SMILE – ZIAM
PART NINE; MIDNIGHT SNOWBALL FIGHTS
WORDS: 844
CHAPTER SONG: ANTI-D BY THE WOMBATS
2:00AM
It’s times like these, when Liam is mouthing softly at Zayn’s cold skin of his neck, that Zayn really appreciates the life that he’s living. This feeling hardly ever occurs anymore – it’s so rare that Zayn can’t remember last time it happened – but one memorable time it happened was when Zayn moved out for the first time. He’d dumped his suitcase on his apartment floor, and he breathed in the scent of being alone, finally, properly, for the first time since he could remember. He loved the feeling of being free, being open to his own choices.
(Obviously, he didn’t make the best choices, but the feeling was definitely there.)
Then, Liam pulls away, letting the very last song of The Wombats’ album fade out, and he says, “Zee,” short and softly that Zayn only barely heard it.
“Hmm?” he hums in reply.
“Can you hear the rain?”
Zayn freezes in his tracks for a moment, and really, really listens. He can’t hear any birds, or hail or rain pitter-pattering on the roof of the café. Instead, it’s almost completely quiet, until a car races by the front doors and Zayn grins, wide and unbelievably happy, and turns to see Liam doing the same.
“I think it’s stopped,” says Zayn, and he doesn’t even need to specify what he’s talking about for Liam to know what he’s talking about.
Liam smirks, like he’s somehow incredibly smug, and kisses Zayn’s jaw once for good measure. “Let’s go outside,” he announces, and grabs Zayn’s hand, dragging him up, and Zayn hopes to death that the snow's been cleared enough for them to go outside.
2:10AM
It must be a Christmas miracle.
The two boys step out the door, the freezing air of Christmastime London hitting their faces like tiny icicles are cascading around in the wind. The contrast is almost blinding to Zayn’s brown eyes – the streets are covered in the white snow that is so, so different to the wooden floors and country landscape paintings on the walls of Liam’s café. It’s nice, Zayn decides, and tightens his grip of Liam’s hand.
Liam is wearing a huge, brown coat that would absolutely drown Zayn but somehow fits him perfectly, flowing out behind Liam like he’s some sort of kindred super villain.
(If anyone could pull off Kindred Super Villain, it would be Liam Payne.)
The snow lays in piles on the street sides, pretty and like diamonds, or some kind of precious crystal that Zayn’s positive his mum would have on a necklace. The roads themselves are surprisingly clear and there are even the reflections of the stars in the above sky in the puddles of ice on the sides of the tarmac.
“It’s beautiful,” Zayn gasps up at Liam, who’s still smiling like a stupid, cuddly puppy.
“It is,” Liam agrees, quiet as a mouse, and then his eyes look at and lock with Zayn’s, and Liam adds, “But not as beautiful as you.”
He pokes Zayn’s nose, and Zayn shakes his head and flinches his nose, crinkling his eyes. “Why do, like, you enjoy poking my nose so much?” Zayn asks, in a small, fond voice.
“I don’t know, love,” Liam pokes Zayn’s nose again, and Zayn’s a little annoyed but he isn’t going to say because he’s enjoying the attention. “It’s just… cute.”
“How can a nose be cute?”
“In a Zayn kind of way,”
Then, Zayn kisses Liam on his cheek, because this random kid he’s met in a café is actually really rather adorable.
2:20AM
Currently, Zayn is watching as Liam ducks underneath a parked blue Mini Cooper, and Zayn prepares a ball of snow in his hand. His eyes trace Liam’s movement, and then he aims his shot, and throws his snowball in Liam’s general direction. It narrowly misses his shoulder, and Liam yells out a, “You can do better than that, Malik!”
Zayn grins with one side of his mouth, and ducks when Liam makes his own shot back, which hits the wall behind him and splatters into tiny little snowflakes that explodes all over the dark red brick. Zayn’s laughing and it’s all lighthearted and he’s having the best time he’s had since he can remember – all because of this beautiful coffee shop boy, who’s helped Zayn out of a panic attack, and convinced him to eat dinner, and he’s just made him smile and smile and smile more than any anti-depressants Zayn’s ever taken. He turns his back and runs along the wall until he runs into a dead end of an alley, where Liam finds him.
“How are you feeling now, babe?” Liam asks, but not before gracelessly dropping a snowball on the coffee-drinking boy.
“I’m…” Zayn goes to say ‘okay’ but falters slightly, ending up saying, “I’m happy,”
Liam claps, applauding, and he hugs Zayn close to his chest, and for once, Zayn isn’t even slightly uncomfortable. “I’m glad, love. I’m happy, too.” he says, and grabs his hand, taking the two boys back in the direction of the café where everything started. “Now, let’s call a cab for you to get you home now that the snowstorm’s over.”
For some reason, that doesn’t make Zayn smile.
AUTHOR’S NOTE:
sorry it was so short i’m running low on words for the limit for the competition, sorry guys :p.
plot twist: zayn is actually me and liam is my boyfriend irl
are you all excited for the laST CHAPTER?? bc i am
QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER:
Why doesn’t ‘going home’ make Zayn smile? Isn’t that what he’s wanted all along? Shouldn’t he want to go home?
YOU ARE READING
Smile
Fanfiction[ ZIAM AU ] [ ✓ - DECEMBER 2014 ] ❝You make me smile.❞ The one where Zayn is an amateur writer and is having a bit of a grey day(s) (week) (month) (actually, life is mostly grey) but a nice waiter named Liam manages to turn around his mood in one ni...
