Bound by No Universe • Zarry

ii.

 Zayn and Harry met met during the second semester of their third year at Cambridge University. They didn't really know each other, other than their names and that they had a few mutual friends. Despite meeting at a few parties over the years, they never had a proper one-on-one conversation and they weren't even friends on Facebook. Essentially, they were strangers who knew each other's names and attended a few of the same lectures.

They were both picked for a research program, an experimental research about the existence of alternate universes and its correlation to Einstein's theory of relativity. Even though they were in the same year, their labs were always in small groups and they were never in the same one. That's how they both got their place in the program. There was a total of five student spots available for it and the professors picked the best one out of each lab group. Beside them, the team of researchers was joined by two girls, Ellie and Ash, and a guy, Brad. All in all, they were a great asset to the team and the experience the program gave them was better than anything they had imagined when starting university.

It took them two weeks of actually talking to each other to start fucking. Zayn knew it was inevitable ever since the first time they got lunch together three days after they had joined the program. They were both playing hard to get all while giving each other sultry looks from behind beakers and conical flasks. It got to them slowly like a tide eating up a sand castle. Harry was the one to pull out of their little dance and asked Zayn to come to a house party his old-money-rich friend was throwing. Zayn was all nonchalant and cool about it, merely shrugging and saying 'Yeah, I guess I'll come.'. Before the night ended, Zayn had Harry bent over his friend's father's expensive mahogany desk that was probably like two hundred years old and worth a fortune.

They fell in love, didn't they? Hours of intimacy, of open-mouthed kisses and bruising touches, didn't leave their hearts unscathed. They never spoke out on their feelings though. It was pointless and they both knew it. When you're a scientist, love and building a family of your own always come second, or even third. It cannot be your priority if you want to succeed. A clear vision was set for both of them – finish university, start another university, get your PhD. and do research until the end of your life, hoping that one day, all of it will be worth it. It did bring happiness into their lives, the hope and prospect of being able to take part in a revolutionary project was their dream. Spending hours upon hours in a lab, surrounded by numbers and calculations and alternative materials that have never left the room was the most exciting. It wasn't a chore – it was their desire.

They were dating but they weren't at the same time. Their friends knew they were sleeping together, hell, even their whole research team along with the professors knew thanks to Ash walking on them snogging in one of the labs and then taking the piss out of them for weeks. From the outside, not much would tell you that they were together. They didn't go on dates as regular couples do, they held hands only when they were tipsy, rarely spent time together at parties and other gatherings. But the magic of their relationship happened in their dorms, behind closed doors when they could pretend they were nothing more than friends that liked to fuck each other senseless nearly every day. They watched films, binged TV shows when they had some free time, read books in comfortable silence together. Naturally, most of their time was spent studying together in comfortable silence but talking took up a lot of their time too. They could go from silly things like "Do you think Kristen Steward is bad at acting or she was actually brilliant in Twilight because the character was so dull?" to serious stuff like "My dad wanted me to study economics and become the CEO of his company but I didn't do it and now I have to be like, the absolute best to prove him wrong." "Mine wanted me to be a lawyer. Every time we talk he asks if I've grown out of my 'the space is so cool' phase." to discussing school things and casually talking about time-bending over lunch.

The sex was out of the world. Their compatibility was mind-blowing. The first few weeks, it was rough, hard, with a coarse passion that left bruises and bites all over their skin. All of it was just letting go. Letting go of the anxiety, of the stress of all that studying they had to do, of spending countless hours in the lab. They didn't take the time to appreciate their bodies, to kiss without their teeth clashing. It changed eventually. The fucking got slower, the grips got looser, the bruises whittled down to love bites. By the time semester was ending, they weren't fucking; they were making love. It wasn't just an outlet for negative feelings that had nothing do to with affection anymore, a way to let off some steam and indulge in something that was as far away from physics and maths as they could get. With two months without seeing each other waiting for them, they held each other as if they were the most fragile glass vials in the universe. The day they both had to leave and go home before starting their summer internships, they made love at sunrise, the words 'I love you' nearly slipping from their mouths. Nearly. They still had their internships and another year at uni. No time for love was scheduled for them.

But love is sometimes stronger than the appeal of relative physics. When they got back to uni in September, Zayn was ready to make him and Harry a thing, to finally make it official. They talked every day during summer but didn't meet, not even once and Zayn had never known what it meant to miss someone so much you were willing to jump on a plane and fly across the globe to meet them before he didn't see Harry for two months. So naturally, a week into the semester, Zayn's plans got royally fucked up.

Dr Perk, the main researcher of the program they were in, told Zayn that Berkeley wanted him to go get his master's degree there and continue with the program, which was moving to the university as well. They were always going to pick one of the five to give them the opportunity, only none of them were told about it. An opportunity like that gets thrown away only by complete fools and Zayn accepted the offer without even thinking about it twice. He said 'Yes, I'd be honoured.' before Dr Perk had finished talking.

Only later rational thoughts appeared in his head. Things like how he'd be moving to another continent and his family don't even know, how his dad will definitely scold him because he hates the American educational system and how there's a good chance he'll never see Harry again after he leaves next year.

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Hello everyone! Here are the first two chapters of my new/old story that has been waiting to see the light of day for years now lmao. I hope you enjoy it, it will have a few kind of scince fiction elements :) It's not what I usually do but I hope you guys like it :)