Zephaniah // z.m

Forty seven

Swipe for the song for the end of this chapter.

Hannah

I was a little more quiet than usual. Because although there were much less people on Zephaniah's birthday than their family day, which was sad in my opinion, it was still a little busy.

Little cousins were loudly playing with their own brought toys, some of Zephaniah's toys or their imagination, a few of Zayn's aunts laughing and talking, Zayn's mum correcting the little kid's behavior at times. Overall, it was just pretty hectic.

Zephaniah sat on Zayn's lap, Shephy clutched to his chest as the kids had played with him before. He didn't want that, it upset him.

I had brought Cooper for him, but had left him in the backyard for a while. It wasn't cold, and I knew Cooper would only become extremely hyper himself when there were too many kids around him.

"Should we do the cake?" Trisha suggested to which Zayn nodded, clearing the table with the already empty cups and bowls with little snacks.

I took it from him, giving him a smile when he looked at me in confusion, and brought it over to the kitchen counter, looking up at Trisha. "Do you want the dessert plates on the table here or in the living room?"

She looked up in surprise, a smile forming on her face. "Oh, love. Don't worry about it. I'll do it."

"No, no. I want to help. What can I do?" I answered, glancing at Zayn to see him back on the yellow chair, Zephaniah still cuddled up against him. I smiled.

"Oh, well, if you really want to help, I'd like around 18 dessert plates on the table here, sweetheart." Trisha smiled warmly at me, handing some of the plates, a few plastic ones for the kids- but, Zephaniah got the other one, as he didn't like plastic.

"What can I do? Do they have drinks already?" Zayn said as he suddenly stood behind us, Zephaniah's hand holding tightly on Zayn's on. He was nervous, I could tell, and that saddened me. Kids were supposed to have fun on their birthdays, but somehow something in his little brain told him otherwise. Why did some kids have to go through that?

"You can lit the candle already, Zeph, you want to help baba and Ms. Hannah?" Trisha asked, to which he nodded.

Zephaniah carefully pressed the candle into the cake, staring at it for a while.

"Hey, thanks for coming. I'm happy- glad, you're here," Zayn smiled shyly, his cheeks tinting pink as we made eye contact. This guy was something else.

"Of course, I'd come." I smiled back and we weirdly stared at each other for a while, until Zephaniah caught Zayn's attention.

He was quiet for a while, his eyes focused on the kitchen counter, his expression suddenly sad. "What's wrong?" Zayn frowned sadly as he looked down at him.

"Baba? W-wwhat if I blow and the can-candles won't go out?" He said, now making clear that he was staring at the candle in his cake.

Zayn's face softened, his frown completely fading. "Then you'll blow again, until it goes out."

"So they w-wwon't laugh if it don't g-go out?" Zephaniah asked, his eyes wide as he looked at Zayn, then glanced at his- or actually Zayn's- little cousins, who were all around Zephaniah's age.

Zayn sighed sadly, softly stroking Zephaniah's cheek, "They won't, okay? Don't worry about it." Zephaniah nodded, but I felt sad.

He didn't always understand jokes, facial expressions, had his needs but he surely wasn't dumb. Not at all. He thought other things through, things we wouldn't think of. He was clever, but in this case it made me feel sad. Would he feel insecure about more little things like that?