In The Nick Of Time

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 14

Summary:

"God knows how many nights a person stays up because they've got everything running through their head."

The house had been quiet for hours already, and Liam couldn't sleep. The fire was nothing but a little patch of orange in the fireplace now, and he sat on the couch with his hands behind his head staring at the ceiling. He had too much to think of. Tomorrow morning all of them would be out, trying to get the road back to shape and get the car out of the mud. A day closer to leaving the quiet sanctuary, and a day more that he wouldn't be able to know Zayn. He wanted to know him, more than anything in the world.

Wanted to know what his tattoos meant, what part of his life story did they become so important to tell. What his hands have held and what his shoulders have carried, he wanted to know what poisons he took to hurt himself, and wanted to know how far he walked just to keep himself above water. Liam wanted to know how many times he's drowned in reality, or was fogged in the smoke and mirrors. All of these thoughts clogging his head - and yet he didn't mind staying up and thinking of this mysterious character.

The way he speaks, his deep, raspy voice so charming. His eyes so bright and yet so dull, both exciting and scary at the same times. The way he stood on his feet, tall even if he was shorter than Liam. His entire being was a skyscraper that Liam could never look up to - and maybe that's why Liam seemed to interested in him. That Zayn had this unknowing strength, and Liam craved for even a glimpse of it. Wanted to be held in it, suffocated, hugged, over all consumed by this overwhelming power that Zayn held - he would even go as far as to say that he wanted to get under Zayn's skin just to read him and know his thoughts.

Footsteps passed the living room door way, a shadow walking by. Liam sat up slowly, listening to it. He took to his feet when the kitchen light turned on, and there was shuffling through the cabinets. He stood in the dark as he listened, and didn't dare look around the corner. The woken stranger turned off the kitchen light and instead of going back up the stairs, went the opposite way and opened the front door silently. Liam stepped out into the hall when the door closed and the shadow was gone from the door way, peeking along the way he stared out of the dark porch window.

A blanket was draped over his shoulders, sitting in a pile behind him as he stared out into the windows. A flame tickling his hands when he cupped them in front of his mouth, and the box of matches returned to his side. There was no light but the little fire flies dancing around, beaming in then out, and the moon and stars just above the house. It was almost a serene, comforting look. Painting into his head, Liam could see it. The silent house sitting in the woods with a man sitting out on his porch, huddled into a blanket as he watched the lightning bugs flutter around him and the stars twinkled and danced in his wake.

Zayn was evermore beautiful.

After minutes of watching the being silently, Liam glanced behind him and leaned to see the clock in the kitchen reading a dark "2:29". Looking back through the door window, he inhaled before he took his time to open the door and step one foot onto the porch. "Hey." He said lightly.

Zayn turned.

Liam stared to the quiet, blank expression of Zayn's. His bare shoulder nipping into the night, a white comparison to the dark woods around him. Almost seemingly glowing with the lightning bugs flickering around him. His gruff look fought against the calmness in his eyes, and his lips latched around the blunt stuck between his lips. His eyelashes waved down as he blinked to Liam, then turning to the woods the blanket on his shoulder only fell more as he shuffled around. It dipped around his shoulder and rest in his lap only to cling to his other shoulder and cover half his chest. Liam shoved aside any sexual thought at the moment to wanting to bite the bone on his collar bone, or kiss his exposed shoulder.