three a.m. ➳ zustin a.u.

thirty one ➳ bye bye lily

"You love my beautiful voice."

"Sure."

Justin gave him a pat on the shoulder and smiled, "take care of the tattoo parlor while I'm still here alright? We won't be apart for too long."

"You already know I will. I'm more responsible than you are, after all," the older man winked, "I'll make sure the place doesn't burn down."

"I'd kill you if it does."

"Shut up Justin."

"Whatever man," the Canadian voiced, "I'm gonna go uh... I'm gonna walk away now. I'll catch up with you over there, okay babe?"

Zayn nodded, watching as his boyfriend made his way over to Niall, Louis and Harry.

He found it shocking that Justin left him alone with Liam without caring. After the way he had reacted the first night, Zayn would have thought that alone time with Liam was the last thing Justin wanted for the two of them, but if there's a reason for Justin to trust Liam like that than there should be no issue.

"Zayn," his ex said softly as he neared him.

Zayn didn't move back or make any faces, he simply kept his mouth shut and prepared himself for whatever Liam had to say. At this point, he wasn't sure if it would be positive or negative.

"I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I just have to explain myself to you," he trailed off, "I came here hoping to rekindle an old relationship, start a new flame. Obviously, that's not what happened but I kind of feel stupid for trying. I actually feel like a bastard thinking that I deserved you after what I did."

"I can't say I understand what you went through, but trust when I tell you that you weren't the only one feeling pain. I still loved you even after I left, and I still love you now even though I'm trying to teach myself to slowly step away from those feelings. I'm sorry for all that I've done, and I'm sorry for everything I said that night. I didn't mean any of it, I was just angry and the jealousy was overriding common sense. I lost control, once again," Liam chuckled, "it's crazy. As much as I hate losing contact with myself, that's what I always tend to do. I guess that's where I go wrong a lot."

A look of sadness flashed over Liam's features but disappeared as soon as it came, "I'm not going to stand here and beg for your forgiveness. I want to but I won't. I don't know if you'll ever be able to look at me the same way you did before y'know, us, but I hope that one day you will. This trip didn't go the way I wanted it to but I'm thankful for it due to the fact that you're now allowed to love Justin to the fullest. He's a great man, a pain in the ass yes, but a great man nonetheless. And I know he will do for you what I couldn't bare to do, he'll stay."

The last two words almost made Zayn shed a tear, thinking back to all the good times before any of this happened. But here they were now.

"I'm happy for you Zayn. You deserve the best, and I think Justin may be as good as they get. You've been waiting for someone to fix all the broken pieces. He's been waiting for someone to shower with all the love he has within him. And that's why you two work together perfectly. Visually, you two look better than you and I ever did."

Zayn cracked a smile at that, finding that it was almost easy as he shrugged, "eh. I'm obviously the star of the show."