Once Upon A Twisted Tale (Ziam AU)

Chapter 17: Break Me Down ||

17. Break Me Down

[Zayn’s POV]

The next day, I woke up a bit sore. I had ventured around the castle all day yesterday without seeing much of Liam. I did hang out with Louis, Harry and Niall quite a bit. It was like hanging out with them in real life, just not as people. I was still wrapping my head around the concept, but it was still a bit weird.

They explained how they were all transformed into various items as Liam was transformed into a beast. I thought it was weird, but it was a fairytale so I let it go. I mean, I doubt they would actually understand how ridiculous this all seemed.

What I was beginning to understand was in every story; it was like they were preprogrammed with a back story. I only took note of this when I saw Harry help Niall light a fire we were sitting around. I was proceeding to tell Louis how cute they were together, when Louis looked at me funnily.

“Whatever are you talking about?” he said. “Harry is with Ms. Swift. She’s the feather duster around here somewhere.”

I shuddered recollecting the piece of information. I didn’t want to think of Harry with anyone else but Niall. They belonged together. I mean, come on, they make Narry for goodness sakes.

I sighed as I swung myself out of bed. I rubbed my face with my hand as there was a knock on my door.

“Gimme a minute,” I groaned. I then resumed to fall back on my bed as I felt sleep almost pull me under. Then there was more knocking.

“Don’t make me come in there Zayn,” I heard Liam’s voice through the door. My eyes snapped open, and I shot off the bed. I scurried around the room looking for a shirt to throw on, seeing how I slept shirtless again.

“Zayn,” Liam’s threatening tone coming through the door.

“C-Coming!” I called out finally slipping a shirt on over my head. I opened the door to see Liam leaning against the frame in his beast form.

“Well took you long enough,” he huffed out. However, even though he was still huffing, I swore there was a trace of a smile there. I couldn’t help but feel my heart flutter a bit.

“Yeah, um sorry. I was- I had this thing- shirt is thing,” I said as I tried to form a coherent sentence. It was very obvious that I was failing.

“It’s okay Zayn. I was hoping you’d join me for a walk around the grounds today,” Liam said, looking everywhere but me. I felt my face splitting in two as I smiled so hard.

“Yeah, just let me throw on something,” I said as I closed the door again. I squealed silently as I did a happy dance around my room. When I realized what I was doing, I stopped immediately and went to get some clothes. I don’t know why I’m so happy. I’m just going on a walk with Liam. I doubt he thinks of it as anything important. I shouldn’t either. I know his temper will just flair up or something. I am, however, genuinely surprised that his temper has stayed so calm today. I wonder what got into him today.

“Okay,” I said as I left the room. “I’m ready.”

“Good,” Liam said, and he sounded normal. He sounded, heck, a bit pleasant. We began to walk through the castle, not even getting outside, when I couldn’t hold back my curiosity anymore.

“So what made you want to go on this walk?” I asked as we walked in sync down the stairs.

“I thought it’d be nice for us to get some fresh air,” he said, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

“Oh. Do you like the outdoors?”

“I do.”

“Why don’t you go outside more?”