Kick, Push

Competition Day: +15

Once Zayn had gotten back to his room and changed into something more comfortable the afternoon before, he passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow. He remembers waking up briefly when Louis had come in a few hours later to get him for dinner, but Zayn had waved him away, cursing about how he just wanted to sleep forever. Surprisingly Louis had left him be, bringing over a packet of earplugs for him to use and closing the curtains behind him. Looking over at the sleeping boy splayed out in his bed, body illuminated by the light from Zayn's mobile screen, the skater thinks that the kind gestures were probably more of a defensive tactic on Louis' part than anything else. He'd seen what Zayn could be like on little to no sleep. During competition season, he'd do whatever it took to steer clear of the younger lad at all costs if Zayn's sleep was at all compromised.

After blinking away the blur to his vision, the numbers on the screen showed that it was a little past 3AM, meaning that he had gotten almost fourteen hours of sleep.

Comfortable under the covers, Zayn didn't feel up to moving just yet, but he also knew that his body had had enough rest not to contemplate shutting his eyes again. Instead, he turns the brightness down and scrolls through texts from home, emails, the regular apps. Reaching over to his bedside table, he grabs his headphones to watch some videos and not disturb Louis' sleep in the process.

The second Zayn can see sunlight start to filter through the blinds, he takes a deep breath and rolls himself out of bed. As quietly as possible, he gets dressed in black jeans and one of his many Team GB shirts, since he wasn't sure how far his ride would take him, and Camden had been extremely clear on not wearing any non-approved brands on Olympic property. Lacing up his black and white trainers and grabbing a board from his collection leaned up against the front entrance wall, Zayn made sure that he had his wallet and phone before heading out.

—

Looking down both directions of the street in front of the housing high rise, Zayn decides to venture left.

Instrumental music's blasting through his headphones, the Tokyo summer humidity not quite in full effect yet at the early hour of five. Zayn remembers his first summer in Asia and how the sweltering heat mixed with humidity suffocated him. The high temperature was enough for the British man to be in shock, but nothing could prepare him for the nonstop stickiness that his arms felt starting at around ten in the morning and continuing well into the late night. He was thankful that he knew that about this area of the world, and how if you soaked a small towel in cold water and spritzed it with eucalyptus spray, the material could keep your neck cold for hours. Tips aside, he was more lucky to know how his body would react and just how many hours he could train at a time before needing to replenish his electrolytes.

Kick pushing his weight through the quiet street, Zayn took in the foreign symbols on storefronts and ads. An industrial, low income city like Bradford, was a place where not a lot of people get out. Zayn didn't know if he would ever get out, only because his parents hadn't, and their financial situation as a family never seemed to afford the opportunity for him or any of his sisters to either. If it wasn't for skateboarding, he'd probably still be there. Maybe he'd have gone off to university elsewhere, but Zayn knows himself well enough to know that the need to help his family would have made him return to the city sooner or later.

The rectangle shaped piece of land that the Village sits on in the Tokyo Bay isn't large, so once Zayn reaches the other end in twenty minutes, he considers his muscles warmed up and starts to skate around to scope out a few obstacles that he can use to practice tricks. It only takes him ten minutes before he finds the perfect double rail and nearby concrete park benches to use as a playground for the next hour or two. However, thirty minutes in and he's spotting a familiar face jogging towards his area alongside the waters edge.