Zayn Sickfic

Zayn's Sick Day

He wasn't sure what was causing this. On their date last night, Liam and he had decided to go grab some food, and Zayn suspected the sashimi wasn't agreeing with him like it was supposed to. He was at the very least thankful he'd been struck with nausea instead of Liam because he was always such a wreck when his lover was sick.

Liam, who was apparently unafraid of a little bit of puke, sat happily next to Zayn in the car, fingers intertwined on the seat next to them as he bobbed his head to whatever strange, pop song was on the radio (Japanese music was weird.)

Zayn always thought he was pretty good at hiding things like discomfort, but he was always shit at hiding things from Liam (or maybe just Liam was really good at reading his emotions,) and whenever they hit a speed bump, the younger boy would squeeze Zayn's hand in time with when his stomach would lurch, and it helped. Liam always did.

But then they got to the conference and Liam's hand had to leave Zayn's and just that made his stomach hurt a hundred times worse (though he always felt a little nauseous when he was forced into his "straight, yes-I'm-dating-a-girl, no-that-adorable-hot-boyfriend-of-mine" mode.)

When they got backstage, Harry came up to him, concerned.

"Hey, mate, you alright?" he asked and Zayn nodded, despite the hand splayed on his stomach telling him otherwise.

"Yeah," he mumbled, trying to keep his answers short and brief (he'd let the other boys answer questions today.)

"You sure?" he said, looking unconvinced. "Because Paul can-" But Zayn shook his head frantically (making him even dizzier and urgh, there was the vomit in his mouth.)

"M'fine," he said, smiling the best he could and Harry nodded at him, still looking unsure, but decided to let it go.

 Liam watched him from across the room, noticing how the second Harry was gone, he was wincing again and he frowned.

~ ~ ~

Liam kept his eyes on Zayn the entire time they were on the stage and he grimaced every time Zayn did, hissed whenever someone bumped into Zayn's belly and the pain showed on his face.

Zayn, for his part, was feeling like utter shit and getting worse every minute. The flashes of the cameras were making him feel dizzy and even more nauseous and he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to last.

When they all lined up for pictures, he made sure to stand next to Liam, because if he could derive comfort from anything, it would be Liam's warmth and presence. He smiled through all of the photos and he was pretty proud of himself for how he was doing so far, despite his pain.

It happened when they were all taking a picture with the pretty lady in the oriental dress. He was leaning over towards Liam behind her, his arm almost completely straight as it stretched around his boyfriend's shoulders. He might look ridiculous, half-bent over, but if it was what was keeping him from throwing his guts up all over the Japanese press, so be it.

Once the picture was taken, he straightened up, but he knew immediately that he'd hit a wall. His stomach was swirling and bile was very quickly rising in his throat. He had his hand on his stomach and he was looking back and forth between his bandmates, trying to figure out what to do, because he definitely was not going to make it. Eventually, he decided that he'd rather not be the first of them to throw up in public, so he pushed silently behind the others as they started towards their stools and hurried off the stage, muttering a quick "I can't" to Paul before he broke out into a sprint, rushing through a nearby door and emptying his stomach into a trash bin, fortunately away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi.

As he continued to heave, he felt a large hand on his back, rubbing across it soothingly. When he had nothing else left to throw up, Paul put an arm around his shoulder.