ZIAM ONE-SHOTS (BOTTOM LIAM)

for my family, for my friends

Author: insomniacjams

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1772038

Summary:

The AU where the boys are in various American punk bands and Liam puts a benefit show together to help Zayn with the hospital bills after a bad car accident.

They aren't friends – barely acquaintances, even. Zayn was just always there, standing in the corners with his arms crossed in his worn leather jacket, smoking outside the venues with his boot up against the wall, or talking to his friends. Zayn was just always there, until he was not.

It happened on a Friday night, sometime after Liam's band had finished and he was looking for a clean t-shirt; the Little Things were on stage then, with Harry belting out lyrics so familiar that even in the green room Liam couldn't help but sing along under his breath.

But then the song stopped, and Harry said, "Taken, the last band to play tonight, isn't going to make it. They were involved in an accident on the way to the venue-" And Liam didn't hear anymore except feedback, and yelling – a lot of yelling, because Taken had been around a long time.

They had found themselves a lot of fans, but more than that, a lot of friends. Liam isn't their friend, but some days, he wonders if he could be.

Zayn doesn't drive. It's one of the useless facts that he picked up by association; Niall talks about him a lot, and when he talks about how Zayn is lying in a hospital bed in a coma, Liam clenches his fists together and finally asks, "How did it happen?"

"They were t-boned by a semi," Niall says with a laugh, but it's empty and hollow, and it isn't a joke. Liam didn't laugh. He knows two of them are dead; he went to a memorial that afternoon he shouldn't have gone to, because again, they aren't friends.

He knows the other two are in the hospital; he doesn't know the singer's name, but he'd been the one driving – and Zayn. Liam's known about Zayn since the day Niall and Josh showed up at his door and said, "You're coming to see Taken with us tonight."

And then a few months later when they said, "We're starting a straight edge hardcore band called Alive. You're going to be our singer." Liam doesn't know how to say no to Niall – doesn't get how anyone can; the boy is 110% smiles and good intentions.

Liam isn't the only one who notices that Zayn is always there. He doesn't ask for updates, but he gets them, because they talk about him now that he's absent. Liam's at another Little Things show, watching Harry prance around on stage when he overhears a girl say, "I heard Zayn woke up today, for a little bit, and that Louis went to see him." Liam smiles to himself.

The thing is, Zayn is everything that Liam wanted to be when Niall asked him to join the band. He's organized; he put on countless shows, shelling out hundreds of dollars from his shallow pockets in order to bring in bands from out of town and get them on the shitty stages in their Podunk hell hole.

He's an artist, and has created countless album covers and band logos for the local heroes. On top of that, he's brilliant – he's smart, taking a few classes a semester at the local university and working toward a degree in biochemistry. Liam wonders if Zayn still has to pay tuition when he's lying in a hospital bed.

The singer dies on the Wednesday following the accident. Liam doesn't go to that memorial, but Niall and Josh do. They meet afterward in Liam's garage, and Josh just bangs his drums until 11 o'clock at night and the neighbours start pounding on the door to tell them to shut up.

Niall doesn't say anything for the first while; he just plucks away at his guitar, eyes staring unseeingly forward, eerily quiet. When he does talk, he says, "Zayn's in a coma again," and the gears in Liam's brain start turning.