Torment (One Direction Fan Fiction)

Chicken Kanishnish

Joey felt a pleasant vibration tickle her nose. Lazily her eyes fluttered open. She scanned the expanse of very warm, delicious aniseed scented skin. She inhaled deeply. How was it possible that warmth had a scent? Zayn smelt of warmth. He smelt like a fire, like golden sand and swaying palm trees, cracking pottery and beautiful people. Joey splayed her fingers out on his stomach, gasping when the raspy hair of his abdomen and groin area scratched her palm. Did she-

“G’morning.” Zayn yawned, tucking his chin into his chest to eye Joey. She blinked up at him stupidly and he grinned. “Don’t look confused.” He grabbed her hand, picking it up and dumping it onto his leg. He still had his pants on.

“You woke up feeling frisky is all.” He winked at her and she would have flushed if she was normal, but instead she took it as a challenge and trailed her hand up his leg slowly. His eyes widened. “And you’re still frisky.”

He closed his eyes when her fingers trailed the waist band of his boxers. She slipped her thumb underneath the band, smiling at him haughtily when his eyes shot open, pulling it up a considerable distance. She didn’t slip her hand in. He waited for her to, expecting it when suddenly-

SNAP. She let the waist band of his boxer shorts smack into his stomach. He yelped, pushing himself upright.

“Ouch.” He rubbed his hip and Joey laughed.

“’Tis what you get when your thoughts are quicker than mine.” She did a pretty good impression of an Irish accent and Zayn let his eyebrows rise.

“What time is it?” She yawned. Zayn rolled off of the bed and fumbled for his phone, glancing up every now and then. She had gotten up as well and was now standing over him expectantly. Zayn winked up at her and she grinned.

“Find it yet?”

“What?”

He’d forgotten what he’d been looking for. Joey rolled her eyes, pushing him aside gently. He stood up and Joey got onto her knees.

Her face was a bit better. He wasn't going to bring it up this morning; he’d decided he’d pretend she’d looked like that her whole life. Her jaw was a brilliant violet colour, her eye surrounded with blackish swelling. Her cheek, however, had been bandaged up after Lucky had fallen asleep.

Zayn folded his arms when she returned from her scavenging under his bed, holding up his iPhone.

“Why was it under my bed?” He frowned.

She smiled cheekily. “It wasn't, I had it the whole time.” He rolled his eyes at her and grabbed it from her hand.

“Well, it’s dead.” He plugged it into its charger and Joey yawned, scrubbing at her good eye with her knuckle.

“I feel dead.” She mumbled. Zayn smiled down at her on the floor as she spread out into a starfish, pulling on a white long sleeved shirt of his own. Last night she’d pulled on a green t-shirt that he was sure Niall would like. A bright gold four leaf clover emblazoned on the front glittered in the reflection of his eyes. He walked out of the room, leaving her to make baby dinosaur noises on the floor.

“I can’t cook!” he yelled. He heard a sound similar to that of a Rhino.

“I can’t cook either!” She whined padding into the lounge, sucking in and pushing out her stiff and aching stomach. Her ribs were throbbing, and a quick glance at both revealed an ugly yellow edged purple bruise on both her ribs and her stomach.

“Rubbish! You made that Chicken Kanishnish dish.”

“Kanishnish?”

“I don’t remember what it was-”

She wrapped her arms around him from behind and Zayn broke off, tensing. Joey immediately leapt back.

“Sorry…I…I don’t know, I thought that you’d like a hug, or something. I mean, I thought that’s what people did. I thought that maybe…”

He had turned around and was watching her as she babbled on, waving her arms around, her cheeks flushing slowly. She blew out a frustrated breath, running a hand through her short hair.

“Sorry.” She mumbled awkwardly. Zayn grinned at her, grabbing her arm and pulling her into a proper hug, resting his chin on top of her head, kissing it tenderly.

“Yeah, I like hugs.” He mumbled into her hair. She relaxed into him slowly, sighing.

“So, what’s for breakfast woman?” he demanded.

She pushed off of him, narrowing her eyes. “You won’t address me as ‘woman’. I have a name. Joey. Call me Joey. Not J, not woman, not girly, not kiddo, just Joey.” He stepped away from her, walking to the fridge.

“What about Joe?” He glanced at her over his shoulder and she rolled her eyes to the ceiling, losing an exasperated breath despite her stupid grin.

“Fiiiiiine.”

*

Joey rolled off of the couch, laughing so hard no sound escaped her mouth. She sat on the floor, shivering with laughter. Zayn was laughing as well, Lucky confused, ears back. Her two new owners were laughing at her baffled expression, her lips curled back, struggling to get her tongue undone from the roof of her mouth. Zayn had given her so much peanut butter; she was drooling it onto the floor, trying in vain to get it down her throat, but only effectively sticking her tongue in and out of her mouth.

“Zayn, Zayn, help her.” Joey gasped, clutching her stomach. Zayn leaned his head back, still laughing.

“Her face!” He rasped when he’d finally recovered. He got onto his knees in front of Lucky and parted her lips, using the spoon to scrape out the peanut butter. She bucked her head out of his hands, as he hushed her, holding her gently. When he’d finally succeeded, he dropped backward onto the couch. Joey lay on the floor still, staring at him. When he rolled his head on his shoulder to look at her properly her lips parted and she pushed herself upright, tucking invisible hair behind her ear.

“I need to find my phone.” That wasn't what she meant to say, but she didn’t correct herself and got to her feet, shifting the bean bag out of her way with her shins. She ran her fingers over the carpet before she came into contact with the corner of the weighty white iPhone.

She slipped it into the deep front pocket of her pyjama shorts, giving Zayn a coy smile over her shoulder before disappearing to her room. Once she’d closed her door, she flopped onto her bed and pulled her phone out. The amount of disuse meant that she had 56% battery left. She slid her finger across the screen and opened her mail, noticing three texts from Niall.

NomNomNiall:

JOEY. CALL ME.

(00:32AM)

NomNomNiall:

JOEY. SERIOUSLY. ARE YOU ALRIGHT.

(02:43AM)

NomNomNiall:

*le dead*

(04:12AM)

Joey bit her lip, immediately sending him a reply explaining that she was alright. She sat there on her bed for a while, and then she stood up and sat down again, losing a heavy sigh.

She didn’t know what to do now. She felt sore and stiff, and she knew she couldn’t do anything really. It was late in the afternoon. She needed to think, that’s what she needed to do. Her eyes dropped shut and soon she’d fallen asleep at the end of her bed. Her phone flickered dimly when she received her reply from Niall, but she was fast asleep by then.