Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Four

Niall

"Daddy. Daddy. Daddee...Dad?"

Standing in the doorway to his bedroom, Chloe fidgeted, tugging at the sleeves of her pyjama top before she dared to venture into the box room, moving closer to the bed before she tried again. "Daddy? Are you awake? Dad?"

"I'm awake." Niall forced his eyes open, stifling a yawn as he mumbled out a response, blinking a couple times before he registered his daughter's presence, yawning again and muttering a swear word as he felt his shoulder crack. "Chloe. What time is it?"

"Daddy...swear jar." The sigh Niall let out as Chloe spoke went ignored by the seven-year-old, as did the wince Niall made as she jumped onto the end of his bed, though she waited until he'd forced himself to sit upright before she repeated herself, looking at him pointedly as though she expected him to pay up at that moment. Swearing again as he saw the time, half past eight being an hour later than he'd initially planned on getting up, Niall ignored Chloe as she grinned and chimed, "Swear jar. Again."

Niall reached behind Chloe and pulled his curtains open, not needing to actually get out of bed to reach, allowing the bleak, grey light to stream in through the window before he got up, finding the last of his loose change and handing it over before he headed through to the kitchen, automatically flicking the kettle on and grabbing two bowls from a cupboard along with the nearly empty box of budget coco pops before he called out to Chloe, summoning her to breakfast.

Chloe had been grabbing her swimming stuff when Niall called and appeared in the kitchen with her bag trailing after her, watching from the doorway as Niall poured the last of the cereal into her bowl, shaking his head and putting the other bowl back into the cupboard and deciding to forego his own breakfast since they had nothing else in. He gestured for Chloe to sit before grabbing the remaining pint of milk and pouring most of it into Chloe's bowl, reaching around her to set the bottle down on the table and shaking his head as she asked, "Daddy, are we going to be late again?"

"Not if I can help it, poppet." His answer being mostly intended to placate Chloe, Niall looked up at the clock and tried to calculate the odds of them getting there before half past nine as he took Chloe's swimming gear from her, placing the bag by the door before he remembered his own coffee and retuned to the kitchen to find Chloe already struggling with the kettle. "Chlo... Be careful, that's going to be heavy. You know what I've said about the kettle."

As if on cue, Chloe's grip on the kettle slackened and she almost dropped dit, prompting Niall to step in and take it from her, regretting his unintentionally harsh tone as Chloe frowned and slumped back in her seat Chloe focusing on the bowl of now soggy bowl of coco pops as she said, "Sorry. I was just trying to help."

"I know and thank you, but you could easily have brunt yourself, and we don't want that now, do we?" Niall turned around to look at Chloe and reached out, ruffling her curls until she shook her head, grumbling, letting him go back to making his coffee as she ate. He grimaced when he took a sip, burning the roof of his mouth but drank the rest of it anyway when he glanced at the clock, starting to panic just a little as he realised the time. "It's nearly quarter nine, Chlo, we need to hurry up. I'll clear up, you go get dressed. Quickly though, yeah?"

Picking her bowl up and tipping the rest of her real into her mouth, Chloe nodded, running out of the kitchen and into her bedroom as Niall dropped the dishes into the sink, appearing a minute later in a pair of leggings and t-shirt, still pulling a jumper over her head. Assured that Chloe was ready, Niall left her waiting by the door, headed into his room and grabbed the first jeans he could find in place of the jogging bottoms he'd worn to bed, deciding to wear the t-shirt he'd slept in and changing more quickly than he'd ever managed before, struggling wth his trainers before grabbing his phone, the four year old Nokia buzzing to life as he unplugged it.