Z.A.Y.N.

B SIDE: TRACK 9

"Sounds sick."

Swiveling around in his chair to face Zain, Liam grins in pride. He's just played them the final mixings of each song they've written together in the past few weeks, and while he thought they sounded great when he received the files from the sound engineer this morning, he's fully comfortable including them on the album now that he's got the seal of approval from his co-writer.

"There's still room for more," Liam sing songs, hopeful Zain hasn't tired of him yet. Although, if the writer lounging on the sofa situated in the studio Louis had booked for them last minute was anything to go by, Liam doesn't think he has anything to worry about on that front.

In fact, it's a little ironic how Zain's so okay with meeting up this often, given his initial unwillingness to give Liam the satisfaction of hearing they'd see each other as frequently as they are now.

"I'm sure there is," Zain replies with a smirk that tells Liam the man doesn't plan on giving up his entire air of mystery just yet.

"These two add good upbeat energy like the single's got." The singer nearly plays the track he plans on releasing first off the album, but he refrains; each minute not throwing around song ideas is much more than a dollar wasted. Besides, when they're done here, he's got an hour drive back home to listen to one of the catchiest choruses he's ever written -

Try to believe I'm the one for you

Try to see from the other side

Baby, give me a night or two'

Cause you know if I could I would try

To put nobody before you

Give you all of me 'til I die

Baby, give me a night or two

'Cause you know if I could I would try -

as much as he wants.

"Do you want to keep that up then?"

Watching Zain take a sip out of his thermos after asking his question, makes Liam do the same. Without requesting the drink, the chef had shown up with two full canteens of green tea, one for each of them. Liam had felt his eyes squish up from how wide he had smiled at the gesture.

"It doesn't matter," he responds once the warm tea's coated his throat. "I don't want the melody to get in the way of us writing a Grammy winning ballad."

"Yeah that's good, because I think you know by now - I'm not used to sitting down and being told to write one way or another." Sitting up straighter and adjusting his black baseball cap so that it sits backwards instead its normal placement facing straight on, Zain voices an opinion. "I know what she did to you was the opposite of upbeat, but it might be kinda cool to play around with writing something about your first love in a non-depressing way."

In no way did that sound fun to Liam. He knows it's not what Zain meant, but he didn't find it enjoyable to second guess every new person that came into his life. Because he and Lauren had been together for so long, and the betrayal came as such a shock to him, he wasn't sure how to test someone's loyalty, or even for how long; not even after ten years did he have a good grip on that.

"Can we just talk? Like we usually do?" Liam's not even embarrassed by how weak his voice sounds in comparison to how he had just been a second ago, he knows Zain will understand.

There's a flash of discernment that washes over the older man's face and for a moment, Liam thinks he's guessed wrong, but then Zain pulls through. "Why'd you buy 'Gone'?" Liam's right eyebrow quirks in confusion. "I mean, thank you," the older man chuckles, "but if you like my stuff because it's deep, then I'm not sure why you'd pick that one; it's basic."