It’s the scribbling that wakes Niall up. The small scritch-scratch scritch-scratch of pen against paper. He rolls onto his back and lets out a huff as even the faintest night light that Zayn’s put on stings his eyes.
“Zayn?” Niall moans, shutting his eyes again but tilting his head in Zayn’s direction. “What time is it? What’re you still doin’ up?” Niall mumbles before he bats a hand at Zayn’s thigh.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” Zayn drops the pen to the paper he has on his lap and reaches a hand to stroke at Niall’s hair before he brushes the back of his knuckles against Niall’s sleep stained cheeks.
Niall opens his eyes at the caress and smiles warmly at Zayn. “S’okay.” He grins before he bats his hand at Zayn again. “What’re you doing though?” Niall rolls onto his side so that he can prop his head on his fist and show some semblance of consciousness.
“Oh, nothing.” Zayn shrugs before he picks up his pen to doodle at the corner of his page. He glances at Niall again after a moment of silence and Niall quirks up an eyebrow at him, disbelieving of his previous statement so Zayn shrugs again. “Just writing.”
Niall sits up a little more and tries to see the writing on the page but Zayn tilts the page further out of his sight. “Budge up. What’re you writing?” Niall laughs a little, tugging at the sheet until Zayn finally submits to him.
Once in his hand, Niall can see the paper is littered with words like blonde and small and lithe and rosy but the word that appears the most is perfect and he looks back up at Zayn as a flush of heat rushes to his cheeks and he cocks his head to the side.
Zayn works his bottom lip between his teeth and looks up at the ceiling before he mumbles nearly under his breath. “I was trying to put you down in words… but…” He looks back down at Niall with soft eyes. “I can’t manage…”
“Why?” Niall asks in an almost hurt voice because he thinks what Zayn is saying is that he’s not good enough for anything Zayn’s written on the paper.
But Zayn sweeps down to catch Niall’s lips, mumbling unintelligibly against his mouth to soothe him before he leans back. “Because it’s never enough to describe you.”
