ROUGH - Niam AU

Chapter 4 - Warming Up

"Niall, what are you doing here?" Liam exclaimed, quietly opening the front door to a red eyed, shivering Niall.

"Can i come in?" He asked quietly, more from the cold than actual consideration of the fact that Liam's family could wake up at any moment.

Liam ushered Niall in and guided him upstairs to his room. There wasn't much to show, Liam's bedroom walls were bare. There was no closet, just several neat piles of clothes on the floor in the corner of the room.

"What's wrong Niall?" Liam asked cautiously, wrapping his blanket around Niall.

"Don't really want to talk about it..." Niall mumbled, looking at the floor. He hated being here, hated feeling helpless.... hated being cared for.

"Well i'd like to know why a boy i've barely known for a month thought it would be good to throw stones at my window at one in the morning..." Liam pressed.

"I needed somewhere to stay and your house is the closest to me." Niall sighed, feeling defeated. He hadn't been sober for long and was feeling rather tired. All he wanted was to sleep... 

"Why can't you stay at yours? You were fine when i took you home earlier..." Liam said quietly, sitting on his bed next to Niall. Something clearly wasn't right with Niall.

"Mum kicked me out. Had an argument." Niall whispered in reply, wiping away a tear that had dared to form.

Liam didn't press further, instead opting to make Niall a hot chocolate and find him some warm, fresh clothes that wouldn't be too big on the smaller lad. 

"You can sleep here for as long as you want, my parents won't mind... but there's only one bed so..." Liam trailed off, not really knowing what to say next or if Niall would even care.

"Doesn't matter." Niall mumbled, clearly too tired to really care anyway.

It was 2pm by the time Liam finally climbed back into bed, he had given Niall an old t-shirt and sweatpants to wear, but Niall still shivered. It was cramped in Liam's single sized bed, the two boys had to squeeze together, which Liam didn't mind; clearly neither did Niall. It was weird for Liam, being so close to someone he knew barely nothing about - but at the same time it felt kind of right. 

Niall was the perfect height so that as he slowly fell asleep and curled into the warmth of Liam's body, his head was rested perfectly against Liam's chest. 

"Thank you." Niall said quietly, startling Liam who had asmued, after such a long silence that Niall had fallen asleep.

"Of course Niall, it's what friends are for..." 

"I've never had a... friend, like you before." Niall confessed, unknowingly pressing his body further agaisnt Liam's, the heat ever so comforting.

"Go to sleep Nialler..." As almost an instinct, Liam kissed the top of Niall's head, but then froze realising what he had done. He waited of Niall to leap out of the bed, punch Liam, shout at him,  be grossed out... but Niall did nothing.

"Gd'night Li." Niall replied, Liam wondered if Niall had even felt Liam's kiss.

They fell asleep like that, Niall pressed agaisnt the warm body of Liam and Liam silently hoping he woke up before Niall did.

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Liam cursed himself when he looked over Niall at the clock on his bedside table. Even though he had gone to bed late, he had still woken up before 10am and there was no chance he would be able to fall asleep. Careful not to wake Niall, Liam pulled away from the sleeping blonde and quietly crept downstairs to the kitchen.

Liam didn't bother looking in the fridge, it was the end of the week so there would be nothing left. Dry cereal was the best he was going to get, but he wouldn't complain, it only upset his parents when he did.

Liam walked into the living room with his bowel of dry coca-pops to find his mother and two sisters talking quietly, the second they noticed him, Liam's older sister rushed out the room, giving Liam a look as if to say 'you're in big trouble.'

"Liam." His mother said, she had her cross authoritative face on. "The next time you want to have a.... male, friend over, i think it would be more appropriate to ask first."

"He's just a friend mum." Liam sighed, he should have known this would bother his uptight mother.

"That may be Liam," His mum continued sternly, "but i would still think it would be more appropriate to ask considering..." 

"Considering i'm gay." Liam finished his mother's sentence. He came out to his family only at the beginning of the year and they had taken it well, but it was just something they never really spoke about. They knew Liam wasn't fully comfortable with his sexuality and telling people, and Liam understood that they were never going to be the type of family to have long, deep discussions about his love life. They just had a sort of mutual agreement to not talk about such things.

Suddenly, the front door slammed shut in such a way Liam was sure the house shook. Who would slam the door like that?

"Dad?" Liam called out, expecting him to walk into the room any moment.

"Your father is at the supermarket..." Liam's mum said, also confused as to who slammed the door. 

"Ruth, Nicola?" Liam called out, expecting to only here one reply, but instead getting two. "Shit." Liam mumbled, realising who it must have been.

He ran up the stairs and into his room, hoping he was wrong. He wasn't.

Niall was gone.