Count On Me | Niam

Chapter Ninety-Four

Niall

"This sucks. My feet hurt. It's so boring, Daddy, can't we go home?"

By Niall's reckoning, this was the fourth time Chloe had voiced her complaints. Well, the fourth time this hour. But only the third time in this shop. She'd complained nonstop whilst they had visited Harrods, but as they traipsed John Lewis, she seemed to be gradually growing bored of complaining.

It had originally been the plan that they would go shopping without her, devoting a whole day to figuring out the crib, pram and clothes without interruption, but Chloe has insisted on joining them, whining until they acquiesced and she was holding Liam's hand as they braved the first store on their list.

Chloe's newfound clingy behaviour wasn't really a surprise, though, and Niall had been anticipating it manifesting itself in several slightly inconvenient mannerisms even before Liam had come home, and he'd been right to, given that Chloe had hardly let Liam out of her sight since he'd returned. She followed him pretty much everywhere, and they had been sit inseparable for the last month. It was almost cute until Niall remembered how independent Chloe was normally and then his smile would fade and he would try not to feel like the worst parent of the year. Liam seemed to understand and was doing his best not to perpetuate this behaviour, but he had an inability to say no to Chloe, which was why she had joined them and had spent the last three hours whining solidly.

If it weren't for the fact that it was frustrating and off-putting and reminding Niall about how his own feet hurt, he would acknowledge that her complaints were perfectly understandable and warranted, however being an adult and parent meant that encouraging such complaints was probably a no-no.

Okay, it was definitely a no-no, but Niall had never really spent all day wandering around the scarily expensive department stores before and Chloe certainly hadn't, so he was willing to make an allowance for her, and suggested that they took a break for a little while, perhaps in the dining hall John Lewis claimed was open on the fourth floor.

Finding something Chloe would eat would be a challenge, but she'd stop compiling and Liam would sit next to Niall, wrapping an arm around him and he'd be so excited as he'd talk about his plan for a nursery that the prospect of another four hours shopping would seem infinitely more bearable.

And Liam was so, so excited. About the nursery, about being home, about everything. His actual birthday had passed and he hadn't been as excited about the celebrations they'd held in honour of him turning twenty-eight as he had about the prospect of another scan and seeing another sonogram and being there for everything. He was so excited, it made Niall's chest hurt in the best way. It also made Niall feel like screaming every once in a while, when Liam was acting like Niall had never done any of this before, but that feeling would pass without him actually murdering Liam, so he was inclined to say that everything was really going swimmingly well.

It stopped going swimmingly well when it came to actually choosing things to buy and deciding on a theme and figuring out what they were going to spend.

When Niall had done this, for Chloe, with Missy's help, he'd had a definite budget. The crib Chloe had slept in had come thirdhand from the friend of a friend of a friend, someone who knew Missy's colleague who'd told Missy and Niall had eventually been the one to benefit. He'd spent nothing and had relied on secondhand shops and charity shops and the nicest things Chloe had had were all pre-used.

With Liam, there was no budget to stick to, no clear idea of what they wanted or would spend, and Niall was pretty sure that Liam would have paid for whatever. They ended up looking at the most ridiculously expensive things, cribs that cost ten times as much as Chloe's might have when it was new. It might have been nice, might have been something he should have expected, but Niall was totally lost.