Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Eighty-Six

Keeping up with Chloe's chatter took an extraordinary amount of effort and before Niall could even comment on any of the things she wanted to do, the topic had changed to the summer holidays which were rapidly approaching, even if she hadn't attended school normally for a while.

"Toby's invited me over to play pretty much whenever, he asked when we were at swimming and his mum said she didn't mind. And Jessica said we could have a Harry Potter marathon at some point, and Sam was invited. I think Jessica might actually like Sam, the way she used to like the girl who we used to live above, you know, her friend. Oh, is Sam coming with us today?"

"He is, Chlo. Paddy is too, just in case. But really it'll just be us three and my parents, though, today and tomorrow are really just us." Answering before Niall could, Liam popped his head around the door to Chloe's bedroom, giving them both a smile and nodding his head approvingly when he saw Chloe's hair in the plait Niall had managed to tame it into. "And then, Chlo, you're hanging out here with Jessica tomorrow evening, like we talked about, yeah?"

"Yep." Chloe reached a hand up to tighten the bobble and gave Niall a shrug that he interpreted to mean thank you, and both he and Liam suppressed smiles as Chloe checked her appearance out in the mirror, the eight-year-old painstakingly straightening out her shirt collar and playing with the sleeves until she was asked, "Ready, poppet?"

Liam chose to believe that her rushing past them into the hallway to grab her shoes was a yes and he and Niall followed her, the wrinkle in Niall's forehead as he took in the carnage that was Chloe's room fading as Liam wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him in for a kiss, making the most of Chloe's struggle to find her shoes and using the moment as an opportunity to murmur, "You look stunning, by the way."

"Really?" Despite one side of his mouth quirking up into what could almost have been a smile, Niall tried his best to give Liam a quelling look that clearly wasn't successful at whatever he'd intended it to convey and he gave in, leaning into Liam's touch and relaxing almost imperceptibly. Almost. The smile Liam gave him told Niall that there was no hiding anything from Liam and, any other time, he would have rolled his eyes but it was actually kind of nice. That Liam could tell.

The smile, that stupid, slow smile he had going on, didn't stop Liam from nodding and hooking his fingers through the loops on Niall's jeans as he said, "Oh, definitely. You always look stunning, but these jeans..."

His words had the effect of making Niall laugh, shaking his head at Liam before he pulled away and went to find his own shoes, suggesting that Liam do the same when he realised the time and saw that Chloe was now waiting somewhat impatiently for them by the front door.

In the end, as a result of Paddy's impressive driving and seemingly innate knowledge of the London traffic, they were only ten minutes late to meet Liam's parents, rushing into the lobby of their hotel to find them sat around calmly, unbothered by their delay. It was Chloe that they greeted first, if only because she ran over to them the second she'd spotted them and hadn't heeded any of Niall or Liam's attempts to restrain her.

By the time they caught up, Chloe was hugging Liam's mother, remembering to call her Nana as they'd agreed the last time they'd seen each other, and half the people in the lobby were looking around, glaring at the cause of the commotion that had disturbed the silence. Liam was next, and he was pulled in for a hug that almost made Niall jealous as he couldn't remember a time his own mother head ever greeted him like that way, at least, not since he'd been led enough to know who he was supposed to be. That train of thought was short lived, though, as Karen gave him a hug that was almost as warm as Liam's and made Niall feel shitty for ever having dreaded seeing Liam's parents again.

It was slightly more awkward with Geoff but, then again, it was always going to be, and Niall wasn't exactly surprised. Chloe got a warm hug from him, though, and Niall was glad then that she at least had Liam's parents. If he was honest, he was grateful to them, that they had opened their lives up to include him and Chloe, and that thought tempered the unease and awkwardness he felt and meant that his smile felt a little more genuine as he joined in with the obligatory small talk.