Keeping up with ZIAM (The Contract Sequel)

Empathy and sympathy

Ezra was nervous to say the least, luckily Loki was pawing at his shoes so he chuckled and diverted his attention down to him. Zayn locked the door and hesitantly turned around. Everything he talked about with Dr. Gregg, replayed in his mind.

"Hi!" He said putting on his best smile. He hoped the boy couldn't see the nerves he was hiding.

"Hello." He smiled back to him wondering the same thing.

"We can just set your suitcase in the living room for now. There's multiple rooms so you can choose which one you want in a bit." Zayn said walking out of the entryway.

"Okay." He nodded.

"Are you hungry? I was actually waiting up on you to see if you wanted to get some food. I was going to make something, but then I realized we only have meal preps, and grown up foods, ugh." Zayn said rolling his eyes at Liam's diet. He followed it too, not because he wanted to, but because he needed to. Ezra laughed a little causing Zayn to smile. It was nice. The conversation didn't feel as tense as he thought, but then again, Ezra barely spoke.

"Yes sir. I'm pretty hungry. Andy woke up late so we missed breakfast." He admitted.

"Perfect, and oh, you don't have to call me sir. Zayn is just fine." He said grabbing his keys from the kitchen counter.

"Oh. Sorry." Ezra said flushing. He was very respectful. Zayn noticed. He had called Liam that the day before at lunch.

"It's okay! We'll be going through the garage." Zayn said reassuring him. He motioned for him to follow. He looked to Loki unsure if he needed to be put up or something and Zayn caught his eye. "Oh don't worry. He's done better at not chewing things ups."

They got into Zayns really nice white car. From what he could see it was a Jaguar. Very expensive in his eyes. He opened the door to the back and paused for a second. Deep down, riding in the back still made him nervous. He didn't want to come off as difficult so he sucked it up.

Zayn buckled his seatbelt then opened the garage door with a push of a button. I was weird, then having a garage. He looked around at a couple of the boxes that were labeled "LA." Even their garage was spacious and done well. Before leaving he turned to Ezra with his shades on.

"Is McDonalds okay?" Zayn said looking in the rear view to Ezra who was sat in the middle buckled up. The boys face dropped significantly. How brows knit together as the boys breathing began getting heavy. He looked to the boys grip he had around the seatbelt over his chest and it looked as if he was trying to claw it off.

"Ezra?" He questioned as the he liked to his eyes that were roaming everywhere but his gaze. Zayn could tell what was happening so, instinctively, he got out of the drivers seat, opened the back door, and climbed in next to Ezra, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Ezra. Hey, hey hey... look at me. It's okay. Just follow me alright?" Zayn ushered sternly, using his gentle voice.   He nodded back confirming that he was listening to the man.

"Good. Inhale through your nose. One, two, three, four." He said counting. "Now hold it. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Perfect now exhale out through your mouth. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Perfect. Now a few more times." Zayn squeezed his shoulder as Ezra followed his directions.

He repeated it a total of three times till Ezra had calmed down. "Feel better?" Zayn asked with a small smile. Behind it he felt so bad. He didn't know what he did or said that caused this but he was feeling really guilty.