Forget Me Not (Zayn/Harry; Mpreg AU)

21 - Smooth sailing

Harry's hospitalization has been a huge turning point in Zayn's life. After seeing Harry so pale and practically lifeless on top of a hospital bed, the then horrified Zayn has realized that in order to make the two of them work, he has to clean up his act. He has to get up and work. He has to share in the burden of paying the bills and rent and in the buying of groceries. He has to talk to Harry and not merely grunt his answers when the younger lad asks about his day. He has to go out and interact with the world. He has to live and not to merely exist. Furthermore, he has to move on because moping and feeling sorry for himself won't do him or Harry any good. If anything, it only serves to hurt him more and cause unnecessary problems to the life that he is building with Harry.

Zayn knows how much Harry has suffered with the family that adopted him and he feels truly ashamed that ever since he has lived with Harry, he has only added more pain - literal ones at that, which landed the poor lad into the hospital - to his life. He vows to never do it again, especially if it could be avoided.

So, Zayn has straightened himself out.

After assuring that Harry is a hundred and one percent healed and restored to his full health, Zayn has stepped up his game. He has passed countless resumés to various businesses and companies. At first, everything has gone according to how Zayn has wished it to be. He has received a call and a schedule for a job interview from almost every firm that has his CV. Unfortunately, he has ended up turning down every single one of the offers because they all had one goal in mind: to use him, a Malik and the sole heir to one of the biggest companies in the world, Malik Enterprises, as a sort of blueprint, a textbook of sorts as basis for their management and marketing. The companies want him to apply what he has learned on his family's business to their own standard operating procedures. In other words, they want Zayn to spill the trade secrets of the Malik Enterprises, which made it successful. As a result, Zayn has turned all of them down because as much as his family have hurt him, he will never betray their trust like that.

Despite the hurdles that Zayn has experienced, he has remained hopeful. That is why he is over the moon when, a couple of months later, in a wonderful stroke of luck, Zayn is accepted into a small recording company, shortlisted as a songwriter. Although the company is not that well-known in a large scale, they have a roster of artists that are famous locally, having a good amount of following along the country. One of them is a lovely young lady named Cher Lloyd and if Zayn is lucky enough, she'll be the one to bring life to his words.

With Harry's endless support, Zayn has landed two decent part-time jobs while waiting for his songwriting dreams to take root. His first one is on a local grocery store, Farmfoods, where he works on the stocks and inventories every night and substitutes as a bagger during the afternoons. While, every early morning, he delivers newspapers to different stands along the city. Although not that used to manual labor, Zayn has been quite the hardworker, able to juggle his time wisely that, despite working two jobs, he has never once missed eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with Harry and Eclair.

As per doctor's orders, Harry, on the other hand, is recommended to cut down on the stress factors in his life. So, with much pleading on Zayn's part, Harry has quit his job as a dishwasher and a bartender in Liam's beer garden because, instead, he is now a full-time training supervisor, which means that he now works as a baker in the mornings and trains new employees in the afternoons, basically freeing his 4pm and onwards. All of his evenings and free time is mostly spent watching the telly and waiting patiently for his boyfriend with a lovingly prepared home-cooked meal on their table.

Their relationship is not perfect and they do argue sometimes, especially when Harry sees new cuts and bruises on Zayn's skin (courtesy of his job stacking heavy crates and boxes on the stock room) and blames himself for letting the lad do hard work. During those times when Harry is in a bad place, his shoulders slumped and his lips weighed down by a frown, Zayn does his best to understand where the young lad is coming from. Instead of fighting fire with fire, Zayn finds it easier to patiently console his boyfriend and tirelessly assure him that none of these things are his fault, that Zayn loves him so much that is why he works diligently to put food in their table and keep the roof in their heads.

Vice versa, whenever a news related to him or his family reaches his ears, whether it be good or bad (mostly, they are the worst), Zayn gets into a period of utter silence, often unreachable and blank in his anger. So, Harry - sweet, lovely boy - merely showers him with the same amount of patience, care and love until he feels no longer bothered by the blatant manipulation of media regarding his whereabouts and familial relationship.

Zayn and Harry truly are soulmates, just like what Liam often says. They balance each other out and have the deepest understanding of each other's personality. Zayn is the yin to Harry's yang. The other half of his soul. They are not only boyfriends, but also best friends and partners in crime.

And after four blissful years of being together, Zayn is ready for Harry to be his husband.

A/N: Finally, an update! Thank you for waiting patiently and I apologize for such a (shitty) short chapter. This is more of a filler chapter. I hope you understand. So yeah, please wait for the next update. I swear I won't take too long this time. Like, I just need a few hours of sleep and when I get up, I'll publish the next one HAHAHA

Also, I'd like to take this moment to thank you all for 11k reads and 1k votes; my very first! I'm ecstatic! I never knew I was capable of reaching such numbers :"> You lot are lovely and as a sort of gift (to those who haven't read it yet), I've recently finished a Zarry highschool AU titled AQUARIUS. You can find it on my profile. It is a fairly short story, but if you are up for fluff + highschool Zarry + bff Narry + bff Zouiam + oblivious, nerdy Hazza + bad boy with the softest heart Zayn, this story is for you! Please give it a read/comment/vote. That'll be swell. Those things encourage me to write more so keep 'em coming while I'm still unemployed lol

Again, thank you all. Stay fab x