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Zayn had only agreed to this because Liam had been so worried. Liam is always worried about something, but Zayn prefers for it not to be about him. Zayn really wasn't into the whole set up thing, and it's not like he needed help landing someone. He was perfectly capable, but ever since Zayn’s girlfriend broke up with him because she'd met someone else, Liam had been patting Zayn's shoulder and giving him understanding looks. He was constantly saying things like "hang in there mate" or "don't worry you'll find someone else".
In reality Zayn was more concerned about his lack of concern over the break up. I mean they had dated for 8 months so logically he should be pretty torn up about it right? Only he's not. He's really not. He feels fine. Completely apathetic, and that's what worries him. Zayn's pretty sure it's not supposed to be like that. Isn't he supposed to be eating Ben and Jerrys and sobbing into the sofa cushion or something? He’s even the type to be prone to a bit of brooding, but he hadn't holed himself up in his room to listen to a sad record once. Not even the day she broke it off.
Maybe there really is something wrong with him. He had almost felt relieved that she had found someone else first, because his last couple of relationships had ended after he got bored and then ended up ruining it all. Which always made him feel like a prick so, at least it hadn’t been his fault this time.
Except Liam hadn't seemed to notice Zayn's lack of tears. So even if this whole thing turned out to be spectacularly awful hopefully it would at least make Liam stop being so overly nice to Zayn all the time. He'd been walking around treating Zayn like he was something fragile that could be broken if you didn’t speak with a soft voice, or like he was some sort of wild animal that could only be approached with slow movements and a tense smile.
In all honesty it was starting to freak him out a bit. So even though he was feeling distinctly uncomfortable in his black button up, that was just a little too tight around the shoulders now that he had finally gotten around to spending a little time at the gym, he figured it would be worth it to make Liam leave him alone about it all.
+++
He arrived at the designated restaurant almost too early, but thought it couldn't harm anything to just get seated anyways. He informed the hostess that there would be one more joining him, and was led to a corner table near the back.
He took his seat and started fiddling with his serviette. He was feeling a bit bored when he should probably be feeling nervous, but he just couldn't see this going anywhere. He supposed that was a bad attitude to have when he hasn't even met the girl yet.
He straightened up in his seat, trying to at least give this a chance since Liam went through the trouble of setting it all up, and even went so far as to pick out Zayn's outfit and make the reservations at the restaurant. It only takes a couple of seconds before he’s slouched back into his chair. He ends up reaching for the salt shaker and dumping some salt onto the table and using his fingers to make swirling little patterns. That is sure to make a brilliant first impression should she show up a bit early.
Zayn’s whole body stiffens and he visibly jumps when he hears someone clearing their throat next to him. He flips his head around a little embarrassed to be caught acting like a startled rabbit, and feeling a bit guilty for pouring salt on the nice tablecloth.
When he finally manages to look into the face of the source, he startles again. This time it's not because he's not paying attention. This time it's because his heart started pounding and tripping over itself as soon as he set eyes on the waiter standing next to his table with a smile that's too big for his face. His lips are pinker than any girl’s he’s ever seen with deep set dimples, and he has a mass of slightly unruly brown curly hair on his head. His eyes are green and they glint in a mischievous way that has Zayn momentarily stunned.
After what was probably a full minute of just staring openly at the boy's face Zayn realizes what he's doing and feels his cheeks heat up. Which means he's blushing, and Zayn can't even remember the last time he blushed. He stutters out a sorry, but the boy just brushes it off.
"It’s fine! I didn't mean to startle you there." he says with the same easy grin. He either didn't notice Zayn staring or he's used to these kinds of looks. Zayn's inclined to think it's the latter. "Can I start you off with something to drink?"
For some reason Zayn's having a hard time remembering how to talk, because the boy is still smiling and people with faces like that shouldn't be allowed to just throw around smiles whenever they feel like it. Zayn fixes his gaze somewhere around the boys shoulder before he gets too dazed again. He's wearing a plain white button up shirt with a small gold name tag on the pocket which reads "Harry."
He finally remembers how to speak, and then promptly wishes he hadn't. Because he starts rambling on and on about how he's actually waiting for someone, and he doesn't usually just come to restaurants to eat dinner alone. Then he finds himself telling him all about how he's on a blind date, because his girlfriend broke up with him and now his friend thinks he's depressed.
Way to play it cool Malik. He's pretty sure if the boy didn’t already think he was pathetic he's more than confirmed it now. He’d been talking so fast he couldn't really breathe properly so he has to stop to suck in a big breath of air, and he grimaces a bit, because really what is he even doing? Zayn is normally quiet and he’s been told that his “mysterious” side is his best asset. He’s pretty sure there was nothing mysterious or alluring about that.
Harry glances around a bit surreptitiously, and Zayn belatedly realizes that he probably has other tables to serve and Zayn’s forcing him to watch him have a meltdown and he hasn't even ordered anything yet.
He puts a hand on Zayn's shoulder and leans in a little "Listen, you'll be fine alright?" Zayn can't really breathe again, but he finds himself nodding along with what Harry is saying and he can even feel his face cracking into a little smile when he feels Harry’s fingers curl around and give his shoulder a light squeeze. "She'll get here, and either you'll hit it off and it'll be great, or it will be completely awful and you’ll get a good laugh out of it later. Either way you’ll get to eat some really good food, and you can go home and tell your friend that with cheekbones like yours you really don't need help getting a date ok?" He gives Zayn's shoulder another squeeze, slightly harder this time, and then walks off tripping on a chair that hadn’t been tucked in on the way.
Zayn sits back in his chair trying to recover. He takes a few calming breaths, but he can still feel exactly where Harry's hand was placed on his shoulder. It's still tingling a bit. Also he hadn’t been able to stop himself from watching Harry the whole way as he made his way towards the kitchen. He seemed to recover from the little stumble fairly well, but then Harry kicks open the door to the kitchen using a foot, and Zayn hears what sounds like an entire stack of plates breaking before the door manages to swing all the way closed.
Harry comes back a minute later and places a small steaming cup of tea down on the table. It sloshes over and ends up being about half a cup of tea instead, but it still strikes Zayn as incredibly thoughtful.
+++
A girl with long brown hair comes up to shake Zayn’s hand. It seems a little formal. He suddenly feels like he’s at a job interview, and he hadn’t thought to bring his CV along. Zayn ends up smiling anyway when he sees Harry send him a wink over his shoulder as he heads off to take another table’s order.
Zayn walks around the table to pull the girl’s seat out. He feels bad, because he’s sure Liam had mentioned her name, but he can’t seem to remember it now, and he’s almost positive she’d said it when she shook his hand, but he’d been too distracted by a certain waiter.
They chat easily enough about Uni and how they met Liam, and while Zayn still hasn’t managed to learn her name he does learn that she’s studying History and is an altogether lovely girl. She’s pretty and clearly smart. On a normal day he would probably be a lot more interested in seeing where this could go, but Zayn is still finding himself distracted. This is most likely because he has a pretty clear view of Harry chatting animatedly to an older couple sitting a few tables away from him.
Harry glances over and Zayn feels a bit embarrassed about being caught staring again, but before he has the chance to get too worked up Harry has knocked over a tall glass of ice water that quickly spreads across the table and starts dripping off the sides.
After a few more minutes of Zayn trying as hard as he can to keep his attention on his date he’s finally given a bit of a reprieve when Harry comes over to take their order. He gives Zayn a smile, and reaches a hand up to pull all of his hair to one side. He ends up poking himself in the eye a little bit, but Zayn’s heart flutters in a way he’s only ever heard about in cheesy songs or in those ridiculous novels his sister, Doniya, reads. He can’t remember a time when he had been so affected by such a simple action.
To be honest he can’t be quite sure if he’d even ordered anything or not. He feels like he might have just stuttered out random words that didn’t make any sort of sense, and then been forced to stare down at the floor as he tried to get his rapid heart rate under control.
He sees his date giving him a look like she’s contemplating something. She’s probably worrying about the dismal education the future generation has to look forward to, as he’d told her he was going to school to be an English teacher, and he hadn’t seemed to be displaying much of a grasp on the subject so far.
+++
When Harry comes out of the back door balancing a tray of food a bit precariously, and heading towards their table Zayn’s never been more grateful. He’s pretty sure his date had just asked him a question for the second or third time, and he still hadn’t heard it.
This was mostly due to the fact that he’d been craning his neck around trying to see where Harry had gone. This was starting to get a bit pathetic, and he felt really bad about this poor girl who was forced to sit through this mess.
When Harry finally makes his way over to their table he’s got a huge smile on his face. Zayn’s pretty sure that it gets wider every time he see’s him. He’s starting to wonder if it hurts his cheeks to keep that kind of steady progression up all day.
He makes to bring the tray around in what was probably supposed to be a fancy flourish, but actually just ends up sending a whole plate of food with some kind of messy red sauce straight into the lap of Zayn’s date.
Harry’s smile falters and he starts apologizing profusely. To the girl’s credit she’s really gracious about the whole thing. Harry rushes off again promising to come back with something to help clean up, and a new plate.
His date (god, he still doesn’t even know her name) just laughs a bit as they watch him try to rush to the back only to trip on his own feet which sends his arms pinwheeling, and causes everyone in the restaurant to turn and watch the impending crash.
She shakes her head, and then stands up a big red stain clear on her pencil skirt. She walks to Zayn’s chair and leans over to give him a small kiss on the cheek, and says, “Look, thanks for meeting me here today, you seem like a nice guy, but I think you should talk to that boy before he kills himself trying to impress you.” She weaves her way expertly in between the tables and walks out the door without looking back.
+++
Harry comes back carrying a mountain of serviettes and a new plate of the pasta dish his date had ordered, and then later ended up wearing. A deep blush is spread across his pale cheeks, and Zayn is suddenly struck with the urge to kiss them.
He sets everything on the table before glancing at the empty seat across from Zayn and then collapsing in it. "Oh god. She left? I can't believe I ruined your date."
"S'ok. I mean it'll make a great story you know? Just like you said yeah?"
"Still…" he trails off and then picks up a bread-stick and breaks off a piece, gnawing on it with a bit of a sullen expression on his face.
"You don't have to work still do you?" Zayn says confusedly watching Harry sip at the now cool tea he'd brought Zayn earlier.
"Actually, no. They begged me to take the rest of the day off. I mean I am sort of clumsy, but I'm not usually this bad. Plus I feel really awful about scaring your date away. You don't have to worry about paying for your meal it's all on me. I even asked the cook to make you my favorite dessert, and he agreed on the condition that I let someone else go into the kitchen to get it. Something about his favorite serving dish being in danger, and how I'd have to give him my soul as collateral if I broke it."
A smile spread itself across Zayn's face and settled there. Before long he was laughing, and he was starting to think that maybe Liam had picked up on something he hadn't, because now that he’s thought about it he really hasn't laughed like that in a long time. The kind of laugh where his eyes scrunch up and his tongue presses up against his teeth. He catches Harry looking a bit dazed, and thinks maybe his date had picked up on something he hadn't as well. When he gets home he's definitely going to ask Liam for her name so he can send her a Thank You card or something.
He and Harry set to work polishing off the plates in front of them and Harry hadn't been lying when he said at least the food would be good.
+++
Harry was in the middle of telling him a story about his flatmate Niall, but had somehow gotten sidetracked half way through. Instead he was talking about when he was 12, and had ended up running through the streets with only a pair of briefs on after his trousers got snagged climbing a fence in an effort to run away from a shouting priest.
He had a little bit of the red sauce at the corner of his mouth, and for some reason Zayn found it stupidly endearing. He was having a hard time keeping his arm down by his side, and just when he started to reach up to swipe it away a waitress came over carrying two slices of chocolate cake.
"Here you are Romeo" she said placing them on the table, and it was impossible to miss the flush that spread up Harry's cheeks.
Harry tried to subtly to kick at her from under the table, but missed and ended up kicking the leg of the table instead, causing everything to shake and rattle noisily. Zayn was just able to steady the wobbling cup of tea before it too spilled out across the table. The waitress left laughing, and Harry put his head in his hands. His fingers tugging on his curls a bit.
“Oh god. This is so embarrassing. I should probably leave you alone anyways. And again I’m really sorry about how your date turned out.”
He stood up to leave, but Zayn reached out and grabbed his hand. “Why? I think it’s turning out pretty great actually.”
“Yeah?” Harry said glancing up at Zayn from under his curls.
Zayn shifted his hand a bit so their fingers were intertwined, “Yeah.”