Kick, Push

Competition Day: -4

Surprisingly when Zayn wakes up from Louis entering the room with Harry to pack up and get ready for their flight back home, he doesn't feel as hungover as he would've thought. If it was from Liam's damn lavender device, he really was a gift from god.

Normally he'd poke fun at Louis for looking like he just got hit by a truck, but Zayn stays quiet as he and Liam find their shirts, since it doesn't look like the bloodshot eyes are from excessive drinking.

A sickening feeling washes over him from the amount of tension in the room now that Liam's left to gather his own things, and at how useless any words he spoke would be.

"So, um, thanks for the help," Zayn breaks the silence awkwardly as he stacks his boards and equipment into one of his red duffles. "While we were here. And for keeping this guy busy so I didn't have to worry about him getting in trouble." It's a sad attempt at lightening the mood.

"You're welcome." Harry folds the clothes Louis throws at him neatly and Zayn thinks that's as perfect an illustration of their complementary personalities as it can get. "It was a once in a lifetime experience getting to see things that close up. I got lucky to be assigned to a cool group of people. Might've been a bit different had I gotten matched up with the shot putters."

Zayn smiles at the thought, "Yeah, you're probably right about that. Any time you visit home, don't be a stranger." Zipping up the bag, he glances up to see if he hit a nerve, but even if he did, Zayn wants Harry to know it's not just Louis, he wants him to come too.

So when he hears the male's reply of "I'm already trying to find a time when I can take time off", Zayn's uneasiness is dismissed.

"Sick," he responds, leaving it at that now that he knows things aren't going to end for him and Louis and also not to pour salt into the wounds by talking too much about London.

As soon as he's done packing all his things, he gives them the room to make sure Niall's awake and ready to go. The extra time still doesn't help with Louis' tears that he tries to brush away inconspicuously when they're on the coach bus back to the airport. Thank god he perks up a bit when he finds out that he gets to sit in Business class on the Team GB only British Airway flight, otherwise Zayn was going to have to do something he'd certainly regret just to get the boy to smile.

He's about to sit with his friend, but a stewardess informs him that the seats are assigned and that he's been allocated one in First Class for being awarded a gold medal. It's not the sort of thing he wants his best friend to hear in his current state of mind, and even though Zayn doesn't care about flashy things like First Class, he'd much rather sit with his mate, Louis tells him to go, he was up all night soaking in the last few hours with Harry so he plans to just try and sleep anyway.

The idea doesn't sound half bad to Zayn, but it turns out to be a lot harder than he thought with the amount of celebrating going on all around him when he gets up front, those in his section of the plane not having to worry anymore about upsetting those who have lost, since they're all in the same high achieving boat. Regardless, that doesn't stop people from coming up to Zayn every once and awhile to let him know how sick they thought his performance was once they got the chance to watch the replay.

Halfway through the flight, he gets tired of champagne bottles being popped and boring films, so he ventures back to hang with Liam and Niall in economy for a while. On his way back to his seat, he checks on Louis, glad to see that his friend seems to be in a slightly better mood now that the champagne's made it to Business Class.

When they land, Zayn doesn't at all expect to see paparazzi on the runway from out his window, and he definitely doesn't expect for a commissioner to come up to him and explain that he's going to be one of the first out of the plane, due to his unique, history making win.

The sun blinds him when the front door opens, but so does the shock of how many photographers there are now that he's able to see them from a different vantage point than behind a porthole.

Doing all he knows to do, Zayn smiles and waves from atop the stairs, an athlete on either side of him, also chosen because their iconic wins - one coming home with gold for the third time, and the other an underdog that no one saw taking first.

A feeling of surrealism overtakes Zayn when Louis and the rest of the athletes pile out of the plane and spread out on the tarmac to take pictures as a country, Team GB red and white shirts adorned proudly by all.

Just when he thought the hysteria was over and he could coast through Heathrow on the board he left out of his checked baggage, Zayn was met with the chaos of everyone inside. Practically every traveler in Terminal 5 risked missing their flights to stop any passing athlete for a picture, taking him another hour to make it to baggage claim, but one look at the sea of identical Team GB red duffles strewn over the floor that belonged to 450+ athletes and staff, and Zayn wishes the photos lasted longer. It was like staring at the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle whose final image was just a solid shade of red.

By a tedious process of elimination, he finds his bags and finally starts to make his way out of the airport, but not without more stopping him in the car park to say how proud they felt for a Brit to be the one to take home the first ever medal in a sport.