flight ; l.s

one.

Louis- the boy decided after they had been in the car long enough- was loud. He kept glancing over to the diver's side, watching Louis bob his head up and down to the obnoxiously loud song blasting through the radio without a care in the world.

His feathery fringe moved about with his head, and he sang the words to the song that was unknown to the boy at the top of his lungs, not a care in the world. He wasn't at all concerned with the naked stranger in the passenger seat with the curious green eyes beside him wrapped in the battered quilt.

"Um, what...what is this?" he asked, his voice a dull buzz beneath the blaring music.

"Put me on a shelf, discipline myself!" Louis nearly shouted, his shrilly voice heard over the song.

"Erm, uh, Louis?" he attempted again.

"Shatter-aye-aye-ang everyth-aye-aye-ang-!" he emphasized the syllables in the words like the singer on the radio, doing as much of a dance move as he could while driving, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, knuckles white.

"Louis?" he asked louder, and Louis finally seemed to have his short attention span averted from the music, and he turned it down so they could converse without shouting.

"Yes, strange man I found in the middle of the woods and should probably be on high alert because you might actually wind up killing me?" he replied in one breath, the music a slight hum on the radio now.

"What...what was that loud sound?" he repeated his question, brow furrowed in honest curiosity. "Was it Brittney again?"

"Music...?" Louis scoffed, "Jesus, you're a real live alien."

"What's an alien?"

"I was joking, but that's exactly what an alien would say!" Louis grinned in faux-seriousness, facing forward again to watch the road while he prodded a finger at the boy's chest.

"I-I'm not an...an alien!" he exclaimed, real anxiety in his voice as he tried his best to avoid Louis' playful jab.

Louis burst out laughing, a melodic sound to the boy's ears while he turned down a dirt road.

"I know you're not an alien, you just act like one since you literally are oblivious to everything so far on our incredible journey of self discovery," Louis chuckled, biting his lip. The road was bumpy and the boy found himself reaching out to grip anything solid, green eyes wide. "Hey, you're fine." Louis smirked in amusement, noticing the boy.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, putting his hands back in his lap and wrapping the tattered quilt tighter around his bare body, the fabric soft against his warm skin.

"Don't apologize. Hey, what can I call you?" Louis asked, the car coming to a stop in front of a tiny cottage nestled between the trees off the road. It was one of the few houses along the dirt road, which just ended and dissolved into the trees a mile down. "Don't mind the shitty house. The views nice, there's barely any neighbors, and the rent's cheap. Perfect for two broke UNI students."

"Okay," he replied, not entirely sure what Louis was even talking about.

"Anyway," Louis chuckled. "What can I call you? Can I call you...Max?"

"What."

"Okay, no," Louis shook his head, "You don't look like a Max. What about Ed?"

"That is not my name," he said seriously. Something buzzed in the back of his head, like he should know his name, it was right within his grasp but he couldn't touch it.

"Henry?"

"No-"

He suddenly gasped, his body falling lax against the seat of Louis' car while his eyes rolled to the back of his head so only the whites showed. He heard Louis give out an anything but manly scream before he felt like he was falling.

"Get out of here!" the painfully familiar voice shouted, before going softer, "They'll kill you, please."

"I can't leave you-" he pleaded, looking at the silhouette before him. It was a male, and had a bight golden aura surrounding it.

"Harry, leave. I promise I'll fine you. Just, you have to go. Now!"

His name was Harry?

"Niall-" his past self tried, but suddenly there was a woosh of air and an intense burn between his shoulder blades.

He screamed, opening his eyes and seeing Louis having his own panic attack.

"Oh, good God, I'm a good person, right? Fuck, shit, there's some homeless kid having a seizure in my car, oh God. Okay, so I did pot with Zayn twice, but so what? Okay, maybe a lot more than twice, but-"

Harry groaned, reaching behind his left shoulder with his right hand, feeling the shoulder blade. His eyes widened when his fingers brushed over a fleshy, pink scar that seemed to jag down his back.

"Oh, good, you're not dying," Louis breathed out a sigh of relief.

"My wings..." Harry whispered, reaching to the other side.

"What?"

"I'm Harry," he croaked, feeling the exact same wound on the other side of his back, like two symmetrical somethings had been hacked off him. "My...I'm missing something."

"Yeah," Louis scoffed. "Clothes would be a start."

"N-No, like..." tears of frustration filled his eyes, his nimble fingers still touching the scars gently. Louis had noticed them when he put Harry in the car, but his mother raised him better than to point out scars and deformities on others. The wound didn't look too fresh, so Louis wasn't all that concerned. He focused on the bigger picture: this boy was naked with no memory.

"Okay, okay, it's alright," Louis tried, his voice gentle and soothing as he cautiously reached a hand out to touch Harry's shoulder. Harry let out a sob, the empty feeling consuming him. "How about we go inside? Yeah, we can get you some clothes and tea and call somebody."

"O-Okay," Harry mumbled, none of those words meaning anything to him.

"You'll probably need to borrow my flat mate Liam's clothes because you're a damn giant," Louis teased.

Harry rubbed at his eyes, sniffling a bit and looking absolutely pitiful, "'M not a giant."

"Christ."

[oKAY sorrY this sucks bUt im so excited IM GOING TO OTRA SANTA CLARA TOMORROW IM SHITTING MYSELF OH MY GOD IM SEEING MY BOYS IM SO INCREDIBLY HAPPY OK]