Niall had taken a couple extra minutes to himself this morning, he hadn't heard a peep from Aybrum's bedroom so he assumed the toddler was still sound asleep, leaving himself to lay in bed a bit longer than usual and think some things over.
Mostly, he thought about Liam's reappearance in his life - something he thought would never happen in a million years, but just yesterday he arranged to go to his flat today so they could talk things out.
Which looking back now, was probably a terrible idea because he knows feelings are going to get hurt and at this point he'd rather not go through heartbreak again. It took ages to get over Liam leaving the first time, and no doubt a second time won't be any easier.
Liam leaving him again wasn't even the biggest thing on his mind, especially since they aren't even together.
But the fact that Niall still hadn't mentioned anything about Aybrum existence to Liam - Aybrum's other biological father, was a major conversation that's been looming over Niall since he laid eyes on Liam.
Niall groaned and rolled over, burying his face in a pillow and huffed out a big breath before he pushed himself up and went to go wake Aybrum up for the day.
He softly pushed open the toddlers door the rest of the way, peeking in and saw him sitting up in his crib, talking to his stuffed giraffe. Niall stood, silently watching him have a full conversation with his favourite stuffed animal before he decided to make his presence known.
"Morning peanut, are you and your giraffe having a lovely little talk?" He smiled as he walked into the room, laughing softly when Aybrum jumped and instinctively reached out to grab his stuffed toy and held it closely.
"No bubba." Aybrum scolded, upset daddy had been secretly watching him and then scared him half to death.
He lifted him out of the crib, giving him numerous good morning kisses and gave his back a small rub. "I'm sorry. You hungry for some breakfast, I think we've still got some pancake mix downstairs. That sound good to you, peanut?"
Aybrum really only understood that they were going to have breakfast, so he nodded and wrapped his small arms around daddies neck as they made their way downstairs.
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Niall had dropped Aybrum off at the sitters, promising he'd be gone no longer than two hours. He knew he couldn't bring Aybrum with because he wasn't necessarily ready to have that talk with Liam yet - so for now, Aybrum was nonexistent.
He nervously got out of his vehicle, subconsciously locking, unlocking and locking the vehicle a couple times to waste time.
He always hated going to peoples houses for the first time, something he's never grown out of, because he never knew whether or not he was supposed to take off his shoes and his mind will make it into some big ordeal. When really, most people didn't care as long as you hadn't walked through a puddle or something muddy.
Niall rang the buzzer, waiting to be buzzed into the building so he could go all the way up to the twelfth floor.
"Niall - hey. I honestly didn't think you'd actually come, I thought you'd back out once you had time to think." Liam laughed as he opened the door for him, stepping back so he could come in.
He shrugged, pushing a hand through his hair. "Me too, but we need to get this over with so we can both go back to our lives. I know you left tour for this, and it's selfish of me to keep you here when you've got somewhere important to be."
They went and sat down in the living room, Niall sat on one end of the plush white couch and Liam on the other end.
"You've got it backwards, I left tour because finding you was more important to me. I couldn't go another day without knowing where you were." He murmured softly, trying to catch his eyes with his.
Niall shook his head some, clearing his throat in the process. "So what did you want to talk about, we ended things pretty clean cut."
"No we didn't, and you know it." He called him out, finally catching his eyes with his own. "When I left you, you'd just had an abortion and I didn't even call you afterwards. I was insensitive and assumed you'd be alright because I stupidly believed the smile on your face - no, I forced myself to believe your smile because I didn't want to feel guilty for what I made you do. I know getting an abortion wasn't what you really wanted."
Niall's throat felt incredibly dry and that uncomfortable feeling surfaced because he knows he didn't get the abortion like he told Liam he did, but he didn't want to tell him otherwise. Because if Liam didn't want a baby then, what would make him want one now and he's not going to put Aybrum through the disappointment of not being wanted by his own father.
"It was fine, Liam. We should've been more careful and we weren't, but it's not even an issue anymore so I don't see why we're having this discussion." He shrugged, holding his eyes with his own.
They both sat in silence for a couple seconds, both having separate thoughts and worries about what's going to happen next.
Liam took a noticeable breath, "I know you didn't get the abortion, Niall." He paused again, "I did check up on you, a few months back and you've got a little boy that looks the right age."
He got up and left the room, leaving Niall's heart pounding against his chest in anticipation. When he came back, he had a small photo in his hand and handed it to Niall once he sat back down.
"He's mine isn't he?" He questioned when Niall didn't say anything.
He stared at the familiar photo, thinking back to that day when he took Aybrum to Hyde Park to get his photo taken by a professional photographer so they'd have the stereotypical adorable baby photos.
Only Niall wanted them to be natural looking, so he brought toys and let him crawl around and play as the photographer took numerous shots of him having the time of his life.
Liam must of paid off the photographer to get one of the pictures because this is the one where Aybrum was smiling like crazy as he crawled towards the camera, the sun was shining on him perfectly and made his hair a light blonde colour, along with illuminating his eyes perfectly.
One of his suspenders had slipped down his arm and his top was scoffed from an earlier tumble, he looked absolutely adorable.
"No, he's mine." He tossed the picture on the short glass table in front of them and avoided Liam's eyes. "Why would you have someone follow me?"
Liam grabbed the picture off the table and looked at himself, something he's done many times. "That's not the point, the point is that he's mine too and you hid him from me. Why?"
"What the hell do you mean, why?" He raised his voice some, looking at him like he just tried to slap him. "You wanted me to have an abortion, why would I ever tell you I kept him? You didn't want him in the first place, so what would've been the point?"
"Well you don't just hide a child from someone, how long were you going to wait until you said anything?"
Niall kept his mouth shut, not wanting to discuss this anymore.
"How long?" He pressed, leaning forward to look him in the eyes.
Niall continued to stay silent.
Liam frustratedly pushed his hands through his styled hair a couple times, "Can I at least see him, because I already know he's mine by the way you're reacting."
He looked at him full on, giving him a death glare. "No, you aren't going to pop into his life when it's convenient and pop out when it isn't. You know damn well you've got somewhere to be, don't waste your time trying to play house."
"Don't you think I know that, Niall." He got up and followed him as he hurriedly made his way towards the door. "I'm not trying to play anything, I've been thinking about this for months. I want to see my child and be the parent I should've been this whole time."
"I'm capable of raising him on my own, I've been very successful the last year. I don't need you and neither does he." Niall snapped at him, stopping in the hallway to turn around and emphasize his words by using hand gestures.
"Give me a chance and I can show you I can do this." He tried, grabbing the door before Niall could open it completely.
He shook his head, shoving him back so he could open the door. "You've had however many months you've known about this to be in his life, that was your second chance and you've wasted it. Goodbye, Liam."
"But that's not fair." He tried, lowering his voice because Niall had walked out into the hallway and didn't want to make a scene or grab the neighbors attention.
Niall laughed, "No, what's not fair is you trying to force an abortion on me and then you find out I didn't get it, and all the sudden you want to be in his life? Do you know how fucked up that is? Just leave us alone and go back on tour, it's the only place where you're truly wanted or even needed."
He stormed down the hallway and took the stairs over the lift, because he didn't want to give Liam a chance to follow him or even say another word to him.
Niall knew he never should've agreed to talk to him, because even though this argument was inevitable, he didn't realized it was going to be so soon.
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(authors note: not sure if I like this chapter, but their mini argument had to happen. Mostly because it revealed Liam wasn't innocent or oblivious to everything, he's kept an eye on Niall and he still chose to ignore little Aybrum.
Do you think Niall had the right reaction to all this or should he of tried to work out the Aybrum situation better?
Comment, comment, comment!!!)