The door is opened for Zayn who isn't helped into the car until after he bumps his head. Louis gasps and immediately helps him, pressing his hand on the top of Zayn's head and putting his hand on the boy's lower back. This time he eases into the car without hurting himself.
Louis closes the door, making sure not to catch any of Zayn's limbs, and then gets in on the other side of the car then starts it. By the time he's got on his own seatbelt, he turns to see Zayn struggling.
"Need help?" Louis asks. Zayn nods with a small pout as he pulls away from the seatbelt and lets his friend help him.
"Thanks. I haven't been in a car for a while so I'm not very used to this anymore," Zayn tries to explain.
Louis doesn't respond, he's never tried to pry into what happened to Zayn or into how he felt about the difficulties of being blind. It didn't occur to him that maybe the boy wanted to talk about it, especially to someone that wasn't either of his parents.
As they drive, Louis asks him questions about how he feels rather than what happened to him, he thinks it's less invasive seeing as how willing Zayn is to answer.
"Do you hate it when people help you?"
Zayn shakes his head, "Not always. It's nice when someone helps when they see I'm struggling but it can be annoying when I'm doing fine and someone tries to help." Zayn bites down on his lip, he wonders if it's appropriate to say what he wants to say but he does anyways. "I like it when you help me.."
Louis tightly grips the steering wheel before glancing over at Zayn who's already chewing the inside of his cheek as he twiddles his fingers. "I don't mind helping you, Zayn." The boy smiles as his cheeks become tainted with a faint pink.
"Do you live by yourself?" Zayn asks.
"Yeah, my parents moved away and left me with the house while I go off to University. It's a bit lonely."
"I could keep you company!" Zayn's smiling even bigger now.
"I'd really like that. Come over whenever you want, you know I like seeing you."
Louis' words are doing that thing to his stomach again, where it flutters like the wings of a butterfly. He almost thinks Louis could hear his stomach and see the burning blush on his cheeks, but Louis' quick to change the subject instead.
"If you could study anything in University, what would you study?" Louis asks curiously. He sees Zayn chew on the inside of his mouth again when he parks in front of the ice cream shop, quite badly actually. He's never done well with parallel parking, but he did good enough to pass.
He doesn't wait for Zayn to respond, he quickly unbuckles his seat and walks around to the other side to see Zayn's already trying to get out. He watches him, he succeeds in stepping out of the car and Louis almost cheers for him.
Zayn reaches out for Louis' hand with his free hand, he hears a soft chuckle and the warmth is engulfing his hand again. The door closes behind him and he hears the doors lock as they slowly walk into the ice cream shop, the bell at the top ringing as Louis opens the door for him. He grins when he hears his sneakers squeaking against the floor along with Louis', then giggles when he hears Louis gasp as if he wasn't the one that told Zayn about the squeaking.
"It catches me off guard every time.." Zayn laughs loudly this time, his eyes crinkling like they always do whenever he's around Louis.
"What d'you want now, Louis?" a deep voice asks. Zayn knows there's an eye roll even though he can't see it, it causes him to grin at the slight annoyance in this guy's voice.
"Don't be mean, hairy Harry. You wouldn't want to drive away such a loyal customer." Harry scoffs and Louis laughs.
Zayn lets go of Louis' hand and wraps his arms around Louis' arm protectively. He doesn't think he's ever heard Louis laugh loud at anything Zayn's ever said, he kind of feels jealous. "What do you want cutie?" Harry asks. Zayn doesn't realize he's talking to him until Louis clears his throat.
"Oh, me?"
That makes Harry laugh. His cheeks are heating up again but not in the way Louis makes them heat up, he's embarrassed and he hates it. "I'll j-just have whatever L-Louis has," he whispers loud enough for Harry to hear before pressing his face against Louis' arm. He hoped it'll hide the blush he knows is sitting on his cheeks.
Harry coos at the cute kid before grinning at Louis who's narrowing his eyes at the curly haired owner. Before he says anything, he turns and brings Zayn to a table to sit and says, "Stay here, I'll get our ice cream." Zayn nods as he placed his cane on the table as close to the wall as he could. He heard Louis' sneakers squeaking against the floor as he walked to order their ice cream.
The unpleasant feeling in his stomach is back when he hears Louis laugh, he wonders if they're laughing at him. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt nervously, he didn't think he'd be feeling like this with Louis but he was.
After a few more minutes, Louis sits down across from Zayn and places the cup of ice cream in front of him. "Give me your hand," Louis says gently and Zayn does. The spoon is placed in his hand and Louis' warmth is gone just as quickly as it appeared.
Zayn slowly eats, he doesn't want to embarrass himself again but he fails when Louis has to reach over with a napkin and rub the corners of his mouth once before he continues eating. His cheeks are hot again, he's happy he can't see the look Louis is giving him right now.
The ice cream though, it's sweet like strawberry milk and it's cold when it enters his mouth and touches his tongue. It disappears as it melts against the warmth of his mouth and his tastebuds start to tingle. "W-Wow," Zayn says. He forgets about the two times he's embarrassed himself and he starts thinking about how wonderful this ice cream is, it's so much better than the ice cream at home.
"You like it?" Zayn nods. "I guess I picked the right thing then."
"W-Who was that?" Zayn asks, referring to the person that made Louis laugh loudly twice now.
"Oh, hairy Harry? He's my friend from University, I've know him since freshmen year. He's quite annoying once you get to know him but I deal with it anyways." Louis has a fond smile on his face that Zayn knows is there, he almost wishes he could see it but he doesn't know if he wants to see Louis smiling because of someone else.
"Oh, nice." Zayn doesn't say anything further, he just eats continues to eat his ice cream that he enjoys so much.
"You never answered my question from earlier."
"Huh? Oh." Zayn sits and thinks for a while, his tongue sticking out of his mouth slightly as his eyebrows knit tightly together. Louis loves it when Zayn makes that face. "Maybe music but I like astrophysics, too. I don't know, I don't think I'll be able to go to University anyways."
"Why? There's no reason why you can't."
Zayn almost laughs. "I'm blind, I doubt they have private classes for people like me."
Louis frowns and he almost reaches to run his fingers across Zayn's cheek but he doesn't. "You can do anything, Zayn. You have the most interesting and most beautiful mind I've ever encountered, I'm sure there's something for someone as special as you."
There he goes again, saying words that make Zayn's stomach flutter and create large tsunamis that he can feel throughout his entire body. His cheeks are warm again and he's sure they're red, he bites down on his lip and he knows Louis is staring at him, watching him panic because he doesn't know what to say and he doesn't understand these feelings.
It takes a few minutes for Zayn to respond. "Thank you." His voice is a mere whisper but Louis hears it.
"Anything for you."
YOU ARE READING
Touch | zouis
Fanfiction"I give anything to hear you say it one more time, that the universe was made just to be seen by my eyes."
