Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty-One

Niall

He was drunk.

Actually, properly, thee-shots-too-many-of-some-green-thing-Louis-kept-handing-him, drunk.

For what was probably the first time since he was sixteen and he and Liam had snuck into a party Ruth had banned them from attending and raided the drinks before taking off, Niall was finally letting go, not worry about the consequences or tomorrow's hangover, and just taking a moment to see what most other twenty-somethings had spent their time doing instead of making up Princess Flora stories or worrying about swim practices and PTA meetings.

It hadn't been his intention to end up in such a state, end up at the point where he could no longer tell how much he'd had and was worried about standing up lest he fall over, but somewhere between them finding Liam backstage, Chloe saying her goodbye, and them leaving for the night out, something had changed in him and suddenly getting this drunk hadn't seemed like a bad idea.

The decision to let go for once was probably made when Chloe was about to leave, to be taken home, to Niall's flat by Paddy, to spend the night with Jessica watching her, and she'd refused to say goodbye, clutching at Liam as though that might make him stay. Liam had let her refuse for a while, let her cling to him, and he'd clung to her too, pressing kisses to hair, and promising she'd see him soon, but, eventually, he'd had to let go of Chloe, sharing guilty looks with Niall as Chloe started to cry.

Niall had managed to get her to stop crying eventually, and Paddy had taken Chloe back, letting her talk to him about any Disney film; leaving Niall and Liam both feeling like crap, moments away from deciding to cancel the evening and spend it with the little girl when Louis collared them, ushering them into the cars waiting outside the venue. From that point on, Niall had abandoned his responsible parent attitude and decided let Louis ply him with enough alcohol to make everything seem slightly less catastrophic.

Liam had one arm wrapped around his waist as almost a permanent fixture, and after a while, he stopped Niall from accepting many more of the drinks Louis sent his way, pressing a kiss to Niall's temple and stifling a grin when Niall protested. "Trust me, love, you'll thank me in the morning."

In all honesty, the rational part of Niall knew Liam was right, though, at that moment, it was losing a battle with the less rational part of him that really wanted to forget for a few hours that: a) Liam was leaving in a rapidly decreasing amount of time, and b) Chloe had looked absolutely distraught as she'd left and he, shitty parent that he was, hadn't done anything to placate her. The rational part, however, went ignored and Niall accepted the drink sent his way, ignoring Liam's slight sigh as he took a sip and not noticing as Liam downed the rest of his own drink in an attempt to keep up with him.

That was really the last thing Niall remembered, the fond yet exasperated look on Liam's face, and the disgusting taste of whatever it was he was drinking. Anything after that was kind of a blur. Which was to be expected, not having been a heavy drinker before and having chosen to throw himself in at the deep end. He only really remembered Liam laughing with him, at what, he had no idea, and there were vague memories of the car ride back, but he didn't really remember anything concrete, so it was more than a little surprising from him when he woke in a hotel room somewhere, light streaming in through the open blinds, and someone asleep next to him.

Opening his eyes, Niall closed them almost immediately, wincing and regretting the decision to open them again as he squinted in the sadly sobering sunlight of the morning, trying to take in where he was. The weight of the arm around his waist and the familiarity of everything were enough for it to be obviously Liam, but the hotel room confused him for a moment before he figured it was Liam's hotel room, booked for him by his management, yet another reminder of how quickly the time left before Liam went was slipping through his fingers.