Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Seventy-Five

Niall

"Daddy? Can you let me out? I need to use the toilet."

Looking up from the book he'd been pretending to read, Niall sighed, slotting the bookmark in between the pages that he hadn't turned in the last fifteen minutes, glancing down at his daughter as he shook his head. "Again, Chlo?"

Hanging her head, Chloe shrugged, swinging her legs and fidgeting so that she ended up kicking the chair of the person sitting in front of them, an impressive feat for saying that they were in first class and there was more leg room than a girl as little as Chloe could possibly need. "It's...Harry did let me drink a lot of-"

"Apple juice, I know. Fine, then. Do you need me to come with you?" Letting her out, Niall rolled his eyes almost imperceptibly as a hostess appeared, a plastic smile on her face, offering to take Chloe for him. Chloe clambered out past Niall, more than happy to follow the girl down to the other end of the plane, leaving Niall to drop back into his seat, going back to ignoring the book he'd been staring at all morning and wishing he'd accepted the coffee he'd been offered when they'd first boarded the flight.

That had admittedly been the best part of three hours ago, and they had boarded the plane at a stupidly early hour, early enough that Liam, Louis, Harry and Zayn hadn't bothered to go to bed beforehand, all of them muttering something about 'through and through', staying up late enough that Louis, Harry and Zayn took Chloe for breakfast at Liam's request. Though their idea of breakfast meant doughnuts and more sugar and apple juice and hot chocolate than any seven-year-old needed. Niall hadn't been able to join them for breakfast, but he was beginning to wish he had. He was really beginning to wish he had.

First class food was expensive and he'd stopped Chloe from asking for anything which meant he couldn't order anything either, and whilst they could technically get as much as they wanted, putting it on the tab of Liam's management, but doing so made Niall's skin crawl. He got the impression that he and Chloe had created more problems and were more of a burden than he'd ever wanted to be, and he was planning on putting a stop to that. It was bad enough that they'd been accompanied home by several members of the security team, one of whom had been assigned to them more or less permanently until the media obsession with him and figuring out the truth died down.

His embargo on food hadn't stopped Chloe from asking, though, whining and begging in the hope that she'd get her own way as she'd become accustomed to, and she resumed her whingeing when she returned from the toilet, badgering Niall until he put his foot down. "No. Chloe Amelia Horan, you will not get anything with that attitude. You're not getting anything as it is, we discussed this yesterday and we brought drinks with us, so stop it."

Chloe huffed into her seat, glowering at Niall until she got bored and turned her attention to her iPad and the shows Liam had downloaded onto it, sulking for the next several hours of the flight. Her behaviour didn't faze Niall, really she was mirroring her other father. Liam was off with Niall too. Maybe he wasn't throwing a tantrum, but he was still off. Well...maybe Liam wasn't off, but things between them were.

Liam had gotten Zayn, Louis and Harry to take Chloe for breakfast before they'd left so that he could make the two of them sit down and talk, something Niall had been trying to avoid having, simply because he didn't know what they were supposed to say. He...he hadn't thought Liam would lie to him about something so massive. Liam hadn't seemed to get the message that they were Not Talking about everything, though, and had caught him as he was doing the last minute packing they'd avoided doing the day before.

After Niall had woken, hemmed in next to Chloe and fighting a losing battle for the comforter, he'd had to face Chloe, who'd still hoped that Disney would be on the cards, and from there the day had spiralled. Spiralled into a miserable day stuck indoors, watching as everyone around them packed, breaking down the crazy set up required to host One Direction for six days, leaving them not much to do but haunt the pool, order room service and avoid packing whilst avoiding each other before Niall and Chloe turned in for an early night, preparing for a day of goodbyes, travelling and Niall further avoiding Liam.