Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Twenty-Seven

(Liam is italic, Niall is bold)

Liam/Niall

Hey.

Hey...Can we maybe actually talk? You keep saying that we need to and you're right.

I know.

...

We could talk today. If you're free, that is.

Yeah... Sure. The cafe from last time? At 12?

Can't... You could come to my place? Chloe's at a friends + I need to be here in case.

Okay... Your address?

******

Knocking on the door to what he hoped was the right flat, Liam sighed as he got no answer, taking a deep breath before he knocked again.

He'd accidentally been to two other flats before finding the right floor and he was beginning to think he'd never actually find the right flat. He'd had no idea where Niall actually lived and now he was there, he was actually surprised. He hadn't known what to expect, having only been told 'ex-council estate in Brixton' before, but it kind of fitted the description.

Knocking again, Liam pulled his phone out, checking the address Niall had given him, almost dropping the phone when the door opened, startling him. "Niall? Hey."

"Hi... Sorry I couldn't meet you, but Chloe's supposed to get brought back here at some point and I can't be out." Letting Liam in, Niall shut the door behind him, gesturing for him to take his shoes off before he headed through to his kitchen, not wanting to see the look on Liam's face as he took in all two hundred and fifty square feet of his and Chloe's home.

Struggling to keep his expression neutral as he looked around, Liam followed after Niall, giving him a small smile as he stood in the doorway, trying not to make things more awkward between them by saying the wrong thing. "It's nice. It's your home, which makes it great."

"You've always been a shitty liar, but thanks. You can say it's tiny, it is, but it's mine. Kind of." Returning Liam's smile, Niall shook his head at him, gesturing for him to sit down on the sofa before he asked, "Tea?"

"Please." Glancing around at the pictures hung on the walls or propped up against the window sill, Liam smiled at the various pictures of Chloe, all of her at different ages, one of her in a costume from God-knows-when standing out to him in particular, looking over at Niall as he brought him a mug of tea and muttering a thank you before he looked back at the picture.

Sitting down, as far away from Liam as he could get whilst still sitting on the sofa, Niall followed his gaze, looking over at one of his favourite pictures of Chloe, her in the fairy-princess costume she'd gotten for her third birthday and smiling, remembering the day he took the picture as he said, "That's her third birthday. She got the costume and refused to wear anything else for a week."

"That was twenty-thirteen, right? Wow. She was... Is so... Cute." Taking a sip of his tea, Liam thought back to what he'd have been doing then, memories of their Take Me Home tour coming back to him and making him shake his head, the solid six months of touring seeming like a lifetime away from this, birthdays and fairy princess costumes and the gorgeous little girl with big brown eyes that he wanted to know more about.

Giving Liam another smile, Niall shifted closer to him, closing the distance between them as he pointed out more of the pictures and explained them to Liam, telling him about the time Chloe had won a swimming contest for under fives, or the time she'd gone paddling in the same lake he and Greg used to play in, taking Theo with her and spending the day teaching him how to swim front crawl, and her first Christmas, when she'd spent the whole day playing with the wrapping paper instead of the actual toys.