The song birds sung there sweet lullaby, awaking the sleepy neighboring street. Chirping in time with one another as if they were an orchestra.

Vic awake, tired eyes and sleepy. He hadn't sleep a lot since Kellin. The tanned boy reached for his medication on the table before grabbing it, the cat still sound asleep in his lap.

He took it dry. He didn't really understand why people complained about it, but he wouldn't question. He sighed.

He was still tired. He was always tired these days. He laid his head back, his hand unconsciously going to rub the kitten on his lap, to at least feel someone or something's warmth. His stomach rumbled.

As he was half asleep, he didn't notice much going on around him.

He didn't realize the figure sitting on the couch next to him. "Looks like you slept well."

He screamed, jumping away, almost tumbling down.

"What the fuck, dude!" He held his heart, breathing heavily.

"Sorry." Chris laughed as he went to help the boy up, though the kitten rose Vic's lap as if he was protecting him.

The cat hissed at Chris, that raised his brows. "Aren't you allergic to cats?"

Vic sighed, taking the fluff ball and leaving on the floor, standing up. "Complicated," he mumbled. A growling sound was heard, making both men look at each other questioning. Chris shrugged and Vic shook his head, so they both glanced at the kitten. The little one meowed, his ears down, and cowered away, raising one of his paws at Vic.

"It's okay," Vic whispered as he stroked the animal.

The kitten pushed his head against Vic's hand, purring. The latter giggled some, shaking his head and standing up from his crouched position.

"You both hungry too?" He asked, cracking his fingers before scratching his eyes.

"A little." Chris replied. "But don't worry your pretty butt, I'll do it."

"Oh well, since you're insisting, " Vic shrugged smug, sitting back down, ready to rest a little longer. "Feel free to get whatever, " he hummed, smiling a little when the cat jumped on his lap again. He wouldn't question why that cat was so affectionate, but he didn't mind, not one bit.

For some reason cats took to him, he didn't know if it was his affection towards them or personality.

He sighed again, grinning at the big diamond eyes that gazed at him. The cat meowed, pawing at Vic's shirt before climbing up, standing face to face with the man.

"What's up, small one?" He petted in between his ears, realizing that his catwhiskets were a little lighter than the rest of his fur. He held stare with the cat, that seemed like was trying to tell something to him. At that moment, the cat resembled Kellin a lot. He gulped.

As much as he wanted his boy back, he also wanted the cat, and Chris.

He stood up, holding the cat with one hand on his bottom and the other around his chest. He walked to the kitchen seeing Chris bopping his head to a song that he whispered under his breath, shaking his hips from side to side while watching the stove. Vic laughed loudly, making Chris stop and stare at him nervously.

"Jesus Christ!" Vic wheezed, leaving the fluff ball on the counter while he held himself on it as well. "Why aren't you on America's Got Talent? " the shorter one teased.

"Never really though of it if I'm being honest." Chris responds as he keeps his eye on the cooking.

"Well," vic starts as he walks closer to Chris, "I was thinking," continued he, snaking his arms around the taller ones waist. "Why don't we make out own fun."

Chris was going to turn around, but both jumped when they heard a loud slam followed by a loud whimpering.

"Oh, my God!" Vic rushed to the cat, that was now on the ground, up with a paw on his chest and crying out. He took him up, holding him on his shoulder. The cat quietly hissed at Chris, that seemed to be surprised instead of worried like a few seconds before.

"I'm taking him to the doctors!" Vic exclaimed, taking his wallet and car keys. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry little one!" He sniffed.

"Vic, calm down. I don't think you need to take him to the veterinarian, " Chris followed him behind.

"What if he broke a paw or something?" Vic snapped, trying to open the door with the wrong key. "Oh my God, I'm such a bad owner," he cried out.

"You're not a bad owner." Chris started as he sat Vic on the sofa. "It was an accident, he'll be fine as he can move he paw and isn't complaining. He's snuggled up to you so he feels safe."

"But what on earth could have made that noise?" Vic responded as he stroked the cat the perched upon his shoulder.

Chris shrugged, looking lost. Vic hummed, holding the cat tighter. He looked through the window, seeing the neighbors car only.

"Maybe it was something upstairs, " he mumbled to himself and to Chris. He slowly set the kitten down, rushing quietly upstairs, grabbing the bat that he kept near the staircase.

He crept the stairs, Chris keeping a close eye downstairs. "This isn't a good idea." Chris called out though Vic hushed him.

"Shh, I think I heard something."

Vic narrowed his eyes, twisting his hands on the baseball bat. The wood creaked under his feet... They have never done that before. Vic frowned, raising a hand so Chris wouldn't follow him. He stopped walking, trying to listen to something. Then the cat rushed past them, to Vic room.

"Come on." Vic urged Chris as he followed the cat down to his room.

"Vic, wait, maybe we should-" he cut himself with a groan, gazing at Vic went without even listening. He sighed, walking closely after him.

That when he heard Vic scream and the cat hiss. "What the fuck are you doing here?!" Vic screeched, dropping the bat. He seemed ready to explode. Chris went to his side, looking a little surprised and confused. Mike giggled, barely able to stand up. Harry snorted by Mike's fall, clutching his stomach as he obnoxiously chuckled. Vic sighed, going near Mike and helping him up.

"Seriously, it's like 10 am, fucker." Mike hummed, suddenly hugging Vic with both arms.

"You're so small, Vickiepooh," he giggled.

"Mike you're drunk, come on let's get you to bed." Vic spoke as he helped his brother to stand. "And as for you, you 10 seconds to get out of my house until I throw your pathetic ass out."

"Hmmm, but I'm so comfy, " Harry giggled from the floor. He sighed, his hand sat on the floor, petting the carpet under it. He glanced at the cat that looked ready to pounce on him. He smiled.

"Oh, hey Kelly," he laughed harder. In his fuzzy head, he didn't know what he was saying. He wasn't even thinking. Everything reminded of the guilt and regret for driving that specific boy to disappear and fake his own suicide.

"Chris, can you stay with him until I come back?"

"Yeah, for sure." Vic sighed, basically dragging his rambling brother to the guest room.

Chris watched as Vic almost fell with Mike. "Shit." He muttered, jogging up to Vic and putting Mike up with one arm around his shoulders. He ignored Vic's request of getting back on the room. Maybe leaving Harry alone for a second wouldn't be so bad.

The kitten slowly walked up to him, all defensive.

The kitten stood in front of the rapist, staring him down as if he was protecting his owner.

"You're so big, aren't ya?" Harry spoke, raising his hand to try and pet the furball. The cat hissed louder, his paw hitting his hand away, accidentally tearing his hand with his nails.

"Ouch!" The man whimpered, taking his hand to his chest, turning to look at the ceiling. He sighed, feeling the blood slowly coating his shirt.

The kitten relaxed slightly, sitting down straight as he waited for Vic and Chris to return.

They almost threw Mike on the bed, both sighing at the weight off of them. Mike was heavier than he looked. Vic didn't say anything before he almost ran to his room with Chris trailing behind him.

The cat heard them coming back, so he stood and jogged up to Vic, meowing softly. Vic sighed, turning to Chris.

"What the hell do we do with him?" He muttered. He really didn't know if it would be morally correct to simply throw him out of his house on the way he was, even if he knew he wouldn't under any circumstance take that man in, not even if he was fucked out of his mind.

Chris stood still on the hallway as Vic copied him. "Look, I know you hate him but you can't throw him out in this state. Why don't you let him sleep it off then he can leave." Chris trailed off as he noticed when Vic fists balled at the idea. "Vic, please. You do t have to stay with him, I will."

Vic scoffed out a chuckle. "You really think that disgusting shit is deserving of that?" He spoke bitterly, "you know I'm too damn pacific with everyone and that I just don't hate anyone unless they earn it. And hate doesn't even describe what I feel." Vic really was peaceful. There were a lot of people who hurt him, but he only hated two; Harry and his mother. Those managed to break him on the most painful way, those two took everything from him and he just couldn't forgive that so easily.

"I understand your reasons but you k ow you're better than that. Please, if not for him, for me. You're better than him."

"Fucking fine," he muttered. "But you'll deal with him, I'll stay as far as I can." With that he left the room, the kitten softly padding along. Vic threw himself on the couch, palming his lap as if telling the cat to jump on it. The cat would've done it anyways. He sighed softly, petting his new pet.

"It's hard, kitty. When you live someone so much only to not know where they are. And Chris, I guess I love him too. God, I just want to get fucked."

The cat meowed, purring softly as he got petted. "I wish someone would pet me too, "he licked his lips. His mind kind of wandered to dirty places before going to sweet places where he just had someone looking at him like he was the moon itself in the most beautiful way. The bad thing was that in every scenario he pictured Kellin. He did try imagining Chris but it wasn't the same. He pouted softly.

"Where the fuck are you, Kellybear?" And as if on cue, his phone buzzed.

He grabbed his phone the table, reading the notification. He exhaled hastily. His heart picked up, he gulped, reading it over and over again.

*KQuinnB wants to send you a message!*

He had to keep re-reading the notification, screaming internally.

He gulped, then exhaled.

"You okay? You look like you saw a ghost." Chris asked, sitting beside him. Vic didn't say anything, only tilted his phone so he could see. "Oh... Oh! Vic, that's amazing! So they were really telling the truth?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure."

"Where's  the location it says?" Chris asks.

"It says 'basement'?" Vic frowned. "Why would it say that?" He mumbled. He turned to Chris, that shrugged.

"See what's the message."

Vic opened it, reading the message as a confused look sprawled along his face. "It's a riddle. It says, 'find me if you can, look close to your heart'."

"Uh... Dude, you know I suck with that kind of thing." Chris awkwardly spoke. "Maybe you should text back and ask where?"

"I don't know. What if he's sending a cryptic message because he's, like, in trouble?"

"True, we cant be direct in case he is in trouble." Vic spoke, biting his lip as he thought. "Wait, he's speaking in code. If he is in trouble he'll send through a six digit code. We made this agreement up that if one of us in in danger, the other would know."

Chris stood there, listening to the other process everything, after all, Vic was the smarter one. "He said 'look close to your heart' what does that mean?"

Vic thought for a moment, "I've got it. This." Spoke the smaller one

as he took off the golden necklace Kellin had got him as a birthday present. It held a key at the bottom. "Close to my heart. It's this key, the one that'll unlock any door."

"We need them digits though." Chris interrupted.

"Uh..." Vic squinted his eyes before standing up, rushing to his room and grabbing his laptop from the table, ignoring the man on the ground. He went downstairs, sitting again.

"When we were kids, we'd do this stupid thing of taking random letters and change to numbers. Usually only vowels though," he opened a file, then wrote down 'find me if you can, '. Then he started changing all the 'i's to 1 and 'e's to 3 and 'o's to 0 and 'a's to 4. They didn't know what letter the 'u' could be, so they agreed on 7.

"131074." Chris read out loud. "What the hell is that supposed to lead us to?"

"I don't know, hopefully to Kellin."

Chris wrote the numbers down along with the letters they matched underneath. "We can't make any words out of it. Did you two ever speak in code?"

"Yeah, we did." Vic was about to speak about it before a loud rumble was heard in the room. Both males looked at the cat, that sat beside Vic.

He stood up, "I'll get him something to eat then we'll finish it."

"Okay." Chris spoke as Vic left. He turned to the cat with sympathy in his eyes. "He seems careless but he isn't, that man there, he really likes you."

The cat meowed silently, padding after Vic, his tail wiggling from side to side. Vic took the cat food he got from Mike, putting in a bowl after making sure it wasn't cracked.

"There you go, little guy, " he wiggled his finger in between the cat's ears, smiling at the little purring he made before he started eating.

"You're so good with him." Chris complimented as he started their new conversation.

Vic blushed before he smirked.

"So I'm a good boy? Do I deserve a reward?" He wiggled his eyebrows in Chris' direction, biting his lip

"On your bed, now." Chris ordered as he removed his shoes.