Patricia was folding clothes in the living room when Yaser came in and sat on the arm of the couch next to her. She could tell that something was wrong.

"Is everything alright?"

He sighed. "I'm not sure."

"What are you thinking about, then?"

"Zayn."

"What about him?"

"Have you been paying attention to him at work?"

She hummed. "Only a little. I've been spending so much time in the office lately. What about him?"

"He seems to be distracted and even annoyed by something. It worries me. He hasn't fully been the same since he returned home from college. I don't want to pry but whatever it is, I don't want him to have to deal with it alone."

She picked up a shirt and began to neatly fold it. "When you say annoyed, do you suspect it's of us?"

"No. It's definitely not of us. It's something else he's got going on in his life. He appears to be good in the morning when he first arrives at work. But by lunch, he's anxious. That day that I sent him home early, I told you it was because he was tired and hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before. But it was really because he lied to me about going on his lunch break. He said he was going to eat. But I checked the refrigerator and he never took any food with him."

"You went checking behind him?"

"No. I just happened to see it was still there. But that's the point. I feel like he's keeping something from us. And it scares me."

She put a hand on her hip. "Listen. Our son may have made some mistakes in the past but he is still an adult and he is responsible for himself. Don't forget that."

"I know."

"So if he wants to tell us what's going on in his life, he will."

"But what if he chooses to do so too late? What if he's not lucky enough to dodge trouble twice? I think we need to invite him over with intentions to talk."

"You want to corner him?"

"No. I don't want to corner him. I just want to see if he feels comfortable enough to confide in his father again."

"So this is about you."

"Patricia."

"No. You don't understand. Every time I try to explain to you that he needs his space, you end up giving him even less. Okay, sure. We will invite him over so you can have your talk. But after that, you have to stop this that you're doing. You can't prevent every bad thing from happening to your children no matter how much you want to."

"I can try."

"But you won't succeed and that is just me being realistic about it. Remember Zayn is not our only child. We have a daughter upstairs who also has her own goals. She still lives with us and she's still figuring out herself too. Be there for her, Yaser. And I'm not just talking about being there to make sure everything remains okay. But be there for her for the day that comes when it no longer isn't."

When Patricia frowned and started to fold again, Yaser sighed and looked down at his feet. Was she right? Of course she was. But he still needed one more chance. One more chance to get Zayn to come to him as his loving father and then he would concede.

➡️➡️➡️

A few days later, Zayn showed up to Harry's house after work with a new color to discuss. Harry opened the door after Zayn announced himself over the intercom.

"Hi."

"Hey. How was your day?"

"It was alright, I guess." Harry answered. But his tone of voice didn't really give off the feeling that he was. So Zayn stopped to look at him. It was hard enough to read a blind man's expression but it was even harder with the red sun glasses he was wearing today.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Why?"

"No reason."

Even though he didn't believe him, he didn't want to pry either. So he made his way into the living room and sat on the couch while Harry closed and locked the front door.

"I wan't you to know I spent a fair amount of time on this color and I really did want to take you someplace interesting." He said out loud. "But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't think of anything good or creative. So I'm sorry."

Harry walked into the room now. "Don't be sorry. I'm actually glad. I don't really want to go anywhere anyway."

"You don't?"

"No."

Zayn watched him come over and sit down but instead of only sitting next to him, he felt for Zayn, crawled over to him and cuddled close.

Zayn chuckled. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know."

He raised his brow. "You don't know?

Harry only smiled. "We're talking about the color purple today, right?"

He knew that Harry was changing the subject but it wasn't serious enough to mention now. Clearly he did not want to talk about it.

"Yes. We are. Are you ready?"

"Yep."

He took his phone from his pocket, turned it on and navigated to the saved web page.

"Okay, so the colors blue and red make purple when you mix them together. Here it describes purple as combining the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty and symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance."

"Hmm. I wish I had a wealth of friends and family. I have no parents, no grandparents, no brothers or sisters and no aunts and uncles, so therefore, no cousins either. If only my mother wasn't an only child and if only she had more children than me before she died."

Zayn didn't know how to answer to that without offending him. So he chose not to say anything.

"So um, purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic. Isn't that cool?"

"I mean sure. But magic isn't real. At least I don't believe in it. Do you?"

"No. I don't."

"But don't you wish it was real? So you could wish for a lot of stuff."

"Well... sure."

"What would you wish for?"

Zayn thought for a moment. What would he wish for? He didn't know. He didn't believe in magic so he never gave it serious thought before. "I honestly don't know. Do you know what you would wish for?"

"Yes."

"What?"

Instead of answering. Harry only laughed it off and hugged Zayn tighter. So tight that Zayn began to wonder why he was clinging so much. It was odd and it made him worry.

"Uh. So... Lastly, light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings while dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings and can even cause frustration."

"Like me." Harry pouted.

"Huh? Which one? Light purple or dark purple?"

Again, Harry said nothing to that. Instead, he just took off his glasses, then lay himself across Zayn's lap and sighed into his stomach.

"Harry."

"Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

He shook his head, but when Zayn heard him sniffle, he pushed his hair from out of his face to behind his ear.

"Ace. Tell me what's wrong."

Harry almost faced upward but not quite. It was more so just the general direction but still, Zayn could not miss those tears in his eyes. "Don't leave me."

Zayn frowned. "What?"

"I don't want you to go anywhere."

"Why would I go anywhere?"

"Because you don't have to stay."

Zayn had to pause and get his thoughts together. The last thing he wanted to do was rush into a response and put himself in a position to break a promise. "My intentions are not to leave you to go anywhere. If it were, I wouldn't keep coming by."

"I know. But still..."

"Why are you suddenly worried about that? You never have before."

"Because I really like you."

That wasn't the answer Zayn wanted to hear but Zayn smiled sadly down at him. "I really like you too."

Harry sniffled again and tried to bury his face in Zayn's stomach a second time, but Zayn picked him up and carried him off toward his bedroom. Harry was actually quite heavy. But Zayn still got him to his room and into his bed where he crawled in it with him.

Just as Harry had done in the living room, he clung tight to him and would not let go. They only lay together quietly until a few minutes later when Harry spoke up. "I think about you all the time." He said.

Zayn faced him. "You do?"

"Yes. I do. I always wonder what you do at night when you leave here. You're alone like me. How do you keep yourself busy? Especially after all you've been through. Cause you don't even have cigarettes to past time anymore."

"True, true." He said.

"So.... what?"

"Um... when I'm not working, I sleep a lot. I sit around and I think sometimes. I watch a bit of TV and I do household things like cooking and cleaning."

"Hmm."

"Why?"

It took him a brief moment to say what he wanted to say. "Do you... ever think about me?"

"All the time."

"The same way?"

Zayn raised his brow. "Hm?"

He faced upwards. "I understand there's levels of comfort. I get it. Cause you're new and I've had this same conversation before with Mindy about someone else. But I do still think about you a lot. And I think about you differently than you do of me."

"How do you figure?"

"I don't figure. I know." He rolled over on him and sat up on Zayn's thighs. But he was closer to Zayn's abdomen than he thought he was and he was cutting off Zayn's ease of breathing somewhat. "You call me your boyfriend now. Which I am and I want to be. But there's ways that you know you belong to someone or that they belong to you. Ways that I know you don't think about at the moment because you're probably not ready to go down that road with me."

Zayn's whole body froze. Oh.

"But that's the thing. I would never rush you. However, I could be the one to tell you that sometimes I do wonder what you would think of me if you knew I wanted to."

"What would I think? I would think nothing. At least nothing bad. And then I also get it. I'm not the only one in this relationship. So I'm not the only one allowed to get a feeling."

"But what if the feeling is not what I want from you and rather what I want to do to you?"

Zayn raised his brow. That question really caught him off guard. "Well, wait a minute. Let's just slow this all down and back it up a few feet, okay?"

"Okay."

"Are you saying... no, wait. I'll let you tell me what you're saying. What are you trying to tell me?"

"To be honest, I'm afraid to give you an answer. But I could demonstrate more than I could ever work up the courage to say it to you."

Zayn's entire body instantly turned hot. He was entering new territory here. Sure he may have thought about Harry a lot when he was alone and sure Harry may have made him hard once or twice- definitely three times. But this? He didn't even know what 'this' was and he was already scared of it.

"Do I get to say no if I don't like it?"

"Yes."

He exhaled slowly and fixed his eyes on him. He figured he might as well. "Alright. Show me."

"Okay."

Harry scooted backward to prop himself up on his knees beside Zayn, so Zayn tried to sit up. But Harry used two hands to push him back down.

"No, no, no. You don't need to sit up."

"I don't?"

"No. But you can help me."

"Do what?"

When Harry started to fumble with his belt and zipper, Zayn assisted him until it was undone. Harry didn't ask him to lift his hips but when he saw him pulling at his waist and struggling to get his pants down, he did it for him anyway. Harry had only pulled them halfway down to his knees before he was reaching into his underwear and pulling his dick out over the waistband.

Zayn had been holding his breath, but it was at this time that he finally let it out. He didn't know what Harry was going to try but he did know they couldn't have been going all the way.

Harry stretched out upwards, feeling all the way to Zayn's face and lips. When he found them, he kissed him there. It was very sensual and was quite interesting for Zayn that Harry took his dick out, but didn't touch him there until he finished making out with him. And it was actually a great idea because he wasn't hard at first since this was the last thing he expected when he came over today. Maybe the was the whole point of it all along.

Harry slowly backed away until he was back at Zayn's hips. He felt around until he had Zayn in his palm again and he giggled quietly.

"What's so funny?" Zayn asked.

"That was fast." And then he just bent down and he took him into his mouth without hesitation.

Zayn quickly sat up with a gasp, knocking Harry off balance.

"Whoa, Zayn. What are you doing?"

"This is how you think about me?"

"Why? Would something be wrong if I did?"

He paused. "Ah, no. I don't think so. But that does not mean I can't be curious about it. I just wanted to know. That's all."

He was still looking at him when Harry had come forward to kiss him, so he moved to meet his lips. The kiss was quite slow and heartfelt to the point where it mesmerized him. And it was so mesmerizing that he didn't even realize Harry was carefully pushing him back down against the bed.

He closed his eyes when he felt Harry go down on him once again. So many things were running through his mind but the main question was how long he had been waiting to do this. Because they hadn't officially been dating until a week ago and something was telling him these thoughts had been in the works for a while.

As much as Zayn was enjoying it, he couldn't help but wonder if this was wrong. Not that he was being discriminating about it but was it really right to let someone who couldn't see just put his mouth anywhere on his body like this? And who taught him this anyway? Because this was certainly something most easiest to pick up when a person had seen it before or had it done to them. Was it Mitchell? Gosh, Mitchell didn't have to, if he did. Harry could've had a fulfilling sex life without that. He was much too sweet and innocent to have been taught to do an activity so... dirty.

Zayn's senses were ignited when he heard Harry make a weird noise at an attempt to deep throat him.

"What the..."

And then he just felt Harry's tongue... swirling and doing things. And doing things that reminded him of that night in the kitchen when Harry was showing him how to scoop rice with a knife. Maybe he didn't think about Harry like this in specifics. But the idea that Harry could get him hard and sweaty that night was a good indication that his brain was definitely working something out along these lines.

Wanting to touch him, Zayn slid his fingers into Harry's hair but refrained from grabbing at it. Harry giggled a little and moved faster because he knew Zayn liked it.

Harry was well aware that this was new for Zayn. From all the conversations he'd had with him, he understood how he felt about certain things and why he was nervous about getting into a relationship with him. But he did want to take it slow and help him out of his fear. He wanted to show Zayn that he did care and that he wanted intimacy with him even if it meant he might have to wait for it.

As they continued on, Zayn whispered out a curse word and took his hand from Harry's hair so he could press his elbows into the bed and lift his hips. Zayn hit the back of his throat and it felt so great that he did it again twice.

"Must be close." Harry said and he sat up so he could use his hand to finish him off. Harry couldn't see when it happened, but he could hear the difference in Zayn's moan and felt when Zayn came because some of it spurted on the back of his hand. So he stopped using his hand and he returned to using his mouth again. Zayn was much too shocked to stop him so he just stared at him in awe until he finished getting all of it.

When Harry smacked his lips and stood up on his knees in the bed, Zayn sat up and propped himself up on the palm of his hands. "Well, that was... amazing."

"And new for you, huh?"

"Very."

He pulled Harry onto him and he kissed him. Harry laughed into the kiss, but soon pulled back. But not before Zayn had already felt something stiff against his leg.

"And you?"

"What about me?"

"I felt it when you pressed against my leg, you know."

But Harry only smiled so preciously before climbing out of bed. "I'm not going to ask you to do anything."

"You're not?"

"No. Because I know you're not ready. One step at time. Plus... that's what showers are for."

He tiptoed into the bathroom and then closed the door behind him.

Zayn lay out and put his hands behind his head. A huge smile was plastered on his face now. He could only read Harry half the time but whenever it was that he could, he never once believed he was having a sexual thought about him. However, to think that there were times when he sat next to Harry and didn't even have a clue about those sorts of thoughts was enlightening. And it sure made for one hell of a surprise today.

He heard the water turn on in the bathroom and he sat up and looked at the door. Harry was probably stepping into the shower now and getting ready to relieve himself. But he felt so guilty. Who was he to let Harry be the one to satisfy him in this way but let Harry satisfy his own self? True, Harry was taking it slow and waiting for him to be ready but Zayn also didn't have to lie here in bed in order to take it slow either. There was always another way. Another way that likely would not be so bad if he just stopped being chicken enough to go in there and do it.

He tucked his dick back in his underwear, then carefully got out of bed and pulled his pants up. He made his way ever to the bathroom door and knocked with the back of his hand. "Ace!"

"What?"

"Can I come in?"

Harry didn't answer. So Zayn took it upon himself to try the doorknob. It wasn't locked. So he pushed the door open.

"Harry. I'm in."

"Of course you are."

Zayn was thankful he wasn't angry and he closed the door behind him. He tiptoed over to the shower, where he could see Harry's unclear figure behind the sheer vinyl curtain. His hand was definitely around his dick but Zayn still pulled the curtain back a little to look at him.

For a moment, his breath was completely taken away. He thought back to the times he said that Harry's skin was beautiful and glowing. And it itself was so attractive that he thought about putting his hands all over it. Now he was getting a closer view of it and it was even more attractive now that it was wet.

"Harry."

"What?"

"Um... Hold on."

He closed the curtain and suddenly became in a hurry to get all his clothes off. Once he got them off and they were scattered around the bathroom floor, he pulled back the curtain once more and climbed into the shower with him.

"So this is where you go to do this, huh?" Zayn said as he was eyeing his hand.

"Don't you?"

"No."

"Well, you're not blind so you don't have to worry about where you've made the mess. Can't say the same for me. Cause if company comes, it won't be good."

"What about what we just did in there with me?"

"Ah..." He said shyly. "I was going to ask you nicely to help me change them."