Never Knew [Zarry AU]

1. Present - Zayn

He scanned the place as he walked through the doors of Starbucks, searching for his mates. Smiling, he walked over to them when he finally spotted them sitting by the window.

"Hey", Zayn greeted them as he took the seat beside Louis who bro hugged him just like the old times. He still had that playful glint in his blue eyes but they held more maturity in them than ever.

"Hey man, how are you?", Niall said in his happy voice. Zayn noticed he no longer had the dyed blonde hair.

"Hey Nialler, I'm fine. How are you?", Zayn asked as he called the waitress to take their orders.

"I'm good man. Just busy in work and all. How's everything going with you?", Niall asked. Zayn knew how work was stressing him out, not only him but all of them. Niall has his own record company whereas Louis and Liam was working as C.E.O in their father's company.

"Same, work is tiring me out. Oh and I'm gonna start teaching in the University here from the next week.", Zayn said, smiling. The waitress came to take their orders and left.

"That's great man", Louis chirped.

"Yeah. Finally we all gonna be in the same town like old days. I'm so glad we all kept in touch.", Liam said for the first time to which everyone nodded and smiled. After the graduation they all left for different Universities but they had kept their promises to keep in touch.

"Yeah, we all except him.", Louis said in a small voice, fiddling with his fingers. And just like that all their cheery mood died down. They can't deny, they missed him.

"Yeah.", Niall said and Liam nodded in agreement. Silence fell over them.

Their silence broke when the waitress came with their orders. They all thanked them and started sipping on their ordered beverages.

"Um, so anyone knows where he is right now?", Zayn asked, trying to act casual when all he wanted was to scream. It was his fault, he knew.

"No man. No idea. He just...he just vanished.", Niall sighed. And again, the silence took over.

The silence broke as they heard the bell ringing, signalling, someone has entered the cafe. Zayn and Louis didn't bother to turn around and started sipping their sweet beverages. But they stopped sipping when they heard their two friends gasp in front of them, looking right behind them. Zayn and Louis turned around and both of their eyes went wide when they saw him.

After all these years. All these 7 years of finding him, he was finally in front of their eyes. One of their best mates, the dimpled  cupcake of their group, their partner in crime, their shoulder to cry on whenever they needed him, their brother.

He was in front of the counter, maybe ordering his food. There were so many questions all of them wanted to ask him but it seemed like, the words got stuck in their mouth. So they just kept looking at him. He seemed to have grown taller than before, his hair had grown past his shoulders. He still wore his skinny jeans but he looked more confident than ever. He looked handsome.

Zayn didn't know when his feet started carrying him towards him, towards his step-brother. But he couldn't stop himself. He needed to talk to him, he needed to apologize to him.

He needed him.

So before he could stop himself, the name left his mouth itself without a warning.

"Harry?"

The name sounded so familiar yet so foreign on his lips.

The figured in front of him stiffened for a while then turned around to look into his eyes.

Green met gold.

And Zayn's heart started doing those back flips, again.