crack the shutters. | larry & niam.

Chapter 25 - Doubts.

Dedicated to innocentdevil19 because god, I love your comments! :D

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Niall slowly stood up from where he was sitting, and he was beyond bewildered as he turned around, looking out for whoever had called him as the person came into his sight.

„Niall, what are you doing here?” Greg asked as he was close enough to Niall so he could hear him without Greg having to yell; Greg dropped the watering can he was holding and wrapped his arms around the smaller figure of his little brother without waiting for his reply, and Niall instantly hugged Greg back, nestling his face into his brother’s chest, enjoying being near him.

Niall and Greg hardly stayed in contact after Niall moved to England and Greg stayed in Ireland since he had been old enough to live on his own. Greg and Niall used to be very close when they were younger and Niall would lie if he said he didn’t miss Greg, truth be told, he missed him like hell.

Greg let go of the hug and smiled at Niall. “You still haven’t answered my question,” commented, and Niall giggled. “You hugged the air out of me, so I wasn’t able to answer,” Niall replied, keeping up the smile he put on. “It’s kind of a long answer, though,” Niall now said, trying his best to not lose the smile even though it almost physically pained him to smile.

“Well,” Greg said. “How about we’re going to my car and I drive us to Nandos where we can have a chat?” he suggested, and Niall shrugged, but nodded even though he wanted to shake his head.

Talking to his brother sounded better than anything, food on the other hand was a thing that he was avoiding, and there was no way he could turn down food without Greg asking a million question, so he just surrendered to his fate.

~

“Thank you,” Greg smiled up to the waitress that brought the ordered food to Niall and Greg, getting a smile in return from the woman before she walked away to another costumer. Greg turned to his plate and picked up his coke, taking a sip while he eyed Niall.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Greg asked confused as he put down his coke, giving his brother a questioning look, and Niall bit his lower lip, thinking of an excuse. “I’m letting the chicken cool down a bit, last time I had chicken I burnt my mouth, I’m trying to avoid that,” he said, smiling reassuringly.

But inwardly, Niall wasn’t planning on eating, he hoped Greg wouldn’t notice that Niall didn’t pick up his food, but it looked like Niall had no luck today. There were two reasons he kept his arms under the table where he was fiddling around nervously.

The first reason was the food that was in front of him that he wasn’t going to eat; the second reason was the bandage that was wrapped around his arm and the scars and cuts that were lingering both of his arms. Greg hasn’t noticed them yet, and Niall wasn’t prepared for that conversation.

Greg shot Niall a suspicious glare but shrugged it off and took a bite of his chicken before he looked at his brother again. “Nice seeing you after almost ten years, you grew a lot, Nialler,” Greg spoke, smiling. “Now back to where we started, why are you here?”

Niall sighed. “Our dad decided he wanted to have me live with him, so he went to court and sued for my custody. Laura tried fighting for me, but obviously, it didn’t work, so I’m here,” Niall explained, blinking away the tears that were coming up when the memories flooded Nialls brain.

“Are you okay?” Greg suddenly asked concerned, and Niall snapped out of his thoughts, nodding his head. “Yes, ‘m fine,” he lied and blinked so he won’t start to cry in front of Greg, and Greg looked at Niall suspiciously.