the zone ➸ ziam [completed]

thirteen.

Zayn watches the way his dad runs his hand through his hair while he paces back and forth in front of him, with a pout on his lips. He stays silent, the only sound in the living room are coming from his father who is mumbling to himself every now and then.

He looks away from his dad and turns to Louis, who's sitting on the chair to Zayn's far right gazing with furrowed eyebrows at Harry. The blue eyed man seems to be deep in thought though, and not paying attention to his father.

"Were they bad guys or something?" Zayn finally asks, blurting out his question before he chickens out again(he's been scared to talk since they've been situated in the living room, fifteen minutes ago).

Harry stops in his tracks and looks over to Zayn with a frown, "No, no. They work for me, but they did have some not very pleasant news to share with me."

"What was it?" Zayn asks even though he knows his dad will more than likely not tell him anything. "Is it about..." Zayn trails off, looking at Louis curiously. He doesn't know if the other man knows or not. Surely he does, if he's his dad's good friend.

Louis sends him a small smile before he's shrugging his shoulders and nodding his head, successfully answering Zayn's question that yes, he did in fact know about Harry.

"Nothing for you to worry about, zee. I need you to pack a bag with some clothes alright? I'm-"

"What?" Zayn asks, looking at his dad with wide eyes. "Why do I have to pack clothes- where am I going?" He asks, his voice raising an octave in shock.

He's never had to leave his own house because of what his father did. Even when he didn't have any idea of what his dad really did, Zayn never had to leave his home. When he was younger and his father had to go away, Zayn would stay home with Frank (and Justin later on) keeping an eye on him at all times.

"I need you to listen to me alright? Please, go pack a bag."

Zayn looks at his dad with furrowed brows and shakes his head. "Tell me what's going on first." He states, looking at his dad expectantly. He's old enough to know what's going on, if he wasn't then his dad wouldn't have told him about all this mafia nonsense in the first place.

Harry sighs, knows that he's not going to be able to just deter Zayn's thoughts away from this when his son knows how serious this is. He doesn't want to inform Zayn about anything, doesn't want his son worrying about this stuff.

"A man named Valentino has arrived in New York this morning and his first stop was to Styles' Shakes. That's- I have Theo and Michael in charge of keeping an eye out there for me. He's- Valentino is a dangerous man. I don't want to get into any details okay, Zayn? I just need you to cooperate with me right now and go pack some clothes." His dad explains, sitting on the small coffee table in front of Zayn.

Zayn nods his head slowly at the new information. Styles Shakes, as Zayn has just learned not that long ago when his dad confessed everything, is a front to deter the police away from what his dad actually does. It showcases that no Harry Styles is not a mafia boss what are you talking about, that man owns a milkshake shop.

"Where am I going?" Zayn asks softly. He knows his dad won't leave him with Niall, his dad claiming he doesn't want the Horan's to be put in any danger because of him(which doesn't make sense to Zayn because Niall's his best friend, doesn't that already make him in slight danger already?).