Wrong Side of Love (Ziam bodyswap)

Chapter 9

"He's going to kill me," Liam states. "He's going to murder me."

"He'd be murdering himself," Louis reminds him. "And you look smashing. I don't see what the issue is."

"I look like you," Liam says while tugging down the hem of the shirt he's trying on. "Like the old you, I mean," he adds before Louis can glare at him. "These jeans are yellow."

"And the shirt is pink," Louis says. "They match."

Liam's pretty sure they don't, actually. The yellow skinny jeans hug Zayn's thighs nicely, though, and Liam is pretty sure this whole thing is a bust. Here they are, trying to make Zayn look hilarious and he still — he still looks hot, as ridiculous as that is. "Is it even possible to make him look bad?"

Louis frowns for a moment, and then a grin is splitting his face. "Wait here," he orders.

Liam nods, watching Louis disappear somewhere else in the store before he turns back to his reflection. The jeans fit him perfectly, and the pink shirt actually looks good with Zayn's skin tone. It cuts low, too, showing off his tattoos and, yeah, he looks hot. Not nearly as stupid as Liam thought he would when Louis picked out the outfit.

"I've just the thing," Louis says, coming up to him with his hands behind his back. When he reveals them, Liam's mood brightens considerable. "Uggs, or crocs?"

*

Getting back to the hotel is a little difficult. There are fans converged outside now, and it's sort of gloomy out, clouds in the sky, and the giant pink sunglasses Liam's wearing aren't helping him see at all. Blindly, he signs as many things as he can, grinning at fans, adjusting the purple fedora on his head to make sure it doesn't fall off. More than a few girls look a little thrown off by what he's wearing, and Louis laughs the whole time.

Or maybe, Liam realizes when he gets inside, it's not what he's wearing that's throwing everyone off. It could possibly be the fact that he signed everything with Liam Payne instead of Zayn Malik. That might be it. Shit.

When they finally get inside, Louis grabs Liam roughly by the shoulder and kisses his cheek. "Nice knowing you, Liam."

Liam frowns, goes to ask him why he'd say that, when Zayn stomps towards them. There's a small restaurant on the main floor of the hotel, which is where he and the others must have went to eat. That's where he comes from, crossing the lobby in long, furious strides.

"What are you wearing?" he demands. "You went out in public like that?"

Liam sheepishly pulls off the glasses and the hat. "It was just for a laugh."

"At my expense," Zayn growls. "I can't believe you actually—" He stops, shaking his head. "You want a war, babe?"

"What? No, I was just—"

"Just remember," Zayn says, leaning in close, "you started this."

If that isn't the most ominous thing Liam's ever heard, he's not sure what is. Zayn is actually grinning as he backs away from Liam, that same look in his eyes that Louis had, and Liam realizes the mistake he's made. Louis can be a crazy whirlwind, which is one of the reasons Liam (and most people) avoid upsetting him. You don't want to get on Louis' bad side, because that could mean a few harsh choice words, or waking up with a moldy sandwich in your bed three weeks after it's happened.

And Zayn is just as bad, when he wants to be. Liam forgets that, sometimes. Forgets that Louis and Zayn are like a tag team of mischief, when they want to be, and Liam just dug his own grave.

Liam doesn't have time to dwell on it, though. They have to get to the venue, and he needs to change. And, he realizes on the ride, they're so fucked. Sure, he and Zayn both know each other's parts to songs, but they've not practiced singing them. They're going to screw up so badly, he realizes. He's going to sing his own parts, and Zayn's going to sing his own parts on accident, and it's going to be a mess.

"Don't worry," Harry says. "I've already figured out how we're going to deal with that."

"You have?"

Harry nods. "We're just going to tell the crowd that you and Zayn're switching solos tonight, that's all. Everyone'll love it."

Liam isn't so sure. Can his voice even do half the things Zayn's does? And vice versa? He doesn't think so, but it's not like they've got any choice, is it?

*

It's not horrible. It's not good, either. Liam's aware of it (even if they might have the crowd fooled), the way they're all thrown off. The way Louis nervously watches Zayn and Liam the whole night, like he's expecting something bad to happen. The way the rest of them can't figure out when they're supposed to start because if, say, Harry's supposed to sing after Liam's solo, but Zayn's singing Liam's solo, Harry forgets that he's supposed to go next and there's an air of hesitance on stage that night, like they're all afraid of screwing up and that's actually making them screw up.

But they make it through, and Liam thinks they did better than expected, at least.

"I fucking love Australia," Niall says loudly when they get off stage.

Liam's breathing heavily, grabbing at a bottle of water. Zayn's body gets out of breath faster than Liam is used to. All that running around on stage has made him a sweaty, panting mess, which isn't anything new. But the aching burn in his limbs is. He hadn't done all that much, had he? But it feels like he'd overworked himself, like the few times when he worked out and pushed himself farther than he should have, and he really regretted it the next day when everything was stiff and hurting.

"D'you think we did okay?" Zayn asks him. He steals Liam's drink and downs half of it before handing it back. "Think we fooled them?"

"I don't know," Liam admits. "Maybe?"

Zayn nods, accepting this. "It's weird, you know? Like, hearing you sing but... my voice. It still sounds like you, to me. I can still tell it's you, no matter what." He looks away, biting at his bottom lip. "I think you could switch bodies with anyone and I'd still be able to tell it's you."

Liam sips his drink to hide how he feels about that, because he feels the exact same way. Zayn is still Zayn, whether he's in Liam's body or not, and Liam thinks that he'd always recognize Zayn, always. Like one of those stories where two lovers die and are reincarnated and they still manage to find each other, recognizing each other on a deeper level, more than just on the surface.

Which is cheesy as hell, so Liam pretends he didn't think that.

"We should head out," he says.

Zayn nods. "Do you want to come to my room, though? We should probably all practice, actually, get used to us singing our own parts. Everything was a mess tonight, even if we did the best we could. We need to learn each other's parts better."

"Okay," Liam agrees.

"I'm still mad at you for that outfit though," Zayn adds. "Don't think I've forgotten."

Liam groans. "I was just playing around."

"Just wait until you see what I have in store for you, Liam," Zayn says. "You're going to regret that."

But with that teasing, pleased look in Zayn's eyes, Liam doesn't think he will. He does spend the entire trip back to the hotel wondering, though. What will Zayn do? Actually, he probably doesn't want to know. He'll just stress over it. It's best to just wait and see, really. Nothing else he can do, because he knows Zayn's mind is made up. He's already got something planned now, and there's nothing Liam will be able to do to stop him, unless they change back tonight. (He sincerely hopes they do.)

*