Chapter Five

Zayn raced through the airport, only to discover his flight was delayed for an hour. The snow in New York fell fast and thick, blanketing the city in a fresh sheet of white stuff. The taxi ride through the crowded streets was terrifying, whiteout conditions. He cursed the fact that he'd had to leave from New York and not Los Angeles like Liam, Harry, Niall and Louis but he'd do anything for his mother, including flying clear across the United States on Christmas Eve to collect a painting she'd admired for years. He could hardly wait to give it to her.  

His phone almost jumped out of the plastic bucket going through security at the airline. He grinned at the woman in the uniform. "It's like watching popcorn bouncing around in there," he said.  

She didn't so much as acknowledge his existence. Had she not blinked, he may have thought she was dead on her feet. He made it through the security check and grabbed his cell phone and his belt, eager to get away from her. He thought the Grinch was green, not robust and brunette but he'd been proved wrong before.  

He swiped his thumb across the phone and smiled at the picture from Liam. Kaitlin was sound asleep on his chest and he'd written something about Christmas coming early. Liam had long sought Kaitlin's affections so Zayn could not help but smile for his friend. He fired off a return text: "Wish Katie a Merry Christmas and bahumbug to you."  

Pleased with himself, he pressed 'send' and began to make the journey to his gate. He made it about ten feet before he heard a familiar, earth shattering scream. A fan.  

"Zayn!" she hollered. She began to jump up and down in either sheer excitement or disbelief. He was never sure which and had always meant to ask what exactly it was that prompted similar reactions almost everywhere he and his band mates went but one girl usually turned into two and two to three until there were tons and security would ensure an unbreakable barrier was placed in between the five of them and the growing number of fans.  

Today was an exception though, he was solo so he quickly turned, bringing a pointer finger to his lips which were upturned into a smile. "Shh," he said, hoping he'd be able to get her to calm down and not create much of a scene.  

She was tall with light brown hair and eyes that reminded him of chocolate. She surged forward. "Zayn!" she whispered this time, sensing his desire for some anonymity.  

"Hello, how are you?"  

"Oh my God! I can't believe this. I can't believe this!" Her eyes filled then spilled over with moisture in quick succession. Her breathing labored, as if she was really working for it.  

"You don't need to cry," he said. He held his arms out because it was surely going to be her next question and because she was crying. It was obviously the most polite thing to do.  

She wrapped her arms around his waist and squealed. "Oh my God! Oh my God!" Every single part of her body trembled fiercely. He hated when that would happen to a girl because there was nothing he could do to make it stop. That and he doubted uncontrollable shaking was something any person would enjoy, yet it happened almost as much as the jumping up and down and screaming hysterically.  

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms like he was trying to warm her up. "Are you alright?"  

"I can't believe you're here," she said. Her breaths were sharp and producing an alarming pattern.  

He turned to face her, grabbing her shoulders. "What's your name?"  

"Madison," she said. "Maddy. Either."  

"Can you do something for me, Maddy?"  

She nodded and swallowed hard. "Yes. Anything."  

"I need to you look at me and just breathe." The last thing he needed to be responsible for is some poor girl passing out on the cold tile floor of the airport on account of him. The way she was going on, it was only a matter of time. He learned this little trick from Harry. Telling a girl to breathe. To look at him and breathe. Cheesy, maybe but it worked like a bloody charm to calm them down and at this point, that was his end goal. To make sure Maddy remained on her feet.  

She stared at him while he focused on the freckles that were sprinkled on her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose. She tried to catch her breath, the ragged nature of her inhalations and exhalations decreasing eventually slowing down to normal. Zayn smiled encouragingly. "There," he said. "Much better, yes?"  

She nodded.  

"Brilliant."  

"Would you take a picture with me?"  

"Yeah," Zayn said. "Of course I will."  

She flipped the camera on her phone around and extended her arm to try and get them both in the shot but she shook so badly the screen simply flashed red with a warning. "Here," he said, taking the phone from her. "I'll do it."  

"Thanks," she said. She smiled again and her whole face changed. He wanted to hold the camera there for a moment so he could admire the face next to his. Her eyes shone and when she had dimples on either side of her mouth which was shaped in such a way that he thought about kissing it.  

Zayn took the picture and handed her back her phone, which she nearly dropped.  

"You're amazing," she said. "I'm sorry I acted like a fool."  

"First of all you didn't act like a fool, you acted like a fan. Second of all, don't ever apologize for being a fan. We'd be nowhere without all of you."  

She nodded. "You're way better than I ever could've guessed."  

Now that she wasn't nearing nuclear meltdown, Zayn got a chance to study her a moment. Her eyes, her smile, they were incredible; she wore jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt which had the unmistakable 1D logo emblazoned on it. "Nice sweater," he said.  

Her eyes grew in size. "If I can find a sharpie, will you sign it?"  

He looked at his watch, "I've got to get to my gate, love. I'm headed home for the holidays. Where are you off to?"  

"London," she said proudly. "To go to your concert, actually."  

"You're a bit early," he teased. "The show isn't for another week. That's an awful long wait, don't you think?"  

"Well I'm going to celebrate Christmas with my Aunt," she said. "Then go with my cousin to your concert."  

Zayn pulled out his phone. "What's your number? I'll get you some VIP tickets when we're there."  

"Are you kidding?"  

"No," he said. "Not at all."  

Maddy provided him with her number which he promptly entered into this phone. "We're on the same plane," he added. "Shall we wait together?"  

"I can't even believe...I mean I can't... oh my God. Yes."  

He picked up the bag she had and almost fell over. Thing weighed at least as much as Niall.  

They walked to the gate in a comfortable silence and when he wrapped his hand over hers, he noticed it fit perfectly underneath the planes of his palm. He couldn't help it as his thumb traced a circle over the top of her hand. Her skin was soft underneath his fingers and he wondered what it might be like to do that for a while longer.  

They arrived at the gate and she excused herself, claiming she needed to freshen up following her initial and hasty reaction. She was much calmer now. It was Zayn's experience that fans were quite easily more relaxed when it became clear that the members of One Direction were all just normal people.  

He sat down, guarding both their bags, and resting his head on the back of the chair. Before he closed his eyes, his made the mistake of looking out the window. He saw nothing. At all. Not a single plane or person, not the ground, the sky, absolutely nothing was visible. He stood and went to the screens where the flight information was listed. His eyes darted across them but there was no need to find their specific flight number as every single one said the same thing. Canceled.  

He linked his hands through his hair. This wasn't good. This was so bad. As it was, he'd left it last minute, opting to fly out on Christmas Eve. He headed to the nearest desk and asked the woman behind the counter about the status of their flight.  

"At least twelve hours," she said. "Maybe more."  

Great. Christmas morning would be spent in an airport. Worse, he had to deliver the bad news to someone else. He loathed being the source of anyone's disappointment.  

Madison returned from the bathroom, looking even more incredible than she did when she went in all puffy eyed and disheveled. Granted it should have been obvious; if she were such a hot mess, she'd no doubt be equally hot when she had it all together, it still didn't fail to amaze him. Zayn headed back to the spot where their bags were settled and patted the seat. "Sit down a moment," he told her.  

She obliged and smiled at him. "Wait," she said. "Before you say anything else. I really am sorry for how I acted."  

"You didn't do anything wrong," Zayn replied.  

"Except act like a lunatic."  

"No," Zayn said. "You're fine. Fantastic even but I've got something to tell you."  

"Okay," she waved her hands. "Go. Do tell."  

"Well," he said. "We aren't going to London. At least not tonight."  

She bolted straight up as if the seat were on fire. "You're kidding."  

"I wish I was," he said.  

"We're stuck here!"  

"Afraid so."  

"But it's Christmas Eve!"  

"I know."  

"We're stuck in a airport on Christmas Eve!"  

He nodded. "Mmmhmm."  

"I'm stuck in an airport with one of the five people I was going to see. Do you see the irony here?"  

"Yes," Zayn said. "Yes I do. The plus side is you don't have to go very far to see me. So there's always that."  

She giggled and Zayn decided he adored that sound. "You've a beautiful laugh," he told her.  

She smiled and nudged his shoulder. "Thanks. So, we have nothing but time. What do you want to do?"  

He thought for a moment. "Do you have a pen and paper in that thing?" he nodded to her bag.  

"Yup," she said. "Never leave home without them."  

"The radio station I was listening to this morning was rewriting classic Christmas carols, you know into something more modern. Like there was jingle cells, and little DJ boy. It was pretty funny. Entertaining, at least."  

Madison liked his idea because her entire face lit up. "What song should we do?"  

"What's your favorite. For caroling?"  

"Um if I ever caroled it'd be a case of Christmas cruelty," she joked. "It's that bad. But I like the twelve days of Christmas. An untouchable classic." Maddy winked. "Are you up for the challenge?" 

He could hardly believe she was the same girl who was unable to breathe just an hour ago. "I'm always up for it. We could call it the twelve hours of Christmas Eve, given that's our estimated time for being stranded."  

He scribbled on the paper. 

On the first hour of Christmas Eve, my true love gave to me, a place where I could lay my head to sleep.  

He flipped the page around grinning. Maddy took it and in far neater penmanship than he, wrote:  

On the second hour of Christmas Eve, my true love gave to me, two wooly mittens and a place where I could lay my head to sleep.  

He took back the pad of paper and proceeded to write. As the two passed the pen and paper back and forth he was glad she'd noticed him. Glad he was stranded with good company. He'd rather be home with his family but things could have turned out so much worse.  

When Madison finished at twelve, he felt a smile stretch widely across his face. He was sure there was not a thing he'd be able to do to make it stop but couldn't bring himself to care. 

She proudly turned the paper, lips pressed together in a satisfied smirk. On the twelfth hour of Christmas Eve my true love gave to me, twelve words a whispered, eleven squares of chocolate ,ten compliments, nine magazines, eight sunglasses, seven little touches, six pairs of socks, five makeshift rings, four paper planes, three french fries, two wooly mittens and a place where I could lay my head to sleep.  

"Our song kind of sucks," she declared.  

"I have to disagree," Zayn said. "And for the record, between the two of us, I'm the expert."  

She arched a brow. "You're the expert at what?" she teased. "Terrible Christmas music? Congratulations! Be proud."  

"Excellent Christmas music," he corrected her. "Epic Christmas music. Ours should be a classic. I mean, it's practically a given. It's got chocolate, French fries, makeshift rings and sweet nothings. I really don't think a song could possibly have a better rewrite."  

Maddy smiled. "Want to do another one?"  

"I dunno," Zayn answered. "Is is going to have eleven squares of chocolate and a pair of wooly mitts?"  

"It could," she allowed. "Oh wooly mitts, oh wooly mitts, how lovely are thy chocolates!"  

Zayn rose to his feet, handing her the paper. "Very cute. Will you excuse me, love?"  

She looked up at him, her eyes clear and curious. "That depends, are you coming back?"  

Right. Like he'd willingly leave to spend the next eleven and a half hours alone. "'Course I'm coming back," he said. "I just have one quick thing to attend to." 

He dialed Harry's number and when his friend picked up Zayn said, "I need your help mate. Where do you figure I can find makeshift rings in an airport?"