Lifting You Up

Chapter 7

“Zee.”

Zayn groaned and rolled over as he was awoken by a whimper from his doorway. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, trying to focus them on the little boy standing on the other side of the room. He quickly shot a glance at the digital clock on his nightstand and sighed internally as he saw it was 5:00 in the morning, so he probably wouldn’t be getting any more sleep.

“What is it, baby?” Zayn asked, motioning for Niall to come closer to him.

“Don’t feel good,” Niall cried quietly, reaching his stubby arms out for Zayn to pick him up once he was close enough.

“Hmm,” Zayn hummed, hugging the toddler to his chest and putting his lips against Niall’s forehead before frowning at the heat radiating from him. “Let’s go see what we can do about that, yeah?” Zayn said, standing up from the bed and walking down the hall to get some baby Tylenol from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.

Niall sighed and rested his head on Zayn’s shoulder, liking the rocking feeling whenever someone carried him when he was sleepy. Zayn hummed lightly as he looked through the cabinet for the cherry-flavored medicine. They might as well have had a drug store in the bathroom with as much medicine there was to go through just to find the children’s Tylenol, but Zayn was insistent on having a wide variety of medicines in case of emergency, and so that they didn’t have to run out every time one of the boys was sick.

Zayn finally located the sticky medicine and managed to maneuver Niall so that he could still hold him and pour the Tylenol into a little cup. “Here, babe,” Zayn said, holding the little cup up to Niall’s lips. Niall pouted pathetically when he had to lift his head from Zayn’s shoulder, but took the medicine nonetheless. “Good boy,” Zayn said once Niall had swallowed all of the medicine. He rinsed out the cup and walked back into his room with Niall still lying on his shoulder. “How about we lay down in my bed for a little while, hmm?” Zayn asked, rubbing Niall’s back and walking to the bed without waiting for Niall’s answer.

Most people would struggle to lay down and get comfortable with an unmovable toddler in their arms, but Zayn was a pro at this point, having dealt with nightmares, illnesses, monsters in the closet, and any other reason his little brothers could have for not wanting to sleep in their own beds for the last three years. Niall whined at the movement, but held onto Zayn’s shoulders anyway, making sure that it wasn’t part of his plan to set him down. Zayn hushed him, however, and it wasn’t long before Niall fell back asleep right there on Zayn’s chest.

Zayn closed his eyes, but he knew it was a lost cause; all hopes of getting back to sleep abandoned him as soon as he had to get out of bed. Now he was stuck worrying about the day ahead with things like who was going to watch Niall today if he was too ill, and what time Harry would be home from work this afternoon so that Zayn could go to his meeting and Louis could make it to his consultation with a new client, and who would take Niall to the doctor if this was more than just a fever and a headache. Really, Zayn just worried too much for his own good. So instead of sleeping, Zayn watched Niall sleep.

He never knew that his heart could harbor so much love for two little boys until the day their mother had died. Sometimes things were physically, mentally, and financially difficult, but Zayn couldn’t think of a single time that he’d been ready to give up. He loved his brothers more than anything in the world, and he would never change a single thing.

Zayn’s thoughts consumed him until his alarm went off. It beeped loudly just a little more than an arm’s length away, and Zayn groaned as he had to lift Niall off of his chest to turn it off. Niall whined and looked up at Zayn blearily.

“Go back to sleep, baby,” Zayn cooed, petting Niall’s hair off his forehead. He frowned at the heat radiating from him but was pleased when he closed his eyes again without complaint. He quickly changed into his work clothes and left the room with the door wide open because Niall was weird about doors being shut when he’s sleeping.