Niall
Niall didn't know what to do. He'd spent the day mis-organising instruments at the shop, unable to think clearly. He'd spent the whole day unable to think clearly. Chloe had ended up reminding him of their stop, the seven-year-old having to remind him to get off the bus a testament to how distracted he was.
Ever since his phone call with Liam, he'd been distracted.
Part of him was thinking about how grateful Liam had been to simply be given a chance, another part of him couldn't stop thinking that Liam really shouldn't be grateful for just being given a chance and another part of him was berating the part of him that wanted nothing more than for Liam to meet Chloe, the disapproving voice that wouldn't shut up, bringing up seven years worth of anger and hurt as a reason as to why the part of him that wanted nothing more than to let Liam walk straight back into his life was an idiot.
Only one very small part of his brain was occupied by anything other than Liam and that part was constantly switching between the problems that were keeping Niall awake at night, whether it was the problem of how he'd actually find the money to take Chloe home to Mullingar for the rapidly approaching Christmas holidays, the worry that Chloe wasn't really well enough to go back to school and go back to her swim class, or if Chloe would even want to meet Liam once Niall properly managed to tell her about him.
He'd spent the day mis-sorting instruments into the wrong categories—he of all people should know that the bass guitars don't belong with the acoustic guitars—and when Jessica had dropped Chloe off after school, the two of them had almost left for her swimming lesson without her bag of swimming stuff. Whilst waiting for Chloe's lesson to finish, Niall had half hoped that he would run into Liam for a third time, despite knowing for a fact that Liam's schedule no longer allowed him the time to go to a public gym and instead made him use the one in his apartment building out of convenience.
Liam had made that clear through the string of texts and random phone calls they'd shared in the week and a bit since they'd met up in person.
The texts and calls were a new thing they'd started doing. Liam had called a couple of times, sounding vague, with someone in the background interrupting and distracting him, but he'd call and ask after Chloe and ask how Niall was and they'd end up chatting about inconsequential things, neither one of them mentioning anything that might jeopardise the tentative peace between the two of them.
The odd phone calls had somehow turned into frequent texts, Liam texting Niall with a random snatch of gossip about people he didn't know but assumed Liam worked with or an update on the craziness regarding all things One Direction with Niall eventually texting back, filling him in on whatever his latest Chloe question was but neither of them would mention the more important things they actually needed to talk about or would have to talk about if whatever they were doing was going to work.
The texts weren't helping with his confusion, though. He had no idea what to do, about Liam meeting Chloe, about the confusing way Liam would sound whenever he mentioned why he was so interested in Niall, about anything in general. He was even considering getting Greg to message Liam and sort things out over myspace, but that idea probably wouldn't work. Greg wasn't Liam's biggest fan, he'd been cautious about his sixteen-year-old brother's first boyfriend years ago and time hadn't helped change his opinion about Liam and, apparently, he was actually considering deleting his myspace like everybody else had done years ago.
He didn't know what to do. Well...He did. Fate, if there was such a thing, had decided that after the second time he ran into Liam. Niall knew what he had to do, what was only fair for him to do and what was probably best for Chloe in the long term, he just didn't quite know how to do it.
He didn't know how to broach the subject of her other dad with Chloe. It sounded insane but, for once, Niall didn't quite know how to talk to his own daughter about something, an issue that had never once come up between him and the seven-year-old, even including the time that four-year-old Chloe had asked why their landlord was 'the size of Nanna's house' or when six-year-old Chloe had asked why Niall was going out with a guy Jessica had tried to set him up with. Six-year-old Chloe had simply shrugged and gone back to her colouring when Niall told her it was because he didn't like girls but boys but it was nothing for her to think about.
Niall didn't know how to bring up Liam without upsetting Chloe again. When he'd told her a simpler version of the truth, a less painful version that was only half the truth and half the watered down truth, she'd cried because he'd made the mistake of telling her Liam had hurt him. The seven-year-old had all but declared her hatred of him and had refused to talk or listen when Niall tried to mention him again.
But Chloe would come round, eventually. She had to.
Like Liam, Chloe was physically incapable of holding a grudge forever. Even when Theo had pushed her off a slide during a summer visit to Greg and Denise's place, muddying her new dress and making her lose a butterfly hairslide, she'd forgiven him, despite having declared that she would never speak to him again. She was practically a carbon copy of Liam. Big brown eyes, brown curls and a similar personality.
Though that was still something that hurt Niall, in all honesty. Chloe would look up at him and say something and Niall would be back in Wolverhampton, a naive sixteen-year-old, in over his head and in love. And that definitely still hurt. Not as much as it had to sit across a table from Liam and hear him admit to being engaged and very much still in the closet, no matter what that situation may actually be, but still painful enough that he wanted to cry and shout and say everything he'd omitted from past conversations.
Meeting Chloe poolside once her class had finished, he wrapped her in a towel, not caring as she drenched him and made his t-shirt damp, waiting for her to get changed before he took her home, successfully steering her past the vending machines without her clamouring for something and getting back to the flat, listening to her talk about the typical everyday things she could chatter about for years, her newest friends at school, the girls she was no longer friends with and the boys that had replaced them, her request for the newest set of Pokémon cards and what she wanted to when they went to Mullingar during the holiday.
Chloe ended up getting away without taking a bath, using the excuse that the coach had made them shower at the end of class anyway, smiling up at Niall as he stared at her sceptically before the two of them had dinner, Niall not objecting as Chloe put on her favourite Disney film to watch despite it having been on repeat whilst she was ill.
It was only later when Niall had tidied their flat and persuaded Chloe that she did need a bath, after all, the seven-year-old muttering and grumbling before eventually conceding that he might be right, that he had time think. It was obvious that Liam had the right and could take matters into his own hands if he wanted and that was the last thing Niall wanted.
He waited until Chloe was in bed, tucked up and surrounded by the ever-growing zoo of stuffed animals that constituted as a bedroom, before he broached the subject of Liam, Chloe almost half asleep and requesting a bedtime story, catching Niall off guard with her request. "Please, daddy?"
"Of course, Chlo." Sitting on the edge of Chloe's bed, Niall wrapped his arm around Chloe, the little girl snuggling into his embrace and holding her favourite bear closer as she asked, "Can I have a Princess Flora story? Like the one you told me ages ago, where she goes and defeats the dragon, saving the polar cubs and the castle?"
"If that's what you want, then yeah. You can have a Princess Flora story. There's just something... Someone, we need to talk about first." Smiling at Chloe, Niall shifted so he was under her duvet, the blankets tucked around both of them, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as she looked up at him, confused. "Remember when I told you about your dad? Your other dad?"
"You told me a story... He hurt you, daddy. He made you cry, you said." Her eyes narrowing, Chloe sat up and stared at Niall, drawing her knees up to her chest and shrugging him away when he tried to give her a hug.
His smile fading slightly, Niall ran his fingers along the material of her duvet, playing with the corner of the fabric as he nodded. "I told you a story about him, yeah. And he did, Chlo. That's true, he did hurt me, but I will be the upset one, not you. He...I've been talking to him, Chlo. We ran into each other and I told him about you and, if you want to meet him, he wants to meet you."
Biting his lip and smirking slightly at his words, Niall reached out and pulled Chloe in for a hug, the little girl no longer rejecting him but curling up against him and using him as a pillow. "If you would like to meet him, poppet, you can."
Pushing her hair out her face, Chloe looked up at Niall, frowning for a second before she asked, "And if I don't want to?"
"Then you don't have to. Like I said, it's only if you want to, but before you decide, think about it. He's... He's so excited to meet you, really. He's not a bad person, Chlo, and he would love to meet you." Giving Chloe a smile, Niall tried to sound encouraging, sighing as Chloe shook her head, accidentally elbowing him as she wriggled.
Fidgeting some more, Chloe wrinkled her nose as she looked up at Niall, still frowning at him. "I don't like him. He hurt you, daddy, He can't be nice if he hurt you."
"Chlo, poppet, it was a long time ago. Before you were born, really. If you don't want to see him, then I'll call him and explain and you won't have to. But he really wants a chance and whatever happened with him and me shouldn't mean that you don't see him. You don't have to like him right away, Chlo, just give him a chance, please?" Smoothing out the duvet, Niall looked down at his daughter and sighed as she continued to frown. Shrugging at him, Chloe hid her face in her bear's fur, snuggling into Niall's side as he wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You don't have to, Chloe. He'll understand."
"What's he like? You said he went off and became a singer with some other boys. And he didn't come back for you." Yawning, Chloe pulled on her duvet, tugging it up to her chin and using Niall as a pillow, not noticing Niall wince and roll his eyes at her as she yawned again.
"He's... He looks a lot like you. You look like him. Same eye colour, same hair. He used to have brown hair and it was naturally curly though he used to straighten it." Getting up, Niall ignored Chloe's questioning stares and headed through to his bedroom, reappearing a minute or so later with a couple of old photos of Liam and him. Handing Chloe the photo of him and Liam, the one taken at his welcome home party, Niall pointed at Liam though it was obvious even to the sleepy seven-year-old who her dad was. "That's him. He'd love you, probably already does."
Snuggling back into Niall's side, Chloe let him take the photo back, watching her dad for a minute before she yawned, gripping onto his t-shirt and resting her head against hid chest as she said, "Okay. When can I meet him?"
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This is like one of the longest updates so far. And it actually kind of makes sense, so yay.
Next chapter might be some more of Liam's p.o.v and then we might actually get to Liam and Chloe meeting. But don't hold me to that.
Whenever I set out a plan for this story, I end up ignoring it and writing 2k word long chapters instead of what I had planned.
Thoughts on the chapter?