Allure // Harry Styles AU

Cinq

I'm pretty sure I tried everything in the closet on at least once as the day passed, several maids waiting on me in my room to hang up the discarded dresses and outfits when I took them off. I had tried to assure them I could hang my own clothes up myself to save them trouble, but alas, they only spoke French and didn't understand a word I said. Still, I had helped them clean up later that evening when Adelaide had knocked on my bedroom door to tell me my grandfather had finally come back home to Chevalier Mansion.

I had quickly dressed in the outfit I had arrived in Paris in, deciding to leave the Chanel bag in my room. I switched the flats I had changed into back to the heels, not wanting to disappoint Grandfather by not wearing the presents he had gotten me. Adelaide waited for me to be ready before leading me to Grandfather's study.

Grandfather's study was in one of the top corners of the mansion. The hallway leading up to the study was covered in framed pictures of Louis Vuitton photo shoots. Beautiful models posed with the trademark bags in some frames while others walked down runways in fashionable outfits and expensive accessories. On the door frame was the Louis Vuitton logo, an L and a V crossing in black with the brand name written in gold underneath.

"Is Grandfather some kind of high fashion lover?" I asked Adelaide, who smiled a bit.

"You could say that." Adelaide spoke ambiguously. I didn't think anything of it, only waited patiently as Adelaide knocked on the study doors and poked her head in to see if Grandfather was ready to see me. A bright smile was given to me as she nodded.

"Go ahead." She told me, urging me forward with a press of her hand to my back. I sucked in a deep breath before opening the doors gently, stepping inside and turning to carefully close the study doors. When I turned around, I was faced with a man who was both a stranger and yet still family.

I hardly remembered what Grandfather looked like, after all I had last seen him when I was barely two, but he seemed familiar to me.

He had salt and pepper colored hair and was dressed smartly in a navy suit. Reading glasses were perched on the end of his nose in a very grandparent-like manner, though his fingers took them off and set them on his fancy desk once I came in. A wrinkled face smiled up at me and an aged body quickly got up from the chair, his height and build astounding me when we walked over. I'm not sure what I was expecting, a short and thin old man? Grandfather was tall and filled out, his slightly chubby belly giving away his obvious love for the gourmet cuisine here in Paris.

"Marie Cosette! My darling granddaughter, it's so nice to see you after so long!" Grandfather exclaimed happily in a thick French accent before wrapping his arms around me in the biggest bear hug ever. He stepped back right after our hug, eyes looking over me as he smiled brightly.

"Goodness, the last time I saw you was so long ago, you were still a little child." Grandfather chuckled a bit at the memory, though I had really had no recollection of such a memory. "Now look at you! All grown up, you're not mon petit caneton anymore!"

My head tilted to the side as I heard the French, though my terrible study habits made me forget what caneton meant. Grandfather smiled before explaining.

"Mon petit caneton, my little duckling. I remember all your mother dressed you in when you came to Paris as a child was yellow and white, and you would run around the whole backyard chasing the ducks around the pond."

My brows furrowed as I tried to remember something like that, and I surprised myself when I did ever so faintly. I remembered the ducks, always parading about in their little lines before I would run after them. I would always get so close to them, but they would escape from my reach whenever they would run into the pond and swim away.