Fake It

"I always wanted a store." Layne says. It was Tuesday. They were laying side by side in bed, hands interlocked. Other than that, they weren't even touching.
"A store?" Zayn asks, rubbing his thumb over hers.

She nods, eyes locked on the ceiling as she says, "Well, yeah. Preferably a book store. I was saving up and everything. Y'know before all of this happened."

"Sorry about that."

"It's fine. It's just... I love books and reading, and writing. I just thought that starting a bookstore would cover all of those bases at once. I thought... I don't know what I thought. But, now I don't have that chance." She says with a smile, "It was a marvelous dream, Zayn. You would have been surprised, if you'd known me when I was younger. I had bad teeth and a mountain of aspirations. Nothing could stop me. Now look at me. 22, getting married and can't walk down a flight of stairs without falling. I'm a mess. How are you going to tell your friends that you married a mess?" She laughs.
"All of my friends think you're lovely." He murmurs.

She sighs.

She rolls over into his chest, murmuring slightly about being tired. He laughs, running a hand over her hair softly. He tells her not to worry, bookmarking her hope for later use.

--

A while later, a knock rings as Layne's changing. Note, that Layne is in fact changing. Without missing a beat, Prince Louis rears his head through a crack in the door.

"Lou!" Zayn yells from his station at his desk.

Slightly full of surprise, Layne holds her t-shirt to her chest, strained smile on her face.

"Hi, Prince Louis." Layne says, waving a little.
He smiles at her saying, "Call me Lou; all the pretty girls call be me Lou."

"Lou!"Zayn groans, "Please, not my fiancée. Anyone else besides my fiancée."

Louis sighs, shaking his head at Zayn.

"I need your help. The love of my life isn't talking to me and I could really use a smoke."

Her eyes widen and open her mouth to say something.

"I told you! Emily doesn't like the whole playing hard to get thing. She's not gonna talk to you for a while." Zayn tells him, laughing.

"Emily?! You're in love with your assistant-"

"My secretary." Louis corrects her.

"Either way, " Zayn starts exasperatedly, "we should get out of here so Layne can change."

Zayn get up to leave, motioning for Prince Louis to follow him.

As they walkout, Layne yells, "Thanks, Babe."

"You're welcome, honey!"

--

"You can't be jealous." She tells him.
Note: This happened after Layne was asked to dance. After she laughed and agreed, because it had only been Ted. After, they danced, laughing and giggling. And after, Louis made a comment. A stupid, stupid comment that made Zayn very angry.

Oh! And, after Zayn pulled her away from Ted without so much as a sorry or anything.
"Yes, I can. I have every right to."

"No, you don't," She yells, motioning between the space between them, "What ever this is doesn't give you the right to pull me away from another guy."

He grabs her right wrist, eyes fierce as he grits out, "I'm your fucking fiancée, Layne. I have a god given right to be irritated when my future wife is flirting with someone other than me."

She snatches her hand from him and murmurs, "I didn't ask to be engaged to you, Zayn."

"I didn't ask for that either." He says, not missing a beat.

Her eyes widens and her breath hitches in her throat. She fully aware that she said something equally as horrid, but she never once expected him to say something like that. He was always a constant and she didn't expect that, at all. He always liked her, no matter what. It didn't matter what she said to him. Her teeth find her bottom lip as she looks to her shoes.

"That sounded bad-"

"Yeah, Zayn, it fucking did." She tries to not croak it out, but she still sounds like a fucking frog.

Noticing, Zayn reaches for her hand.

"Don't! Just...Don't." She yells, ending quickly. She turns around and leaves, audibly stomping.

--

A few days later, after Layne locked they're room door, resulting in Zayn having to share the room with Niall, after being kicked out of Louis's room because of his assistant shooing him out, Layne wakes up to knocking. Of course.

Layne groans, headache still present from the night before. She rolls out of the bed, making sure to grab her slippers on the way to the door. She opens the door with a, "What?!"

"Oh! You, um, eyes are red-"

"Shut up." Layne tells Zayn, closing the door on his foot.

"Wait! Ow! I just wanted to show you something"

"What is it?"

Zayn doesn't say anything, simply walking her all the way out of the castle doors, assuming she'll follow. And she does. With crossed arms, she silently stomps behind him for a few miles or so.
He stops abruptly, turning to face her. He smiles at her, holding out his hand.

"What?"

"Just come on."

Layne sighs, placing her hand in his. He pulls her into the building and the first thing she notices is the rows and rows of empty bookcases. Her eyes widen with realization and she gasps.

"Zayn-"

"Shh, this isn't even the best part." He interrupts. Taking her all the way to the back of the building, he pulls open a door, and to much of Layne's surprise the room was literally filled to the brim with books. Her eyes tinged with tears as she squeezes Zayn's hand a little tighter.

"You didn't."

"I did." He responds.

"Oh my fucking god. Thank you." She says, pressing her lips to his soon after. The rest of the repeats of "Thank you." are muffled against Zayn's lips. And he simply smiles.
"Why'd you do this?"

"Think of it as an engagement gift." He offers her.

"I thought you didn't want to be engaged to me."

"I think I will get used to the idea of being engaged to you."

Notes