JAAN :: ZAYN

the booster seat

•zayn•

"You know how cute you are around children?" Chi rubbed Zayn's tummy as he ate the rest of his baked chicken.

"Mecca was adorable, man," he replied with a sigh, "that's her name right?"

"Yep," she's been at the daycare since she was three months old. I honestly don't think her parents are good for her but who am I to say that?"

"What do you mean?"

"She's adopted by these two people, Mariah and Jason, and like, they're very uptight. And irresponsible. I can count on both hands how many times I had to take her home because they 'forgot'."

"What?" he sat up and put his plate on the table, "what the fuck--"

"Language, Zayn," she scolded, "not around RyDae."

"Sorry," he sighed, looking at Chi, "I should have known what was up when she couldn't even count past eight."

"Yeah, we're actually getting Child Services on some of these cases, because, yeah."

"Because why?"

Chi looked down at her fingers. "Well, me and a few other people think Mecca's parents are trying to ditch her."

"Chi, what the f--"

"We don't know yet, maybe they're just not punctual, but it's kinda scary."

"That's so messed up," Zayn for some reason was heated about this news. That little girl -- along with any other child -- deserved the most love and most care from their parents, adopted or not. And the fact that parents were out there abandoning their children and not thinking twice before running off was just...he hated it.

And Mecca was so cute, man. Like, she was a little four year old Asian girl and her hair was long and her cheeks chubby. She was too nice and Zayn wondered how anyone could not want her.

She deserved better than those parents but there was nothing he could do about it.

"Zayn, calm down, man," he moved so she could get up, walking into their room to check on Brooklyn, who was sleeping on the bed soundly, "I need you to not get mad for like, the next half hour or so."

"Why?" he asked nervously. She always had him doing something that either wasted his time or made him freak out while doing it.

"I need a favor," she admitted sheepishly, fishing in her purse, "so, Erika from work said Mecca's parents haven't called to pick her up and she's the only kid left. I usually take her but Erika has to go to some night class and--"

"You want me to take her home," Zayn finished while Chi just nodded, throwing him her car keys, "okay. Address?"

"Yeah, I wrote it down," she was like half an arm deep searching in her purse and Zayn rolled his eyes again. She had so much stuff in there. "Here."

Zayn took the paper and looked it over. "This is where Harry lives. Well, like the same street. I know where it is."

"Okay," she bit her lip and Zayn most definitely knew that face.

"She'll be fine, Chi. You take care of my godbaby and I'll take care of this one."

"Okay," he kissed her lips before grabbing his phone, "call me if you need anything."

"Sure thing."

•zayn•

"Mecca! Hey, babe," Zayn picked the little girl up and tickled her sides, causing her to squirm away and giggle.