( This story was meant to be a Ziall fanfic but I changed it to a Ziam one ) ♥
From the second Zayn woke up that morning, he felt like shit. He actually felt physically sick to his stomach and he would rush to the bathroom so he could throw up were it not for his boyfriend lying in the bed next to him. Not wanting to disrupt Liam, he had decided to just stay laying over his boyfriend's chest and try to sleep it off (of all the medicines in the world, cuddling with Liam was pretty much the most effective and the most enjoyable.)
Unfortunately, he couldn't sleep it off because his stomach hurt so bad that he couldn't get himself to sleep, and even if he could, it probably wouldn't have helped.
While trying to hold in his moans and groans of agony, Zayn soon felt some shifting in the arms that were wrapped around his waist and Liam slowly turned his looks at the older boy in his arms, smiling down at him sleepily.
"Mornin'," he greeted, grinning and blinking at him through his chocolate brown eyes and Zayn instantly felt his spirits lift, though his stomach was still killing him.
"Good morning, love," he said, grimacing at how opening his mouth made his stomach lurch and the bile try to fight its way up to his throat. Liam, though still drowsy, noticed Zayn's discomfort and his eyes focused on him immediately, and his gaze turned into a concerned one.
"Are you alright, Zayn?" Liam asked, placing a warm hand on the older boy's cheek, and Zayn shrugged.
"M'kay. Just woke up with a stomachache is all," he said, and Liam's eyes softened.
"Oh, my poor Zee," he cooed, pressing a soft kiss on Zayn's forehead. Then, he wrapped his arms around Zayn's shoulders, pulling him close comfortingly. Zayn instantly went into the embrace, trying to breathe in Liam's scent and let it calm him.
It didn't do much, but it was something.
~ ~ ~
He managed to get dressed and ready without much difficulty, save for one dash to the toilet to dry-heave over it for a few minutes while Liam thought he was shaving.
When they went down to breakfast, the very thought of food made him gag, so he decided against it, settling to watch the other boys eat and politely declining every bite of food Liam offered to him of every part of his meal.
"Remember, boys, I want polite, British-slash-Irish gentlemen at the press conference. No funny business!" Paul reminded them.
"Pauly-kins, I'm offended you'd expect anything less than the very highest level of tact and decorum from us at all times," Louis replied through a mouthful of waffles and Paul rolled his eyes, while Zayn felt himself heave slightly at the sight of the half-eaten food.
Zayn hadn't been too worried about the press conference at first; he'd expected his stomach to feel better by the time they left, but now, they were just getting ready to head out, and he felt even worse than before. He'd pushed through worse on other occasions, but this was his first time in this country and he wanted to give all of their fans his best.
He resolved himself to just smiling and waving and putting on his happy, healthy, not-about-to-vomit-all-over-these-nice-people face because he couldn't feel any worse than he did now.
~ ~ ~
And then he got in the car and he realized just how wrong he was. The car motion, especially when his stomach was this upset, was really bad. Liam was sitting next to him and he wanted him to move because he really didn't want to throw up all over his boyfriend, even though Liam would be more concerned about Zayn than himself and his stinky, disgusting clothes, but he couldn't tell him to move, because he was afraid that if he opened his mouth, he would end up emptying his stomach anyway.
He wasn't sure what was causing this. On their date last night, Liam and he had decided to go grab some food, and Zayn suspected the sashimi wasn't agreeing with him like it was supposed to. He was at the very least thankful he'd been struck with nausea instead of Liam because he was always such a wreck when his lover was sick.
Liam, who was apparently unafraid of a little bit of puke, sat happily next to Zayn in the car, fingers intertwined on the seat next to them as he bobbed his head to whatever strange, pop song was on the radio (Japanese music was weird.)
Zayn always thought he was pretty good at hiding things like discomfort, but he was always shit at hiding things from Liam (or maybe just Liam was really good at reading his emotions,) and whenever they hit a speed bump, the younger boy would squeeze Zayn's hand in time with when his stomach would lurch, and it helped. Liam always did.
But then they got to the conference and Liam's hand had to leave Zayn's and just that made his stomach hurt a hundred times worse (though he always felt a little nauseous when he was forced into his "straight, yes-I'm-dating-a-girl, no-that-adorable-hot-boyfriend-of-mine" mode.)
When they got backstage, Harry came up to him, concerned.
"Hey, mate, you alright?" he asked and Zayn nodded, despite the hand splayed on his stomach telling him otherwise.
"Yeah," he mumbled, trying to keep his answers short and brief (he'd let the other boys answer questions today.)
"You sure?" he said, looking unconvinced. "Because Paul can-" But Zayn shook his head frantically (making him even dizzier and urgh, there was the vomit in his mouth.)
"M'fine," he said, smiling the best he could and Harry nodded at him, still looking unsure, but decided to let it go.
Liam watched him from across the room, noticing how the second Harry was gone, he was wincing again and he frowned.
~ ~ ~
Liam kept his eyes on Zayn the entire time they were on the stage and he grimaced every time Zayn did, hissed whenever someone bumped into Zayn's belly and the pain showed on his face.
Zayn, for his part, was feeling like utter shit and getting worse every minute. The flashes of the cameras were making him feel dizzy and even more nauseous and he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to last.
When they all lined up for pictures, he made sure to stand next to Liam, because if he could derive comfort from anything, it would be Liam's warmth and presence. He smiled through all of the photos and he was pretty proud of himself for how he was doing so far, despite his pain.
It happened when they were all taking a picture with the pretty lady in the oriental dress. He was leaning over towards Liam behind her, his arm almost completely straight as it stretched around his boyfriend's shoulders. He might look ridiculous, half-bent over, but if it was what was keeping him from throwing his guts up all over the Japanese press, so be it.
Once the picture was taken, he straightened up, but he knew immediately that he'd hit a wall. His stomach was swirling and bile was very quickly rising in his throat. He had his hand on his stomach and he was looking back and forth between his bandmates, trying to figure out what to do, because he definitely was not going to make it. Eventually, he decided that he'd rather not be the first of them to throw up in public, so he pushed silently behind the others as they started towards their stools and hurried off the stage, muttering a quick "I can't" to Paul before he broke out into a sprint, rushing through a nearby door and emptying his stomach into a trash bin, fortunately away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi.
As he continued to heave, he felt a large hand on his back, rubbing across it soothingly. When he had nothing else left to throw up, Paul put an arm around his shoulder.
"Come on, lad, let's get you laying down," he said tenderly, leading him to the green room a little ways away.
~ ~ ~
At first, Liam didn't notice what was missing until he sat down and there was an empty stool next to him, only Zayn's microphone occupying the space. He patted the seat of the chair blindly as if his boyfriend had suddenly become invisible but was still right next to him.
His eyebrows raised and he searched around for Zayn, wondering where he'd gone. He leaned forward to ask his bandmates and he saw Harry staring at him, eyes concerned.
"Where's Zayn?" he whispered and Louis, who was on his other side, replied, "Harry reckons it's his stomach."
Shit, Liam thought frantically, head whipping from side to side to try and get a glimpse of Zayn, to make sure he was okay. He wanted to help him, take care of him, but soon, Niall was tapping him lightly on the leg, because the press conference had started and he looked over to find that Louis had moved into Zayn's empty chair and no, wait, that's Zayn's, he's coming back.
But he didn't and Liam forced himself to focus on the conference, but it was obvious that he couldn't keep his attention on it, he just kept looking around when a question wasn't directed at him, trying to find Zayn somewhere, anywhere, expecting him to come out of the door and push Louis out of his seat and take his rightful place by his side. When he did have to answer a question, the responses were pretty quick and vague, and unfocused. The boys felt bad for him, they really did. Zayn and Liam worked best as a team, even if they weren't sitting next to each other, they were more involved and tuned in when they were together. They weren't used to being apart, and that was obvious.
When it became obvious that Zayn wasn't coming back before the end of the press conference, Liam slumped in his seat and started shaking his leg out of worry, praying for this conference to end already so he can go and make sure that his boyfriend is okay, and the rest of the boys had to fight the frowns trying to stretch across their faces as well.
~ ~ ~
When it was finally, finally over, Liam flew off the stage, running towards their green room, not caring to exchange pleasantries with the interviewers like normal. When he made it into the hallway, he found Paul talking on the phone, who finished up his call when he saw him.
"He's lying down in there," Paul said before Liam could even ask. "He's gotten sick a few times since he came out here, so don't get too close," but Liam was already bolting past him before he could even finish, thinking, To hell with that.
He almost burst into the room but decided against it in case Zayn might be asleep. He opened the door slowly and gently and instantly frowned when saw Zayn lying on his side, his arms wrapped around his stomach, face twisted in pain, and whimpering quietly. A trash bin was lying next to him on the floor.
He obviously wasn't asleep, so Liam thrust the door open and ran to Zayn, crouching down next to him and taking his face in his hands.
"Zayn? Zee, are you okay?" Liam asked and the older glanced up at him, barely able to open his eyes.
"Li-" Zayn started, but then his eyes blew wide and he pushed Liam to the side a little bit, leaning over the side of the couch and hurling into the bin on the floor. Liam moved behind him, rubbing his back and cooing in his ear, trying to comfort him.
When Zayn was apparently done, he lay back done jerkily, deep bags under his eyes and looking miserable.
"Z, why didn't you tell me you felt so bad?" he asked and Zayn shook his head. When he spoke, his voice was shaky and sounded too wet, like his throat was still lined with bile.
"Didn't want to worry you," he grumbled and Liam rolled his eyes.
"And me turning around to find you'd disappeared during a press conference was less worrisome?" he asked, but there was no real bite behind it, only teasing scolding. Zayn looked at him with a pout that made Liam's brown eyes soften, and he put his hand on Zayn's cheek again. "You scared me, love."
Zayn frowned, reaching a hand up to weakly press against the one on his cheek. "Sorry, baby."
"S'ok, I'm gonna make sure that you'll be fine by tomorrow" Liam replied, smiling warmly down at Zayn and reaching down to kiss him, though he was quickly blocked by Zayn's hand.
"No, m'pukey. Don't kiss me," he said. His mouth tasted awful and he didn't want Liam to experience that.
"Don't tell me what to do, Pukey," Liam said, smirking then kissing all over Zayn's too-hot face. The sick boy smiled a little.
Behind them, they could hear Paul and the others walk into the room.
"Doctor says it's a mild case of food poisoning," Paul reported. "Should be over in a few days."
"So at least it's not contagious," Harry said, wiggling his eyebrows at Liam, who rolled his eyes at him.
"Best idea is to get him back to the hotel so he can rest," Paul continued and Zayn nodded, sitting up and apparently doing so too fast, because once he was up, he bent over and dry-heaved into the trash can, Liam rushing to his side again.
"Easy, babe" Liam said, rubbing his back, then winding his arm around Zayn's shoulders and helping him up. He helped him hobble to the car and he let him lie down in his lap, running his fingers through his hair and gently massaging his temples soothingly. Once at the hotel, he helped him inside and up to their room.
It was a long night. Zayn insisted that Liam should get food for himself, even though Zayn wasn't going to eat, but Liam was too worried about Zayn to leave him for too long. So he ordered chicken fingers from the hotel room service and shoved them down his throat quickly in the hallway because he didn't want the smell to upset his boyfriend's stomach.
He gave Zayn soda, massaged his back, forced him to take a warm bath, and cuddled him to his chest when they tried to go to sleep. But around eleven o'clock, Liam woke up to the sounds of heaving and he ran to the bathroom to find Zayn bent over the toilet. He rubbed his back and spoke to him quietly and when he was done, the older boy lay down on the bathroom floor.
"Zayn, babe, do you want me to help you to bed?" Liam asked, petting Zayn's shoulder lightly and Zayn grunted in reply.
"No, " answered Zayn, and Liam looked at him and asked him in confusion " why not?"
" I feel hot" Liam put the back of his hand instantly on Zayn's forehead before he agreed " Well, you do have a fever"
"Yeah, the floor is cold. Feels good. I want to sleep here, " Liam nodded in understanding and continued running his hand up and down the darker boy's arm.
"Go back to sleep, Li," Zayn said a few minutes later. "I'll be okay."
Liam rolled his eyes at him (though he couldn't see it) and wordlessly stood up. He went into the bedroom, grabbed two pillows, and walked back into the bathroom. He placed one of the pillows on the floor and lay down on it, then grabbed Zayn's hand and forced him to lay on his chest.
"No, baby, go to bed on the bed," Zayn said while trying to get up but Liam shook his head and tightened his arms around the sick boy's body.
"No, I'm gonna stay here with you," Liam replied and he could hear Zayn try to protest again, but he wouldn't have it. "I brought an extra pillow for you in case you get uncomfortable."
"Don't you at least want a blanket?" Zayn asked sleepily and Liam smiled, because at least Zayn was going to get some sleep.
"No, you'll keep me warm... Unless me cuddling you makes you too warm?" he asked, but Zayn shook his head.
"No, I feel kinda better. Cuddle me," he said and burrowed himself in Liam's neck grinning. Liam's arms held him tight. "Love you, Li."
"Love you, Zaynie."
They lay there a while and Liam started to sing to Zayn, pecking him on his forehead when he paused to take a breath. Soon, Zayn was asleep and Liam, quietly, wrapped his arms around Zayn's shoulders and knees and lifted him up, carrying him to their bed and placing him down gently. The older boy immediately dug into the covers, reaching his arms out for a cuddle partner. Finding none, he frowned in his sleep and Liam could almost squeal at how cute he was. Liam went to the bathroom, wetted a cloth, and went back to their bedroom, putting the cloth on his boyfriend's forehead and then wrapped his arms around him and drifted to sleep.
~ ~ ~
When Zayn woke up the next morning, he immediately realized how much better he felt. He sat up and looked around confused because he remembers that he'd fallen asleep on the bathroom floor last night. He looked down at the sleeping boy beside him and smiled before pressing a kiss on Liam's cheek, who smiled and mumbled in his sleep at the touch.
Zayn got off the bed and ran to the bathroom and brushed his teeth, just to get the disgusting taste out of his mouth, then rushed back to Liam, shimmying under the covers with him and laying in his arms again. Once there, he allowed himself to dissolve back into his dreams, a smile on his face.
When they would wake up later, he would kiss Liam on the mouth, thanking him for taking care of him and Liam would grin and hug him and tell him it was no problem, then they would go down and Zayn would eat a light breakfast in case his stomach was still weak. Then, the boys would go to an interview and Liam and he would make faces at each other in the camera and would flirt and sing to each other during their performance. Then, when the cameras were turned away, he would lean over and press a light kiss on Liam's cheek, once again thanking him for helping him when he needed it, and Liam would smile widely because he would always take care of Zayn when he needed it, and even if he didn't. That's what love was.