Lifting You Up

Chapter 6

Niall glared at Liam from his spot on his knees at the kitchen table. They'd officially gotten rid of the high chair in the kitchen and replaced it with a booster seat to go at the table, but Niall absolutely refused to sit in it, instead opting to sit in one of his older brother's laps for meals. Now however, Liam was sitting on Zayn's lap across the table from him, forcing Niall to sit by himself. It was Saturday, so it was just Zayn at home with both of the little boys, and Niall was feeling rather neglected. It had been a little less than a week from the time that Liam had broken his arm, and ever since then, Liam had been getting whatever he wanted and all of the attention from the older boys. Niall wasn't used to not having all of the attention, and he was having a little bit of trouble adjusting. Right now, Zayn was helping Liam eat his food, because apparently people with broken arms can't do that. Niall huffed and went back to stabbing at his macaroni unsuccessfully.

Okay, so maybe Liam was milking this whole "I need help because of my broken arm," thing, but he loved all of his brothers paying attention to him and helping him. He'd never realized he even wanted it before now, let alone that he would enjoy it. He didn't mean to make Niall upset by it, really, and he didn't even know he was. Of course, he wasn't really paying attention to his brother.

"Zee, we go to the park today?" Niall asked cutely from his seat.

Zayn looked down at Liam as he fed him another bite of food before looking back at Niall. "No, babe. We're going to stay here and play. Liam wouldn't have very much fun at the park," he said, knowing that Liam wouldn't be able to do much at the park.

Niall pouted. "There's nothin' to do here," he grouched.

"There's plenty to do. You have a room full of toys," Zayn said, putting more food on Liam's fork. "Maybe you can ask Lou or Harry to take you some time this week, yeah?"

"No! I wanna go today," Niall whined, sitting up more on his knees to put his hands on the table.

Zayn mostly ignored Niall, something he didn't usually do when Niall talked back like that. Niall frowned, backing down and finishing his lunch. He never ever thought he'd wish to get in trouble, but now Zayn was so busy with Liam that he didn't care what Niall did.

"Alright, naptime, Ni," Zayn said, standing up with Liam in his arms and reaching a hand down to take Niall's.

Niall lifted his arms expectantly, thinking Zayn would carry him too. Zayn, however, just extended his hand further to make it obvious what his intentions were. "No, carry me," Niall whined, stomping his foot. Zayn shook his head, and Liam clung to his neck, not wanting to be set down. He liked everyone carrying him around much better than walking and trying to keep up with their long legs. Niall let out a cry and sat down on the ground to show that he wasn't moving until someone picked him up.

Zayn rolled his eyes at the obviously-tired toddler. "Niall, stand up. I know you're tired, let's get you to bed."

"Don't want," Niall sniffled, pouting sadly.

"Too bad. Come on," Zayn said, bending down to pick the small toddler up by one arm and set him on his feet. Niall stomped ahead of Zayn, climbing up the stairs on his own and closing his bedroom door behind him once he got to his room. Zayn sighed when he saw Niall close the door in his face, but decided to leave him alone for his little tantrum.

Meanwhile, Niall couldn't sleep because it was too bright in his room and he didn't know how to shut the blinds because usually one of his older brothers did that for him. After a while of trying to fall asleep in the bright room, he gave up and sat in bed to try to think of ways to get Zayn's attention back on him. He finally deemed that his allotted "naptime" must be over by now, so he decided to go back downstairs. When he got there, he found Liam and Zayn sitting together and watching TV. Niall immediately walked over to the box that they kept all of their art things and coloring books in and pulled out a coloring book and crayons before going over to Zayn.