Chapter 1 

Author’s note: James Horan has been given the nickname ‘Jamie’ to make the story easier to read (James Payne will still be called James). 

“Oh, Louis, will you please calm down?” Harry told his friend for the sixteenth time that afternoon. The older boy was pacing around the living room, mumbling annoyed, incoherent sentences.

“Calm down? CALM DOWN?!” Louis shouted into thin air. “How am I supposed to calm down when I suddenly have a clone who looks exactly like me and will take my job?” Harry knew that it wasn’t really the fact that William stole his job that was the problem, but he said nothing. The real reason was a bit uncomfortable to him as well. William and Edward. Teddy and Will.

“He won’t steal your job, Lou. He’ll be your stand in. So that you don’t have to work if you’re feeling sick. So that you can relax for a few days while he’s doing the photo shoots.” Louis laughed bitterly.

“Yeah, as if I’ll be more relaxed when someone is out there risking mine and the bands reputation. It’s not like we can come and say: ‘oh, that was a mistake committed by Louis’s clone. Louis doesn’t really think raising money for finding a cure to AIDS is stupid’.” Harry chuckled.

“I doubt Will would say anything like that.” Louis gave him an annoyed look.

“It was an example, Harry. And since when is he ‘Will’ anyways?” Harry felt this was a sensitive subject and decided on not saying the first thing that popped into his head.

“Since I talked to him and found that he was a fun guy, very much like my best friend.” Louis sighed, but gave a little smile.

“But still. We’ve just known him for a few hours. It’s a little early to tell what we think about him.”

“But you immediately liked Jamie, Jav, James and Ed.” Louis flinched at the mention of Edward. “Why don’t you like William?” Louis didn’t answer, just sat down in the sofa, flicking on the telly. Harry knew better than to keep pressuring him, so he just dropped the subject and leaned further back into the cushions and started thinking of Ed and Will. It was a very uncomfortable topic. Not that Harry was opposed to homosexuality, not at all; he had himself been attracted to men before and considered himself bisexual if he had to put a label on it. It was what the manager had told them. The clones do not only look like you, they also have your personalities. They’d never do anything you boys wouldn’t do. This scared Harry a bit, because that meant that if Ed was dating Will, and had fallen in love with him, Harry would fall in love with Louis. But no, that was completely mental. There was absolutely no way he could ever fall in love with Louis. Louis was his best friend, almost like an older brother. Seeing Ed and Will snog each other like that, the clones of himself and Lou, was the most uncomfortable thing he’d ever done. He’d have to talk to Ed about that, and asking him to keep down the relationship thing when he and Louis were around. Ed would understand, and Harry knew this because he himself would understand it if the situation was the other way around, and Ed was Harry (which was good because he knew what he’d react like, but scared him because of the whole ‘Dating Will-business’).

“So what are we going to do about that?” Jav says. Zayn smiles at him. Niall, Jamie and Ed laughing in the background while Liam, James and Will is shaking their heads.

“Well, it’s obvious isn’t it?” Zayn grabs the arm of his clone, seeing the lack of ink on the left forearm. “We have to get you a tattoo.” He pulls Jav up from the sofa and start walking towards the door.

“Wait.” One of the Payne’s stop them. “You can’t both go.” Zayn rolls his eyes. Right. He could not step outside with Jav. If someone saw them and realized what was going on they would be in so much trouble.

“We’ll go with him.” Ed says, gesturing to himself and Will. “I mean, I’ve gotten tattoos before, since Harry’s got them, and it’ll be a great chance to go outside. Get some fresh air.” Liam was hesitant. Should Ed and Will really be let out in the streets together, easily seen by paparazzi’s?

“Alright. But keep the cute couple stuff down, okay? We don’t want rumours about Louis and Harry forming.” Will and Ed nodded, pulling Jav with them out the door.

Niall has observed the other boys while they were talking. He is confused by it and requires an answer.

“Were were you guys brought up?” Jamie and James looked confused, but Zayn and Liam looked equally interested. “How did you become this old so fast?”

“They added a growth hormone to our DNA, but it was deleted when we reached the proper physical age to be just like you.” James said, Jamie nodding.

“So how did you learn to act like us? Get our personalities and accents?” Liam asks the two clones. He wants to know the reason Niall had to feel left out. James and Jamie looks at each other with alarm. They are quiet for a minute, looking as if they were talking to each other non-verbally. Then James speaks.

“Well, the personality thing we’re not sure of, the scientists never told us how that worked, I don’t even think they knew how it worked, to be frank. But the accents we got from listening to you talk. I for example listened to only Liam’s voice for half a year. William did the same with Louis and Edward with Harry. We all did it.”

“Except you.” Niall says, looking straight into Jamie’s eyes, showing how hurt he feels.

“Don’t be so hard on him, Niall. He’s your twin.” Liam says.

“No, he has every right to be angry with me. I was a twat.” Jamie looks shamefully at the floor.

“You weren’t a twat, Jamie.” James says, patting his back. “You just made a mistake.”

“Why, what happened?” Zayn had tried not to get involved in the conversation, since he saw how pained Jamie was for talking about it, but he was too interested to not ask.

“I ran away.” Jamie answers.

Chapter 3