XO (FOB FanFic ft. Brendon Urie)

[Chapter 3] Stick Together

After our breakfast, we returned to the hotel room. Unfortunately neither of us had a key card to get back in. However, Claire had a bobby pin and was fortunately able to pick the lock, getting us into the room.

The room had been cleaned - the bed was made, Andes chocolates were placed on the centers of the recently fluffed pillows, the curtains were pushed symmetrically to the sides, and the lamp was stood back up, a new light bulb in its socket. On the desk was a small slip of paper with a pen set down on top of it. I walked over to it and picked up the paper, causing the pen with hotel's logo printed on the shaft to roll onto the floor. It was a note written by the housekeeper who cleaned the room.

Please come back soon! Like how about with your friends in thirty days? That is if you even find them by then... -XO

My eyes widened. It was no ordinary housekeeper. It was XO. That means the person who kidnapped my friends was here. And that means they couldn't be far away right now, I thought but didn't tell Claire who had walked over to the bed and was eating one of the chocolates happily.

"So, am I going to stay with you or are you going to stay with me?" She asked, her mouth full and some of the chocolate she was eating smeared on her two front white teeth. I failed to suppress a laugh. "What?" She inquired, a worried expression crossing her face.

"Your teeth," I muttered, followed by another laugh.

Her eyes widened before she rushed into the bathroom and shrieked in horror, starting to rub her teeth clean with her finger. I burst into laughter, having to sit down on the bed so I wouldn't fall over. She came back out a half a minute later and smiled at me oddly, saying through her closed teeth, "Is it all gone?" I nodded my head yes, failing to recompose myself. She heaved a sigh and put her hands on her hips, "That was serious issue, Patrick." I couldn't respond to her I was laughing so hard. She rolled her eyes before repeating herself, "Stop laughing. I need to know if I'm going to stay with you or if you're going to stay with me."

I sighed and straightened my posture, "Why do we have to stay with each other?"

"Well, because how else am I supposed to help you find your friends?"

I groaned, "Why can't we just exchange numbers and go our separate ways with the promise that if either of us find something we contact each other?" I really just wanted to go home, kiss my wife, and get cleaned up, but I didn't want to tell her that. She would think I'm selfish and probably annoy me even more than she already was.

"Because then whoever 'XO' is will...they'll probably..." It was obvious to tell that Claire was having difficulty coming up with a reason. She either didn't have a reason why we should stick together or she did have a reason and she just didn't want to tell me. She stomped her foot and said, "Just tell me how we're going to do this."

I rolled my eyes. There were two options - we leave each other or we stick together. Say we do leave each other. Something could happen if we were separated. For example, she would get kidnapped too. And even though I didn't really know her all that much, nor do I like her all that much, I would feel like I would have to find her. It would be mean and wrong if I just left her to die. If we stuck together, there wouldn't be that risk. But then where would we stay if we stuck together? Not my house. Elisa wouldn't like me bringing another girl home. So that left her place. I don't know who she lived with, if she lived with anyone, but it was better than having to explain to my wife I had to spend almost all day with this girl so we could figure out on how to save the rest of the band.

I heaved a sigh and retorted, "I guess I'll stay with you."

"Awesome," She retorted with a smile, relatively pleased that I chose that option. I wonder what her response would've been if I told her she could stay with me. "When are we leaving, honey?" She asked, walking up to the bed and sitting beside me.

"As soon as you're ready, sweetie," I mocked her. She glanced over at me, the corner of her dark red lips curling up. "What?"

*****

I zipped my pants up and she buttoned her blouse together as the two of us walked out of the room. "That's the last time, alright?" I said to her as we walked down the hallway towards the elevator, "I'm married."

"Yeah, and I've traveled in the TARDIS," She replied sarcastically, looking up at me and grinning.

"You watch Doctor Who?" I asked her. She nodded her head yes. "Hey, me too." She smiled. I shook my head and showed her my left hand, pointing at the band wrapped around the base of my ring finger, "But I'm serious, I'm married. And doing what I just did...it's wrong. And unfaithful. And it shall never be spoken of again."

She scoffed, "Tons of guys do it all the time. Trust me."

"But I'm not one of those guys."

"Sure."

I rolled my eyes and pressed the down arrow button for the elevator. The two of us stood there in silence.

My hands were tied behind my back and a person's hand gripped my shoulder tightly. My vision was coming in and out of focus, but from the looks of it, I was standing in front of a set of shiny metallic elevator doors. The doors slid open to the sides and the person pushed me into the elevator. I tripped on my feet and fell into the elevator. The person whose hand was on my shoulder entered the elevator with me and pressed the button for the eighth floor. "W-Where are you taking me?" I managed to say, or at least I thought I said it. I was so heavily drugged that my words probably came out in a slur. "Stand up and then shut up, fatass," The person snapped at me, "And don't ask anymore questions, got it?"

The doors slid open to the side and Claire and I stepped in. We both went to press the button for the lobby, retracting our hands almost immediately at the same time. The two of us laughed awkwardly before I leaned forward and pushed the button in. The circle with the "L" printed on it lit up and the doors slid shut, the elevator starting its descend to the lobby.

*****

I followed Claire into the relatively nice apartment building. She led me upstairs to the fourth floor where she took out her bobby pin that she used earlier today to get into the hotel room and began to pick this door's lock.

"You don't have your own key?" I asked her as she tinkered with the doorknob.

She stopped what she was doing and glanced back at me, "I did. But does it look like we have anything but our clothes?" I stared at her for a second or two before I started feeling around for my phone and wallet in my pockets. They were missing. "You see? That's why I'm using a bobby pin." She went back to her task and eventually got in. She stood up, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and walked in, turning on the lights.

Her apartment was very dark, even with the lights, because of the chalk paint on all four walls with various quotes and sayings (which I think were actually lyrics...from which songs, I couldn't tell) and doodles drawn in light pink, light blue, light green, and light yellow chalk on them.

She walked over to the kitchen and turned on a light in there. The walls were a light green and her appliances were stainless steel. She opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. She turned around and looked at me, holding the bottle up, "You want some?" I shook my head no. "Your choice." She pulled out a wine glass from the cabinet above the sink and set it down on the counter, uncapping the bottle and pouring the red liquid into the glass.

"So you live here?" I asked, stepping further into the apartment and taking in my surroundings. She had pictures almost everywhere. On the walls, on tables, on the mantle above the fireplace. Some of them were of her and who I assumed was her parents and or siblings. Others were of her and these two girls. But a majority of them were of her and this guy who looked eerily similar to Brendon Urie.

"Yeah," She answered, walking around the counter with the glass in her hand, "I've been living here for the past year."

"Do you live here alone?"

"Yup," She looked down at her drink and swirled it around before putting the glass to her still-tinted red lips.

There was a long moment where neither of us said anything to each before she walked around the counter and sat down on her couch, looking up at me, "Why don't you tell me more about these friends of yours that we have to find?" She patted the seat next to her.

I heaved a sigh and sat down. "Okay. Where do you want me to begin?"