Zayn Sickfic

Those warm hands - Zarry

Zayn knows it’s going to be a bad day when he’s awake before 8. He rolls over and throws an arm across his eyes, but there’s nothing for it, he can’t fall back asleep. He doesn’t know if it’s the lack of sleep or what, but his head is throbbing and his throat feels a bit like it’s on fire. Definitely not a good day.

He disentangles himself from Harry, who’s dead asleep with his lengthy limbs wrapped all over Zayn in typical octopus fashion. He pauses a minute, watching Harry’s tattooed chest rise and fall heavily, jealous of the peacefulness etched on his face. Zayn kisses him lightly because he sort of thinks Harry’s cutest when he’s asleep, and drags himself off to the kitchen.

He fills the kettle and noses through Harry’s extensive collection of herbal teas. Zayn’s usually a strictly-black coffee sort of person, but his stomach is turning uncomfortably and something a little lighter sounds better. He makes himself a mug of chamomile and pulls a chair up to the island, but doesn’t drink it. Instead he leans forward and lets his head rest against the granite, which feels cool against his too-hot face.

“Z?” comes a raspy voice and Zayn snaps his head back up, which, bad idea. He closes his eyes for a minute to stop the room spinning.

“ ‘Morning,” Zayn answers roughly, and Harry sidles over to him so that he can wrap both of his arms around his shoulders. Harry’s warm and soft and somehow always manages to smell like soap and vanilla. It’s nice.

“Are you alright?” Harry asks into his hair, rubbing his hands up and down Zayn’s arms slowly.

Zayn nods, because they’ve got a press conference today, and he really doesn’t need Harry fussing over him. “‘M fine,” he murmurs. “Just couldn’t sleep.”

Harry hums disappointedly and kisses Zayn’s temple. “How about some breakfast, then. What do you feel like babe?”

Zayn’s stomach lurches uncomfortably again and he bites back an instinctive grimace. “Just toast today, Haz.”

That gets Harry to pull back from where he’s nuzzling his head into his shoulder. He fixes his green eyes on him, and even though they’re still rimmed in sleepiness, Zayn doesn’t miss the concern there. “Are you feeling alright?” he frowns, and goes to press a hand to Zayn’s forehead.

Zayn ducks out of his reach and slides off the stool. “I’m fine, Harry,” he promises, even as he has to grasp the island lightly to regain his balance. Harry’s still frowning at him.

“But you’re all pale, Z,” he pouts and even though Zayn appreciates the concern he’s getting a tad annoyed with Harry’s constant mother-hen tendencies.

“I said I’m fine. Drop it, alright?” Zayn says sharply and Harry looks taken aback. He nods slowly, chewing on his bottom lip in a way that Zayn wishes wasn’t so stupidly endearing.

“Okay,” Harry murmurs, and gives Zayn a quick hug as he walks around him to the fridge. “Toast it is.”

Half a piece of toast and a cup of tea later, Zayn still feels like absolute shit. He figures he’s catching the flu and this is so not the time. They’ve got a full week of promo lined up and even though he knows they’d probably let him off, he hates admitting he’s sick. Even to Harry, who hasn’t stopped giving him his best concerned eyes all through breakfast as Zayn picks at his toast. At this point Harry knows better than to push Zayn when he’s on edge, and he appreciates that much. Even if all he really wants is to climb back into bed and feel Harry wrapped around him again.

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The press conference is pretty much horrible. The lights are too bright and hot on Zayn, making him sweat under his leather jacket even though he feels chilled to the bone. He can’t help turning to cough harshly into his elbow as few times and adamantly ignores Harry staring at him two seats down. Luckily Zayn can get away with only answering the questions aimed directly at him, being “the quiet one” has it’s perks sometimes. But the other boys can still tell he’s off, Niall puts his hand on his knee under the table when Zayn rubs his temples quickly, and Liam pushes his water bottle toward him with puppy dog eyes when Zayn coughs again.