heartbeat // zayn malik AU

chapter fourteen

"Why does it feel so good but hurt so bad?

My mind keeps screaming 'Run as fast as you can'."

- Olly Murs [Troublemaker]

Our journey to Charoum was eventless, if full of awkward silence; it was awfully hard to try ignoring Zayn when he was carrying me through the sky, but I managed. Sort of.

Anyway, by the time we touched down on the edges of the city, the first rays of a blushing pink sun had peeked over the horizon, partially hidden behind a parasol of gray-blue cloud fluff. It was surprisingly beautiful--especially considering the smoggy air of Charoum that was already enveloping my senses, making me quite oblivious to most forms of nature.

"Pleasant place," I said dryly as Zayn and I stepped onto the cracked sidewalks, dotted with patches of tar and filthy gobs of gum. 

"Told you so," was his even drier response.

Sneaking a glance at him out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was staring straight ahead. Cold waves of hostility crackled off his lean body, and I felt each one hitting me directly in the chest. Somehow, I'd managed to piss the hell out of him. And I wasn't even sure what I'd done. Sure, I had scolded him a bit. But I'd also promised not to tell Astral on him, and I'd promised to let the kiss drop.

Which, in my opinion, was all he should be asking for. Maybe it was because he didn't know how much it actually cost me to forget the kiss(which I wasn't doing a great job of, at all, as I was thinking about it right now). Maybe he naturally expected me to forget it. Maybe he thought it meant as little to me as it did to him.

A tingle of pain shot straight through my heart, and I closed my eyes for a brief second, trying to force it back. It shouldn't hurt this much. Zayn was an angel. Hell, there was a point where I'd absolutely hated him. Right now, I'd give anything to have those feelings of anger and annoyance back, to feel nothing but disgust for him.

But try as I might, I just couldn't do it.

"So," I said, talking more to distract myself then because I actually had anything important to say. "Where are we going to start our search?"

His silence was deafening.

"Oh. You don't know? That's cool. We can wander around aimlessly too. I love wasting in time acting like a homeless sleepwalker, especially when my friends are in danger and every second counts." Tension paralleled the sarcasm in my voice.

Gritting his teeth, he shot me a poisonous glare. "Shut up, Valarie."

Funny, how he thought I'd listen to him. "Can't you think of a single place where Klaus would've gone?"

"Oh, so now you want me to come up with a plan? I thought you were the one who went headlong into everything. Who needs plans and thinking things out when you can have the fun of nearly getting killed, right?" he countered, stealing my sarcasm--which I thought was quite rude of him. He whirled to face me, his entire face taut with surpressed anger.

Honestly, I still had no clue what I'd done to make him so moody, but no way was I sitting back on my heels and taking any of it. "I'm sorry, what else did you want to do? Sit on a rooftop mulling over the meaning of life whiile Astral and Cyphus are in danger? At least we're in Charoum now."

"You never think things through, ever," he seethed.

"That's irrelevant-"

"And then you'll probably mess things up, and I'll have to save you. Again."