White Gold ➳ Lilo And Pre-Teen Zayn!

➳ 0.1 ➳

Written by the amazing iPopZarrysCherry

Louis picked up the picture of his husband, Daniel, and him, and examined it in the August sunlight streaming through the bedroom window. To pack or not to pack, that was the question. He decided not to and tossed it in the garbage. It would be silly to keep a picture of his Prince Charming who'd turned out to be Prince Poop.

How perfect his life had seemed when Daniel Lange first swooped into it. Just goes to show, you can't trust perfection. Not in a man, anyway. Daniel had it all. Good looks, charm and a great sense of humor, and he fell hard for him. In addition to being a great guy, he'd come with an added bonus, several actually-a house on Lake Washington (primo Seattle real estate), a boat, a truck, a Mercedes and a fat bank account. At least that was what he'd thought. For a single dad who'd worked hard to put himself through nursing school, this was like discovering El Dorado.

Fool's gold, more like. For all his glitzy facade, Daniel had a tiny problem, one that involved racehorses, casinos, lotto, you name it. Ironic, considering the fact that he earned his living as a financial advisor. He'd discovered his addiction when their savings did a nosedive. When he decided he wanted to sell the boat. And the truck. Oh, and put the house on the market. They really didn't need this much house for the three of them.

"Tell that to Zayn," he'd argued. His son, twelve at the time, had loved water-skiing behind that boat, loved having his friends over to watch movies in the media room in the house that was suddenly too much for them. And he'd loved seeing his son enjoy a lifestyle grander than either he or his maternal grandparents had ever been able to give him.

Most of all, though, Zayn had loved having a second dad. He'd been three when he and Daniel got serious, about the age when it was getting hard to explain why he didn't have a second daddy like his friends, not even a father to stay with on weekends or holidays. "Your daddy was a bum,little more than a sperm donor," was nothing Louis had been ready to tell him. Just as now he wasn't ready to tell him that his stepdaddy had been an out-of-control gambler and every penny they'd made from the sale of the house had gone to pay off debts, and that was why they were moving to their vacation cabin on the edge of Icicle Falls. It was the only place they could afford.

He was paying the price for nobly protecting his husband's memory. With the move imminent, Zayn was barely talking to him. As if it was his fault Daniel had medicated his pain with bourbon and wrapped his (still unsold) Mercedes around a tree. As if it was his fault they had to downsize. Dealing with the bank and their various creditors, on top of the loss of his husband, had made the last year a nightmare. Now he was dealing with his son's anger over the loss of their house and their upcoming move, and that was almost as bad.

"Children always blame the parent they're with. If you were divorced, it would be your fault," his mother had said.

"But we weren't divorced," he'd retorted. Broke, yes, but not divorced. They'd have gone for counseling, worked things out somehow. Angry as he'd been at Daniel, he'd still loved him. He still did now, even though there were times he wished he could exhume his body simply so he could slap him. Damn the man. And how was it his fault he was dead? He sighed and fished the picture out of the waste can and wrapped it in newspaper. Zayn appeared in the bedroom doorway.

"Can I go over to David's house?"

Mark it on the calendar. Today his son was speaking to him. Never mind that this was only because he had to.

He wasn't the happy, loving boy he'd been a year ago, but he couldn't blame him. His world had been tipped upside down and he, like him, was simply trying to hang on.