Petite | Zarry

Chapter 16.

When Harry arrived back home he made his way to the kitchen he searched for some painkillers and took a glass of water. He downed it both in one go. The tall man felt a slight headache in his forehead, he assumed it to be because of all his thinking about Zayn and the weird encounter with Ms. Swift at his office today. Secretly he hoped that the pills would help him forget about Ms. Swift. He was sure that he'll never get the image of her in that "sexy" outfit out of his head. He grimaced at that.

Harry didn't notice that Zayn was in the living room, sitting on the couch and staring at him. Zayn couldn't help it, Harry just looked so handsome, the black suit he wore fitted his broad back and his strong arms perfectly. Zayn had almost saliva dripping out his mouth, that man was just hot.

When Harry moved out of his view Zayn leaned on the backrest of the couch to catch another glimpse of the tall man. A risky position by the way... Suddenly, his hand slipped and he fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Harry turned around and saw Zayn laying on the ground. He quickly made his way towards the raven-haired boy. "What happened? Are you hurt?!" he asked worriedly and helped him sit up.

Zayn's head hurt really bad and he whined. "My head... Ouchie" he was so embarrassed and felt his eyes watering. The sharp pain in his head wasn't helping. He sniffled and looked to the ground. He felt the tears threatening to fall.

"How bad is it?" Harry asked but got no answer. Zayn was too concentrated on not to cry that he didn't realize that Harry was talking to him. "Zayn?" he asked again but still there was no response. Harry got even more worried, he once heard that if someone falls on their head and they don't answer your questions there might be serious damage done.

Harry put his and on Zayn's chin and made him look up into his eyes. "Zayn?" he asked one more time. Zayn gulped, he felt a lump in his throat. "y-yes?" his voice sounded weak and wobbly.

The fact that Zayn did answer him made Harry's fear of him being seriously hurt a little less significant. But when he saw the tears in Zayn's big brown Bambi eyes. He got concerned again. "Why are you crying? Does it hurt that bad?"

The small boy shook his head. "N-no...Well yes, it h-hurts but... I...I don't know" while Zayn spoke the tears he held back the whole time began to stream down his rosy cheeks.

Harry took the small boy in his arms and held him close. "Shush it's okay...it's okay...." he said and rocked the still crying Zayn in his arms. The images of the last time when Zayn cried that heavily came to his mind and the curly-haired man shuddered. He really didn't want Zayn to have a panic attack like that again.

Harry could feel that Zayn wasn't crying that hard because he was hurt. Well not hurt in a physical way. If only he knew what burden Zayn had to carry. "It would be so much easier to calm him..." he thought. After a little while, Zayn stopped trembling and his breathing came back to a normal pace.

The comfortable warmth and the intense masculine scent that radiated from Harry helped a lot to calm Zayn. He felt so comfortable in his strong arms, it made him feel as if nobody could ever hurt him and all his fears just vanished.

"Zayn?" Harry asked softly and stroked his hair. "Do you want to tell me what's wrong? It might help..."

Zayn hesitated. "I..." he closed his eyes. He thought he would never be comfortable enough around someone to actually tell them what had happened that stormy night in September all these years ago. But he felt good now, around the man with that amazing dimpled smile. Zayn was glad that he could share this whole thing with someone.

Zayn inhaled shakily. "When I was six years old my mum and my dad had a bad fight so my mum stayed with one of her best friends. I stood at home with my father."  he sniffled and pressed himself closer to Harry. "I remember her saying that she wanted to take me with her but I wanted to stay with dad... I don't even know what they were fighting about, mum never told me... Then the day after mum went to her friend, dad told me that he had to do something. It was pretty late and he wouldn't let me come with him. I was so mad but I kind of knew that I had to do what he told me. So I stayed home and waited for him to come back. I...I mean he promised me that he would come back." Zayn started crying again. "He said that it wouldn't take that long and that he would be back soon." Zayn felt Harry caress his back softly and relaxed a little. "I remember falling asleep on the carpet that night. Usually, when that happened I woke up in my bed in the morning but this time I was still laying on the ground. I looked for him, for dad, but he was nowhere to be found so I sat on the couch and waited for him to come back. I waited for three days until my grandma came." he exhaled shakily.

"What happened to your father? Why didn't he come back?" Harry asked after a while of listening to Zayn's shaky breaths. "Mum told me that they found him dead in the streets back then. He was shot in the back...slowly bleeding out." Zayn said, his voice about to break any second.

Harry was shocked, he knew that something bad must have happened in Zayn's past but he never expected something like that. The fact that he couldn't remember that anything like that had ever been in the news made him wonder.

"Since all of that happened I can't stay alone at home and hate it when people leave me... I'm scared that they will never come back...just like my father." the small boy breathed heavily and sniffled to keep the new tears from falling.

Harry held him tight in his arms and stroked his head softly. "I'm so sorry that you had to experience something like that... But I'm here now and I won't ever leave you okay? That's a promise. I won't go away. Never. I swear."

Harry felt Zayn snuggle up at him a little closer. "okay..." it was only a small whisper but loud enough for him to hear.

Zayn was so tired even though he just got up. His head hurt and his eyes were burning. The fact that he still had a slightly increased temperature didn't help him feel better.

"H-harry? I'm tired..." he said in a small voice. Harry smiled. "Then sleep, I'll take you to bed."
Zayn nodded weakly. The next thing he felt was the soft pillow against his head and Harry's warm body pressed against his own. 'He's keeping his promise...' he thought with a soft smile just before falling asleep.

So... I hope you like the chapter. I don't quite know how to feel about it I think it's a little bit boring but yeah I updated so that's all that matters right?

By the way, thank you so much to all of you who read my book and wait for the updates even if it takes a month or so. It's just... Sometimes I'm just so unmotivated or I don't know what to write. But most of the time I'm just too busy with school and stuff.

Lots of love ♥️