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Liam has always been a bit of a hopeless romantic. Not just the flowers and chocolates and grand sweeping gestures, although he thinks those are important too. No, Liam believes in romance in the true sense of the word, in destiny and soulmates, and that love will always find a way.
Which is why it has always been super depressing when he gets dumped.
“It’s not you, I promise,” Danielle tells him, squeezing his hand where it’s resting on the coffee table. Liam can do nothing but blink at her, unable to think of anything to say in response to that which isn’t ‘That seems unlikely.’
“I’m just not ready to be a part of something serious right now,” she continues. “And I know that you’re looking for someone to share forever with.”
And, well, it’s not like he can argue with that. Liam has never really understood people who only want to fool around or ‘have a bit of fun’. Fun is like, for amusements parks or going to the pub with your mates or whatever. It’s not something you do with your heart.
“Oh,” he says after a moment. He’s always been a bit rubbish at this.
“You’re a great guy, Liam. I’m sure you’ll find someone, and you will make them very happy.” Danielle gets up, kisses him on the cheek and leaves Liam at a table for two in a coffee house just off uni campus, surrounded by students who are not even attempting to disguise their pity.
Liam pulls out his phone and calls Harry.
“’lo?” a sleepy voice on the other end picks up.
“Can I come over?” Liam asks, trying not to sound too pathetic. “I think I need a hug. And a biscuit.”
The great thing about having a friend who works at a bakery is constant access to sugary goods in time of need.
There’s a pause on the other end, then Harry says easily, “I’ll get the oven going.” And he hangs up.
Liam tries to feel better, because he has friends who he can wake up and ask for hugs and biscuits, and that’s more than a lot of people have. He’s not sure he succeeds, but it does help a little.
By the time he gets to Harry’s flat, Liam can smell the magical aroma of baking from outside. He knocks politely on the door, because no matter how many times Harry keeps insisting, he just doesn’t feel comfortable letting himself in.
Louis answers the door, arching his eyebrow. “Well?” he says, stepping aside to let Liam in. “What sort of mid-morning emergency do we have on our hands today? Did you flex your muscles and cause some poor girl to faint? Rescue too many kittens from trees and couldn’t carry them all?”
That was the thing about Louis; the words coming out of his mouth might seem mean or biting, but Liam knows that they simply mask concern. He hadn’t been very sure of Louis the first time Harry had introduced the two of them. Louis’s sharp smile and shaper tongue were very intimidating, and Liam had worried that he might be careless with a heart as generous and unguarded as Harry’s. Ten minutes of watching the two of them together, however, and it quickly became apparent that Louis was a complete marshmallow, especially concerning Harry.
Harry says that Louis has a hard exterior to protect an extra gooey centre, and Liam supposes that’s a good an explanation as any. Whatever the reason, they had been inseparable since they met at the start of the year, and were still going strong, so it was important as Harry’s best friend that they get along. It was pretty obvious that their relationship was going to be long term.
Forever, Liam thought, remembering what Danielle had said.
“Danielle dumped me,” Liam said, trying not to sound miserable. He must have said it loud enough for Harry to hear as well, because he stuck his head out of the kitchen with an indignant “What?!”
“I can see why you needed a hug and biscuits,” Louis said, wrapping his arms around Liam and trying to manoeuvre him towards the kitchen without letting go. They only knocked into one side table and didn’t break anything, which Liam counted a success when it came to Louis.
“It sounded like a chocolate chip cookie type of emergency, but they’re not ready yet,” Harry said, crouching down to peer through the oven door. “We’ve still got some biscuits in the tin while we wait though.”
Liam sat down at the kitchen table and reached for the ever-full biscuit tin that lived in the centre. He selected a jammy dodger and handed the tin to Louis, who took the seat beside him.
“What happened?” Harry asked as he came over to sit in Louis’s lap, accepting the jafacake Louis selected for him.
“Apparently, it’s not me,” Liam started, and both Harry and Louis groaned in sympathy around their biscuits. “She said she didn’t want like, forever. And she thinks that I’m the forever type.” Which might not have been exactly what she had said, Liam had tuned out a bit in the middle, but that was pretty much the message that he had got anyway.
“That’s just rubbish!” Louis made a noise of deep dissatisfaction.
“I am though,” Liam couldn’t help but point out, because that part was definitely true.
And okay, it’s not like Liam is heartbroken, exactly, because maybe he hadn’t been able to picture a forever with Danielle either, and they’d been dating for a while but really long enough for Liam to say with confidence that he wasn't in love…but still. It just really, really sucked, is all.
“Not that,” Louis said, waving his arm dismissively. “Anyone can see that a mile off. I meant, like, it’s rubbish that she dated you for ages before saying that!”
“You’re pretty much what it says on the tin,” Harry agreed. “She would have known that ages ago.”
Liam wasn’t sure that made him feel any better.
It was hard meeting people, and it was hard getting people to like you, and apparently it was practically impossible to find someone to love you. Every romantic film Liam had ever seen made it seem so easy. You meet the love of your life through some bizarre circumstance, you fall in love and realise through a series of increasingly preposterous trials that you are destined to be together forever and always, and then you live happily ever after.
Maybe Liam just hadn’t been in enough bizarre circumstances to meet anybody yet.
“How did you two meet?” he asked, as Harry got up and went to pull the cookies from the oven.
“At a party,” Harry replied easily, as if the question wasn’t completely out of left field.
“Yeah, Niall’s, wasn’t it?” Louis said with a frown. “I think he threw it to celebrate Josh’s dog’s birthday or something.”
Liam nodded like that was actually a real reason to have a party, and that he even knew who those people were.
“We bumped into each other in the bathroom,” Harry said, putting the plated cookies on the table and smiling at Louis.
“Love at first ‘oops!’” Louis agreed, smiling back.
Liam took a gooey chocolate chip cookie from the plate and tried not to feel miserable and pathetic and completely alone in the face of their obvious star-crossed love. He must not have succeeded too well, because Harry looked back at him and made an upset noise in the back of his throat, and came around the table to wrap his arms around Liam’s head.
Liam shifted enough in his grip so that he could still eat the cookie.
“Nialler’s having a party tomorrow!” Louis said suddenly, like it was a great epiphany. Harry gasped, twisting to look at him and nearly taking Liam’s head off in the process.
“That’s a great idea, Lou! Get Liam back on the horse!”
A bad feeling crept through Liam’s stomach to mix with the sadness already there. “I don’t think-“ he started, but Louis cut him off, leaping up and wrapping his arms around Liam’s head from the other side.
“Shush, it’s brilliant,” he insisted. “This is exactly what you need. Niall knows everybody, he’s sure to know someone you can snog.”
Liam sighed and reached around Louis to put his half eaten cookie back on the table.
~~~
“I don’t want to go.” Liam crossed his arms across his chest and hoped he looked more like an intimidating adult than a petulant child.
“Mmmhmm,” Harry agreed, not pausing in his rummaging of Liam’s wardrobe.
“It hasn’t even been a full day,” Liam tried again. “I don’t need to rush right back into things.”
“Mmmhmm.” Harry pushed aside a pile of shirts to pull out a pair of dark jeans from underneath.
“You and Louis always disappear right away, and I won’t know anyone else!” Liam eyed the huge mess Harry was making mournfully.
“Exactly!” Harry said, chucking the jeans at Liam to catch and tossing him a vest to go with it. “You won’t know anyone, so you’ll be forced to talk to new people. One of them will be the love of your life, and you can get married and have babies and be happy.”
“That is a terrible plan,” Liam mumbled, secretly thinking that the second part of that actually sounded pretty nice.
“Shut up and get dressed!” Louis barged into the room, blindsiding Liam and pushing him towards the bathroom. “We’re already late!”
Liam hurried to get changed because he hated being late.
The party was even louder Liam had feared, and he lost Louis and Harry even faster than he expected, finding himself alone in the middle of a room full of drunken people not even five minutes after they had walked through the door.
Which was…great. Just great.
Liam started to make his way through the crowd, trying to head somewhere there might be fewer people. Someone shoved a beer into his hand, and Liam turned to try and hand it back, because despite his moodiness, he hadn't really planned on drinking tonight. As he turns though, he spots something across the room that makes him freeze.
Danielle is leaning against the far wall, talking to a guy. A really fit guy. As Liam watches, she laughs at something he says, and reaches out to touch him lightly on the arm.
Fuck everything.
This is the worst day ever.
Liam turned and pushed through the crowd, needing to get away. He made it to the kitchen, where there’s a bit more breathing space, and realises he still has the beer in his hand. He stares down at the bottle for the briefest moment before popping the cap and taking a deep pull.
It’s a good a plan as any.
~~~
An hour later, and Liam is well and truly hammered.
He’s managed to make it out onto the decking of whoever’s house this is and is sprawled on one of the lawn chairs that he had dragged up the steps. Which makes it a deck chair now, he supposes, squinting at it. Cos it was on the lawn before, but now it was on the deck.
Could you change what something was just by moving it ten feet? Did changing its name change what it was? That didn't seem likely.
He flopped over the arm of the chair to look at the underside to see if it had changed much, and got distracted by the flooring of the deck, which was really quite nice, all the wood fitting together neatly.
It was a nice house, Liam mused fuzzily, peering down at the neat wooden slates underneath his chair. Like, well fit together. Not many places in London had a deck this nice, or a backyard so big. He wonders whose house it is, and if having lawn-maybe-deck chairs and floors that fit together so nicely makes them happy. Probably belongs to some happy couple who met through a string of bizarre circa- circrum- …events that involved wooden deck-maybe-lawn chairs and every time they sit out here they’re reminded of their eternal happiness and love for each other.
They probably fit together as neatly as the stupid floorboards, clicking into place perfectly like…like…
The thought scatters before Liam can really catch hold of it, and he sighs miserably. Yeah, alright, he can admit to himself that he’s pretty pissed. And sad. And alone, which was the problem in the first place.
He wonders why there’s no one else out on the nice perfectly fitted love-reminding wooden deck. Even as the thought crosses his mind though, someone walks out the door like they were summoned and spots him.
“Alright?” the bloke says with an easy smile, and Liam squints up at him, trying to work out if he knows him. He has blonde hair and blue grey eyes and doesn't look like he’s been miserable a day in his life.
“Geez, you’ve had a few, yeah?” the guy says, eyeing the bottles scattered around Liam’s lawn-maybe-deck chair.
“Lego!” Liam says suddenly, his lost thought coming back to him.
“What?” the guy looks confused, so Liam tries to explain even though his words are slurring a little.
“It’s like Lego, innit? Like, when you meet the right piece you just like…fit. So perfectly, right, you can’t even tell where the join bit is, yeah?” His new companion looks a little lost, but he sits down on Liam’s deck-maybe-lawn chair anyway, so Liam figures he must not sound too insane.
“Do you mean, like, people?” he asks, pressing up next to Liam and wriggling as though he’s getting comfortable for a long conversation.
Liam nods enthusiastically, happy that this complete stranger gets what he’s saying. And then he remembers that he doesn’t have anyone whose join bit disappears with his, and he feels his face drop.
“And sometimes it’s like, the bit you have is the wrong one and doesn’t fit at all,” he says miserably. “And they’re actually that piece you step on in the middle of the night and it hurts like hell. Only you step with like, your heart, and not your foot.”
To Liam’s surprise, the guy reaches over and wraps Liam up on a hug. His arms are warm and friendly and he smells amazing, so Liam has no choice but to melt into the guy’s chest.
Liam used to be pretty rubbish about receiving hugs before Louis came along and forced him to deal with it by hugging the stuffing out him at every opportunity. Liam likes to think he’s much better about surprise hugs now.
“I can’t tell if that’s brilliant or the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” the warm friendly stranger says, his chest rumbling under Liam’s ear.
“’M pretty drunk,” Liam agrees. “Could be either.”
Belatedly he realises he’s not really participating in this incredibly nice hug, and wraps his own arms around the guy’s waist. Mr warm, friendly and smells wonderful tilts back until they’re sprawled in the lawn-maybe-deck chair, their legs tangled together comfortably. It suddenly occurs to Liam that their position might look a bit dodgy if someone were to come along.
“M Liam,” he mumbles, because he thinks that if you’re pretty much snuggling with someone, you should at least know their name. Fuck he’s comfortable. He never wants to move again.
“’Nice to meet you Liam,” the guy says, and Liam can hear the smile in his voice. It feels like sunshine. Like, on a cloudy day when everything’s a bit miserable, and then the cloud parts for just that one second for the sun to fall on your back and warm you right through. “I’m Niall.”
Niall? That rings a bell.
“’sn’t this your party?” Liam asks a bit guiltily. He shouldn’t really hog the host of the party, even if he is super comfortable. “’S your house?”
“Nah,” Niall says, rubbing a hand up and down Liam’s back in a way that makes his eyes drift shut in happiness. “This is Nick’s digs. I just helped out with like, the rent a crowd.” He gestures vaguely back towards the house.
“Lots of people,” Liam agreed, starting to wonder if he was actually going to fall asleep on some stranger’s chest on the fancy decking of a house of somebody he didn't even know. It was certainly looking likely.
“The thing is,” Niall says suddenly. “It’s like, when you step on Lego it’s like the most painful thing ever, right? But only for a little while. It doesn't hurt forever.”
It doesn't hurt forever.
Liam turns his face into Niall’s chest a bit more, because there is sad and pathetic, and then there is crying into some stranger’s chest while you talk about Lego, and Liam hasn't quite reached that point yet.
It’s just. Jesus. He had no idea there were people in the world who could stumble across absolutely plastered people they’ve never met talking complete nonsense, and instead of running away, gave them warm cuddles and used their own dumb theories to make them feel better.
It’s like a band-aid over Liam’s scuffed up heart.
“Yeah,” he breathes, the warm sunshine feeling from before coming back. He tilts his head up and buries his face in Niall’s neck, nudging the bridge of his nose along Niall’s jawline in silent thanks. If he were more sober he’d be a bit mortified, but right now it just feels nice. He always forgets that he absorbs a bit of Harry’s touchy-feelyness when he’s drunk, and it always seems like a great idea until the next day.
Niall’s breath hitches and his hand stills against Liams’s back, but just as Liam is mustering the energy to lift his head and check if he should be apologising, Niall’s hand starts up again. It feels so nice Liam forgets to check, and snuggles closer instead, his eyes drifting shut.
~~~
The next day Liam wakes up with the worst hang over in his entire life, which makes sense because he’s pretty sure that the drunkest he’s ever been in his entire life. He hasn’t seemed to have made it all the way home, sitting up groggily on Harry and Louis’s worn out couch. He has no real recollection of how he got there, just a vague notion of being passed back into Harry and Louis’s company after a warm snuggle with…
Fuck.
Liam is pretty sure he draped himself over a fit bloke last night, and rubbed his face all over his chest and rambled on for ages about like, Lego or something. And as if that wasn't horrifying enough, Liam is pretty sure the fit bloke had been Niall, Harry and Louis’s matchmaker and Liam’s last hope of not dying alone.
Brilliant.
With a sigh, Liam stumbles unsteadily to his feet and goes looking for some paracetamol. Maybe he could drown himself in the sink while he was there.
Harry and Louis wake up not much later and only tease Liam about his drunken adventures a little bit as Harry cooks them all the greasiest breakfast possible.
Liam doesn't tell them about Danielle being at the party, because he knows they would have felt guilty about it even though they hadn’t known she would be there. He does tell them about meeting Niall on the deck and having a cuddle, although they’re not nearly as concerned about stranger snuggling as Liam is.
“I still can’t believe you hadn’t met him before,” Louis says, shovelling eggs into his mouth. “He’s like, Niall.”
“Niall knows everybody,” Harry agrees, using a napkin to sweep up the eggs Louis was spilling on the table. “Did he suggest someone for you to snog?”
Liam flushes slightly. “I wasn't making much sense by then, so it didn't really come up.”
“We should invite him round!” Louis says excitedly, and Liam nearly chokes on his own tongue. “Come on, it’ll be brilliant! It’s impossible to be mopey with Nialler around, you’ll feel loads better about old whatshername.”
He stares at Liam earnestly, and Liam pokes at his toast, rolling the idea around in his head. Niall had certainly managed to make him feel better last night, trying not to blush too obviously at how inappropriate that thought sounded even inside his own head.
Anyway, it would give him an opportunity to apologise to Niall for sprouting drunken gibberish and rubbing himself all over him like a touch-starved kitten. Plus once Louis had an idea in his head, it was usually better for everyone to just go with the flow. Liam had learnt that lesson the hard way.
“Sure,” he says, shrugging. He can’t help smiling when both Harry and Louis cheer loudly.
~~~
Harry and Louis invite Niall around on Friday for a movie night, and Liam might spend longer than he’d really like to admit trying on different outfits. He just wants to make a better impression this time, is all, and certainly has nothing to do with kind hearts and easy smiles.
Nothing at all.
Liam sighs at himself. He’s not such an idiot that he doesn’t know what the warmth spreading through his chest indicates, or what it means when his pulse jumps when he thinks of Niall’s friendly hugs and Niall’s easy smile. He supposes that he should feel guilty that he’s moved on from his relationship so quickly, and he does a bit, but mostly he feels…excited. Like happiness and anticipation singing together in equal measure through his ears.
Friday can’t come soon enough.
Niall shows up just after six with a friend, a bloke who is easily the most attractive person Liam has seen in his entire life. He tries not to stare, while trying desperately to read their body language. If this guy is Niall’s boyfriend, Liam has lost before he’s even started, because there’s no way he can compete with that.
“’M Zayn,” he says with a nod, somehow looking effortlessly cool and like a runway model at the same time. Liam had no idea people could do even do that. Niall immediately abandons Zayn to the introductions while he disappears into the kitchen to organise snacks, apparently at home enough in Harry and Louis’s flat to supervise nibbles. That makes Liam feel better, and he smiles warmly at Zayn, who smiles back.
They all get settled in on the couch with popcorn in their laps and crisps and lollies on the coffee table, settled in for a good night of theatre.
Niall heads over to the t.v. with a dvd he’d brought with him, “Special request,” he says with a wink at Liam. He pops it in the player before anyone can get a look at the cover, and launches himself back onto the single couch where they’re all squeezed in together, despite the fact that there are other chairs in the room. Liam is happy to note that although he’s squished between Niall and Zayn, neither seem too bothered by this fact, which he hopes means that they’re nothing more than friends.
The opening menu of The Lego Movie starts to play.
Liam bursts out laughing.
From anyone else, it would feel like the worst joke at his expense, mocking him and his drunken stupidness, but Niall is grinning at him so wide that the thought barely even occurs to Liam before he dismisses it. He doesn’t even know Niall, not really, hasn’t spent much time in his company but he immediately knows this is a joke shared.
Harry and Louis both blink at him in surprise.
“Something you want to share with the class, Liam?” Louis asks, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, like it always does when Liam is genuinely happy.
“Nope,” Liam grins back. “Just a great movie, that’s all.” He just shakes his head when Louis stares at him suspiciously.
Niall laughs and presses play.
They don’t really make it all the way through the film. They’ve all seen it before multiple times, and they begin to talk over it, exclaiming over favourite bits or quoting upcoming jokes to make each other laugh. That leads to conversations about other things, as they get to know each other a bit in the case of Niall and Liam and Zayn, as well as catch up with each other in the case of Niall and Harry and Louis.
Zayn turns out to be an art student doing a double degree in literature, which leads Liam to label him both Talented and Smart with extremely large capital letters in his mind. Niall is studying musical engineering, and Harry was apparently right that he seems to know just about everybody.
It’s just…easy. The whole night feels so easy, the flow of conversation and how comfortable Liam feels in their company, despite only knowing both Niall and Zayn for only a handful of hours. He realises with a start that not only is he having a great time, but that he feels happy. Which, considering that it was only a few days ago Liam was convinced he was going to be miserable and alone forever, shouldn’t really be possible.
He’s never been so happy to be wrong before.
And if Liam’s heart jumps a bit when Niall includes him in the conversation as easily as breathing, and if his face flushes a bit when Niall’s laugh lights up the room at something Liam says, well. At least no one else notices.
The thing is, Liam has appreciated fit blokes before, and he has accepted (at least to himself) that he might be something less than straight, but he’s never really done anything about it. He’s never really fancied anyone enough to take that final scary step, and now he thinks that he might do he’s not really sure what like, the etiquette is. Does he just ask Niall out for coffee? What if Niall and Zayn are a thing and are just so super casual about how together they are Liam read the situation wrong? What if Niall laughs at him, or worse pities him, and they don’t even get to be friends?
This is the worst.
While Liam is agonising over his lack of romantic prowess internally, his attention is jerked back into the conversation when Harry says loudly, “Liam is a massive comic book nerd!”
Before Liam can defend himself and deflect that kind of harsh assessment, Zayn says, “Really?” from next to him the way one might if you revealed you knew magic. Sort of surprised and delighted and incredulous, and Liam found himself shrugging a bit shyly instead.
“Yeah, um, mostly Marvel I guess but I read stuff like Suicide Squad and Justice League and New 52. I love Batman,” he admits, blushing slightly under Zayn’s interested gaze. It’s kind of a lot having Zayn’s full attention on him.
“Have you seen the new Captain America movie yet?” Niall asks, and Liam’s heart leaps into his throat. Maybe all his worrying about doing the asking out was for nothing. His confidence wavers when Niall adds, "Zayn has been dying to see it with someone."
Which, okay. Liam isn't sure exactly what that means, but he does really want to see the movie, so he smiles and turns to Zayn and says with complete sincerity, "That sounds great!"
~~~
Liam meets Zayn out the front of the theatre, and any awkwardness he might have been worried about is bypassed by Zayn rocking up nearly twenty minutes late, breathless with apologies. Liam smiles and tries to wave away his guilt, but Zayn launches into a funny tale of messy circumstances that conspired to make him late.
Liam laughs so much he doesn’t notice that Zayn pays for both their tickets and their snacks, and it only occurs to him to offer to chip in once the opening trailers have already started. He’ll just have to mention it after the film.
The movie is absolutely brilliant, full of explosions and mystery and fantastic comic book shout-outs to those in the audience who have done the background reading. Zayn and Liam both gasp in delight when they realise where the plot is going, and that Hydra were back in action and in full strength.
The moment the screen goes black and the lights come back on, they start talking a mile a minute, comparing notes on what they just watched and how it related to what they had read in the comics.
“I can’t believe his pretend neighbour was Sharon Carter!” Liam says, breathless with excitement as they head out of the theatre.
“I know!” Zayn tries to play it a bit cooler, but Liam can see the same glint of fanboy glee he’s sure is reflected in his own eyes. “And when the Winter Soldier caught Cap’s shield? Oh my god.”
“I got tingles up my spine!” Liam agreed, even though he had seen that same moment countless times in trailers running up to the release of the film. It still gave him tingles every time.
“Redford was seriously badass,” Zayn said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes, bracketing Liam back against the side of the building and out of the wind as he lit one. Liam nodded absently, suddenly realising how close they were standing.
Liam blinked as Zayn smiled at him around his cigarette, taking a slow drag that made Liam’s eyes flicker down to his mouth.
“This is a date!” Liam blurted in shock, thinking of how Zayn had paid for their snacks and tickets and how close they were standing and how Zayn was smiling at him. Zayn must notice how absolutely floored he sounds by that, because the smile drops from his face instantly and his eyes turn guarded.
“Is that a problem?” he asks.
“No!” Liam says a bit too loudly. “Well, like, yes, but not because of you!” He practically trips over his own tongue trying to explain. “You’re proper gorgeous and super nice and way smarter than me, and I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that you knew it was a date and still came out with me anyway, but like…” Liam flushes, unable to continue.
“Like?” Zayn face has lost some of its cool expression, watching Liam curiously.
“I fancy somebody else,” Liam confessed, feeling like an idiot.
Zayn watches him for a long moment before he nods slowly, and Liam can’t help heave an internal sigh of relief. They had been getting along so well, and he would hate to have ruined what he suspects might be an absolutely brilliant friendship by being completely oblivious.
“So why aren’t you on a date with the person you fancy then?” Zayn asks, stealing a piece of popcorn out of the mostly empty container Liam had apparently carried out without realising, too caught up in their conversation. The question should sound rude and snarky, but from Zayn it just sounds genuine and curious.
It still hurts a bit though.
“Because he set me up on a date with you,” Liam says quietly, the implications of the whole situation sinking in. Because there was no doubt in his mind now that that is exactly what’s happened, the way Niall had suggested the movie, the way Liam was now realising he had pushed them together on the couch. Niall had been trying to set Liam up with Zayn.
And if Niall was trying to set Liam up with Zayn then that meant…that meant he must not be interested in Liam that way. Or else he wouldn’t have done it. Liam’s heart hurts.
“Hey,” Zayn catches Liam’s attention with a gentle touch on his shoulder. “Look, it’s none of my business, but I feel like I should tell you, I’ve seen people fancy Niall before, and it never ends well.”
“What do you mean?” Liam asks, because that sounds…ominous. Zayn hesitates.
“Niall is one of my best friends, yeah? But I’ve never seen him with anyone. And like, whenever I know someone who’s gone after him, I always see them around later on with someone else. It just never works out.”
Liam thinks about Niall giving him cuddles when he was drunk and sad, and the certainty Harry and Louis had had about Niall being able to find someone for Liam.
“Were they happy?” he asks, desperate to know.
“What?” Zayn blinks at him, obviously not sure what he’s talking about.
“The people. When you saw them with someone else,” Liam explains. “Like, later. Did they look happier with that other person?”
Zayn lights another cigarette, thinking it over. “Yeah, I guess they did,” he said, sounding like he had never thought of it that way before.
“I think Niall is like that chick in Clueless,” Liam says, unable to help himself. “Like, trying to set people up together.”
“Alisha Silverstone?” Zayn says as he blows out a puff of smoke, which wasn’t the overwhelming response Liam was hoping for.
“Like a matchmaker,” Liam tries again, and Zayn laughs.
“Dunno ‘bout a matchmaker, but yeah you’re right, he does like making people happy.”
So if Niall is too busy making sure other people are happy, who looks out for him? Liam wonders if Niall might have fancied any of the people Zayn mentioned, but thought they might be happier with someone else. Turning down an opportunity for himself, knowing the other people would be better off. The thought makes Liam sad.
“Hey, maybe this time will be different,” Zayn says, misreading the look on Liam’s face. “Maybe if you tell him how you feel, he might feel the same way.” He flashes a rueful smile. “You’re a hard bloke not to like, Liam Payne.”
Liam is pretty sure he has never turned so red so fast in his life, and he remembers suddenly that Zayn had thought this was a date, a date with Liam, and if circumstances were different, Liam is pretty sure they’d be making out in an alleyway by now with Liam completely unable to understand how he got so lucky.
But Liam fancies Niall, and the air between them is suddenly incredibly awkward. Liam has absolutely no idea what to do, so he casts around for a safe topic.
“If The Hulk fought Spiderman, who do you think would win?” Liam feels like a complete knob the minute he says it, but the grin Zayn gives him could probably level cities.
~~~
The rest of the night went smoothly. They go back to Liam’s flat to look at his comic collection, and stay up late comparing notes on their favourite super heroes. When they both start to yawn, Liam walks Zayn to the door. Just as he’s about to leave though, Zayn turns and presses a folded piece of paper into Liam’s hand.
“You never know,” he says mysteriously. He pulls Liam into a hug, and then leaves.
The piece of paper has a handwritten address scrawled across it.
Which is how, the next morning, Liam is standing in front of a door to a sub divide, a pair of coffees and a bag of muffins in one, and trying to summon the courage to knock with the other. He’s been standing here for ten minutes, on top of the hour it took him to get here, walking forward then turning around, rehearsing what he was going to say and then doubting himself and starting again.
This is ridiculous.
Fuck it.
Liam knocks on the door.
There’s a loud crash inside and some yelling, and then the door opens quickly to reveal a very small person giggling on the other side. Liam opens his mouth in surprise, thinking that he must have made a mistake and gone to the wrong house, but before he can say anything Niall’s voice yells from somewhere inside, “Chrissakes, grab her!”
Liam barely registers the words before the little girl, who looks to be about three or four laughs in delight and tries to leg it past Liam. In a feat of coordination that he hadn’t even known he possessed, Liam flings his arm wide and catches her around the middle, managing to not only avoid dropping the muffins, but to not even spill the coffee as he does so.
The little girl wiggles in his grasp, screaming with laughter. Terrified he’s going to drop her, or drop hot coffee on her, Liam quickly resorts to the old tried and true methods of dealing with kids – bribery.
“If you’re good I’ll give you a muffin!”
Instantly she stops struggling and turns to stare at him with big blue grey eyes. Niall finally makes it to the door.
“Thank fu…dge,” he huffs, reaching for her. “She’s getting better with those fecking blockades, it’s so hard to get to her before she gets to the door now.” He takes the girl from Liam’s arms, and then blinks at him, seeming to register who is at his door for the first time. “Liam! What are you doing here?”
Right. Okay.
This is not how Liam thought the morning would go. This is…not the opposite of what Liam anticipated, because he could not have predicted anything in the realm of this scenario in a million years, but it was definitely not what he thought might happen.
“Harry and Louis are going to murder you for not sharing,” is the first thing out of his mouth.
Because Liam knows that if Harry or Louis were aware that Niall had a daughter, then that would have been the first thing out of their mouths. Not, oh Niall knows everybody, or oh Niall is great, but Niall has a small child that we could be playing with right now, and why aren’t we doing that?
Niall just laughs. “Well, come on in, meet my little girl Olivia,” he says, stepping aside to let Liam in, and grabbing the little girl’s hand to wave at Liam. She giggles and slides to the ground once the door is shut. Niall spots the coffee cups and the bag of muffins. “Those for me? A thank you for setting you up last night?” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.
“No!” Liam flushes. “Well, yes, they are for you, but not as a thank you.”
Both Niall’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise and Liam realises just how rude that sounds.
“Sh...uger,” Liam glancing at the four year old watching them both with interest. “I didn't mean for it to sound like that,” he tried. “Obviously I would totally thank you for setting me up with Zayn because he’s completely amazing, but like, I didn’t want you to.”
“Sorry, did you want to do the asking?” Niall looks a bit worried and a lot confused. “I didn’t mean to-“
“I didn't want to go on a date with Zayn!” Liam blurts, because he’s really cocking this up. Olivia tugs on his arm and he realises he promised her a muffin. He pulls one out of the bag, removes the paper wrapping from the bottom and breaks off a piece that she can manage.
“What?” Niall looks even more confused now, although he’s staring at Liam feeding his daughter, so Liam isn’t sure which part is confusing him more.
“I didn’t want to go on a date with Zayn,” Liam tries again, taking a deep breath. Niall had a secret daughter that he never told anyone about, and that probably meant he had all sorts of other enormous secrets, and also that he might not be interested in boys, and Zayn had said that he never really dated anyone, girls or boys, but suddenly Liam needed nothing less than to get this confession off his chest. If he was going to get past this…crush, or whatever the bloke equivalent was, then he needed to come clean. “I didn’t want to go on a date with Zayn,” he tried again, “because I wanted to go on a date with you.”
“More, please.” Olivia held her hand out to Liam politely.
“With me?”
Liam broke off another piece of muffin and handed it to her, and shrugged as nonchalantly as he could considering that his face was probably bright red.
“Seriously?”
Liam shot Niall a look, because really? Niall started to laugh at Liam’s expression.
“I’m sorry mate, but you’ll have to excuse a bloke for being a little surprised when you choose him over Zayn bloody Malik, okay?” he grinned at Liam, the same easy smile that had pretty much guaranteed Liam was ruined for anyone else. It still felt like sunshine.
“He is pretty great,” Liam smiled back. “But I think my join bit already fits pretty perfectly with another piece.”
And he could see straight away that Niall got it, but he doesn’t say anything for the longest time.
“She’s my whole world, you know?” he says finally. “When she was little her mum hardly ever let me see her. I think she was afraid I’d like, take off with her or something crazy. I dunno, Shaz always used to date the weirdest blokes. But like, as she got older Shannon thought maybe her da should be in her life more.”
He reaches down and picks Olivia up into a hug. She cuddles up to him easily, obviously as familiar an action to her as walking.
“’S why I don’t date much. Or like, at all, really. Because Shaz would call and be like, I think you should have Liv today, I think it would be good for her, and I had to be able to say yes, right? And it didn’t seem fair to drag someone else into that, always jerking them around because Olivia is always going to be my first priority.”
Niall finally looks away from his daughter’s face, meeting Liam’s eyes.
And Liam understands, completely. Niall is trying to warn him, to let him know that if Liam wants to try for something, a relationship, he has to go into it with both eyes open.
Liam thinks about meeting Niall through his drunken deck circumstance, sprawled out on a lawn chair and ranting about life lessons with Lego. He thinks about bumps in the road like getting set up on a date with the wrong person and discovering a surprise child in the mix.
Liam thinks about Harry’s words just before the party, about meeting the love of his life and having babies and living happily ever after.
He steps forward into Niall’s space, bringing a hand up to rest against Olivia’s back before leaning in and softly brushing his mouth against Niall’s. The kiss lasts barely a moment, too chaste to be anything more than a gentle declaration of intent.
He pulls back slightly and smiles at Niall’s floored expression. He glances over at Olivia and winks when he catches her watching him curiously. She giggles and he brings his hand up to ruffle her hair.
“Why did you hide her from Harry and Louis?” he can’t help but ask.
“It’s hard enough dealing with her going back to her mum’s all the time as it is,” Liam glances at Niall to see him smiling sadly. “If Harry and Louis were going on about her all the time I think I would go mad.”
“Or sharing her absence with others might make it a bit easier to bear,” Liam suggested hesitantly. It wasn’t really his place to say who Niall decided to share his personal life with, but this seemed like something pretty big to hide from your friends. Especially when those friends loved kids as much as Harry and Louis.
Niall huffed a surprised laugh. “How did you get so smart?”
“Osmosis,” Liam says easily, grinning as Niall starts laughing.
They haven’t sorted out everything, not by a long shot, but he thinks they might be on the same page, at least.
Or Lego block.