Two Days
Caiden seems to have disappeared and no one can find him. Where is the safest place on Earth right now?



Two days.

It has been two whole days and no one has heard from Caiden. His phone has been shut off, and just yesterday the number was disconnected. Levi cannot get a hold of the Aussie, and from what Kieren knows, Nix is going crazy with anticipation. Kieren, however, is just worried.

No matter what, the two boyfriends always tell each other that they love them before signing offline. Saturday afternoon, though, Caiden just stopped talking. He was idle for lord knows how long before his screen name signed off for a final time. Since then, no one has had any contact with the punk, and it is making Kieren think crazy thoughts.
What if something happened to Caiden? Would anyone know to call someone - ANYONE - to let them know? Is he okay? Is he even alive?

"I can't take this anymore!" yells Kieren, throwing his cell phone against the wall of the sitting room. His flat mate, Kireina, looks up from her sketchbook with a startled look on her face. "Do you think he knows?"

"About Adrion?" asks Kireina softly. She moves her book to the side and stands up. The girl's figure is still fine, and Kieren has a hard time remembering that she is pregnant with his child due to their drinking last January. Kireina walks across the room, picking up the three pieces of Kieren's phone and puts it back together. "I highly doubt it, unless you told someone that he's friends with."

Kieren nods. "I told Levi. I called him when Cai and I were in Paris and told him everything."

The girl hands her flat mate his phone. "He might have slipped," she says realistically. "Could you blame him?"

Biting his lip, Kieren looks away. He does something that he never has before, and moves to lean against the ceiling-to-floor windows, pressing his forehead against the glass and staring down at the street below. "Maybe I should fly down to Adelaide to check on him? I'm so worried about him."

Kireina lets out a sigh and steps behind Kieren, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing against his back. "I'm sure he's okay," she says softly, trying to comfort her friend.

"What if he found out about you?"

"About...me? You're not developing more than friends feelings for me now, are you?" Kireina pulls back, making a disgusted face.

Kieren shakes his head. "No, about the pregnancy," he replies. "I haven't told him yet."

"Uh, yeah...you need to"-

"I know"-

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

The two flat mates turn and look at the door in silence for a moment.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

Kieren pushes himself away from the window and Kireina moves to sit on the sofa. Walking towards the door, Kieren hears another set of knocking before he turns the knob and pulls the wooden door open. What he finds surprises him.

"C-Caiden?"

"H-h-hi..."

The raver stares down at his boyfriend, unable to speak for a long moment. Caiden's face full of an assortment of colors: black, blue, yellow, purple, and dried-blood-brown. His left eye is slightly swollen, and there is a cut on the punk's lip. On his neck are fingerprints bruised into the flesh. Caiden carries a black backpack, and in his hands is a stuffed Care Bear that he holds tightly to his chest. All in all, he looks like a broken child, full of fear.

"What happened to you?" whispers Kieren, moving to touch Caiden's face.

Quickly, Caiden pulls back, trying to avoid the raver's touch. "That...offer...is it still open?" he asks quietly. "About me...staying here?" Kieren stares for a moment, unable to process what his lover is talking about. "Because if it's not, I'm sure I can find somewhere else"-

"No, no." Kieren pulls the door open as far as it can. "Let me take your bag. The offer is always open, Caiden."

The punk slowly hands his belongings to Kieren, keeping the Care Bare close to his heart, before entering the flat. The sunlight beats in through the windows, and he sees Kireina standing up to leave the room after one look at him. "I'm-I'm sorry"-

"Don't be," whispers Kieren, making to reach for Caiden's hand; however, Caiden pulls away when he feels his boyfriend's fingers brush against his, afraid of the physical touch. "Please..."

Kieren notes the older man's actions; a bit of deja vu fills his mind as he nods slightly. "Would you...would you like some tea?"

Suddenly, Caiden's stomach lets out a small growl. "Yes, please." He has not eaten anything for three days.

With great care, Kieren sets his boyfriend's belongings on the edge of the sofa before he leads Caiden into the kitchen. Caiden sits down at the table, folding his arms and burring his head into the stuffed Care Bear. Reaching for the teapot, Kieren turns on the faucet to fill it up with tap water, watching the punk. He turns on the stove and reaches into the pantry and shifts through his varied flavors of tea, searching for something that might relax the Aussie, choosing two bags of Biglow's Sweet Dreams flavor with chamomile in it.

The teapot whistles when it is boiling, and Kieren fills up a porcelain cup for Caiden with the two teabags and the hot water. He carries the cup and it's matching saucer, setting it down in from the punk. "Here you go."

"Thank you," mumbles Caiden, lifting his head and graciously taking the tea.

"Cai," begins Kieren, sitting down next to the older man. "I usually won't ask, but what happened in Adelaide? Why hasn't anyone been able to get a hold of you for the last three days? I was so worried. And Levi was, and I heard that your friend, Nix, was completely off his rocker thinking of you"-

"I don't want to talk about it," answers Caiden quickly and quietly, taking a sip of the flavored water. "Not now."

Kieren is suddenly at a loss of words. Obviously, this is not about Kieren sleeping around with Adrion, nor is this about Caiden sleeping around with Nix. The raver notes how it appears that someone had completely beaten the shit out of his boyfriend, but he cannot fathom a reason as to why. "Are you hungry? I can order carry out."

"Yeah," mumbles Caiden, his stomach rumbling again. "You don't mind, do you?"

Nodding, Kieren pulls his repaired cell phone out of his pocket, where he had put it when Kireina handed it back to him, and steps out into the sitting room. He calls a local pizza delivery service and orders a large pizza with only cheese. After he is done, Kieren closes the clamshell and opens the door to the kitchen once more.

Caiden is once more laying on the Care Bear, tears now streaming from his eyes and soaking into the toy.

"Caiden?" whispers Kieren. The only response the raver gets is a mumbled grunt; Caiden is slowly falling asleep. "How about we eat the pizza I ordered in the morning?" Caiden nods his head, pressing his face into the blue Care Bear to conceal his tears.

With a sigh, Kieren reaches down to place his right arm under Caiden's legs and his left hand on the Aussie's back. He lifts him up with ease, pressing Caiden to his chest and making way to his room. Caiden nudges the taller man's shoulder with his cheek, feeling safe in Kieren's arms before he feels his body fall on Kieren's bed. Kieren slowly begins to remove his boyfriend's shoes and socks, then moves to unbutton and unzip the black Dickies that hang loosely around the punk's hips. The plaid boxers and pink Letter Kills shirt is left on as Kieren reaches under Caiden to pull the sheets over the small body.

Murmuring slightly, Caiden's small frame shakes a little at the loss of touch. The raver notes this and brushes a strand of slightly greasy black hair from Caiden's eyes, placing a kiss on the older man's forehead. Without making a sound, Kieren leaves the room, closing the door behind him as he opens his cell phone. He flips down through his phonebook, clicking on Levi's number.

The phone rings twice before Levi picks up. "Lev? It's Kier," he says softly.

"Any news yet?" asks Levi. His voice full of concern.

Kieren looks down the hallway at his door. "Yeah," he replies. "Cai got a hold of me."

"Where the hell has he been?"

Suddenly, Kieren thinks that calling Levi was a bad idea. He does not want Levi to see Caiden the way that he is, bullied and bruised, practically broken on the inside as well as the out. "He's fine. Don't worry," says Kieren, sitting down on the sofa. "I just...I wanted to let you know he's alive. Will you let Nix know, please? I really don't need him barging in on me, demanding to know what I've done to him"-

"Have you told him yet?"

Silence.

"I'll take that as a no." Levi's voice is harsh and flat. "I will tell him, you know. I'm not lying"-

"I'm waiting for the right time," says Kieren quickly. "Right now, I don't think he can handle it. Let me...I don't know if I'll be seeing Adrion for awhile anyway, so I'll use this time to really prepare. I'm going to tell him, and I would appreciate if you didn't before I did."

Silence again.

"Okay, Kier," agrees Levi finally. "I'll be sure to tell Nix, and that's for letting me know. If you talk to him before I do, will you send him my love?"

"Of course."

"I'll talk to you later."

"Yeah. See you around." Kieren closes the clamshell once more and waits for the pizza to arrive.

Caiden, however, spends the rest of the afternoon and that night tossing and turning in Kieren's bed. He clutches the Care Bear for all that it is worth as he dreams of blood and spit and Chuck, violating him over and over again. Tears do not pause from falling, and sweat covers his body. The next morning when he wakes up screaming, he is terribly dehydrated.