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“But Zaaaynie, you have to come, I want you to meet my coffeeshop guy!” Louis whines as he pulls on Zayn's sleeve. Zayn moans.
“But you know I don't like coffeeshops, they're always filled with teenage girls making pictures of their cups and putting them on instagram. I don't want to be surrounded by those kind of people,” Zayn says, allowing Louis to drag him there anyway.
“'Those' kind of people are called hipsters, Zayn, and you're one of the biggest hipsters I know, so you'll fit in just fine,” Louis smirks, his eyes flitting to Zayn's hair, where there was a blond streak just a few months ago.
“Fine, fine, let's go meet that friend of yours,” Zayn murmurs. They don't have to walk for long – thank God, because Zayn didn't think he could hear much more about Harry and his curls and his lips and his fucking dimples before he'd pull his own hair out – when suddenly Louis' pulling him into what looks like a cheaper version of Starbucks, with less teenage girls and more college students. Louis looks around quickly and then starts grinning. He walks over to one of the tills and drags Zayn along with him.
“Hazzaaa! How are you?” Louis asks, giving the boy in question what Zayn likes to call his 'predator-look'. But looking at Harry, Zayn knew that Louis had already won him over weeks ago.
“I'm fine Lou, how about you?” a deep voice says, and Louis' face morphs into a soft, loving one.
“I'm great, thanks,” he says softly, remembering the sleeve he's clinging to. “Harry, this is Zayn. Zayn, Harry,” Louis introduces them, and Zayn gives the taller boy a smile.
“Nice to meet you. I've heard more than enough about you,” Zayn says, earning a foot on his left toes. Harry giggles – fucking giggles – and shakes Zayn's hand.
“Nice to meet you too. Louis hasn't told me a lot about you,” he says, and Zayn raises his eyebrows at Louis. Louis gives him a sheepish smile, and Zayn rolls his eyes.
“No, of course not. S'not like I'm his best friend or anything,” he murmurs, before telling them he's going to sit down somewhere. He walks around the shop, and finds that most seats are taken. He finally finds a sofa that's only occupied by one person and sits down. The person next to him – a boy about his age, for as far as Zayn can tell, as the boy has a comic book in front of his face – stays engrossed in his comic and Zayn pulls out his Iphone. He clicks on twitter and sends a quick tweet,
@zaynmalik: hate coffeeshops, don't even like coffee that much aha :( x
Zayn then opens Facebook, before quickly turning it off after a minute because he remembers he doesn't like the people on Facebook. “So much selfies,” he murmurs to himself, and finally the boy next to him looks up and smiles at him.
“What was that?” he asks, and Zayn spots a birthmark on his neck and beautiful, big brown eyes.
“I, uh. Nothing. Just talking to myself,” Zayn says, and then curses internally, because really Zayn, talking to yourself?
“Oh,” the boy says, and gives him a strange look when suddenly Louis is standing in front of Zayn with red cheeks and a happy smile on his face.
“Come on, let's go home,” he says, and pulls Zayn up. Zayn looks back at the boy with the birthmark and smiles. The boy with the birthmark smiles back and gives him a small wave before Zayn and Louis are standing outside again, and Louis starts gushing about how Harry called him 'love'.
~
“Hey, Lou, are you going to the coffeeshop again later?” Zayn asks exactly a week later when they're at Louis', watching a rerun of Friends.
“Uh, yeah, I might. Wanna come with?”
“Sure,” Zayn answers, convincing himself that it's because he likes the place. Not the people. The place.
An hour later they're outside in the freezing cold again, walking towards the little coffeeshop.
“So, like, he texted me this picture of his friend, Nick, and it was so funny!” Louis rambles, and Zayn closes his eyes briefly.
“Louis.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you please shut your mouth for a minute?” he asks politely. Louis rolls his eyes, but keeps his mouth shut.
For exactly one minute.
“Harry says beanies look good on me. Do you think beanies look good on me?”
Little shit, Zayn thinks, but perks up when he sees the coffeeshop. They walk inside and Zayn sends Harry a small wave. Harry gives him a big smile, with dimples and all, before his eyes find Louis and he lights up like a fucking Christmas tree.
Zayn looks around and finds the little sofa, but to his disappointment, there's no one sitting there. He sighs and sits down anyway, deciding to tweet something quickly,
@zaynmalik: never thought i'd miss someone i never even really knew ha #life .xx
A minute later Louis replies to his tweet, even though he's only a few feet away.
@Louis_Tomlinson: what the fuck r u even talkin about xxxxlou and haz
Zayn looks up and finds the two boys smirking at them. He flips them off and they chuckle, turning around again. Then Zayn feels the sofa move underneath him and looks to his left, to find birthmark-boy sitting down.
“Hi,” Zayn says. The boy smiles.
“Hey,” he replies. The two boys look at each other before the brown haired boy clears his throat and takes a sip of his coffee. “Do you always walk into random coffee shops to just sit down without even ordering?” the boy cheekily says, before his eyes widen and he clamps a hand over his own mouth. “Oh my God, that was really rude, I'm sorry, I was only kidding,” he says quickly, and Zayn laughs.
“No, only this one, actually,” he says, and the other boy chuckles. “What's your name, anyway?” Zayn asks.
“M'names Liam.”
Liam. Yeah, okay. Liiiaaaam. Liam, Zayn thinks, then mentally slaps himself because Zayn that's pretty weird.
“I'm Zayn,” he replies, and Liam smiles and nods.
“That's a lovely name,” he tells him, and Zayn thanks the lord for giving him cheeks that hardly ever heat up and go red.
“Thanks,” Zayn smiles, and then notices Louis and Harry staring at him from across the room, whispering with a mischievous glint in their eyes.
“So do you come here often?” Zayn asks, and then hits his head against the wall behind him. “Jesus. Now it sounds like I'm totally hitting on you or something. Just forget I said that, oh my God.”
Liam laughs and Zayn watches the way his eyes crinkle at the sides, and how his mouth turns into a blinding smile that could probably turn any straight guy gay.
“I come here nearly every day actually,” Liam replies seriously, and Zayn nods and tells himself to remember this little piece of crucial information.
“Oh. I don't,” Zayn says, and then frowns. “But you probably know that, as you come here nearly every day,” he finishes awkwardly, and Liam laughs again. Zayn decides to start counting how many times he's made Liam laugh.
They talk for a few minutes, and apart from the awkward silences every now and then and the way their eyes keep finding each other and not tearing apart for full minutes, Zayn thinks it didn't go bad.
“Zayniekins, time to go home, stop flirting with Liam!” Louis yells from across the room. Liam raises his eyebrows at him.
“Zayniekins?” he teases, and Zayn stands up quickly.
“I'll see you around, Liam,” he says, and hears Liam laugh as he walks towards Louis and drags him outside.
“Only because you like dick, doesn't mean you have to be one, Tomlinson,” he grumbles, then stops walking and looks at Louis. “How did you know he's called Liam?” he asks.
“Oh, Liam and I are great buds. Liam's one of Haz's friends,” Louis explains. Then he grins. “You two seemed rather cosy. I saw awkward eye contact and everything.”
“Bugger off,” Zayn pushes him away, small smile on his lips.
~
“So what's gotten you so happy?” Niall asks as he opens Zayn's fridge and grabs a beer for the three of them.
“Zayn met someone!” Louis yells from the livingroom.
“I did not meet someone-” Zayn interrupts, but it's too late.
“My little Zaynie is growing up, oh my God, who's the guy?” Niall yells, running over to Louis and flopping onto the couch next to him.
“His name is Liam, and he's a student, and he's a friend of Harry’s, and he trains often, and-”
“Well that would explain those muscles,” Zayn murmurs, grabbing a bag of chips and walking out to them.
“And Zayn totally has the hots for him. Here's a picture of him,” Louis rambles on, pulling out his phone and opening what Zayn thinks must be Liam's twitter. He clicks on the profile picture and Niall nods approvingly.
“He's not bad, Zayn. If you don't ask him out, I will,” Niall teases, and Zayn rolls his eyes. Louis taps on his phone a few times and then squeals like a twelve-year-old girl.
“Look what he tweeted yesterday!” Louis yells, showing the other two boys one of Liam's tweets of yesterday.
@Real_Liam_Payne: met a realllly nice guy todayyy
“What's with all the extra letters?” Niall murmurs, and Louis rolls his eyes.
“He's talking about you, Zayn!” Louis says happily, and Zayn shakes his head.
“No he isn't. He probably met someone else yesterday,” Zayn says. Louis smirks and clicks on Liam's next tweet.
@Harry_Styles do you know a guy called zayn?
“Looks like someone liiiikes you, Zayn!” Niall says, nudging him with his right elbow. Zayn frowns when suddenly his phone buzzes.
@Real_Liam_Payne has just started following you
~
The next few days are full of tweeting and trying not to give in to his urge to go to the coffeeshop. When it's finally Saturday again, Zayn has to practically restrain himself from not talking about it to Louis until Louis brings it up.
“Hey, wanna come to the cof-”
“Yeah, sure.”
Louis just smirks and stands up, grabbing his coat and handing Zayn his.
~
“You tweet some really deep things, mate,” Liam says as he sips his coffee. Zayn chuckles.
“Still better than Harry’s tweets,” he says, and Liam laughs.
“True. Everything's better than 'coffeestagram',” the brown-haired boy murmurs, and Zayn snorts.
They fall into an easy conversation, and Zayn learns that Liam has two older sisters, and likes turtles and comic books.
“Batman could beat superman any day,” Liam says, and Zayn shakes his head.
“No way. Superman is like, ten times better,” he argues. The two boys argue lightly and end up agreeing to disagree.
Zayn takes another look at the cupcake he bought himself a few minutes ago and Liam nudges him. “Cool frosting, isn't it? Ed does the frosting. Really good at it, him,” he says. Zayn nods, even though the frosting isn't really that brilliant, and he doesn't know who Ed is. He decides to just agree though, and eats his cupcake.
Soon Louis says he's leaving, so Zayn goes with him, and he decides he's going to go to the coffeeshop again tomorrow. And maybe the day after. And the day after that.
~
Days turn into weeks, and suddenly Zayn's been going to the coffeeshop every day for three months now, when Louis says, “you have to ask him out.”
“Ha. Don't think so,” Zayn says easily.
“But Zaaayn, you have to!” Louis says. “Even Haz says so, you and Liam are nearly as perfect together as Harry and I!”
“Louis. Just. No. I'm happy that Harry finally got the guts to ask you out a few weeks ago, but it's not gonna happen for Liam and I,” Zayn says softly, and Louis sighs.
They enter the coffeeshop and Zayn finds Liam talking to Harry seriously. Harry’s eyebrows are furrowed and Liam looks like he's explaining something complicated. Zayn adds this look to his list of 'ways Liam looks attractive'. Harry then grabs a ginger-haired boy's elbow and whispers something into his ear. The boy nods and goes into the back.
“Lou!” Harry then says, and Liam's head snaps around. His eyes find Zayn's and his frown vanishes. Louis and Harry both start making out across the counter – how Harry hasn't gotten fired yet, or at least gotten warned or something, is a mystery to Zayn – so the other two boys sit on their sofa.
Liam looks down and Zayn sees a blush spreading across the other boy's cheeks.
“What's wrong, Li?” he asks softly. Liam looks up and smiles nervously.
“Nothing,” he says, and grabs his coffee. He takes a big sip and nearly burns his tongue, causing Zayn to laugh. They start talking, and after a minute or two, Liam starts fidgeting and tapping his fingers against his cup.
“Liam, really, what's wrong? You seem really nervous,” Zayn says, and Liam shakes his head.
“I'm fine,” he reassures him, and Zayn frowns. Suddenly the ginger-haired boy is standing in front of them with a tray with cupcakes in his hands.
“Hey, Ed,” Liam says, and Zayn remembers Liam saying Ed could frost well, or some shit like that. Ed gives them both a smile before handing Liam two cupcakes. The two boys stare at each other, and Zayn suddenly feels very left out, like they're communicating without him. Ed raises his eyebrows and nudges his head towards Zayn just a tiny bit, and Liam goes red, giving a subtle nod of his head.
“Thank you,” Liam says, and Ed grins.
“You're welcome, mate,” he says, before looking at Zayn again and walking back to the counter.
“What was that about?” Zayn asks, and Liam just stares down at the cupcakes. His hand then puts one in front of Zayn. “Oh, you didn't have to buy me a cupcake, Li-”
Zayn stops talking as he notices the tiny letters frosted onto the cupcake. Wobbly letters spelled out, will you go out with me?
“Liam,” Zayn breathes, and Liam's face goes red.
“Listen, I just think you're a really nice guy, and you look so cool with your tattoo's and leather jackets and all that, but you're actually so sweet and funny and you like comics and books and you're so attractive, and I just. I'm sorry if I just creeped you out or made you angry or traumatized you or something, but I couldn't keep pretending I didn't like you as more than a friend,” Liam says quickly, and Zayn feels his jaw drop.
Liam likes me as more than a friend holy shit he said I was attractive and funny and sweet holy crap oh my God what do I do what do I do
“I,” Zayn starts, but he doesn't know how to finish that sentence. So instead, he closes the small gap between them and presses his lips against Liam's. Liam's hands find Zayn's face and Zayn swears Liam's lips taste like sugar. Zayn takes Liam's bottom lip between his own and Liam lets out a breath, clamping one of his hands behind Zayn's neck to pull him closer.
From somewhere across the room, the two boys hear wolf-whistling. They pull apart slowly and stare at each other.
“I take it you're not angry?” Liam whispers, and Zayn chuckles, shaking his head and licking his lips.
“Well would you look at that!” Louis yells, and Harry laughs, which makes Liam laugh, which makes Zayn laugh, which even makes a few random customers laugh.
“That was so cheesy and unbelievably sweet,” Zayn says softly, pointing towards the cupcake. Liam grins.
“It worked though, didn't it?”
“Yeah, it did.”
