The Colour of Love ⇸ zouis AU

Three

"Have fun on your date tonight!"

"Thanks! I'll tell you how it goes tomorrow!"

Perfectly. Louis guessed as he walked home and left Harry to head in the opposite direction of him. He watched his feet take step after step after step. He wore black and white sneakers, the only colours everyone knew about - well, the debate was still alive on whether they could actually be considered as colours. Oh - and grey. Various shades of good old, dull, dreary and dismal grey. The colour that a lot of people use to describe England quite often. He looked up and had a white ball in the sky smack him in the face, the sun. Everything must have been super bright, with the sky being a nice blue.

He opens and lets the door to his apartment building slam behind him. He's told it's green, the colour of grass and trees and Harry's eyes. Green.

After moping around for a while, when it comes time to prepare supper, Louis sees that he's neglected grocery shopping for quite some time now and all that he currently has in his pantry is a quarter packet of pasta and a pack of chicken breasts that he's pretty sure has surpassed its sell by date. He decides to forego supper and heads to bed on an empty stomach, deciding to head to the shop early tomorrow morning to get some shopping done.

And when tomorrow morning comes, it's such a mundane task to think about. As soon as he walks into the supermarket, he's greeted by dull, monotonous music that fits with his and, so many others' perspectives. He walks past the newspaper stand and pauses when he reads the headline that's screaming in big bold letters: 'Man, 52, commits suicide by drowning'. Louis quickly walks away. His palms are sweaty around the shopping trolley after reading that. There are too many cases of suicide that are reported monthly.

He shakes the headline from his consciousness and passes by a woman with beautiful long black braids that almost come down to her hips. Her eyes lock with Louis' and she gives him a smile - but that's all he gets. There are no sweaty palms or pop rocks feeling, and no colour. He walks over to the fruit and veg section where he sees a taller woman with an orange-rust coloured bob - hold on, Louis' heart almost stops - he's seeing colour, it's hazy, but he sees it all around her. He opens his mouth to speak but it's not his voice he hears.

"Samir!" It's an angry and frantic voice that Louis looks around for but can't find. It must be coming from the aisle next to him. It's when he looks around that he sees a small boy who's trying to grab a bunch of banana's from the stand. Louis takes his eyes off of the child to look back at his mystery girl - but the feeling is gone once his eyes land on her again.

"No," He breathes as the woman pays no attention to anything else besides her shopping list.

"Sam- There you are." The voice of the angry person is now much closer than before, but before Louis can get a look at just who it belongs to, a little cannonball falls into his calves, almost knocking him down. When he looks down he sees a child instead of what felt like a missile.

"Sorry." The little boy looks up to Louis with a smile and apologises.

He's suddenly hoisted up and off of Louis' shoes before he can even take another breath. "What are you doing wandering around by yourself? I told you to wait until I was done, do you want to get kidnapped?"

"Bananas." Samir holds up the fruit in his hand to show his father.

His dad sighs and hugs him tightly before propping him on his hip - and taking the bunch of bananas out of his hands to go and weigh them. "I'm so sorry." He apologises to Louis.

When Louis focuses on him instead of the little tornado in his arms, his breath catches. He's one of the most beautiful people he's ever seen. He's got perfectly smooth skin, that's painted with light stubble, perfectly short black hair that has not a strand out of place and he's dressed impeccably well - he looks like a teacher, or perhaps a lawyer, or accountant - whatever he does, he sure does look fancy. "It's no problem." Louis shrugs and tries to look casual.

"Did you apologise for bumping into him? I told you not to run in public."

"Yes, dad. Sorry." Samir twists around on his father's hip to apologise once more to Louis who laughs and assures that there are no grievous injuries.

"I'm Zayn." He laughs too and introduces himself to be. The name itself sounds like honey - or maybe it's just his voice, to Louis' ears.

"Louis." He nods and feels a tingling sensation crawl up his spine and tickle the back of his neck when Zayn smiles softly at him and says that it's nice to meet him.