married life ♡ niam au [COMPLETE]

day one hundred and forty-four // meeting them

"oh my gosh, oh my gosh," niall is gasping, squeezing and releasing liam's hand almost at a constant rhythm.

"sweetheart, calm down," liam laughs, bringing their joined hands to his mouth and kissing the back of niall's palm.

"i can't! i'm so excited!" niall actually can't sit still from excitement.

"i know. me, too," liam laughs. he puts the car in park at the restaurant where they're meeting angie, and niall scrambles out of the car. liam grabs a target bag out of the backseat and leads the way inside, niall on his heels.

"liam, niall," a female voice calls, and they both turn towards the sound. 

"angie," liam greets her, walking forward and putting a hand out to shake. she shakes niall's hand after.

"how are you guys today?" she smiles.

"excited," liam answers.

"nervous, too," niall butts in, and angie grins at them both.

"that's understandable! well, the boys are here. they're very excited to meet you, but i've got a few things to inform you of." liam and niall nod. "for starters, they're really scared of new people. they've just been transferred into foster care from a very abusive home, so don't take it personally if they don't warm up to you right away. also, we've got very limited information on them...and the names that their parents gave them upset them very much. if you even call them by those names, the youngest immediately starts to cry and the older won't even answer."

niall bites his lip. "what are you calling them, then?"

"the younger boy, he's just turned four, he likes being called teddy. so we're going with theodore for him. the older one is six, and he prefers flynn. he says it's his favorite prince's name."

niall face lights up. "you're serious? he only answers to flynn?"

angie nods. "we don't really know why."

liam chuckles at the beyond excited look on niall's face. "that's one of our favorite names...it's actually on our list of names we were going to name our baby-to-be."

angie's face lights up, too. "what a coincidence! oh -- what's in the bag?"

"huh?" liam looks down; he almost forgot he was even carrying it. "oh, we bought some gifts. when we called back last night, you mentioned it'd just been the younger boy -- well, teddy's -- birthday. so we bought some gifts for him and flynn, if that's okay."

angie's expression softens. "that's absolutely okay. i'm sure the boys will be delighted." she smiles again. "you ready to meet them?"

niall takes a breath. "ready, li?"

"when you are," liam answers, and after another deep breath, they enter the play area of the restaurant. there are a handful of children there, all being supervised by their parents, and the room is loud. two small boys are the only ones not playing; the smallest flinches every time someone screams. he clings to his brother's hand as if his life depends on it, and the older boy clings his hand right back.

"teddy, flynn, can you come here, please?" angie asks. her voice is much softer when she talks to them. they look relieved to see her, and they make their way towards her, flynn patiently waiting when teddy hesitates. "okay, kiddos. you remember i told you i wanted you to meet some people who might want to adopt you?" both boys nod. "well, they're here, and they're very excited to meet you. can you come say hello?"

teddy immediately looks up at flynn; clearly all the decisions are made by him. "okay," flynn answers, but he sounds nervous.

"great!" angie smiles. she motions for liam and niall to come over, so they slowly walk forward and drop to their knees in front of the boys. teddy nervously takes a step back, hiding slightly behind flynn, panic on his tiny, sweet face. his hair is unruly and curly, dark brown, and it dips forward into his eyes, which are startlingly blue. his little button nose is smattered with freckles. 

flynn gently nudges teddy back in front of him. he has the same unruly hair as his little brother, but his is black where teddy's is dark brown. his eyes are green and piercing, and he has the same freckles sprinkled across his nose and cheeks.

"hi," flynn manages hoarsely. his gaze flickers nervously from liam to niall.

"hi," niall smiles back. he tries to seem as unfrightening as possible, not that niall is scary. "my name is niall, flynn. we're so, so excited to meet you."

"i'm liam," liam adds. "and he's right. we've been waiting a whole day and night to meet you. we've been so excited we can hardly stand it."

"we've been all wiggly with excitement," niall notes. he wiggles his arms, hoping it'll at least make the boys smile, and succeeds. flynn manages a small giggle at that, and teddy even smiles.

"what's in there?" teddy questions, pointing. 

"good question, buddy!" liam answers, and teddy beams. his smile changes his whole face. it melts niall's heart. "well, we heard it was your birthday not too long ago, and we've brought you a surprise!"

"surprise?" teddy gasps. the wide smile on his face grows, and he smiles up at flynn.

"yeah! you wanna see?" liam asks. teddy nods frantically, and has to brush his curls out of his eyes with his tiny hand. "okay." liam opens the bag, and the first thing he pulls out is a fuzzy, pink stuffed dinosaur. teddy lets out a delighted shriek and makes grabby hands for it.

angie told them over the phone that he seemed to really like soft textures, as well as things with soft, warm colors. so liam and niall tried to keep that in mind while shopping for him.

"for me?" he gasps. liam nods, offering it to him. he steps forward, hesitant, and then snatches it from liam, tucking it under his chin. "look, flynnie!" he beams, showing it to his brother.

"i see," flynn laughs. they go through the rest of the contents of the bag, and teddy also receives a sippy cup with rapunzel on it (his favorite princess -- flynn loves it, too), and a soft red blanket. to flynn's surprise and delight, he receives a stuffed dinosaur, too -- blue instead of pink -- and a captain america action figure, which he cries real tears over. "thank you!" he beams, and teddy rushes to thank them, too. to everyone's surprise, teddy toddles forward and into liam's arms, nuzzling his cheek against liam's shirt. he puts a tiny pudgy hand out to touch niall's face with a surprising gentleness, and after a second, flynn links his arms around niall's neck.

"c'n we go home with you?" teddy whispers against liam's shirt, and liam looks over at niall with tears in his eyes. these little boys already have them wrapped around their fingers, and there's no way in hell they could say no, even if they wanted to.