HIATUS - Ghosting Through Time (Niall Horan AU)

-twelve-

It's been almost six months since Ashlee received her new laptop. The almost fourteen year old kept to herself inside the comforts of her bedroom since the day Niall set up Skype on her new device. Everyday after studying with Liam, she'd rush to her room where she'd turn on Skype and wait for her Uni attending sister to log on, and when she did, they'd do homework together and exchange music files until twelve in the morning or when Ashlee would fall asleep in front of the screen.

It was a typical day at home; Ashlee's giggles resonated from the upstairs during a Skype call with Marie--with a fresh faced twenty year old Irish guest this time--, sharing their inside jokes and unattractively laughing at one another, and Eugene locked away inside his room, working on yet another case that he was expecting to win.

Stressed from work, Eugene decided that now would be a great time to indulge an old habit he nicked when his youngest daughter was born, but picked up again when his cases began to pile on top of each other. He pulled out the grey Lambert & Butler cigarette box from the locked drawer of his desk and proceeded to the front porch. Before he could even touch the handle, there was a knock. Slowly, he opened the door only to reveal the familiar chestnut brown hair and bold green eyes.

"Still smoking, Gene?" The female asked, using the old nickname and wrapping the expensive looking material of her navy blue car coat around her slender frame, as she eyed the cylinder stick of cancer between his fingertips. "Thought you stopped?" She laughed, pulling out her own box of fags.

"You're one to talk with your own box in hand." Eugene chuckled, stepping out of the house and closing the door behind him. "And mind you, I only started up this horrid habit recently. You know how this job goes. D'you have a light?" Eugene placed the brown butt of the cigarette between his lips and waited for his old friend to connect her flame to the tobacco filled opening.

"So, Anne. Tell me, what brings you back to Cheshire? Couldn't stand all those buildings and craved the outdoorsy feel?" He said, taking a drag from his fag and watching as she lit her own. She exhaled a cloud of grey smoke before looking at him straight in the eyes.

"Something funny occurred months ago." Anne said taking another a drag and exhaling, flicking the cigarette to dispose of the ash that began to build. Eugene nodded his head, blowing out more smoke as he waited for her to continue. "My nephew, who lives with us, came home one day saying he made a new friend. When I asked who, he said Ashlee Carrow and he didn't understand why I suddenly burst into tears at the sound of her name." She ended her sentence with another long drag from her cigarette.

"The lad who introduces himself like James Bond is your nephew?" Eugene asked, incredulously and Anne rightly smacked him on the head. "Payne? Liam Payne is your nephew?"

"Was that the only part you heard?" She asked, tossing her cigarette into the nearby ashtray on the railing of the porch.

"Course not. She's a spitting image of her mum though. Hurts to look at her sometimes, because her face is just so... Julia." He said, putting out his cigarette into the ashtray as well. "But enough about us, how are Gem and the boys?"

"They're good. Gemma's off at Uni and the boys are well, boys. Mathew and I had joint custody of the boys for a while until they decided to stay with me." Anne looked out at her old neighborhood, recalling the days where she and her family lived a few houses down from the Carrows rather than a few streets away. "Does Lee remember us? Although, I don't expect her to because it has been a while. Maybe seven years, give or take?"

"M'afraid not. Maybe you and Gems since almost every photo of Julia and Marie are filled with your lovely faces," He chuckled. "but not the twins." Eugene pushed himself off the rail and began towards the front door. "Would you like some tea?"

Anne shook her head. "It's alright. I've got to head home. Gemma's expecting a Skype call sometime after dinner tonight." She spread open her arms, welcoming Eugene in for a hug, which he gladly returned.

"What university is she going to?" He asked once he pulled away.

"Manchester Uni. Why?"

"Marie goes there. Maybe they ran into each other."

--

"Loki is a brilliant evil genius! No one can compare to his dark sorcery."

"You're joking with me, right? Everyone knows the most wicked villain is the Joker!"

"Wait, I take back my previous statement."

"S'you agree?"

"No, I just choose Voldemort."

"You're insane! He's not even from a comic!"

Ashlee laughed as Liam crumpled up sheets of paper and began throwing them at her. They were in the courtyard of their school, once again hitting the books and notes because final exams were coming up. To others, it didn't look like they got much studying done because of how much time they spent bickering but in reality, they studied a lot.

The girl's giggles died down when she saw two foreign, yet somehow oddly familiar faces approaching them. They both had their ties undone and their button up shirts were untucked. When the boys neared the table, Ashlee could see that they were twins.

The twin boys stopped beside Liam and stared at her, making her grow more uncomfortably by the second. Feeling a shift in the aura, Liam turned to the boys with brown curly hair and matching green eyes. The boy on the right had a mole by the right side of his mouth, near his jaw, and had messy curls of brown hair. The boy on the left didn't have the facial detail like his brother, but his just as brown curly hair was a tad shorter and pushed to the side, away from his eyes.

"Oh. Hey lads. This is my friend," He began, gesturing to the girl he had spent countless lunch periods and after school hours with these past couple months before one of the twins interrupted him.

"Ashlee?" The boy with the mole asked, staring at her with wide, bright emerald eyes that peeked through the veil of hair. Ashlee stared at him, confused and kind of scared because no one knew Ashlee, even the friends she had in primary school didn't know her.

"Yeah, y'know her?" Liam asked, glancing between the twins and Ashlee, feeling the awkward tension grow so big, he was sure they were in a bubble of awkward. "D'you know them?" He asked her.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but have we met before?"

"'Course she wouldn't remember us, she didn't remember us then and she doesn't now." The boy with darker green eyes whispered to his brother, eyes flicking over to the brown eyed girl he use to call his best friend, but of course that was many years ago.

"M'confused." Liam stated, slumping forward in his seat. Ashlee couldn't help but snort at her friend, before patting his back and whispering that it's okay because she was too.

"We were friends, before she became preoccupied." The lad without the mole and slightly neater hair said, rolling his eyes.

Ashlee stared at the two boys, trying to match their faces with names but failed. She was never good with remembering people unless they were constantly around. It was a horrible trait, if she were honest, but she did have the memory of an eighty year old man.

"Well, these two are my cousins, Edward," Liam said, trying to cut the tension as he gestured to the boy without the mole. "and Harry Styles." And then to the boy with the mole.

"You really don't remember us?" Harry asked, and Ashlee noticed just how deep his voice was and wow, he really drags out his words. Unlike his brother, whose voice was slightly higher and didn't talk as slow.

"Hey," Edward called, gaining Ashlee's attention. "how's Niall?" He spat, voice full of resentment and eyes heated with anger. And Ashlee's jaw nearly detached itself from her skull and dropped to the floor as her mouth gaped wide open, feeling her entire world explode from within herself.

--

I actually finished this last night on my iPhone, but I didn't know how to bold the author's note from there so I didn't want to upload it just yet. And it's a good thing I didn't because I proofread it just now and I had quite a number of mistakes. But now it's all bright and shiny and ready to read. So I hope you enjoyed it! The story is really going to kick off soon.

-anchors_larry <3