Stand By Me ~Zouis Family

Seven

 Zayn was awoken by the shrill beeping of Louis’ alarm clock, and since he hadn’t yet found a job, he used the arm that was draped lazily over Louis’ sleeping form to shut it off. Zayn slowly and gently untangled himself from his husband, careful not to wake him and made his way down the hall to Niall’s room.

Zayn had only ever woken the children a handful of times so he didn’t really know how each child liked to be awoken.

Once in Niall’s room, Zayn gently sat down on the edge of the bed and the only visible part of his son was the hair, the hair that wasn’t quite sure if it wanted to be brown or blonde so it was sort of a dark blonde not quite a light brown.

“Hey baby,” Zayn cooed, gently massaging his hands through Niall’s hair in attempt to wake him.

“Niall come on you have to wake up now.”

“Sleepy.” Came the soft response, muffled by the blankets and sheets.

“I know, so am I but it’s your first day at your new school.”

Niall grumbled and slowly pulled his blankets away, sitting up and extending his arms towards his father. “Morning Papa.” He greeted as he wrapped his legs around Zayn’s waist and buried his face in his neck.

“Morning.” Zayn smiled and coaxed his son’s face out of his neck to press a kiss to his cheek. “Why don’t you get dressed yeah?” Niall nodded and Zayn set him down, ruffling his hair and setting off to his eldest son’s room.

Zayn sighed as he looked down upon Harry’s sleeping form, a little wary as to how he would go about this mission, Louis had complained on many different occasions that this boy was difficult to wake up.

Harry’s face was squished against the pillow and there was a small line of dribble hanging from the corner of his mouth, collecting in a small wet patch on the pillow that Zayn couldn’t help but chuckle at and if he had his phone on him, there’s no doubt he would have taken a photo.

“Come on bud, it’s time to wake up.” Zayn said, laying down on top of the curly haired boy the way he’d seen both Niall and Liam do the few times he was awake early enough.

Harry only grunted in response and attempted to roll on to his back.

“School starts today Harry, you can’t be late.” Zayn says as he bounces up and down upon Harry’s body.

“Fuck off.” Was Harry’s sleepy reply as he feebly tried to push his father off him.

Zayn climbed off Harry, realizing it wasn’t doing much good, made sure to take Harry’s wrists in his hands, pulling him up into sitting position.

“Papa you suck.” Harry grumbled, finally opening his eyes, but slitting them into a playful glare.

Zayn only chuckled in response before instructing his son to shake his tail feather and heading downstairs to set up breakfast.

Zayn placed the two boxes of sugary cereal in the middle of the table, along with the carton of milk, he fills Harry and Niall’s glasses with orange juice, begins preparing to make coffee for Louis and himself, and fills Liam’s sippy-cup half with juice and half with water so he wouldn’t be too much of a handful throughout the day.

Niall emerges first, as always, this time a truly angered expression on his face as he flops down into his seat, arms crossed over his chest and eyebrows furrowed.

“Hey little man, you alright?” Zayn questions, setting a bowl in front of Niall and one at the place Harry usually sits.

Niall only huffs in response before pouring some cornflakes onto his bowl. “You’ll laugh at me.”