Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty

Their exploring only ended when Paddy came out to find them and dragged them inside, taking the packet of cigarettes away as he shepherded them towards the dressing room where the others waited, a fight between Zayn and Harry erupting over a Twix as they entered.

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February 2nd, 2019 (current time)

"I know it was you."

"Oh come on! How could it have been me?"

"You were the only one in the dressing room."

"For the last fucking time, it wasn't me."

Liam couldn't help but smile as he watched Zayn and Louis' argument unfold, pretending to scroll through his twitter feed and absent-mindedly favouriting a few tweets, sharing a look with Harry as Zayn continued the argument, shouting at Louis, not caring that Harry was holding up his other shoe, having been the one to steal said shoe all along.

Eventually, Liam got bored of listening to their argument and cut in, interrupting Zayn before he could tackle Louis and steal his shoes in revenge. Ignoring Zayn's glare, Liam took the shoe Harry was holding and threw it at him, waiting for Zayn to fall silent before he spoke. "Come on, guys. Save the fighting for at leat the second performance. We're supposed to have grown up since the last time."

The others seemed to contemplate what he'd said for a second, the changing room becoming eerily quiet until Zayn shrugged, wrinkling his nose as he said, "Speak for yourself, Li."

It wasn't surprising when Zayn turned away from Louis and threw himself at Harry, tackling him to the ground and stealing his shoe from him in retribution, yelling and messing up Harry's hair, the uproar prompting Liam to go back to scrolling through his twitter and Louis to sit back and admire the chaos, a grin on his face as he said to Liam, "Haven't you missed this?"

They left Zayn and Harry to their fighting, and it seemed typical to Liam that then would be the moment that Paddy chose to show Niall and Chloe in. For everyone else's families, this was usual behaviour for the last few hours before the first gig of a tour, their way of blowing off steam and overcoming the nerves, but for Niall and Chloe the scene they walked in on was far from ordinary. They walked into see Zayn and Harry messing each other's hair and shouting at each other, Zayn waving Harry's shoe in the air with one hand whilst they wrestled.

Chloe shook off her surprise at the unfolding scene, running over Harry and Zayn and tackling Liam with a shout of, "Papa."

Liam caught her up in his arms and picked her up, spinning her around as best he could within the confines of the dressing room before he pressed a kiss to her forehead and set her down. "Hey, poppet. How was swimming?"

"Great. I beat the others again, cos I'm fastest." Waving a little shyly at Louis as she noticed him, Chloe gave him a small smile, offering the same to Zayn and Harry as their fighting came to a stop before she looked back up at Liam, not noticing the tapping of his foot or tousled hair, as though he'd ran his fingers through it countless times, instead clamouring to be picked up and swung around again, a request Liam easily complied with.

Clutching dizzily at Liam when he finally set her down, Chloe happily collapsed onto the sofa in the middle of the dressing room, close to where Louis had been sat, struggling to sit up and regain her equilibrium. she was easily distracted by Louis and Harry as Niall let Liam pull him close, the seven-year-old either not listening or choosing not to notice as Niall reached up and kissed Liam by way of greeting, a teasing smile on his face as he said, "Wow, Li. Here was me thinking you'd be bricking it and all, but here you are."

The smile on his face told Liam he wasn't serious, and Liam chose to reply by kissing Niall again, the two of them only separating when Zayn brushed past, muttering something about getting a room and, "You should have seen him half an hour ago, then. He had a meltdown over whether he should have tea or coffee."