Work Text:
Liam stood in the doorway of the flat. Boxes stood in various states of packing on every flat surface. He could just see through to the small kitchen where Zayn stood at the table, looking exhausted as he looked between two sheets of stickers. Nora shuffled past with a third sheet, sticking orange stickers to everything that she could reach. Shaking his head, Liam crossed to the sofa and dropped the bubble wrap and packing tape he’d picked up onto the cushions.
Turning, he scooped Nora up into his arms and tickled her belly. She turned four in a couple of days, and Liam couldn’t believe how much she’d grown. Giggling, she stuck a sticker to the tip of his nose. “Oh, do I belong to Nora?” he asked, tickling her belly and enjoying the happiness that rolled off her.
“Apparently, everything belongs to Nora,” Zayn said, pointing to an orange sticker on his knee. He handed over the sheet of red stickers. “You can start deciding what you want to take.”
Liam nodded, lips tight as he took the page and moved towards the weight bench in the corner of the small living room and placed a red sticker. He stopped by the empty DVD cabinet, boxes full of them stacked in front of the piece of furniture. Red stickers went on the cabinet and the boxes.
He hated making these decisions and dividing up everything in the small flat he’d shared with Zayn since they’d finished school. He knew Zayn was doing the same with his sheet of yellow stickers, but it was all beginning to become overwhelming. Sitting down on the bed, he ran his hands over his face and let out a groan.
“Yeah,” Zayn said. Liam looked up and saw him leaning in the doorway of the room, arms crossed over his chest. “It’s a lot of work.”
“Too much,” he agreed, falling back onto the bed with a flop. “Why did we agree to do this again?”
The bed tilted and Liam turned his head to see Zayn sitting on the edge, legs pulled up to his chest. Zayn rested his chin on his knees and stared across the room. They both listened to Nora giggling and calling out, “Mine!” every couple of seconds in the central part of the flat.
“It was the best decision for all of us,” Zayn reminded him, sniffling.
“Adulting sucks,” Liam quipped, counting it as a win when Zayn’s lips quirked. “I never thought that I’d leave this town.”
“It’s a good job, and you found a great school for Nora,” Zayn assured him. “You couldn’t pass it up.”
“I guess,” he muttered, pushing himself up to sitting. “I just feel like we’re leaving so much behind.”
Zayn glanced down at the sheet of stickers in his hands. Only two yellow stickers were missing, while Liam’s red sheet was nearly empty. “Nothing important is getting left.”
Liam sighed. “I guess you’re right,” he said, reaching for the last red sticker and turning to stick it to Zayn’s nose before pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose to make it stick. “After all, you’re coming with me.”
“With us!” Nora called out, running into the room covered with red stickers, and Liam sighed, knowing all of his hard work had come undone.