Barefoot │Ziall Horlik AU

Chapter 6 - Baby You And Me, Stublin' In The Street

             Zayn and Niall were instructed to stay in bed all day, so, naturally, Zayn spent all afternoon drawing Niall, his lips red and pouty, his body thin and short, his hair wild in the sheets like they had just had sex. Niall let Zayn move him about, adjusting his arms and messing his hair about.

             "Can I have them?" Niall asked in the middle of Zayn’s seconds drawing. He'd thrown a lot of way, but this one was turning out perfectly. "Have what?" Zayn questioned back as he gently sketched in the small hairs on Niall's armpits. "The pictures...can I have them? So I'll always remember?" He asked and moved his arm to trail it down his chest and stomach, hot from the houses fireplace, heating every room.

             "Why would you need to remember, when I'll always be right here?" He chuckled and grabbed Niall's hand, placing it back in its position, ruffling his hair that he hadn’t started on before running his hand down his face.

             "Pout your lip," He instructed but Niall gave him a strange look. He didn’t know what Zayn meant by that. The men from his childhood, the ones who would...use him, they told him not to pout. But Niall never understood.

             Zayn laughed deep in his chest and let his fingers slide over Niall's lower lip, pulling it from its place, tucked under the other. Its poked out gently, wet with saliva and bright pink from the cold Niall suffered through. Zayn bit on his own lip and ran his thumb across the lip, reddening it and Niall's cheeks seemed to heat up and his eyes gave a little flash of embarrassment. "Perfect," He nodded and moved back to his chair. Niall grumbled, Zayn was sure. Like a kitten or maybe a bear cub.

             Zayn looked him over and noticed something was off, that Niall had hid his feet. Zayn moved down the bed and pulled the blankets so they rested just at Niall mid-thigh, his toes wiggling for a second and Zayn ran his hand down the length of Niall's shin to them, tracing over them and nearly gasping. He should be doing this, shouldn’t be touching. "Zayn?"

             Zayn pulled back in a flash and looked up at Niall, his face still red hot. "Do you...like my feet? You’re always lookin' at them and you lick your lip." He noticed. Zayn forgot for a second that Niall was human, and not some statue.

             "You can touch them, I mean...if you want to. I don’t mind."

             Zayn gushed at the thought, his hands on those feet, they held so many stories, ran so many miles and they were Zayn’s for the taking.

             He never had a thing for feet...but Niall’s? The places they had been and the things they endured...It made him all hot inside. "Are you...I mean, you sure?" He gnawed on his lip and reached forward timidly, trailing a single finger over Niall's foot, just the top, over his big toe and down the bottom. His feet were soft, yet tough feet.

             A shiver traveled up Niall's spine and he let out a shy gasp. No one had touched him for so long, it was...liberating.

             Zayn’s fingers danced over his feet for minutes as his courage built and he climbed further onto the bed so Niall’s legs were between his own. He grabbed one of his feet in his hand and rubbed it, his thumbs massaging the arch of his foot then further to the ball of his foot and over his toes.