Visionary [Louis Tomlinson AU]

[12] Waking Strangers

“A little bit of suspicion is a dangerous thing; a drop from a pipette of poison into a bucket of otherwise clean water.” 

~ Bella Pollen

June 7, 2043

11:20 A.M

            No one else seemed all that amazed, but Louis definitely was.

            Seriously though, it was a week since Zayn’s “accident” and he was practically “comatose”- as Harry continued to call it, much to Louis’ annoyance- yet now he was remarkably better.

            Now, it was like some sort of miracle. Really, the doctors insisted it was just the advanced technology of the day, which it probably was, but Louis had memories from thirty years prior. Who could blame him for being fascinated?

            Zayn was still in the hospital, everyone expected that, but he was now able to speak, eat, and even sit up a bit. His hair was growing back- though he constantly complained about it anyways- and many of the not-as-serious burns had healed.

            All in all, he was looking a lot better, and acting like it too. He was able to moan and groan about being confined to a hospital bed, which Louis and everyone else took as a good sign.

            “Looking good,” Liam noted as he walked into the room later, just in time to see Zayn propped up against his pillows and picking at his lunch.

            Louis couldn’t help but chuckle as Zayn made a face at the food and nodded. “Harry kept insisting on calling me ‘sleeping beauty’ before, so I’m thinking that it must be true.” He rolled his eyes and smiled, shifting just a bit before wincing in pain.

            “Take it easy there, mate,” Louis warned, able to see the muscles in Zayn’s neck jump at the strain he was putting on himself. “Don’t want to end up making anything worse, do you?”

            Zayn only huffed and settled down again, gingerly setting his arms down against the sheets.

            “So what’d I miss anyways?” He questioned, running a hand tenderly over the fluffy patches of hair on his head. “Anything exciting? Did tigers go extinct? Celebrity scandals? America get a new president or something?”

            Liam rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You weren’t even out for two weeks mate,” he pointed out. “Not two years. We promise, nothing that interesting happened. We spent most of our time worrying about you, anyways.”

          Zayn looked to Louis as if for confirmation, and Louis only shrugged and nodded in agreement. “Hard to do anything else,” he added.

            Zayn pursed his lips, not looking so lighthearted anymore.

       Louis had to wonder what was going through his head, and especially if he remembered anything. Though he had just woken up not a few hours ago and Louis didn’t want to attack him with questions and overwhelm him with it.

        Knowing what he did though, about the scientists and everything else, a part of him really needed to know.

          “What about you?” He finally forced himself to ask, shifting a bit in his own seat. “What do you… remember?”

        Zayn sighed, leaning back a bit and looking thoughtful. “Not much, honestly. Last thing I remember before waking up here is sitting at home in the basement, sorting through some old things. Then there was a flash and lots of chaos between… Last thing, I remember a lot of heat and crawling through one of the high windows onto the grass and everything went black.”