THE WATERS :: ZAYN

braids

!!!

Solána woke up the next day, her hair sticking to her face and a small puff of air leaving her lips. She turned over and came face to face with Zayn, who was sound asleep.

She pouted because he was so cute, his lips in a small pout and eyelashes settling on his cheeks. Zayn's hair was splayed all over his face and his arms were around her waist, tightening a little when she tried to move.

Solána just giggled softly, noticing he was close to waking up also but she decided he deserved to sleep a little more. Teaching someone how to do basic daily activities had to be physically and mentally draining.

So she pushed his hair back and put a hand on his forehead, closing her eyes and concentrating as she gave Zayn a little more sleep time. He instantly started to snore and drool and maybe Solána did a bit much. She got out of his grasp and crawled onto the floor. It took a lot for her to continue walking but she tried, standing up fully and bracing herself against the wall.

"Yes!" she grinned and walked to the dresser to get a new pair of clothes. Mermaids had no use to shower because they were always in the water but actually smelled really good. Like flowers or some shit.

She picked out another pair of joggers that had three stripes down the side and a thin red sweater that had really long sleeves. She pushed them up and put the pants on over the boxer briefs.

Solána looked in the mirror, super proud that she did something by herself. She strolled downstairs, meeting Rhino in the kitchen and petting him.

"Hi," she said timidly, pushing the hair out her face so she could see him. "Ugh. Do you know where a hair tie is?"

He just barked lowly, licking her cheek and walking towards the bag of food.

"Oh," she skipped over to the bag and opened it. There was a cup inside and she figured he was supposed to have a few scoops of it. Solána poured Rhino some dog food and he went straight to it, forgetting about her and munching on his own breakfast.

"Uh," she cut the faucet on and gently washed her hands, it stung a little because her skin hadn't made contact with water in a while. "Okay."

Solána decided to challenge herself today, she wanted to make some sort of breakfast but nothing too fancy. Times had changed since the last time she had been in a house and she didn't want to mess any of Zayn's things up.

Solána looked through cabinets, searching for anything she could make that wasn't cereal or too complex for that wretched stove.

"Oooh," she saw a cylindrical container of dry oats and thought of making oatmeal. It wasn't much but it was a start, and Zayn should like oatmeal, right? It was in his house, after all.

"Okay -- what the hell?" she moved her hair away and huffed when it came back, "goodness," Solána looked around the kitchen for anything that could tie her hair up. She was getting upset, hence why there was a rumble of thunder outside. That girl got so worked up, she needed to chill.

"Wait," she jogged to a small mirror and looked at her hair. Trying to remember what she used to do to other girl's hair in the small cabins of the plantation, she began braiding her hair back on one side. She closed her eyes and tried to remember exactly what she did. Her fingers slipped up a few times but when she opened her eyes, it came out pretty good. A little rusty, but good enough.

"Yay!" she cheered, doing the other side and making sure her hair wasn't too messy. There was no clear part between the braids but it wasn't that deep, she could manage and really, who was she trying to impress?

Solána skipped back to the kitchen with a grin on her face.

!!!

She heard Zayn when he got out the shower, humming a little tune as he did so.

Solána procrastinated on the whole oatmeal thing because something on TV really caught her attention. Some orange haired guy was running for president, and just by the five minutes he had talked, she knew there was no hope for him. He was just a terrible person, like the type to bring slavery back.

She shook her head then heard Zayn wake up, causing her to remember she was supposed to do something.

Now she was eating an apple and watching the oatmeal start to actually cook. She was honestly starving and pretty upset that she forgot about a whole meal.

"What are you doing?"

Solána dropped her apple in fright, turning around to see Zayn's confused face.

"Um..."

"Are you cooking?" and she couldn't tell if he was upset or..."what are you cooking?"

"Oatmeal," she replied slowly, not meeting his eyes. Zayn walked over and looked in the pot. He smiled and she sort of felt relieved.

"Oatmeal, huh?" he looked at the top of her head and grinned, "and your hair?"

"Oh," she played with one of her braids and blushed, so happy he couldn't see it, "yeah, it got in the way."

"Cute. Very cute. Uh," he looked back at the pot, "is this for me?"

"Sort of. I was really hungry."

He chuckled, wrapping his arm around her. "Thank you, Solána."

"You're welcome," she kept blushing, covering her cheeks and leaning into him, "it's not done yet."

"Okay," he bent down and grabbed the apple, "I guess you don't want this anymore."

"Sadly."

"Sorry, man," he threw it away and Solána took a peek at the back of his neck.

"Is that those tattoo things?"

"Where?"

"Right there." She poked his neck and he snickered.

"Yeah. It's a bird."

"It's a plane."

"It's--" he looked at her and grinned, "you got me."

she's just smiled, looking at the pot and stirring the oatmeal. "Okay, it's almost done! Can you give me some margarine?"

"Yeah," he went to the fridge while she carefully held the pot and drained excess water out of it. "What else do you put in it?"

"Sometimes I put maple syrup or cinnamon," she replied, setting the pot back down and turning the stove off, "this stove is confusing. I hit a button earlier and the oven part got hot."

"Solána," he laughed, putting ingredients on the counter, "I thought you could read."

"I can! It's just the placement of the words, Zayn."

"Sure it is."

"Stop that, now," she stomped her foot and maybe it was a mistake because she almost died, "ow."

"Ain't that some shit," he shook his head and snickered, "anyway. I'm hungry as hell."

!!!

all of a sudden I started listening to Travis Scott idk what happened bro