Cockblocks and Controllers

Give It Up

wtf we're almost at 2k reads you guys!!!! I don't deserve you guys you're so wonderful. I feel like crying.

•••

Zayn pulled his messenger bag onto his cluttered desk late on Tuesday afternoon. His class had just left around twenty minutes ago. The clock was ticking closer to seven.

Zayn glanced up when there was a knock on his door. The secretary there at the recreation center entered the room, smiling.

"Hello, Mr. Malik. Someone is here to see you," she explained, tucking a strawberry blonde tendril behind her ear.

Zayn furrowed his eyebrows together.

"Someone? Is it Louis?"

"No, it's a new bloke. Says his name is Liam."

Zayn's frown dipped further. Why was Liam here?

"Oh. Tell him to come on in, then."

The receptionist nodded and went to fetch Liam, who entered the room minutes later.

"Hello," the younger spoke quietly, smiling.

Zayn blinked slowly in return.

"How'd you know I'd be here?"

"Louis said you usually stayed here until about eight, after your classes end at six thirty. I figured I'd stop to say hello."

Zayn coughed in his surprise. "You wanted to come see me? Why?"

Liam found himself blushing now.

"Louis said you stayed to do your own art work. I'd like to watch you, if you didn't mind," Liam requested.

Honestly, Zayn hadn't planned on staying for once. But Liam looked so curious and so real that Zayn merely nodded.

"Sure, you can stay. Just don't muck around, yeah?"

"Swear," Liam promised, widening his large, brown puppy eyes and using his index finger to draw an 'x' over the place his heart belonged.

Zayn purposely knocked a paintbrush onto the floor so that he could bend over behind the shelter of his desk, free to blush and smile at Liam's adorableness.

"So, you just teach here at the center?" Liam asked curiously.

"Mhm. I teach a regular art class on Wednesdays and Fridays and an advanced one on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays," Zayn explained.

"Oh. Any age requirement?" Liam teased.

"'Course not. Actually, I thought you'd take the job offer here," the raven-haired man admitted, moving away from his desk to pull out his art crate and the new easel Louis had purchased him for his most recent birthday.

"There's a job offer here?"

"Yeah, there are ads up front. They've added a boxing class just last year. It's on the first floor, where all of the physical classes are. Anyways, they're looking for another trainer in that class," Zayn rambled.

Once again, Zayn was surprising himself with the way he was so okay talking freely to Liam.

"Oh. Wow, I'd actually be up for that while I'm on a break."

"They'd love to have a famous boxer, Liam."

"Especially if he's friends with the beautiful art instructor, yes?" Liam asked shyly, offering a small smile.

Zayn returned it gently. "Especially then."

"What are you working on?" Liam stood beside Zayn, observing the abstract figure the raven-haired man was painting.