Brave

Like everything that happened in Louis' life, he was stuck in yet another weird situation. He likes to believe that it makes him special, different from the others, unique, but he knows deep down inside, he knew that he just had a really, really, really fucked up luck.

Since today, this fine winter night, was a Friday and Louis – obviously – had nothing better to do, he was out grocery shopping. Of course, he has friends. He’s got Harry and he’s got Gemma – who is Harry’s sister – and he’s got a few more people he can’t seem to recollect.

He walked through the candy aisle and picked out literally anything that screamed ‘sugar’ to him and kept it in his basket, making a mental note to himself to text Harry and tell him that he will have to take care of an overly excited Louis.

He took out his list and mumbled to himself, “Alright, lad, you’ve got this. You just need milk, bread, cheese and loads and loads of chocolates.”

Louis walked to the fridges, which were in the back of the shop and pulled out a milk container, checking for the expiry date before he put it in his basket. Next, he searched for the bread and cheese and before he knew it, he was done with his shopping and making his way to the cash counter.

“Hello,” Louis greeted the old lady at the counter who smiled a sweet smile back at him. Louis pulled out his stuff and kept it on the counter as the lady got them scanned.

Just as Louis was about to pull out his wallet to check whether he had enough cash, the bell rang, indicating someone had entered. Suddenly there was a gunshot and a man yelled, “All of you! Drop what you’re holding! Now!”

Out of fear, everyone in the store, including Louis dropped whatever they had in their hands. They raised their hands in the air for the strange man to see.

Louis was surprised that he wasn’t surprised that something like this was happening to him. He wasn’t surprised when his mother’s voice ringed in his head, telling him to be brave. Louis was extremely surprised when he realized that he wanted to know who the man was. Given his deep and sexy voice and well-built physique, Louis was sure that the man was also extremely sexy. Oh god. What the hell is wrong with me? He thought to himself.

“Hey! Old lady at the counter! Pull out all the cash you have in there!” the man yelled, pointing his gun towards her. Before the lady could open the drawer sort of thing – Louis never knew what that was called – Louis said, “Hey! Don’t hurt anybody here, okay? Let them go!”

The hoping-to-be-a-sexy-man gave a strange look to Louis and asked, “Why should I do that?” Louis looked around awkwardly before he said, rather asked, “Because I said so?”

The hoping-to-be-a-sexy-man rolled his eyes and said, “Really? Because you fuckin said so?” He laughed for a few seconds, few long seconds. Louis looked around awkwardly again, not knowing what to do.

“Alright. Let’s make a deal. I will let them go, but I want your wallet and your valuables. All of it or I will shoot you.” The man said. He stared at Louis, intimidating him, and to be honest, Louis was getting intimidated.

“No.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I said no.” Louis said with a little bit of sass. He couldn’t help it. Sassiness flows in his veins and according to his mother, he got that from his father.

“What do you mean no? I’m serious, I will shoot.” The man said, utterly confused.

Louis smirked and with a new found bravery, he said, “Let me repeat myself, hell no.” Louis stood straight, feeling proud of himself for standing up to someone with a gun with bullets, a real gun with real bullets.

“Um...okay, I guess.” The man said, lowering his gun and scratches the back of his head, awkwardly, not knowing what to do.

“Aren’t you going to shoot me?” Louis asked, confused as to why the hoping-to-be-a-sexy-man lowered his gun.

“I don’t know. This has never happened before.” The man said.

Louis’ stomach grumbled and he said, “Well, until you do, wanna grab a bite to eat? I’m starving. There’s a burger place around the corner.”

The man sighed. He tucked his gun in his jeans and removed his mask. He looked at the people, still standing terrified before he looked back at Louis, “Sure. I’m starving too.”

Louis smiled at the yes-he-was-hella-sexy-man before he said, “Okay, cool. Let’s go.”

Now, to say this man was handsome, would be the understatement of the year, no wait, the understatement of the century. The man standing in front of Louis was beautiful. Olive skin, beautiful brown eyes, a bit of hair on his chin that made him look even sexier, bright smile and perfect, perfect hair.

Louis paid to the still shaking old lady before he grabbed his things and made way to where the man was standing.

“You ready to go?” The way-too-sexy-man asked. In response, Louis nodded. The man was about to leave but Louis stopped him, “Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. Don’t these innocent people deserve an apology?”

The man looked at Louis and sighed before he turned towards the people, still terrified people, and said, “I apologize for my rather scary behaviour. I did intend to scare you but I’m sorry for that. Now, I better be going, cause I’ve got a date with Mr. Sass King here.”

As Louis and the man walked towards the burger place, Louis asked, “Who said this was a date?”

The man raised his eyebrows at him and said, “Oh, you really think that I’m gonna let go of this opportunity of having burgers at a really good restaurant with a very handsome boy in the middle of the night? Hell no!”

Louis felt his cheeks and the back of his neck go warm and thanked someone, not sure if it was the universe or god, that it was too dark to see his red cheeks.

“Well, I don’t even know your name.” Louis reasoned with him.

The man clicked his tongue and said, “Zayn. Zayn Malik.” He looked at Louis to catch his reaction but got a confused look from him.

“You think you’re James Bond, kid? Just say your name is Zayn Malik without trying to copy James Bond!” Louis said. In response, Zayn laughed, throwing his head back.

“But, to be polite and friendly, I am Louis Tomlinson.” He said, trying not to smile.

He had to admit, Zayn’s laugh was extremely contagious and it took all his power to not laugh with him. But, of course, he failed.

When they reached the burger place, Zayn opened the door for Louis and Louis joked about how Zayn was trying too hard to be a gentleman.

It was safe to say that they had an amazing time that night. By the end of the night, they had exchanged numbers, their fantasies, their secrets, everything.

Louis had never trusted someone as much as he trusted Zayn, not even Harry, his best friend. Since that day, they texted all day and spoke to each other on the phone every night. They facetimed each other a few times as well. Harry was amazed at how they never seemed to run out of topics to talk about.

A few months later, Harry and Louis met Zayn’s friends – Liam and Niall. They hung out all the time. Liam, Niall and Zayn practically lived with Louis and Harry because of how often they had come home.

A few months after that, Zayn took Louis on another date, their second date as they liked to call it. They had gone to one of those drive-in movie theatres and watched almost three movies together with food that Zayn had got in a little basket. Although, by the second half of the second movie, they forgot about the movie. They were too busy snogging each other to notice the end of the movie or the start of another. They didn’t notice the dirty stares from dumb homophobic people, either.

A few months after that, they met each other’s families. Zayn’s family were way too excited to meet Louis and may or may not have told him all of his embarrassing moments as a child. His sisters went to another level and showed pictures as well.

Louis’ family were excited, no doubt, but they had been given strict instructions from Louis to not bring up any embarrassing moments from his childhood. Well, if not his embarrassing moments, they brought up all the cute moments from Louis’ childhood which were equally embarrassing. Of course, their families didn’t know how they had met. That was a secret.

A few months after that – more like a year later - they finally moved in together. It took a lot of begging from Zayn's side and it cost him his favourite leather jacket, but it was worth it. When they finally moved it together, it was a lot of work. They had to repaint the walls, move the furniture, buy new curtains, and so much more. All the walls that were painted, had a little doodling on the sides or the edges. That was Zayn's doing. When Louis had told him about it, Zayn simply said, ‘Baby, I got a little bored from painting the wall, so I doodled a bit. But you have to admit, it looks really good.” Yeah, he wasn’t wrong.

After about three years, Zayn proposed to Louis and it had been the best day of their lives. Zayn had recreated their second date because he couldn’t recreate their first date, that’s close to impossible. And when Louis said yes, they had snogged just like they did on their second date. But, this time, they did not get dirty looks from people. Instead, they got looks of awe. That night, Louis couldn’t stop smiling. Zayn had said, “Your face will break if you smile so much, love,” As a response to that, Louis said, “Who cares? I'm engaged to the love of my life!” As soon as the words left his mouth, Louis pressed his lips to Zayn's.

They got married almost eight months later. Both had planned the wedding and it was perfect. Absolutely perfect. But their favourite part of the marriage or of life or of the married life or whatever, was once they were married. Nothing had changed but at the same time, everything changed. Their behaviour was the same kind of behaviour it had been when they lived together before they got married but there was something different in the air. Something had changed, and for the better, of course. Like, there was a new air they breathed, a new and different feeling when they shared intimate moments. It was just blissful.

Little things that Louis did, made Zayn fall in love with him all over again. For instance, one day, Louis was extremely bored because Zayn kicked him out of the kitchen for making a mess while they were trying to bake cookies. As a habit, Louis climbed on top of the highest furniture he could find. When Zayn found him there, he said, “Louis, come down from there!”

“Nope!”

“I will call the police!”

“Don’t care, love!”

Zayn sighed before he said, “The cookies are ready!”

Louis sat there for a second, thinking, before he climbed back down. “Fine,” he said, “But if you had called the police, I could have handled them, you know.”

Zayn just wrapped his arms around Louis' waist and pulled him closer. He kissed the top of his head and said, “Yeah, I know, love.”

There were little things that Zayn did, that made Louis fall in love with him all over again. For instance, when Louis, Zayn and Liam had gone to a water park, they lost Zayn somewhere in the sea of people. Naturally, they called out for him but got no response. Finally, Liam grabbed Louis and found higher ground. He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Zayn Tomlinson – Malik sucks!” The two waited for a while, but they got nothing. Frustrated, Liam yelled, “Louis Tomlinson – Malik sucks!”

“What the fuck! Why?” Louis asked.

Before Liam could respond, they heard Zayn's voice from somewhere, yelling at Liam, “What the fuck did you just say about my little devil, you bitch? How dare you!”

Before Zayn could punch Liam in the face for saying his husband sucks, Louis wrapped his arms around Zayn's neck and let out a breath of relief. For a few seconds, they stayed like that before Louis whispered in Zayn's ear, “Don’t kill Liam, please.”

Zayn, of course, agreed. As they left, Liam whispered a thank you to Louis and Louis said, “You owe me big time, Payno.” That was agreed.

One of Louis’ personal favourite memories were when Zayn got really insecure, out of the blue. It would be completely random and Louis loved how he was the only one who could see the vulnerable side of the tough and mysterious Zayn Tomlinson – Malik.

As Louis washed the dishes and handed them to Zayn to dry them, Zayn suddenly filled the silence with what was going on his brain, his stupid brain.

“Lou, can I ask you something?” Zayn whispered to his husband.

Confused as to why Zayn would whisper to Louis, he said, “Yeah, of course, love,”

“How do I say this? Uh, this is difficult.” Zayn mumbled to himself before he took a deep breath and said, “Okay, here it goes. Louis, I'm in love.”

Louis felt his heart break. His husband was in love with someone else. Someone that wasn’t Louis. Oh god. “Oh.” Was the only thing Louis could say.

“Yeah, uh, with you,” Zayn mumbled, but loud enough for Louis to hear him.

“Huh?” Louis asked, turning his body towards Zayn, completely confused.

“Uh, yeah. I'm in love with you. I just don’t know if you love me back, you know?” Zayn stammered. Oh god. I’m gonna have my heart broken, aren’t I?

“Um, okay, Zayn?”

Zayn prepared himself for the heartbreak and the pain before he responded, “Yeah?”

“We’ve been fuckin married for four years!” Louis exclaimed.

“So? What if you fell out of love? What if you’re not in love with me anymore?” Zayn rambled on.

Louis cupped Zayn's face, forcing him to look at his husband. Louis leaned up and kissed Zayn softly on the lips before he pulled back and said, “I could never fall out of love from you, you idiot. I love you so fuckin much, it’s not even funny.”

Zayn smiled and pressed his lips against Louis' and sighed. He pulled back and said, “I love you too, you little devil.”

Louis smiled before he poured water on Zayn, leaving him drenched and flabbergasted. Louis laughed and they had a water fight which ended in a heavy make out session and then cleaning of the entire damn kitchen.

But, they didn’t live together forever. They didn’t get their happily ever after. On their fifth marriage anniversary, they decided to go to the same burger place they went almost ten years ago. They ordered the same thing like they had all those years ago. They were peacefully enjoying their dinner. Holding hands, joking around, talking about everything and anything.

“Wait, I still don’t understand. Why were you a thief? I mean, you had a steady job, didn’t you? So, why?” Louis asked. He had asked the same question once in a while but Zayn never answered.

Zayn licked his dry lips and said, “Well, I was dared to be a thief by Niall. I didn’t have a real gun, obviously. And to be honest, most of the people there, were friends of mine who tried to create a scene to get the others scared.”

“But weren’t you worried someone would call the police?”

“I was, I guess. But I didn’t have a real gun. Also, my uncle was the sheriff, so..” Zayn trailed off.

Louis scoffed and shook his head, looking at his plate. “What’s wrong?” Zayn asked.

“That was the only moment I felt brave because I stood up to a fuckin thief! I was so proud of myself!” Louis told Zayn with a pout on his lips.

Zayn laughed and said, “Oh my god, baby! I'm so sorry!” but he couldn’t stop laughing. Soon, Louis laughed with him as well.

Just at that moment, a gunshot was heard and people screamed. With an alert look in their eyes, Zayn yelled, “Louis, get down!” but he was too late. A second too late.

The bullet hit Louis' shoulder blade and he fell to the floor, bleeding heavily. Zayn rushed to his side, propping him against his thigh. “Louis, Louis, oh god. Oh my god. Oh fucking hell,” Zayn was mumbling, something he did when he was nervous or scared.

He looked around and yelled at someone in the restaurant, “Call 911! Quick, please!” The murderer had fled from the restaurant. He hadn’t meant to kill someone, but he did and he had to run away before anyone could do something to him.

“Paramedics are on their way!” Someone yelled at Zayn, nervously awaiting.

“Thank you,” Zayn mumbled, but he wasn’t sure they heard him.

Louis' eyes were closing and his breaths were shallow. “Louis, Louis, Louis, no, no, no, no, no! Baby, don’t close your eyes. Stay awake, stay awake for me,” Zayn said, out of breath.

Louis reached up and placed his hand against Zayn’s cheek, wiping away the tear Zayn hadn’t realized. He rubbed his thumb against the little facial hair Zayn had, enjoying the feeling for as long as he could.

“Zayn, I love you. I love you so much. I'm so fuckin glad I met you. But you really shouldn’t have done the James Bond thing. It really ruined it for me.” Louis said with all the energy he had left, which wasn’t much.

Zayn smiled and let out a dry chuckle before he held Louis' hand, “I really ruined it, didn’t it? But I’m glad I met you. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, Lou, the best thing. I love you so fuckin much, it hurts.”

“Oh, so now we're quoting movies? Really, Zaynie? Be original!” Louis teased the best he could. Just as the words left his mouth, he coughed violently. He felt himself slipping down the dark spirals, knowing he couldn’t come back from there.

Zayn noticed and said, “No, no, no, no, no, no, Louis, love, no. Keep talking to me, keep talking to me. Don’t close your eyes, love. Please, don’t.”

Louis smiled one last time and said, “I liked the James Bond thing, though. It gave a nice mysterious effect. It was nice, you were nice. Yeah, you were nice.”

And just like that, Louis slipped in that darkness, never to come back ever again, never to see his family, his friends, his husband. He was gone.

Zayn must’ve screamed or said something. He must’ve done something of that sort. He must’ve screamed at people to call for the ambulance or he must’ve screamed at people to stay away. He must’ve done something.

Zayn doesn’t remember. He doesn’t remember at all.

And that’s how their story ended.

No, that’s not how it ended. No.

They got their happily ever after. Of course they did.

On their fifth-anniversary dinner date, they finally discussed something Louis had wanted to for a really long time and he couldn’t believe that it was actually happening. It was going to come true.

Adoption.

So, two months later, they adopted a little girl. She had olive skin like Zayn and blue eyes like Louis. She was a mix of both, personality - wise. Her looks, she looked like someone. That someone who was dumb enough to let such a beautiful little girl be put up for adoption.

Since the girl did not have a name – at the adoption centre, they called her ‘Blue eyes' – the couple decided to name her Zaneyah, which meant ‘gift’ and the parents agreed that she was truly a gift.

So, after seven years of adopting Zaneyah and twelve years of marriage, the parents didn’t alter their default routine. And every night, when they tucked her in, they told her a new story.

Tonight, it was the story of how her parents met.

-AvaLuluTM