Hero

Chapter 24

"What is that?" Louis asks, his mouthful of donut dropping open. Zayn gives him a disgusted glare and points his finger at him.

"Close your mouth, you're not getting crumbs all through the van already."

"It's my van," Louis protests, but closes his mouth anyways, and watches as Zayn opens the folder filled with a written out outline, random sketches, and Map directions. Louis gets a little panicked when he sees just how organized Zayn is, because an organized Zayn is a serious Zayn, and Louis was planning to have at least a little fun on this trip. "Zayn, seriously," he says after he swallows his donut, "what is that?"

"It's an outline, Louis, as I'm assuming you've already guessed," Zayn says to him like Louis is eight and not twenty-two.

"That is not okay!" Louis shouts, "This is not okay! This is supposed to be-"

"This isn't a damn leaser time Louis! This is serious and you should start acting like it. I appreciate that you helped finish the super-suit and modify new arrows for Harry, but you're starting to piss me the fuck-"

"Zayn," Harry says gently from beside his boyfriend. He reaches his hand over and puts his hand over Zayn's in a way of telling him to calm down. "He's just trying to ease tension...he's your best friend, and he may be just a tiny bit right. We're all stressed and snippy with each other. It's inly gonna cause this whole situation to be even worse, if we don't have at least some type of chill."

Zayn huffed but slowly nodded. He mumbles an apology to Louis, who juts shrugs in response. Niall sighs in relief, cause he was honestly getting tiered of Louis and Zayn bickering like old grandmas. Liam was just glad cause at least now Zayn doesn't look like he's going to punch anyone.

"Great! Now let's listen to some music while driving down the interstate. How about we sing along to 'Summer of '69,' and 'Free Bird,' and 'Boys of Summer;' good driving music!" Harry says as he reaches over the seat and starts fiddling with the radio.

"Your taste in music is juts awful," Zayn says amused, as he goes back to skimming over all the plans.

Harry is offended on classic rock's behalf. "Shut up!" he hisses, "My taste in music is exactly perfect! It's great road trip music, even."

Zayn glances over at him. "This isn't a road trip, Harold."

Harry rolls his eyes cause, really, because he's pretty sure that's exactly what it is. They are driving to different cities or countries. Yeah they might be running away from angry men and women that want to most likely harm Harry, but that's beside the point. They're sleeping in cheap motels, they're eating greasy fast food, and they're spending at least five hours in the van a day. "It's not?" he asks sulking a bit.

"This is a mission," Zayn says solemnly, "to find the perfect school." And he turns the music to a a station where it's a mixture of R&B and a small amount of pop, tossing the folder with the outline into the seat next to him. "This mission is for us to stay alive, and we can't do that in a road trip," Zayn says, "no distractions."

Harry rolls his eyes again, and Zayn juts laughs cause it looks like Harry had managed to get himself dizzy juts by that action. They curly haired lad huffed, and reached over the seat to take the rest of the donuts he had packed, and hisses at Niall when he tries to grab one for himself.

+
"How's it going?" His dad asked over the phone.

Zayn glances down at the outline sitting on his lap, the highlighted and bold words. They're all in a motel somewhere in Paris, Harry's in the shower, and he sighs. "It's going," he says. They had to tell his parents a lie about the whole road trip thing. So to Liam, Louis, Niall, and Zayn's families. They are all out searching for colleges to attend.

"That bad, huh?"

"Louis' just being Lou," Zayn shrugs. There's soft laughter on the other end of the line for a moment.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. I just hope that you're not going to purposely pick somewhere close to home, are you?" his father's voice comes across the line slowly, thoughtfully. "Not... for me, and mom? And your friends and Harry?"

Zayn scoffs, tries to ignore the way his heart picks up speed at the implication, and grips the folder tighter. This is actually a though he hasn't even thought about before. He hadn't even considered picking or leaving, or anything. And now that the thoughts are in his head he's fearful of what will happen to his family while he's gone, he's fearful of what will happen to his friends without him there to rationalize their plans, and he's fearful of what will happen to him and Harry.

He's afraid, he thinks, and that's okay. He just can't let it influence his decision when t comes to that point in time.

"No," he finally says to his dad, "Harry wouldn't let me pick somewhere close to home just to be close even if I wanted," he confesses, and his dad laughs.

"Harry's a good kid," he says, and Zayn realizes just how fond of Harry his dad has grown in the last eleven and a half months.

"I'm going to choose right, dad," Zayn says, soft and determined. His dad chuckles and it sounds warm and loving over the phone line.

"I know you are, son. I know you are. Now hang up I need some rest, this old man can't stay up like he use to."

Zayn smiles fondly and the tears he didn't even know he had started to brink in his eyes. "Tell mom I love her and kiss her cooking already. Also tell Doniya that I miss her even though she's annoying, and tell Safaa that sea my little princess, and tell-"

"Zayn everything is fine. We all love you, and we'll see you when you get back." His dad says amused. "Love you kiddo."

Harry walks in with a towel wrapped around his waist, and is silent as he sees Zayn on the phone, and a tear roll down his cheek.

"Love you too baba.." Zayn says and then the call ends. Zayn wipes his cheek and puts his phone on the nightstand an looks down at the plan that's still in his lap. He feels the bed dip next to him, and he sniffs a bit trying to push everything away again.

"Zayn-"

"I'm fine."

Harry's didn't even need to have super abilities to tell that, that was a lie. He puts the folder with all the papers on the nightstand, and connects both of their phones to their chargers. Wrapping his arms around Zayn's waist, he pulls him close, and seconds later he can feel Zayn shaking.

"....I'm scared Harry...what if I don't get to see them again? What if you get hurt? Louis was right before. I'm juts a stupid weakness and something's going to go wrong. I...I don't want anything to go wrong. I want to be able to go home, I want to be able to go out in public again without fearing that someone was gonna point a gun at me. I want to actually look around for colleges, and I want us to be safe." Zayn rambles out against Harry's neck.

They sit in silence, and Zayn cries, while harry rubs his back soothingly. He presses soft kisses to Zayn's shoulders, and whispers how much he loves him in his ear. Soon Zayn falls asleep in Harry's lap, and Harry looks down at the tears-stains on Zayn's cheeks and he really never wants to see him like this ever again.

"We'll be fine," he mumbles as he kisses his boyfriend's forehead, "I promise.."