Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"Fuck." Eventually snapping out of it, Liam managed to give Niall a weak smile, his earlier exasperation fading and his expression softening as he glanced over at him, pulling him closer. "I'm sorry. I didn't...I—Christ. I hate it when they call."

Letting Liam vent, Niall waited for him to be done, listening as he swore for a further five minutes before he managed to ask, "They want you to keep out of the public eye?"

"Yeah. It's a thing they do. The less I'm seen, the less photos of a not unhappy me there'll be and the less questions I'll be asked and the longer they can drag out the breakup. It's rule number one of stunting." Running a hand through his hair, Liam shook his head, giving Niall another shaky smile before he continued, "Anyway, it's a good thing. They're actually listening to me and they're doing as I asked...but...enough of this. Sorry."

"Don't be. You're allowed to have drama." Reaching up and kissing Liam, Niall returned his smile, squashing down any more questions he might have had and sitting back down before he steered them to what he hoped would be a safer conversation. "I have to pick Chlo up soon. She'll be done with her swimming lesson and Jessica can't have her all day, but I was thinking I could bring her back here or you could come with me to collect her, and we'd do something together..." 

"It sounds like a plan." Sitting on the stool next to Niall's, Liam took a sip of his coffee, hesitating for a second before he reached over and took Niall's hand, linking their fingers together as he looked over at him. "Thank you."

"For what?" Giving Liam another smile, Niall shook his head at him, relaxing properly as Liam said, "For everything...I guess."

Taking the smile on Liam's face and the easiness of his tone to mean that they were back on their easy footing from earlier, Niall leant in and kissed him again, letting Liam pull him onto his lap before he muttered, "I repeat what I said earlier; you're a sap."

******

The rest of their morning was less bumpy when Niall returned to Liam's flat after leaving to collect Chloe. They'd gotten back to smoother footing as Niall struggled to round up his clothes from the night before, finding his jeans and underwear had been a challenge, and his t-shirt was still lost wherever Liam had thrown it. He'd ended up borrowing another one of Liam's t-shirts, both of them not mentioning how big it was on him. He'd left while Liam was in the shower, having decided to shower back at his flat before collecting Chloe, the bus ride back to Brixton giving him time to collect his thoughts.

It wasn't a case of him regretting going home with Liam, regretting last night and everything it might now lead to, if anything, he'd wanted to stay, hadn't wanted to leave him, not at all, turbulence aside, and yet, the time to think allowed him to clear his head. Whatever last night meant, whether it meant there was no more putting the breaks on, if the past was now supposed to stay firmly in the past, it also meant that they had to get shit properly locked down.

Liam might've been right when he'd said that it hadn't changed, that it was still them—different time, different place, same people—but that wasn't a guarantee. The little voice of doubt that Liam normally made go away was taking the opportunity to point everything that made Niall want to run away, though it fell silent as he picked up Chloe from Jessica's, the seven-year-old greeting him with a hug, her brown curls covering her face and smelling faintly like chlorine.

"Daddy!"

"Chlo!" Giving Chloe a smile, Niall hugged her back, ruffling her curls with his hand and glancing down at her as he asked, "Have you had a good time with Jessica, Chlo? Was swimming all right?"

"Swimming was great, Dad, I got to dive with the older kids and I managed to beat one of them when we practised at comp-et-it-ive races. Oh, and Jessica and me watched Harry Potter. Did you know that Harry and Ron stole a car, Daddy?" Struggling through the longer word, Chloe gave Jessica a grin as she looked round at her, letting Niall go and running to show him the latest DVD Jessica had lent her.