A.M. ↠ zarry AU

zayn

Arabic

زين

beautiful and radiant

×××

"Daddy, wake up. Mummy's sick again. Can you do my hair and take me to school please?"

Zayn fights to open his eyes and lift his head up and look at the big golden eyes staring back at him. "Sure, babe." He looks over to his wife's sleeping form and gently strokes her cheek. He gets up, has a wash, puts on a shirt and lifts his daughter up to sit at the vanity. "What do you want to do with your hair today?" Zayn asks, lifting up a handful of her black hair, not really knowing where to start with any of it.

"Plait it, please."

"Okay," He starts doing a simple braid.

"No daddy, not like that!"

"Then how, Ameera?"

"A French one."

"Uhm..." Zayn doesn't really know how to do a French braid and gets out his phone to Google it. "Hold my phone for me, please." Zayn says and follows a tutorial on braids. He frowns feeling that his attempt looks much messier than the pictures that are on screen. He checks the time seeing that they have a few minutes to spare and undoes the whole thing to start over.

"Having a bit of a problem, dad?" Ameera teases and Zayn smiles at her sass and pulls a face at her in the mirror before finishing off her braid.

"Come on then, grab your bag and let's go."

*

"Daddy. Daddy."

"Hmm?" Zayn looks away from his laptop to the small being on the ground that's tapping his thigh, vying for his attention. "Yes, angel?" He asks his six year old daughter.

"Look at what we did in school today." She's nervous yet excited to show her dad a piece of paper that she's clutching to her chest.

Zayn pushes his laptop further away from him and picks his daughter up, sitting her down on his lap. "Show me." He smiles and adjusts his glasses, eager to see what Ameera's hiding from him.

"Okay...look!" She says with a big reveal.

"Oh, baby, it's beautiful!" Zayn coos.

"It's you, me and, mummy outside the house."

"And who's this?" Zayn points to a little brown drawing of fluff.

"That's Spot."

"... And Spot is?" Zayn asks, amusement in his voice.

"...our puppy? Maybe we can get him next week?" Ameera blushes and suggests.

Zayn chuckles and kisses the top of her head. "We'll see, bub."

He pulls his laptop towards him again and continues to read his email with Ameera sitting comfortably on his lap. She's got one of her small hands holding onto his arm and the other still holding onto the painting she made. She's looking at his laptop screen too, trying to make sense of things but nothing's there to hold her attention. "I'm happy that you work more from home now, dad." She says, laying her head against Zayn's chest, feeling his heartbeat against her cheek much like she would when she was younger. She's a daddy's girl in every sense of the word and cherishes Zayn so very much.

He smiles down at the mini version of himself before smoothing his hand over her soft hair, laughing to himself that his braid sadly didn't seem to make it all the way throughout the day. "I'm happy too." He says and rests his chin on her head.