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“See into the beyond!” Professor Trelawney cried with a sort of shuffle of her feet, hands shaking a little too close to Liam’s face as she gave him a wide-eyed look.
Liam unconsciously shrunk back into his chair in an attempt to give himself more space. “Got it,” he replied weakly, already feeling sick that he’d chosen Zayn as his partner. It just seemed like his luck that he’d find something he wouldn’t want to share, that he’d find something there that he was afraid to think too much about.
(And boy, was he right.)
It was only when she was out of earshot that Zayn huffed a laugh and muttered, “Yeah, Liam, tell me.” He batted his eyes at the other boy facetiously, rolling his eyes right afterwards. “What do you see in the beyond?”
Liam forced a smile, making himself shift his gaze away from Zayn’s brilliant brown eyes to pull Zayn’s cup towards himself. He joked as he did so, “Why did I decide to take this class again?”
He already knew the answer, but there was no way in hell he was going to say it aloud. Because I wanted to be with you.
“For an easy pass,” Zayn reminded Liam with a twinkle in his eye.
“Right, right,” Liam responded distractedly, eyes darting around the dregs still left in the teacup. He looked up from the cup, heart pounding as he took in the few symbols he was able to pick up.
Maybe he could distract Zayn long enough that he wouldn’t ask what his tea leaves say. “That’s not very Ravenclaw of you, now is it?” He snorted with a raise of his eyebrows, only laughing harder when Zayn shrugged.
“Louis’ corrupted me, I guess,” Zayn admitted with a small smile. “Besides, I have more time to focus on my other, more interesting classes when I don’t have to worry too much about this bullshit class.” He nodded over to the tea cup. “Now, come on then, what do my tea leaves say?”
Liam gulped, not able to find anything to say aloud that didn’t somehow give away his feelings for Zayn.
Finally, he decided on, “Well, there’s a letter Z in there, I think.” He tried to make it sound as nonchalant as possible as he squinted at the teacup. Like it could mean anything.
The letter L jumped out at him next, but no one could pay Liam enough to say that one next.
“Think there’s also a dove?” His eyes flickered automatically to the ink on the back of Zayn’s hand, the ink that he hadn’t been able to stop staring at since he first met him. “So probably something about peace, maybe.” Or love.
He saw the shape of a feather next, the spitting image of how he’d wanted the tattoo on his forearm to look since--well, maybe since the first day he’d seen Zayn’s bird tattoo.
“Ah, I figured it out,” Liam mused, trying to stall for time as his finds another symbol. “It’s a--” He trailed off, unable to make up what else that fucking heart shape could be.
“What is it?” Zayn pressed, and it sounded insistent enough that Liam chanced a glance at Zayn, cheeks heating up as he could feel the words leaving his mouth.
He couldn’t lie to that face. That gorgeous, chiseled face. “Heart.”
He rubbed the back of his neck, eyes darting back down to the cup, but not before he caught the raise of Zayn’s eyebrows and the flash of a smirk.
“Oh, really?” Zayn drawled, and he took the moment to lean a little bit closer, body pushed against the small table that separated them.
He chuckled when Liam mumbled something unintelligible under his breath. “What else does it say, Li?” Zayn asked quietly, making sure to punctuate each and every word to emphasize them. And maybe he’s picking up a bit too much from Louis’ Slytherin side, but he feels a little joy at this golden opportunity to tease Liam. At what he’d maybe had a small inkling about for a while now, but never enough to fully know.
“That’s it, yep,” Liam replied very matter-of-factly, but the fact that he couldn’t seem to say it to Zayn’s face didn’t quite add up.
“I won’t judge it, whatever you see,” Zayn added, voice softening this time. He loved to tease Liam, of course, loved to see the cute way he would unconsciously flip his curls as he got flustered, the cute way he would bite on his lip when he got nervous.
But he never wanted to make Liam uncomfortable.
Liam looked up for confirmation, to make sure he meant what he said. Zayn’s facial expression must have seemed genuine, because he continued on slowly, “There’s also a feather.”
He sighed, forcing the words out of his mouth. “So maybe something about freedom there, being able to fly away from something.”
Glancing back down to the symbols, he added, “There’s also an L there, too.” He gulped. “I think.”
Zayn laughed at that before he could stop the sound from leaving his mouth. “An L and a Z. A feather and a dove.” He counts on his hand. “A fucking heart. Are you making this all up right now?” Zayn wondered, sounding a bit incredulous.
Liam’s voice went almost an octave higher as he started to protest.
“Never mind, I don’t need to know,” Zayn interrupted before he paused, waiting until Liam’s eyes were on him before he grinned. “I already know what your cup says, anyway.”
Liam gave him a quizzical look, the words momentarily pulling him from his embarrassment.
“I know your cup says ‘Liam Payne, would you like to go with Zayn Malik to Hogsmeade sometime?’”
Liam watched Zayn carefully, waiting to see if his ‘Just kidding’ would come after, waiting to see if a grin would pop up on his face at any moment.
When it didn’t, Liam could feel his palms start to sweat, so much so that he almost dropped Zayn’s cup.
“Like a date,” Zayn clarified as the silence grew, giving him a shy smile.
“Yeah, alright,” Liam squeaked a moment later, trying not to sound as pleased as he felt. Pleased but also completely and utterly terrified.
“Oh, thank God,” Zayn laughed, lifting his foot off the floor to tap Liam’s under the table. “I was afraid I’d have to listen to this for the whole rest of the year, all while not being able to do anything about it.”
Liam’s nose scrunched up at that, and he let out a loud laugh, foot moving back in a quick moment of bravado to cover Zayn’s.
And it’s one of the very best things Zayn’s ever seen, really. Maybe this Divination class wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.