Gravity Always Wins (Zouis Fan Fiction)

Chapter 5

It’s been almost a year since their first trip to a tattoo parlour, but Louis finally admits it. ‘I like his sleeve. Is it Maori?’ he says, feigning nonchalance as he nods at the guy who’s about to do Zayn’s tattoo. He won’t look at him and Zayn is itching to give him shit about it, but then Louis adds, ‘I could never get one somewhere that obvious, though.’

When he shrugs, Zayn realises why he’s so reluctant and it makes the edges of his heart soften a little. ‘You shouldn’t worry what other people think, Lou.’

‘My mum would kill me, though,’ he says, taking the folder of designs from the coffee table in front of them and flicking through it. He lingers on one of a stag, tracing it’s antlers with his finger before turning the page. ‘Like actually kill me dead.’

‘Why?’

‘She already has enough shit to deal with,’ he mutters, stopping to look at one of a swallow. ‘I’m supposed to be the one she doesn’t have to worry about any more.’

Zayn nods, his head dipping as he thinks of the last time he went home and he walked past his parents bedroom as his mother told his father that she’d be able to sleep that night. ‘I haven’t slept since he got on that plane to Marbella,’ she said with a weary sigh and she sounded so tired that Zayn couldn’t help but ask himself what he was doing.

‘It’s just a tattoo, Lou,’ he said, scratching the back of his head.

‘Yeah, but she’s already worried sick about what I’m doing on the road. She keeps telling me to be careful. I swear she thinks we’re throwing tellies out of windows and snorting coke off strippers' arses. Can you imagine if I got a tattoo?’

Zayn presses his hand to his stomach and laughs at the thought of Liam snorting coke off a stripper’s arse. He’d probably stop halfway through to ask if she was okay.

‘Yeah, but she’s your mum.’ He stops to wipe a tear away then chuckles as he thinks of Liam and the stripper again. ‘She’ll understand.’

‘And if she doesn’t?’

‘She will.’

‘Yeah but what if I get to eighty and it looks shit? I’m gonna regret it so much.’

‘If you get to eighty and your biggest regret is a tattoo then you're doing okay, Lou.’

‘You’re the wrong person to talk to about this.’ He closes the folder and sighs.

Zayn smiles. ‘So why are you talking to me, then?’