chance connection |2| [zarry]

onehundredninetynine

"Zain!" Freddie attaches himself to Zain as soon as Zain opens the door to the living room. Zain grunts, stumbling slightly, and rubs his fingers through Freddie's hair. His head is killing him, even after the shower, and he doesn't even remember Harry saying goodbye except for a hazy impression of lips on his cheek.

"Good morning," Perrie smirks from her place on the floor.

"How are you awake?" Zain grunts more than says, crouching down to hug Freddie properly. "Where're the others?" 

"Harry and Louis are at work, Gemma is taking a shower and Freddie and I," she adds, gesturing towards the legos spread out in front of her, "are building things. What are we building, Freddie?"

"A police station," Freddie says eagerly, letting go of Zain to rush back to his legos. "Look!"

"Looks good, monster," Zain yawns, scratching his chin. The floor next to him looks very tempting. "Did you have breakfast?"

"Yea, with mummy," Freddie says distractedly, making siren noises. Zain winces. He doesn't remember ever being this obsessed with legos.

"Mummy," Perrie mouths at Zain, looking curious and amused. Zain rolls his eyes at her, except that seems to make the headache worse.

"Imma have breakfast as well," Zain says, ignoring Perrie who is fluttering her eyelashes and has crossed her fingers below her face, pretending to be infatuated even though she must have known for a while. Gemma certainly did.

Freddie nods, disinterested again. "Ok." 

Zain snorts and forces himself to get up. "When are you two leaving?"

"We were just waiting for you to wake up, actually," Perrie says, standing up as well. She follows him to the kitchen, hooking her arm through his. "We don't want to be home too late or get into evening traffic." She leans against the counter next to Zain and watches him wince his way through putting the kettle on. "Was nice seeing you, though." She pokes his leg with her toe. "You look good."

Zain snorts, wincing again, and grabbing a glass, filling it with cool water and downing it in one go. He's never felt less good, he felt officially old. He's sure his hangovers hadn't been this bad just a couple of years ago. "I feel great, too," he says, making sure Perrie can hear the sarcasm.

She rolls her eyes at him. "You know exactly what I mean. Your mum thinks so, too."

"You've been taking to mum?"

"'Course," Perrie shrugs, taking the mug of tea when Zain hands it to her. "I like it, but it was awkward when we were all angry at each other and you were depressed."

"She never blamed you, Pez," Zain sighs, crossing his arms on the counter and letting his head rest on them. 

"I know," Perrie says, rubbing her hand over Zain's hair soothingly. "But still, awkward. I'm glad we're friends again," she adds more quietly, leaning her head against Zain's shoulder.

"Me too, babe," Zain yawns and forces himself to open his eyes. She had been one of his best friends and it was nice having her back. 

"Morning, my loves," Gemma sings, sliding into the kitchen on socked feet and grinning widely.

"Why are you so chipper?" Zain groans, his headache getting worse just from looking at her smile, and straightens.

"It's a beautiful day," Gemma sings, planting a smacking kiss on Zain's cheek and then another one on Perrie's lips.

Zain blinks. He will need to tell Harry later, he thinks, taking a sip of his tea.

"And you got laid," he adds. "Some of us still manage to behave like normal people the next day."