Finding The Courage (a Ziam Mayne AU)

Chapter Ten "Returning"

>five months later<

Zayn's POV

"But you hate Chinese food."

He kissed me lightly on the cheek and smiled generously. "True. But you love it."

I blushed. I hated it when he was so self-forgetting towards me. It made me feel terrible. Hypocritical, even. "Christian, please don't..."

"Christian, do.", he said and started walking. "I want to, so just let me."

I caught up with him, sighing, pulling my hood over my head to protect me from the water trickling down from the sky. "You know why I-", I started but he cut me off.

"And you know I don't care." He held out his hand for me to take and looked at me with a crooked smile on his lips. "So you might as well just take it in."

I put my hand in his and crossed our fingers with each other. "I hate you."

"I know.", he said and pulled our hands to his face to kiss the back of mine. "Consider it an early birthday present."

We walked to my favourite Chinese restaurant in town and ordered takeout because Christian couldn't even stand the smell of Chinese food, so we couldn't stay.

The rain had stopped, so we sat down on a bench in the park where I could eat calmly. "I'll just get myself a pizza real quick. Be right back.", Christian said and rushed off, towards the pizza place at the corner.

I felt the sting in my heart long before I realized who I was seeing, standing in the distance, waving at me. "Zayn!", he shouted and started running towards me.

I couldn't react. I stared at him running, still chewing my noodles. When he stood right in front of me, smiling, I tried to smile back. "Liam." I should have been happy to see him, but apparently my body had decided I wasn't.

I got up to hug him but it felt weird and foreign. I'd waited so long to see him again after he'd vanished without a word but it didn't turn out how I'd imagined.

What was he doing here, coming back after having disappeared without a word of explanation, five months without a single sign of life, acting as though nothing had ever happened between us?

"How are you?" He tried small talk but I could tell he felt as awkward saying that as I felt hearing it.

I cleared my throat. "Good. I'm...good. How are you? Where have you been?"

"That's not that important, really. I'm alright, though." He smiled. "What are you doing?"

I held the box with the noodles up so he could see them. "Dinner."

I'd almost completely forgotten about Christian until he appeared behind Liam, a questioning look on his face. I cursed internally. My heart paced uncontrollably. This could not end well.

"Christian.", I said and Liam spun around to face him. "This is Liam, a good friend of mine. Liam, this is Christian."

"The famous Liam Payne.", Christian said, admiration in his voice, and shook Liam's hand. "I've heard so much about you."

"You have?" Liam looked at me, confused.

"Nah..." Christian laughed. "He mentioned you occasionally."

I held my breath. I didn't want Liam to think I talked about him nonstop. I didn't! I'd tried to forget him. Just as he'd probably forgotten me. But now... There he was.

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Liam's POV

"You didn't tell that he's got a boyfriend." When I came home, my head was all over the place. I'd wanted to see Zayn again, so badly. But this was certainly not what I'd expected.

Harry was stood in the kitchen, cooking something that looked like spaghetti but it smelled like something was seriously burnt in here. "Number One: Hello, Liam. Nice to see you again after you have been away for so long."

When I came home early in the morning that day, he'd still been asleep and I hadn't wanted to wake him up. I had left again right away and not returned until now.

"I'm so sorry. Hi." I walked up to him and pulled him into a hug. When I pulled away, he smiled. I was glad he wasn't already angry at me.

"When did you return?", he turned to the cooker again. From what he had told me when we'd talked occasionally over the time I had been away, he was learning to cook to impress Louis and win him back. By the looks of it, it wasn't going all too well.

I shrugged. "About six in the morning. Didn't want to wake you."

"Good choice." he smirked. "Number Two: What did you expect him to do? Be all miserable and roll up into a ball, desperately waiting for you to return? Who do you think you are?"

I shook my head. "No... I just didn't expect it... I don't know."

He continued: "And Number Three: He doesn't. It's apparently a little complicated and he didn't really tell me much. You should ask him if you wanna know."

I didn't want to know. Ignorance was bliss.

I sighed, throwing one of my arms around his neck. "No. Thanks. I'm good... So what are we having for dinner?"

He looked into the saucepan in front of him in disgust, then chuckled. "How does pizza sound to you?"