken and I just had to stand there like 'ma'am, I believe you've been mistaken'. I tell you, when I said I wanted to be a doctor I didn't think it would be like this," he laughed.

Liam laughed too, then it faded to a small smile as he rested a hand on Zayn's tanned forearm.

"Hey, if you weren't a doctor, three of those boys upstairs wouldn't have you in their lives. They really love you, you know? They hang onto you like you're their family. It means more to them than we'll ever understand," he explained, the tone much more serious now, but still so light and gentle.

Zayn smiled back, his deep red-brown eyes making contact with Liam's amber-brown ones.

"They love you too. They need you more than anything else, you're their stability, the one person they can trust and rely on more than they've ever been able to trust or rely on more than anybody else," he said.

Liam shook his head. "I'm just the social worker. That's all they'll see me as."

"Not at all. You couldn't be more wrong. Calum is just a social worker, you're different. Those kids cherish you, Liam, and I know you'd do anything for them."

Liam smiled. "Yeah, I would. They're good kids. Just haven't had very good lives."

It fell silent for a moment after that, before Zayn spoke up again. "You know, I've told you a little before about how screwed up my childhood was. Alcoholic dad, a mother who would rather let us get hurt than let herself take the punches. I never really trusted anyone because of my parents," he said, quietly.

Liam squeezed his arm gently, leaning in a little closer.

"Not until I met you, anyway," Zayn said, smiling again with emotion lighting up his gaze. "You're the most amazing guy I know, Li. And Michael's blind for letting you go, for hurting you like that. I'd take a bullet for those three kids and I would take one for you, too," he told him, and Liam's eyes were shining at his words.

Zayn wasn't sure who leaned in first or whether they had just met halfway, but soon enough, their lips met and they were kissing each other in a way that felt more like home than anything ever had to either of the men.