Ziam one shots

beauty is truly in the eye of the tiger

Ao3
By: coffeewordangel
Summary: flower_crown asked for model au ziam over on tumblr. Title from Handsome Boy Modeling School because I think I'm funny.

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Zayn has built a career on subverted expectations and a carefully crafted persona that has no fucks to give. It's served him well. He's been among the most coveted models for three years running and has his pick of campaigns and shows. They've lauded him as "The New Breed of Fashion Model," whatever the hell that means.

Being actively courted by numerous brands allows Zayn to choose those that interest him. Sometimes that means he likes the photographer or the location, but a lot of times it means that the client wants to do something interesting with his look. His favorites are those that fuck with gender norms.

All things being equal, Zayn is rather pleased with his life. He's kept busy and has been all over the world more than once and if he's secretly a little lonely, that's just between him and his right hand. So of course when everything gets turned upside down, Louis fucking Tomlinson is the harbinger.

"Zayn!" Louis greets at entirely too loud a volume for a time prior to noon.

"What," Zayn grumbles back.

"I have good news and bad news, which would you like first?"

Zayn scrunches his eyes closed against the encroaching sunlight. "Good?"

"You can come on our lads weekend after all," Louis announces.

For being Zayn's manager and best friend, Louis cares much more about Harry Styles' schedule than Zayn's when planning get-aways. It's annoying. This latest excursion was planned right in the middle of his Burberry shoot.

"Okay. Care to tell me why?"

"Ehm." Louis clears his throat. "They cancelled on you? Decided to go in a different direction."

Fine. Zayn knew that booking him was outside of the box for that brand, but he'd been looking forward to seeing what they had planned. It's no skin off his nose, though. Knowing Louis, he's sure his manager got him a cancellation fee.

"Alright," Zayn says. "You lot can buy me a drink when we get to Vegas."

It's one campaign out of a dozen. He'll be fine. It's fine.

It's less fine three weeks later when two more clients cancel on him to 'go in another direction'. Zayn snarls into the phone when Louis gives him the news. He knows this industry is about what's newest and hottest but he thought he had a little more time before he had to give up his throne to some wide-eyed newbie.

"Are they all going with the same model?" Zayn demands. He has to know.

There's a long pause on the other end of the phone before Louis answers. "Yeah."

"Who is it?"

"Liam Payne," Louis says. "He's fairly new to fashion shoots. Did some catalog work when he was younger."

Catalog. Ugh. "Find me some work, Lou. It's what I pay you for."

"On it, boss."

The second he hangs up, Zayn is on his laptop googling Liam Payne. The search results confuse him. He's being replaced by some floppy haired puppy child sporting some truly unfortunate plaid and khaki fashion combo? What the fuck. This is fucking unacceptable.

It ends up being a good thing that he's on a forced vacation. He fractured his metacarpal punching a wall.

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