Fool's Gold » ziam

« Chapter 5 »

zayn climbed the stairs to his mum and pops place with a sleeping toddler on his hip. he'd had such a rough week and no luck in finding a good family lawyer to deal with the custody case. he felt like he just needed to hide from everything and eat his mumma's cooking until he was strong and prepared enough to face the world.

zayn didn't bother with knocking, he found the key to the place on his key ring and let himself in, taking niall straight to bed once he had locked the door back behind him. he made sure to send his mum a text that he had gotten there safely and that he would check on whatever was in the crockpot. he leaned on the door frame of his bedroom and just looked out into the hall.

this was his childhood home and the only place he felt he could be when life was just too much. niall had spent a majority of his short life in this home. his and niall's pictures were hung up right along with a picture of zayn and his sisters. he just smiled and pulled the door shut behind him so niall could get some peaceful sleep. he went downstairs and checked on his mother's crockpot chicken.

"you're gonna mess up your hips standing like that." waliyha sat down grocery bags on the kitchen table after she had let herself in. "don't put all of your weight on one side."

zayn looked at her, "thanks for the advice, doctor." he rolled her eyes and she did the same in return.

"there's groceries. come help bring them in." she was followed in by their mother who had apparently brought in the rest of the groceries.

"sonshine!" trisha smiled and sat the bags down, pulling her son in for a tight hug. zayn just smiled and kissed her head, he missed her so much. he was so thankful she and his dad would never turn him away. "where's niall?"

"he fell asleep in the car, so he's upstairs in bed." zayn smiled and began to help waliyha put the groceries away. "thank you for letting us stay-"

"wal, why don't you go check on niall?" trisha glanced at her daughter who just nodded and made her way upstairs. his mother's attention was now fully on him, "what's the problem, honey?"

zayn blinked and then he felt the rage burning inside of him, "liam served me with custody papers."

"he what?"

"he's filing for partial custody." zayn rubbed his eyes.

"have you found a lawyer?"

"not a good one, i can't afford a good one." zayn sighed quietly and leaned on the counter, rubbing his face. "he's trying to break me, take my baby away."

"honey... i just think he's grown up, he knows he needs to see his son now."

"are you on my side?" zayn rose an eyebrow and turned his head to look at her. he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "liam doesn't deserve to be in the possession of a hair from niall's head, he certainly doesn't deserve to have him on weekends, or even more than that."

"i know you're upset, zayn. but you need to understand, it's better now he comes back than later in his life when niall will remember he's not always been there and he resents you both." she explained. zayn sighed and nodded some.

-*-

zayn was sitting on the couch and watching a film with waliyha whilst his parents were at their date and safaa was at her friends. "what are you gonna do?" she spoke up after thirty minutes of silence.

"the only thing i can do, is prove that he isn't fit to have partial custody and i dunno how to do that. his boyfriend has kids, but they seem like they're well taken care of. so that isn't going to work. he makes more money than i do, so i can't even play that card. all the odds are against me right now." zayn pushed up his glasses and tilted his head to look at his sister.

"well... i know you're gonna hate to hear this, but it seems like you really can't do anything to keep him from getting a piece of custody. so you'll just have to make the best of it, z. he lives next door, not across town. you can probably hear everything that's said to him through the walls."

"yeah... yeah... but it still sucks, y'know? i've done so much in three years and he just shows up and decides he wants to be in his life now. after he left me alone." zayn sighed quietly and looked over at the stairs, "i want him to be happy and liam isn't gonna keep him happy."

"sweetheart, you're going to have to let him try. you don't have much of a choice."

-*-

liam smiled as he looked at himself in the mirror, he'd get to spend time with niall and zayn today at the frozen yogurt stand across the street. he had on a plain white tee and a pair of jeans. he had gotten niall a few gifts just to warm him up to him and louis looked up from his book. "you ready to spend time with him?" he asked and stood up to give liam a kiss on the cheek.

"yeah, i am. i don't know if i should mention that i'm his father or not." liam's cheeks were red and he had an insecure smile on his face. louis smiled himself.

"zayn's gonna be there to guide you. it'll be okay." louis grinned and liam just nodded.

"i know it will be okay, it's just nerve racking. you know..."

"i get it, love. i get it. but you're gonna do just fine. i promise." louis rubbed his back and liam nodded, grabbing the gift bag.

"i'll see you later, i love you." liam pecked his lips and sent zayn a text as he left his apartment, ready to face whatever he was about to throw at him. 

(A/N: 1,000 words ;; 21 August 2017.

I haven't had time to write recently and now that I look at what I've accomplished on this account in 2017, I get real sad bc it hasn't been much oml. I'm going to try to finish the original stories on my account by the end of this year and hopefully post a few of the new ones I've been working on or hadn't finished before.

I hope you all are having a nice day! I'll try to get another update for this out very soon! Tomorrow's my mumma's bday, so we'll see (:

-Celina Azad)