Lover Dearest (Ziam Vampire AU)

Chapter 13

They pass by a girl with a giant stuffed panda under her arm. It's huge, awkward for her to carry, and her boyfriend (or that's who Liam assumes it is) looks pretty proud with his arm around her waist. Most people Liam has passed were carrying smaller stuffed animals, but hers is enormous, and he's not the only one looking at her because of it.

"Let's just play a game," Liam suggests. "I want a prize."

Zayn grabs his hand. "You do?"

"Maybe," Liam admits.

Zayn shakes his head fondly. "Then let's get you a damn prize."

They stop at the first game they pass. There's a row of seats, each with a mounted gun in front of it. The object is apparently to shoot a stream of water at the target across from each seat, and when you do it lifts up this platform with a stuffed animal on top. The first person to have their animal hit the ceiling wins. Seems easy enough.

Zayn hands over the money for the game and stands behind Liam as the rest of the seats fill up. And then the bell dings, Liam squeezes the trigger on his gun, and water sprays out. He loses, but the little boy two down from him wins, so he's not too fussed.

"We'll play something else," Zayn says. He pulls Liam off to a game of darts where you have to pop three balloons to get a prize.

It's easy. Liam has good hand eye coordination, and he wins on his first try. "Pick anything from the shelf," the guy running the booth says, gesturing to a row of stuffed animals.

Liam bites his tongue. He doesn't want any of them. They're small and they're all frogs and bears. They had better prizes at the last game. "Could you just — do you think you could just give mine to the next person who comes and doesn't win?" Liam asks.

The guy frowns at him. "You want me to just give one away?"

"Yeah. To someone who can't win their own."

"You sure?"

"He's sure," Zayn says. "And you better do it."

Liam elbows him in the ribs, and the guy nods quickly. "I will."

This time it's Liam tugging Zayn along. "You're a bit rude," he comments. "D'you know that?"

"I don't like people," Zayn says.

"Am I included in that?" Liam wonders out loud.

Zayn makes a face at that. "Of course you're not.

Liam smiles at himself as they pass another game booth, where a girl is tugging on her boyfriend's arm as he complains, "This thing is fucking rigged. I just wasted twenty quid! Bullshit!"

"Sorry 'bout your luck, mate," the older man running the booth says. "Maybe next time."

"Fuck this," the guy spits. He lets his girlfriend drag him off.

"You two want a go?" the man asks them. "Three rings for five, or five for eight. All you have to do is get one ring around the top of one of these bottles, and you get a jumbo prize."

Liam eyes the prizes hanging from the top of the booth. They're the biggest ones available, like the one that other girl had. There's another giant panda, a bear holding a heart that reads I love you, as well as an enormous, floppy-eared blue dog.

"We'll play," Liam decides. "Three rings, please."

Zayn forks out the money, and Liam takes the rings. There's about a hundred bottles set up in a square, and Liam gets cocky, thinking that the other guy who played was just bad at it. He's expecting his first toss to win, carefully throwing it at the bottles. It hits the edge of one and falls between it.