truly, madly, deeply- niall horan

annecy

(029)

spending time in paris made ally think of her childhood; the summers she spent away from her mother and father in her grandmothers cottage, free from the continuous pressure her parents put her through.

no one really knew the severity of the situation other than the hayes siblings themselves. they were too scared to bring up the situation to anyone else in case they acted like their parents did.

they didn't know of the vicious words spoken every day in their house, they didn't know of the extreme beatings they got given if money was tight that month, they didn't know anything.

even though they were the ones bringing money in all the time, they never saw a single penny of it.

luke often had to make dinner from the scraps in the kitchen for them once their parents had crashed out from all of the alcohol they had consumed. every single night he promised his sisters he would get them out of there, they could live their lives happy in the french countryside with their grandmother, swimming in the lake for hours, drinking homemade lemonade every day, simply being the kids they were supposed to be.

the day luke turned eighteen he filed for custody, he got what they wanted and more. the court made a decision to put a restraining order on their parents, meaning they could have no contact with them for a while.

when their grandma found out, she went ballistic. she began to angrily scream at them in french down the phone, repeatedly stating 'you shouldn't do that to family,' not even bothering to hear them out.

that was almost ten years ago and they haven't spoken to her since.

whenever ally came back to france, either for work or herself, she felt a tug to the countryside where her grandmother's cottage lay in annecy. yet she never went.

she wanted to, she wanted nothing more, she just couldn't.

much like how she couldn't return to their old home in cambridge, she couldn't return to annecy.

so, when ally asked niall what he wanted to do and he said visit annecy, she panicked.

she would of course go, for niall, but that didn't stop the nerves from creeping relentlessly through her body.

as soon as niall began to get ready, she left to go see quinn and luke.

"we are going to annecy," she exclaimed the second all three of them were in a room together.

"what?" they questioned simultaneously.

"i asked niall what he wanted to do and he said go to annecy, you know i cant say no to him so we are all going there and now im freaking out," ally rambled, her breathing quick.

"it will be okay al," luke said comfortingly bringing her into a hug. "we probably wont even see her," he said, uncertainty lacing his words.

if her routine was anything like it was ten years ago, they would most definitely see her.

"it will be fine, ive always wanted to go back," quinn said once the room went quiet, the older two hayes siblings nodding in agreement.

"okay I'll see you in twenty minutes?" ally asked then leaving when she saw them both nod.

she then went to tell violet and matilda their plans since the rest of the group had gone back home and they were the only few left.

a few hours later, and a noisy train journey later, they all reached the town.

nothing had changed; the same colourful houses watching over the same picturesque lake, what once was her favourite place became a plethora of memories tainted by hurt.

as they walked through the old town, a few of the locals recognised them as "genevieve's grandkids" from years ago.

since they were all speaking french, niall thought they recognised her from the movies, but when one woman came upto them, this time speaking in english, it finally clicked what was going on.

"do you know them?" niall whispered in ally's ear.

"some of them. my grandma knows them, she lived here," ally said, niall's face contorting in realisation.

"oh alora, lucas, quinn, it's lovely to see you," one of the locals called out, causing the three to go over and say hi. "your grandma was here not too long ago, just before you came" he said in french, ally's heart dropping at the mention of her grandmothers whereabouts.

"oh that's great! we must be going, see you later," ally simply replied, turning away before someone else could drag them into another conversation about their family.

"let's just go back to the hotel, yeah?" niall asked, seeing the distress on all three of their faces.

just as they started to leave, someone bumped into them before speaking a long list of profanities in french.

looking up, ally's face became shocked with realisation.

"grandma?"

PAIGE SPEAKS:

hey guys

all the french will be in italics cause i don't speak french and i don't want to translate incase i get anything wrong.