glued on tight.

Zayn's lips quirked up in a small smile as he nodded. "Maybe you're right about that," he said, accepting the new cigarette he was given. He wanted to throw both the cigarettes onto the grass and replace Liam's fag with his mouth instead. Liam's voice broke him out of his train of thought, which he was thankful for, before his eyes trailed down the other's body. "I think you look really, really good," he said, his body leaning against the man as his head went to rest on his shoulder. The idea of a burger joint with all five of them again seemed like it was going to be impossible after the X Factor tour all those years ago. He hummed as he looked down at his own jeans and shirt, not thinking that he looked all that special to go out. "You're an idiot if you think that I am actually looking better than you. We can both look like slobs, if it makes you feel better," he said, leaning back on the bench. He was always someone who cared greatly about how he looked, making sure he at least looked respectable enough before going outside.

Liam took a finally drag, the heat reaching to lick at his fingers as the fire was pulled closer, and he flicked it to the ground, snubbing it out with the toe of his shoe. He reached over to pat Zayn's knee for a moment before using it to lever himself off the low bench. "We wouldn't want your pride to become bruised, though," he said, lips pulling into a small smile as he looked down at the other. "Nah, you've got a reputation to uphold. You're always going to be the pretty one, even with your odd hair colouring choices," Liam said, running his hand over Zayn's shaved head. His fingers linger for a moment longer than a friendly gesture, but he simply pulls his hand away and turns to walk back inside. He'd been so careful in his instructions to himself, and it'd taken mere minutes for Zayn's simple presence to blow them away. He knew he needed to pull away, needed to keep the distance they'd both carefully cultivated, and so he plowed on ahead, his socks catching on the rough stones as he walked for the house. "Come on, we've a world to fool," Liam threw over his shoulder, the harsh downturn of his mouth hidden from the other's view.

Zayn thought for a split second that his heart was evidently heard from inside his chest during the moments that Liam had his hands on his head. "Li," he said softly, standing up with him even though he knew that the man was already turned and headed toward the door of the house. He followed close behind, keeping his distance even though he wanted nothing more than to bring the man closer to him. "You look really good," he said, offering him a smile though that was the last thing he wanted to say to Liam. He wanted to tell him that this was slowly molding into reality to Zayn, that there were already nights that he stayed up in bed thinking of what it would be like to instead be in the other man's bed. There was also the possibility that they weren't fooling anyone, that there was chemistry since they met at McDonald's, before the fame. "Hey," he said, after a few minutes of silence fell over them, "do you think that even if we weren't famous, you know, all that jazz, that we would still have met?" He didn't want to say that he wished that they met sooner, before he had time to think about being a performer. Maybe he could have been an English teacher, possibly an artist. He didn't exactly know, but the future could have been completely different than what it was.

Liam went over to the line of shoes beside his front door, staring down at them for a moment before just picking up a pair and going to tie them on. "Well, seeing as the only reason why we meet was because we were at the auditions. I doubt it would have happened had this whole thing went a different way," he said, shrugging a shoulder as he stood once more, smoothing down his shirt. He turned to Zayn, nodding his head before walking to him and ushering him out of the front door. There was a car stationed at the curb out front, and Liam opened the door for Zayn, allowing him to slid into the seat before following him in. "Or maybe we would have. Maybe we would have been older and not so immature, and this all might have turned out differently, but we've got this, and we've got to get through it. No use in dwelling in the what ifs," he said quietly, his body leaned close to Zayn's so his voice didn't travel to the driver's ears.

Zayn allowed himself to slip into the car, buckling his seat belt before he listened to Liam talk once more. He was slightly disappointed with how the conversation was going, his stomach dropping at the prospect that the man didn't find him as important as Zayn thought Liam was. He was about to open his mouth, about to say something that he hoped would convince Liam that he was important. When the man started talking again, his shoulders relaxed and he leaned slightly more into the other. He smiled at the concept of them meeting on different circumstances, being able to potentially be something else together. He didn't think much more as his head moved to connect their lips together, glad to have the man near him even if this was fake. He hoped that he could blame it on the need to even show the driver that they were really in a relationship, but it was far from it. He wished that every emotions he wanted to convey was found as he continued to press his lips against Liam's, his teeth going to nibble at his bottom lip.

Liam raised a hand to slide it around Zayn's neck, pulling him closer in a desperate moment when he'd forgotten that this was all a show they were putting on, fingers running against the short stubble on his hair. He came back to his right mind a while longer than he'd like to admit, breaking from the other to trail his lips down his jaw and onto his neck. "Already feelin' like a round two?" Liam asked, the volume of his voice slightly louder as he attempted to play up the game to the driver, hoping this was where Zayn was going with all of this. He extracted himself from Zayn, smiling softly at the other man as he cut his eyes over towards the front of the car, finding the driver to be playing complete attention to the road.

Zayn almost believed that Liam had actually forgotten that this was an act, sinking into this like it was a normal occurrence. At one point potentially it was the closest thing to the truth. He let his eyes close as he felt lips down his jaw and neck, finally allowing himself to think that potentially this wasn't a mistake that he made for himself. It turned out that he dug himself further into this as he heard Liam's words. He forced himself to laugh as he batted Liam away, moving to one side of the car as he suddenly felt more sick than he'd like to admit by all this pretending. "You know it, babe," he said, looking over at the driver to see that he hardly seemed interested in anything that was going on behind him. "Can't wait to see the lads, yeah?" He asked, trying to distract himself from the embarrassing moment that had just happened.

Liam nodded excitedly, hands rubbing over his thighs harshly as he attempted to contain his impatience, though he knew with the traffic as it was right then it'd be helped none. "Yeah, rather looking forward to it. Our busy schedules have made it nearly impossible to even have a phone conversation with them," he said, grinning over at Zayn and he adjusted in his seat, sitting still for a few moments before moving again. "Louis should be in a much better mood this time, too. And we all know we'll have to watch Niall eat three times as much as any of us do and then talk with his mouth open," he said, forcing himself to relax back in the seat, feeling as though he was being a bother with his constant movement. "Sorry, I was up to about a pack a day for the whole mind fuck of a mess we're in, and I've been trying to cut back. Not going all the well," he told Zayn, hoping it would explain his inability to sit still.

"Yeah, I was texting him recently, he definitely seems in a better place, luckily for us. Moody Louis is never something we should want," Zayn replied with a large grin on his face. He felt more relaxed as he pretended like the kissing never happened, that he was just talking to Liam like they were friends back those many months prior where it was okay. "I may give him a run for his money, I have been too busy today to even think about eating," he said, which was mostly true since he had to discuss with Simon about moving into his new record label and even just making sure that the PR managers weren't upset with their attempt at being in a relationship. He was confused as to why Liam was telling him this information, before he realised the other was shifting quite a bit. "Oh, no, it's no problem. You sure you're okay? Would you like another one?" He asked, hand already going for the pack in his pocket. "Can we have a smoke in here?" He asked, rolling down the window before the driver even replied.