Zalfie Oneshots

Just Hold Me

This one shot is based on the adorable 'for giving me cuddles' thank you message to Alfie in Girl Online.

Zoe's hands hit the keys of her laptop at a furious pace. She'd been going for so long her wrists were cramping and her back ached horrendously, but she'd been given a deadline and she was determined to meet it. The last time she'd looked at a clock it was around 4pm, and she remembered seeing the clock hit noon when she took her only break from typing to find some slippers and realised she'd been working for over 3 hours non-stop. She'd beat that record now.

Zoe hated displeasing people. She always wanted to get things done as best as she could as quickly as it could be done when other people were depending on her. So when she was asked to submit another 8 chapters of her debut novel within the next two weeks 3 days ago, it would be safe to say she'd done nothing but work on it since. She was 4 chapters down already, but she seemed to have hit a brick wall where every idea she had wasn't the exact path she wanted to lead her storyline down, so the backspace button was hit viciously multiple times and she started trying another idea. Six 'wrong' ideas in, Zoe growled under her breath and pushed the laptop away from her, sighing heavily and sprawling herself back onto the sofa.

• • •

Alfie had been in meetings practically all day. He had some pretty exciting new projects coming up in the next few months and he was more than looking forward to letting his viewers know about them. He couldn't wait to see their reactions on Twitter and the pictures of them with his products and merch start appearing on his feed.

After his last 2 hour meeting drew to a close, Alfie made his way back into town to jump in a taxi to go home. He thought about calling Zoe, but in the end decided on grabbing a greasy cheese and tomato pizza from her favourite pizza van and surprising her when he got home.

"Thanks mate" Alfie smiled, passing the taxi driver his money and closing the door. He balanced the pizza box in one hand and pulled his keys out of his pocket, letting himself in. The house was pretty dark downstairs, making Alfie think maybe Zoe was up in her office, but when he looked up the staircase all of the upstairs lights were off too.

"'ello?" Alfie called out into the house expecting the pitter-patter of Zoe's feet to come racing towards him or the screech of his name be called from wherever she was in the house.

Nothing.

Alfie chucked his keys on the unit by the door and walked into the main downstairs area of their house. It was only then that Alfie noticed the dim light coming from the big living room, as if the whole room was lit by a candle.

"Little One?" Alfie spoke again and began walking towards the room.

What Alfie saw in front of him when he arrived at the opening of the room literally brought a pain to his chest. Zoe's laptop sat crooked at one end of the sofa with a black screen. There was a single 3-wick candle flickering a limited amount of light over the dark room. And at the other end of the sofa Zoe lay curled up in her pyjamas and bunny slippers, her body shaking every now and then in an obvious sob.

Alfie instantly walked towards her, setting the pizza on the coffee table and bending down to bring his face level with Zoe's. His heart was pounding. He didn't know what to do. He'd seen Zoe in many different moods, going through many different emotions, facing many different struggles, but this time he didn't know what was wrong, and he wanted to make it better, he wanted her to stop hurting so badly, but he didn't know how.

"Baby? Zoe? It's me. I'm home Little One. I'm here." Alfie gently moved the hair coving Zoe's face away and stroked her cheek. Zoe's chin lifted at the sound of his voice and she looked up at his face.

"Alfie" she simply said, her voice cracking, but the ends of her mouth turning up a little bit with the intent on becoming a smile.

Alfie didn't hesitate. He slotted himself in between the corner of the sofa and Zoe's body, pulling her against him into an embrace that made her feel safe and protected and loved and happy. She felt happy.

Zoe's breathing began to return back to normal after a few minutes, and Alfie took that as his chance to look down at her and caress her cheek.

"What's going on Gorgeous?" Alfie asked. His voice was no louder than a whisper. So gentle that Zoe had to put her hand to his and allow a soft smile to appear on her lips.

"It's just so hard Alf." Zoe sighed. "I want this book to be perfect and I have so many ideas, but none of them are good enough. I only have 11 more days to get four more chapters done and I don't even know where my story is going, and I can't seem to-"

"Zoe please just calm down" Alfie place his other hand on her shoulder and encouraged her to take a deep breath. "I know this has got to be stressful, especially because you want this to be so perfect, but please stop being so hard on yourself. You're an amazing writer. You're a natural. None of your ideas are bad, there's just a better one to fit where you want your book to go and you've got to be patient until it comes to you. You're more than capable of doing this, Zo. Stop beating yourself up about it."

"Alfie" Zoe really did allow herself to smile this time, and she brought his hand to her lips to kiss it affectionately. Zoe snuggled her body as close to Alfie's as she possibly could.

"How long were you lying here crying?" Alfie asked softly. He held her tight and kissed the top of her head.

"What time is it?" Zoe asked in return.

"About 6."

"About 2 hours then."

Alfie let out a deep breath and kissed Zoe's head again a couple of times, stroking her back at the same time.

"How can I make this better for you?" He asked. Zoe's heart swelled with adoration. He was so desperate to make sure she wasn't hurting.

Zoe looked up into Alfie's eyes and gently pecked his lips. She shook her head slightly. "Just hold me" se whispered.

And so he did. They sat there as close to one another as they could possibly get. Their legs intertwined, their hands clasped together, their arms pulling them closer, and their chests pushed together. He held her to chase away all of the bad. He held her to make her forget her worries. He held her to show her his love.

Hours past, and yet they stayed there, awake and alert, but in their own little world. Well, in their own little world until a grumble from Zoe's stomach bubbled up and ruined the enchanting moment.

They both laughed. "Do you want some food?" Alfie asked. "I brought us a pizza from that can you love, we can warm it up in the oven?"

Zoe grinned. "Cheese and tomato?"

"Yep." Alfie smiled back.

And so the pizza went into the oven, and the bodies didn't part, waiting by the oven in an embrace, moving back to the sofa in an embrace, and eating in an embrace. They didn't part. They didn't dare. Sure they both had things going on, things to worry about, things to fix and write and make and submit, but right now none of that mattered. All that mattered was them. Zoe and Alfie. Alfie and Zoe. Everything else could wait.

A/N:

Thank you guys so much for nearly 2.8k reads! I can't believe how well these are doing!

Hopefully I'll get a few more of these out with in the next couple of weeks.

Thank you all again so so so much,
K x