Like Before (Niall Horan)

Epilogue: Returning

Eleven and a half hours is a long time to be in a plane. The soft snores of my blond boyfriend next to me and the warmth from his hand in mine kept me awake enough to hear the announcements of our plane landing soon. Its been a long time since I've been back here, but I was ready to see my family again. These past few months were amazing at school and I know I would have regretted not going. I looked at the people in the plane around us, my boyfriend and his friends had gotten us our own plane, so it was just my friends with us. 

I looked at Steph, cuddled into Harry's arms as they slept peacefully. Louis and Zayn were both listening to music and had their eyes shut. Liam and Jaesin were doing who knows what on whatever game system Jaesin had. 

My hand was lifted and I felt soft lips touch the top of my hand and looked over at Niall. His blue eyes attracted mine like a moth to a flame and a grin spread over my face.

"How long until we land?" His accent was heavy with sleep.

"About ten minutes." I told him.

"Are you excited?" He asked and smiled.

"I am. Its been seven months." I told him.

"I know how much this means to you." He leaned forward and kissed me. The plane started dropping and we had landed within the next couple of minutes. Niall carried my luggage as we all got into different cabs, we couldn't all fit in one. Steph, Jaesin, and I all lived with Sarah and Andrew and when we pulled up to our little yellow house, I couldn't help but jump out of the car as soon as I saw my little sister smiling and jumping on her toes. 

We met halfway and I lifted her in my arms and hugged her. I hugged her long and hard to make up for these past seven months and then I kissed her forehead. "Alix, I missed you!" I hadn't been able to come home because of money so Niall let me stay at his place with him for holiday break. We had gone to each of his parent's houses and he introduced me to them and his brother Greg. 

I put Tia down and looked at my older sister. Her belly was sticking out and I couldn't help but to put a hand over it. "Twins." Sarah told me and I grinned at her. "They're due any day now. You'll get to meet them." 

"Boys or girls?" I asked.

"Its going to be a surprise." Sarah told me and we hugged.

"I'm so happy for you." I told her and honestly I was. I was so glad that we weren't fighting anymore and that we could finally be happy together. Sarah and I let go and I hugged Andrew as my friends came up and joined us.

"We're going to the beach tomorrow. All of us. Tia doesn't have school so we thought it would be a good idea since it was your guys' first day back." She told me. 

"I can't believe Tia's seven now. I can't believe I missed it." I told Sarah, looking at my little sister in Louis' arms.

"You called. She understood, don't worry. And you've done plenty for her Alix. Don't feel bad for following your dreams." Sarah told me as we all walked through the doors and into the house. Niall and I brought our stuff up to my room, because thats where we'd be sleeping.

"Are you excited to be back?" Niall asked and I looked at him. My eyebrows furrowed at him and Niall opened his arms for me to come closer to him as he sat on the edge of my bed. I went over and Niall pulled me into his lap.

"Of course I'm happy!" I told him. "But its hard knowing I have to leave again in less than a month." 

"Maybe you want to check out your options here in the states?" Niall asked and I shook my head.

"No, I want to go back. I love it over there. I love the school I'm at and I love that I get to spend time with you and all my friends. I don't want to give that up. I'll come back here eventually but this is what I want to do." Niall nodded and kissed my cheek. "Sarah is bringing us to the beach tomorrow. It's late though and I want to sleep." I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck and closed my eyes.

"Why don't we change and go to bed then." Niall told me and started pushing me into a standing position with him. I walked over to my bags and pulled out the first tank top and pair of shorts I could find. I changed at the same time as Niall and when I was done, I climbed into my bed and under the covers. Niall shut the light out and joined me, reaching an arm over my hips and pulling me until we were flush against each other.

It took no time at all for me to fall asleep in his arms.

In the morning, Tia was shaking Niall and I awake. "Alix! Come on! We're going to the beach! You have to get up!" She was repeating those sentences over and over until I opened my eyes. 

"Alright, I'm awake. We'll be down in a few minutes." I told Tia and she smiled and then walked out of my room. I turned to Niall and kissed his nose. "Time to get up sleepy head. We've got lots to do today." I told him and he grunted. "We're going swimming, get up." I grinned as he opened one eye. 

"Kiss me to wake me up." Niall told me and I smiled at him again, stifling a laugh in the process. But I still leaned down and kissed him.

"Better?" I asked.

"Maybe a little more." He told me and rolled so his body was hovering over mine. He leaned down and kissed me again and then he pulled himself up.

"Looks to me like you're wide awake." I told him and he grinned.

"Maybe I just wanted an excuse to kiss my girlfriend."

"You don't need an excuse." I told him and grabbed him by the collar to pull his lips down to mine again.

"That is definitely not getting ready." I heard at the door. I pushed Niall away and even through his protests I felt my cheeks flushing. 

"Harry did you have to come in at this second?" Niall asked from beside me.

"Looks like its a good thing I did. Who knows what you guys were planning on doing. There's children in the house." Harry fake gasped. My cheeks burned.

"Oi, we're coming. Just give us two seconds." Niall groaned, standing from the bed and rummaging through his things. I got up and followed his lead, going through my stuff.

When we were dressed we made our way downstairs and met up with everyone else. Harry lifted an eyebrow at us and I rolled my eyes. Its not like we were doing anything wrong.

The beach was pretty empty for what the weather was and I was surprised by it. Not that I was complaining because that meant less of a chance to run into people that wanted to give us a hard time.

I laid on my towel on the beach as everyone around me went to do something. Andrew and Sarah had Tia by the arms and were swinging her in the ocean, the boys (minus Harry) were playing soccer, and Harry and Steph were hugging and kissing in the ocean. They were all laughing and playing and having a great time and I couldn't help but smile.

This was my life and I wouldn't change it. Sure its not always easy, but its worth it. "Alix!" I heard the familiar Irish accent call to me and turned to find it. He reached his arms out to me and pulled me to my feet. He put an arm under my knees and picked me up bridal style starting to walk toward the waves. 

"Niall what are you doing?" I asked and smiled. He didn't answer, just started jogging into the water. He didn't stop until we were both practically submerged in the water and I was freezing. "Niall!" I screeched, wrapping my arms around his neck to try to hold myself up. I ended up just laughing though.

"So, close enough to perfect?" Niall asked and looked down at me.

I looked around and saw Harry and Steph cuddled together in a towel, Sarah and Andrew were buying Tia ice cream, and the other boys were still playing soccer. "As close to perfection as something could ever possibly get." I told him and he grinned. Then he leaned down and kissed me and it was possibly the sweetest kiss we'd ever shared. 

It was little moments like this that kept me wondering how I survived how I had been, like before.