Clarity « Niam

Chapter 12

Reluctantly Zayn agreed to meeting with Niall so they could talk, they both secretly went in with the mindset that they weren't going to verbally attack one another because no doubt Liam's been feeding them both lies over the last year, almost two years.

Neither of them had officially met each other face-to-face, other than last night when Niall punched him and then immediately got escorted out of the building - luckily Zayn didn't press any charges because apart of him knew he deserved it, and smoothed everything over with media by releasing a statement this morning.

Saying it was all just a misunderstanding, and kept Niall's name out of the papers because he doesn't need the unnecessary attention on him.

They met up at a different hotel, since after their one sided scuffle last night Zayn had discretely switched hotels in the middle of the night, whilst the other two members of One Direction stayed at the hotel everyone knew them to be at.

Since fans rarely saw Zayn outside of going to pre-show rehearsals, nobody noticed that he wasn't at the same hotel anymore.

Niall waited in the lobby until a bodyguard came and escorted him upstairs, taking him directly to Zayn's hotel room. He was staying in a regular suite, nowhere near the penthouse size they had at the other hotel.

"Zayn, lads here to see you." The bodyguard called out as he closed the door behind them.

A high pitched squeal shrieked through the room, and then a clatter of toys fell before Zayn appeared around the corner with a little dark haired toddler, dressed in a yellow sundress on his hip.

"Yeah, can you take her to your room for a bit - please? She'll fall asleep if you lay her down." He questioned, already handing the curious toddler over to the bodyguard and kissed her puffy tanned cheek numerous times.

She fussed, holding her arms out to Zayn. "No stay, daddy."

Zayn kissed her cheek again, brushing a finger along her cheek as he smiled at her one last time. "You're going to go take a nap and then, you, papa and I will go do something fun - yeah. Just be good and go to sleep, love. I promise I'll be there when you wake up. Love you."

She pouted, but nodded and gave him a kiss on the lips before she waved goodbye as she was carried out of the room.

Niall noted that she could clearly understand what Zayn was saying and had a wider vocabulary, or at least she didn't jumble her words. Which meant she was probably almost two, making her maybe no more than six months older than Aybrum.

"You can sit down, if you want." Zayn spoke up once the door closed, taking a seat on the chair beside the couch.

Niall sat down, feeling less anxious and upset than he thought he'd be. He glanced at his face for the first time, seeing how swollen the left side of his face was, the deep purple colour forming under his eye. "I wanted to apologize for hitting you like that last night, I - Liam told me everything and I was upset, I shouldn't of handled it the way I did."

He shrugged, "I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner, so there's no need to apologize. I know what I did - what I'm doing with Liam is wrong and selfish, but I can't let him go. We have a daughter and I can't let her not have her dad in her life, she's too used to him being around all the time."

Zayn's words were like a smack in the face, because none of what he's saying is even close to being acceptable. "What about my son, he needs his father too and I won't let you take that from him."

"Liam's been with me since day one and I've been there for him, more than you ever were. He made a decision a long time ago, he doesn't want you - he wants the life he's made with me and our daughter." He was making it seem like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but in reality it was far from.