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Liam Payne is relentless. Zayn would hate him for it, if he didn't love him so much.
Tripping over his boyfriend's shoes as he comes through the door to their tiny flat, Zayn steadies himself with a hand on the doorframe and comes away with a printout caught between his fingers. Flipping the page over in his grip, as he toes off his own shoes Zayn groans. Because of course.
The printout in his hand is a picture of a giant, fluffy, beast of a dog. The description underneath says his name is Tiny, and that he's great with kids and other animals. Zayn snorts because the name is as ironic as it is stupid.
Dropping his bag off his shoulder, Zayn carries the picture of Tiny with him as he searches out his boyfriend. On his way through their tiny flat, he encounters four more printouts of Tiny, tacked to the wall, and fights a smile at Liam's thoroughness.
Zayn finds Liam exactly where he knows he will, sitting at their shared desk. Where Zayn plans his preschool art class lessons, and Liam splits his time between finding them the perfect pet, and working on his latest article. Today he's staring longingly at the local shelter's website, the same page about Tiny open on his laptop screen.
"Liam seriously?" Zayn asks, arching an eyebrow and holding up the small stack of papers in his hand. "I don't think this particular dog will even fit through our door. And who names a monster like this Tiny?"
"But look how cute he is Zayn" Liam pouts, his eyebrows furrowing as he gestures at the dog on his screen. "And he's been at the shelter so long that he's gotta be getting sad now," Liam adds, scrolling down the page as he deepens his pout.
Zayn rubs at his temples and comes away with glitter he doesn't remember using on his fingers. "Li, we've talked about this. Our place just isn't big enough for a dog, especially not one that's bigger than Louis. Plus we're too busy for a dog right now, it wouldn't be fair to Tiny" he aims for gentle, but is sure he misses by a mile, because of how many times they've had this conversation.
"There are smaller dogs, look" Liam exclaims already navigating back to the homepage and scrolling through the dogs.
Zayn bites his lip hard to keep his frustrated groan from escaping, watching as Liam scrolls slowly through the other dogs available to adopt. "Liam, my love, look at me" Zayn murmurs gently. Liam spins in his chair to face Zayn, his chocolate brown eyes locking on Zayn's hopefully. "We can't get a dog right now, we can barely afford to take care of ourselves some weeks, it just wouldn't be fair".
Liam's face falls and Zayn feels like an asshole despite everything he's just said being the truth. He wishes it were different, that he could let Liam have all the pets he wants, if only to avoid the look on his boyfriend's face right now. But it's not different and depending on how many writing jobs Liam picks up, some months are a little tighter than others.
Liam's up out of his chair and moving the short distance to their small bedroom, "I understand Zee" Liam sniffles before the bedroom door closes with a deafening click.
**
“Liam? I brought pizza!” Zayn calls into the flat, once again tripping over his boyfriend’s shoes as he comes through the door. Louis laughs from where he’s following Zayn into the entranceway and steadies him with a grip on his elbow.
“Uh Zayn? What’s that?” Harry asks, pointing across the hall at something on the small table.
Shrugging, Zayn pulls out of Louis’ grip and passes him the pizzas before he steps closer to the unknown object. Sighing he picks up the cat carrier that he knows wasn’t here when he left for work that morning. “It’s a cat carrier H” he mumbles, dropping it back onto the table.
“Did you and Liam get a cat?” Niall asks, finally appearing in the doorway, a case of beer in his hands.
“Not that I know of” Zayn mutters, toeing off his shoes and heading further into his flat, calling out for Liam as he goes.
Liam’s sitting on the sofa, when Zayn finds him. Thankfully without a cat,. “Did I hear the guys?” he asks, making grabby hands at Zayn.
Zayn chuckles, allowing himself to be pulled down into a hug. "Yes. I brought pizza and the guys, so come on" he grins, standing and pulling Liam up with him.
Liam comes willingly, but then uses his overall bigger size to pull Zayn over to the desk where his laptop is open to the shelter’s web page, again. "We'll go eat in a minute Zee, but look! They just got a bunch of new kittens at the shelter" Liam grins, eyes practically glowing while he chews on his bottom lip.
Zayn sighs, adjusting his position so he's standing behind Liam, arms around his waist with his chin hooked over his boyfriend's shoulder. Zayn glances at the screen as Liam leans into him, to see a photo of half a dozen kittens in an, admittedly adorable, pile of fluff. Underneath the one photo there's individual pictures of each kitten, with their name and a brief description. Zayn scans the screen reading a few of the names and rolling his eyes at the absurdity of some of them. Liam's talking again, before Zayn can even form an argument against the kittens.
"Cats don't really want to be around people all the time anyways, so us being busy won't be a problem with a cat"
Zayn bites back a sigh, and turns his head to kiss Liam's neck, as he thinks of a way to let him down gently. “I know Liam, but now just isn’t the best time for a new pet, Babe. I’m sorry, but it’s just still not a great time to adopt a pet” he murmurs.
Liam pouts, but before he can launch into what Zayn has no doubt is a carefully rehearsed protest, Louis appears in the corner of the room and Zayn feels relief course through him at the sight of his best mate.
“Are you guys coming? Niall and Haz are gonna eat all the pizza” Louis says, glancing at the computer screen, before his eyes flit to Zayn who shakes his head.
“Yeah, we’ll be right there, Lou,” Liam says quietly, reaching out to close his laptop, before he pulls out of Zayn’s arms heading to the kitchen, Zayn and Louis following behind.
**
It’s been a couple months since Liam has brought up any kind of pet to Zayn and he’s suspicious. He glances at his boyfriend as they drive to an unknown location. Liam pulling Zayn out of bed early this morning, promising breakfast and coffee if he just gets in the car. And Zayn struggles to say no to Liam on a good day, never mind when his brain is foggy with sleep and the sun is barely up in the sky.
Zayn sips his coffee and glances out the window, before looking back at Liam, “where are we going?” he asks again.
Liam glances at Zayn quickly and then just shakes his head, “I’m not telling you until we get there Zee” he grins, and Zayn sighs settling back against his seat and drinking his coffee a fond smile playing on his lips.
Zayn just manages to hold back his groan when Liam pulls into the animal shelter car park a few minutes later. Instead he arches an eyebrow as he looks at his boyfriend who is just shutting off the car.
“I know Zee, I know what you’ve said about it not being the best time to adopt a pet and I promise we don’t have to. But I thought it would be fun to come and help out for a few hours,” Liam mumbles, playing with his fingers, an old nervous habit.
Zayn sighs, but nods his head “yeah, you’re right Li. C’mon let’s go see some puppies” he cheers, setting his now empty coffee cup into the cupholder and opening the door. “You coming?” he asks when Liam doesn’t immediately follow him.
“Y-yeah” Liam grins, before he scrambles out of the car, and grabs Zayn’s hand. “I signed us up to walk some of the dogs and play with some puppies” he offers as they make their way towards the front door.
“And you promise you’re not going to beg me to bring one home?” Zayn asks, holding the door open for Liam to step through.
Liam pouts, sighing deeply, “I promise Zee, but you know I just got that feature column for the paper, so money isn’t going to be as tight for us soon” he hints.
Zayn chuckles, leaning in to kiss Liam’s cheek, “I know, and I’m so proud of you Babe. but it still doesn’t change the fact that our flat is barely big enough for the pair of us” he grins, kissing Liam again.
Liam rolls his eyes, but nods his head “I know, Zee, now c’mon the dogs await” he grins, his eyes lighting up, as he turns to the person working the desk to sign them in.
Fifteen minutes later Tiny, the absurdly named and definitely too large of a dog, is dragging Zayn up the street. As Liam follows along with a much better behaved dog, Zayn's pretty sure her name is Princess, and she's about the size of the monster Zayn is walking’s head. If this is Liam's way of getting Zayn to agree to a dog it's most certainly not working.
"Isn't this fun, Zee?" Liam asks, jogging slightly to catch up to Zayn, where he's just managed to get Tiny to listen to him and stop pulling his arm out. "If we had our own dog we could go for walks like this everyday"
Zayn rolls his eyes, but nods his head "oh yeah, this is my idea of a great time Liam, being dragged for ten blocks, by a monster the size of my best mate" he teases.
Liam pouts, "do you want to trade? You can walk Princess" he murmurs, holding out the leash in his hands.
Zayn leans down to kiss Liam quickly in response before he's pulled away again, by Tiny pulling on the lead. He stumbles a few steps before he regains control, and shakes his head. "We should be getting these two back, I think" Zayn hums, already turning to let himself be dragged back towards the shelter.
Once they're back and Tiny and Princess are being taken back to their kennels, Liam and Zayn are led to a room marked by the word puppies. They're barely through the door when Zayn realizes there's no chance they leave today, without Liam at least attempting to get him to agree to a puppy.
There's five various breeds of puppies, tripping over each other and playing with random toys, strewn about. As soon as the puppies realize there’s someone in the room with them they charge towards the two men. One that looks to be a yellow lab to Zayn trips over its own feet and ends up sprawled out on top of Zayn’s shoes. Chuckling Zayn bends down and pats the puppy on the head, which causes it to surge up and try to lick Zayn’s chin.
“Easy there Pup” Zayn grins and eases the puppy down from where it’s still trying to climb up his chest and lick his chin. A deep laugh from his right makes Zayn turn to see his boyfriend currently under a literal dog pile, the other four puppies in the room are all laying on top of Liam where he’s dropped to the floor and been knocked over backwards. Zayn grins and settles so he’s now sitting on the floor, before he tosses one of the toys, a small stuffed dinosaur, across the room and the puppy that was licking him goes charging after it.
“That’s Tank, someone found him on their doorstep one morning and brought him here to us” the worker that had led them to the room says quietly from the door, as Tank grabs the toy dinosaur and shakes it around before coming back to Zayn. “Alright, I’ll leave you guys to it, have fun” she says before she leaves the room closing the door.
Zayn crouches down on the floor and pulls the dinosaur toy gently from Tank’s mouth before he tosses it again. Laughing as he watches the puppy run across the room, tripping over his own feet as he goes.
“See, puppies are fun Zayn” Liam pipes up from where he is now playing tug of war with a rope toy and large brown puppy.
Zayn grins, “never said they weren’t cute Li. but it doesn’t change the fact that we do not have the time or the space to properly care for a puppy” he hums, tossing the toy dinosaur again. “Besides I thought you weren’t going to ask me to bring home a puppy today?”
Liam huffs and Zayn can see him pouting from the corner of his eye, “I know, I know” Liam mutters, before he turns away from Zayn to engage the puppies surrounding him again.
Zayn sighs and crosses the room to pull Liam into a hug, his boyfriend grumbles but allows himself to be cuddled. “Li, c’mon. Don’t be like that, we’ve talked about this, one day when we are in a better position for it we will get a dog, hell we can get a couple dogs. Just not today, okay?” he hums, kissing Liam’s head.
Liam pouts, but nods his head, sighing. “Fine. But I get to pick the dog when it’s time” he grins, making Zayn laugh as he nods his head.
**
“Zayn? You like lizards right?” Liam calls, as he comes through the door and kicks off his shoes, which Zayn knows the other man will leave right in the middle of the entranceway.
“Why?” Zayn asks, turning away from where he’s looking for new art projects for his preschoolers to face his boyfriend. “I swear Liam, if you have a lizard in your pocket I’m filing for divorce” he threatens.
Liam laughs, his eyes crinkling as he throws his head back, “we’re not even married, yet” he grins.
“I’ll marry you, just so I can divorce you” Zayn mutters. “But seriously, why are you asking me about lizards?”
“Okay, so hear me out” Liam starts and Zayn fights the urge to roll his eyes. “One of the women who works at the paper with me, Addy, bought her daughter a lizard, because she wanted one, but it turns out the daughter is terrified of the thing” he explains.
Zayn bites his lip and tries to hold back a laugh, because it’s not funny, it shouldn’t be funny. Somewhere there is a child that is terrified of their own pet, but he can’t help himself. “Okay, and what do my feelings about lizards have to do with this situation?”
Liam pouts, “a lizard isn’t a dog, and they don’t really require a lot of attention or need a ton of space” he explains, Zayn arches an eyebrow, but Liam keeps talking before Zayn can. “Plus, Addy, will give us everything for the lizard at a super reduced rate, because she just wants everything out of her house” he finishes.
Zayn shakes his head “Liam, my Love. Do you even like lizards? Because I’ve never heard you mention one before” he asks. “Every time a pet comes up with you it’s always furry and approximately the size of Louis” Zayn adds with a laugh.
“I know but, Bruni needs a home and we could give him a good one, c’mon Zayn. I’m sure I could get used to a lizard” Liam whines.
“Wait, wait, wait” Zayn grins, “she named the lizard Bruni? As in Frozen 2 Bruni?” he asks.
“She’s five, Zayn” Liam huffs, crossing his arms over his chest, and pouting.
Zayn chuckles, “okay, okay. But Li ‘I could get used to a lizard’ doesn’t sound to me like you like them at all” he teases. Watching as Liam all but stomps his feet as he comes closer to Zayn, throwing himself into his lap. Zayn instinctively wraps his arms around Liam’s waist and holds him tightly, as he presses a kiss to the back of his boyfriend’s neck. “Where would we put Bruni?” Zayn asks, “because we have a severe lack of space Li. And yes lizards don’t need a ton of space, but they do need enough space for the tank to sit safely and I’m not sure we have the room right now” he finishes carefully.
Liam doesn’t say anything right away and Zayn once again feels like an asshole. He hates always being the voice of reason, or the buzzkill, but someone has to be. A pet of any kind is just a lot more than either of them have the time, space, or maturity for at this moment in their lives. Zayn would love to have a dog, and he meant it when he told Liam at the shelter they would get one someday, but their flat is too small, and their schedules are too hectic.
“So we can’t give Bruni a home?” Liam hums, he sounds defeated and Zayn feels like a dick.
“I can talk to my supervisor and see if we can take him at the preschool, if he really needs a home that badly. But Liam you know we just don’t have the room for a reptile tank right now” Zayn reasons. “And I’m pretty sure you’re afraid of them too,” he adds quietly.
“I know. You’re right Zee, yeah talk to your supervisor Bruni still needs a home, even if it’s not with us” Liam sighs, leaning back into Zayn.
“I’ll talk to her tomorrow, okay?” Zayn asks, when Liam nods, but makes no move to get out of his lap Zayn chuckles. “I love you, Li,” he grins, kissing the back of Liam’s neck again.
Liam jumps a little and laughs, I love you too” he grins, turning to kiss Zayn properly.
**
They’re watching TV curled up together on the sofa, a week after the lizard conversation. Bruni is loving all the attention from the kids at Zayn’s preschool, and the families take turns taking him home over the weekends so he’s not alone in the classroom. Zayn is exhausted and is curling himself up as small as possible in Liam’s arms. While Liam is just holding him tightly as they lay on the sofa, watching some cooking show.
“I’ve been thinking” Liam starts, and Zayn looks up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “I’ve been thinking we should get a hamster” he finishes, one hand carding through Zayn’s hair.
“A hamster?” Zayn asks, pushing himself to sit up a little. “What, are we eight?” he teases, sighing when Liam pouts. “Li, I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but I really don’t like hamsters, they freak me out” Zayn adds seriously.
Liam arches an eyebrow at the man, “hamsters? Hamsters freak you out. Okay, I’ll bite why?” he asks.
Zayn buries his face in Liam’s chest before he answers, “when I was a kid, my younger sisters had a hamster, and the thing would always break out of its cage and run rampant around the house, until my dad could catch it” he starts, his voice muffled by Liam’s hoodie. “And then one day we just couldn’t find it at all, for about three days. We all figured it was gone for good, until it showed up in my bed, while I was sleeping and bit my foot” he finishes, burying his face more into Liam’s chest.
Liam chuckles, Zayn can feel the vibrations of it in his cheek, “you got bit by a hamster when you were a kid and now you’re afraid of them?” he grins.
Zayn pouts, “yes, it didn’t just bite me, it scared the shit out of me and woke me up in the middle of the night and you know how I feel about sleep” he points out.
Liam laughs again, “okay, okay. You realize hamsters are about the size of a tennis ball, right?” he teases. When Zayn whines into his chest in response Liam wraps his arm around him, and squeezes. “Alright no hamsters. Got it” he hums, and Zayn feels him press his lips to the top of his head a moment later.
“Thank you” Zayn mumbles, before he turns his head to watch the show again, happily cuddled into his boyfriend.
**
Two Years Later
“I can’t believe we’ve lived in our own house for a week now. We finally have enough space to breathe and we can each have our own desk” Liam grins, as he comes into the room where Zayn is setting up his laptop.
“I know, we’ve both worked hard to get here, and it’s taken ages but we finally have a house, not a flat we barely fit in” Zayn grins. “I’m proud of you Li, getting that book deal is huge, and your first novel comes out next month, and you’re working on the next one already”
“What about you? You just opened up your own kids art studio, and you’ve already run out of room in the first set of classes” Liam hums.
Zayn shrugs, “that’s not as exciting as being a published author Liam, and you know it. Plus I never could have done it, if it wasn’t for you” he hums leaning in to kiss the other man.
“I never would have quit the paper to write my novel if you weren’t there supporting me every step of the way Zee” Liam shrugs, kissing Zayn again.
“Okay so we’re both doing great things now because we have each other, noted” Zayn chuckles, just as they hear the door opening downstairs and Louis calling out their names as he comes in. “Office Lou!” Zayn calls out to his best mate.
“Hey guys, Haz and I have that thing you asked me to bring over Zee” Louis grins, laughing at Liam’s confused face.
“Ah alright, we’ll come down” Zayn grins, grabbing for Liam’s hand and practically dragging him from the room to follow Louis downstairs, where Harry is waiting with a box in front of their sofa.
“What is this?” Liam asks looking from their friends to Zayn with a confused expression.
“What did we always say we would do, when things were going good and we had a house with a yard and enough space?” Zayn grins.
Liam furrows his eyebrows before his eyes widen, “you didn’t?” he gasps, moving quickly to drop to the floor in front of the box at Harry’s feet.
“You’ve only asked me every day since we bought the house if we could finally get a dog Liam, I’m not sure why you’re so shocked” Zayn grins, coming to sit beside Liam on the floor. “But I went to the shelter, and found this guy that was just begging to come live with us. Liam, meet Thor, our new dog”
Liam opens the top of the box as soon as Zayn finishes speaking, and out jumps the most adorable golden retriever puppy. He lunges for Liam’s face, licking him all over, before he turns and bounds at Zayn to repeat the process. Thor then turns and jumps up against Louis’ legs, wanting the attention of the man he’s spent the morning with since Zayn picked him up from the shelter, Louis crouches down to pat him on the head and ruffle his fur.
“Welcome home Thor” Liam cheers, as Thor turns from Louis and charges at Liam, knocking him backwards onto the floor. “Thanks Zee, he’s perfect,” Liam adds, turning to look at Zayn.
“You’re welcome, I never had anything against the dogs you wanted, but our flat was way too small to be fair to them. I’m glad you’re happy though Li” Zayn hums, reaching over and petting the puppy, as he pins Liam to the floor.
“Well it took a few years, but you finally got your pet Liam” Harry teases, from where he’s now got his arms around Louis’ waist.
“This was definitely worth the wait” Liam grins, cuddling the puppy in his lap happily.