Need • Zarry

10. Actions speak louder

It was finally 1990, the dawn of a new decade.

It was just a week away from Zayn's 19th birthday and he had picked up several more shifts at Jake's Video lately in an attempt to make more money. Zayn had this thing lately with feeling like Harry was doing too much for him and he was adamant that he paid for his own things, so Harry had to take a step back and let him do that.

Harry had a tendency to over indulge when it came to Zayn. He liked buying him gifts and doing things for him all the time because it made Zayn smile. Harry was starting to become a sucker for that smile, the one where his nose scrunched up and he beamed like a little kid. It did something to his heart and he cherished that feeling, grew attached to it.

But Zayn wanted to develop a sense of his own self, a sense of pride, and it was becoming an increasingly more vital need for him. He had this conversation with Harry right after New Years about explained how important this was for Zayn to try and figure his life out, to make his own money and find ways to support himself so that he didn't feel as though he was so reliant on Harry.

And Harry understood.

But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try and help still. It was just like Harry to listen and understand but still take matters into his own hands and maybe that was because he had this unexplainable need to maintain some kind of order and control, but that Friday afternoon after work Harry had taken it upon himself to print out a bunch of admissions applications for some local colleges and universities in Pennsylvania and brought them back home.

Zayn was smart, much smarter than people realized, but Harry knew it and the one thing that he couldn't seem to accept was the fact that Zayn wasn't in college. He hadn't even been to a public school since he was 12 and his foster parents hadn't bothered to help him or encourage him with applying to schools after finished his education because they didn't care. All Harry had gathered from what he knew about Zayn's adolescence was that they never really cared about him.

But Harry did.

So he walked in through the front door and the first thing Harry did whenever he got home was reach into his pocket and put on the rose ring on that Zayn had given him. He couldn't wear it out in public, and especially considering how Zayn always had it on everywhere he went, but he still carried it with him and it still meant something to him, something special, so Harry always made sure he wore it in the sanctuary and safety of his home.

He then found Zayn in the study reading Post Office by Charles Bukowski in Harry's velvet blue chair. Harry clutched the papers in one hand and knocked on the door with the other, opening it slightly as Zayn looked up at him, smiling a little.

"Hey you," he greeted him, closing the book in his lap.

"I've got something for you," Harry said.

"Really, Harry? Are you ever gonna stop gettin me shit?"

"It's not what you think. I've got a bunch of college applications and I just think you should fill them out and apply. Couldn't hurt, right?"

Zayn got up from the chair and strolled over to Harry, taking the papers from his hands and looked over them as he made his way into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table.

"And how do you expect me to pay for college? And don't even tell me you're gonna pay for me to go to school because that's not happenin."

"You can take out student loans. There's always a way, Zayn. You're so unbelievably smart. You're the kind of person who has an intelligence that most people will never ever have and it's a shame that you aren't doing something with it. You're almost 19. You should go back to school. You have to," Harry spoke.