Niall was beautiful when he sang. Zayn had thought it forever. He always would. There was something about the way that his chin jutted out when he strained his voice for the high notes, the way his voice rang so clearly through the glass of the studio, his accent littering his tone.
Zayn liked watching Niall sing almost as much as he loved singing himself. Usually, when he was singing, he could lose himself completely, transported to another world. He could forget - forget the way it hurt when he had to watch Niall not fall in love with him. He just wrapped himself in the song, let it warm him, comfort him.
But this song was different. It was...everything. Ed Sheeran had written a beautiful song without realising that it would prickle at Zayn's skin whenever he sang it. It didn't help that he could see Niall through the glass of the studio window, wrestling with Liam on the couch that he usually shared with Niall. The two of them were laughing, and they looked fucking happy.
Zayn took a deep breath. "...As I feel myself fall, make a joke of it all..." he sang, his voice catching on the last note as he tried to tear his eyes away from the blonde.
"That's great stuff Zayn," Savan commented, speaking through the microphone to get through to Zayn. "There's a lot of emotion there mate. Let's try it again and smooth out that catch."
Zayn nodded. "Yeah, okay." The music started up again. "...Flashing lights in my mind, going back to the time..."
He looked up again, his eyes meeting Niall's through the glass. He was watching Zayn, smiling. He raised a hand and waved cheekily before giving him a thumbs up and mouthing "great stuff" through the window.
"...Playing games in the street, kicking balls with my feet..."
Zayn smiled back, Niall's eyes not leaving his as he continued with the bridge. He was hardly breathing and it couldn't have been good for his voice, not taking enough breath. But he couldn't fucking look away, not with Niall's eyes swimming with so much pride - pride that was there for him.
"...There's a numb in my toes standing close to the edge, there's a pile of my clothes at the end of your bed..."
Niall winked at him and Zayn literally felt his heart jump in his chest as he tried to control the pain that was spreading through his sternum, threatening to snap it in two. No, this wasn't being cocooned by music. This was being tortured by music.
"...As I feel myself fall, make a joke of it all..."
-
"You're in love with Niall," Liam stated bluntly one day. Louis and Harry had left the room earlier, saying they were going in search of a vending machine, but they weren't fooling anyone that they weren't sneaking off for a shag in the toilet.
Niall was in the studio, recording a lower harmony for I Wish. He sounded hypnotising and Zayn had closed his eyes, letting the sound wash over him. He didn't open them to answer Liam. He wasn't shocked by the question. If anything, he was shocked that it hadn't come earlier.
"Yeah, pretty much," he said back quickly, still focussing more on Niall's singing that Liam's questioning.
"And when did that happen?" Liam asked.
Zayn shrugged. "Pretty much since day one. I've got no idea when it changed from needing-to-be-around-him-all-the-time to fucking-in-love-with-him-so-badly-it-hurts to be honest. I don't like to dwell on the details."
He opened his eyes then, a smirk settling on his features as he took in Liam's shocked face. "Don't act so shocked Li," he continued. "It's not exactly like I try to hide it."
"Yeah, you're fucking obvious," Liam said and Zayn laughed.
"What can I say, I got careless. Love does that to you I suppose."
Love does that to you.
-
Zayn had never seen Niall so happy as when they listened to the finished album for the first time. Zayn was pretty pissed off actually, that Niall had barely any solos on the album, but the blonde honestly didn't seem to care at all. He was just happy to be a part of something so big - something that he'd hardly dared to dream of before it was all happening.
The album sounded...good. It was like them, a fucking random mash of things that somehow fit together to form some kind of explosion of life and colour and love love love. And Niall was happy. Zayn could see it in the way he was lying on his back on the floor, his arms above his head, messing up his hair slightly, a content smile on his face. Niall was quiet when he was really happy, letting it all hum inside of him rather than burst out in the fits of laughter he had when he was amused. No, happy was completely different from amused for Niall. Happy for him was being content to just take everything in. His eyes were closed and when they opened, they only did sparingly for a few moments where he would blink up at the room and look at them all, his eyes meeting Zayn's for a fleeting second before the older lad looked away.
Zayn wished he could be the one to make Niall that happy - that he could put that curl in Niall's lips that wasn't really a smile but wasn't really not a smile either.
-
He liked the way alcohol made his bones feel like they were quivering. He liked the way the bass thrummed through his blood and made him shake - with something akin to anticipation.
He was on the dance floor and his hair had fallen out of the quiff that he spent so long styling earlier that evening. What Makes You Beautiful was play for what must have been the fifth time that evening. It was the launch party and Zayn really didn't think he could ever get sick of hearing his first single bouncing off the walls around him. He had a beer clutched in one hand and the other was wrapped around the neck of a blonde girl who he'd forgotten the name of the second after she'd told him.
And then his eyes locked with Niall's across the dance floor and he disentangled himself from the girl, making his way through the cluster of bodies that pressed at him until he met Niall somewhere in the middle. They grinned at each other for a moment before they started to move, dancing together carelessly.
"How fucking amazing is this?" Zayn yelled over the sound of Harry's solo.
"It's fucking amazing Zayney," Niall replied and Zayn didn't have the heart to scold him for the nickname as the song changed into a guttural, sensual beat, pulsing through their bodies.
The two of them laughed, pushed slightly closer together by the sway of bodies that jostled them around slightly. Niall's arms wrapped around Zayn's neck for convenience, the neck of his beer hanging between his fingers loosely and Zayn let his hands rest on Niall's hips. He looked down at Niall, who was smiling a small smile that turned into a smirk as something snapped in his eyes and they turned dark.
Zayn had never seen Niall look so fucking sexy, his pupils blown, a thin sheen of sweat licking across his forehead. Zayn pressed his body closer to Niall's, their legs slotting together as they moved to the beat, his breath rushing across Niall's neck, making the blonde shudder. It was hot in their little bubble of space and they probably didn't need to be standing so close to each other but there was no way in hell that Zayn was taking a step back. In fact, his hands were clutching desperately at Niall's hips, pulling him impossibly closer, aligning their hips with a friction that sent their eyes flying to meet the others as gasps left their lips. Fuck, it was closer than Zayn had ever been to Niall and it was scary. It was terrifying, but then Niall was standing on his toes as he swung his ground his hips into Zayn's and connected their lips.
Niall's lips were wet and warm and burnt Zayn's setting him alight. He was like the sun. He was everything - everywhere. His lips were on Zayn's neck, tugging at his ear lobe, sucking a dirty mark on Zayn's collarbone.
"Fuck, Niall," Zayn murmured into the skin on Niall's neck.
But the words were lost there, because as soon as the song ended, Niall was slipping away through the crowd.
-
Their first tour as One Direction was the best tour of their lives. It started off nervous and structured, the show. But slowly as they got used to the routine every night, they were able to branch out a little more - make it a bit different for each audience. After all, the fans were special, each and every one of them - and they wanted to make them feel that way.
All the boys messed around with each other on stage. Mostly, it was just Harry and Louis who were still trying and failing to hide the fact that they were blatantly in love with each other. But sometimes, Louis dragged Zayn into the fun, messed with him on stage, made him feel as though he was part of something.
It was on the Birmingham leg of the tour that Zayn felt something snap inside him. He was watching Niall, who was talking animatedly to the audience about how far they'd come and how grateful they were, the same old speech that Niall managed to sound enthusiastic about every single night.
And there was something about the way the lights hit him that made Niall look so fucking beautiful that Zayn couldn't resist twirling around him during the next song, singing right to Niall, grabbing his hand and spinning him around.
Niall was graceful on stage in a way that he never was at any other time. He was vibrant and alive and Zayn came to life when he was singing right into Niall's eyes.
He came alive.
-
In the midst of their tour with Big Time Rush, Zayn found himself rooming next to Harry and Louis. They were taking a break from the tour bus for one night, the awkward kinks in their back getting a bit much for all of them. And Louis and Harry got cranky when they went too long without sharing a bed. It was easy to deal with cranky Louis or cranky Harry as separate things, but both of them irritable together was a nightmare - it wasn't something that Zayn wanted to face.
Then again, horny Louis and Harry wasn't exactly something that he wanted to face either. Which was why he was tossing and turning in his bed as he listened to the moaning and groaning coming through the thing walls of the room next door.
And Zayn really shouldn't have been turned on by the cries of Lou, harder and fuck, right there. But it had been so long and Niall had been wearing one of his fucking wife beaters that day and he was so hard, his dick like a rod in his boxers.
Authors note
Right I was going to make a part 3 but i will leave the one shot like that sorry about that guys
My wifi is rubbish because of the snow
Have you guys got any snow?
