𝙲𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 ✓

s-e-v-e-n-t-e-e-n

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It's another Monday afternoon, another lunch period, and another day Niall is dragging Zayn through the hall to have lunch with Harry and the others.

He was expecting the week without Niall to be absolutely terrible. And in a way, it was. But it also wasn't that bad because he got to spend some time with Liam and Louis, just the three of them, and they turned out to be a lot better than he thought they would.

And by that he means they turned out to not be evil henchmen trying to help their master steal Niall away from Zayn.

They're actually rather nice to be around. Not quite as nice as being around Niall is, but nice enough.

"Come on! I wanna get there before all the good salad stuff is gone!" Niall looks over his shoulder at Zayn, his eyes bright and smile wide. He looks so alive, so happy. Zayn almost cries at the sight.

"I'm coming!" Zayn calls back, picking up his pace to catch up with Niall, the two running to get into the dining hall.

Niall immediately makes his way over to the salad bar, grateful to see it's still almost fully stocked. He lets go of Zayn's hand to grab a bowl as he starts filling it with all the ingredients he wants. He gets his lettuce and tomatoes and some avocado and this corn-pepper-bean mix that he really likes before topping it off with some cheese crumbles and grabbing some cilantro lime vinaigrette.

"Ooh, bacon," He looks at the bacon bits, knowing he could easily put a spoonful on his salad.

"The pigs, Niall. The baby piggies. Piglets. They no longer have a mother," Zayn puts his hands on Niall's shoulders, steering him away from the bacon.

"You're mean," Niall pouts, but still lets Zayn lead him over to their table.

"You'll thank me someday," Niall rolls his eyes but he knows Zayn is right. Maybe. He's probably right. He usually is, Niall knows that.

"Whatever," Zayn laughs, watching as Niall grumbles to himself, pouting at his salad as the other three come up and take their seats on the other side of the table.

"What's with you?" Louis asks, getting Niall's attention. When Niall doesn't respond, only to glare at Zayn (who is laughing), the others get even more confused.

"He didn't get bacon on his salad and now he's upset with me," Niall huffs, glaring at Zayn a little more before stabbing at his salad with his fork, shoveling it into his mouth.

"Because you don't eat meat, Niall," Harry semi scolds. He's siding with Zayn? Maybe he really does want to be friends.

Their Skype calls throughout last week were all friendly and good. There was no animosity, and Zayn found himself feeling relatively comfortable with the fact that Niall and Harry were forced to share a hotel room all week long, despite the worries he had.

Something feels off about everything, which he can't ignore, but he also is starting to open up and trust Harry and the others. He can't be seeing the worst in everybody just because he thinks they're a threat. He has to trust them.