Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Eight

Niall

"Daddy!"

Pasting a smile onto his face as Chloe came running into the shop, Niall set the guitar he'd been tuning down, glancing over to where his boss was working on a new display of instruments and giving him a small nod as Chloe waved at him. Running his fingers through her hair and enveloping her in a hug, Niall frowned as his fingers came away covered in flakes of dried paint, stepping back and holding her at arms length to examine the paint stains scattering her school uniform before he frowned. "Chloe... Was school okay?"

"Yeah! We've been painting all day. And Jessica let me have ice cream as a snack." Squirming under Niall's scrutiny, Chloe scratched at the paint covering her shirt collar, glancing behind at the sitter and half smiling as she shook her head at the seven-year-old. Scratching more at the paint covering her, Chloe shook her head, pushing her hair out of her face before she shrugged, pulling away from Niall.

"That was meant to be our secret, Chlo." Handing Chloe's bag over to Niall, Jessica gave him an apologetic smile, raising an eyebrow as Niall's smile momentarily slipped. "Everything okay?"

"Fine." Checking through Chloe's bag, Niall forced the smile back onto his face as he looked up, pushing the phone call out of his thoughts as he handed Chloe her school bag, fumbling through his pockets and grabbing his wallet, paying the sitter before he thought to ask, "You're still okay to watch her whilst I take double shifts next weekend?"

Nodding, Jessica reached out and high-fived Chloe, smiling at her as she muttered something about a plan for the two of them to do, accepting the crumpled note Niall handed over before she turned and left, leaving just before Niall and Chloe did.

*******

Following Chloe out of the lift, Niall took her hand as she attempted to run down the corridor, ignoring her protests as he made her walk with him to their flat, opening the door and sighing as Chloe ran inside, kicking her shoes off and dropping her bag in the middle of the floor. Picking her shoes and bag up, Niall dropped the bag onto the kitchen table and set he school shoes down neatly by the door before he called out, "Chloe? You're covered in paint. You need a bath."

Dropping the toy's she'd been about to play with and leaving her room, Chloe didn't attempt to protest as she caught sight of herself in the mirror, watching Niall run the bath for her and running a hand over the green stripe along her neck, the back of her head also appearing to have faint flakes of paint along with the faded stripes still covering her arms where her shirt sleeves hadn't quite covered.

Leaving Chloe to herself, Niall shut himself in his bedroom, pulling his phone out of his pocket and glaring at it before he sighed, shaking his head at himself as he caved in and called his brother back.

Waiting for Greg to actually answer, Niall smoothed the corner of his duvet, aligning it so the edge of it hung directly above his bed frame, almost dropping the phone when Greg finally picked up. Listening and making apologetic noises as Greg spoke, Niall ran out of patience with his brothers ramblings, gripping his phone tighter as he said, "When we spoke earlier, you said someone, someone with a familiar myspace name was messaging you. What were they asking?"

"Really? They... were asking about me? Are you certain it wasn't just an old message? Okay. No, if it is him, if it is Liam, I have no idea why." Running a hand through his hair, Niall let out the breath he'd been holding, letting Greg prattle on about other reasons for the message from the not so stranger as he tried to think whether it was definitely, positively Liam.

"It can't be about Chloe. He hasn't even spoken to me in nearly eight years, let alone heard about her. Except... Except, except we did meet on Saturday. It was nothing. A random coincidence. I just ran into him. He didn't even recognise me so there's no way he'd have even thought about Chlo." Shifting so he was laying down, Niall let his head hang over the edge of the bed, staring at the stain on his carpet that had been there since they'd moved in, a stain which no amount of stain remover had budged, pinching the bridge of his nose before he continued. "I mean, I thought he didn't recognise me. Come on, he sees thousand of people everyday. He wouldn't have even known what I looked like. But- He can't have. We've both changed a lot and there's no way he'd even think about Chloe even existing."

Listening as he heard Chloe giggling from the bathroom, the seven year old probably more focused on playing than bathing, Niall sat up, glancing over at the photo of him and Chloe at a park near their old flat, taken sometime around her fifth birthday, his jaw clenching slightly as he remembered the way Liam had just brushed him off. "Greg, you know what, it's probably just a mistake. Delete the message and block whoever it is. Probably for the best."

Hanging up the phone, Niall slumped back against his bedding, falling back into his old habit of considering what could've been, if he had told Liam or if he'd never stayed over the night Liam came back from bootcamp or if he'd fought harder to maintain contact with him after he left. Or even what might've been if he'd let Greg message him back or if he'd had the guts to use a computer at the shop to find a way to message him back personally.

Hearing the familiar clunk of the plug being yanked out of the bathtub and the telltale rush of water, Niall figured Chloe was probably done in the bathroom, snapping out of his reverie and heading through to their living room to find Chloe in a onesie, her hair sopping and hanging over her face as she lay sprawled out on the floor. Dropping her spelling book and pencil to the side of her and grabbing a cushion to lay her head on, Chloe sighed dramatically as she looked up Niall before she went back to listening to an audiobook on their secondhand CD player, the choice of activity a poor substitute to her usual routine of watching a DVD whilst Niall cooked dinner and helped with her spellings.

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Who here just wishes Niall and Liam would run into each other again?

I do.

But that's kind of progress. Not really between Niam but hopefully soon, things between them will actually start to progress. Kind of.

Thought's on the chapter?