As Far As I'm Concerned [Ziam Palik AU]

viii. The Secrets of a Reaper

Dedication: This one goes to @26letters because she's actually been an avid reader of this story! I didn't realize that for a while (I'm so sorry) but she's commented her reactions (wonderful things, I'm telling you) and is sweetly complimentary. I recently started reading her story Nirvana and it's very interesting so far! She just seems lovely and I really appreciate her reading and commenting her thoughts, thanks so much! :)

[Chapter Eight: The Secrets of a Reaper]

 

            Zayn wasn’t scared of Niall. Well really, Zayn wasn’t scared of anything; at least he hadn’t really found anything after a few years of the afterlife. He was definitely intimidated by angels like Harry, and sure, Niall maybe had a bit of a hold over him…  but it was more that than intimidation of any sort.

            Still, he kind of couldn’t help finding himself wondering why he was taking an especially long route home from his last reap, all just to avoid Liam’s college. Like, Zayn only wanted to walk and not teleport because it gave him some alone time to think, yet he still managed to gravitate towards the human and he still couldn’t bring himself to get too close.

            He hated it, but deep inside, he knew Niall was right. Fraternizing with a human such as Liam was dangerous, wrong even. Though they technically lived in the same world, they were from two completely different realities, Zayn of the supernatural and Liam of the living… the normal.

            It was just going to get one or both of them hurt… or possibly worse. Death wasn’t really all that bad – at least in Zayn’s experience – but he still didn’t want to put Liam in that position. Something about Zayn just suddenly thought too much of him to force him to suffer a fate like that.

            So he did what was obviously best: He forced himself to stay away. It had only been three or so days since his uncomfortable run-in with Niall, and he’d been doing well so far. Liam had really only come by once since they last spoke – otherwise known as the time where Liam unknowingly had his life saved by Zayn – and Zayn made himself be good about pretending he wasn’t home when he was there.

            “Thanks, by the way.”

            This was only the second time really, but Zayn was already beginning to get annoyed with strangers showing up in his house. And okay, sure, this wasn’t exactly a stranger… but regardless.

            “You,” he turned in the small space that was his kitchen, giving the angel in front of him an angry, accusatory glare. “Who do you think you are showing up here?” A rush of uncontrollable rage was suddenly washing over Zayn towards Harry. For not helping Liam when he was dying, for probably plotting all along to get Zayn in trouble with his kind, for not doing his fucking job.

            Harry merely raised an eyebrow at that, cold and distant. “That’s no way to treat a guest,” he said coolly. “You demons really have no manners, do you?”

            Zayn forced himself to bite his tongue in response to that one. Admittedly, a small part of him still couldn’t help still wondering if this was going to be the moment of his real, eternal end. Despite the boyish curls and light eyes, Harry really did have a threatening quality to him, at least around Zayn, and he didn’t want to temp that too much.

            “Why so quiet now?” Harry mocked, a small smile sweeping across his face that twisted into a disturbing smirk at the end.

            Zayn swallowed and simply remained firm, forcing himself to regain control again. “Why did you leave it up to me to fix Liam?” He finally asked, unable to help his accusatory tone. “Why did you just run off and nearly let Liam die in that alley?”