I Know Places - Ziam AU

17. Home?

"Wait here, my mum wants to talk." Zayn set down all his belongings in their bedroom then turned on his heel to walk out of the room.

That was before Liam held him back. A glint of nervousness was in his caramel brown eyes.

Zayn could feel his husband's grip was tightening, but he just gave him a sorry look then unwrapped the taller man's hand from his upper arm. "Just a minute, Li." He said softly.

"I missed you." Liam knew if he didn't try to hold his lover back, everything about him would be revealed. And he didn't want that. At least, not now. It was too soon for Zayn to find out about it, right?

"Just please, stay. I need you a little longer here, Z" He added.

But Zayn only laughed quietly then stood on his tiptoe to give Liam a peck on the lips. "Someone's being clingy", Zayn pulled back only to tease his stoned husband. "My mum missed me too. Wait here, yeah?" And with that, Zayn walked out of the room. Little did he know, Liam's position was in danger.

He walked approaching the mentioned woman, "yes, mum?". Then sat himself beside her. Trisha eyed his son carefully before she opened her mouth, "Liam is in your room, right?" Zayn nodded. She took a deep breath, or that was what he imagining, then moved herself closer to her son. She was aware of his husband's presence.

"This is basically about him," she started. Zayn furrowed his eyebrows, "what about him?"

"Do you remember that you called me when you were in Paris yesterday? You asked me things about him? I can answer that, I think this is the right time." Zayn nodded but then shook his head quickly. "I don't want to talk about this right now, mum. We just came back home and Liam's–"

"That's why we're here." His mother cut him. "We're here to talk about it. To get things straight and clear to you."

Zayn looked down at his lap, chewing his bottom lip. He hesitated, debating with himself if he was really ready to hear the truth or not. But he knew he needed this. It didn't feel alright to get a weird look from people when all you did was only interacting with your husband or even having his company. Zayn really thought that was because both of them were men at first.

"Okay." He whispered.

Trisha took both of his hands into hers, "look at me, sunshine." She said softly and he did.

"The doctor diagonosed you for having Fantasy Prone Personality with a strong eidetic memory." There was a pause before she continued, "it is a personality trait in which a person experiences a lifelong extensive and deep involvement in fantasy. It causes you to have difficulty differentiating between fantasy and reality plus keep you experiencing hallucinations. You're also able to vividly recall images from memory. That's why he seems real to you. It was like, having an imaginary friend." She finished with a sympathetic look, couldn't hold her tears any longer, "I'm sorry."

Zayn just stared at his mother in disbelief. He didn't realize he was letting his tears fall, he blinked his eyes when the tears touched the corner of his mouth, didn't bother to wipe them. "So you're telling me.. Liam i-is not r-real?" His voice seemed caught in his throat as he struggled to form the words.

Trisha cupped her son's face, wiping the tears out of his pretty face. "He was, but the polices haven't found his body yet." And there was a pang in his chest, it felt like his heart was being crashed or teared apart in someone's hand. All this time, he just knew the truth; his husband had died.

"W-why you didn't tell me?" He choked.

She pulled him into her embrace. Zayn leaned on her, crying.. He felt his mother rubbing on his chest. Trisha was hopping it could soothe away the aches her poor son was through, even though she knew the pain was permanent.

"It's hard to see you like this."