Heroes (BoyxBoy)

5. Lonely Boy

Just the other day, They were lying on the lawn, a silence overcoming them. Niall had looked over at Liam, his eyes closed, eyebrows slightly scrunched. It was then that Niall began to think about how everyone must feel. How could Niall ever expect himself to be a part of these people's lives? Niall tried to recall certain things when his parents mentioned something, but his feelings were all he got. So then, premonitions of his past, he started to call them.

Liam's eyes had fluttered open, and he turned his head to meet Niall's gaze. It was here that Niall recognized how pretty Liam's eyes were. Big, brown, framed by perfectly long and curled lashes. Niall imagined he could look at Liam's earthly brown irises forever.

"Are you getting hungry?" Liam asked in a whisper.

Niall blinked a few times as he tried to figure out how to feel about his entrancement in those few, incredibly humble seconds. Finally, he smiled sheepishly, stomach rubbing. It hadn't taken Niall long to w recognize his appetite. His mother had sighed in relief when she saw how much he was eating at the house.

A couple more moments like this one had Niall on edge. What made it worse was that he couldn't determine what he was experiencing exactly. He just knew that Liam was a friend and that he felt just as much at home with Liam as he did in his own room.

Niall glances around, realizing that he hadn't had a good look inside the house yet. So, as he waited for Liam, he took a peek around. Feeling out of place but too curious to let embarrassment stop him. There was what looked to be a family photo. They were photos of outings and a lot of which Niall recognized himself as a kid. He knew this for his own father, who showed him some albums, but he couldn't remember anything. They were just foreign pictures, a glimpse of someone's life that was not his, even if it was once upon a time ago. The one image that caught Niall's eye is him and Liam, standing close together in swim trunks. There's a glistening lake behind them, and Niall's hair shows off his natural brown colour. Niall has Liam into a headlock, both laughing without a care in the world...

"Hey."

Niall jumped at the rough, wary voice. He looked up to find his brown-eyed friend in the entrance, slowly making his way to the couch. Niall asked if he was asleep, for Liam looked tired as if he didn't get a good night's rest, and Niall coming over was just another intrusion on his peace, but Liam shook his head, "Nah, I wasn't."

Niall nodded and lapsed into silence. Now that he was there, he didn't know what to say. There was eerie contentment settling within him, one that made him want to dig further into Liam's evident state, but he didn't know how to proceed with such questioning and could only relax into Liam's presence.

Liam cleared his throat, "So, what exactly brought you over here?"

Niall shrugged while refusing to meet the boy's gaze. "Just thought I'd check in."

Liam relaxed a bit inside. Niall didn't know—at least—he didn't know yet. The chemo took a massive toll on him the last couple of weeks. He couldn't keep his food down. He was throwing up everything. He felt tired and out of place—just always so tired—and the most minor things stressed his body out. Even just walking from the seat outside and into the house was exhausting. If he weren't deteriorating as he was, Liam would have gone over to Niall right away, but Liam couldn't muster up enough energy no matter how much he tried.

"Right," Liam said, nodding slowly, "So, what would you like to do today, Mr. Horan."

Slightly smiling at that last bit, he met Liam's gaze to see that Liam's eyes were smiling back at him. "Anything you're prepared to do, Mr. Payne."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

They found themselves held up in Liam's room. His room was a little cluttered. Not messy, but disorganized. They were playing the game, Liam laying on the bed while Niall sat on the floor, leaning back. They played like this forever on multiplayer, straining to stay alive as they played on a split-screen.