Zayn Malik sat on the wall outside of the school gates for a good hour until he saw the curly haired figure of his prince walk out of the school gates. His sketchbooks had been on his lap, his precious drawing book on top of them, and he had been holding onto them with a protectiveness that a Mother bird would have over her chicks. His glasses kept falling down his nose everytime he looked down to check they were still on his lap, which they always were, and he had to use the back of his hand to push them back up everytime he looked back up to see if he could spot Harry Styles approaching him yet.
A few cars went by, a metallic blue one catching Zayn’s eye the most due to the intriguing colour of it. Then, the school bell had rung out, wishing goodbye to all of it’s students for the night, and a few of the teachers that didn’t have to stay behind to create various lesson plans. Zayn had sat on the little wall and watched as all of the students left the school, his big brown eyes darting carefully over every tall brunette boy he spotted in a sixth form blazer. He’d sat there for almost an hour before his successful spotting.
Zayn’s smile broke onto his face and he pushed himself up from the wall, pulling his sketchbooks to his chest as he looked over Harry hopefully. He wriggled his school blazer sleeves to his elbows, telling himself sternly to remember to keep them there at all times. He stood and waited for Harry to glance over at him, and even waved a little to try and get the boy’s attention. His prince charming didn’t even look up as he walked down the path on the other side of the road.
Zayn held his sketchbooks close as he walked over to the curb, glanced for cars, before rushing across the road, his legs trying to reach his boyfriend’s fast pace. He squeaked a little, growing out of breath from the fast pace that he had been walking in. Harry’s brown curls were bobbing a little as he walked, and Zayn quickly imagined all of the photos that he had seen of exotic seaweed in magazines as it was rolled along by the ocean current. He smiled a little. His boyfriend’s backpack had been newly written on by some of his friends; little nicknames that Zayn didn’t recognise were all written in black and blue ink.
Zayn couldn’t help but smile as he saw how the bottom of his Harry’s school trousers were too long and kept catching the back of his school shoes, a sign that his boyfriend had had another growth spurt and had needed new trousers because of it. Zayn felt his heart swoon a little, a feeling that always made a blush grow on his cheeks, a silent giggle rise in the back of his throat.
He finally caught up with Harry, giving a squeak of relief, as he didn’t have to pace after him anymore. He took his hand and entwined them both, looking up at him with a small smile. His boyfriend jumped out of his skin, his hand slipping out of Zayn’s hold. The raven-haired lad looked worried for a moment as he looked at Harry’s tired face and wide eyes.
“Jesus, Zayn, you scared the shit out of me…” Harry sighed, ruffling his hair up with the hand that Zayn had tried to latch himself onto.
“Do I need a bell?” Zayn’s voice asked quietly, as his brown eyes looked over Harry’s face apologetically for scaring him. He hadn’t wanted to scare him, just walk with him, and hold his hand. Harry frowned a little in confusion, looking ahead of him as if to process what his boyfriend had said, before looking sideward into his face.
“No…you don’t need a bell.” Harry replied, still frowning a little. The curly haired lad wasn’t confused, he was just recalling how the more immature of the boys from his school often chided Zayn about needing a bell around his neck, a cruel joke. He hated the fact that Zayn didn’t even understand it was a joke.
“Look, fluff, I just want to be alone tonight, I’m frustrated and...yeah.” Harry sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking into Zayn’s eyes. Zayn’s face dropped a little, but he nodded all the same, clutching his sketchbooks closer to him.
“Sorry fluff.” Harry sighed, leaning over and kissing the corner of Zayn’s mouth, before nodding a little and going off. Zayn stood still and watched Harry walk down to his bus stop on his own, before he turned and went his own separate way, his curious mind wondering if it had been something he had done.
He had scared him, which was probably the reason why Harry wanted to be on his own. Zayn always wanted to run away from people who scared him, he just didn’t want to scare Harry. He sniffed a little, promising himself never to scare anyone again, before walking the long path to his Dad’s house.
He walked through the streets, his eyes collecting every detail of the familiar streets, and the new little parts they had never caught onto before. The sign that stood by the crossroads now had a large dent in the centre, half empty yet trodden on beer cans scattered around the bottom of it. Zayn Malik wondered about the cause of the dent and the litter. Of course, the boy wouldn’t have known to assume it was a bunch of teenage boys the previous night.
He finally reached his Father’s street, and instantly recognised his next-door neighbour stood outside of her own front door. He smiled a little at Hayley, and at the sight of him, she quickly waved her hand in a gesture of urgency.
“Zayn, c’mere!” She whispered loudly, and he quickly nodded, walking over to her front door and to where she was stood.
“Your Dad came home and was shouting at the neighbour’s, I think he’s been drinking, you’re safer in here.” She smiled, before opening her front door and letting him walk in first.
“I heard it before I saw it, but I didn’t want you going in there, so I stood and waited for you to come home, if you were going to come here anyway…Alfie’s napping.” She explained, shutting the front door behind them both. Zayn’s eyes looked around the small house. Almost identical in structure to his Father’s, although the walls were decorated differently. Pale colours went down the walls, and the smell of baby powder was heavy in the air. He smiled a little, a sign that his nose liked it.
The girl looked tired, as always, yet still told Zayn where to put his bags and books down, before asking him how he liked his tea. Zayn smiled and whispered a reply of two sugars before sitting on the small sofa.
“My Dad’s on a business trip, you can stay over the night, if you want. Might be fun, haven’t had a sleepover for years.” Hayley’s voice called in from the kitchen, before she walked in with two cups of tea, placing them both on the coffee table to cool.
Zayn smiled a thank you as his brown eyes watched the girl sit down next to him. He let out a giggle as she reached over and pulled off his glasses before cleaning them without him even asking, before she leaned over and pushed them gently back onto his nose. The two friends smiled at each other, before the television was switched on, the volume soft and calming in the room.
~
Liam Payne’s hand slowly brushed into the top of his hair as a long, ragged sigh left his lips. He had been studying the same English essay for three hours, and was fed up to his limit. He would have gotten it done earlier if it wasn’t for his younger brother laid around the bottom of his office chair. His brain tried to scan for a deeper meaning behind Shakespeare’s characters, while his baby brother kept asking what were in Liam’s mind, moronic questions.
“How big is the highest mountain in the world?” Niall questioned once more, and Liam had to stop himself from pushing his head into his wooden desk.
“Niall, I do not have time for this.” Liam grunted, before putting pen to paper again as an idea struck him. It was a tough essay but he had to do it, he needed the grades. He ignored his brother’s foot repeatedly nudging against his knee as a form of attention seeking and continued to write his paragraph. Of course, his sudden inspiration was soon interrupted.
“I think it’s a million metres.” Niall answered, his little foot still tapping against his brother’s knee as he laid on his back, looking up at how his brother was working.
Liam tried to focus on putting pen to paper. His lips mumbled as he wrote down his newest point, tuning his ears into the slight scratching of his pen as it heavily flowed against the lined paper. It was his own fault really for leaving his coursework too late, but he just wished that his brother would leave him to it, he was stressed enough as it was. Of course, Niall didn’t understand the importance of his brother’s A Level coursework.
“Li Li…how big do you think the biggest mountain in the world is?” Niall pestered, pushing against his big brother’s knee once again. Another long sigh of frustration slipped from Liam’s mouth.
“Big.” He replied, his upper lip turning into a snarl as his condescending tone slipping out all but too easily. His brother’s high-pitched laugh filled the room, as the blonde boy took it as a joke.
“Yes, Li Li, but how big is big?” Niall questioned again, nudging his brother once more in the knee.
Liam rolled his eyes and continued to write his essay. He had dealt with his brother being in moods like this before. There had been frequent moments where his younger brother’s attention span had barely outlasted a goldfish’s memory, and in these moments Liam had had to deal with the consequences. For some reason, Liam was a source of entertainment for his brother. He wished he wasn’t seen as some sort of clown by his brother, he had work to do.
A long whine came from below the chair and Liam had to close his eyes for a moment so he could try his best to keep his cool. Of course, Liam’s temper was too easily affected by the slightest thing to help him remain composed. His brother’s childish questions and whines chipped at his violent temper without his kid brother even having to try hard.
“Tell me!” Niall whined, holding onto the ‘e’ sound in me, so his voice filled his big brother’s room like an annoying bee.
“Tell you what!?” Liam groaned, dropping his pen and picking up the extract he had to study. His brown eyes tried to read over it to find the write quote to talk about, but his knee was pushed once again.
“How big is big!” Niall moaned, folding his arms and staring up at his brother.
“I don’t fucking know, Niall, now pack it in.” Liam snapped, before picking up his pen and clicking it back into action, the quote found and his hand directing the pen across the page once more. Niall huffed and folded his arms.
All Niall Horan wanted to do was be with his brother. He loved being with Liam, and his tummy didn’t hurt so much when he was with him and having fun. Unknown to the fourteen year old, his energy always seemed to dip when he was hungry and hadn’t eaten, which was why he turned sluggish and dependent on his brother. His whines and pleas of attention were the result of lack of energy, and this behaviour was a symptom to those close to the boy that he hadn’t eaten. Of course, Liam’s coursework was too distracting.
Niall’s brow furrowed, the spitting image of Liam’s own, as his big blue eyes looked up at his brother and how he was working. He just wanted a bit of attention. His tummy was hurting, and he wanted Liam to make it better.
“Liam.” Niall whined again, his brow still furrowed in annoyance. The silence that followed and the lack of any sort of response from Liam caused Niall’s little tummy to flip in pain and anger.
“Liam!” Niall yelled, before kicking his brother’s knee harder than before. The forceful kick caused the office chair his brother was sat on to spin, and Liam flew in a 180 degree turn, his pen brushing straight through his page of writing as he span out of balance.
Liam quickly pulled himself back, grabbing his brother’s ankles and throwing them off him, before he caught sight of the big black line that now went straight though his essay.
“Are you fucking kidding me?! Niall, look what you did!” Liam yelled, picking up the essay and throwing it down into his brother’s face. Niall immediately cried out, rolling over onto his front and curling up in a ball.
“I didn’t mean too!” Niall yelled, his blue eyes scrunched together as he hid his face into the carpet of his brother’s room.
“This essay has taken me hours, I finally get near to finishing it on a good point and you make me put a line through the whole fucking thing! Why do you always do this? You ruin things, Niall! You ruin them!” Liam snapped, ranting angrily as he looked between his baby brother and his ruined essay. Of course, if Liam handed in the essay and explained the reason behind the big bold line, it would still be marked, but his temper was driving off the walls to recognise any sort of sensible solution.
Everything had gotten too much for Liam, lately. He had never been able to control his anger, and when things around him all seemed to fall, he could barely deal with them or himself. He had idolised Harry for months, loved and cared for him, helped him through his confusion, and right when Liam finally thought something, anything, would happen between them, it all went tits up.
The constant reminder that the boy he loved had completely forgotten and disregarded his birthday was too much to handle. Louis’ rambles about the supposed camera as a present had fucked him up as well. That’s what made Liam the most angry, that there was someone going around with a present from Harry that was supposed to be for him.
It was too much.
Liam quickly pushed himself from his chair, the thoughts of those two blank green eyes looking at him as Harry tried to realise that he had forgotten Liam’s birthday filled his mind. He grabbed hold of his brother’s arm with no thought to how rough he was being with the poor boy and pulled him up to his knees roughly.
“Get up and out of my room!” Liam snapped, his voice louder and rougher than ever intended. His free hand hit the back of his brother’s blonde head, before he pushed him from his room. Niall cried out and tried to reach out for his brother’s leg for some sort of forgiveness.
“Li Li, please, I’ll fix it, please, I’ll be good!” Niall babbled emotional pleas to his brother, but it was no use. His brother’s temper was far too controlling over Liam’s mind to ever let any form of forgiveness in; the deep voice apologising to Liam about missing his party wasn’t exactly a transparent wall either.
“Liam, what’s going on? Niall?” The boys’ Mother ascended the stairs at the sound of her sons arguing, as she always did, and her youngest quickly scurried to her with tearful eyes.
“Liam,” She said firmly, staring up at her older son in anger, but the door was slammed. Her eldest son retreated to his desk, rubbing his head in anger. Her youngest ran to his bedroom, where he dove into his little bed, pulling his Toy Story duvet over his head. His stomach was angrily rumbling over the sound of his woeful sobs. Another fight was another meal to miss.