CHAPTER 1

There were multiple different beeping noises, and unfamiliar voices speaking.

"Don't crowd him. He's going to be a bit disoriented and groggy."

"You're alright, right Haz?"

"Yeah, I've been fine for weeks now."

"You know what I mean."

Blue eyes fluttered open, looking around to see the unfamiliar faces. There was a woman, and four boys that were situated around the bed he was laying in, only one actually familiar. His lips moved, trying to form words, but he was a bit breathless from the sight of so many strange faces.

"Niall, you were hit by a car. We put you in a coma for a couple weeks because of swelling of the brain, but you should be almost perfect. We're going to keep you here a couple more days to keep watch on you," The woman told Niall stepping back as a curly haired boy stepped forward, smiling warily at him.

"Is everyone alright?" Niall asked, looking to the muscular, short brown haired, brown eyed, boy that looked familiar, but for the life of him couldn't remember his name, even though he had just been told it. He had felt the need to ask the question, even though he had been hit, there must have been someone with him, seeing as he never usually was alone.

"Yes, Harry's fine. The driver that hit you is fine," said boy responded, stepping forward with the curly haired boy.

"Who… Who's Harry?" Niall asked, his blue eyes darting around to the woman, then back to the brown haired boy.

All four boy's eyes widened and looked to the woman who looked just as shocked as the other four. The boys were looking for answers, and the woman sighed shaking her head, and motioned her hand for them to continue speaking to Niall.

"Niall, do you know who we are?" the brown haired boy asked. The curly haired one had moved to being held by the other two boys.

"No… Well… You're my roommate, sorry I know you just told me, but I forgot your name… And… She's the doctor… But I don't know who they are," Niall stuttered, his blue eyes darting around the small room.

"Niall, we're your band mates… I'm Liam, the other brunette is Louis, and that's Zayn," Liam motioned to the two boys that were holding the curly haired bloke, "And Harry… You're with Harry," Liam said awkwardly.

"Band mates? Erm… You must be mistaken… I'm not… I'm not a pooft, and I'm not in a band," Niall shook his head.

Harry stiffed and began to throw himself at Niall, all three boys pushing him back out of the room. Niall had covered his ears, and shut his eyes. The sudden shouting and attack from Harry was unexpected, especially since he didn't know him.

"Niall?" A soothing voice asked. Niall slowly opened his eyes and looked up to see Liam, Niall's auburn eyebrows furrowed more. He removed his hands to listen to the boy, "I'm sorry about Harry. It took you a long time to admit you were gay, and… Harry was a big part of that, so… As you can see… He's a bit frustrated," Liam explained further.

"Oh… I'm not though… I've never been interested in a guy," Niall snorted and shook his head at the thought.

"Erm… I'm not going to be the one to argue with that, I'll have Harry re-convince you," Liam chuckled, sitting down in the chair next to Niall's bed, "So… Your Mum is here, and Sean… They thought you'd want to see Harry when you first woke up, since you were together during the accident."

"I… Yes, can I?" Niall asked sheepishly, "See Sean and my mum?"

"Of course, I'll go tell Sean," Liam said chuckling.

"Hey... What year is it?" Niall asked quickly, sitting up slowly.

"2012," Liam responded, and left the room.

"Two years?" Niall asked himself, furrowing his auburn eyebrows.

"Two years ago, you auditioned for X-Factor, not even months after that you were stolen away from me by those four boys," said a smiling Sean as he came walking through the room.

"X-Factor! Shit! What happened?" Niall exclaimed sitting up, the heart rate monitors going off loudly.

"You met the judges, and instead of letting you go on as a solo artist, you were put in a group with those four," Sean explained sitting down next to Niall's bed, "And you were in the top three before you got eliminated. You were just in America doing your headlining tour, now you're back in the UK recording… Just to sum up the last two years," Sean snorted, smiling at Niall adoringly.

Niall studied Sean closely, his eyes squinting as he looked the boy over before frowning. "You look old. I remember you used to be really cute… What happened?" Niall laughed and Sean smacked his face lightly.

"You twat, I'm still younger than you!" Sean exclaimed.

"How old am I?" Niall asked, his blue eyes widening.

"Nineteen."

The room was silent between the two boys, becoming awkward with the sudden news. Reality was hitting Niall, he couldn't remember the past two years, and obviously a lot had happened during the last two years. He was supposedly famous. He was supposedly known by the whole world because of this band that he was forced into during X-Factor, but he only remembered boot camp.

"Niall! Oh baby! How are you feeling?" His mother cooed as she came rushing into the room, taking hold of Niall into her arms, pulling him against her chest.

"Erm… Confused," Niall mumbled.

"Oh, the boys told us you lost your memory! What was the last thing you remember honey?" His mother asked, and all Niall could do was shrug.

"I think I was at boot camp and I had just met my room mate, Liam," Niall shrugged, "At least I think. Can you let go of me please?"

"Oh! Of course baby," His mother cooed, pulling away from him, smiling kindly, "Erm… Harry wants to see you… Sean can stay with you, and Liam… The other two if you'd like."

"No… I think Harry'd want to talk to me in private…" Niall blushed darkly.

His mother nodded, resting a hand on Sean's shoulder, leading him out of the room, moments later, the curly haired boy, Harry, came in, shuffling around, looking for a good, but not awkward, place to sit, and finally placed himself in the chair next to Niall's bed, rubbing his face.

"Hi," Harry said finally looking up.

Niall smiled wearily at Harry, "Hey."

The two stared at each other for a moment before Harry let out a sigh, looking down gripping his hair. His elbows rested on his knees, his body shaking slightly.

"Niall, I swear to god if this is some goddamned prank," Harry trailed off, unable to finish, "I know you don't remember me, but you remember Liam. Which means… You've seen me, right?"

Niall stared at Harry intently trying to figure out who he was. "I'm sorry… I really can't figure out who you are," Niall's pale features flushed red.

"Oh, um… how much do you remember of boot camp?" Harry asked, biting his nails.

"I remember moving into the hotel room, meeting Liam. Erm… All that singing in front of the judges," Niall shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing, "And then… We were getting ready for the dancing… And blank and then now," Niall shook his head, biting his lip.

"That… Must be very confusing. Being about to dance then waking in the hospital," Harry laughed, "Must of thought you passed out while dancing, didn't you?"

"I can honestly tell you that is exactly what I thought. I'm not that great a dancer anyway, so I figured that the nerves made me collapse," Niall smiled at Harry, who seemed to know him better than Niall knew himself.

Harry reached his hand out to touch Niall's arm. Niall jerked his arm away at the sudden touch, not used to such affections. Harry sighed and looked down, pulling his hands back into his lap twiddling his fingers.

"I'm sorry," Niall said softly, frowning, "How did I get hit by a car?"

"I'll get Liam and Sean, you'll feel more comfortable around them," Harry jumped up, dodging the question.

Niall sat up to ask again, but Harry was out of the room before he could even ask again. He leaned back again, and stared up at the telly that was rambling on, then it flashed to a hospital as Sean and Liam walked in, both sitting on opposite sides of Niall's bed. All three boys' attentions were focused on the screen now as the reporter moved into the hospital and down the halls.

Sean and Liam both jumped up at the same time walking to the door of the private room and began talking to whom Niall now knew as Louis and Zayn. The two boys stood outside the door, as Sean and Liam shut the door sitting back down. Niall was just confused. His eyebrows were furrowed and looked to Liam, who seemed to be the boss, for answers.

"They are in the hospital," Liam pointed to the telly, "And they want to see you, but obviously, it'll be a bit overwhelming for you, since you have to get used to it again."

"You mean… I'm… I'm just going to go back into this band that I didn't even realize I'm in?" Niall said, fisting the blankets.

"Don't worry. Harry's getting the eighth season of X-Factor, and a couple other videos so you can see what we did, and to help you remember," Liam responded, taking Niall's hand in his own, relaxing it, and rubbing his thumb against the tense appendage.

"Hey, babe I got to go, I have to go back to Ireland for school, I'll miss my flight if I stay any longer," Sean said smiling softly, pecking the top of Niall's head, "Get better okay? And don't forget us when you remember them," Sean joked, and walked towards the door where the news camera's were, slipping out quickly.

"….Liam?"

"Yeah Ni?"

"How'd I get hit by a car?" Niall's eyes darted up to look at Liam's, both glancing at each other for a moment before staring at that door again.

"I… Couldn't tell you that. Harry was the only one there," Liam sighed, frowning. Niall gripped Liam's hand tightly squeezing his eyes shut.

"And Harry refuses to tell me… Alright," Niall sighed opening his eyes, rubbing them with his free hand.

"Look at what I got you Nialler! A magazine that has us in it! Pretty much… every page has us in it," Louis laughed walking into the room, holding up a magazine with them on it, "I also have book that our manager made that has pictures of our last tour, and stuff."

The boy set the books down in Niall's lap gingerly, Zayn walking in after looking down the halls intently. Zayn made himself comfortable on the couch looking at Niall curiously.

"Um… Thanks… Louis," Niall said trying to make sure that was the proper name. He stared at the cover of the magazine and became flushed instantly. He really couldn't imagine that he really would ever be on the cover. Let alone be on one with four other boys he seemed to get along with really well.

"So… We're a boy band?" Niall asked, smiling crookedly as he looked up, looking at all three boys trying to get used to the faces.

"Yep, all of us auditioned as solo artists, and Simon wanted us to continue as a boy band," Louis smiled at the memory.

"One Direction?" Niall laughed, "I'm going to guess Harry made that up?"

"Yeah, stupid boy he his," Louis agreed with the unspoken statement between all four of them.

Suddenly the very quiet boy on the couch spoke, obviously an action he didn't do very often, "Niall lets get some food," Zayn said slowly standing up, slipping his fake letterman jacket off, stuffing his hands in his pocket.

Niall was about to protest when his stomach growled, and smiled at the male nodding his head. Even though he didn't know the bloke, the boy obviously knew him well enough to notice when he was hungry.

"Zayn, is that such a good idea?" Liam asked standing up as Niall began to move out of the bed.

"You can't baby him. His head's fine, just lost a bit of memory that he may or may not get back. Let him be, and let him get some food," Zayn said walking towards the door.

Louis pulled off his shoes and handed them to Niall smiling slightly. "Same shoe size, put 'em on, they won't want you walking around bare footed, I'll throw on a pare of yours. My TOMs are more comfortable," Louis explained as Niall put them on.

"Err… Erm… thank you," Niall said as he quickly followed after Zayn, his breath of fresh air. They walked down the hall as Niall stared at Zayn, his eyes widening and began to laugh.

"What?" Zayn asked smiling at the Irish boy whom he couldn't help but laugh with.

"I remember you! You were hiding during boot camp because you didn't want to dance!" Niall laughed, rubbing his cheeks as he became hot at the fact that he remembered something.

"And I remember you were a terrible dancer when you danced. Did you know I danced in the same group as Harry and Louis?" Zayn asked smirking slyly.

"No I didn't! I really wasn't paying attention. I was trying to remember the choreography, but when Simon started flipping out that you were gone I was at full attention, thinking it might have been me that should be dancing," Niall chuckled.

Niall's eyebrows furrowed as men stood in front of them and behind them. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at the man who smiled at him kindly. His eyes and head whipped around to the front man who glanced over his shoulder giving Niall the same look, obviously they had been told of Niall's situation.

"So we're such hot shit we have to have two body guards?" Niall asked.

"When we were in New York in the end of May, you and Liam got mobbed by sixty girls. Liam was pretty much stripped of his clothes, and because he was protecting you, you were in front of him, and you got a few hits to the face. Ever since, we've each had our own body guards, on top of the normal two or three that we've always had," Zayn explained.

"I'm Paul," The one behind Niall said smiling when Niall turned around, "Paul Higgins."

"The fans love him, he's the only one that actually thinks we're funny, so we accidently told the fans his name," Zayn chuckled, gesticulating quotation marks.

They moved down a flight of stairs into a small cafeteria with a lot of chatter. Girl's heads popped up looking around towards the door, and stared at the two boys. Niall's blue eyes widened as he looked at the girls, making Zayn laugh.

"We really are hot shit aren't we?" Niall laughed.

"We really are. I think I like you a bit more than I already did. You're outside perspective of how people are with us is very refreshing," Zayn said pulling Niall into a side hug, Niall reciprocating.

"You're my favorite right now. You're the only one that acts like nothing's wrong with me," Niall said quietly, flushing a bit.

"I was your favorite in the beginning when we were brought together. And Hazza's freaking out that you'll never want him again," Zayn muttered to himself towards the end.

They got in line of the cafeteria, and Zayn helped Niall pick out the good food. Really though, they ended up picking up all the food they could. They paid for their food and moved to sit in an empty table close to the door, but secluded enough for no one to be able to hear their conversations.