Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Rolling his eyes, Niall shrugged, the look of resignation on his face more of a 'whatever' than anything else when Liam turned, silently asking his verdict, chipping in only to leave his sentence half-finished when he realised how irrelevant it now was. "Chlo, it's expensive. You know we can't afford- I- Whatever. If you want it, then fine, I guess..."

Chloe's pout disappeared then, and she sat back in her seat, ignoring the sigh of frustration Niall let out and looking over at Liam expectantly. "Did you bring my cards down with you?"

Liam pretended to rifle through his pocket, coming up empty handed and shrugging. "Sorry, poppet. I didn't. I guess we'll just have to talk about something else for once. Like what we're gonna do before we leave for Jacksonville."

Chloe straightened in her seat then, fidgeting and wriggling like she was about to burst as she sat through Liam and Niall listing all the activities they could do bar the one she really wanted them to go to. "-the beach, again, though I doubt you'd want to, Li."

"God, no. I'm still finding sand in places sand shouldn't be. But there's the aquarium, museums, shopping-"

"Can't do that, Li. We'll never get it all home."

"Good point. But there's the botanical gardens, places to go walking, art exhibitions..."

"Where should we begin?" Niall managed to look at Liam without smirking, leaning into his side as Liam wrapped arm around him, both of them managing to contain their smiles as Chloe burst out, "What about Disney? Disney world's here, isn't it?"

"Is it, Li?" Niall broke into a grin, unable to restrain himself any longer, his earlier irritation gone as he glanced over at his daughter and saw the eagerness and impatience on her face, taking a sip of his coffee and having to hide his face as Liam shrugged. "I hadn't realised. If it is, maybe Chloe would like to go, though. Would she? It might not be her thing."

Chloe, by this point, was about to burst, either physically or into tears, and her lip quivered as she nodded. "Can we go to Disney? Please? Pretty please? I want to go. I do, I do, I do."

Liam cracked then and shook his head, bursting into laughter along with Niall as he said, "Of course we're going, Chlo. Last day here, I booked tickets for us."

Chloe was still kind of surprised by the revelation that she'd actually get to go to Disney world, Disney world, that when the waitress came over, she forgot to order God knows whatever she'd actually wanted, and settled for the toast Niall suggested, swinging her legs under the table and grinning as she asked, "How many rides are there? How many will we get to go on? Can I meet the characters? I really want to meet Belle."

Liam simply nodded, willing to go along with whatever Chloe wanted, stealing Niall's coffee and swallowing a mouthful before he gave the empty mug back and ignored the slight eye roll Niall rewarded him with. "Whatever you want, Chlo. You're the Disney expert, anyway."

That seemed to keep Chloe quiet until their food came, mentally comprising a list of all the rides she'd want to go on, basing her list on her limited memory of the stories the girls in her class had told during circle time, too distracted to even think about complaining when the breakfast Niall had ordered for her was placed in front of her rather than the extravagant monstrosity she'd been intent on having.

Relieved that Chloe didn't kick up a fuss, Niall turned to his own breakfast, half-heartedly fending off Liam's advances and attempts to steal a pancake until he gave up, leaning back in his seat and closing his eyes momentarily. "Why did we think that staying out to half three was a good idea? What the f- hell were we thinking?"

"I'm pretty sure we weren't. And it seemed like a good idea because Louis said it was, and you know Lou." Liam gave Niall a sympathetic smile, squeezing his leg under the table and moving closer to Niall so he could lean against him before he ordered another pot of coffee. Chloe was still mercifully distracted, building a castle out of toast squares, and didn't seem to feel the need to ask why they'd been out at half-past three, having gone to bed before they'd even gone out, leaving Liam in the clear to grin a little more and enjoy the groan Niall made as he reminded him of the luminous, green coloured shots Louis had persuaded him to try. "How many of them did you have, anyway? I lost count, between those and the tequila."