before the beyond | ziall boyxboy

0.4

SONG OF THE CHAPTER: Hello- Adele

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Time was of the essence, and Mr Horan was due to pass down his fortune to Niall in two months' time. Because of this, and the blonde boy's slightly sheltered upbringing, everyone's schedule had lost all format and was thrown to the wind in an effort to cram in every meeting, every run possible and for Niall to experience as much as possible while his father was still in control before having the stress and power bunged on his shoulders and thousands of workers waiting for him to tell them what to do.

Louis was a huge help, as he always had been, and managed to have a bath ran and ready for Niall when he sluggishly stumbled through his bedroom door every night and made sure a suit was already picked out the night before in order to prevent a fuss in the mornings. Niall tended to opt for having his hair in a wavy blonde fringe that was short enough to only brush his eyebrows at the droopiest of times and still look rather smart with the neat shaping.

Mr Horan was very anxious, he and his youngest son had never connected particularly and putting so much work and stress on the lad so suddenly was sending a pinch of guilt through his whenever he saw the bags under his eyes or the stifled yawns during meetings. It was straining his already weak relationship, but he hoped that once the company was Niall's to keep, the blonde would want to rekindle and bond in a way to thank his father for such an opportunity and luxurious job.

Niall himself was struggling, he barely had time to check the date let alone remember everything he was being told or know what was happening during every meeting or session with his father. His A-levels hadn't even been this stressful, and he'd given himself a lot of stress, pressure and anxiety during those. His brother, Greg, was probably the least helpful person to have around and was constantly urging Niall to skip a meeting or to glue his father's draws shut like they had done as youngsters. But Niall refused, he needed to know the business back to front and the company inside out in order to not be caught out by fishy dealers or shifty rival companies who would see the Horans as being in a weak state due to the transition.

"Do you need a drink, son?" Mr Horan asked, his thinning eyebrows raised as he turned on the tap to stream himself a glass of water. Niall shook his head with a tilt of the lip as he shuffled about slightly on the leather sofa that had been decoratively bundled with colourful cushions that made it almost impossible to actually sit on. "I thought we could do with a bit of a one-on-one chat." He got out, wandering over to the blonde and taking a seat on the arm chair opposite that Niall distinctly remembers his father always being sat at late at night when he would sneak downstairs for a drink, a glass of whisky in hand and a frown set upon his pale face.

"Fair enough," Niall murmured quietly, glancing to his left where their stood a high and wide window with ivy gathered about the edges and a tree hanging over the corner, birds perched along the length of the branch with loud chirps and flaps of wings that were muted by the thick walls.

"I wanted to talk to you about runner reports, we haven't gone over these yet and they're pretty complex." He began, sliding a thin manila folder across the table with the words PAYNE.LIAM-29/08/93 stamped across it in bold writing. It almost made the blonde shudder at how little this Liam had seemed to be cared about, his folder was small and probably very insignificant when put alongside the few hundred others they had stored away in one of the large offices clumped off the back of the arena. "This lad, Liam, was scouted as a youngster if I remember correctly at some sort of sporting event with his school. His parents wanted him to pursue a career in running and when we said we had an offer for a running occupation of sorts, they didn't even think twice before packing his stuff." Niall was shocked, by the photos from the report he had flicked open, the lad was but a child when he was brought in.