Ziall-A Criminal Love Affair

Epilogue

Zayn's Pov:

How do you start a new life? How do you learn to live a different way? Is it even possible to switch your life around? How can you know one thing for so long then try to do a completely different thing? Pain and violence was the only life I knew. It was the life I was raised in. Reputation was all I really cared for that was until I met my equal. You could say Niall and I came from two different worlds but we didn't. We were raised by different families, In different homes but ultimately our beliefs were the same. We were the same people. We believed that being the most feared was what mattered. That power outweighed everything else. That's what we believed until our paths crossed. In the beginning maybe it was about proving one was stronger than the other, Maybe it started off as a fight for dominance and control, Whatever it started as it turned into love. A love we knew was forbidden. A love we knew not alot of people would understand or even respect, But the way we felt for eachother mattered more than anything else.

Our gangs went to war. A war that looking back now I see never had a purpose. Why did we ever feel like fighting was worth our lives? Why did power matter to us so much? The day the fight broke was the day Niall and I learned who our real family was. We learned who saw the gangs as nothing but criminals and who saw a family behind it all. We lost respect from people but we also gained it from others. Sure not everyone understood. Love is the kind of thing you don't understand until you experience it. Love is a force that brings you a strength you never knew you had. It brings you the strength to make decisions without fear of the consequences. Niall and I knew we wanted to be together, But we also knew we couldn't be as long as we were leaders of two separate gangs. We knew we had to walk away otherwise we could never be together.

I stood out on the balcony with a cigarette between my lips. Moving forward with your life means making choices. I breathed out the smoke from my lungs and watched it disappear into the night wind. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist and a head fall onto my shoulder, I smiled, I knew those arms.

"Gonna let me have a blow?" Niall asked, I bit my lip trying to fight back a smirk.

"What blow you thinking of?" I teased, Niall gently pinched my stomach. I laughed loudly and held up the cigarette, Niall leaned over and took a drag from it. I took one last drag before dropping the cigarette and stamping on it, I then turned my body so I could pull Niall against me. His body had healed. He had scars that'd never fade but he was still here with me. I cupped the back of his head and pulled his face towards mine and crashed our lips together. We stood kissing for a few moments before Niall pulled away.

"Hmm. That never gets old" Niall said with a smile before opening his eyes. I stared into them. I started into those same blue eyes that pulled me in and never let me go. "What you thinking?" He asked.

"What makes you think I'm thinking something?" I replied.

"Lucky guess. Plus you always come out here for a smoke when you think of shit. I married you so I like to think I know my husband, So come on, What's on your mind?" He asked.

"You ever think there was more we could of done?" I questioned.

"With the lads?" I nodded my head. "This about half of them going down?" I nodded again, Niall sighed. "Yeah I do. They were our gangs, Our family for so long. There'll always be a part of us that'll feel like we could've changed things. We could've stopped them before it got as far as it has. But there was nothing we could do. We made our choices and we chose what lives we wanted to live they chose different. Lou, Li, Haz, Josh, Danny they chose to listen to us the others didn't and that was up to them. They chose to keep fighting for nothing" Niall said.

"They didn't believe that love was worth more than power" I added, Niall looked at me. "I just can't help but feel party responsible. They were our family it was our job to stand united with them" I mumbled.

"We tried. We tried showing them. When we all got into this we were so young. So blinded by shit we thought couldn't touch us. Cops? We thought we'd always out run them. Other gangs? We thought we could beat them. Prison? There was no crime we could ever be proven guilty of. We were to young to understand that we couldn't beat the world. If we stayed we'd be exactly where half of them are now. In prison cells facing years. Do you regret what happened?" Niall asked.

"Being part of the gang or choosing to walk away and be with you?" I questioned.

"Both" Niall replied.

"I did alot of bad things same as you. I beat people who looking back now never deserved it. I put families through things I don't even wanna think about. When Danny left for love I thought he was weak. I thought there'd never a person that'd make me wanna give up the power" I looked in Niall's eyes. "Then there was you. That cocky bastard who matched me in everyway. The bastard I wanted to teach a lesson to and ended up falling for. I regret not being able to prove to them that there's more out there, Falling for you I'd never regret. If we didn't walk away. If I didn't love you the way I do that day I would've lost you. I've never been scared of anything, Niall losing you the thought of that it still scares me" I admitted.

"We can't change what happened that day. We can't change the choices they made because in the end it's not our lives. We can rebuild lives for ourselves but we aren't stupid. We'll always have a past a past where we were criminals, Underneath all this we'll always be criminals but we've also turned our lives around. I'll never hurt another innocent person same as I know you won't" I nodded my head. "But if anyone ever touches you or our soon to be son Max that might just change" Niall added with a smirk, I chuckled.

"There's my sexy criminal. Soon to be the sexy father of my child" Niall smirked. "God, I love you" I stated before kissing Niall's lips, He returned the kiss with no hesitation. Niall and I looked into adoption and we came across this little boy. His dad died in the army before he was even born, His mum? Well her grief got the better of her and she overdosed. He's never had anyone. Niall and I looked at him and we saw ourselves. We knew where he'd end up and we didn't want that. 

"Hm, I love you too" He whispered against my lips."What you thinking of now?" NIall questioned.

"Max. Three more weeks and we'll have him. Three more weeks we'll save his life from all the bad shit that's out there" I said, Niall smiled and nodded his head. 

"Three weeks" He whispered in agreement.  "We should go bed" He whispered against my ear, I felt my body shiver.

"Sounds good to me" I replied as I slid my hand up Niall's shirt, He shivered at the feel of my cold hands.

"None of that. It;s your god daughters christening tomorrow"

"Still can't believe Danny's got a daughter. Shit really does change" I commented.

"Yeah. Even more shocked that he asked you to be god father. Thought I was taking your place as his best friend" Niall teased. "Anyway you need to set a good example for the little one can't have you limping around all day" Niall teased.

"Me limping? Who say's I'll be the one limping?" I said, Niall grinned.

"Hold off till tomorrow night then we'll see which one of us is left limping" Niall replied, He brushed his lips down to my neck and bit down harshly, I groaned.

"See you in bed" Niall whispered against my ear before turning and walking away, I couldn't help the smile that spread across my lips. If someone told me this time two years ago that I'd no longer be leader of the gang and I'd be hopelessly inlove with someone chances are I would've kicked the shit out of them. So much has changed in my life. So many things have happened and they've made me the person I am. I've always lived my life not knowing what my future would hold. I've always lived right on the edge. I've never known what I've wanted my future to hold, My future was never something I thought about. I still don't know what my future holds, I still don't know where life will take me, But I know one thing, I know that wherever life takes me I want Niall beside me. Through the good times and the hard I want him there. I'll never let anyone or anything hurt him. Nothing in life is certain but me always loving him is for certain.