heartbeat // zayn malik AU

chapter three

"This road never looked so lonely,

This house doesn't burn down slowly.

To ashes, to ashes."

- Imagine Dragons [It's Time]

For the second time, I woke up in Zayn's arms.

Only this time he wasn't cursing me out. He was actually staring down at me with concern in his liquid eyes. 

That was the first thing I noticed; the genuine caring that shone in his gaze.

The second thing I noticed was that we were on the fucking roof of my house.

"W-What?" I stammered, trying to sit up. As soon as I lifted my neck though, a pain like nothing I'd ever felt before shot from my head, down my neck, and coursed through my backbone. I bit down hard on my bottom lip, trying to resist the urge to scream. "How did you get us up here?"

Then I saw the silhoutte of his wings, nearly blocking out the sun as they stretched out from his back. He'd flown. With me in his arms. I'd been flying, with only a cocky brat of an angel--who happened to hate my guts--to prevent me from falling to my splattery death. The thought made my head spin to the point where I felt nauseous, so I decided not to think about it.

"Where's Uncle Jack? Where's my Mom? What's the Infinity Sword? You almost got shot in the head..."

"Shh, stop talking so much," he whispered, cradling my head in his hands like I was a baby--which I probably was to him, at least when compared to his muscled form. "You hit your head really hard."

Letting myself relax in his strong grip, I whispered, "Where's my mother?"

"She's all right. I told her to lock herself in the bathroom and not come out before I took you up here." He gave a rueful grin. "She didn't know who I was, so she didn't take really well to it, a random stranger in her house. But she listened. Oh, and then I punched the shit out of your Uncle Jack and sent him packing." Zayn's handsome face wrinkled with a disgust I'd thought he only reserved for me and our arguments. "Stupid coward."

My mother had listened to Zayn. She'd locked herself in the bathroom. Had she even- "Did my mother ask about me?"

Zayn hesitated a beat too long. "Yes."

He was lying. Hurt lanced through my heart faster than any bullet, though I tried to hide it. To pretend that I didn't care that my own mother hadn't thought twice about my welfare before rushing to protect herself.

"Zayn. What's the Infinity Sword?"

He ignored me. I would've been angry at that, normally, but he stopped my onslaught of yelling by picking up my hand. In comparison to his palm, it was incredibly small and pale. I felt amazingly insignificant as I stared at how his fingers completely eclipsed my own. 

"Why'd you do it, Valarie?"

"What?" I said distractedly, gaze still fixated on our intertwined fingers.

"You freaking risked your life for me." He sounded frustrated, for some reason. "That's not supposed to happen. I'm the guardian angel."

Dryly, I said, "So you keep saying. How's that working out for you?"

Now he was muttering curses. For some reason, the swear words were music to my ears. Not to mention, he was damn hot when he got mad. "You're impossible."

I probably should've sat up and given him hell at that point, demanding that we go find and beat up Uncle Jack, or at least check on my mom. But the wicked side of me was rather enjoying being held in his lap--or maybe that was just my possible concussion taking over. Whatever it was, I merely rolled over in his lap, yawning almost lazily. "Wake me up when I care."