Clarity « Niam

Chapter 13

They had a couple days off before their next show, but Liam still hadn't had a chance to see Aybrum since the day at the Dublin Zoo.

He's tried multiple times to slip away and go see them, but Zayn's made sure they had a full schedule or would grab Brooklyn and tell her daddy was leaving - setting the toddler off and guilted Liam into staying, because it wasn't like he was going to ignore her and walk away.

All morning Liam's been on his phone, trying to get Niall to respond to his texts so he could set up a time to see Aybrum before one of them left the country.

Liam: please Niall, I just want to see him. I'm sorry. I'd pick you if I could, but I can't. Zayn will take Brooklyn from me.

Liam: fuck.... I really want to see him, I want him to know he's my son.

Liam: at least tell me where you guys are?

Zayn grabbed his phone from his hands, startling him because he didn't realize he'd been staring at him for the last ten minutes. "Pay attention to your daughter." He snapped as he shoved the iPhone into Brooklyn's diaper bag and stood up with the toddler, "Here, take her so I can get our food." He murmured as he plopped Brooklyn down in Liam's unsuspecting lap.

He smiled at the toddler, brushing his fingers through her short dark hair and glanced up at Zayn. "Hey, I've actually got somewhere to be in an hour. So we should head back to the hotel after this, yeah."

Liam didn't officially have plans, but he still wanted to make the effort to see Aybrum. He knew where Niall's mum lived in Mullingar and that's where he planned on going first, even if it was over an hours drive - it was worth it, they were worth it.

Zayn stopped, looking at him and leaned on one of the empty booths with a venomous look in his usually soft eyes. "No. We're supposed to go to the Funtasia Waterpark and you're meant to be coming with us, you can't leave halfway through the day."

"Zayn, I -" He looked at Brooklyn, bouncing her on his knee some to get her smiling, happy and keep her occupied. "It's not up for discussion, I need to see them too."

Zayn crossed his arms, huffing out an irritated breath. "No, this is our time. We only have a couple uninterrupted days off and Brooklyn's going with my mum soon, don't ruin it because of him."

"Stop, I'm not letting you do this again. I have more than one responsibility and I can't ignore the other when I'm very much capable of being there for both -" He stopped himself, remembering they were in public and he needed to keep their voices down.

Even though both their bodyguards were seated two tables away, keeping an eye on them so they wouldn't be approached.

Zayn gave him a devious smirk and came back over to the booth, getting down to the toddlers level and cooed at her. "Hi baby, mean papa wants to leave without you. Maybe if you tell him you want him to stay, he won't leave you behind like a meanie butt."

Brooklyn looked between both her parents, tearing up the more Zayn said Liam was going to leave and she couldn't go with.

"Papa no, stay me." She sniffled, slowly starting to streak her face with warm tears and made her big hazel eyes gloss over completely.

Liam's chest tightened the more she cried, he looked up at Zayn and saw he was smiling proudly for successfully upsetting the toddler and using it to his own personal benefit.

"Princess, I'll come back. I promise, it'll only be a couple hours. You and daddy can go ahead without me, then you can tell me all about it when I'm back." Liam spoke gently, not wanting to make her cry anymore than she already was.

Zayn moved closer, putting a finger under Brooklyn's chin and tilted her teary face up towards Liam. She sniffled, hiccuping through the next wave of hot tears. "Look what you're doing to your daughter, Liam. Look how upset she is that you're leaving her again."

"Papa please." She whimpered, removing her chin from Zayn's hold and hugged Liam tightly as her thin arms would allow her.

Liam thumbed away her tears the best he could and glared at Zayn, "Alright princess. I'm not going anywhere, daddies going to go get our food - Okay. How's that sound, you hungry?"

Her cries slowly shifted to tiny sniffles as she nodded, Zayn leaned forward and kissed her forehead, pulling back to briefly kiss Liam on the lips. "See. I told you, you weren't going anywhere."

Liam halfheartedly kissed him back, "Yeah." He gave Brooklyn a rather convincing smile as well, obnoxiously kissing her forehead to make her giggle and to get his own mind clear of negative thoughts.

Because obviously, he wasn't going to potentially be seeing Aybrum at any point today or ever if Zayn kept up this jealous charade.
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(authors note: short filler chapter, I just wanted you to see what Zayn's like now that Niall and Aybrum are on Liam's mind. But I assure the story will go back to being more Niall/Aybrum centric now that all the drama is out on the table.

p.s. please, please take a second to follow me on twitter -> @zmelec <- If you follow me and tweet me saying you're from wattpad, I'll follow you back there!

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