Sometimes | z.m.

17. For You, Love

{Present Day}
(Zayn's POV)

I returned with everything and while Zayn was sound asleep in the bedroom, I set everything up. It didn't look exactly as I had hoped. It certainly didn't look exactly as it had that night but I tried my best to get it to be a nice 'homemade' version of it.

When I finished, I went into the bedroom, pulling the door open slowly to peek in at him. He was sound asleep tucked under the covers that were pulled all the way up to his neck. He looks so peaceful.

I scamper over to the bed, quietly as to not wake him up. I kneel down next to him and rest my chin on the side of the bed where he faces.

"Z?" I whisper.

He peaks one eye open to see me.

"What?" His voice is groggy and lazy.

"I have something for you..."

"Something for me? For what?"

"Just come out and I'll show you!"

"Alright..." he groans as he pulls himself up and out of the bed.

I took his hand in mine and opened the door to lead him out.

"A bunch of books...?" he questions as we go through the hallway to see a bunch of books lining the walls and leading us out to the living room where more sat.

"Yep..."

"Why—?"

"Just keep walking!"

I lead him out further to the living room where he stops.

"Oh my god..."

Strings covered in lights line the room and cross the room from wall to wall while the couch is pushed back and I had a large carpet put down and set up a karaoke machine with a mic. Last but not least, I put some finger food on the coffee table.

"It's the first 'date' we went on."

"I can see that..." he says with a big grin on his face as he walks in closer.

"Yeah, there's the booth... that I made with the couch and the coffee table and then the ugly carpet they had under the machine... I found one to match that! And then there's the mic and the matching loaded up with Queen songs!"

His grin grew as I explained everything.

"So... are you gonna sing for me?"

"Well... um..."

"You set all of this up, and you're not gonna sing?" he laughs.

"I mean—"

"Yes, you're going to sing! Come on!"

"Okay, alright!"

I walked over to the matching.

"You remember the song?"

He nods.

"Good." I smile, while Zayn sits down to watch.

I set up the karaoke version of Fat Bottom Girls and got ready. Something about this was so much more intimidating than in the bar that night. It's like I had to prove myself to him. I had to prove that I could make him laugh again, make him happy again.

But, all of my fears rushed away when I began to sing and the smile on his face grew.

I sounded awful, of course, but that's what he liked. He liked that I was awful, he found it funny. And for a moment, I was taken back to that night. The fear of the night was gone but all I could think while looking at his smiling face in the bar that night was that I really liked him. I wanted to make him smile all the time. I wanted to be the reason he laughed. But, at that point, he had someone else for that. Someone who instead of making him smile, constantly made him upset and on edge. It was out of my control, but I selfishly wished that they would break up. But I guess, here I am — making him smile, like I wanted to all along.

Eventually, he even got up with me to sing along and we both ended up laughing and singing together. His arm wrapped around me as we swayed to the music and screeched to the lyrics.

It felt like things were already changing — already getting better. It's like everything had always been this easy. If it was this easy to get along, why did we struggle so often.

I just wish it could always be like this.