Clarity « Niam

Chapter 4

"Aybrum, can you give daddy his phone back please?" He questioned, gently trying to pry the iPhone from the toddlers hands.

Aybrum had been pretend talking on the phone for a good half hour, but now Niall's phone was actually ringing.

"No." He shook his head, yanking the phone back and stuffed it down the front of his denim overalls.

Niall lifted him up, halfheartedly shaking him over the couch until his phone dropped out of the toddlers pant leg and placed him securely on his hip as the toddler began to cry because daddy had taken away his fun toy.

"You're alright peanut, you can have it back once I'm done. No more crying." He murmured, kissing his temple and quickly answered the phone before whoever it was hung up or reached his voicemail.

"Um Niall, hello?"

He rolled his eyes, knowing exactly who it was and shifted Aybrum around so he could get a better hold on him as he tried to soothe his tears. "You knew my number this whole time, didn't you?"

Liam cleared his throat, "Yeah I've had it for awhile, I just never knew what I'd say if you answered."

"Is there something funny about this?" He slightly snapped at him, but relaxed when he remembered Aybrum was crying against his shoulder. "I mean, why are you calling me?"

"I just wanted to - is that him crying? What happened?" Liam questioned, trailing off from his original response because he could hear the distraught toddler.

Niall huffed out a breath and started down the hallway towards Aybrum's bedroom to lay him down, he was due for an afternoon nap anyways and twenty minutes earlier than usual won't do him any harm.

"Everything is under control, I'm capable of dealing with him on my own. And it's really none of your business." He mumbled his words under his breath, laying Aybrum down and handed him the stuffed giraffe, which he accepted with open arms and settled down.

"Nigh-night, peanut. Love you." He murmured softly, leaning over the crib and gave him a small kiss on the forehead before he exited his bedroom.

Liam was silent a few minutes, desperately trying to catch everything Niall was whispering to the toddler and smiled to himself when he picked up that Niall was laying him down for a snooze.

"Niall, I'm sorry. I know I'm a lot more at fault here than I'm willing to admit right now, but I don't want to be away from my son anymore - same goes for you. I want you both to be apart of my life." He confessed all at once, but everything came out more like sporadic word vomit to Niall.

"You just don't understand, Liam. He's not some accessory you can tote around for a bit, he's a little boy and he doesn't deserve to be let down. And that's exactly what you're going to do to him, he's only a year old. He won't understand why you need to leave so often and be gone for months on end." Niall stressed to him, letting his tone become desperate and softer. "Yes, I'll admit he needs another parent in his life. But you aren't mentally or physically ready to be his parent."

"You don't know that though, you're assuming things and that's not fair on my end because I haven't had a real chance to prove myself." He argued, but tried to keep his words less threatening and his voice level. "Not only to you, but to him."

Niall took a deep breath, exhaling a few seconds later and calmed down some because the heat of the conversation had him all flustered and he couldn't think clearly. "You're right, Liam. I haven't truly given you a chance."

"I am?"

"Yes, so Friday afternoon you can babysit him while I go to work. I've been picking up a couple extra shifts a week, because we're supposed to fly home for two weeks and I need to be ahead on rent and bills." Niall sighed, breaking down and deciding to at least give Liam a shot at parenting - even though the shift he picked up was only four and a half hours, it was a start.

"Are you serious, you'll let me be alone with him?"

"Oddly enough, I do still trust you. It's my faith your in ability to care for him properly that worries me."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to him, I just want to be around him and in both your lives." He repeated himself, unsure of how else to make his words genuine because he was honestly willing to take any sort of contact with either of them at this point.

"I know, but let's start with this first and go from there. No promises on the future, yeah."

"Alright, but I have one question."

Niall paused, thinking he was going to automatically continue but he didn't. "What's your question, Liam?" He prompted after a couple seconds of silence.

He took an audible breath, "What's his name?"

"Aybrum James Payne." Niall smiled when he said his full name, he'd always been obnoxiously proud of himself for giving their son such a strong name and managed to incorporate both of them into his name as well.

"Aybrum Payne, I like it." He murmured, repeating the name a couple times to get a good feel for it. "And I like that he's got both our middle names."

Niall smiled to himself, getting that fluttery feeling he hasn't experienced in over a year. "Thanks, but um - I need to get going. This is my only time alone and I need to do some washing and tidying up. But I'll see you Friday, yeah."

"Friday, yeah." Liam smiled into the phone, wishing they could rewind and start back from the beginning. Only he'd do some parts differently, but mostly just how he reacted to Niall's pregnancy. "Bye, Niall."

He took a breath as he shook his head, trying to push the feelings away because all of this meant nothing. Liam wanting to be apart of their lives was just a phase and he shouldn't bother with getting attached.

"Goodbye, Liam."

Niall hung up and sat down at the kitchen table, laying his phone on the polished wood top and stared at it for a couple seconds. Because how the hell did their conversation go from a series of seemingly heated arguments to planning for Liam to babysit Aybrum in a few days time.

What the fuck did he just arrange?
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(authors note: I actually like that Niall's way more easy going and less defense of when it comes to Liam seeing their son, I mean he's agreed to let Liam watch him for a couple hours.

That's a major step in the right direction, especially considering Liam knew about Aybrum this whole time and still didn't bother coming to see him until now. Niall must have a lot of trust left in Liam, which isn't necessarily a bad thing either.

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