(no subject)
Fandom: One Direction
Title: We Are Nowhere and It's Now
Characters/Relationship: Liam/Zayn + Danielle
Synopsis: Zayn has a problem. Mostly, it's the fact that all he wants to do lately is kiss Liam.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: This is for aimmyarrowshigh who likes fluff in all forms. I hope this is fluffy enough for you!
Last Updated: 02/23/12 @ 05:28 p.m.
The boyfriend thing lasts a few months, but suddenly, a name Zayn hasn't heard since X-Factor is popping up in casual conversation. Each time someone ribs Liam about her, he looks down at his feet and blushes. Zayn usually gets carefully neutral, but he thinks Harry has noticed how he usually wants a sandwich whenever Niall brings up her name. The general consensus is, however, that Liam is a lucky bastard.
"Something bothering you?" asks Harry in the kitchen.
Zayn is stabbing a piece of pepperoni with a toothpick repeatedly. He can't decide if pepperoni is too much like pork or if he should eat it. He can't decide if he wants mustard or spicy mustard. He can't decide if he wants sourdough or rye. It's just an indecisive day for sandwiches all around.
"Is pepperoni pork?"
"Both beef and pork, yeah, I think," says Harry.
"Figures," says Zayn and tosses the toothpick in the trash. With that settled, he grabs a few slices of turkey and chews on it absently while contemplating the rapid rate of mold growth on one of Louis's ferns.
"Something other than pepperoni bothering you?" asks Harry and nudges him. Zayn puts a hand to his hip and rubs a little. He's confused where exactly Harry got all this hipbone all of a sudden. Between an all-fruit diet and late nights spent with Louis, he can only imagine.
"No, Hazza. Life is a ball of butter," says Zayn. Harry quirks his eyebrow so far upward that it disappears under his curly not-fringe.
"That was ... kind of gay, what you just said," Harry retorts and climbs up onto the counter top. "Streisand, really?"
"It's just ..."
"What? You're afraid of losing Liam to Danielle? He's your best mate. He'll still have time for you."
Zayn pats Harry on the leg and nods. "Yeah, you're right. Cheers, mate. Tell the lads I'm heading home for the night. I'll call you later."
"Just stay? We haven't been just us in a while. There's a few weeks until the Brits, and let's just try and enjoy ourselves together. I'll go in and start another conversation."
"You're a good friend, Harry, but I just want to go home."
"Please?" says Harry. He puts his hands together and prays at Zayn in a childish voice. "Stay, please. Pretty please?"
And since there's never been anyone on file who could say no to that face making that noise, Zayn stays. He sits near Niall on the couch while the boys all talk about various things. Liam keeps trying to catch his attention, but Zayn is trying to stay ignorant of all Liam's secret messages. He knows he's in trouble though--that his resolve will crumble--when the boys pull out the video games and start divvying up remotes. It wasn't Harry's idea, but he's forgotten already that Liam still gets a little twitchy around violence. He can handle almost anything but Call of Duty and boxing movies.
"You feel like walking me home?" he asks Liam.
"What, you're talking to me?" Liam mutters under his breath.
"Fine, I'll walk by myself," says Zayn.
"What is with you two?" asks Niall.
"Lovers quarrel," says Louis without looking up from his game.
"See you tomorrow," says Liam patiently to the boys. Zayn isn't quite as kind and storms out of the house. He's halfway down the street when Liam clears his throat. Zayn stops and turns on his heels.
"What?"
"Are you going to tell me why you're being so mean?" asks Liam.
"Are you going to tell me how it is you just ... forgot to mention you were seeing Danielle again? Behind my back, no less. Of all the people I thought I could depend on, Liam."
"I can't tell you yet. It's a surprise."
"Like ... surprise, she's pregnant surprise?"
Bless him, Zayn has the heart to look mortified on Liam's behalf.
"No," says Liam. "No, it's a surprise for you."
Zayn looks both unimpressed and disbelieving. His eyebrows shoot straight up into his hairline and he waits for further explanation. None is forthcoming, and so Zayn shrugs his shoulders and turns back around. This time he's halfway home when he hears a clatter behind him. Liam curses under his breath, and when Zayn turns around, Liam is picking up garbage up. He's knocked over a bin and is rubbing his knee at the same time he's chucking compost back into a silver tin.
"You're hopeless, you know?" asks Zayn. "Are you hurt?"
"No. I swear, Zayn, I just needed to talk to her about some stuff."
"What stuff?" asks Zayn. "You've been seen with her three times this week."
"Look. Come to her apartment with me tomorrow, and I'll show you."
Zayn looks skeptical. "Just tell me what it is."
Liam shakes his head. "Please, trust me. You know you can."
Zayn taps his foot on the concrete and considers it. Liam, his simple Liam, can't tell a lie to save his life. Liam doesn't even try and tell lies. This is why he is usually the last person involved in any big news involving the band. Zayn watches him shift from one foot to the other, and part of him desperately wants to say no, to be defiant in spite of Liam's utter sincerity.
"Fine, but you had better not be dicking me around," says Zayn finally.
Liam actually laughs at that, and the sound gives Zayn the creeps.
***
Zayn picks Liam up at noon. He was instructed to wear something comfortable, although he wasn't sure what exactly that meant. Liam comes out wearing sweats and a gray shirt. Zayn, on the other hand, is in black jeans and a leather jacket.
"I said to wear something comfortable," says Liam.
"I am comfortable. I look good," says Zayn.
Liam looks around before leaning in to give him a kiss. Zayn puts his hand on the back of Liam's head to hold him close, but band daddy can't risk getting caught snogging his attractive yet male band mate. Zayn pouts and mimics Harry's pleading little prayer hands when Liam pulls away.
"Come on. Gentlemen don't keep ladies waiting."
Danielle opens the door wearing a pair of yoga pants and a blue tank top. Zayn is still enough into girls that he can admire all the curves she has in all the right places. She comes forward and kisses Zayn on each of his cheeks and then reaches over Zayn to muss Liam's hair.
"Did you tell him what we're doing?"
"I didn't know how," says Liam.
"Yeah, you never could lie," says Danielle. "We're going to be doing some dancing lessons today."
"Dancing?" asks Zayn. He flushes bright red. Liam knows that's the one thing from X-Factor he's still legitimately embarrassed about. Dance lessons have not helped him. He can mimic basic choreography, but he's not good with the spontaneous movement that the other boys are.
"Dancing," says Danielle. "Is this what you told him to wear?"
"I told him to dress comfortably, and this is what he choose to wear, yes," says Liam. He puts his bag down and goes to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. The intimacy of being in an ex-lover's house is overwhelming to Zayn, but Liam seems so comfortable.
"Zayn, relax. We're going to dance," says Danielle.
"Hence the tension," says Liam. He slings a hand around Zayn's shoulder, and something in his eyes makes Zayn's stomach flip.
"Why are you doing this? I hate dancing. I don't want to spend my Thursday dancing."
"Then I'll dance with Danielle. You can watch."
"Fine," says Zayn.
They move the party into Danielle's makeshift ballet studio. It's not a large room, but it has a wall filled with mirrors and a little ballet bar, whatever those are called, and even a little stripper pole in the center of the room. Zayn can't help but imagine what Liam and Danielle must have spent their long hours together doing.
Danielle helps Liam stretch and then they start messing around with some of the old dances from the X-Factor days. Zayn thinks that these two should have probably lasted. They're a golden couple: attractive, young, flirty, fun. They like each other. That's what Zayn can tell about them. They actually genuinely care about each other.
"Come on, Zayn. Come play with us. We're bored," says Danielle.
Zayn shakes his head.
"If you come dance with us, Liam will give you a kiss. A real kiss," says Danielle.
Zayn looks at Liam. "You told her?"
"I told her about my feelings for you," said Liam.
"What, and then she magically guessed that I was also part of the equation?"
"I'll give you boys a minute," says Danielle. She pats Zayn on the shoulder on the way out. Bless her. Between she and Liam, the two most patient people Zayn has ever met, he's frustrating the lot of them.
"This isn't about dancing," says Liam.
"What is it about then?"
"I want to touch you, Zayn. Danielle and I did stuff, but I know I wasn't really good. I mean, I wasn't bad. I could do a few things, but it was the same old tricks. Over and over. Danielle kind of started to realize that maybe she wasn't really my type."
"You could have said something. Your rules ... everything we talked about in the beginning of this thing," says Zayn.
"We didn't talk about anything before this, Liam. We just started kissing one day.
"That night that I tried to hit on you in France, though. You blew me off."
"Simple, simple Liam, do you think I wanted the first time we did stuff -- sexy stuff -- to be when you were pissed?"
Liam thinks about it a minute and then smiles. "Want to dance?"
"As long as you promise not to laugh."
"Yeah, let me go get Danielle. She taught me how to talk with my hips," says Liam.
"I don't even want the mental image that goes along with that," says Zayn.
"Danielle, sweetheart, Zayn has agreed to play!" shouts Liam. He gets up and shimmies his hips for Zayn before leaving the room.
***
Danielle and Liam have the patience of saints. They're trying to loosen Zayn up, but he's just so tense. It actually helps insofar as it illustrates to Danielle just exactly what he's like once he gets up on stage. Liam takes a water break finally, leaving Zayn and Danielle together in the room.
"What's wrong, Zayn?" she asks.
"I'm just ..."
"Tense," she says.
"Yeah," says Zayn.
"I'm not going to tell anyone. I know that no one would understand that you boys aren't gay."
"We are gay. We're pretty gay," says Zayn.
"No. You're in love with each other exclusively. Have you ever been attracted to another boy?"
"Sometimes, I reckon, but more in a friendly way than anything else," says Zayn.
"We live in the 21st century, Zayn. It's not like you have to be all one thing or all another anymore."
"But, the Qu'ran says that it's against my faith to pursue a physical relationship with him."
"Oh, honey," says Danielle. She puts a hand on either side of his face and strokes the arc of his cheekbone with her thumb. "I can't help you with your faith. That's something you'll need to come to terms with on your own because you can't be in this thing if you'll one day resent Liam for it."
Zayn laughs wryly. "Isn't that sort of the risk you take when you get into someone new?"
Danielle smiles and wraps her hands around Zayn's waist. He can smell the coconut lime shampoo in her hair, and the way her muscles are taut beneath her clothes makes Zayn feel surprisingly secure.
"Zayn is our resident poet," says Danielle. Zayn thinks she's talking to him, but Liam makes a sound of commiseration from behind.
"I brought a tie," says Liam as he hugs Zayn from behind.
"What for?"
"You think too much about what everyone else is doing. You see them, and it distract you from your own movement. This is how I taught Liam to dance."
"Can I put it on you?"
Danielle pulls out of the hug and goes over to the radio to find another station. Liam wraps the tie around Zayn's eyes. It's disconcerting that he cannot see anything that's going on. It makes him even more tense than before, and Danielle notices.
"Zayn, come on," she says, and it almost sounds like she's whining.
"Loosen up," says Liam.
"I just ..."
"I'm going to put my hand on your hips," says Liam.
Zayn nods, and his skin tingles all the way up the back of his neck when he feels Liam's hands slide over his hips. Liam's palms cup his hipbones perfectly.
"We'll start with a slow song," says Danielle. "This is the song used to teach Liam to dance."
"We're you really a bad dancer?" asks Zayn.
"Yeah. Danielle saw me one night, and she took pity on me. She taught me to dance, and then we sort of started dating."
"And then I realized Liam was in love with his best friend," says Danielle. "I'm going to stand behind you, Zayn. Liam and I will dance. Just try to move along with us."
Zayn is still tense as he does a basic dance with Liam in front and Danielle behind. Eventually the tension in his upper body dissolves, but his hips and knees are so tight that it's uncomfortable for all three of them. Danielle has her hands above Liam's on his waist, and Zayn has his hands on Liam's waist.
"Time to bring out the big guns, Liam," says Danielle.
"I don't like the sound--" says Zayn, but his words are cut off by Liam's face moving closer to his.
He knows it's Liam by smell and touch. And then the feel of Liam's lips is something he'll remember forever. Soft and thin and insistent. Liam continues moving in tune to the music. He and Danielle move Zayn along to the beat of the song, but Zayn isn't focused on anything but the way it feels to kiss Liam in front of someone else.
Liam deepens the kiss and reaches around to put his hand in Zayn's hair. The tie slides off, but Zayn keeps his eyes closed anyway. Zayn pulls Liam closer by the waist and kisses Liam roughly because he's greedy and desperate. What if this kiss is their last? That's what he keeps thinking about, and even though it's preposterous, what if? His hand goes under Liam's shirt and dips into the waist band of Liam's sweats. He wouldn't say his hand is on Liam's ass, but he definitely is south of the waist.
Liam groans and tugs Zayn closer still by the scruff of his shirt. They're no longer even laboring under the pretense that this is part of the dance lesson. Zayn pushes him back until they crash against one of Danielle's glass mirrors. It nearly knocks the breath out of Liam. He pulls back to breathe, and Zayn gets bored after a few seconds and starts nibbling Liam's neck.
"What ...?" says Liam.
Zayn isn't sure what question he wanted to ask, but Liam seems unconcerned that the thought tapered off. Zayn places his leg between Liam's thighs and applies slight upward pressure. He's seen Harry and Louis pretending not to do this, and Harry's face always goes a bit funny. So does Liam's. If he wasn't hard before, he is now.
Then, Zayn is the one pinned to the mirror. Zayn throws his head back. Something's gotten into little Liam, and he suddenly doesn't begrudge Liam for coming to Danielle.
"So is this what you've been doing with Danielle for the past week, then? Learning sexy stuff?"
Liam sobers up in the blink of an eye. He flushes beet red and tries to move away. He looks like he's going to apologize and fumbles over all the possible apologies he could begin with. Zayn keeps a tight hold on his waist and leans up to kiss Liam's jaw. "Did she teach you anything exciting?"
Liam is hesitant, but he finally nods.
"Okay. Let's go home and you can practice on me," says Zayn.
"Really?" asks Liam.
"Yeah. Let's go find--" says Zayn, but when he looks up, Danielle is still in the room. She's half-sitting on one of the ballet bars. She's fanning herself with one hand and watching the two of them like a proud little mommy.
"Don't mind me," she says with a smile.
"Sorry, sweetheart," says Liam.
"No. No. You guys go home. I'm going to cool off a bit before work. I'll see you when you pick me up for the Brits," she says and shimmies a bit. Liam definitely picked up that trick from her.
On the way out, Liam says, "We ought to pop by the shop to get some milk on the way. We're out."
Zayn laughs. Simple Liam wants to buy milk on their way home to sex.
***
Liam knows Zayn is a bit tipsy when he sits down really close to Liam on the couch and wobbles. Liam puts a hand on his chest to steady him. Zayn bites his lip and turns to Liam. Those big cow eyelashes flutter as something clicks. Liam's breath hitches in his throat.
There's too many people here.
"Not fair," says Liam.
"Everyone is too busy looking for evidence of Stylinson to care about us. Just a kiss, Liam. It's a big night."
Liam shakes his head and sips on his Coca Cola. Not much for subtlety, especially when no one is paying attention to him, Zayn takes the bottle and starts tracing the neck of it up and down with the tip of his tongue. Liam stops breathing as he watches Zayn tease the rim of the bottle.
"Zayn, stop trying to be sexy. Only one girl I ever met could pull off that whole thing, and Antonia Thomas you are not."
Zayn stops and looks up at Danielle. His entire face dissolves into a smile. He hands the bottle back to Liam and watches Danielle sit down on the ottoman. Her dress makes her look like a warrior, and Zayn is having a hard time with impulse control right now. Liam is looking between them, trying to sense what exactly about the chemistry in the room that's different. It clicks in his brain right before Zayn says out loud, somewhat brusquely, "I want you both."
It's not really a declaration of possession so much as lust. Liam is reminded that Zayn occasionally likes girls--they both do. And as far as girls go, Danielle is perfection. Not just looks-wise, either. It has more to do with the way she carries herself. She apologizes to no one for nothing. This is part of how she and Liam began seeing each other during X-Factor.
It was just your average day, Liam trying to keep up with people who had more charisma than he did. Danielle had found him watching people in his own quiet corner. She had sat with him for ten minutes without saying anything, and Liam found the silence comfortable enough. When she did speak, however, Liam was enraptured. Every word out of her mouth was this surge of confident energy. The way she smiled and leaned forward when she spoke made Liam jealous for once in his life. He was jealous of the beautiful dancer who had changed his world between qualifying rounds. Before she left, she'd slipped her phone number to him. The rest was history.
He smiles at her now as she nods at Zayn, and without saying a single word, manages to get Zayn to come to her. Zayn looks like he's too pissed to know what to do with such an invitation. He looks at Liam, who knows that no one kisses Danielle without being forever changed by it. Zayn doesn't hesitate. He kneels in front of the ottoman and looks up at Danielle expectantly.
"Should we show Liam what he's missing when he's acting like a stuffed-shirt?"
Zayn nods. His hand reaches around and grabs Liam's ankle. While they're not on display like Louis's, he burrows his fingers under the hem of Liam's pants and begins stroking the soft skin right above the rough canvas of his shoe.
"Then kiss me," says Danielle a bit impatiently.
Zayn cranes his head up and kisses a bit of Danielle's exposed stomach. She taps him on the cheek and pulls his face up by the chin.
"Up here, rude boy," she says.
Liam can't stop staring. Zayn is bristling up like a parrot preening for attention, and Liam is completely fascinated by this interaction. Danielle and Zayn hardly had anything in common last he checked, but here they are, bonding over a mutual affection for him. That's what turns him on more than anything. He could care less that there's people watching, although the corner is oddly quiet considering. Hazza is probably doing something to draw attention to himself, as usual, or Adele's around.
In which case, Liam reaches forward and brushes his fingertips across the back of Zayn's neck. Zayn lets his mouth drop open, and that's when Danielle makes her move. She kisses Zayn open mouthed and guides his other hand to rest on the inside of her thigh. Liam's eyes go funny as he looks around for affirmation that there's no one watching. Even if there were ...
"Maybe we should get a cab," says Liam.
Zayn moans in response as Danielle deepens the kiss. Zayn doesn't even protest as she runs her fingers through his heavily-gelled hair. Zayn has never felt submissive to anyone before, but it makes sense that it would be Danielle. Liam grows more impatient the farther Zayn's hand disappears up Danielle's dress.
He tugs Zayn's hair--not to hurt, but to get Zayn's attention. The sound that comes out of his mouth is orgasmic, though Liam's sure Zayn hasn't actually come. His whole body arches backward so that he's looking up at Liam.
"Cab?" he asks.
"Only if you promise to try that on me again sometime," says Zayn.
Danielle watches the two of them. She's gazing at her reflection in a compact and fixing the smudge lipstick. She's even charitable enough that she wipes Zayn's lips off with a wet thumb.
"You boys don't even know what you like yet. This is going to be fun."
(To be continued in this post.)
Title: We Are Nowhere and It's Now
Characters/Relationship: Liam/Zayn + Danielle
Synopsis: Zayn has a problem. Mostly, it's the fact that all he wants to do lately is kiss Liam.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: This is for aimmyarrowshigh who likes fluff in all forms. I hope this is fluffy enough for you!
Last Updated: 02/23/12 @ 05:28 p.m.
The boyfriend thing lasts a few months, but suddenly, a name Zayn hasn't heard since X-Factor is popping up in casual conversation. Each time someone ribs Liam about her, he looks down at his feet and blushes. Zayn usually gets carefully neutral, but he thinks Harry has noticed how he usually wants a sandwich whenever Niall brings up her name. The general consensus is, however, that Liam is a lucky bastard.
"Something bothering you?" asks Harry in the kitchen.
Zayn is stabbing a piece of pepperoni with a toothpick repeatedly. He can't decide if pepperoni is too much like pork or if he should eat it. He can't decide if he wants mustard or spicy mustard. He can't decide if he wants sourdough or rye. It's just an indecisive day for sandwiches all around.
"Is pepperoni pork?"
"Both beef and pork, yeah, I think," says Harry.
"Figures," says Zayn and tosses the toothpick in the trash. With that settled, he grabs a few slices of turkey and chews on it absently while contemplating the rapid rate of mold growth on one of Louis's ferns.
"Something other than pepperoni bothering you?" asks Harry and nudges him. Zayn puts a hand to his hip and rubs a little. He's confused where exactly Harry got all this hipbone all of a sudden. Between an all-fruit diet and late nights spent with Louis, he can only imagine.
"No, Hazza. Life is a ball of butter," says Zayn. Harry quirks his eyebrow so far upward that it disappears under his curly not-fringe.
"That was ... kind of gay, what you just said," Harry retorts and climbs up onto the counter top. "Streisand, really?"
"It's just ..."
"What? You're afraid of losing Liam to Danielle? He's your best mate. He'll still have time for you."
Zayn pats Harry on the leg and nods. "Yeah, you're right. Cheers, mate. Tell the lads I'm heading home for the night. I'll call you later."
"Just stay? We haven't been just us in a while. There's a few weeks until the Brits, and let's just try and enjoy ourselves together. I'll go in and start another conversation."
"You're a good friend, Harry, but I just want to go home."
"Please?" says Harry. He puts his hands together and prays at Zayn in a childish voice. "Stay, please. Pretty please?"
And since there's never been anyone on file who could say no to that face making that noise, Zayn stays. He sits near Niall on the couch while the boys all talk about various things. Liam keeps trying to catch his attention, but Zayn is trying to stay ignorant of all Liam's secret messages. He knows he's in trouble though--that his resolve will crumble--when the boys pull out the video games and start divvying up remotes. It wasn't Harry's idea, but he's forgotten already that Liam still gets a little twitchy around violence. He can handle almost anything but Call of Duty and boxing movies.
"You feel like walking me home?" he asks Liam.
"What, you're talking to me?" Liam mutters under his breath.
"Fine, I'll walk by myself," says Zayn.
"What is with you two?" asks Niall.
"Lovers quarrel," says Louis without looking up from his game.
"See you tomorrow," says Liam patiently to the boys. Zayn isn't quite as kind and storms out of the house. He's halfway down the street when Liam clears his throat. Zayn stops and turns on his heels.
"What?"
"Are you going to tell me why you're being so mean?" asks Liam.
"Are you going to tell me how it is you just ... forgot to mention you were seeing Danielle again? Behind my back, no less. Of all the people I thought I could depend on, Liam."
"I can't tell you yet. It's a surprise."
"Like ... surprise, she's pregnant surprise?"
Bless him, Zayn has the heart to look mortified on Liam's behalf.
"No," says Liam. "No, it's a surprise for you."
Zayn looks both unimpressed and disbelieving. His eyebrows shoot straight up into his hairline and he waits for further explanation. None is forthcoming, and so Zayn shrugs his shoulders and turns back around. This time he's halfway home when he hears a clatter behind him. Liam curses under his breath, and when Zayn turns around, Liam is picking up garbage up. He's knocked over a bin and is rubbing his knee at the same time he's chucking compost back into a silver tin.
"You're hopeless, you know?" asks Zayn. "Are you hurt?"
"No. I swear, Zayn, I just needed to talk to her about some stuff."
"What stuff?" asks Zayn. "You've been seen with her three times this week."
"Look. Come to her apartment with me tomorrow, and I'll show you."
Zayn looks skeptical. "Just tell me what it is."
Liam shakes his head. "Please, trust me. You know you can."
Zayn taps his foot on the concrete and considers it. Liam, his simple Liam, can't tell a lie to save his life. Liam doesn't even try and tell lies. This is why he is usually the last person involved in any big news involving the band. Zayn watches him shift from one foot to the other, and part of him desperately wants to say no, to be defiant in spite of Liam's utter sincerity.
"Fine, but you had better not be dicking me around," says Zayn finally.
Liam actually laughs at that, and the sound gives Zayn the creeps.
***
Zayn picks Liam up at noon. He was instructed to wear something comfortable, although he wasn't sure what exactly that meant. Liam comes out wearing sweats and a gray shirt. Zayn, on the other hand, is in black jeans and a leather jacket.
"I said to wear something comfortable," says Liam.
"I am comfortable. I look good," says Zayn.
Liam looks around before leaning in to give him a kiss. Zayn puts his hand on the back of Liam's head to hold him close, but band daddy can't risk getting caught snogging his attractive yet male band mate. Zayn pouts and mimics Harry's pleading little prayer hands when Liam pulls away.
"Come on. Gentlemen don't keep ladies waiting."
Danielle opens the door wearing a pair of yoga pants and a blue tank top. Zayn is still enough into girls that he can admire all the curves she has in all the right places. She comes forward and kisses Zayn on each of his cheeks and then reaches over Zayn to muss Liam's hair.
"Did you tell him what we're doing?"
"I didn't know how," says Liam.
"Yeah, you never could lie," says Danielle. "We're going to be doing some dancing lessons today."
"Dancing?" asks Zayn. He flushes bright red. Liam knows that's the one thing from X-Factor he's still legitimately embarrassed about. Dance lessons have not helped him. He can mimic basic choreography, but he's not good with the spontaneous movement that the other boys are.
"Dancing," says Danielle. "Is this what you told him to wear?"
"I told him to dress comfortably, and this is what he choose to wear, yes," says Liam. He puts his bag down and goes to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. The intimacy of being in an ex-lover's house is overwhelming to Zayn, but Liam seems so comfortable.
"Zayn, relax. We're going to dance," says Danielle.
"Hence the tension," says Liam. He slings a hand around Zayn's shoulder, and something in his eyes makes Zayn's stomach flip.
"Why are you doing this? I hate dancing. I don't want to spend my Thursday dancing."
"Then I'll dance with Danielle. You can watch."
"Fine," says Zayn.
They move the party into Danielle's makeshift ballet studio. It's not a large room, but it has a wall filled with mirrors and a little ballet bar, whatever those are called, and even a little stripper pole in the center of the room. Zayn can't help but imagine what Liam and Danielle must have spent their long hours together doing.
Danielle helps Liam stretch and then they start messing around with some of the old dances from the X-Factor days. Zayn thinks that these two should have probably lasted. They're a golden couple: attractive, young, flirty, fun. They like each other. That's what Zayn can tell about them. They actually genuinely care about each other.
"Come on, Zayn. Come play with us. We're bored," says Danielle.
Zayn shakes his head.
"If you come dance with us, Liam will give you a kiss. A real kiss," says Danielle.
Zayn looks at Liam. "You told her?"
"I told her about my feelings for you," said Liam.
"What, and then she magically guessed that I was also part of the equation?"
"I'll give you boys a minute," says Danielle. She pats Zayn on the shoulder on the way out. Bless her. Between she and Liam, the two most patient people Zayn has ever met, he's frustrating the lot of them.
"This isn't about dancing," says Liam.
"What is it about then?"
"I want to touch you, Zayn. Danielle and I did stuff, but I know I wasn't really good. I mean, I wasn't bad. I could do a few things, but it was the same old tricks. Over and over. Danielle kind of started to realize that maybe she wasn't really my type."
"You could have said something. Your rules ... everything we talked about in the beginning of this thing," says Zayn.
"We didn't talk about anything before this, Liam. We just started kissing one day.
"That night that I tried to hit on you in France, though. You blew me off."
"Simple, simple Liam, do you think I wanted the first time we did stuff -- sexy stuff -- to be when you were pissed?"
Liam thinks about it a minute and then smiles. "Want to dance?"
"As long as you promise not to laugh."
"Yeah, let me go get Danielle. She taught me how to talk with my hips," says Liam.
"I don't even want the mental image that goes along with that," says Zayn.
"Danielle, sweetheart, Zayn has agreed to play!" shouts Liam. He gets up and shimmies his hips for Zayn before leaving the room.
***
Danielle and Liam have the patience of saints. They're trying to loosen Zayn up, but he's just so tense. It actually helps insofar as it illustrates to Danielle just exactly what he's like once he gets up on stage. Liam takes a water break finally, leaving Zayn and Danielle together in the room.
"What's wrong, Zayn?" she asks.
"I'm just ..."
"Tense," she says.
"Yeah," says Zayn.
"I'm not going to tell anyone. I know that no one would understand that you boys aren't gay."
"We are gay. We're pretty gay," says Zayn.
"No. You're in love with each other exclusively. Have you ever been attracted to another boy?"
"Sometimes, I reckon, but more in a friendly way than anything else," says Zayn.
"We live in the 21st century, Zayn. It's not like you have to be all one thing or all another anymore."
"But, the Qu'ran says that it's against my faith to pursue a physical relationship with him."
"Oh, honey," says Danielle. She puts a hand on either side of his face and strokes the arc of his cheekbone with her thumb. "I can't help you with your faith. That's something you'll need to come to terms with on your own because you can't be in this thing if you'll one day resent Liam for it."
Zayn laughs wryly. "Isn't that sort of the risk you take when you get into someone new?"
Danielle smiles and wraps her hands around Zayn's waist. He can smell the coconut lime shampoo in her hair, and the way her muscles are taut beneath her clothes makes Zayn feel surprisingly secure.
"Zayn is our resident poet," says Danielle. Zayn thinks she's talking to him, but Liam makes a sound of commiseration from behind.
"I brought a tie," says Liam as he hugs Zayn from behind.
"What for?"
"You think too much about what everyone else is doing. You see them, and it distract you from your own movement. This is how I taught Liam to dance."
"Can I put it on you?"
Danielle pulls out of the hug and goes over to the radio to find another station. Liam wraps the tie around Zayn's eyes. It's disconcerting that he cannot see anything that's going on. It makes him even more tense than before, and Danielle notices.
"Zayn, come on," she says, and it almost sounds like she's whining.
"Loosen up," says Liam.
"I just ..."
"I'm going to put my hand on your hips," says Liam.
Zayn nods, and his skin tingles all the way up the back of his neck when he feels Liam's hands slide over his hips. Liam's palms cup his hipbones perfectly.
"We'll start with a slow song," says Danielle. "This is the song used to teach Liam to dance."
"We're you really a bad dancer?" asks Zayn.
"Yeah. Danielle saw me one night, and she took pity on me. She taught me to dance, and then we sort of started dating."
"And then I realized Liam was in love with his best friend," says Danielle. "I'm going to stand behind you, Zayn. Liam and I will dance. Just try to move along with us."
Zayn is still tense as he does a basic dance with Liam in front and Danielle behind. Eventually the tension in his upper body dissolves, but his hips and knees are so tight that it's uncomfortable for all three of them. Danielle has her hands above Liam's on his waist, and Zayn has his hands on Liam's waist.
"Time to bring out the big guns, Liam," says Danielle.
"I don't like the sound--" says Zayn, but his words are cut off by Liam's face moving closer to his.
He knows it's Liam by smell and touch. And then the feel of Liam's lips is something he'll remember forever. Soft and thin and insistent. Liam continues moving in tune to the music. He and Danielle move Zayn along to the beat of the song, but Zayn isn't focused on anything but the way it feels to kiss Liam in front of someone else.
Liam deepens the kiss and reaches around to put his hand in Zayn's hair. The tie slides off, but Zayn keeps his eyes closed anyway. Zayn pulls Liam closer by the waist and kisses Liam roughly because he's greedy and desperate. What if this kiss is their last? That's what he keeps thinking about, and even though it's preposterous, what if? His hand goes under Liam's shirt and dips into the waist band of Liam's sweats. He wouldn't say his hand is on Liam's ass, but he definitely is south of the waist.
Liam groans and tugs Zayn closer still by the scruff of his shirt. They're no longer even laboring under the pretense that this is part of the dance lesson. Zayn pushes him back until they crash against one of Danielle's glass mirrors. It nearly knocks the breath out of Liam. He pulls back to breathe, and Zayn gets bored after a few seconds and starts nibbling Liam's neck.
"What ...?" says Liam.
Zayn isn't sure what question he wanted to ask, but Liam seems unconcerned that the thought tapered off. Zayn places his leg between Liam's thighs and applies slight upward pressure. He's seen Harry and Louis pretending not to do this, and Harry's face always goes a bit funny. So does Liam's. If he wasn't hard before, he is now.
Then, Zayn is the one pinned to the mirror. Zayn throws his head back. Something's gotten into little Liam, and he suddenly doesn't begrudge Liam for coming to Danielle.
"So is this what you've been doing with Danielle for the past week, then? Learning sexy stuff?"
Liam sobers up in the blink of an eye. He flushes beet red and tries to move away. He looks like he's going to apologize and fumbles over all the possible apologies he could begin with. Zayn keeps a tight hold on his waist and leans up to kiss Liam's jaw. "Did she teach you anything exciting?"
Liam is hesitant, but he finally nods.
"Okay. Let's go home and you can practice on me," says Zayn.
"Really?" asks Liam.
"Yeah. Let's go find--" says Zayn, but when he looks up, Danielle is still in the room. She's half-sitting on one of the ballet bars. She's fanning herself with one hand and watching the two of them like a proud little mommy.
"Don't mind me," she says with a smile.
"Sorry, sweetheart," says Liam.
"No. No. You guys go home. I'm going to cool off a bit before work. I'll see you when you pick me up for the Brits," she says and shimmies a bit. Liam definitely picked up that trick from her.
On the way out, Liam says, "We ought to pop by the shop to get some milk on the way. We're out."
Zayn laughs. Simple Liam wants to buy milk on their way home to sex.
***
Liam knows Zayn is a bit tipsy when he sits down really close to Liam on the couch and wobbles. Liam puts a hand on his chest to steady him. Zayn bites his lip and turns to Liam. Those big cow eyelashes flutter as something clicks. Liam's breath hitches in his throat.
There's too many people here.
"Not fair," says Liam.
"Everyone is too busy looking for evidence of Stylinson to care about us. Just a kiss, Liam. It's a big night."
Liam shakes his head and sips on his Coca Cola. Not much for subtlety, especially when no one is paying attention to him, Zayn takes the bottle and starts tracing the neck of it up and down with the tip of his tongue. Liam stops breathing as he watches Zayn tease the rim of the bottle.
"Zayn, stop trying to be sexy. Only one girl I ever met could pull off that whole thing, and Antonia Thomas you are not."
Zayn stops and looks up at Danielle. His entire face dissolves into a smile. He hands the bottle back to Liam and watches Danielle sit down on the ottoman. Her dress makes her look like a warrior, and Zayn is having a hard time with impulse control right now. Liam is looking between them, trying to sense what exactly about the chemistry in the room that's different. It clicks in his brain right before Zayn says out loud, somewhat brusquely, "I want you both."
It's not really a declaration of possession so much as lust. Liam is reminded that Zayn occasionally likes girls--they both do. And as far as girls go, Danielle is perfection. Not just looks-wise, either. It has more to do with the way she carries herself. She apologizes to no one for nothing. This is part of how she and Liam began seeing each other during X-Factor.
It was just your average day, Liam trying to keep up with people who had more charisma than he did. Danielle had found him watching people in his own quiet corner. She had sat with him for ten minutes without saying anything, and Liam found the silence comfortable enough. When she did speak, however, Liam was enraptured. Every word out of her mouth was this surge of confident energy. The way she smiled and leaned forward when she spoke made Liam jealous for once in his life. He was jealous of the beautiful dancer who had changed his world between qualifying rounds. Before she left, she'd slipped her phone number to him. The rest was history.
He smiles at her now as she nods at Zayn, and without saying a single word, manages to get Zayn to come to her. Zayn looks like he's too pissed to know what to do with such an invitation. He looks at Liam, who knows that no one kisses Danielle without being forever changed by it. Zayn doesn't hesitate. He kneels in front of the ottoman and looks up at Danielle expectantly.
"Should we show Liam what he's missing when he's acting like a stuffed-shirt?"
Zayn nods. His hand reaches around and grabs Liam's ankle. While they're not on display like Louis's, he burrows his fingers under the hem of Liam's pants and begins stroking the soft skin right above the rough canvas of his shoe.
"Then kiss me," says Danielle a bit impatiently.
Zayn cranes his head up and kisses a bit of Danielle's exposed stomach. She taps him on the cheek and pulls his face up by the chin.
"Up here, rude boy," she says.
Liam can't stop staring. Zayn is bristling up like a parrot preening for attention, and Liam is completely fascinated by this interaction. Danielle and Zayn hardly had anything in common last he checked, but here they are, bonding over a mutual affection for him. That's what turns him on more than anything. He could care less that there's people watching, although the corner is oddly quiet considering. Hazza is probably doing something to draw attention to himself, as usual, or Adele's around.
In which case, Liam reaches forward and brushes his fingertips across the back of Zayn's neck. Zayn lets his mouth drop open, and that's when Danielle makes her move. She kisses Zayn open mouthed and guides his other hand to rest on the inside of her thigh. Liam's eyes go funny as he looks around for affirmation that there's no one watching. Even if there were ...
"Maybe we should get a cab," says Liam.
Zayn moans in response as Danielle deepens the kiss. Zayn doesn't even protest as she runs her fingers through his heavily-gelled hair. Zayn has never felt submissive to anyone before, but it makes sense that it would be Danielle. Liam grows more impatient the farther Zayn's hand disappears up Danielle's dress.
He tugs Zayn's hair--not to hurt, but to get Zayn's attention. The sound that comes out of his mouth is orgasmic, though Liam's sure Zayn hasn't actually come. His whole body arches backward so that he's looking up at Liam.
"Cab?" he asks.
"Only if you promise to try that on me again sometime," says Zayn.
Danielle watches the two of them. She's gazing at her reflection in a compact and fixing the smudge lipstick. She's even charitable enough that she wipes Zayn's lips off with a wet thumb.
"You boys don't even know what you like yet. This is going to be fun."
(To be continued in this post.)