No Fear of Falling (Zarry AU)

Chapter 3

The second time Harry broke his arm, the day before his eighth birthday, he was doing exactly the same thing: trying to climb the tree. Again, it was January and again it was snowing, the garden cotton white apart from the footprints that led from the back door to the tree. And again, no one knows why he did it, other than that was what Harry Styles did when he was bored, he climbed trees.

It was 7 a.m. so Yaser and Tricia were in the kitchen. She was trying to persuade him that taking the boys to Blackpool wouldn’t be that traumatic while he made choc chip pancakes. Harry, who’d slept over, had requested a smiley face in his and got bored of waiting, so slipped out the back door while Yaser pointed the spatula at Tricia and reminded her how much stuff they had to sort for the birthday party the next day.

Zayn was desperate for a choc chip pancake, but was more desperate to know what Harry was up to, so snuck out after him. When he saw that Harry was climbing the tree, he went after him. He caught up quickly and when Harry realised that Zayn was about to overtake him – in Buzz Lightyear slippers, no less – he was furious. So, determined not to let him make it to the top of the tree before he did, Harry reached for a higher branch and missed.

Zayn didn’t see Harry fall, but when he heard a yelp he looked down to see him sprawled on the snow and the shock of it made him fall, too. And that’s how Harry broke his arm the second time, not from the fall, but when Zayn landed on him.

Yaser saw from the kitchen window and ran out, the spatula still in his hand, to find the boys in a heap under the three. ‘I can see his bone!’ Zayn said, his eyes wide, as if it was the coolest thing he’d ever seen.