Most of the morning, Niall stared at the ceiling. Zayn wasn’t sure why, what he was thinking...but he was content with watching. Niall made little sounds and sometimes closed his eyes. Zayn didn’t touch him, was too scared to...but he wanted to.
When the clock on his bedside table finally hit ten am, the door pushed open and Zayn looked up. "Didn’t know if you boys would be up...I brought you some breakfast and hot cocoa. Me and your sisters are going to do some more Christmas shopping. Safaa Wants to stay here with you guys, but Waliyah and Doniya Want to know if they could get something for Niall too. They wanted me to ask what he likes?" She questioned and set the tray down.
Niall blushed but didn’t say a word. "He needs clothes. Just...tell them clothes for now? We'll figure out more later." Zayn sat up from the bed and scratched his head. He mother sighed and picked up the bowl and rag she had brought in, a thermometer along with it. "Can I look him over?"
Zayn nodded and moved away, letting her sit on the edge of the bed. "Hey little man...You feeling okay?" Niall nodded but sat up timidly. "Can you open your mouth?" She brushed hair from Niall’s forehead. He opened his mouth and she placed the thermometer under his tongue. When it beeped, Niall looked down cross-eyed. Zayn giggled a little, not that he was proud of that.
His temperature was a solid 100.0 and she sighed. "You're coming down with a fever, probably got ammonia. We'll keep an eye on you. Eat your breakfast and don’t you dare move from this bed until I bring you home some medicine and something warm to wrap you in." She smiled sweetly and kissed his forehead. "Zayn dear, I'm sorry about last night. It was late and I was a bit tired. Why don’t you run him a warm bath, he’s probably feeling cold. It will help fight the fever. Me and the girls will be back in a few hours tops."
Zayn nodded at his mother who fixed her clothes. "Any requests present wise?" Zayn shrugged, but Niall answered for him. "Cloth? I like to sow. I used to do all the sewing in the orphanage, mother Anne taught me." He smiled a little, teeth chattering and his cheeks still candy apple red. "And some new art supplies?" Zayn added, reaching for the bowl of oatmeal, mixing in the fresh blue berries on top and handing it to Niall.
He watched as his mother left, writing something down on a little sketch pad and he turned to Niall. "You were in an orphanage?" He questioned small-y and Niall bit his still purple lip. "My...mom died, they sent me there. It burnt down when I was still young and I just...left. I don’t know, it wasn’t that bad. It was a home, never really had one before then."
Zayn felt sad, whether it was from the story or the lost face Niall made. Either way, his heart ached. "You've got a home now..." He patted Niall’s leg and grabbed his bowl of Oatmeal.
He was eating little bites, still watching Niall from the corner of his eye who ate hungrily when the door opened again and his younger sister, Safaa, bounced onto the bed. "Hey little one," He grinned and set down the bowl, pulling his little sister into his lap. "I came up here to see Niall. Is he okay?" Her lower lip pushed out in a little pout. "He’s fine, just a little sick."
She pouted again and climbed from her brother’s lap, her footie pajamas a little too big and she sat beside Niall. "Hi. I'm Safaa. Mommy said your Zayn’s friend from the park and you don’t have a home, but Zayn has a super doper crush on you so he’s a coo-coo head and ran out in the storm to save you! I think he’s superman!" Safaa giggled.
Zayn stared, a little mortified. "Safaa, why don’t you go play with your toys?" He rushed the noisy little girl from the room quickly and shut the door. "Uhm...sorry about that. Gets something in her head and never lets it go. Sisters." He huffed and rolled his eyes, picking up his bowl again.
Niall's face didn’t change color, in fact, it might have gotten a little redder at the fact that he was in Zayn’s boxers...only Zayn’s boxers and he pulled the covers up. Zayn didn’t notice, too worried about his sitters words getting to Niall’s head.
"So...how about that bath? I mean, I can take it on my own, right? Like, you don’t need to...supervise or anything?" Niall started wrapping the blanket around himself when Zayn stood a little too quickly, setting down his bowl of oatmeal and rushing to the bathroom to run the water. "I uh...I put some bubbles in so I won’t...see anything. I'll get you some fresh clothes while you get in and leave them on the counter while you finish?"
Niall looked around absently before nodding and standing. He brushed past Zayn awkwardly, with a strange gasp for air and a small chuckle before rushing off to the bathtub while Zayn caught his breath. Jesus, he was problematic. How was anyone ever going to find him serious if all he managed to do was act like a grade-schooler?
When he finally managed to free himself from his daze, Zayn shuffled through the dresser and fetched warm clothes. He walked them to the bathroom and set them on the counter without a word, closing the door before either could get a single word in and making an even bigger fool of themselves.
Zayn managed to avoid the awkwardness with his face stuffed in his sketches, looking over all the naughty pictures he'd drawn of Niall, some of the worst revealing toward the back and he didn’t skim past those ones. He stared for long moment and nibbled at his bottom lip. Jesus, Niall was nothing like he pictured. Not muscular and tan. Niall is fair skinned and skinny, but everything stuck out in all the right places.
Zayn looked at the pictures and groaned. Niall didn’t look like that...that was a fantasy, one he couldn’t fulfill. Niall wasn’t...he wasn’t the boy in the drawings, he was smaller and less revealing, shy and bashful and Zayn ripped the papers out, putting them through the shredder and sighing. That wasn’t Niall. If he was going to draw him like that, it would be with Niall, would be his body and not something Zayn created in his mind.
He set down the sketch book, still littered with pictures of Niall half naked, laying him his bed or just on the brink of naughty. Nothing...too bad, no full nudes but a few etchings of Niall’s bare bum.
The one thing Zayn left was a drawing of Niall’s feet, which he hid in a drawer (Afraid his mother would find it) and he was more than ashamed of that one. The drawing was thrown upon him when he couldn’t sleep one night and he hated himself for it. He was disgusting.
When Niall got done with his bath and dressed, he walked back to Zayn’s room quietly, knocking on the wall and startling Zayn from his spot on his computer chair. He looked miserable and conflicted, but Niall didn’t press. His body hurt from head to two and he lay down on the bed.
Zayn watched him, absorbing every detail. From his messy hair to his soft eyes and down his body to his long, freshly washed feet and wanted to...He just wanted...
God, he really was disgusting.
[For the first person to guess what the drawing was AND what Zayn wants to do to Nialls feet gets a dedication in the next chapter! ;D]
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Barefoot │Ziall Horlik AU
FanfictionNiall Horan doesn't remember how he got this way. Sleeping behind garbage cans and eating out of them when he woke. Maybe it was after his mum died, or the orphanage burnt down, but this is his life. Zayn Malik has never really had it rough? Hes a...
