Niall
"Chloe, Chloe, Chloe, please don't make me drag you out of that bed."
Standing in the doorway to Chloe's bedroom, Niall sighed a little, stifling a yawn as he watched the seven-year-old retreat further under the covers, giving her a minute before he entered, peeling the covers back and opening the curtains as he brushed off Chloe's protests and feeble attempts to reclaim her duvet. "I know, I know, Chlo, but it's the last day of school. Last day and then two weeks, two weeks of no school. One more day of school, and then tonight, tonight we're going to to see Liam. Come on, up."
Chloe simply mumbled incoherently, sliding out of bed and shuffling out to the kitchen, leaving Niall to follow behind her. For weeks, she'd been relatively good at getting out of bed and getting ready for school, as good as she'd been pre-Liam, but like most students just before a holiday, she was slowly becoming more and more tired and uncooperative. Niall had expected this, though, and Chloe's bowl and the box of cereal were already set out in her spot at their dining table, enabling her to drop into her seat and pour her breakfast with minimal effort.
Because it was the last day of term, Chloe was dressed in non-uniform, hair tumbling over her shoulders and ready to leave, waiting by the door before Niall was, and she stood next to the battered suitcase left by the door, a small smile on her face as she held his phone out for him when he asked. Niall raised an eyebrow but thanked her nonetheless, ushering her out of the door and through the estate, reminding Chloe to hold his hand as they made their way to the bus. Since that first week, they hadn't actually had to run for the bus, and Chloe got to spend the time they spent waiting talking Niall through the latest complicated card swap she and Toby were working out.
"So...you give him your Bulbasaur, he trades that for his Charizard, then you let him have your spare Palkia for his Gyarados?" Niall ran a hand over his face, taking his time with the unfamiliar words and shaking his head as Chloe corrected his pronunciation and nodded. "Yep. Then Toby promised to show me the Dark Pikachu card his stepdad got him."
Niall was saved from responding by the bus' arrival, following Chloe on board and paying the driver before chasing after her when she ran upstairs and sat at the front of the bus. He gave Chloe the same 'don't-run-off-on-public-transport' speech he'd muttered a million times before, well aware that Chloe wasn't listening to him, giving up when Chloe shouted over him to point out a squirrel.
He kept a tight grip on her hand, though, as the bus pulled into their stop, keeping her from running off until they were inside the school gates, following her to her classroom and watching as she filed in with the rest of her class before he left, not really wanting to face her teacher again. Whilst his awkward conversations with Chloe's teacher had decreased drastically, Mrs Evans still terrified him, just a little, and he was dreading the eventual parents' evening coming up after the Easter holidays.
Brushing away his fear of what the near future held, Niall caught the bus back into the city and headed into work, distracting himself by reorganising the shelves and avoiding the only customer to actually enter the store, the same bitchy woman who'd long ago bought a guitar for her kid, only to be dissatisfied with her son's playing and blame it on the instrument, this time apparently back to replace the tuba she'd bought him for yet another instrument, this time a keyboard. Niall left that for one of the girls behind the till to sort, not wanting to deal with the woman again, and hid in the backroom, unloading the latest stock and re-tuning guitars until someone came by with a mug of tea, the interruption reminding him of the time.
He made his way back into the shop and made himself useful manning the till until Jessica dropped Chloe off, the seven-year-old running behind the counter and flinging herself at Niall, the first thing she shouted once he'd picked her up being, "When do we leave to visit Papa?"
Setting Chloe back down, Niall scrabbled in his pockets for the money he owed Jessica, handing it over with a grateful smile before he turned back to Chloe. "Christ. Indoor voice, Chlo. And as soon as I'm done here, we go home, grab the bags, and I think Papa sent us enough money to catch a cab to the airport."
"So...soon?" Chloe jumped up so she was sat on the counter, giving Niall what she hoped was a winning smile as he shook his head at her, rolling his eyes in exasperation but not making her get down. "Yes, poppet. Soon. Ten minutes or so, then we'll go home. Then, straight back out."
Straight back out, apparently did not mean straight back out. Chloe, given five minutes to gather up a few toys or books she'd want to take with her, proceeded to spend twenty minutes agonising over which of her Pokémon cards to take with her, before facing a similar dilemma over which books she wanted, whether she was going to take a cuddly toy, 'but what if they get lost, Daddy? Then I won't have them here when we get back,' and wondering where she'd left her iPad.
She eventually got packed, though, settling on only her newest and best cards, the book she and Niall were working their way through, a sequel to one of the books she'd been given for Christmas a year or so ago by her grandmother, and one of her oldest bears, the one she took to bed with her most often. Niall simply took her rucksack from her, too stressed about the flight to admonish her, taking her hand and ushering her out of the door and out of the estate to where the cab was waiting, all whilst dragging their battered suitcase behind him.
He kept checking his phone throughout the cab ride, fidgeting more than Chloe ever did and only forcing himself not to when the cab driver noticed and tried to start a conversation. Chloe answered the man's questions about where they were going from the airport and what they were going to do before Niall could, the seven-year-old happily spending the rest of the journey chatting to the driver. "-and we're going to America, actual America! Florida, Daddy said. And we're spending two weeks there with my other dad and his friends. They're working, performing everywhere, and he said he'd gotten me a t-shirt from every place they've performed."
The cab driver seemed more than happy to listen to Chloe and Niall used her distraction as an opportunity to check his phone one more time, pocketing it once they got to the airport before he struggled to find the money to pay the cabbie with. Eventually, after an hour and a half of queuing for check-in, sorting their suitcases, and going through security, Niall managed to Chloe into the waiting lounge, buying her a happy meal for tea as they waited for their flight to be called and trying to keep the interested look on his face as she told him about the film she'd watched in school.
To nervous to eat anything himself, Niall tried to swallow the butterflies that were doing a number on his insides, butterflies awoken by the prospect of seeing Liam again after so long, drumming his fingers on the table in front of him and waiting for Chloe to be finished before he all but dragged her away, darting back at the last second to retrieve the toy she'd gotten with her meal and had accidentally left behind, heading over to their gate and waiting for departure.
It was only once they were boarded that Niall realised just how long the flight would be; knowing it would be a ten hour flight and actually sitting through a ten hour flight were two very different things, and it was when Chloe turned to him twenty minutes after takeoff, declaring that she was already bored, that Niall began to realise just how long ten hours could feel.
Chloe did fall asleep somewhere around hour six, when they were flying over the Atlantic, and Niall draped a blanket over her, brushing her hair out of her face and sliding a travel pillow underneath her head before he turned to stare out of the window, feigning the illusion of sleep. He must have slept at some point because the next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by a stewardess, asking him to put his seatbelt on and get ready for landing. Chloe was already awake chatting happily to the person sat behind them, who was luckily nodding along, bleary-eyed and looking as though they could do with five more hours of sleep.
Niall forced himself to move, sluggishly doing as the stewardess had asked, managing to wake up enough between then and their arrival at Miami International Airport. He ended up carrying Chloe when they got off the plane, her earlier bout of energy seemingly gone as they made their through immigration and baggage claim, the ungodliness of the hour hitting Niall as he turned his phone on to realise that, locally, it was only one am.
Paddy met him and Chloe outside the arrivals' lounge, taking their suitcase fro Niall and waving away his refusal with a shrug, warning Niall that they were leaving via a different exit due to the reporters camped outside, doing so purely to avoid exposing Chloe, which was something Niall's deal with Liam's management revolved around. Chloe was asleep again by the time they got to the car and Niall strapped her in before collapsing back into his own seat and closing his eyes for what he could have sworn was just a moment but, when he opened them again, seemed to have been for the entire duration of the journey to Liam's hotel.
Stumbling out of the car, Niall ran a hand over his face and glanced around the hotel car park for a moment before he shook his head, briefly aware of Paddy handing his suitcase over to a bell boy before turning back to Chloe and gently easing her out of the car, carrying her into the alarmingly posh hotel lobby with Paddy following somewhere behind. He'd barely set foot inside when he was met by a bored looking young woman who gave him a brief once-over before handing a keycard and telling him, "Mr Payne's rooms are on the fourth floor, turn left out of the lift, second door down the corridor. There'll be security there anyway, so it'll be impossible to miss. Enjoy your stay."
Niall stopped paying attention after she'd told him where he was supposed to be going and awkwardly pocketing the keys as he headed to the lift, shushing Chloe when she began to stir. He found Liam's room easily enough, and the extra security mentioned were people he vaguely recognised who let him pass with no issue, and it was as he was fumbling with the keycard, trying to shove it into the lock, that the door opened unexpectedly, revealing Liam.
Liam broke into a grin the second he realised it was Niall and it was all Niall could do to return it, rooted to his spot in the doorway as he took in Liam, with his stupidly contagious smile and messy hair, and the look on his face that told Niall he was home.
Chloe made half an attempt to wake up, managing to conjure up enough consciousness to at least recognise Liam and clamour to be put down, stumbling into his arms for a hug. The smile on Liam's face grew softer as he pulled Chloe in close and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, picking her up and carrying her inside, how much he'd missed her only hitting him as she gripped onto his t-shirt and his her face in his neck. Her attempt at consciousness didn't last long, though, and Liam found himself tucking her into bed in the bedroom opposite his own, easing her shoes off with some help from Niall before turning the lights out and shutting the door, taking a moment to revel in the fact that she was there, and Niall was stood right behind him.
Just looking at Niall was enough to make Liam feel a rush of adrenaline, acutely aware of how close they were, and everything he'd wanted to say sort of slipped out in one rushed sentence. "You're here. Fuck, you're here. I've...missed you. That doesn't even cover it. I'm not allowed out of the hotel. They found out, somehow, that you were here and I'm on lockdown for now. Or I'd've been there. Paddy didn't tell me you'd arrived or you'd have met me in the car park or lobby or sooner. I just- You're here. Fuck, you're here."
"Li?" Niall couldn't help the grin that broke out across his face, moving closer to Liam so that they practically nose to nose and leaning in even closer if that was at all possible as he said, "Stop talking. Just for a minute."
Liam simply nodded, one hand sliding underneath his t-shirt and pressing against the small of Niall's back, the other cradling his cheek as he leant in and kissed him.
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And we're back.
As usual, this took a while and I'm sorry it took as long as it did but what can you do. I mean, I could maybe spend less time watching Grey's Anatomy and go back to ignoring the pile of essays slowly stacking up, but, when I do that, my roommate feels the need to intervene and take away my internet.
I warn you now, next chapter features some smut so if you aren't comfortable with that, you may want to give chapter sixty-five a miss. I will hint to that, though, with a (!) next to the chapter title.
But anyway...
Thought's on the chapter?