Book Three - Discovery

Chapter Five

Niall groaned as he woke up to the sound of knocking, he had trouble keeping his eyes open, he was up off and on throughout the night. He couldn't decide if it was because there was no Liam or if it was jet lag.

"Probably both." He grumbled to himself as he opened the door and found Paul standing there.

"I wasn't sure if you were here or not...No Liam last night?" He asked.

Niall shook his head, "I wanted to try it on my own since I've had a few good nights with him lately."

"And how'd that work out?" Paul asked.

Niall shrugged, "It wasn't as bad as last time I slept without him, but it was still hard to sleep."

"Jet lag probably doesn't help you either...but I just got a call from Carrie." He paused as Niall raised his eyebrows. "Everything okay?" Niall asked.

Paul nodded, "She just wants you to bring Liam with you to your session on Monday. Oh and make sure you pack tonight, we're leaving tomorrow for Melbourne."

Niall nodded, "I will. Thanks, Paul." He said as Paul left and he closed the door.

Niall felt nervous, Carrie had accused Niall as using Liam as a security blanket and to do without him less and less and he had been doing the exact opposite of that.

He got up, got ready for the day, then grabbed Liam's hotel key card as well as his own and headed towards Liam's room. He thought about knocking but it was still pretty early so there'd be no way that Liam would be up yet.

Niall swiped the card as he opened the door and walked inside, he didn't take much notice of the clothes, Liam never cleaned up after himself much. He walked over to Liam, kicking the clothes out of his way on his way over to the sleeping body.

He placed a hand on Liam's bare arm as he knelt beside the side of the bed where Liam was sleeping, he gently ran his fingers through Liam's hair as Liam had always done with him to make him wake up.

"Liam." Niall said softly as he shook him a little.

"Mmm, don't wanna wake up." Liam groaned.

"But I need to talk to you." He said as continued to stroke Liam's hair.

Liam's eyes fluttered open and he felt his mind racing with a million thoughts as he noticed Niall kneeling in front of him and his mind began to better register the feeling of Niall's fingers in his hair.

Liam smiled as he pulled the blankets closer around him, seeing each other naked wasn't a new sight for any of the boys, they were all comfortable with each other. Only Liam knew if he felt Niall's eyes on his body then he wouldn't be able to control anything that his body decided to do next. He couldn't risk it and he knew he needed to get a shower but he wasn't about to send Niall away either, under normal circumstances he could've just hinted at what he did and he'd be left alone to clean up and get dressed but these were far from normal circumstances, Niall had been with him all day, he wasn't sure if Niall would connect the dots or not, but he wasn't about to let the opportunity.

"Can you wait a few minutes? I need to shower first." Liam quickly said as Niall still played with his hair. He could stay like this forever, just talking to Niall as he played with his hair, the feeling was so nice.

"Didn't you take a shower last night? There's enough clothes laying on the floor." He half laughed.

"I was too tired from the concert and I got lazy, so I decided to just sleep instead." Liam lied.

Niall nodded and Liam saw the lads face fall a bit as he stood up, he quickly grabbed Niall's hand.

"I'm not telling you to leave, I'm asking you to wait a few minutes longer...for me to get some pants on and shower." Liam told him gently.