fOoL fOr YoU (Zarry) *discontinued*

6.4

tw (check a/n at the end, if you want to, like, prepare yourself or decide whether you should read it or not)

zayn's sitting on his shins, between niall's spread legs. he's holding the younger boy's face and talking rapidly about something that niall stopped following almost an hour ago. it was about a painting, then about a tattoo he did a couple days ago, and now niall's not quite sure anymore. what he is sure of, however, is the weird look in zayn's eyes.

"and then—"

"and then, we ate dinner, cause niall was starving," niall interrupts. zayn's face falls for a second. niall's not quite sure why, but for that split second zayn looked like a completely different person. he doesn't mention it, though. let's zayn put on a smile, put up his façade, hide behind the curtain, whatever, really.

"right, dinner! i've got— i've got— oh, right." zayn sniggers, dropping his head onto niall's shoulder. "i've got nothing. we should order something."

zayn's been a bit off, but not in the way you'd expect him to be. he hasn't cried, or yelled, or cursed. he just... seemed exceptionally happy. but he isn't, niall knows that, because niall knows zayn. and he knows that a happy zayn is a sappy, calm zayn, not a hyper, laughing-about-nothing zayn. but he also knows that this is better than a completely shut down zayn.

"what should we order then?" niall asks. when zayn mumbles 'sushi', niall gets even more confused than before. zayn doesn't like sushi, he despises it really. the only time niall has actually seen zayn eat it, was with harry. he let's it slide though. "oi, are you sleeping?" he asks after a while of complete silence.

"no," zayn mumbles, "my legs are, though." despite his words, zayn doesn't bother moving. and— and this is it, niall thinks. after a week of pretending to fly, zayn's going to crash now. except it doesn't happen. after a few more moments of nothing, zayn plops back on his butt and smiles at niall. "did you order yet? i'm hungry."

"err, yeah, i did. they— um, they should—" niall doesn't finish his sentence. there's something so off about zayn, that he physically can't. the boy doesn't even look like himself and niall really just wants to yell. yell, 'say something. tell me how you feel. tell me how to make it better, cause you haven't looked like yourself in a week. and i can't— i can't stand it.'

"ni?" zayn says, poking niall's leg. "y'right, babes?" can i fix this? will you let me? niall sits up a little straighter, crossing his legs. he holds out his hand, zayn eyes it, but places his hand in niall's anyway.

"do you remember what i said last week? about trusting us?" niall asks. zayn slowly nods. "this is one of those moments i really need you to trust me and be honest, alright?"

"alright," zayn says, nodding curtly.

"are you happy?"

"what?" zayn asks, laughing slightly as if it's the most ridiculous thing he's heard. his laughter fades when he notices that niall's dead serious. "niall—"

"don't talk around it. please. just— just this once. we can forget it later, if you want. but for the sake of my sanity, and yours, i need you to trust me and be honest."

"well, no, then," zayn says after a moment. as bad as it sounds, niall breaths a little easier after that. he already knew that, but he can't help someone who won't admit there's a problem. you know it, too. so will you let me fix it?

"then why are you pretending to be?" niall bluntly asks. please be honest. i want to fix it. let me fix it. zayn stares at him ridiculously, then shakes his head and stands up.

"what do you want out of this? d'you want some sort of mental breakdown? is that what you're expecting?" he asks, looking down at niall with a frown.

"i want you to stop ignoring everything and to stop pretending. i know what happened with louis, and i've seen the bruises, and— and fucking hell, zayn, just tell me what happened. cause i can't— i can't look at you and pretend that everything's fine."