Z.A.Y.N.

TRACK 15

"You should really sleep."

Liam barely looks up from the computer, "I took a nap a few hours ago."

"And one yesterday afternoon, but those are the only two times you've closed your eyes since I got to your place Monday night," Niall counters, while he packs up his things. "It's almost midnight, Wednesday. Didn't you say your meeting with the execs is tomorrow?"

"At two," Liam specifies, still distracted.

"So, fourteen hours from now?" Shaking his head in disapproval, Niall swipes his keys from the side of the keyboard Liam's furiously using as an editing device. "You're crazy."

Liam finally pays attention to his friend when Niall's putting a hand on his shoulder.

"The song sounds great," the Irishman affirms with kind eyes that calm Liam's chaotic brain down for a few seconds. "The album sounds amazing. Don't kill yourself any more, ok?"

As a fellow musician, Niall's sure to understand the perfection Liam's striving for with his work. They may not make the same type of music, but Liam knows that if the roles were reversed and Niall needed help producing a song out of his head under a time crunch, he'd be there for his mate in a flash.

"I won't," Liam responds tiredly. "And thank you again, for helping me these past forty eight hours. I owe you."

A small squeeze is administered to Liam's shoulder before Niall takes off for the door. "The Guinness Payno, the Guinness."

Rocking back and forth in his chair, Liam bypasses his mind's 'like hell I'm putting in Guinness' and smiles instead. "I told you I would, didn't I?"

"Remind me to play you in poker one day," Niall quips as he opens the door of the studio to let himself out. "You're a shite liar."

Even after Niall leaves with a "let me know how the lad likes his song!", Liam still narrows his eyes at the closing door. Bloody face giving away all my emotions.

When he's left alone for the first time in nearly two days, Liam takes in the silence. He looks around at the room that he and Niall had migrated to that morning when Harry had managed to sweet talk his way to securing a studio for them to work from in his building. They're only available for people signed under the publishing part of Sony, so Liam feels guilty for having to use Zain's name as the booking party, but Louis insisted there was no way he could get a studio at Sony's main offices and Harry had said that the chef hadn't minded when he asked if he could book it under his name. Still, when Zain got there, Liam planned on showering him with 'thank you's'.

When Niall's last words finally register and Liam's over being ridiculed for his lousy facial betrayal, he starts to wonder just how Zain will react to the song Liam had spent so much energy on. Admittedly, it was a last minute put together, but that didn't mean Liam thought of the song he'd titled 'Outta My Head' as a second rate. In fact, quite the opposite; he adored the tune. And even if Zain thought of it as overwhelmingly trite with its name being the bulk of the repetitive chorus, Liam still loved it. It'll still stay as Track 9 on LP3 and he'll still dance to it every time he performs it to a crowd of thousands.

"So I failed that badly, huh?" is the first thing Zain says when he walks through the studio's door an hour later, a trail of Chinese spices right behind him as usual.

Liam swivels in his chair and stands up, already prepared for such a remark when he sent the man a text that morning thanking him for the studio pass and also asking him to join after work in order to get his extra credit assignment. "You passed with flying colours," Liam smirks, pulling Zain in by his black tee and kissing him to prove his words.