*Harry’s POV*
I woke up to sunshine through the fancy hotel windows and a Zayn on my chest. I was now 6’4 and the 5’11 seemed like holding a little puppy in my lap. Speaking of puppy... where’s Zarry? He’s the ringbearer, i told him to take his responsibilities seriously, he can’t ruin our big day for a little trip to the park.
“Zarry!” I called, waking Zayn on accident. He stirred so i decided to make our last romantic gesture as fiancees. i snuck over to the edge of the bed where his back was to me and then hugged him from behind. He rolled over so he was on his back so I reminded him that was not a day for sleeping in.
“Happy wedding day Zany,” I said whispered into his ear before his eyes snapped open and he was on his feet in record time. I stepped back as to not get hit in the face with his flailing arms.
“Omigawd! What time is it?!” He shrieked. Zayn kind of had a thing for sleeping in and tried his best not to be late for a day like this. But as I have reminded him countless times before, even if he were late, we would be forced to wait for him, I can’t marry myself you know.
“Oh yeah Zayn, I forgot to mention” I said banteringly facepalming myself, “you missed the wedding, I got hitched to Liam instead since you didn’t wake up.”
His mouth hung open for a second until he realized how that sentence couldn’t even be remotely possible since Dani and Liam were about as in love as me and Zayn. They had recently moved in together... down the street. I love them and all, but now me and Zayn would be doing... stuff and he would come over and knock on our door asking us for random things.
“Get ready!! We have T minus 4 hours to get married. Break!” I grabbed my tux, a kiss, and ran out of the room.
***FOUR AND A HALF HOURS LATER***
I checked my watch again, the ceremony had started 3 minutes ago, Zayn had to be here in less than 2 minutes! Don’t panic... Don’t panic... He won’t be late... He promised to be on time...
To answer my thoughts, here comes Mr. Perfect right now. Oh my, he looked so handsome, I wish I could just meet him in the middle and... control Harry, nothing good will come out of you snogging your husband before you say “I Do”. He was so close, I could just reach out my arm and grab him, run away from everyone and just be alone, the two of us, that was all that mattered.
He smiled at me with those model-like teeth and I swear my knees weakened slightly. “Easy tiger...” he said smirking at how he could still do this to me even though we were well out of our teenage years. He grabbed me by the arm and kissed me on the cheek. Was he allowed to do this? Whatever, He’s so hot right now I don’t care. Then the speaking started, “We are gathered here today to celebrate the joining ny matrimony of two lovers...” Why am I crying already?
***THE EXCHANGING OF THE VOWS (CUE THE AWWS)***
“The boys - excuse me men,” We may be mid 20s, but we were nowhere near being mature enough to be men. “Have decided to write their own vows, Zayn you may start with yours.” The pastor stepped back and Zayn took out some blue index cards. Oh Zayn, and his sometimes OCD habits. Then, he spoke words that took my breath away - literally I don’t remember breathing through half of it.
“Harry, I’ve known you for a good part of my life now and I can honestly say this is a day I’ve dreamt about since 6th grade. I don’t think you knew that, and I don’t think I’ve told you this,” that earned a few chuckles; Zayn never really liked talking about his past, for obvious reasons, “but that day I came home smiling for no apparent reason. I don’t remember what you said to me or did, but looking back, it really doesn’t matter. You could blink and I’d feel faint. No one has ever had this big of an impact on me, ever. And back then I thought it was just because you were my best friend, but it was more than that. I looked back that day in 6th grade and realize I had fallen for you. That’s why it broke my heart the day when-” he stopped, his breath catching in his throat and eyes watering at the terrible remembrances of those years in between our friendships.
He quickly cleared his throat and skipped the rest of that part, “nevermind with that. But as a teenager we came back together, and I guess we have Ms. Bosworth to thank for that.” The memory of that day in class where Zayn and I had been paired up as partners still lingers in the back of my mind every now and then since it was the first memory of me and Zayn that didn’t have too many holes in it. I don’t think we ever even got around to finishing that project, we basically would cuddle all the time and cherish each other's presence.
After high school, Zayn and I found some old photo albums from our elementary years which made some improvements on my used-to-be practically non-existent memory (with some help from Zayn who, in his lonely ages, used to just think about the past). Some things that I remembered were: Zayn always wanted a dog (hence why we adopted Zarry); the popular kids never liked me until I started standing up for Zayn (still doesn’t make sense); him and I always went to Milkshake City on Saturday (and Nandos on Friday after school to keep Niall quiet); Zayn sat alone everyday at lunch since I ditched him which distanced himself from the rest of the world; I used to dress like a Lesbian librarian.
My groom’s voice disrupted my thoughts as I remembered we were still making our vows. “You okay?” he mouthed, seeing how distant I looked.
“Never been better,” I whispered truthfully, I may have just been thinking of some of the worst memories in my lifetime but hey, I’m getting married to Zayn Malik.
“Ever since that day where we were assigned that ridiculous project, you haven’t left my mind. I love everything about you. Your crooked smile, the way you throw your head back laughing like a little kid as if I’m a comedian even though I’m nowhere near hilarious, your laugh itself, your curly hair that makes me feel safe when I hold onto it since it will forever remind me that you’re mine, the way you start every morning with ‘hello beautiful or gorgeous’ and end it every night with ‘I love you’s and ‘I love you more’. I love the way your hands are way too big for your body even though you’re 6’2,”
At this point tears had ran down both their faces and continued streaming down until the end of the vows, “the way you look in the morning and how you’re always happy to see me and Zarry even when we’re right terrors. I Just-” his eyes connected with mine and I could see how much emotion he was holding back not to either curl up in a ball and start crying with all this lovey dovey talk or pounce on me as if our family weren’t watching our every move.
“Really hope that you know that I am in love with you and always will be. I know the vows say ‘until deaths do us part’ but I know that even in the afterlife, I will always love you, cherish you, and keep you with me, forever.” Okay, now we were bawling like little girls who dropped their ice cream on their favorite dresses.
The pastor gave us a minute before asking me to read my vows. I smiled back and felt around my front jacket pocket. Shit shit shit shit... it was here this morning... is that, nope gum wrapper... shit shit shit shit... other pocket, no luck, fuck my life, guess I’m gonna wing it. Zayn looked at me worriedly seeing something was up. I smiled back meekly and tried to picture the sheet of paper in my mind. There it was, blurry, but I think I remember most of it. I had double, triple and quadruple checked it making sure every detail was in order.
“Uhmm, I’m sorry everyone,” I said in advance knowing that if I wasn’t reading from it I would end up talking even more slowly than I already do, “I lost the paper, but I think I remember it.” Everyone started laughing knowing me and I saw some of them still had tears streaked down their faces from Zayn’s speech. I’m sure mine will produce a similar reaction.
“Looking back on the past, I know that the one thing that kept me going wasn’t the girls who kept my reputation in line or money that let me get whatever I wanted. None of that mattered.” I saw Zayn get out a handkerchief and wipe under his eyes. Harry, keep your cool. Where was I? Right, Zayn.
“It was always you Zayn.”
“You probably hadn’t thought of that since the time in between our friendships and relationships was so horrible. I mean let’s face it, throughout those 3 years I acted like a-” the pastor. Ugh, gotta save yourself QUICK HARRY!! “Bad person,” that earned a lot of laughs from my family, them knowing how much of a potty mouth I am.
“But I’m serious, you were in the back of my mind whether I was thinking guiltily in middle school or swooning over you in highschool, you were there. Like a guardian angel.”
I looked up and smiled at him and he managed a half-smile back through his tear. Don’t cry... don’t you dare cry.
I took a shaky breath and continued on, “I truthfully hated my reputation in high school, being known by all the wrong reasons. I even got to the point of trying to make it all go away. Self harm, mild depression, even suicide hung in my mind.” I heard Zayn’s breath hitch, he knew that I wasn’t always the happiest back in high school with all that popularity, but I always hid from him at how far it had gotten at some points.
Then it dawned on me: This is exactly how Zayn was in middle school. Only, it was so much worse. It wasn’t my bloody best friend who started spreading the slut rumors. Nope, I did that to myself. Poor little middle schooler Zayn going through something so terrible at such a young age. We both looked up at each other and and he seemed to have known that I was thinking about how he felt the exact same thing. We both hugged each other, hard. I heard him crying into my shoulder and broke down.
“Look what you did Zayn, now I’m crying in front of my family,” we started laughing. Which...eventually turned into sobs a couple seconds later. We broke apart and tried to compose ourselves seeing we now not only made each other cry, but most of the people in the pews too.
“That’s how bad I wanted out of this confusing web of lies. But then, I would think of you.” I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes knowing that I would break down again and might not get to finish. “Sure it was fun having a different blond a week - gay or not - but they were all fake. None of those girls wanted the real me, they wanted the version of me that they could gossip to their friends about. Back then I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to be the real or fake me, let alone know which one you wanted, if any of me at all for that matter. I just thought, that if I had a little luck left you might want to go on a date with me.
“I remember like yesterday the day I found out how different I was from everyone else, sexuality wise. Having a crush on some brunette boy in the second grade and having people looking at me like I’m a freak since I wasn’t crushing on Christina or Emily. Then you came along with your perfect eyes, your perfect hair, perfect personality, perfect... everything. I could literally go on forever.”
And here we are, crying once again. He looked up at me and through the tears I could see him smiling, really smiling. Damnit why’d I have to make this speech so long. I just wanna go home with Zayn, not in that hotel, not in front of everyone I’ve ever known, just him and I. Come on Harry you're almost done, do it for Zayn.
On that note I grabbed his hands and said the rest of my speech looking in his eyes, forgetting about everyone else, just for a minute....
“And you made me feel as though there were other people like me out in this crazy, mixed up world, even though I didn’t know you liked me back until high school. You always were my other half, the piece of me that was buried somewhere under my mattress along with the rest of my emotions and feelings since that one horrible day. I used to just lie awake at night just thinking about how lucky I was to have you as a best friend, someone I could talk to and would actually listen. Which is why I have asked, and been granted, with the honor to marry you, the most amazing person on this planet. With that, I promise to love you, to cherish you, to honor you every day, and to stay by your side. Also to be your shoulder to cry on and still act like the little Baby Tarzan and D.J. Malik that we were all the way back in middle school, for the rest of my life.”
A/N: This fanfic has finally come to an end :) I wanted to end it with a Zarry wedding instead of Nouis because, well...it's a Zarry fanfic. I just want to say how thankful I am to everyone, because I love writing and knowing that other people are actually reading and enjoying the work is amazing! I have some other projects that aren't zarry, but will be uploaded soon after midterms. Thank thank thank you to everyone for all the reads and love! Your feedback means everything and I wish I could give all of you a hug! This is the end :)