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Zayn is standing with his ear against a glass pressed to the living room wall when Louis arrives home. To his credit, Louis doesn’t even ask. He just rolls his eyes and drops onto the couch, feet kicked up on their scarred coffee table.
“There’s no way you can hear anything but the pipes running between the walls,” Louis points out. “This obsession is getting creepy, mate.”
Zayn glares at him and sets the glass down on the table. He doesn’t acknowledge that Louis is right about the pipes. “He has a cat,” Zayn says sullenly, sinking down next to Louis. “I know it.”
Louis doesn’t look up from his phone. “Don’t know why you care.”
“Because we’re not allowed pets and you won’t let me sneak one in!” Zayn pouts. “I would get the quietest one, I swear. You wouldn’t even know he was here!”
“No,” Louis says for the millionth time. “We can’t afford to get kicked out of here. Neither of us can afford anywhere else. You wanna call your mum and ask for funds they can’t spare because of an illegal kitten?”
Zayn frowns and pouts harder. He knows Louis is right. He’s right an obnoxious amount of the time. It’s just that Zayn wants a cat so badly he’s started trying to befriend the battle scarred manx that lives behind the grocer’s and hates humans. It isn’t going well.
Niall suggested he volunteer at a shelter but Zayn knows that would be a disaster. He would want to adopt all of them. He can just see himself trying to sneak them home one at a time and Louis losing his shit over it. At this point in his life, Zayn can’t afford a new flatmate or a new best mate.
“I just need to prove he has one in there,” Zayn mumbles, worrying his lower lip between his teeth.
“You could always just ask,” Louis suggests. “His name is Liam. He’s alright. A bit stiff, but not a bad sort."
Zayn narrows his eyes. “How do you know that?”
Louis smirks at him. “He’s in one of my classes. Gimme your phone.”
Zayn looks at him suspiciously for a minute. His options are, hand it over and suffer whatever mischief Louis is looking to do, or refuse and suffer the consequences for the next week in whatever punishment Louis sees fit to mete out. He sighs and hands it over.
Louis fiddles with it for a moment and then hands it back, Instagram pulled up to a profile Zayn doesn’t recognize. Whoever it is, is shirtless a lot and fucking fit as hell. Zayn looks up from his phone, eyebrows raised.
“That, is our new neighbor,” Louis states looking all too pleased with himself. “Changed your mind about just asking him about the cat yet? Although he doesn’t seem like much of a rule breaker, so you’ll probably be disappointed.”
Zayn furrows his brow and scrolls through. In between the blatant thottery disguised as gym selfies are random photos of sunrises and trees and comic figurines. He wonders how early this Liam gets up to capture some of these sunrises and if maybe he wants to compare comic collections at some point. In bed.
Suddenly he freezes, staring at his screen. He holds it up triumphantly to Louis. “See? Cat!”
Zayn is up and out the door and banging on Liam’s door before he can stop and think about it. He’s not even wearing shoes for fuck’s sake. His impulsivity is going to get him in real trouble one of these days. Too late now, the door is opening and Liam is apparently even more attractive in person. Fuck.
“You have a cat!” Zayn accuses, waving the photo on his phone in Liam’s face.
Liam looks startled for a moment before shifting to worried. He gives a quick look both ways out the door and drags Zayn inside. “Not so loud!” he admonishes. “You can’t tell anyone, please.”
Zayn was quite frankly expecting to have the door slammed in his face. He doesn't actually have a gameplan here. He never thought far enough ahead to what he'd do if he was right .
“I won't tell anyone if you let me come see him regularly,” Zayn says quickly. “I want visitation rights.”
Liam looks like he still isn't sure what's happened to his nicely ordered life over the last five minutes. “Ooookay,” he says slowly. “Um. He's in the bedroom if you want to meet him?”
Zayn nods eagerly. He can't believe he hasn't been thrown out on his arse. This is going far too well for how completely crazy he's behaved so far. Honestly if anyone had come at him like he has Liam, Zayn would have called the police.
Instead, Liam is leading him down the hallway and into a tidy bedroom. Curled in a tiny ball on top of the duvet is the stripey kitten Liam was holding in the photo. Zayn makes a completely besotted cooing sound that he might be embarrassed about later.
Liam reaches out to scratch the kitten behind his ears, causing him to yawn and stretch and Zayn wants to melt at how cute it is. “This is Bruce,” he introduces.
Zayn grins wide. “Did you name your kitty Bruce Wayne, Leeyum?”
A flush works its way up Liam's neck. “Might have done, yeah,” he mumbles. A second later he narrows his eyes. “Hang on. How do you know my name? Who are you?”
Zayn realizes suddenly that he's barged into Liam's flat and blackmailed him and Liam doesn't even know his name. “I'm Zayn,” he says somewhat sheepishly. “I live next door.”
Liam tilts his head. “Tommo's Zayn? The art major?”
“I'm not Tommo's anything,” Zayn snorts. He looks at Liam skeptically. “I thought Louis said you weren't friends. You just have class together.”
Liam looks down in embarrassment and rubs the back of his neck. “Oh we're not. That's probably too familiar of me, it's just that's what Niall calls him.”
Oh, that explains it. Zayn rolls his eyes and settles on the mattress to curl around Bruce and pet his little head. “You can try to explain to him again that Louis and I aren't shagging, thanks. He won't believe us.”
Liam shuffles awkwardly, eyes looking everywhere except Zayn. “Um. Would you like something to drink?”
Zayn lays his face next to Bruce's, eyes half closed in contentment and continues to pet his rabbit soft fur. “Water would be nice, thank you.”
While Liam is gone, Zayn barely notices as he's busy falling in love with Liam's cat. Bruce has tufts of fur on his ears and between his little toes and is basically the most precious kitten ever. He stretches into the petting, warm and boneless, and Zayn murmurs nonsense at him.
“I'll just put your glass on the dresser?” Liam says, clearing his throat.
Zayn grins up at him. “Thank you,” he says brightly. “Bruce is perfect, I'm sorry you're never getting rid of me. I need to visit him all the time.”
“I'll give you my schedule, I guess?” Liam replies.
“Perfect,” Zayn agrees.
----
Over an hour later Zayn returns to his own flat, humming happily. Louis looks up from his coursework and raises his eyebrows.
“Did you get fucked?” he asks.
Zayn shakes his head and slumps onto the couch. “I blackmailed him into letting me come over and spend time with his cat.”
Louis throws his head back and cackles so hard he almost falls off the couch. “You are hopeless, Malik. My plan was for you to end this boring celibacy thing you've been doing. But no, Liam Payne is actually hiding a secret cat.”
“It hasn't been that long,” Zayn retorts, throwing a pillow at him. “I don't need your help.”
“It's been months,” Louis points out. “And you never go out except for work and school. You're wasting your youth and beauty. It makes me sad.”
Zayn stands up and heads for the kitchen to make dinner. “I'll always be beautiful,” he calls over his shoulder.
Louis mutters something Zayn doesn't quite catch but he doubts it was complimentary. Technically he's right, but Zayn just hasn't been interested in anyone in a while. Hooking up for the sake of it has lost some of its appeal.
Going out all the time was okay at first, but the shine wore off pretty quickly. Zayn is most happy staying in with his music and his books and his art. It's not his fault that he hasn't met anyone who can compete with that yet.
Zayn waits for his leftovers to heat and pulls up some of the photos he took of Bruce. He's more than a little in love and jealous as anything that he belongs to Liam.
<tell Bruce I said goodnight!! xo> he texts.
<I assume that hug and kiss is for him? 🤨 🐈> Liam texts back.
Zayn finds himself grinning down at his phone. <you've been very good abt this whole thing. you can have one too aha xo>
<thanks 😊😘 have a good night> Liam sends.
Zayn takes his food back to his room and tries to forget that, in addition to having a perfect adorable kitten, Liam is really attractive. And apparently really nice. Probably the kind of nice that gets him taken advantage of.
Hours later he finds himself scrolling through Liam's instagram again. Zayn spends more time paying attention to the posts and finds that, despite the gym and early mornings, they probably have a lot in common. He kind of wants to find out for sure.
By the time he finally falls asleep, Zayn is exhausted from going back and forth about whether he's been too creepy to hit on Liam for real. That's a problem for later Zayn he finally decides. Tonight Zayn is going to double down on creepy behavior and jerk off to thoughts of Liam's biceps pinning him to a wall.
----
For the following week Zayn practically lives in Liam's flat. When he's not working or in class he's knocking on Liam's door under the increasingly shaky premise of visiting his cat.
Liam lets him in every time.
Zayn learns a lot about Liam while lounging on his furniture with Bruce in his lap. The more he learns, the deeper he gets. Liam is genuinely funny and sweet and a little shy and Zayn is eventually just as besotted with him as he is with the cat.
He's easy to talk to in a way that Zayn doesn't experience often, like they've known each other forever and not a week and change. There's something incredibly comfortable about being in Liam's presence.
“Are you hungry? Was thinking about ordering takeaway,” Liam muses from the rickety kitchen table where he's highlighting some of his notes.
Zayn stretches from his sprawl on the floor. “Only if you let me pay. I feel I've been taking advantage of your hospitality.”
Liam gives him a small, soft smile. “I like having you here,” he says quietly. “I get lonely.”
Zayn's heart jumps and he tells himself to calm the fuck down. Liam doesn't necessarily mean anything by it other than exactly what he said.
“I like being here,” Zayn replies with a grin. “But I'm still paying. Get Thai. I want drunken noodles. And spring rolls. And chicken satay.”
Liam laughs and pulls out his phone. “You bought food for Bruce and a whole bunch of toys. I'm not letting you pay.”
“That's just being a good co-parent,” Zayn says with a sniff. He lifts Bruce in the air above his head and coos at him. “Isn't it? You have two daddies now, did you know?”
Out of the corner of his eye Zayn sees Liam duck into the kitchen to make the call looking a little flushed. He hopes that's because of him but Liam has so far been nothing but polite and friendly. The fact that Zayn basically blackmailed him into sharing his cat and his space apparently not that big of a deal.
“Should be here in thirty minutes,” Liam announces, coming back in the room. “And I paid already.”
Zayn sticks his tongue out at him. “You have to let me pay next time.”
Liam laughs at him. “No promises. You wanna feed Bruce? It's time for his dinner too.”
“Yes.” Zayn rolls over and stands up, heading for the kitchen with Bruce on his heels. “Are you hungry baby?” he asks, pouring food into the special batman dish he purchased for him. He pets Bruce a few times while he eats, still enchanted by how sweet and soft he is. “You're such a good boy, yes you are.”
Liam has a coughing fit in the other room.
“You okay?” Zayn calls, concerned.
“Swallowed wrong,” Liam replies in a strained voice.
Zayn frowns but continues to sit and watch Bruce eat. He kind of wants to go rub Liam's back but that isn't really the relationship they have so he stays put. He murmurs more nonsense to Bruce about how pretty he is and how big he's getting.
“Food's here!” Liam calls some time later after Bruce has finished and is playing with a bit of string he found.
Zayn washed his hands and joins Liam at the tiny table, knees brushing together. “I'm starved,” he announces with a smile, pulling the carton of noodles close to himself. “Thank you. Even though you paid behind my back.”
Liam hands him a fork. “You can get it next time.”
Zayn swallows his mouthful of noodles and gives him a scrutinizing look. “I think you're a liar. You'll try to pay next time too.”
“Maybe.” Liam shrugs unapologetically. “Guess we'll find out.”
Zayn gently kicks Liam's ankle with his socked foot. “You're the worst.”
“I can live with that,” Liam says with a grin.
----
“Are you fucking him yet?” Louis asks bluntly, not looking up from his phone when Zayn comes in the living room.
Zayn glares at him and wishes Liam were home so he could escape. Louis has been insufferable. “No. It's not like that,” he says forcefully.
Louis raises an eyebrow at him. “Because you're a coward. He's arse over tit for you, mate.”
“He's being nice. He's a nice guy,” Zayn counters, kicking at Louis.
Louis kicks back. “No one is that nice,” he scoffs. “He let you behave like a nutter because you're pretty and he wants in your pants.”
Zayn flushes. “He does not. He would have said or done something by now. It's been weeks.”
“Oh, like you've done something?” Louis asks pointedly.
Louis has a point but Zayn doesn't want to hear about it. He gets up and shoves his feet into his shoes, grabbing his jacket and headphones and heads out for a walk.
It's misty out but not proper raining yet and Zayn lets himself get lost in his music and the feel of pavement beneath his feet. He knows if Liam were anyone else Zayn would have made a move already, but it's more complicated than that. Liam is too important. Zayn couldn't bear to make things uncomfortable if Liam doesn't feel the same.
He walks for ages, mulling over the pros and cons in his head. By the time he returns to their building his feet hurt and he's cold and damp. Liam is outside his own door, juggling grocery bags and trying to unlock it.
Zayn jogs over and takes the bags from him. “You look half a second from dropping everything,” he chides gently. “Why didn't you just set them down?”
“Thought I had it under control,” Liam says sheepishly, opening the door for Zayn. “Thanks for the rescue.”
Zayn bumps Liam's hip with his own on his way inside. “Any time,” he says lightly. “Where's the baby?”
“Back in the bedroom so he stays away from the windows,” Liam explains. “I'll go let him out. He gets excited when he hears your voice now.”
“Aww,” Zayn coos. “He's so precious. Go get him. I'll put some of these groceries away.”
There's something incredibly domestic feeling about knowing which cupboards things go in and Zayn likes it. It makes him feel like they're more than they are, how comfortable he is in Liam's space, how well he knows him.
Everything is put away except the bags of crisps that Liam keeps on top of the fridge. Liam still isn't back yet and Zayn doesn't know where the step stool is. He clambers onto the counter and reaches up to place them on the fridge.
Liam entering the kitchen startles him and Zayn can feel himself lose his balance like it's happening in slow motion. Instead of the floor, Zayn's face hits Liam's firm chest as Liam catches him.
“Oh,” Zayn breathes out, eyes fluttering up at Liam's concerned face. “Thank you.”
“Would be a shame to break that face,” Liam teases, arms still wrapped around Zayn.
Zayn is in no hurry to step away. Liam is warm and smells amazing, like rain and cedar. He wants to bury his nose against Liam's neck and drown himself in it.
“It is my money maker,” Zayn agrees, still slightly breathless. He hopes Liam doesn't realize that it has nothing to do with his fall and everything to do with the way they're pressed together.
Liam shakes his head slightly. “I'm pretty sure that's your brain, actually. Your looks are just window dressing.” His eyes go wide. “Nice window dressing, though. Like, really nice.”
Zayn feels like he might be melting slightly, warm all over. “Leeyum,” he says fondly.
He doesn't actually have anything else to follow that up with. There aren't words for how sweet Liam is or how much Zayn likes him. He impulsively leans forward and presses his lips to Liam's.
Liam makes a muffled sound of surprise. Zayn pulls back, an apology ready on his tongue but Liam pulls him back in to kiss him firmly. Zayn feels like he could purr he's so content. He wraps his arms around Liam's neck and kisses back enthusiastically.
A piercing yowl breaks them apart and Zayn looks down at Bruce in surprise. He's never heard that sound come from him before. Bruce stretches up Zayn's leg and meows plaintively, claws kneading at Zayn's thigh.
“I think I have competition,” Liam laughs.
Zayn scoops Bruce up and kisses his head. “You need to let your daddies have alone time,” he admonishes.
Bruce, squished between them, lets out a loud unapologetic purr. Liam laughs again and scratches him beneath his chin.
“Maybe we should go out sometime?” Liam suggests shyly.
“Are you asking to date me, Leeyum?” Zayn asks with a grin.
Liam rests his forehead against Zayn's. “Yeah, I am.”
Bruce butts Zayn's jaw with the top of his head. Zayn laughs happily. “Yes. We should definitely do that. Right now you should probably take us to the couch. Bruce and I need cuddles.”
Liam shakes his head but he scoops Zayn up in a bridal carry and takes him to the couch. “I feel like I might be dating a slightly larger cat.”
Zayn grins at him, tongue pressed behind his teeth, and stretches out over Liam. “The care is very similar. Lots of kisses and cuddles. Also petting,” he says suggestively, shifting his hips slightly.
“Luckily I have experience in all these things,” Liam says with a chuckle.
Zayn snuggles contentedly against him and holds Bruce close. “I had a feeling,” he murmurs happily.