Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Sixty-Six

Liam

"Papa?"

Liam woke up, not nearly enough hours later, one arm thrown around Niall's waist and his nose pressed into his shoulder, opening his eyes only to immediately wish he hadn't. Fighting the urge to go back to sleep, he pulled himself away from Niall and turned to face the reason he was awake in the first place, smiling somewhat sleepily as he saw Chloe stood in the doorway.

At some point in the middle of the night, she'd wriggled out of her jeans and was wearing only her t-shirt, her curls tumbling messily over her face, her brown eyes framed by dark smudges indicating that she hadn't quite gotten enough sleep. Liam was still thrilled that she was there, having missed her, his little girl, more than he could possibly have imagined. "Chlo."

"Papa," Chloe repeated, fidgeting a little in her spot in the doorway and staring uncertainly at Liam for a moment as he sat up, watching her with equal intensity before he got up, reaching for a t-shirt and pair of pyjama trousers from the floor and pulling them on with a glance thrown behind him to Niall before he turned back to Chloe. He waited for just a second, silently checking that they were still on good terms like they had been when he'd still been at home, before he picked her up, hugging her and spinning her round, eliciting a giggle from the seven-year-old that made him smile until they both remembered Niall.

Thankfully, he didn't stir, only making a sound that might've been a groan as he retreated further into the duvet, and Chloe pulled a guilty face as Liam shushed her, still carrying her, taking her through to the suite's living room before he spun her round again, eliciting another string of laughter. "God, I missed you poppet."

"Missed you too, Papa. Really missed you." Clinging onto Liam, Chloe let herself be hugged for a while before she squirmed to be put down, giving Liam a tentative grin before she padded over to the window and peered out, looking back up at him, thrilled, as she said, "We're really in Florida? Like, Florida, Florida?"

"Florida, Florida. Really." Liam joined her by the window, pulling the curtains aside and wincing at the bright sunlight before he took her hand and pointed out the few landmarks he could actually recognise. "If you look right over there, that's the arena me and Louis and the others are performing at. And, over there, obviously, is the beach. And there's a marine life centre, I figured we could go if you wanted before we leave for Orlando."

"The beach sounds fun. I've never been to the beach. Not really. There was a trip with school, but we just collected pebbles." Chloe reached up on her tiptoes and strained her neck to see where Liam was pointing, grinning as she properly took in the stretches of sand. "You have to help me build sandcastles. You will, right?"

"Of course. Why do you think I wanted to go to the beach?" Liam grinned, the look on his face nearly identical to Chloe's, letting the curtain drop back to the floor as he followed her away, showing her how to work the hotel TV before he grabbed her a drink, happily settling down onto the sofa to watch whatever cartoon she'd found with her.

The two of them were still sat there, Chloe's head resting against Liam's chest as she leant against him, when Niall emerged, wearing one of Liam's t-shirts, padding lazily out to join them and slotting himself into the space next to Liam. Liam pressed a kiss to his cheek and grinned as he noticed the t-shirt he was wearing, a grin that Niall returned before he nestled closer to Liam, murmuring an apology to Chloe as her hair got caught between them. Chloe huffed a little but went back to watching the TV, squirming and taking over more of the sofa, elbowing Liam in the process.

Wincing, Liam shifted again so Chloe was leaning more against the sofa than him, leaving him free from the risk of having his lung punctured, and meaning he could wrap an arm around Niall as he meant in closer to Liam, both of them pretending to watch whatever crap was on the TV. Liam was only pretending to watch because, in reality, he was too distracted to focus on the TV, too acutely aware of all the places he and Niall were touching, from the brush of Niall's knee against his to the hand Niall had gripping Liam's t-shirt. It didn't help that, before he and Niall had ended up falling asleep, somewhere around four am local time, he'd followed Niall into the shower and the smell of his shampoo in Niall's hair might actually be the end of him.