Harry hates this. It's almost his birthday and he had to fight with the one he was looking forward to meet. He's at a frat party, scowling from the balcony along with Josh who's smoking something illegal. "You're turning twenty, Harry. Be happier about it. Management Science is sad enough." Josh tells him.
"Hilarious."
"You fought with your boyfriend for the first time, I think." Josh says. "You've never been this grumpy and sarcastic."
Harry grunts in response. "It's my birthday in two days. Zayn was going to come over and now it's just shit."
"You had a little fight. Why do you think he won't come over? Delta Chi is going to throw you a party!"
"Fuck Delta Chi."
"Don't let anybody hear you. We're at a Delta Chi party." Josh tells him with a laugh. Harry chuckles and nods along. He drinks a little, lets Joshua carry him home and doesn't listen when his mother yells at him for partying too much. Gemma laughs and takes his pictures when he falls down on the stairs.
Zayn doesn't try to call him after that. It's weird, and Harry hates it.
It's the night before his birthday. Josh had told him to spend it in the dorms, people actually liked him and were planning on staying up but he refused. He was sad enough for that. He's staring at the ceiling above his bed, the clock on his wall striking at 11:30 pm.
It was indeed my fault for not answering his calls. Fuck, I'm stupid.
He keeps on repeating in his head, his eyes closing. When he opens it, somebody is shaking him. "Fuck, Gem," He says, looking up at the intruder.
"Sorry, Gem is downstairs. She's working on something, so she yelled at me when I called her." Zayn rambles on. Harry's just looking at him, wondering if he was real. He reaches out to poke Zayn's nose. "You're really here." Harry says.
Zayn chuckles at that. "Of course I am. Happy Birthday."
Harry looks at the clock which was at 12.
"You actually came, I can't... thank you." Harry sits up with a smile. Zayn is just nodding along, muttering something under his breath before sitting down opposite to him on the bed. "Now, just listen to me. Okay?"
Harry nods.
"So, what are you planning on doing after you get your degree?"
"Uh," Harry smiles a little. "Look for jobs? Work as an intern, basically. That's what my professors told me."
"Okay, nice." Zayn smiles too. "You know, when I first met you, I thought you were this hot teenager who wanted to seduce me for fun. And you were actually doing that, so yeah. But then we both fucked up, and as much as I want to say I regret it, I don't. We were wrong, yes, but life is quite strange for everything to be perfect. I understand that you were busy, I remembered that this was your last year and you're going to be graduating soon, and I realized I'm in love with you. I really am, and this might be too soon but waiting won't change anything,"
Harry raises an eyebrow. Zayn just shakes his head and kisses him. Harry grins, his hands on Zayn's neck, licking his bottom lip.
But Zayn pulls a little too soon. Harry groans, but Zayn continues to talk. "Okay, I was just calming my nerves."
"You're weird." Harry tells him. Zayn nods approvingly. But then he takes out a ring, which Harry hasn't seen before. It's pretty, shining brightly and Zayn's looking at him. "Zayn..." Harry starts off but Zayn shushes him.
"As I said, too fucking early. You're still in Uni and I do not care." Zayn chuckles, but his eyes are watery. "Maybe this is what Liam felt when he was with Nakshathra. I bought this ring two weeks ago when I was with some other professors. There's this man who was looking for a ring too, and I might have said I was looking forward to giving it to someone. Then he told me that it was a good time to buy it, and I assured him that you were a little young. He laughed and told me that, 'it doesn't matter whether it's today or in three years. Their answer should be the same'. And I... I got it. I want this, I want you, I want to be with you and I want a family with you, and you can kick me out if you think I'm too early or you don't want this..."
Harry's still staring at the ring in Zayn's hand. "You want this. You... you thought about us. You want a family?" Harry repeats slowly. Zayn closes his eyes and nods. "I've done this thing before, but nobody told me to do this for you, Harry. I wanted this, I fucking love you and being without you makes me crazy. We've been together for two years now I love you. I love you so much."
Harry nods. "I... I love you too." He blurts out, failing to hide his tears. They both laugh with watery eyes. "So? Will you marry me, Harry Styles? Or should I get on a knee?"
"Oh fuck that." Harry says, holding out his hand. "I wanted to marry you when you called me your boyfriend for the first time. Fuck yes."
Zayn laughs, pushing the ring into Harry's finger and pulling him closer to kiss him again.
Harry would mark this as the best birthday present.
Anne cries a little when they tell him in the morning, Gemma does too which is surprising. Louis gifts him a fucking sports car because that's what Louis Tomlinson does. He's never been able to make it to Harry's birthdays, now Harry will be sure to get him to come to every single one of them.
"I can't believe somebody got him a better birthday present." Louis says when Gemma tells him that Zayn's present is more expensive. "I demand to be known what that is."
Harry shows him his hand, and Louis almost dies on the spot. "Fuck, congratulations! Is it because Harry's pregnant?" Louis asks, poking Harry's belly. Zayn laughs hard, then asks Harry if he really is, and then they all laugh. Harry on the other side scowls and wonders if he had been getting fat.
He ends up not going to the frat party, but they party anyways.
Josh gets him a clock that runs backwards, Joshua gets him a necklace which is made of little pizzas (he's never wearing that) and Roger forgets to buy him anything, so he offers food which is great. Cindy gets him a bed tent, and tells him that it's really fucking cool. He's not sure where he could use that, but thanks her in return. He gets all sort of weird gifts from his friends. He's pretty thankful, and grins widely when they ask him about his new ring.
After graduation Jack shifted back to Canada, leaving a note again for Harry.
'Congratulations. Glad that you found the one who really loves you. I'll come to the wedding if you ask nicely. I'll bring a nice present too, best friend.'
-1 year later-
"What the fuck. There's like a million cameras outside." Louis complains. Gemma rolls her eyes. "There are like, five."
"Yes, that's a lot."
"You know why they are here." Gemma tells him with a grin. Louis and Gemma got engaged two months before Harry and Zayn's wedding. Which is where they're currently arguing about the cameras.
Zayn's eating his red velvet cake silently, watching as Gigi talks to Harry looking perfect as ever. He doesn't even remember inviting her. Luke is by his side, trying to calm down his and Ashton's daughter who's shoving the cake inside her mouth. Ashton is laughing so hard; his hand is on Zayn's shoulder to stop himself from falling over.
Jackson is there with his family. He doesn't seem very upset, he's here with a date too. Zayn sighs in relief.
He chokes on his cake when he notices someone in the crowd. Ashton hits his back hard enough for him to breathe again. "Dude. What the hell?" He says. Zayn shakes his head, getting up and heading towards Harry. He grabs his arm, pulling him away from Gigi. "I was not stealing him, I swear." She tells him with a frown.
"No, Perrie's here." He tells her. She curses under her breath, rushing somewhere. Probably to hide. Harry looks a little scared, but Zayn's holding his hand, his eyes on the girl who had walked out of his life three years ago.
Her eyes soon land on him, her smile disappearing as she tugs at the sleeve of the unknown guy that she was with. The guy looks at them, and he's surprised too. "Fuck." Harry mutters. Zayn frowns, but then they're walking closer. "Hey." Perrie says in her usual cheerful voice. "Congratulations. Happy for you guys."
"Thank you." Zayn replies, looking at Harry who's staring at the guy in disbelief.
"Fucking hell, Harry. I didn't know it was you." The guy says with a laugh. "You really took my advice, didn't you? You're a hopeless romantic, I knew you'd find someone doing that. You have to thank me."
"You know each other?" Zayn asks Harry who nods. "Uh, this is Jesse. Remember the guy I told you about? My college friend."
"Oh." Perrie says, looking at Zayn. "I think you should let them talk, how about I tell you how I met Perrie?" Jesse says with a grin, tugging Harry to another side. Harry rolls his eyes, walking along with him. Zayn's left there with Perrie, he can see Liam behind her, giving him a small smile.
"You married him." Perrie says. "I didn't think you were going to be with him. It's nice, Zayn. He really makes you happy. And, I didn't think you'd get married in Manchester."
Zayn chuckles. "Oh, I work at Manchester University."
"Really? That's great!" She sounds genuinely happy. "Sorry for just coming in. I know I wasn't invited or anything, but Liam told me where it was and Jesse said it'd be nice to clear things off. You're a good man, Z. Harry knows that and that's why he married you. You both love each other and as much as it hurt me back then, it's fine. If you loved me enough maybe, we could be here. But look at you, married and all that. What about the last names?"
"Huh? We're going to be doing something like... Styles-Malik."
"Fuck, that's adorable." She says with a laugh. "Jesse is nice. I met him during our trip to Brighton. We danced, but I told him I had a boyfriend. Then I met him in Norway. He was touring, laughed when he saw me. Then I told him I was single and yeah, it just happened."
"Yeah, I'm happy for you. He seems like a nice guy." Zayn says, looking over at Harry and Jesse who were in a deep conversation.
"I know that guy." Perrie suddenly says, looking over Zayn's shoulder. He turns around to see Jack with a girl from his Uni, laughing and kissing each other's cheek. "Oh yeah. He's Harry's childhood friend and he did lash out on me. He was in love with Harry, tried to tell him to leave me because I always cheat." Zayn tells her.
She smiles a little. "He still didn't leave you. He chose you."
"Yeah. He did." Zayn replies.
"We were friends first, yeah? Maybe we can try to be nice and all that. Liam suggested this, okay?" She says. Zayn looks at her for a moment before telling her to wait for a moment. He drags Gigi with him, and Perrie grunts when she sees her.
"Hello Perrie, I'm sorry that I'm the reason behind your scowl." Gigi says with a smile. "But I don't know if we should argue anymore. Zayn's with a man, and we're both dating other men. How's that?"
"Uh, okay." Perrie replies with a smile. Jesse and Harry walk towards them with matching smiles.
"Shit, Gigi Hadid?!" Jesse yells with a grin. "Can I have a picture? I'm a big fan!"
"No." Perrie grabs Jesse's hand, smiles at Zayn before walking away. Gigi waves Jesse a goodbye who frowns and waves back. "I had told Zayn back then when he had a fight with you at LIGHTS." Gigi says. "You are definitely the best that he had. Not counting me, of course."
"Of course." Harry says. Zayn laughs and kisses him right there. Gigi takes a picture, promising not to post on Instagram but she's already typing down a caption. Zayn doesn't fight that.
Harry's dancing with his mother on the floor and Zayn's dancing with Walihya. "I knew he was the one." Walihya tells him.
"Can everybody stop saying that?"
"Okay." She laughs. "But he looks so happy with you. Does that mean I'm allowed to date older guys too?"
"No. I'm the exception." Zayn mutters with a smile.
Zayn doesn't believe in 'the one', but he does believe in 'forever'. And he sees that when he looks at Harry, when they lock eyes and smile knowingly. It was fine, they were alright.
Harry's going to be finding a job in Manchester. Zayn sold his house in London and bought Spencer's house. He's got an art room again, and it's better than before. Zayn and Perrie meet sometimes when they're off to Liam's for a Sunday brunch during holidays. She's living in Edinburgh with Jesse.
He met some of his students in Greenberg before moving to his house in Manchester. They cried and told him that their new teacher sucked, and he tries not to cry too. He would definitely miss them more than he thought he would. Harry's three friends are continuing to study in there, except for Roger who failed his third year and had to retake it. But they've formed a good bond, still in contact with each other.
Liam and Nakshathra were expecting their first child and when Liam called Zayn three days before his wedding he almost died on the spot. 'I'm going to be an uncle! Wait, make me the Godfather. If you don't I'll kill you.' Zayn had told him. Liam laughed at that, promising to make him his child's Godfather.
Niall came to his wedding with Laura. They apparently got back together because he couldn't live without her. He drank too much and did an Irish dance for the crowd who really liked it. Louis calmed him down some time later and Liam helped him sit down before he could start dancing again. The kids in the wedding really liked him.
Cindy came to their wedding with Josh, and they were supposedly dating now. She tells them that she suspected they had a thing going on when she saw them in school. Harry's father doesn't come to their wedding, and Anne's not surprised. Harry tells Zayn that he didn't expect him to show up anyways. Zayn still felt kind of bad, but he didn't know the man.
When Perrie was dancing with Jesse, looking at him like she once used to look at Zayn, he felt bad. Jesse was looking at her like she was the only one in the room, the way she deserved to be looked at.
"Hey," Harry's voice brings him back. They had been dancing too. "It's alright."
"I know." Zayn replies, looking at him with a smile. "I'm so lucky."
Harry blushes madly before kissing him slowly. Zayn's hands were tight around his waist and Harry's arms were around Zayn's neck. Some people cheered, and some yelled bad jokes. Perrie was looking at them with a small smile before looking back at Jesse. "Yeah, it's about time I've seen him this happy. Kind of makes me happy too." She says.
"I told you. Harry's a fucking sunshine. I called him so many times to not do the shit I told him to when he was going back, I was such a twat but he never picked up my calls. At least he found his husband that way." Jesse tells her. "And I found you."
She rolls her eyes at his cheesy line, but smiles anyways.
It was kind of a mess, but they figured it out. Now that when Harry wakes up, Zayn's beside him. It's perfect, and sometimes it feels unreal.
Marrying Harry was one of the best decisions Zayn had ever made. Harry turns out to be a great cook, and he loves animals. They're planning on getting a dog soon, and it's perfect. Harry came into Zayn's like just like an avalanche, and painted the empty canvas into the most beautiful colours he had ever seen. Harry will always be his favourite artwork.