Back to The Beginning

I woke in the morning with my head on Zayn’s shoulder, my arm over Louis’s thigh, and and my legs over Harry’s. I smiled and sat up, making my way to the kitchen where Liam was already eating.

I took my plate and started to scroll through my phone. After seeing Niall’s post, I smiled and posted a video of us singing Through the Dark.

kaylapayne: when the night is coming down on you, we will find our way through the dark @zaynmalik @liampayne @niallhoran @louistomlinson @harrystyles

Liam smiled and kissed my head. “Last night was fun,” he said.

I nodded. “It was,” I replied. “I know that you missed it. You all did.”

“I’ll admit that it was nice to just be the five of us and you, singing songs around the fireplace and acting like we were still in a band,” he answered, the ghost of a wistful smile on his face. “They were my best friends, I miss it.”

Harry and Zayn walked in at that moment. “We all miss it, mate,” Harry said, making himself a plate and Zayn followed suit.

“It’s been two and a half years, you know,” Zayn offered. “Three for me. Maybe it’s time to get the group back together.”

Liam looked over at my flatmate and raised his eyebrow, clearly surprised. “You want to be in One Direction when it returns?” he asked.

Zayn nodded. “I miss it more than I care to admit,” he sighed. “I left because it was just way too much for way too long and I didn’t know how to handle it. Now that I know, I want to go back to doing what I love.”

I smiled at them as Louis and Niall walked in. ‘I’m gonna go work on cleaning my room while you guys talk,” I said, hopping up and walking to the kitchen door. “You know where my room is, find me before you leave.”

I walked to my room as they picked back up on the discussion. Sitting my phone on its dock and turning on my playlist, I got to work making my bedroom liveable as All Time Low blared. My bed found itself made, my floor cleaned, my closet organized.

As I was just about to move into the bathroom, my phone rang, and I answered quickly. “It’s Kayla,” I said, spraying glass cleaner on the mirror.

“Hi Kayla, it’s Simon,” my mentor’s voice came, and I smiled. “How are you doing?”

“I’m doing pretty well. Cleaning the flat since it picked up a bit of dust.”

“And entertaining visitors.”

“And entertaining visitors with my new flatmate.”

“New flatmate?” His voice was full of curiosity. “Adley moved in with you?”

I laughed. “She practically lives here whenever she’s in London, but no,” I answered. “It’s someone else.”

“James? Taylor?”

“Zayn.”

“He lives with Gigi.”

There was hollow laughter from my side of the phone. “Not anymore,” I informed him. “He lives with me. There was...stuff.”

Simon seemed to understand, humming. “You and the boys have set the internet on fire,” he told me, and I gulped.

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, suddenly wondering if we’d made a mistake by advertising our night in.

“Not at all. On the contrary, it’s an amazing thing. Interest in the boys is up, as well as interest in you,” he told me. “Modest will tell you more. I just wanted to check in on you and see how you were doing after tour.”

I smiled at his words. “I’m doing pretty good, but I’m about to be slinging water around and I don’t want to get my phone wet, so I’m gonna go. Bye Simon.”

“Bye Kayla.”

I hung up and placed my phone back on its dock before resuming scrubbing my shower. I had no clue what was going on on social media, having long turned off my notifications.

1dkilledmysociallife: i thought 1d wasn’t getting back together but then louis and kayla posted and AIAFDKNDKNFOAM

nojimmyprotested: still not sure if i believe kayla is liam’s sister but she’s talented and she’s giving us a 1d revival so i’m happy

larry_trash: they go from never being around each other to singing TTD around a fire while drinking hot chocolate and Zayn’s there too what is going on

When my phone did go off, it was a text from Harry telling me to come back to the living room, and so I paused my music and rejoined my friends, brother, and flatmate.

“So we’re trying to figure out what to do,” Liam told me. “Obviously, Z’s a wreck and doesn’t need to be out alone where the paps can swarm him. We reckon that we should make it so that he’s always with one of the five of us, no matter where we are in the world.”

I nodded. “I like that plan. It’ll probably be the easiest for him to be with me, though. I’m going to be in London for the next couple months or so working on my album.”

“Speaking of being in London,” Harry said, standing from his place at the table. “I’m not really supposed to be here and I have a plane to catch. Kayla, Zayn, it was great to see you. Text me with what gets decided. Bye.”

“Bye Haz,” I said, and he made his way to the door and left, which left five of us in my kitchen.

“Yeah, I’ll be in London when I can, but I’ve got quite a bit going on and then I’ve also got Freddie,” Louis said, and I nodded.

“Guys I’m right here,” Zayn reminded us. “And personally, I just want to lay low for a while. Kinda fall off the radar. Not go out much. I’m just planning on staying here with Kayla and living a semi normal life.”

Niall nodded like he got it. “So it’s settled, then. You stay with Kayla and we’ll pop by when we can.”

We all nodded in agreement, Louis texted Harry the plan, and then goodbyes were said and Zayn and I found ourselves alone in our flat once more.

He immediately rested his head on my shoulder and sighed. “I miss her.”

“I know you do,” I replied gently. “And you probably will for a while. But it’s going to be okay.”

“I thought I was going to marry her,” he sighed. I just held him, pressing a kiss to his hair and rubbing his shoulder since I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Eventually, he went into the living room to watch tv and I went back to cleaning. As soon as my room and bathroom were shining, I made lunch(ham and cheese sandwiches because I can totally cook) and carried it over to Zayn.

“My amazing cooking,” I announced, sitting the plate down, and he laughed.

“Can you not cook either?”

I shook my head and took a bite of a sandwich. “Nope. I’m hopeless. I’ve also been gone for two months and so it’s a wonder there’s food here at all.”

“Ah agh a oink,” he answered through a mouth of sandwich.

“Finish chewing and repeat that,” I told him, laughing.

“You have a point,” he clarified, and I just shrugged and polished off a few sandwiches. As soon as the plate was empty, I took it and put it in the sink, and to my surprise, Zayn followed me.

“Okay, I know I said I wanted to lay low, but we need to go get food,” he said.

“Agreed,” I replied. “Let me grab some shoes and a jacket.”

He nodded. “I need to do the same.”

We both pulled on shoes and jackets, and then walked the short distance from the flat to the local supermarket. While we were walking, a few people stopped us and asked for pictures, which we took with them happily.

At the supermarket, we meandered through the aisles, grabbing whatever we thought we might eat.

“Pickled crab’s legs?” I asked, looking down at Zayn’s most recent grab.

“They sound interesting,” he defended.

I rolled my eyes at him. “They sound disgusting. And remember: whatever we buy we eat.”

He signed and put them back. “Thank you for making me think.”

“You’re welcome Zayny,” I answered through laughter, causing him to groan and roll his eyes.

“Can we just move on to the next aisle?” he asked. “We’ve been here half an hour and we’re only through four.”

“That’s because you insist on trying to buy everything,” I said, switching to defense.

“Well if you’d let me we wouldn’t be moving this slow!”

“If I let you we’d be eating pickled crab’s legs with,” I paused to look at the bottle, which I hadn’t been able to talk him out of getting, “all-natural Korean-Mexican fusion duck bean dip.”

He took the bottle from my hands and looked it over again. “Why did I get this?”

“You said it looked good.”

My flatmate rolled his eyes. “It’s a weird brown goop,” he stated, coming to his senses, “and the name makes it sound horrific.”

I laughed. “Let’s go put this back, yeah?”

He nodded, and we put the definitely not all-natural condiment back on its shelf before moving to the next aisle, still discussing why me letting him get whatever he wanted was definitely a bad idea.

Notes