Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty-Four

Niall

"Chloe, Chloe, Chloe, please don't make me drag you out of that bed."

Standing in the doorway to Chloe's bedroom, Niall sighed a little, stifling a yawn as he watched the seven-year-old retreat further under the covers, giving her a minute before he entered, peeling the covers back and opening the curtains as he brushed off Chloe's protests and feeble attempts to reclaim her duvet. "I know, I know, Chlo, but it's the last day of school. Last day and then two weeks, two weeks of no school. One more day of school, and then tonight, tonight we're going to to see Liam. Come on, up."

Chloe simply mumbled incoherently, sliding out of bed and shuffling out to the kitchen, leaving Niall to follow behind her. For weeks, she'd been relatively good at getting out of bed and getting ready for school, as good as she'd been pre-Liam, but like most students just before a holiday, she was slowly becoming more and more tired and uncooperative. Niall had expected this, though, and Chloe's bowl and the box of cereal were already set out in her spot at their dining table, enabling her to drop into her seat and pour her breakfast with minimal effort.

Because it was the last day of term, Chloe was dressed in non-uniform, hair tumbling over her shoulders and ready to leave, waiting by the door before Niall was, and she stood next to the battered suitcase left by the door, a small smile on her face as she held his phone out for him when he asked. Niall raised an eyebrow but thanked her nonetheless, ushering her out of the door and through the estate, reminding Chloe to hold his hand as they made their way to the bus. Since that first week, they hadn't actually had to run for the bus, and Chloe got to spend the time they spent waiting talking Niall through the latest complicated card swap she and Toby were working out.

"So...you give him your Bulbasaur, he trades that for his Charizard, then you let him have your spare Palkia for his Gyarados?" Niall ran a hand over his face, taking his time with the unfamiliar words and shaking his head as Chloe corrected his pronunciation and nodded. "Yep. Then Toby promised to show me the Dark Pikachu card his stepdad got him."

Niall was saved from responding by the bus' arrival, following Chloe on board and paying the driver before chasing after her when she ran upstairs and sat at the front of the bus. He gave Chloe the same 'don't-run-off-on-public-transport' speech he'd muttered a million times before, well aware that Chloe wasn't listening to him, giving up when Chloe shouted over him to point out a squirrel.

He kept a tight grip on her hand, though, as the bus pulled into their stop, keeping her from running off until they were inside the school gates, following her to her classroom and watching as she filed in with the rest of her class before he left, not really wanting to face her teacher again. Whilst his awkward conversations with Chloe's teacher had decreased drastically, Mrs Evans still terrified him, just a little, and he was dreading the eventual parents' evening coming up after the Easter holidays.

Brushing away his fear of what the near future held, Niall caught the bus back into the city and headed into work, distracting himself by reorganising the shelves and avoiding the only customer to actually enter the store, the same bitchy woman who'd long ago bought a guitar for her kid, only to be dissatisfied with her son's playing and blame it on the instrument, this time apparently back to replace the tuba she'd bought him for yet another instrument, this time a keyboard. Niall left that for one of the girls behind the till to sort, not wanting to deal with the woman again, and hid in the backroom, unloading the latest stock and re-tuning guitars until someone came by with a mug of tea, the interruption reminding him of the time.

He made his way back into the shop and made himself useful manning the till until Jessica dropped Chloe off, the seven-year-old running behind the counter and flinging herself at Niall, the first thing she shouted once he'd picked her up being, "When do we leave to visit Papa?"