Rekindled

Liam is Here

Before Zayn could get the door open, a tattooed hand reached through, grabbing the door to slide himself through the opening. "Hey mate! How've you been", Liam asked as he stepped forward to briefly hug his friend. 

Of all of the lads, Liam was the only one Zayn had stayed in pretty regular contact with. It helped a bit, he always thought, that they were in more similar genres of music as far as what they had pursued in their solo careers, there was a lot of overlap so they generally enjoyed each other's music and if nothing else had always called or sent a quick SMS to congratulate the other on whatever their latest song was.

"I've been good mate, been alright. Not gonna lie, I'm a bit nervous about this all so I'm right glad it was you comin' in the door first," he replied, both men laughing a bit as the little bit of tension that had entered with Liam dissipated with Zayn's admission. 

Zayn walked Liam around the kitchen island offering him some of the fresh fruit and other goods his girlfriend had prepped earlier that day. When Liam declined, he waked him instead over to the little bar setup to offer a drink, which was readily accepted.

They walked over to go sit on the couch when Zayn saw he had left the screen open on the portable security monitor, and Luke could see the same thing he was seeing, Jenny on the treadmill, no longer singing along to the music, but running still at full effort. 

"So that's your girl, huh", Liam stated more than asked, "I can see why she's lasted this long", he joked, the smirk falling from his face when he saw the serious expression on Zayn's face.  "Sorry, mate, I didn't mean it like that. I-", but Zayn cut him off, "No its alright, I just really do care for her you know, not just for her body". 

"Of course man, I was just making a bad joke I guess".

"She is pretty hot though," Zayn said at the same time, both of them laughing again.  "We've got another 15 minutes or so before everyone is supposed to be here, you wanna go meet her and come see the gym?",  Zayn asked, hoping Liam would say yes mostly so he could get a quick hug and kiss from her before the other guys showed up.

"You won't tell her what I said, will you", Liam joked as he started following Zayn who was already walking toward the game room.  "Nah, not if you keep your hands to yourself," he laughed back, only half-joking that time.

As they got into the game room they could see through the glass door into the gym where Jenny had just jumped off the treadmill into the center of the room. Zayn put his arm out to stop Liam and then walked him to a smaller door in the back corner of the game room which connected it to the gym through a small laundry and supply room. He knew what Jenny usually did after finishing an intense workout, and hoped she wouldn't be mad at him for bring Liam along to see it.

Quietly sneaking through the laundry room they got to the other end of the small corridor which was separated from the gym only by some saloon style wooden doors that only covered the middle section of the opening, about 3 feet long, and low enough for them to see Jenny in the gym without her seeing them. "Wait for it," Zayn said to Liam as he pointed to the center of the gym.

"Alexa, play 'dance party' playlist," Jenny said as she toweled off her face and neck with a small, white gym towel. The first couple notes blasted out of the speakers and the boys looked at each other smiling, it was a song off of the 3rd album they had made when they were in the band. Looking back at Jenny, she was bouncing around and swing the towel around in the air, and just generally having a proper dance party all by herself 

Liam began mouthing along with his part while watching Jenny dance and sing along with it, going so far as to do the borderline obscene little gesture some of the lads would do on stage along with the song

-~-~Everytime we touch, I'm all shook up, you make me wanna *huhh* how deep is your love, God only knows-~-~

Zayn and Liam giggled again before Zayn asked Liam to wait there so he could go disturb Jenny's dance party first and *hopefully*not get in as much trouble, because as good as she looked dancing out there, he knew she'd be embarrassed knowing they'd seen all that up close and personal.

"Alexa, pause", Zayn shouted, walking up behind Jenny so that he was right up on her as she turned around, startled at the interruption. 

"Babe you should be waiting in the front, the guys will be here any minute," she said, glancing at the clock on the wall. 

"I've still got some time before everyone is here besides I-"

Jenny cut him off, grabbing his hands and putting them on her waist, "Well in that case, I just had a great workout and could really use a protein shot", she said seductively, sliding right up against him and licking up his neck and around the edge of his ear.

"Oh man, sounds like you've got a keeper there!", Liam said loudly as he pushed through the swinging doors into the gym.

"Oh God, are you kidding me?!," Jenny nearly shouted, stepping back from Zayn and covering her face with her hands. "You saw all of that didn't you".

"'Fraid so love, but no matter, I think I might be borrowing some of that choreography for my next music video," Liam joked, slinging his arm around Zayn's shoulders as the guys broke into a fit of giggles, like a couple of schoolgirls.  This of course caused Jenny to laugh right along with them, loving how happy her baby looked joking with his friend.

She walked back up to the pair of them and gave Liam a quick hug, and telling him she was such a fan of his work and pleased to finally meet him.  She then cozied up to Zayn's side giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Again, lovely to meet you , but you should really get back out to the living room, everyone else should be here soon if they're not already," she said, shaking Liam's hand and then kissing Zayn one more time before walking out of the room and up the stairs to shower.