There was a knock on my bedroom door, and I reluctantly pulled the blanket off my head. The only thing I had done since I got home from the hospital was sleep, only getting out of my bed to pee. My meals were brought to me by various people currently living in my house, much to my dismay. I was getting sick of not doing anything. At this point, I would've gladly cleaned the whole house, including the exterior. And it's winter. THAT'S how desperate I am to do something.
"Enter," I said in a fake British accent. I had gotten sick of just saying the boring 'come in' so I had taken to saying different synonyms in different accents. It made my boring life a little brighter.
I cracked open an eyelid and saw Niall closing the door, then buried my face in my pillow again. "State your business with the queen," I said loudly into the fluffy pillow.
"I need to talk to you." The other half of the bed sank under his weight as he sat on top of the froth-like black comforter.
"No shit."
"It's about this girl...."
I flipped over onto my back and opened both my eyes, ignoring the throbbing pain in my head. "Awh! Widdle Niall's growing up!" I said, laughing. He blushed and hung his head. I sat up, hugging a pillow to my chest and squishing it from the cuteness of Niall having a crush. And being embarrassed about it. "Okay, fine. I'm done fangirling over your crush now."
He laughed. "You never fangirled over us!" he said, pretending to be hurt.
"I'm fangirling over your crush. It's close enough. Now spill," I said, whacking him with my pillow.
"Okay, so... um, you know this girl really well, and--"
"Heather."
He looked surprised. "How'd you know?"
I smiled. "I could tell from day one. And you're always really awkward around her. And when I say her name, you blush. Red as a raspberry."
He blushed yet again, reaching that raspberry color I was talking about. "So... how do I know if she likes me back?"
I grinned, knowing what her answer is now (a resounding "NO!"). But an evil scheme was forming in my head, and I knew just what to do. "We find out."

---

"Knock, knock!" Harry's voice called from outside my bedroom door.
"It's open!" i said loudly in the general direction of the placement of my door.
Harry walked in, holding a plate of food and a glass of water. When he saw Niall and me, he stopped and kinda stared at us.
"What?" I asked, confused by his expression. I looked down, hoping I hadn't forgotten to put on something important - like pants, for instance. Nope, all there. I wasn't topless, either. My oversized T-shirt and sweatpants weren't transparent, so I assumed that this was appropriate attire for having been sleeping for 72 hours.
I probably didn't smell pretty, either, but unless my BO was that bad, he shouldn't be able to smell it from the door.
I looked back at Harry, then realized that I was cuddling with Niall. In what seemed to be a very romantic-ish fashion. I started laughing. "This is kind of a compromising position, isn't it?"
Harry nodded, looking relieved at my calmness, then set the plate down on my desk and walked around the bed and snuggled up on the other side of me.
"You're not cheating on me, are you Melody?" he said teasingly, pretending to be hurt. We still hadn't told anybody about our relationship yet, even though Harry kept bothering me about it. Apparently, when you're in a boy band, everybody knows everybody's business, all other options be damned. There are no secrets.
But now there is, and I'm hoping to keep it that way. For a little while, at least. It's bound to surface sooner or later.
"What are you talking about? She's mine!" Niall argued, squishing me against his side with the arm that was wrapped around my shoulders.
I laughed. "You two are impossible."
There was a shout from downstairs, unintelligible to me but apparently it meant something to Niall. He groaned. "That's my cue. Thanks, Mel!" he said, getting up and walking out of my room.
A moment after the door was closed, Harry asked, "What was that all about?"
"What?" I asked, completely confused as to what he was talking about.
"You and Niall."
"Oh! The snuggling thing?" He nodded. "Niall has a crush on Heather, so we came up with a plan of how he's going to ask her out. She's not really into the whole date date thing, so we planned a home movie date in the basement."
I snuggled closer to Harry and put my head on his chest. "That still doesn't explain the cuddling," he said, wrapping him arm around my shoulders and awkwardly petting my hair.
"It's a home date. She's kind of a cuddler, when she isn't being a porcupine. But she hates being touched, so I showed him how to do it real casual-like so she doesn't really notice. And then we got to talking about what movie to rent and forgot that we were cuddling."
"Oh." He thought for a moment. "What film are you renting?"
"I think we're going to go for World War Z, because she hates it and it will induce cuddling," I said, then thinking about the cons of this plan. "The only downside to that is that she might actually hate him for making her watch it because she hates that movie with a burning passion."
"Well, Niall loves horror films, so it's perfect on his terms," Harry agreed. "But we might want to shoot for a different movie if she hates it with a burning passion."
I nodded. "They'd be so cute together. And they're about the same height, so he shouldn't feel too short next to her."
"They would," he agreed.
"'You know who else makes a cute couple?" I looked up at him.
"Us," he responded, looking down at me.
"What? No," I said, trying to sound disgusted at his response. "Why would we be cute?'
He laughed. "I have no idea."
"When should we tell them?" I asked quietly a few moments later. "About us, I mean."
"Now," he said seriously, taking my hand and intertwining our fingers.
"No, not now," I said. "It can't be this hectic. With Christmas only a few days away...."
"Well it's the perfect time to tell everyone, then!" he argued.
"No, it's not! My parents wouldn't like it, even if it wasn't this close to Christmas. We're already against the law, here, you being a legal adult and all. I'm still a minor. I know my parents aren't as uptight about this stuff and they know they can't tell me who to date, but they won't approve anyway."
"The worst they can do is disown you. And your parents won't do that."
"I know," I said, defeated. "I just don't want the public to get into this and mess everything up."
"Me either."
I looked up at him again. "If we're going to tell people, we can only tell the other four idiots, their girlfriends, my parents, and your parents. That's the deal, okay?"
He pondered this for a moment. "So when we get asked whose still single in interviews, I can't tell anybody?"
"No. Don't even hint at a relationship. Not even management can know. They might issue a statement or something because it'll bring in more money."
He sighed, defeated. "But I want to tell everybody."
"I know," I said, pulling the comforter up to my chin. After a moment, I said, "I kinda like you."
He chuckled and kissed the top of my head. "I kinda like you, too."

Notes

I've decided that the time in the story would be right around now, so it wouldn't be really confusing for me. If you haven't noticed already.
So here's the fluff I've been meaning to put more of in recently. I'm working on another chapter now, so it should be up in less than a week.
UGH. FINALS. I'm actually supposed to be studying now since finals start on Tuesday. At least I think they start on Tuesday....

So, some questions for my readers to guess as they wait for my next update:

- How is Niall going to ask Heather on a date?
- When are Harry and Melody going to tell their small group of trusted people about their relationship?
- HOW are Harry and Melody going to tell their small group of trusted people about their relationship?
- What's going to happen for Christmas?
- What will the new year bring?
- Why has Melody been sleeping for 72 hours? (Easy answer if you've had one before.)
- What's going to happen in the next chapter? (Nothing TOO dramatic, I promise. A little more fluff, but not sickeningly fluffy.)

GUESS AWAY, MY WALRICORNS!
COMMENT AND VOTE, PLEASE! And for those of you who haven't voted yet, please do!)

-H