Animals, Leather Jackets And A Mysterious Mystery (Zarry)

Chapter 20

*Harry's pov*

Months had flown by, we have celebrated Sinterklaas, because Lotte wanted us to. It's a Dutch tradition about an old guy, a saint, who gives children toys and chocolate when they were good for an entire year. It's in the beginning of December, so we all went gift shopping for that. It was a fun day and we decided to make a yearly tradition out of it.

We then celebrated Christmas, even did a secret Santa. Obviously we also had a lot of food and some of us might have gotten a bit tipsy which lead to singing Christmas carols from door to door.

After that came New Years, and because it was our first New Year together we rented a cabin and celebrated with Christmas Movies, popcorn and some children's Champaign, it's basically sparkly apple juice, but we didn't want to get drunk. All of us wanted to remember this day, so when the clock hit midnight, we kissed our lovers and snuggled up closer. A silent promise in the air to all take good care of each other as friends and boy/girlfriends.

After a while Easter passed us an not much later we celebrating Zayn's promotion. He was offered to go back to school for two days a week for about 6 months. If he passed the actual exam he would become an official care taker. It wasn't easy on him, because he had a lot of studying to do. He actually studied in six months what others did in two years. I was very proud of him and we went all out on Nando's and afterwards went clubbing.

In june we celebrated Lotte passing her year with flying colours. She still had one more year to go, but wasn't as afraid about it as this year. Together we could handle it, we proved this already. Because she did so well, we organized a picnic on the beach. After that we chased each other down, threw each other in the water and laughed as much as we could. It was a very beautiful day.

The summer holidays have now just passed and things are not as busy anymore in the zoo. Children go back to school, parents have to go to work. We are kind of relieved.
We still talk to all the animals and still have weekly film nights. Now we are watching Harry Potter and the next films will be other book adaptations, like Percy Jackson, Perks of Being A Wallflower, The Host, Les Miserables and many more.

We didn't really talk about everything that happened with the vortex and the huge monopoly game, even though it brought us all closer together. We found love, a better friendship and a different way of living out of this.  It's been a year since it happened and a year we are trying to forget. We are doing a pretty good job.

Speaking about love though. Since all of us got together around the same time we decided to celebrate it all together at the same place we where a year ago. DisneyLand. We rented the same cabins again and stayed for a week. Myself, Lou and Li decided to surprise our lovers with a big Disney triple date. The big theme's were obviously Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and The Princess and the Frog.

We were given permission to stay in the park after hours. We had dinner in the castle again, we had our dance around the lake in the woods around the park, we were even given a few boats to float on the water. Obviously when we were planning this we mailed with the board of this park and they loved the idea so much that they had given us another surprise. While we were sitting in the boats, floating close together, but still far enough to have our privacy, lanterns magically lit the air, and the background music from the movie that plays at that exact moment, started playing now.

Lou, Li and I knew that this was our time to tell how much the other one meant to us. How much we couldn't live without each other.

*Louis POV*

Niall was sitting in between my legs, his head on my shoulder, my arms around him. He was pointing to all those different lanterns, his eyes shimmering. I know he was most impressed by the food and the fact that I was wearing my frog beanie, but he was a hopeless romantic so this was just, I don't know, perfect.

It was time for me to say what I had prepared and I was actually nervous. Being weird, loud and insane is what I do, not soft, calm and loveable. Well here goes nothing.

"Ni, I wanted to say something to you, so just let me talk yeah.", he nodded and it was my cue to continue.
"From the moment I saw you Ni, I was sure of one thing. It hit me hard, but I knew I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with you. I never stopped loving you, but it took me a while to admit it to myself and to you. But a year ago I finally had the guts to ask you out an you said yes, and to be honest, I'm still waiting for the running and the screaming, because I don't understand what I did to have you love me back. I am intoxicated by your very presence, it's not even normal. You are the most important person to me now,  the most important person to me ever. Niall, you are my life now." I kissed his temple training my eyes on the floating lights. I was too nervous to watch his reaction. I just couldn't do it.

"Lou, I can feel what you’re feeling now ... and you are worth it." Niall said, he turned himself around, carefully to not rock the boat too hard. He sat himself down on his knees, took my head in his hands and leaned closer. When his lips where on mine he whispered : " I love you too". I pressed my lips against him, not letting go for as long as I could.

*Liam's POV*

I did just as I did a year ago. I sat myself in front of Lotte, both were sitting on the bottom of the boat, shielding ourselves a bit away from everything around us.
Her hair was flowing in the wind, one string constantly covering her eyes, so I tucked it behind her ear. I loved her eyes, I wanted to see them all the time. She leaned in the touch and my heart skipped a beat. It still did that, even after a year.

" I think....you still have no idea. The effect you can have." She looked at me with these big eyes, keeping quiet, somehow knowing I was going to give this big speech.

'When it comes to the right people in my life, when it comes to what I need in life  and when it comes to love I need the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. You give me that promise without even saying it, I just know. You are my dandelion.", she blushed, opening her mouth to say something, but I put my finger on her lips. Lotte stays quiet, giving me the chance to move on.

"If you would ever be sick of me, if you would ever leave me it would take ten times as long to put myself back together as it does for me to fall apart.” Lotte was biting her lip, fighting against the tears that wanted to escape her eyes. I'm sure she felt the pain I was describing if she would ever leave me.

"So I just need to ask this: You love me. Real or not real?"
She tells me, " Real". By now I had taken both her hand in mine. She wanted to move one hand, but I clench her hands to the point of pain. "Stay with me."
"Always," she smiles, one tear rolling over her cheek.
I kiss her tear away and move on to her lips. It was probably the sweetest kiss we ever shared.

* Harry's POV*

"Zayn, My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations, but I'm going to try. So, here I go." I put my head against Zayn, feeling his breath on my lips, our eyes connected, not wanting to look away.
"You are beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence, but you don't see this, you don't understand this. You are so busy being YOU that you have no idea how utterly unprecedented you are. You know, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

Zayn was still looking at me intently and I felt like crying, the realization of what a beautiful year this had been and knowing that it wasn't going to end just yet, that we still had our future together, made me weak in the knees. So I laid myself down on the bottom of the boat, opening my arms. Zayn understood the hint and put his head on my chest, his arms around me as I pulled him closer to me. The lanterns were giving the right amount of light, to make Zayn glow even more. He looked like an angel.

" I believe in true love, you know? I don't believe that everybody gets to keep their eyes or not get sick or whatever, but everybody should have true love, and it should last at least as long as your life does. The day I agreed that okay would be our always, was the happiest day in my life. You are giving me a forever within our numbered days, and for that I'm grateful. "

He looked up at me and smiled. The tears flowing freely out of his eyes, hitting my shirt.

“I want to protect you from all the bad and evil, and it hurts me that I know I cannot always protect you. The thing is you don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope you like yours.” I wiped away his tears, pulled him up a bit and kissed him softly, the glow of the lanterns reflecting in his eyes. The sight of him just made me swoon and right here, in this boat I thanked the stars for this amazing boy in my arms.

"I do Harry, I do." 


                                                           *The End*