Ziam one shots

The Right Shade of Just Like You

This is the part 2 of "Better then Words"
A03
By Romancemesomeziam
Summary: The boys celebrate their son's birthday and Zayn struggles with his little boy growing up. Yet, Liam is always there to make sure things go by smoothly, even if it means roughing Zayn up a little bit.

The flat was a complete mess, toys and decorations littering the floor as Liam and Zayn both scrambled around to pick them up. They had spent the last 24 hours catering to the every desire of six little monsters for Taylor's birthday celebration. A massive sleep over, themed with Disney movies and Zayn still glared at Liam for the idea, scrapping blue buttercream frosting off the ceiling.

"How did they even manage to get it up there?" growled Zayn, irritated and completely exhausted. He was craving a cigarette and a massively long kip, far from blabbering children and high pitch yelps.

The last of Taylor's friends were just about leaving, downstairs with Liam as their parents picked them up. He could hear Jackson's mother thanking Liam, no doubt pawing him like the last piece of sugary cake.

Rolling his eyes, Zayn kept scrubbing the damn icing, sighing in relief when it finally started to show signs of giving. He loved his little boy more than anything in the world, but right now he just wanted to sleep, maybe roll around in bed like a toddler, kicking his feet in annoyance. He'd witness too many mothers eyeing his husband like a piece of meat in his very presence and he was tired of pretending it didn't bother him.

He was better placed than anyone else to know just how alluring and sexy Liam was without trying, add a kid to the mix and he looked like a god given gift. That didn't mean that those women got to undress him with their eyes, making Zayn boil with anger, which had lead to Liam kicking him out, telling him to go clean.

So here he was now on cleaning duty, Taylor almost passed out in the playroom next to him as he petted his new life size gorilla plush. It was a humongous thing he'd begged to have for months, and of course Zayn had given in, bought his little boy everything he wanted because he was a push over. He wanted his little monkey to smile brighter than the sun, never wanted a sad expression on his face.

The only thing Taylor had asked for his birthday and didn't get was an art set, the real ones for artists and not for kids. For some reason, Zayn couldn't bring himself to buy it, staring at it endlessly in the shop but unable to bring it home. It felt so concrete, a statement that his baby wasn't a baby anymore, that Taylor was growing up, he was three now, and Zayn couldn't accept that.

He wanted to live in his fictional world a little longer, where his little boy would stay little forever, that he could cradle him in his arms and rock him to sleep every night for the rest of his life. Thinking that soon, that very thing wouldn't be a possibility had Zayn's heart aching.

Stepping down from the ladder, Zayn dropped the dirty cloth in the bucket of warm soapy water, looking around at mess of dirty plates and bright colored decorations. In the corner he could see Taylor now cuddled into the giant arms of the gorilla, faced pressed to the soft fur of its chest, clinging desperately to its neck like he did when he was sick, holding on to Liam for dear life.

With a gentle smile etched upon his face, Zayn walked towards his boy, carefully untangling him from around the plush before carrying him off to bed, trying to avoid all the torn up wrapping paper. He settled Taylor down, tucking his blanket tightly around him even if it was only the middle of the afternoon. It was obvious he wasn't the only one that was exhausted, playing and screaming all day had to be exhausting.

Running his fingers along the boy's soft nose, Zayn leaned down, pressing a delicate kiss to his forehead. "Sleep tight my little monkey," he whispered, watching with captivated eyes as Taylor cuddled into his buzz lightening action figure.