Z.A.Y.N.

OUTRO

"You want to write a song based on this theoretical essay I wrote the other day about the mystical beauty in the way light travels faster than sound?"

Liam flips to the next channel on the telly, waiting for Zain to add to his question; he knows better by now than to not give the man's brain a buffer of at least ten seconds to formulate more relevant thoughts before answering.

"We can focus on the part where I question what emotions go through a person during the time they wait for a sound to travel to them after seeing its source," Zain thinks out loud a couple seconds later. "Lots of long, drawn out notes."

If that essay is anything like the piece he tried explaining to Liam about how crazy it is that you can put two earbuds in, one on either side of your head, yet the sound meets in the middle of your temple, then the singer was going to need about a week to process the concept before he even attempted to write a song about it.

"Let me read it on the plane to New York and then I'll get back to you."

By virtue of Zain going back to strumming the electric guitar on his lap, Liam can infer that his response was sufficient enough.

The sound turns into something familiar thirty seconds into Liam figuring out if he wants to be bothered to watch a football match with only seven minutes left. He recognizes it as a song Zain had shared with him the same night he had voiced his concerns about their burgeoning relationship; most likely as a move to still Liam's nerves even more.

There's another new loveI know you tryna do right

But maybe we should stay cooped up

Like we don't know what moonlight is

Lately I've been going crazy

Begging you to stay

'Cause I just want you safe

Anger, ominous behavior

Got you feeling anxious all the time

Maybe you should stay the night

It's a soulful jazz song that Liam adores, because of its lyrics, but mostly because Zain tells him it was written weeks before 'Talk To Me'.

"I wanna touch you baby

And I wanna feel you too

I wanna see the sunrise and your sins

Just me and you"

Zain's soft voice steals Liam's attention, causing him to look over at the man laying next to him and sing along just as gently.

"Light it up, on the run

Let's make love tonight

Make it up, fall in love, try"

It's such a gentler version of the original they've recorded, with Zain's guitar unplugged and their lazy positioning in Liam's sitting room.

But you'll never be alone

I'll be with you from dusk till dawn

I'll be with you from dusk till dawn

Baby, I'm right here

I'll hold you when things go wrong

I'll be with you from dusk till dawn

I'll be with you from dusk till dawn

Baby, I'm right here

Neither can give their voices at full strength, but that doesn't stop Zain from going off on a wispy riff at the end of the chorus.

They stop there when Zain starts to strum something else, and the fact that they can just hop in and out of a song like that is one of Liam's favourite things about their relationship. That song's a close second though.

He won't ever forget the night his work finally got in the way and took him from Zain for two weeks. It started with a million kisses to last the fourteen days, and ended with a song that took Zain's fear of being let down in a relationship and Liam's of being used, and turned them upside down; with each other, they never had to look over their shoulder, from dusk till dawn. Listening to their voices melt together through his headphones made the six hour flight and two week work trip alone, bearable.

"You're gonna have to come up with a singing pseudonym," Liam tells Zain when the man picks up the notebook in between their bodies and starts to write something down. "We've started to record a lot together and I know you're not going to put them out, but still. To fit the pattern."

"Those songs are yours," Zain maintains as he continues to write. "I know it's your dream, but we're not going to become a performing duo, only a writing and producing one. Sorry babe."

"I know, I was just saying," Liam says in disappointment. If they agreed not to have Liam say he was dating anyone, then they certainly weren't going to put out music together. Regardless, Liam was curious to see what new pseudonym Zain would come up with, if only to use when he needed to add another name next to his in the artist section of the songs they created together.

"They're yours," Zain repeats, underlining the same word he wrote in all caps on the lined piece of paper he was done jotting down potential lyrics on.

YOURS

When Zain shuts his notebook, Liam's eyes catch the small name on the bottom corner of the cover - something that they had to start doing once they began spending more time together and didn't want to get their songwriting books mixed up.

Before Zain can throw the spiral notebook on the coffee table in front of them and cover up the various billboard charts showing Liam's third album going number one, the younger male grabs it. He takes the pen out of Zain's lap too and scratches out the 'Zain' on the front flap.

ZAYN

"That's your new pseudonym for when you sing with me," Liam announces proudly.

"What about the 'I'?" Zain reminds him, but the large smile on his face tells Liam he loves the switch.

"You can be Icarus to the other people you sell R&B songs to, but you're not Icarus to me anymore." Pen in hand, Lam circles the new name. "You're my Zain."

"Yours," the named man affirms quietly, his eyes shining with affinity for the new label's creator.

It's only fitting for Liam to lean in for a kiss, but he immediately regrets it after hearing what Zain says once they break. "But you know, if you want to be grammatically correct, you need to put periods in between the letters, otherwise it's not an acronym."

"Tosser," Liam curses, shoving the man who's now breaking out in laughter, away from him. "And to think I was going to make you shakshuka in the morning before work."

"Leeyum," Zain whines when the singer gets up from the couch to go make them tea, even though Zain doesn't deserve it after that snarky I-graduated-uni-with-a-type-of-English-degree remark.

He does however, deserve it for keeping Liam company for six years. For being someone that the singer can accept and listen to as a means of wiggling his way into their heart, no credit card necessary. But most importantly, Zain deserves a piping hot cup of peppermint tea for having the talent to be able to put himself on Liam's radar and reassure him that there was someone out there who could love his soul before needing to know his name.