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"Damn it, Danielle! I understand you're pregnant, but your bossy attitude gets too hard for me to handle when you spit at me for not polishing your wardrobe door handles good enough!" Niall heard Liam's angry shouts from the hallway of the apartment complex they lived in. Niall lived on the far end of the corridor, but he just happened to be getting in from the shops as the argument started.
It wasn't the first time though; Niall often heard poor Liam being bitched at by his pregnant wife. Usually after those fights Liam would storm out and walk on over to Niall's flat to cool down, and Niall always let him in because they were best friends, and that's what best friends do.
Okay, maybe Niall was a bit in love with Liam too, but even if he wasn't he would still let Liam in. Sometimes Niall felt like Liam loved him too, on those nights where a fight with Danielle would be especially nasty and he could hear from his end of the hallway. But just when he thought Liam would make a move, he always stopped himself whispering, I should get back to Danielle.
Niall would just nod because who was he to expect anything more than friendship from a married man? A married man with a baby on the way.
Just as he was struggling with one of ten plastic bags stuffed full with recipe ingredients, he heard a door open down the hallway. He reached for his keys in the pocket of his grey hoodie, and dropped them just as soon as he grabbed them. He cursed as he pent down, leaning a hand on his bare knee where his black basketball shorts didn't cover. With a flick-away of dirt on new white nikes, he leaned back up almost dropping all his groceries.
"Where are you going!?" a shrill voice shouted loudly, making Niall wince.
"Out!" Liam's angry voice replied.
Niall turned around quickly after hearing him, and couldn't help the wide smile on his face as Liam walked quickly down the hall toward Niall. Liam surprisingly returned the grin, but then again Niall could always make Liam smile at his worst moments.
With a happy sigh, he took in the fact that Liam was wearing Niall's favorite hoodie that the brunette owned. The black hoodie with a white Adidas symbol fit perfectly on Liam, and Niall especially liked the jeans he was wearing.
Niall turned his eyes to focus on the small girl with a huge belly standing in the doorway of their flat on the other side of the hallway. The fluorescent lights casted a large shadow of her pregnant belly into the wooden floors, but Niall wasn't looking at that. He was watching the way she glared at him with a hateful look, but Niall just looked away. He was never one to give his personal opinion on Liam's wife.
"Hey Ni, need help with that?" Liam asked quietly, once he reached the blonde's door. Niall nodded, leaning his head on Liam's shoulder as the man unlocked Niall's own apartment. Once it was open, he entered and dropped Niall's keys into the bowl at the table beside the door while the blonde hobbled off to the kitchen with the bags. Liam inhaled the smell of Niall's flat, smelling like his cologne and the automatic raspberry air fresheners his mom always made him keep around the house.
"I'm just about to make dinner, you want to stay for steaks and beer?" Niall asked from the kitchen, and smiled gently when Liam came and sat up on his counter-top island in the middle of the medium sized kitchen.
"That sounds great, thank you. Danielle was making some funky shit that she found in a cheap cookbook. Wouldn't want to eat anything with that much cumin in it." Liam shuddered. Niall just laughed because he didn't need to say anything else; the silence was comfortable with Liam.
After dinner, they were sitting in Niall's neat living room sitting on the white couches. Liam loved how tidy and neat the guy was, needing someone to lean on who had a sense of order unlike Danielle.
Niall felt horrible, because in his state of anger that this horrible woman was able to wear down the love of his life so easily, he asked Liam the question he never should've asked. Why are you still with her, mate?
Liam was now rambling about his latest argument with Danielle, mumbling about how if it weren't for that baby he probably wouldn't be with her anymore.
"Does that make me an asshole? Am I a horrible person?" he asked, sprawled on his back on the couch with a leg half way over Niall's lap. Niall patted the leg and looked seriously over at the boy.
"Liam, you're 24, you're young. They say you have plenty of time to fall in love and fall in love again. Maybe she's not the one. I know things have kind of rushed with the two of you, but you don't have to settle like this for the rest of your life, mate." Niall tried his best not to be biased when giving advice to Liam about Danielle, but sometimes it was difficult. Especially when Niall had these thoughts about how much of a waste it was for Danielle to be breaking such a good guy down, slowly reducing him to a just shell of the bright boy he was.
"I wish I got on with her as easily as I do with you. Everything's right with you, it's one thing I'm not fucking up." Liam said, and Niall's heart was pounding. Liam smiled gently at the faint flush that appeared onto Niall's cheeks, and sat up on the couch.
"Well I guess I better get back then, before she makes me sleep on the couch." Liam sighed, standing up and stretching. He sighed when multiple satisfying cracks sounded from his bones, and Niall winced at the sound.
"Alright, well good luck with....things." Niall said awkwardly, but Liam just grinned and pulled him off the couch and into his arms.
"Thanks Nialler, I'll see you soon. And dinner was fantastic, thank you, really." He grinned, wrapping his arms around the small man's waist.
"You know, Ni, I have got no idea why you're so tiny but I love it." he said, matter-of-factly. Niall pulled back with a laugh, playfully punching Liam's arm.
"Gee thanks, Mr. Six foot muscle machine." Niall teased, and Liam just laughed at him with that crinkly eyed smile he always did around Niall.
"Alright, well I'm really off this time. Bye Ni, thanks again." He smiled and Niall just stared for a minute because Liam was genuinely smiling. That wasn't something Niall got to see as much anymore, ever since Danielle's been wearing him thin.
"Bye Liam, I'll see you." Niall said as Liam was walking out the door. Liam grabbed his fingers gently with his own and held them as long as he could until the distance between them pulled them apart. Niall's cheeks went pink, but Liam didn't see. He was walking back to his hell hole of a marriage.
Later after Niall had showered, he grabbed a tub of Ben and Jerrie's brownie ice cream and settled in his bed to watch a few episodes of Dexter because he was lonely.
Just as the episode reached a quiet point he heard loud shouting, and he quickly scrambled to grab his PS3 controller to pause the show. After jumping out of bed, he pulled on a white t shirt and gray sweats and walked outside his front door. Standing out here he could hear the shouts clearly, and of course they came from Liam and Danielle's flat.
"How could you do this to me!?" They were standing outside the flat now, Liam having a bag filled sloppily with what Niall guessed were clothes.
"L-Liam I-I'm so s-sorry! I love you, please don't l-leave me!" Niall's eyes widened and he got the feeling he shouldn't be listening.
"If you really loved me you wouldn't have fucking done...this!" Liam gestured his hands wildly to her now suddenly flat stomach. Niall was confused for a second until he realized Liam held a fake pregnancy pad in his hand. His eyes widened and he held a gasp in with a hand over his mouth.
"Why would you do this to me Danielle...why would you fake a pregnancy, how did I fucking not know until now?" Liam's voice cracked, and Danielle tried to comfort him as he cried, but he just put his arms up to keep her away.
"I'm done with you Danielle, I want you out of here by tomorrow afternoon." He said quietly, pointing a finger and gesturing inside their flat.
Danielle whispered something Niall couldn't hear, and Liam held up a hand. Niall nearly took that as his cue to go back inside, but the part that felt bad for Liam forced Niall to sit at his doorstep and wait.
"You need help. Goodbye, Danielle." He said, and turned around to walk away. He caught eyes with Niall, and Niall gently gestured Liam over to him, but Liam looked hesitant. As if he didn't want to intrude on Niall. Ha, as if. Niall rolled his eyes and gave a look that said come here, dummy. You need a place to stay. I love you.
With an almost smile, Liam rushed over to Niall with watery eyes. Half way down the hall, a voice shouted to them.
"Liam Payne if you leave me right now you don't get to come back! Don't do this Liam, you need me!" her annoying shrieks came. Liam just kept walking and some random neighbors that creeped out during the fight cheered and whooped at him. Finally poor Liam gets away from her, someone whispered. At least he gets to go to Niall, another said. Liam almost smiled again.
"Come on Liam, let's get you inside.." Niall whispered, putting a hand on Liam's lower back. He was shaking, his skin freezing.
"What's happened, Liam?" Niall asked gently, not wanting to push him for answers so soon.
"She..faked it. She was never pregnant. She said she thought she was at first but by the time she found out she really wasn't she didn't want to disappoint me. And she also said that this baby was the only thing keeping me from walking out, she knew I had one foot out the door already." his broken voice made Niall frown.
"Jesus I'm so sorry Liam.." Niall said, not knowing what else to say.
"I'm only crying because I feel so lost now. Part of me knows I didn't love her anymore. But at the same time, I've been with her since my sophomore year in high school and I'm 24 now. That's a long time we've been together, Ni. She was a huge part of my life and now she's not." Niall pulled Liam gently to his bedroom and then tucked him under the blankets.
"Why don't you eat ice cream with me and watch a few episodes of Dexter. We don't have to talk yet, just relax." Niall walked to the other side of the bed and got under the blankets as well, grabbing the PS3 controller again.
"Thank you Ni, you're seriously the best friend I could ever have." Liam gave him a genuine smile, and Niall's heart broke. He just smiled back though, not thinking about the best friend part and focusing on the compliment.
"Any time Liam. Any time." Liam just scooted closer to Niall and let him feed him ice cream as they cuddled because what else would best friends do?
"I like this show." Liam mumbled as Dexter slit another serial killer's throat. Niall just laughed.
"Niall?" Niall hummed out a response, pulling his thick comforter around him and trying to sleep some more.
A beautiful chuckle made him give the tiniest sleepy smile.
"Niall wake up.." Niall lifted his head and opened his eyes to see beautiful brown ones a lot closer than he expected. He scrambled into a sitting position quickly and stared at his lap with pink cheeks.
"Morning Ni." Liam's cheery voice said and Niall looked at him with a tired face.
"I'm so sorry, I'm not used to sharing a bed. I didn't mean to sleep...on top of you." He admitted and Liam laughed again.
"Nah it's alright, I've missed someone sleeping so close to me, Danielle would always have a pillow separating us. I guess it was so I never felt her stomach pads and realized she was faking it." he whispered. Niall stared at him for a moment, watching as the sunlight illuminated him. Liam looked gorgeous, tangled up in Niall's white sheets.
"So, uh...I guess I should get back soon. I told her to be out by noon, and I've got to get thinking about divorce papers, and.." he trailed off once he realized Niall was giving him a funny look.
"What?" he asked, thick eyebrows furrowing. Niall just exhaled and buried himself in the fluffy blankets again.
"It's just bugging me, not knowing what Danielle whispered to you right before you left. I mean, I know it's none of my business, but..." Liam's cheeks turned pink at Niall's words, and he ran a hand along his face.
"She told me, um.." Liam's long eyelashes casted shadows on his cheeks, and Niall just about fell that much more in love with the guy. He was breathtaking, almost as if he was an angel sculpted just for Niall.
"She told me that I was cheating on her with you anyway. Said you were planning against her. I told her she needed to get help." He admitted. His face heated up once more.
"You said she needed help because she even considered you'd be with me, or..?" Niall was hurt, but he should've expected Liam would think that the two of them would never happen. Liam was married to a woman, for christ sake!
"No, no! That's not what I meant." Liam quickly panicked once he saw Niall's hurt face, and he got a spark of hope in him.
"To be completely honest Niall, I haven't been faithful to Danielle. Not mentally, anyway. This past year when I met you, things changed. I realized how much I wasn't living. I was in this horrible marriage with a woman I didn't even love. She was right, if it weren't for that 'baby' I would've left her months ago. She was also right that I would've come to you."
Shock registered on Niall's face, and Liam looked up at him through those long eyelashes and Jesus if he didn't stop Niall wouldn't be able to help himself.
"You really would've come to me?" Niall whispered.
"Absolutely. I can see now, it's so clear. I can't believe I didn't notice before but I...have strong feelings for you." Liam replied. A smile took over Niall's face and he let his body fall back into Liam's arms.
"I have feelings for you too. Strong ones of course." He laughed, loving the way Liam's warm body wrapped around his own.
"We'll never fall apart, cus we fit together like two pieces of a broken heart," Liam sang half heartedly to Niall, joking about their situation. Niall loved how Liam understood.
He had been lonely and in love with his straight, married neighbor. Said neighbor had found out his wife faked her pregnancy and left her.
They fit.