Mute Musician (Ziall Horlik) AU

Chapter 7

Niall's POV

I got back to the dorm room feelings pretty exhausted. This week took more out of me than I realized. I tried to find some good friends this week and I tried to do well in all my classes. The one class I have with Harry is the one that I know the professor doesn't like me that much, but it's just English so it's not like I would have paid any more attention to him than when I do with Harry constantly talking to me. I knew I should probably grow up a little now that I was at uni, but the idea of actually getting myself together didn't seem fun. Plus, I wanted to make uni full of memories and friends that I could take with me on to my adult life. I was mature, I just really liked being social.

That's always been a downfall of mine. I've been good at being class clown and good at being the guy everyone knows my whole life. Under that, I just really want to please everyone and make them happy. I know when I was going through my parents getting divorced, it was nice to have all those people behind me just making me happy again. I just know I want to pay everyone back and then some. It's just who I am to want to please everyone, but with that comes the fact I care way too much about what others think of me. It doesn't play on my self-esteem, it just makes me sad sometimes. I'm also a big baby so I cry over it when it's probably nothing.

I looked around the room once I opened the door and saw Zayn was just sitting on his piano bench with his headphones on as his fingers played over the keys. I knew he had a really nice piano that he could hook the sound up to his headphones, but sometimes I wished I could hear him play it. I haven't heard him play anything and it makes me wonder what it sounds like. I watch his fingers and they're just incredible to see the way they caress the keys. I can only imagine how beautiful it would sound to hear a piece played by him.

I went ahead and got some clothes to change into and went to the bathroom. I washed my face a bit and changed into so really comfortable clothes then went back to myself down on Zayn's bed. I continued to watch his fingers play until he must have done something wrong because he stretched his fingers out in frustration then closed his music. He looked over at me and smiled that smile that gets me feeling funny things inside and slipped off his headphones.

"Did you have a good day?" I asked him. He nodded and pointed at the huge book of music he had then ran over to get a whiteboard. He wrote from a minute until he turned the board to me and handed me a yellow sheet of paper with it as well. He said that there were auditions for the international Symphony Orchestra and he was going to try it. I looked at the yellow sheet that had all the requirements and felt a pull in my gut that he just had to make it.

"Zayn, this is really cool. What are you auditioning with?" I asked him. He went back to his music and showed me the piece he was working on. It was a very difficult looking piece just by looking at the music. It had some lyrics with it that were in what I believed was Latin. I handed him back his book and moved to take a seat on the piano bench.

"Let me hear it. I've never heard you play and I really want to." I said. Zayn nodded hesitantly but listened to me anyway. He set up his music the way he likes it and took a seat next to me on the bench. He pressed a few buttons to make sure the sound was on for me to hear it. I scoot over to give him more space, but being my clumsy self, I nearly fell off the bench. Zayn wrapped his arms around my waist to keep me from falling then looked at me with a smirk that was pretty much saying I was an idiot but he didn't really care. I blushed and just smiled back at him, but my cheeks were probably pink. Both of us just continued to look at each other then Zayn slowly let go of me so he could looked at his music and his piano. I was glad when he looked away because any longer, those golden eyes would have made me melt into a puddle.

Zayn pressed the beginning notes and slowly begin to build the song. I could tell it was a modern piece, but it also had a soft quality to it that drew me in to listening right away. Zayn's fingers pressed softly on the keys as if he didn't want to hurt the piano. As the song went on, I watched how he literally got pulled into the music. He was leaning closer to the keys and his face showed nothing but passion. The music that was filling the room grew louder and louder, making me feeling like the piece was slowly wrapping it's arms around me. It was the most mesmerizing thing I'd ever experienced. I watched Zayn closer as the music went from its climaxing place back to the same softness that it had begin as. His brown eyes lightened a little as if he had just said goodbye to a friend. The second he hit the last note, I was in shock that I could have ever witnessed such a beautiful talent in my whole life. Zayn looked up at me with a question on his face like he wanted to know how he did.