Noel is 25. 25, and still living with his little brother. Well, this time it's by choice. A 'choice' made because both he and his mam doubted Liam's ability to get by all on his lonesome, after her decision to sell the old house and move in with their aunt Sarah. See, Liam was a tad.. special. Different than most his peers. Sort of slow, and stuck in the head from all sorts of things. And that's without even mentioning the gender thing. It were Noel's duty to be responsible and care for the lad, though. Be the good big brother he'd been for 20 years, since the little cocker was born. Sure, Paul help too, being the real oldest- but he didn't have the patience nor sanity needed to deal with Liam. Patience and Sanity that Noel doubted he even had, every other day.

So, that's how he wound up living at a rather scant, but livable two bedroom flat in east Manchester. Close enough to walk to the stadium if he had enough coin for a game ticket. Good, that. And, he had a decent paid job at a local pub, doing all sorts of tasks.

Meanwhile, Liam.. he really did nowt all. After finishing school, and not going to university- he became a shut-in of sorts.

It weren't long into their living together again that Noel suspected his brother might be a criminal, dealer or scammer or summat- but was not so pleasantly surprised to discover that the pretty little bastard was livestreaming. Naughty like. A Camboy, he was. Doing.. all sorts of things in his room for the sake of creeps online, showing himself off. And he was getting paid for it by way of donations. This was discovered one night when Noel himself was browsing less savory sites for entertainment, and.. ended up with his younger brother getting a lecture and a hard knock on the head. It did Noel's head in just thinking about it. Because Liam being involved in anything of that sort was a massive concern, obviously. He'd wonder where he went wrong, if not for the fact that they'd grown up in the same shitty home.

Grown up in a horrible environment with a terrible man, and relied on one another for everything. Upkeep, communication, affection. Love. And Liam had always been a lovey, clingy thing. Even way back when things were different for them. And Noel always obliged.

But all of that had been way back then, when Liam was young. When they were both young and things were terrible for them and they'd needed it. It's easy to give that kind of gentle affection to a little kid, but.. with a growing boy, not so much. But into those teen years, Liam had grown reliant on that reassurance. Even when things began escalating. And as much as he was growing up himself, Noel couldn't bring himself to wean Liam off it all. Which only came back to bite him on the bellend, because it's one thing to let a sniveling kid crawl into your bed for a cuddle after a bad cry, or let have a kiss because it'd been a good day- another thing entirely to deal with it coming from a grown man. Still kept on being close, because Liam would be out of his mind if he didn't try to crawl into Noel's skin at least once a day.

Noel didn't hate all that closeness as much as he claimed. Though, thinking about the things Liam did with his body when he wasn't a cuddle monster, did make things difficult.