Clarity « Niam

Chapter 3

Niall had taken a couple extra minutes to himself this morning, he hadn't heard a peep from Aybrum's bedroom so he assumed the toddler was still sound asleep, leaving himself to lay in bed a bit longer than usual and think some things over.

Mostly, he thought about Liam's reappearance in his life - something he thought would never happen in a million years, but just yesterday he arranged to go to his flat today so they could talk things out.

Which looking back now, was probably a terrible idea because he knows feelings are going to get hurt and at this point he'd rather not go through heartbreak again. It took ages to get over Liam leaving the first time, and no doubt a second time won't be any easier.

Liam leaving him again wasn't even the biggest thing on his mind, especially since they aren't even together.

But the fact that Niall still hadn't mentioned anything about Aybrum existence to Liam - Aybrum's other biological father, was a major conversation that's been looming over Niall since he laid eyes on Liam.

Niall groaned and rolled over, burying his face in a pillow and huffed out a big breath before he pushed himself up and went to go wake Aybrum up for the day.

He softly pushed open the toddlers door the rest of the way, peeking in and saw him sitting up in his crib, talking to his stuffed giraffe. Niall stood, silently watching him have a full conversation with his favourite stuffed animal before he decided to make his presence known.

"Morning peanut, are you and your giraffe having a lovely little talk?" He smiled as he walked into the room, laughing softly when Aybrum jumped and instinctively reached out to grab his stuffed toy and held it closely.

"No bubba." Aybrum scolded, upset daddy had been secretly watching him and then scared him half to death.

He lifted him out of the crib, giving him numerous good morning kisses and gave his back a small rub. "I'm sorry. You hungry for some breakfast, I think we've still got some pancake mix downstairs. That sound good to you, peanut?"

Aybrum really only understood that they were going to have breakfast, so he nodded and wrapped his small arms around daddies neck as they made their way downstairs.
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Niall had dropped Aybrum off at the sitters, promising he'd be gone no longer than two hours. He knew he couldn't bring Aybrum with because he wasn't necessarily ready to have that talk with Liam yet - so for now, Aybrum was nonexistent.

He nervously got out of his vehicle, subconsciously locking, unlocking and locking the vehicle a couple times to waste time.

He always hated going to peoples houses for the first time, something he's never grown out of, because he never knew whether or not he was supposed to take off his shoes and his mind will make it into some big ordeal. When really, most people didn't care as long as you hadn't walked through a puddle or something muddy.

Niall rang the buzzer, waiting to be buzzed into the building so he could go all the way up to the twelfth floor.

"Niall - hey. I honestly didn't think you'd actually come, I thought you'd back out once you had time to think." Liam laughed as he opened the door for him, stepping back so he could come in.

He shrugged, pushing a hand through his hair. "Me too, but we need to get this over with so we can both go back to our lives. I know you left tour for this, and it's selfish of me to keep you here when you've got somewhere important to be."

They went and sat down in the living room, Niall sat on one end of the plush white couch and Liam on the other end.

"You've got it backwards, I left tour because finding you was more important to me. I couldn't go another day without knowing where you were." He murmured softly, trying to catch his eyes with his.