Clarity « Niam

Chapter 2

This morning Aybrum had his first swim lesson at the gym, Niall might of gone a tad overboard when it came to buying Aybrum proper swim gear, life jacket and arm floats. But the one year old looked beyond adorable once Niall maneuvered the safety gear onto his squirming body, taking numerous pictures of him and sent them to his mum.

Niall sadly parted with Aybrum shortly after, letting the toddler join the small group of kids his own age and watched through the glass window.

Every time Aybrum's head dipped underwater, even the slightest bit, Niall cringed and had to fight with himself not to run out there and remove him from the dangerous water.

After twenty minutes of watching Aybrum successfully learn to swim across a small area of the pool, Niall felt comfortable enough to briefly leave the observation area for parents, to use the bathroom and grab a drink from the machine down the hall.

"Niall?" A slightly hoarse voice from behind him questioned, startling him some and made him drop the rest of the coins he'd been feeding into the machine.

He squatted down to pick up his coins as he looked over his shoulder, only to drop the coins again when he laid eyes on the man behind him.

"Liam, I - what, what are you doing here?" Niall stumbled over his words, too shocked to really process the situation.

He quickly squatted down, picking up the coins and handed them too him. "I've got a trainer here, what are you doing here? You always hated the gym."

Niall stood up and shoved the coins into his pocket, pushing a hand through his seemingly natural disheveled hair. "Um, I've - I don't think it's your business why I'm here and people are allowed to change their minds."

He smiled, rubbing the back of his neck as he briefly looked down at his black Nike trainers and cleared his throat some. "Do you know I've been looking for you? Your mum told me you moved, but she didn't say where exactly. Only that you weren't in Mullingar anymore and that last she knew you were going to uni in London."

Niall was beyond thankful that his mum didn't say anything about Aybrum and covered for him, making up the part where he was going to uni.

Which wasn't a complete lie, because up until he had Aybrum he was going to uni. Things just got too complicated after he was born and Niall needed to work so he could support them, so uni was put aside until further notice.

"Yeah, I - I should get going though and you should probably get back to whatever you're doing here." He stumbled over his words again, sucking in a small breath of air when he looked him in the eyes.

The eyes their son mirrored.

Liam turned and grabbed his wrist before he could walk away anymore than he already had, "Wait, can I get your number or something? Maybe we could get some coffee, talk about things - about us."

"Why?" He furrowed his brow, lost as to why Liam even wanted to dig up their past in the first place. "What's to talk about? You dumped me and now you're living out your dream, while I'm -" Niall quickly stopped himself, not wanting to mention Aybrum's existence. "There's nothing more to talk about. You got what you've always wanted, Liam."

Just as he was about to say something, a group of teenage girls from the gymnastics room spotted the boy band member, squealing and went straight towards him for autographs and pictures.

Niall looked away, heading down a hallway he knew looped around and quickly collected Aybrum's things.

"Peanut, come on babe. It's time to go home, yeah." He raised his voice some, trying to grab the toddlers attention as he babbled mostly nonsense to another little blonde girl his age.

Aybrum gave him a pouty face but reluctantly pulled himself away from his new swim buddy, and let his daddy scoop him up quickly and hurriedly went to the changing rooms.

Niall made it outside to the vehicle in record time, only taking ten minutes to rinse Aybrum of the chlorine, change him and partially dry his wet hair.

"Niall, wait!" Someone shouted behind them, only he knew exactly who it was and quickly buckled Aybrum in and closed the door so he wouldn't be seen.

Just as he turned around, Liam was directly behind him and looking at him with a slightly hurt expression. "Please don't, Liam. We ended things a year ago, and clearly we've both gone separate ways."

"Can you at least meet me for coffee or come round to mine so we can talk, privately." He tried, desperately wanting to talk to him without having to be cautious of someone listening or taking photos. No interruptions. "Please? I'm still the same guy."

Niall chewed on the inside of his bottom lip, wanting to turn around and check on Aybrum but he didn't want Liam to know there was a toddler in his vehicle. "Message me your address on Facebook." He walked around the vehicle, stopping just before the drivers door because he didn't want to open it and risk Liam seeing Aybrum in the back.

"I don't have Facebook." He laughed some, acting like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's too bad then, because the Liam I knew, did."

Liam smiled, pushing a sloppy hand through his slightly disheveled hair. "Alright, I'll make one then. But you could always just give me your number and I could text you instead."

"As soon as I give you my number, you give it to someone and have them find out my address, and everything and anything I've done since we broke up. So, no thank you." Niall could hear Aybrum calling for him because he wasn't in the vehicle yet, but he hoped Liam couldn't hear and that he was only hearing it because he had a strong bond with the toddler.

Liam put his hands up in surrender and took a couple steps backwards, "Fair enough. I'll message you then, yeah."

He mulled everything over a couple seconds, trying to make the right decision but he really did miss Liam and it felt good seeing him again. But he didn't want to get attached. "Yeah."

Liam smiled widely, turning around and headed back towards the doors. Only looking over his shoulder a couple times and gave a slightly awkward wave once he noticed Niall had climbed into his vehicle and was getting ready to drive away.

"You alright back there, Aybrum?" He questioned once he had pulled away and merged into traffic.

"No." He snapped, scrunching his brows together and sat with his arms folded.

Niall looked at him in the mirror, smiling at his pout. "Peanut, you can see your new little friend again next week. You've got swim lessons every Tuesday and Thursdays."

Aybrum raised an eyebrow, leaning up to see him in the mirror as well because he knew that's how daddy watched him from his seat. "Mhm, bubba."

"Say, yes, Aybrum. No more making sounds at me, open your mouth to talk."

Aybrum silently opened his mouth, smiling like a nut because he knew that's not what daddy meant but it was funny regardless.

"You're such a stinker, peanut." He laughed, pulling into a restaurant to get some lunch with his favourite little boy.
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(authors note: I know I usually, make "first meetings" between Niam hostile or unpleasant. But like I said, this isn't like my other stories. Only the underlining plot, otherwise I'm starting over with a large portion of ideas.

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