Strong (A Ziam/Zarry AU)

First Encounter

Chapter One

Zayn Malik had been looking for a new release for a while. Following his much publicised split with Filth frontman Harry Styles he had found that the pent up energy he would have spent having his brains fucked out by Harry was making him restless, antsy quick to anger.

Zayn needed a hell of a lot of patience in his job, dealing with bimbo models, grandiose designers and narcissistic photographers. He was finding it difficult not to snap at them all, shout fuck it and walk out. Kay, his makeup artist and Chris, his stylist, were the only ones he could stand to be around.

He was currently at a shoot for i.D magazine with Vivienne Westwood. They where about to be interviewed about their collaboration on Viv's spring/summer collection. Harry had been the driving force behind that. Had pushed Zayn to draw his designs, had shown them to Vivvien without Zee's knowledge. It made his heart hurt to think of how beautiful things had been between them, once.

"Zayn, boo, stop thinking about him. The camera is picking it up. That look doesn't work for spring/summer it's more autumn/winter." Chris teased knowing making Zayn laugh at his pain was the only way to snap him out of it. She could bloody kill Harry for making Zayn hurt like this. And she and Kay were stuck slap bang in the middle. They both worked with Filth, god what a stupid name for a band, were best friends with Meg the bands bassist. Chris was even dating Edward Harry's older brother and Kay was having a fling with Josh, Filth's drummer. All of their lives were so intertwined, What had Harry been thinking?

"You're so caring." Zayn laughed bringing out of her thoughts. Chris giggled and chucked his chin.

"Just pose properly baby, the quicker you do the quicker this will all be over."

Zayn knew Chris was right so he closed his eyes took a deep breath and unleashed his inner blue steel.

Kay, Chris, every other woman and, as this was a fashion shoot most of the men, sighed. When Zayn turned it on he was almost unearthly in his beauty. This is why he was the most in demand model on the planet. Not just male model but model.

The shoot had wrapped to applause, and he was now being interviewed by Catlin Avery. She had a reputation for being brutal and everyone had been surprised when this hard news journalist had joined a high fashion magazine. So far the questions had been standard, flattering even, about the collection. He started to relax. Maybe she had mellowed.

"Zayn, you are a gay rights activist. UN goodwill ambassador for LGBT issues, heavily involved in World AIDS Day and many other LGBT causes. Do you think this is why everyone was so interested in Harry leaving you for a woman?"

Or maybe not. Zayn sighed, his shoulders dropping.

"Harry is bisexual, it's no different than him being with a man. And we had broken up before he got with Frederica. We just hadn't told everyone, because it was no ones business but ours. Harry and I are still close. He's a huge part of my life and he always will be." Drop it bitch he thought.

"And what do you think on his relationship with Italian supermodel Frederica?" Catlin wasn't going to let this drop. She had taken this job to shake the periodical up.

"I've worked with Fede a lot in the past. She's a good girl. As for her and Harry I have no idea. The three of us don't exactly hang."

Vivienne interrupted Caitlin's next question "We are here to talk out the new line. One more question of that nature and I will boycott your publication. Not one Westwood item will grace it's pages, and I will have others do the same."

Zayn squeezed Vivviens hand in appreciation. He must have been a saint in a past life to have a patron/mentor in the godmother of British fashion.