chance connection |1| [zarry] (✔️)

onehundredtwentynine

"Morning," Harry says, stroking A strand of hair from Zain's forehead when he slowly blinks his eyes open.

"Morning, babe," Zain answers his voice rough and still a bit slurred with sleep. Harry loves watching him wake up, loves how soft and sweet he looks. The only thing better is when Freddie is cuddling with him. Or when Zain rolls Harry over with that look in his eyes, biting his lower lip in a way that is way too sexy.

"How long have you been awake?" Zain ask, yawning.

"No long," Harry says, letting his head drop forward to kiss Zain's shoulder, breathing the scent of Zain's skin. He feels shaky with the fight. Zain might have overreacted a bit — except maybe he hadn't— but Harry had opened several cans of worms. He's still not sure how it escalated into a fight when Zain maybe had been mostly venting, but the fear that Zain was gonna leave was still there, laying heavy in Harry's stomach.

He doesn't quite understand how his life has become so completely entwined with Zain's over the past few months, but the thought of not having him in his life already felt impossible. He's never felt like this. Not properly. There are aspects of it with Niall and even Liam, back when, but that had been borne out of the necessity of sharing a life that was in essence very isolating. It had never been a choice he'd made, to commit so completely to someone. He thinks that's what Zain means when he says Harry's never had a proper relationship. And it's wasn't only Zain. There was Freddie as well.

"What are you frowning about, sweetheart?" Zain asks softly, cupping Harry's cheek. It makes Harry's stomach clench and his chest tight when he get affectionate like that. Like his body doesn't quite know how to keep from melting maybe.

"About you. We're good, right?" Harry asks, licking his lips nervously.

"This isn't our first fight, babe," Zain says, cupping Harry's cheek and kissing him sweetly. Harry presses into it, his stomach clenching at the touch. "Well, it's a bit," Zain adds, running his nose over Harry's cheek. Harry sometimes still can't believe how sweet he can be, how soft and affectionate when he spends most of his day being sarcastic or downright mean, raising a kid that swear almost more than Harry did as a teenager. "But we're good. We're not giving up and we'll deal with whatever comes along, right?"

"Yes," Harry nods, relieved and not at all relived. Zain was gonna get papped properly one of these days and he'd freak again and then there would be no coming back. "Breakfast?" he asks, swallowing against the lump in his throat.

"Yea," Zain says, cupping his cheek. "And let's check on the monster."

"I heard him with Louis earlier," Harry reassures him. "He's probably still sorting his Legos."

"He doesn't get that from Louis," Zain says, sitting up.

Harry strokes his back, grinning up at him. "He didn't get it from you either," he teases, glad when Zain flicks him on the nose in response like yesterday didn't happen.

🌱

"Can you take Freddie Saturday?" Zain asks, head in his hand as he sips tea, watching Harry eat his breakfast quietly.

"Why Saturday?" Harry asks, his stomach droppings. He reaches out to touch Zain's hand with his fingertips. "Doesn't Louis want him?"

"Louis and I are gonna look at a flat," Zain says carefully, stopping the tremor in Harry's hand by covering it with his own.

"A flat?" Harry says, clearing his throat when his voice breaks away. "Because of yesterday?" His chest feels tight again. Zain moving out would make everything so much more difficult and would make it so much easier for Zain to pull away.