Kick, Push

Competition Day: -1

The older he gets, the more things Zayn finds himself growing into. Early mornings has not been one of them.

Thank god for Niall though. The boy's at the ready outside his sisters' room with a change of clothes for him the next day when he finds out that Zayn hadn't spent the night at the Village. He's grateful for an outfit to change into, but he's more thankful for the fact that he's up earlier than any of his sister's, and therefore gets to avoid the hecticness of four Malik's versus one bathroom.

He doubts any of his immediate family catches him on the Japanese morning shows that he stops by, the hour still too early for just about everyone he knows in town except maybe Liam. The british ones that he sits in for right before lunch on the other hand, he knows his extended family will be recording and replaying over and over again as soon as the satellite video of him cuts off.

In fact, he hears all about what his relatives back home have to say about his multiple English interviews at lunch, when he meets up with his family. The texts keep rolling through into the afternoon when his sisters start their version of a Japanese pub crawl, except minus the alcohol, and add the unique animals. At the mention of cats, Harry drags Louis along with them to the first cafe, Niall sitting out at the Nikon store until they get to the hedgehog lounge.

"Where's Liam?" Safaa asks curiously as they sip their matcha teas around a pink table that matches the pastel colour theme of the cafe.

"Some workshop on hamstring something or other," Zayn replies, twirling around a stick that has a feather at the end, three calico's studying the movements on the floor, their heads whipping back and forth in time with the faux prey. "Dunno any of that world." All he's privy to is what Liam had briefly told him about, which was pretty much only that another country's head physio was giving a speech on the specific anatomy. He didn't even know those sorts of things happened at the Olympics, much less what they entailed.

"That's what you get for not finishing school," Waliyha jeers, openly not playing nice.

The middle cat pounces at the feather when Zayn stops his motions, narrowing his eyes at the girl, "I finished."

Waliyha raises her right brow, "You did the bare minimum."

Right as Zayn's about to open his mouth, his Mother shuts him down. "You two, please." The male's bitter, but he obeys and goes back to the cats at his feet. "Speaking of Liam..."

Oh no...

The older woman eyes her son from her cushioned seat against the wall that boasts a floor to ceiling mural of cats flying through a clouded sky. "He seems like a nice boy."

Zayn keeps his vision trained on the cats, in hopes that his casual nature will keep the subject from going any further, "He is, yeah."

"That's it?" Zayn's Dad laughs, his smile a near replica of the other man at the table.

Seeing that this wasn't disappearing like he wanted, Zayn lets the cats have the entire feather toy so he can lean back in his purple chair to face the rest of the Malik clan that's waiting for an answer, each with various indulgent expressions. "What do you want me to say?"

Waliyah's smile turns into a smirk, "I'm sure Louis could spell it out for us."

Twisting his head, Zayn watches the boy mentioned feed kittens treats on a multi-leveled cat tree with Harry. "Yeah, probably against my wishes," he grumbles, turning back to the table in front of him. "He's become a good friend. We'll see what happens when we get home."

The words aren't a lie, that's really what he thinks, and fortunately admitting that there's something there is enough for Zayn's Mother to leave it at "as long as you're happy, love."