all i'm gonna say is read the description of this one-shot before continuing on...

Mitch regretted a lot of things the second he watched Scott drive off. In retrospect, he regretted even more things, but the guilt he felt in his heart was enough for the moment.

Even though a couple seconds had now passed since Scott pulled out of their driveway, Mitch couldn't quite get himself to move away from his spot in front of the window. And when we finally pulled himself away, he only made it as far as the nearby couch before he laid down, utterly and absolutely tired of, well, everything that had been going on.

He didn't want Scott to go.

He didn't want to get in as many fights with Scott has they had. Post-tour feelings always ran high and always took a bit of a toll on the two. However, this time around, the tour stress seemed to be worse, for reasons Mitch couldn't put a finger on.

He also didn't want Scott to be feeling the way Mitch knew he undoubtedly was. Scott, as outgoing and positive as he always was, was struggling in the days after tour. But once again, in retrospect, he could point out a million things that made it obvious and that made it worse.

He had plans for a New Years vacation, and had even extended them to Scott. He declined fairly early on, which was reasonable, but Mitch couldn't imagine what was going on in his mind when the plans fell through altogether. Mitch wasn't overly happy with the news, and while Scott couldn't have been happy either, he comforted Mitch anyway.

Mitch figured that he ruined any feelings of so called kindness once he tried to make more plans. All he intended to do was to host a New Years party, but that didn't even make it past the idea stage. He quickly figured out that a party would only stress out Scott more, and maybe some time of just the two of them would do them some good.

Only, he began realizing that maybe one on one time wouldn't do anything. His intention was to help, but he didn't fully realize the damning effect he was having on Scott until he heard the words come out of Scott's mouth.

Mitch knew he occasionally needed alone time to decompress, but actually hearing that Scott wanted to be away from Mitch for a while didn't sit quite right in his stomach.

And now the guilt was really starting to pile up.

So now Scott was running off to family for the holidays, as he put it, though Mitch clearly took it as 'for personal space'. Irvine, California was only an hour away, but apparently enough for him.

And Mitch let him go.

It hurt his heart to see him to leave like that. But this was one of the few situations where Mitch didn't know Scott better than he did himself, and he had to trust Scott. It didn't mean he was gonna completely let him be though. Mitch had temporarily lost him enough due to circumstances, no matter how foreseen they were or not, yet he never completely let him be.
And he wasn't about to now.

He'd do anything to get his best friend back.

By the time Mitch pulled himself out of his thoughts, the outside world, and therefore the house, had turned dark. Mitch got himself off of the couch, then stumbled around the main floor until he managed to turn on a light or two. Once he did that, he felt the exhaustion set in. That's all the convincing it took.

Within an hour or so, Mitch found himself laying in bed, his mind still heavy with thoughts about the day. And that's when the feelings of frustration kicked in. Because while he was just sitting here, Scott was struggling. He had to do something. With that in mind, he was reaching for his phone. His next google searches were seemingly random, but they were giving him enough ideas to open up the messages on his phone and to send a handful of texts out.

i know you said you needed space and stuff but i had an idea that i want to run past you
granted you feel better once you come home i was thinking we could go on a little vacation
just you and me of course
i realize there's a good chance your sleeping so just get back to me tomorrow

another vacation?

hi
yeah

idk
so much is going on idk if i can do that

i get that
it might do us some good tho

maybe

we're gonna need to talk about some stuff anyway
just thought we'd prefer to do that somewhere other than our house

i still don't know
but go head and do whatever i guess

thank you
just keep me updated ok?
even if you decide to stay with your family for a while i'll still answer your calls and texts
i love you

ly

Mitch may not have been overly convinced by anything Scott said, but it was enough for him for now. He set his phone on the nearby nightstand, then rolled over in bed, in hopes that sleep would find him.

Only, sleep still didn't come.

Too much had been on his mind all day, and now that there was some relief in sight, he couldn't bring himself to stop. That was all it took for Mitch to get up and retrieve his laptop. He found the same resort he had been looking at a couple hours ago, and, on yet another whim, he was booking a room for two nights for the beginning part of next week. Without trying to dwell on what he just did too much more, he closed his laptop and set it off to the side.

He reached for his phone again, but then hesitated on sending another text. Instead, he clicked Scott's contact name, and brought the phone to his ear. He wasn't overly surprised to get Scott's voicemail, knowing it had to be in the early hours of the morning at this point.

"Hi, I know you're asleep, and I'd just text you but calling is easier..." Mitch started, only to trail off for a moment. "Um, I just wanted to say that I did book something for next week. I was really looking forward to my own vacation, but I guess, if you're up for it, we can have a fun getaway too. I think you'd like this place a lot, it has great reviews." He paused to sigh. "Anyway, I'll tell you more in person. Goodnight." Mitch then made a quick kissing noise before ending the call.

He stared at his phone for a minute before placing it back down on the nightstand. And with his mind finally at ease, sleep found him quickly.

-

When Mitch woke up next, light was streaming into his room. He instantly came to the conclusion that it was some time in the morning, which was only backed up when Mitch reached for his phone. The numbers 9:24 glared back at him, but the lack of anything back from Scott was what truly caught his attention. He dismissed it fast though; he knew just how exhausted Scott would be.

He attempted not to linger on that fact either, and worked on getting himself ready for the day to fully distract himself. Once he was ready, he ended up going to the nearby Starbucks. His trip there was fairly quick and painless, though he could've sworn he felt a pair or two of eyes on him. He sent a simple text to Scott on the Uber ride home after discovering that the blonde still hadn't gotten back to him. A small part of him felt worry creeping up. It was more difficult this time, but he once again dismissed it.

Mitch arrived back at the house a short time later. He decided to round out the morning by going through any and all emails on his computer. A vast majority of them were from Pentatonix's management, all regarding upcoming plans. Just finishing tour didn't mean anything to the band. Hell, according to this one email, he was already set to be in the studio again late next week. He continued to sift through emails until a seemingly random confirmation email popped up. Upon further examination, it was for the hotel he booked in the early morning. The email had him reaching for his phone... and of course.

In Mitch's mind, it was getting to be ridiculous. Okay, Scott did say he wanted to be alone, but Mitch didn't think he would take it to this extreme. Then again, if he was, fine. Mitch could deal with that.

The doorbell sounded then, causing Mitch to immediately sigh. He closed out of his messages and turned off his phone, then tucked his phone in his back pocket as he made his way to the front door of the house.

As Mitch opened the door, he had to ignore the confusion he felt when he saw two police officers standing on the other side.

One of them was a younger guy, maybe Mitch's age or so. Mitch was used to seeing people his age with large smiles on their faces, so the serious façade this man was putting on took him by surprise. The other officer was a slightly older woman, one that even Mitch could recognize as beautiful. However, he could see in her face that she had been working this job for years and had seen things that he didn't even want to think about.

"Mitch Grassi?" The man asked, drawing Mitch's eyes to him.

"Yeah?"

"We're here to inform you that Scott Hoying is missing." Mitch's jaw dropped. That was absolutely absurd. Yeah, Scott may have wanted to be alone, but he certainly wasn't missing.

"Missing? No, he's not." The younger police officer raised an eyebrow and leaned towards Mitch.

"He's not?" Mitch shook his head.

"He's with family in Irvine, California." The officers shared a look before the younger one spoke up again.

"Then why were the relatives the ones to file a missing persons report?" It took Mitch a moment to process their words, but when he did, he could only say one thing.

"He's missing?" The female officer nodded her head.

"Its presumed kidnapping."

"Well do you have any leads or suspects or... anything?" God, if those officers shared one more look, Mitch might lose it.

"That's the other reason why we're here."

-

Mitch had a lot of expectations for the day.

However, him heading to the Los Angeles police station was not one of those things.

He was struggling with a lot of thoughts as they drove through the heart of the city. The most important in his mind was the fact that Scott was gone. It was an apparent fact that Mitch could not wrap his head around, no matter how much he was desperately trying to.

The other main thought, which was probably equally important as the other one, was that the police officers believed him to be a suspect. It was an absurd idea on its own, even more so considering Mitch was shaking at just the mere idea of Scott being missing.

Before he knew it, the car was being parked outside of a building that Mitch had only seen in passing. He was quickly being ushered inside then and soon was going up a floor, which was followed by a maze of halls and offices. He rounded a corner then and walked into a larger, waiting room type space and--

"Are you fucking serious?"

Mitch stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of who was sitting in front of him, and didn't even attempt to stop his jaw from dropping. Every thought he had in regards to his position in the case went out the window as he made eye contact with the rest of Pentatonix, their manager Esther, and, for god's sake, even their make up artist Nicole. The shock on his five friends faces was impossible to miss, and only became more obvious as he was asked to take a seat with them.

"You too?" Nicole asked as Esther got up from her own seat. A nod was all Mitch got out before Esther took a seat next to Mitch and wrapped her arms around him. He graciously accepted the gesture, then began trying to once again wrap his mind around everything. A little part of Mitch's brain felt that it might have done the group of them some good to discuss everything; however, he felt eerily calm sitting in silence with some of the most important people in his life. He was completely unsure of how much time passed before they were disrupted.

"Nicole Faulkner, Esther Koop, and Kevin Olusola?"

All six of them raised their heads, upon hearing a new person's voice. It was a man Mitch hadn't encountered yet, but he could only assume he was a detective by his slightly dressed down apparel. Nicole, Esther, and Kevin were the only ones to nod their heads though.

"Upon examination of the evidence we've collected, we've collectively made the decision to take you guys off of the list of suspects. You three are free to go."

Nicole, Esther, and Kevin looked to the others upon hearing this new news, yet no one knew what to make of it. The three were all clearly relieved to be cleared from the list, but it still took them a minute or two of lingering and saying goodbyes before they left for good.

"Now you guys." Mitch, Matt, and Kirstin all looked back to the man. "We haven't been able to clear you, so therefore we are going to move forward and get testimonies from each one of you. If you'd be so willing to follow me, we'll get started on that." Mitch didn't attempt to hide the shock or hesitation on his face, and with one look at his band mate's faces, they weren't trying to hide anything either. The three's hesitation made the detective raise an eyebrow, which, in turn, was enough to get them to stand up and follow the detective out of the room. A couple of moments of walking passed before they halted outside of what appeared to be, based on the ever realistic TV shows Mitch had watched, an interrogation room. It even had the trademark glass window, allowing those in the hallway in front of it to have a look into the room.

"Mitch Grassi, you're up first." A part of Mitch really wanted to protest this all, yet he chose to meekly nod his head and step foot into the small room. A small gesture from the detective told him to take a seat on one side of the table, and in a couple of large steps, the other man was taking a seat on the other side of it. He asked Mitch to do a seemingly easy task then: to give an account of his timeline and any feelings, actions, or interactions that either he or Scott had leading up to the discovery that Scott was gone.

And Mitch obliged.

He talked about how the two of them had been getting in disagreements lately, which he quickly noted were from tour stress. He talked about his failed vacation and how much Scott had been going through, and told the truth about that being the reasoning behind Scott's trip to see his relatives. He even mentioned that he planned his own little trip for the two of them. Admittedly, he got defensive over the fact that he would even be considered a suspect, but by the end of his testimony, all he could feel was his sadness creeping back up.

After what seemed like hours passed, he was being dismissed from the small room. The detective asked for Kirstin next, and also made it known that Mitch needed to stay outside of the room with Matt. What Mitch really wanted to do was go home and escape from this mess, but he did comply. He quickly went to the far side of the hallway in front of the room, then tipped his head back against the wall as his emotions began to over take him and as tears began to pool in the corners of his eyes.

"You okay, man?" Mitch vaguely heard Matt ask.

"Yeah. I'm doing fucking great," Mitch scoffed. Only when those words fell past his mouth did he wince. He knew Matt had good intentions, the kid always did, but they'd only known each other for a handful of months and hell even some of his best friends hadn't seen him like this.

"Mitch, I'm sorry."

"Its fine. I shouldn't have snapped like that."

"I think you have every right to." Mitch raised an eyebrow. "You two have the weirdest yet strongest bond I have ever seen. Its ridiculous to see you even being questioned." All Mitch could do is nod his head in agreement. Matt felt silent for a minute, but spoke up again not long after. "I know we haven't known each other for long, and probably can just start calling each other good friends but... we're family now too. We're gonna stick together and we're all gonna get through this." Well, he certainly wasn't helping Mitch and his attempts to stop tearing up. Mitch gave him a small smile, then mouthed a 'thank you'. Matt gave him a strained one back, but the duo's moment was cut off by Kirstin walking out of the room.

"Matt Sallee?" The detective asked next. Matt nodded his head then replaced Kirstin in the room.

Once the door closed, Kirstin was headed towards Mitch, and neither one of them hesitated in hugging the other. Just like his and Esther's hug had earlier, this one did a surprisingly well in calming both of them. It still was nothing in comparison to every feeling, yet it was something.

"I fucking miss him," Mitch muttered as he set his chin on Kirstin's head.

"Me too, Mitchy. Me too."

"I just want him to be alright, y'know?"

"Yeah," Kirstin replied even quieter than before. Mitch couldn't come up with anything else to say, so he let the silence drone on, that was, until Kirstin pulled away from Mitch's embrace.

"What's wrong?" He asked as she looked up to him. Mitch's attention was immediately drawn to her watery eyes, much like his had just been. However, she didn't answer, and after another moment of looking at him, she walked to the interrogation room door, knocked on it, then went into the room. Mitch took a step forward, his eyes darting to the glass window to watch and try to figure out just what was going on. A couple of seconds passed, and then Mitch saw the detective's eyes widen. He quickly stood up from his chair, pointed and spoke something to Matt, then he and Kirstin came out of the room.

"Did we find him or something?" Mitch asked as they walked out, an ounce of hope in his voice for the first time in hours. The detective and Kirstin came to a halt, both turning to him. He looked to the detective first, then to Kirstin. At that point, his attention was immediately drawn to the concern and the obvious mental war she was waging with herself.

"Mitch..." She started. Mitch could already feel his heart sinking. "Can you just come along? I'll explain in the car." Mitch hesitated for a brief moment before he nodded his head. Kirstin and the detective then took off, and Mitch hurried to follow them through the police station, then outside and to what he could only assume was the detective's car. As they approached the vehicle, Mitch could have sworn he heard the words 'Lake Tahoe' come out of Kirstin's mouth, and they only further confused him when the words 'Sunnyside Inn' were tacked onto them. Before he could ask any questions about what was just said, the three of them were getting into the car, then they were racing off.

Admittedly, Mitch was stunned into silence for the first fraction of the drive. Once he finally figured out the mess that was his thoughts and came up with anything to say, they had already been driving for a solid half an hour and were out of a majority of the L.A. traffic. He turned to Kirstin then, who was sitting in the backseat next to him, and with one look, he was able to voice his thoughts.

"Did you say Lake Tahoe?" Her head quickly turned to the side, and then after a moment, she nodded her head. "Okay, then can you please explain what's going on? Did we... did we do something to make him mad or upset or what?" Kirstin took a deep breath and quite obviously hesitated. Mitch had known her long enough to tell that she was waging some internal war and was therefore hiding something, but he just hoped she would be honest. He watched as her eyes flitted to the detective who was now looking back to them through the rearview mirror every couple of seconds. "Please," Mitch tried again. Kirstin looked back to him, took another deep breath, then finally spoke up.

"Alright. Fine." A pause. "I got really upset by Scott always pushing me to the back burner and not wanting to spend time with me even though I kept asking him, especially because I'm leaving soon." Mitch furrowed his brows. "The more I think about it, the more childish it truly was, but I guess that's besides the point now.

"I booked a reservation with Sunnyside Inn, and I was going to surprise him with a mini vacation for three nights, just to celebrate New Years. I wasn't sure how I was going to get him to join me though, so I thought... maybe I needed some help getting him there. I have some old friends who are really buff who I got to help me, if I paid of course—"

"You hired others to kidnap him?" Mitch cut her off. He couldn't believe anything that just came out of her mouth, but she didn't appear to be done either.

"Its not like that, I promise," she was quick to say. "I actually was thinking it would be an awful decision, but I guess I ended up going through with it when I was drunk last night. Their job was to take Scott in the middle of the night and take him to the hotel room. I even had an explanation there waiting for him. The guys said they'd keep him safe, and they also said they'd call me when they got him there. That's the thing though, they haven't called me yet. And that really makes me scared because he definitely should be there by now."

"I... I can't believe you," Mitch said quietly, not bothering to disguise the hurt in his voice.

"I know. I'm so pissed at myself and this whole scenario but, god this is gonna sound terrible, we can't focus on what I did. We need to get Scott back."

Mitch was absolutely furious. And Kirstin obviously knew it. However, she did have a point; Scott was more important in this moment.

"Do you have any ideas of what to do then?" Kirstin thought for a brief second, then was pulling out her phone.

"I'm gonna call the hotel, see if they checked in yet." Mitch watched as she looked for the number, then brought it up to her ear.

"Hello," she spoke into the phone a moment later. "I was wondering if one of the people in my reserved room has checked in yet?" There was a beat silence, then she was listing off her name and two others that Mitch couldn't place even if he wanted to. There was another minute of silence before she spoke up. "I guess I don't know. Thank you, that's all I needed."

Mitch wasn't sure if it was the tone of her voice or her words themselves, but it was enough to get his mind to jump to conclusions, even though he really, really didn't want to. Kirstin was still on her phone, but he couldn't miss the tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna try calling the guys." Mitch barely nodded his head as she brought the phone back up to her ear. The phone kept ringing, for longer than the call to the hotel. As the seconds ticked by, Mitch could feel him losing hope. And just when Mitch was going to loose it all, Kirstin visibly sat up straighter.

"Scott?" She asked, causing Mitch's eyes to go wide. Kirstin's eyes were wide as well, and they stayed focused on the seat in front of her as she listened to the voice on the other side. "Wait, Scott!" She suddenly called out, then quickly pulled the phone away from her ear.

"Kirstie..." Mitch trailed off nervously. She quickly turned to look at him.

"Something's wrong. He's not at the hotel, he's at some house and there was yelling and— we need to find this house."

The detective, making himself known for the first time in a while, slowed down the car, then pulled off to the side of the road.

"Let me have your phone," he said to Kirstin, glancing into the backseat. "I can try and track the number to figure out where they are." Kirstin didn't waste a moment giving her phone to him. He spent a handful of minutes on it, but then was suddenly handing the phone back and driving back onto the road, going twice as fast as before.

More time passed then, too much time passed in everyone's mind. But then, they were suddenly pulling off of the main road and onto some old road hidden amongst the woods. Only then did Mitch realize just how dark it was outside, and just what they were about to go face to face with. Before he could dwell on it any more, they were turning onto another side road, and then another minute later, a driveway.

The house they pulled up to wasn't necessarily the largest one; however, it was still quite intimidating. There was one dim light on near the front door, and no cars were visible. The detective quickly parked his own car and turned it off. The three of them stepped outside, and Kirstin and Mitch both hesitated as they approached the house. Mitch especially became even more weary as he saw the detective pull out a gun.

"Do you guys want to stick together?" Mitch almost immediately nodded his head.

"I'm not leaving her side," Mitch answered, glancing towards Kirstin. She gave him a small smile, but then they both redirected their attention to the house. The detective was already at the front door, trying out the old handle of it. To everyone's surprise, it opened with no problem. The detective went in first with Mitch and Kirstin right on his heels.

The front door opened up to an open, hardly lit room. The room was small, but was made larger by the lack of furniture in it. Off to the side laid a broken table, which only added to the fear of it all. The detective cleared his throat, causing Mitch and Kirstin to look back to him. He nodded his head towards two staircases, one leading up, the other leading downstairs. Without missing a beat, he took a step down the first stair, then slowly continued down. Mitch and Kirstin cautiously followed, and continued to do so even when the detective pulled out a flashlight.

Once they all got into the basement, the detective used the flashlight to sweep the equally small basement. It was eerie enough on its own, but the feeling doubled as the light went over a figure lying in the corner of the room. Mitch may have been nervous and scared, but all he could think about was Scott, so he went forward first. He rushed to the man's side, only to discover that it wasn't Scott, but instead some man with blood and bruises covering his face.

"Its not Scott," he said, confusion obvious in his voice.

"What do you mean its not Scott?" Kirstin asked, stepping forward too. She came over to Mitch's side, then cursed under her breath when she recognized the man as one of her old friends. "We need to go upstairs."

And so the group did, quickly going up both flights of stairs, and only stopping when they all made it up there. The top floor had a small hallway with a room on either side of it. The room closest to them had its door open and it took a simple glance inside to cross it off of the list of places they hadn't looked. With that, they all turned their attention to the final room, the only one that had its door closed. The detective reached for it first, then all in one motion, turned the handle and pushed it open.

All three of them gasped at what they saw.

Laying on the floor was yet another man, most likely the second of Kirstin's two friends. Similarly to the other man, he was clearly beaten up.

Standing, or at least attempting to stand, over him was Scott. His knuckles were already turning ugly colors, the main one being red with cuts scattered over them. His face was flushed as well, a mark of blood on his face adding to it. He may have been standing, but with every breath he was rocking in place. Upon taking a better look at his face, the exhaustion and weakness could not have been more visible.

But none of these things mattered to Mitch. In fact the only one thing on his mind as he took off towards Scott was that he was alive and that Mitch was able to see him again. Once he got close enough, Mitch threw his arms around Scott, truly not caring about anyone or anything else.

"I'm sorry," Mitch muttered as he set his head onto Scott's chest. "I love you so much and I'm so sorry."

Mitch felt Scott's harsh breaths and felt Scott getting heavier in his arms with every moment that passed. But it wasn't at the forefront of his mind. He was finally back with Scott, he finally had Scott back in his arms.

And he was never going to let go again.

"Mitch, come on," the detective's voice rang out, pulling Mitch from his thoughts. "Let's get him out of here." It took all in Mitch's power to pull away from his blonde, but he knew it needed to be done. He unwrapped one of his arms from Scott, but kept the other around him to help him stay standing. Kirstin went to his other side and copied Mitch's actions. The detective went ahead of the trio, making sure their path out was clear, leaving Mitch and Kirstin to attempt to lead Scott out of the house. It took much longer than either one of them wanted, but soon Kirstin was taking the front passenger seat, Mitch was getting into the backseat with Scott, and the car was speeding off.

Even though they were away from the immediate danger, Scott still looked absolutely horrible and as if he was barely functioning. That alone was enough for Mitch to reach over, undo Scott's seatbelt, then gently pull on the blonde's torso, until Scott was half laying in the backseat, his head coming to a rest on Mitch's lap. He set one hand on Scott's side, then used his other one to ever so gently run it through Scott's messy hair. Mitch was fairly sure that he heard the detective talking on the phone about bringing Scott to a nearby hospital, but every ounce of his focus was on Scott, and making internal pleads to anyone that would listen to let Scott be okay.

He wasn't sure how much time passed or what passed for that matter, but the next thing Mitch was fully aware of was him and Scott sitting in a cramped doctor's office with a doctor looking over practically every inch of Scott.

The doctor on staff had been checking him over for what seemed like hours, even though the clock in the room was barely moving. After taking a look at the obvious, Scott's cut up and bloody hands, he redirected his attention to Scott's head. An examination took place, and apparently that plus Scott's attempt at retelling the story was enough to convince the doctor that Scott had a minor concussion. It was enough to make Mitch worried though, as he knew it could only worsen how shaken up Scott was already feeling.

At that moment, the doctor left the room, presumably to get something to cover up Scott's hands. Scott and Mitch's eyes followed him out until they couldn't, and then both men looked towards each other. Instantly, the air turned thick and any thoughts the two had became loud in their minds. However, they simply kept staring back at each other, subconsciously knowing a look on its own could say much more than either of them wanted to say in this moment. As if on cue, the doctor walked back into the room, then began attending to Scott again.

Within another hour or so Scott was ready to leave the hospital. That being said, it took a bit of convincing on Mitch's part to get the doctor to let Scott leave that quickly. Promises of Scott not driving himself home, taking it easy in the next few days, and going to his regular doctor within a week were all made before the doctor was willing to sign a release form of any kind. Once they were finally free, the duo came face to face with another unfamiliar person, who was yet another police officer. He talked about how he and the detective had worked together, and that he would be the one to give them a ride back home. Within a couple more minutes, they were back on the road driving through the pitch black.

"Back to L.A. I presume?" The officer asked after quite some time passed, glancing in the rearview mirror.

A simultaneous 'yeah' and 'um' were heard. Mitch quickly turned to Scott upon hearing his hesitation. He was only staring for a moment when Scott looked at Mitch as well.

"I think... its best for me to go back to family." Mitch could feel his eyes widening. "At least for a little bit."

"Scott..."

"Mitch."

Mitch could tell a lot of things by looking back into Scott's eyes. He could see how tired the blonde was, just how much he had truly gone through. He could see the sincerity in his eyes as well, and that was the thing that ended up winning Mitch over. Because while he really wanted Scott to come home and be safe and be with him, Mitch again had to trust him.

"Fine."

Mitch could see Scott clenching his jaw and was half expecting some remark to come out of his mouth, but he realized that it wouldn't come as Scott turned his head to look back out the window. With that, the car fell silent, without taking into account the sound of the heater trying its best to work.

The sun was already coming back up by the time they reached Los Angeles. Upon approaching the city, Mitch hoped Scott would suddenly change his mind, but he simply remained silent.

The next time any word was spoken was when the car pulled up to an unknown house. Mitch hadn't seen this house before, and wasn't even sure he had met these relatives before. Scott hardly seemed fazed by the sight of the house, and simply thanked the cop, then got out of the car and headed for the front door. Mitch watched through the car window as he knocked on the door, and then a moment later, as unknown people answered the door. The couple's faces quickly changed from confusion to utter shock and their arms were quickly wrapping him up.

And that's when the car drove away.

Nearly an hour later was when Mitch arrived back at his own house. He generously thanked the officer for driving him home, but then wasted no time going inside. Once the front door shut, he took his first deep breath, what felt like the first breath he had taken in nearly forever. As he looked at the house from his current spot, a hundred things went though his mind of what he could be doing. He could be getting in contact with management or friends or family or just be doing something in general tat could try and help out the situation. However, the feeling of overwhelming tiredness kicked in then. With that feeling in mind, he headed to his room with the thought of sleeping for a considerable amount of time was at the forefront of his mind. And by the time he laid down in his bed, he had every intention to do just that. Mitch woke up a couple times here and there throughout the day and eventually night to get food or answer close friend's or family's texts, but he would always fall back asleep shortly afterwards.

The final time he woke up, he ended up waking up for good. It was light out once again, leading him to believe that the next day had already come. It still felt strange to him to wake up and be in his own bed and house, as it had the few previous times he had awoken. Only he recognized his surroundings and accepted them did he hear noise coming from outside of his room. He grew confused, then tried desperately to place it.

Under normal circumstances, he would have chalked it up to being one of their neighbors being particularly loud. Maybe he would have even joked about it being one of the ghosts in their house. But after the two days he had, he was scared.

Before those thoughts could amount to anything more, Mitch's bedroom door opened, and Mitch couldn't have been more surprised to see his best friend stumble into the room.

"Scott?"

"Shh," Scott barely got out before he crossed the room and got on the bed next to Mitch. Mitch instantly turned on his side and managed to put his arms around Scott's neck to pull him even closer. Admittedly, it was a bit awkward of a position, but neither one of them cared.

An arm was lazily thrown over Mitch's waist, but even the simple action made the two feel better. The proximity of the two also allowed Scott to bury his face into Mitch's neck. Mitch could feel him take a deep, if slightly shaky, breath.

"I love you," Scott all but whispered.

"I love you too."

The two fell into a silence, but it was nothing like what they experienced yesterday morning. They both could have laid there for hours, listening to each others deep breaths and inadvertently calming themselves down by hearing the others heartbeat. Mitch wasn't sure how much time passed when he finally, barely pulled back. He didn't want to leave Scott's arms, especially now that he was face to face with Scott's relaxed expression, but he felt that it was time for the silence to be over.

"We need to talk about some things." Scott's eyes fluttered open

"I know." A pause. "But I just want to cuddle you for now."

Mitch was hesitant to let that idea go, but he did once he took a moment to realize what was going on. Scott was home, and more importantly, came home on his own. Scott may have had some external and internal injuries, but importantly, he was alive, and he was here. Mitch truly did want to talk, but in his heart, he knew it'd be okay.

They'd be okay.