zesty grapefruit [zarry] ✔️

8

"Morning," Zain yawns, scrubbing a hand through his hair and probably making it stick up weirdly. But Anne's been treating him like she's one of his aunts so unkempt hair after a shower will surely be fine.

"Good morning," Anne smiles. Robin echoes her warmly, sipping his coffee and reading the newspaper. "Harry's just popped in the shower, he's already had his run. Gemma hasn't turned up, unfortunately."

"Of course," Zain answers, taking the cup of tea Anne hands him. "Thank you."

"You're leaving after lunch, aren't you?" Anne asks. "What do you want to eat?"

"Anything is fine," Zain shrugs, taking the bowl of porridge heaped with fruit she hands him. "I'm not that picky."

"Well, that's not helpful," Anne laughs. "I was hoping you'd decide for us, I'm a bit uncreative with recipes at the moment." She winks at him and he smiles back at her. He knows the pain of deciding what to eat, though his decision was made easier the lack of cheap options. "I'll try and get Harry to cook," Anne continues. "He should make himself useful while he's here, right?" She giggles.

Zain takes a sip of his tea, meeting Robin's eyes in amusement, and eats his porridge.

"What are you laughing about?" Harry asks, coming into the kitchen while putting his hair up. Zain doesn't let himself linger too long on the skin of his belly, turning back to breakfast while Harry sits down next to him, pressing his knee against Zain's.

"Nothing," Anne answers. "What do you want to cook today, baby?"

"What?" Harry asks, taking the bowl his mum hands him. "Why am I cooking?"

"Just thought you might want to," Anne smiles innocently. It's too mischievous too pass as truly innocent and Harry eyes her.

"I guess we could make wraps or something?" he says with a shrug. "And a salad? It's too hot to cook."

"Wonderful idea," Anne nods, a bit too triumphantly, winking at Zain.

Zain grins, amused. She's not very subtle and Harry throws Zain a look as well, slightly questioningly. Zain shrugs at him and hope Gemma will turn up to take the focus off him. It's nice, and they are all nice, but it's still very awkward, spending time with strangers like this, especially since they do not treat him like strangers at all. He doesn't even want to consider that one of them is technically his one night stand and the others are his parents.

💟

"Drive safe!" Anne tells Zain, hugging him and pulling him down towards him, kissing him on the cheek. "And come visit again, alright, dear?"

"I'd like that," Zain smiles. "Thank you for having me."

"You're very welcome, love," Anne says, patting his cheek. "And Harry was very happy you helped him with the garden. I hope he said thank you properly."

"Mum," Harry says with a sigh, scrubbing a hand through his hair. "Of course I did."

"He did," Zain says and tries to keep his dirty thoughts to himself.

"Shut up," Harry says nonetheless. Anne, thankfully, is distracted by Gemma, hugging her tightly and cooing at her.

Zain grins at Harry, wrapping his arms around Harry's shoulders when Harry hugs him. "Didn't say a thing."

"You were smirking, though," Harry says, kissing Zain's cheek. "Have a safe trip and all that. Was nice knowing you."

"Biblically," Zain can't quite help himself, patting Harry's side. "You as well. Until maybe next time."

"You could come visit with Gemma sometime," Harry shrugs. "If you wanted."

"We'll see," Zain nods and pulls the car keys from his pocket. "Take care, yea?"

"You as well," Harry nods and moves back slightly as well.

Zain smiles at Anne another time and goes to sit in the car, closing the door and turning on the AC while Gemma kisses Harry's cheek, hugging him tightly in goodbye. They whisper for a moment and then Gemma slides into the passenger seat, closing the door behind her.

"I think I got a sunburn just from saying goodbye," she complains, losing the seatbelt and waving her her family trough the window while Zain starts the car. "I love summer but it's the worst."

"A bit like I feel about you," Zain grins, driving off.

Gemma hits his arm more forcefully than necessary, making him flinch.

"Ow," he complains. "I'm driving, leave me in peace."

"You're not even on the street, yet," Gemma says, rolling her eyes at him and turning in her seat to wave at her mum through the rear window. "And drive. I wanna get home. I already need another shower."

💟

"Sorry I abandoned you," Gemma says, leaning her cheek against Zain's shoulder when they leave the motorway.

"Yea, that was mostly not cool," Zain answers. "Especially since you know I don't do well with people."

"You do fine. Everyone loves you," Gemma protests. "Mum and Harry certainly did."

"Hm," Zain makes, because he cannot react to that. Gemma will know and Gemma will hit him. Or punish him some other, and definitely worse, way. "Did you have a good time at least? Or did I suffer in vein?"

"You didn't suffer," Gemma snorts, rolling her eyes at him. She sits up, putting her feet onto the dashboard.

"Your brother doesn't know what personal space is," Zain protests. "I suffered."

"Eh," Gemma dismisses him. "And yes, I had a good time." She's quiet for a moment, the way she gets when she's working up to something. "How much would you hate me if I want her to move in next year?"

"Only a little," Zain says, shrugging. He doesn't actually care all that much. It would be nice, splitting rent three ways, and Jo was there most weekends already anyways. "As long as you keep it down."

"You never hear us," Gemma complains. "We're always very polite flatmates."

"Because I put on headphones when she comes over," Zain says. "But sure, you're polite."

"More than you," Gemma yawns. "I've been getting more eyefuls than I ever wanted. Do we still have food in the fridge?" she continues, not waiting for his response. "I didn't look. If not, let's stop at Asda on the way, yea? I don't wanna have to leave the house again."

"Sure," Zain answers. "We have milk, I think. And maybe toast but definitely only one egg, so we need eggs."

"Can you make chicken tomorrow? Let's get chicken as well then."

"Okay," Zain shrugs. "Write it down somewhere, we'll forget."

Gemma sighs in annoyance but takes out her phone. She snorts. "Harry says he misses you, mum is making him work in the garden some more."

"Next time I'll have a shoulder injury or something, alright?" Zain answers, grinning at Gemma. "You're mother is a bit evil."

"Alright," Gemma grins at him, quickly typing on her phone. Zain is fairly sure she's telling Harry about his future imagined injury but at least she hasn't started yelling at him for sleeping with her brother. There's hope she won't ever know.

💟

just a short filler... we'll be doing a time jump to the next chapter now fyi. this story is gonna be more stretched out than cc (and therefore way shorter hopefully haha)