Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Niall

"No."

"Fuck...no."

"Alright, alright, I'm up."

Waking ever so gradually, the first thing Niall became aware of, aside from the brightness of the room and the crick in his back, was Liam's voice, mumbling at first but eventually becoming louder, the mattress...no, sofa, it seemed, shifting beneath Niall as Liam got up, hunting down the source of the noise that appeared to have woken him, which happened to be his phone, still stuck in his jacket pocket from the night before, abandoned somewhere on the floor between the door and the sofa.

When he didn't return, Niall forced himself to sit up, wincing at the light streaming in, a sigh escaping him as he reached for his own phone and noticed the ungodliness of the hour, tempted for a brief moment to close his eyes and go back to sleep, only the reminder alert on the phone screen preventing him from doing so. They were supposed to be catching a flight, a stupidly short flight, and they were required to be up less than three hours after they'd gotten in. The bad taste in his mouth prompted Niall to stand up, somewhat unsteadily, leaning his head under the tap and taking a drink of water, not bothering to find a glass, even though the respectable, parent-y voice of authority that was currently hiding deep within him had given Chloe shit for trying to do the same when she was younger.

When he looked up, he noticed Liam watching, grinning a little, his grin only growing as Niall shook his head, leaning against a cupboard for support, running a hand over his face before he raised an eyebrow and jerked his head in the direction of Chloe's room. "You can be the one to wake her."

Waiting for Liam to have headed into Chloe's room, Niall sank to the floor and sat, taking a moment to take stock before he'd have to start functioning like an actual person. He could hear the sounds of Chloe protesting about having to get out of bed, the seven-year-old most likely clinging to the duvet and hiding under it, but he let that thought be pushed to the back of his mind. Sighing again, he tried to work out whether his head actually hurt or if he was just tired, settling on blaming just the lack of sleep and not the fourteen million shots of whatever green thing he'd let Louis give him before biting his lip and closing his eyes as the unwelcome realisation that he still hadn't found a pharmacy or Doctor or a whatever crossed his mind again.

He'd remember at unfortunate and inopportune moments only to forget again, and, whilst Liam had managed to find some condoms from somewhere, they were in date and seemed fine so Niall hadn't asked where, it didn't help him with his current...situation. Not that there was one. No. No, there was not.

Niall was reeling off places, opportunities he'd get, trying to remind himself to actually do something, just so he could stop thinking about it, when Chloe called out for him, distracting him again, yelling at him to inquire where she could find the clothes she actually wanted to wear, not the ones he'd picked out for her. He heaved himself up from the floor, running a hand through his hair as he headed into her room and examined the clothes that he'd chosen for her. "What's wrong with them?"

"I want to wear the blue top and shorts." Chloe's brown eyes were still clouded with sleep and she had her arms crossed petulantly, her messy curls pushed back from her face, so tangled it would take Niall the whole flight to comb through it and make her look presentable. Niall simply shook his head at her request, not having the energy to argue with her. Chloe didn't seem to care, though, and dropped back onto her bed. "I want to wear the blue ones."

Glancing over at Liam, who shrugged, Niall shook his head again, picking them clothes up from the chair he'd stacked them on the previous evening before he and Liam had gone out and giving them to Chloe, ignoring her protests as he turned to leave and change into whatever he'd left out for himself, calling over his shoulder, "Just wear them, Chloe. The blue ones are packed but you can wear them tomorrow."