ZIAM ONE-SHOTS (BOTTOM LIAM)

five times Zayn wants to kiss Liam

Author: transgenicveins

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/615319

Summary:

(and one time he does)

'This will definitely pass', Zayn repeats to himself, like a mantra. Except it doesn't.

i.

The first time Zayn is assaulted with the overwhelming urge to kiss Liam, it's approximately three seconds after the host of the X-Factor has announced that Rebecca is the second person through to the final. Liam is a whole three bodies away, but Zayn can still feel the boy's heart swell up with nerves and deflate so suddenly it's almost audible and no, this wasn't how it's supposed to be, Liam didn't spend the past several weeks chastising the others and working his voice raw to come third.

Zayn lifts his head slowly- always so cool and mysterious, Louis would tease- and Simon moves away and Liam's right there, honey hair dishevelled from the nerves backstage and big eyes threatening tears but not allowing them, because that would be so very rude. For a moment, Zayn wishes that Liam would drop the pleasantries and be upset, and let the four others be upset, because Liam walks and they follow. He is so caught up in watching Liam compose himself that he neglects to notice Niall shaking beside him or his own throat constricting.

Liam looks at him then- at Zayn- and it hits him how this moment, on a stage in front of millions, might be the very last time it will be the five of them. He wouldn't wake up to Niall's snores or Louis and Harry's (not so sneaky) late night cuddles or Liam's stern 'coffee-breakfast-rehearsals-then-you-can-sleep'.

It hits him, then. He's so overwhelmed with the need to grab Liam by his stupidly adorable scarf and kiss the frown off his lips that he temporarily forgets his manners, that he barely registers the montage, that he can't help winking like some seizing teenager as he assures Britain that 'we'll definitely stay together', while on the inside he's assuring himself that 'this will definitely pass'.

ii.

The second time Zayn wants to kiss Liam isn't until much, much later- so much later that he's successfully convinced himself that the first time was a 'combination of nerves and sadness and bad Nandos'. Or so he repeats to himself like a mantra.

No, the second time isn't like the first. The second time is after their first show of the Up All Night tour when they're in the car on the way back to the hotel. Harry and Louis are cuddling and Niall's chatting to the bodyguards and Zayn and Liam are in the back. Liam's texting something furious and maybe it's the way the soft blue light plays on his cheeks, or the post-show adrenalin rush settling in, or just the fact that he's so fucking horny it hurts, but something convinces Zayn to shuffle just that little bit closer.

Liam throws him a smile and turns back to his phone. His heart isn't thumping as painfully as Zayn's- of course it isn't, they're so affectionate all the time, a post-show cuddle is no different-

Except they aren't cuddling. Zayn's waiting (for what- for Liam to take care of him? Fuck) and Liam's texting Danielle, and for some reason (the blue light, adrenalin, 'no-sex-on-tour'), something hot and jealous curls in his stomach.

Maybe he could fix his hair until Liam demands him to stop.

Maybe he could sing along to the radio in his ear.

Maybe he could close the thirty centimetre wide gap between their lips and kiss him into focus-

Zayn considers jumping out of the car and into the oncoming traffic because no, he doesn't want that, he just wants Liam's attention. Undivided, of course. But just that. Not his lips or his tongue or his perfect straight teeth-