He woke up to a familiar scent that never ceased to exhilarate him. Liam was sitting beside him, leaning against the bed frame with his legs lying outstretched with a newspaper on his lap. He wasn’t reading it though, he had his hands linked behind his head and was staring into space, his teeth bothering his bottom lip. Zayn knew he was deep in thought. So instead of disturbing him, he just lay there and kept staring. He recalled sleeping with Harry last night, but this was a time when he had stopped being surprised at how he ended up in Liam’s room.
Liam must have felt the stare or something because suddenly he glanced at Zayn, and smiled, “Afternoon, sunshine.”
“What time is it?” Zayn asked, he had thought it was morning because.
“Four. Didn’t wake you up because it looked like you needed rest.”
“Don’t we have any-“
“No, we have two interviews tomorrow though. One after the other.”
“Oh.”
Liam raked his eyes over Zayn’s face; Zayn kept looking back at him. He felt at peace after a very long time.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Liam began, “when I came back last night. But I didn’t.”
“And?” Zayn asked, tired.
“You were with Harry, and you- like you were sleeping with him and you were kind of- you know. When I came for you, I had to do a lot of work disentangling you from him. I mean, you could- you should have stayed here, you know,” Liam’s cheeks were tainted red as he stammered out his little complaint.
“What are you trying to say? Can you be a little more specific?” Zayn asked, raising his eyebrows.
“I am sorry I don’t want to make you feel bad, Zee,” Liam said, reaching out to caress Zayn’s forehead, “But. Okay let’s forget I said anything.”
“No,” Zayn sat up, “Talk to me.” Liam barely ever said anything, barely ever complained about anything. He accepted everything Zayn said or did, accepted everything everyone did or said. Too polite and god damn good to protest and hurt someone. Now that he was finally going to blurt out something, Zayn was going to make sure he did.
“I don’t like you being so close to Harry,” Liam said, flushing a deep shade of red, looking everywhere but at Zayn.
This wasn’t a side of Liam that Zayn had ever seen before; it intrigued and thrilled him at the same moment. Liam’s lips were pursed, lines on his forehead frustrated and furious. It showed how this was something Liam had wanted to say for a long time. And finally he had, he had found his breaking point.
“I don’t mean to offend you, and Harry is obviously one of those people who are very dear to me but you are mine and I have every right to tell you that you are not supposed to be that physically close to anybody. Especially Harry,” Liam said in one breath, taking Zayn’s away in the process.
Zayn, at a loss of words, just stayed quiet and stared. Which Liam took as a bad sign.
“See, now you hate me. Look I will stop, its okay.”
“Bloody hell Liam, please go on. Tell me how much you hate it, damn it! What else do you hate, what else do you not want me to do? Fuck, speak!”
Somewhere during his sudden outburst, Zayn clambered on to Liam. Liam could do nothing but watch him with wide, astonished eyes while he helped him settle on his lap, his hands secured around Zayn’s waist, and Zayn’s hands on his chest and neck.
“You- you are not angry at me?” Liam asked, surprised.
“Okay, I know I should be, since you left last night after the show without telling me and came late after twelve and carried me here from Harry’s room without my permission and are now lecturing me on listening to you when you are out all night with some chick but I am not angry at you, I am kind of falling in love with you right now. I am crazy, yeah.”
“Yeah, you kind of are. Because I didn’t go willingly, Paul just dragged me away. And I wanted to come back right away, you know how much I miss you when you are not with me, and yet you run off to Harry like he is the one who is allowed to do this to you,” Liam said, and before Zayn could ask what, Liam was flipping them over and Zayn was landing on the bed, flat on his back, while Liam’s heavy weight hovered above him, threatening to fall.
“Fuck,” Zayn said, his hands moving from Liam’s chest to the strong layer of muscle under the fabric that covered his biceps, “I didn’t know you had gotten that strong.”
“I wouldn’t have if I had given in to your pouts and missed my morning walks and gym,” Liam said, brushing Zayn’s messy hair out of his eyes, “So what was I telling you?”
“Stay away from Harry because you are the one who owns me,” Zayn said, now holding Liam’s face and breathing really fast.
“Yes and yes. I don’t want you sleeping next to him, because if I don’t find you here waiting for me, or you can sleep even but in my bed, if I find you lying beside him again, I swear to god I am going to fuck you right there and Harry is going to wake up and watch,” Liam said, growled more like, and Zayn just died because of the ferocity in those eyes. What had happened to his shy, innocent Liam overnight?
“You make it sound like I like it or something Liam,” Zayn said, after taking a moment to find his breath, “but what’s real is that I don’t. I feel so lonely without you and Harry is there with Crispy MnMs and we just talk and then we fall asleep. I would rather be with you, but I don’t like being alone, I don’t. It reminds me of where you are, and who you are with, and I don’t like that, do you understand?”
Liam looked at him for a moment, concerned, caressing his cheek with a hand and thinking, then he said, “I will call it off then.”
“What?”
“I will break up with her and I will tell the fans before telling anybody else, I will also make her tweet it, and that way management would have no choice but to go along,” Liam stated, “Because I don’t like being without you either, it makes me lose patience and it makes me want to punch people in the face.”
Zayn’s brain had already stopped working somewhere in between when Liam had let his full bodyweight fall on him, so he just responded by blinking his eyes once or twice, and licking his lips, waiting for words to come to him.
“I can’t take this anymore because you are the only one I want, nobody else but you, you forever,” Liam said, and Zayn thought about how Liam had just stolen his exact words.
“If you don’t fuck me in the next fifteen seconds, I swear I will ask somebody else, preferably Harry, to do it instead,” Zayn breathed, okay yes he still has words, not too innocent or appropriate ones but fuck Liam.
“You probably shouldn’t have said that,” Liam said, before sliding a hand under Zayn’s waistband, and bringing his lips down hard on his.
