It's Better To Not Know Better (Ziam)

Driven

{A/N I'm sorry it took me almost a month to upload, I was finishing school up for a while, I've got a visit tomorrow with my mother, and I was working on a portrait (if you must know, it was Aiden Grimshaw). I hope you guys like this chapter, but there's another little (it's not exactly little) note at the end, because I'd like to have a word with you about smoking. Sounds boring, but you should read it, because I am not a teacher, and I have different views, and they're probably a bit more useful.}

The boys had tried in vain to keep Liam conscious, but some things just cannot be done. Liam was out in under twenty minutes.

Zayn refused to talk to Louis, being that he was still mad at him for ruining a good chance of Liam getting his sleep back.

So when Liam finally woke up again, stumbling into the room, Zayn immediately got up to make him some tea.

Liam sat on the couch in front of the table, his hands over his eyes. He stayed that way for quite a while, until his tea was finally ready and placed in front of him. Moving one hand to his forehead, he lifted the cup with the other, taking a sip and sighing.

"Thank you, Zayn."

"You seem sick, are you all right?" Zayn asked. Liam swallowed hard, pushing Zayn even closer to the idea that there was something very wrong with Liam. The vein in his neck flexed at the thought.

"Good God, Zayn, I just woke up," he said, a slight chuckle.

"No, I mean. . .Never mind."

Niall patted Liam's shoulder and stood up, stretching from sitting down for so long. They had all been waiting until Liam came around again.

"So what was going on between you two back at the hotel?" Niall asked, pointing at Zayn and Lou. Zayn looked at Louis for the first time in a half hour. Glared. Louis rolled his eyes.

"He's mad because he thinks I'm why Liam is so incredibly knackered."

Zayn's teeth clenched and he forced an obviously fake smile. "Maybe because you woke him up in the middle of the night when he had already missed too many hours of sleep." The smile faded into another dirty look towards the end.

"Well excuse me for trying to protect my friend."

"Which one, me or him?"

Liam stood up and walked out of the room, leaving the rest of his tea behind. Zayn sighed as he watched him leave, knowing he hated it when the boys got into arguments. Zayn bit his lip, knowing it was even worse for Liam if they had these fights that had to do with him, right in front of him, when he was still exhausted, and Zayn did not want to make anything worse on Liam.

He had really felt like he was doing a shit job of protecting Liam lately. Liam was protecting him more than vice-versa. His unofficial full-time second job, and he was getting sloppy with it. He would tell himself to stick to singing, but he had a very important job, so of course he couldn't just quit. And he felt that with a bit more practice, he could get better at it.

He could only hope.

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

When Zayn found Liam, he was on his bunk with his laptop, and his earbuds in. When Zayn moved the curtains aside, Liam looked up, taking out his earbuds.

"Can I help you?"

Zayn rubbed the back of his neck as he sat on the edge of the bunk. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened in there."

Liam's eyes looked red and tired. Zayn squinted, now realizing why Liam had been covering his eyes and had his head down.

Liam rubbed his eyes, uncomfortable under Zayn's intense speculation. Zayn knew that was probably a bad idea for sore irritated eyes, and took Liam's hand away. Liam looked at him curiously, but Zayn just sighed.