Count On Me | Niam

My Drafts/Notes

count on me 77

But just as Niall wanted to talk more, Liam had less time to talk than ever and the lengthy phone calls that had lasted over an hour became merely minutes. In all fairness, he was busier and he at least said so, given that there were more interviews, promo had finally started up again as the rumours surrounding Chloe and Niall finally died down, and there was talk of more writing, more recording, but it felt like he was starting to leave them behind again.

The joke of it all, though, was that Niall was starting to feel like he was seventeen again, a feeling that twisted his insides and made him feel stupid, stupid for procrastinating and stupid for allowing himself to be put in the same position again, a feeling that their phone calls only helped to reinforce.

**********

"Hey, Li. It's me...us. -just calling to say hi . See how you are... No, no you're busy, I- We get it. No worries. Talk to you tonight, Jessica's gonna be here in a minute and I gotta get to work anyway. Yeah, we love you too."

Giving Chloe a tight smile, Niall set his phone down against the work top, taking a second before he switched his attention to the mess that dominated the kitchen and began tidying, enlisting Chloe's help with the dishwasher and attempting to not make a big deal out of the call for Chloe's sake. Liam was allowed to be busy, he was working, after all, and it wasn't like he'd ignored them completely. Things were fine, they were. He shouldn't be making mountains out of molehills.

**********

"That sounds...interesting. A great night. Yeah, I can't believe it either. You can tell us everything when you're home, I guess. S'only a few more weeks anyway, right? There's actually something I need to tell you...It can wait, though. Yeah, I love you t-"

Niall flopped backwards against the pillows, sighing as he dropped his phone onto the bed next to him, purposefully rolling over so that his back was to what was technically Liam's side of the bed, clenching his jaw and ignoring the tears fighting to escape as he closed his eyes, clinging to sleep and ignoring the urge to curse Liam out, very pointedly ignoring the buzz of his phone as the reminder he'd set to tell Liam appeared on the screen.

**********

"Hello. Is this Liam, or is this Liam's voicemail? It's Liam voicemail? Wow. It's me, by the way. Your boyfriend; the one you asked to call you when it got to midnight here. You're too busy for this, right? I figured....Christ. No, no it's fine, Li. Call me tomorrow, or whenever you get the chance. I know, you're in the studio. I...love you."

Kicking the skirting board out of frustration and hissing at the pain, Niall let his phone fall onto the rug, internally berating himself and Liam. He should have said something, then, and he wished he had, but, on the bright side, the guilt he'd felt was starting to lift from his chest, being replaced with anger instead. He waited until he'd calmed down enough to breathe before he wandered into Chloe's room where the eight-year-old was sleeping, adjusting her covers as he smoothed her hair back and pressed a kiss to her forehead before padding back out to the living room.

Count on me 78

Niall/Liam

To put it simply, Niall was pissed.

He was pissed off at Liam and didn't matter that it wasn't Liam's fault because he was angry, again, and it felt like they were going in circles. Admittedly, it wasn't the same kind of anger that they'd already worked through, but was instead like the anger a person felt at history repeating itself and screwing you over again.

He was fed up of minute long phone calls and voicemails and feeling like he was seventeen and scared and alone. He wasn't seventeen anymore and he wasn't going to just...let time pass them by anymore, not now he'd finally managed to find the courage to tell Liam about the baby. He wasn't going to let things get in the way, not again.