The Heart of Him

NEETXIS

The start of the new decade has been nothing but great.

How could it not be when its first day consisted of lazing around, getting lost in fictional worlds, and its third was spent celebrating fourteen days "sober". Beyond his incessant headaches and occasional bouts of irritation that came as one of its side effects, what did Zayn have to complain about? There was the whole having to go back to work thing that hit him with a dose of reality, but with his lectures ready to go for the next term, even Zayn's hours spent in his office were enjoyable writing up his latest da Vinci commentary.

Thanks to the music, as well as the mechanical engineering department going on extended holiday leave, Zayn only had to pop in once to the school of geography in order to see what new information on Kenya's flooding the researchers had to share with him. Dropping by Radcliffe Hospital's research lab was a much more frequent thing, but that's strictly due to the daily updates Liam's project affords him. His recurring visits have nothing to do with the scientist responsible for said briefings at all. But if Liam wants to walk around the hospital with coffee before they discuss how much larger the patches of heart tissue have grown, or whisk him away for a date night after doing so, then who's Zayn to say no?

Even his birthday was a great time, void of any crazy shenanigans that he worried might have greeted him at Louis and Harry's front door when he showed up for the party they insisted on throwing him. Now, did he have to grin and bare it when he opened two tickets to a Derby match that were clearly for Niall rather than from him? Yes, of course. And was he mildly disappointed when Harry made him an ice cream cake and not german chocolate like he hinted at when visiting the bakery a few days beforehand? Maybe. But irregardless of either, Zayn truly enjoyed having a new circle of friends care for him so much. Notably one, who gifted him a leather toothpick holder and a box of wooden sticks to go along with it.

"I read that chewing on a toothpick engages your mouth in the same way that it's used to you giving it a cigarette to pull from," Liam told him. "It was a good article. Said you could even soak them in whiskey or essential oils if you wanted a little taste to it."

"Switch smoking for alcohol," Louis snarked. "Real good thinking Liam."

Zayn may have bit back a smirk at the jab, but that's only because he didn't want to hurt Liam's feelings. He adored the leather pouch, along with the man who gave it to him. And while he didn't think it was the best idea to have his breath smelling of Fireball in the workplace, the toothpicks by themselves were incredibly effective at busying his mouth with a movement other than sucking on a cigarette filter. Helped him make it to sober benchmark week three, too.

For reaching such a milestone, his Mum had one of the local florists deliver a succulent to his office. "I know how you hate flowers because you can never manage to keep them alive, but this is easy; just water it once a week and it'll love you. I'm just so proud of you, that I wanted to get you a little something." Which Zayn's grateful for and all, but from the moment he answered her phone call and they got past the pleasantries, he could hear it in her voice what she really wanted to talk about. "So how's that boyfriend of yours been? Still treating you well?"

He corrected her right off the bat, told her that Liam's doing good, but that they just started dating, they're not boyfriends just yet. Except, when he's sitting next to Harry a couple days later, eyes glued on the bright green penny that covers Liam's black tee, his lips rubbing around a toothpick, Zayn wondered what would be so bad if they were? For the remainder of the match, he pretended to listen to Harry go on about his plan to submit his Bake Off audition tape that week, while mulling over his options on how to bring up the topic to Liam when they're inevitably laying on top of each other watching Ironman.