Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Thirty-Six

(Liam is italic, Niall is bold)

Niall/Liam

Is your babysitter back from her holiday?

Yeah...why?

Could she have Chloe tonight?

If I asked, probably.

Again, Why?

I still owe you a date.

You do...

Not the most romantic way of asking you, but are you or could you be free tonight? Half past seven-ish...

I could be, yes.

Great. I'll pick you up at seven.

I'll...see you then, I guess...

******

He wouldn't have normally asked Niall out by text. It wasn't the way he'd planned on doing it. In his head, there had been flowers or chocolates and maybe an orchestra. So maybe the orchestra would have been too much. But his original plan to finally ask Niall out on a date—the proper date he deserved—had been far more fitting than how he'd actually ended up asking him.

Liam had been trapped in one meeting after another, all of them supposedly important, all of them more boring than the last, all of them regarding the demise of his 'relationship' with Sophia, and had ended up texting him in a moment of spontaneity. His original plan, one concocted with the help of his sisters, would probably have been far more appropriate, but, really, Liam hadn't been sure if he'd be able to ask without stammering or chickening out.

It wasn't even like he could help it. It was just something Niall brought out in him. The old nervousness he'd shed somewhere around the time Up All Night had been released. But whenever Niall let him in, it returned. In hindsight, the text were probably the least nerve-wracking way of asking Niall. And he'd said yes. Which was probably supposed to be the takeaway message, the most important thing to come out of that string of texts.

******

Niall was still smiling when he picked Chloe up from school. It was stupid really, that a string of texts and the prospect of a date left him grinning like an idiot, but he couldn't help it. Chloe noticed it too.

She ran out of her classroom as soon as her teacher had let her class go, looking for Niall and charging over to him and dragging him out of the school gates like she usually did. It was only when they were at the bus stop that she'd tugged on his hand and looked up at him, asking why he was smiling like that. "Is it Liam?"

"Your dad, Chloe. And yes." Following Chloe onto the bus once it had pulled up to the curb, Niall sighed as she ran upstairs to find them seats, paying for their tickets before running after her and giving her the usual 'You-can't-run-off-like-that-Chlo-we've-talked-about-this' look as he dropped into the seat next to hers. "How do you feel about having a sleepover at Jessica's tonight? She'd love to spend more time with you..."

"Yeah..." Frowning as she looked up at Niall, Chloe shrugged, swinging her legs underneath her seat, thinking for a moment and looking out of the window before as she asked, "Are you going out tonight? You haven't done that in ages."

"I am, Chloe. With Liam...with your dad. Is that okay?" Half-smiling as Chloe shrugged in response, Niall let the conversation drop, turning to look out of the window and letting Chloe beat him at a game of I-Spy.

******

Steeling himself as he knocked on Niall's front door, Liam couldn't help but smile at Niall as he opened the door. Niall looked...he looked...words didn't do him justice, Liam decided as he followed Niall inside. Liam hadn't ever really seen Niall in a suit before, or at least in a shirt and smart jacket. The jeans suited him just as well, though.