Carlos yawned as he walked into the kitchen, pulling open a drawer and rummaging through it until he found a small orange pill bottle. He popped a little white tablet in his mouth and washed it down with a bottle of water. He smiled when his friends came into the room and joined him in the kitchen, each of them searching for something to eat for breakfast.

"Want some toast Litos?" Logan asked absentmindedly as he pulled out a loaf of bread and brought it over to the toaster.

Carlos was smiling like an idiot as he nodded his head, "Thanks Logie!" He said happily as he went to sit on the barstool on the other side of the counter, content with watching his friends in their usual morning juggle for food.

"Drop me a bagel would you?" James asked as he took a tub of butter out of the fridge for the three of them.

"Orange juice or apple juice?" Kendall asked, holding both bottles in his hand.

"Orange," James and Logan answer simultaneously, causing Kendall to return the apple juice to the fridge before digging in the freezer for a frozen breakfast sandwich.

"You left your pills out Carlos," Kendall said as he tossed the bottle to the teen in question, "You know my mom doesn't want Katie to see that stuff,"

Carlos pouted, "Katie wouldn't mind, would she?" He asked, playing with the bottle in his hands.

James shrugged, "Probably not, but Mama Knight is protective like that,"

"I think she just doesn't want to expose Katie to any mental illnesses," Logan hypothesized, glancing back at the other boys before looking back at the toaster which had finished heating their food.

Carlos just pouted more at that, "It's not that bad, even if I'm not taking the pills," He'd been very young when his parents first found out about his mental illness, before he had met Kendall, James, and Logan, so they knew very little about what he was like without his pills. They did know, however, about the promise that they had been forced to make to his mother that they would make sure he took his medicine every morning.

"Just put 'em away Litos, before we have to endure my mom's wrath," Kendall said with a shudder. He knew better than anyone that things did not end well when you upset his mother.

With a huff, Carlos stood up and went to his shared room with Logan. He opened one of the drawers on the dresser and threw the bottle on top of the clothes, hardly paying attention to where it went. When he returned to the kitchen, the three of them were standing around the table eating, Carlos' seat remaining empty with a plate of freshly buttered toast in front of it. He eagerly jumped over to them and began eating the food prepared for him. The other three just rolled their eyes and chuckled, Carlos never failed to summon his endless energy at any time of day.

"Well Gustavo's in Seattle for the next two days, what do you guys want to do?" Kendall asked as he finished up his breakfast sandwich.

"Oh, Biohazard Blast 6 just came out last Friday. We could go buy it and give it a test run," James said with a grin.

"I hate all of you!"

"Yeah well I hate you more!"

"You're a damn cheater!"

"No I'm not! You are!"

"You know what? I'm moving out!"

"Me too!"

"Good! I don't want any of you here!"

Carlos felt himself being pushed out of the apartment alongside James and Logan who were storming out in rage. He'd gone unheard for the last five minutes while he tried to stop his friends from packing, which left him all alone in the hallway.

Sniffling slightly, Carlos went to the lobby, wondering what he was going to do. Figuring he might as well find a place to stay until all this blew over, he sat at one of the computer into lobby and began looking up places to stay.

He was lucky, ever since Griffin had given them five thousand dollar bonuses, he'd kept in touch with his personal assistant, whose name he later found out was Mason. It hadn't taken the brilliant boy very long at all to climb the ranks and start his own million dollar business in which he allowed Carlos to hold stock. So to put it simply, Carlos had a lot of money in the bank.

He surfed the web for a while before finding a basement he could rent near Rocque Records for pretty cheap. After finishing the process of renting it, he sighed sadly and left the lobby to get a cab. He hadn't even had any time to pack his own bags because he had spent all his effort trying to stop his friends from leaving.

Once he got to the shabby little basement, he messed with the bed in the corner. Fluffing the pillow and straightening the blankets. He let out a huff as he sat on the bed, now he just had to wait for everyone to stop being so stupid.

Carlos was a little disoriented when he woke up in the morning, not quite sure where he was. It wasn't until he actually opened his eyes and saw the dingy basement that he remembered what had happened the previous day.

A small frown pulled at his lips when he felt the small itch in the back of the mind that he felt every morning. He hadn't brought his medicine with him. He thought about just not taking it but he had promised his mother that he would take it every single morning. So he got up out of bed in the same clothes that he had been wearing yesterday and climbed the stairs back up to street level. Gustavo was coming back tomorrow so they would all have to see each other again anyway.

He took another cab back to the palmwoods, keeping to himself as he walked through the lobby and rode the elevator up to their floor. He walked to the door labeled 2J and didn't hesitate to reach towards the handle to open the door.

He felt a small panicked feeling when the knob didn't turn. Since Mr. Bitters had refused to issue them six key cards, they normally left the door unlocked so all the boys could come and go whenever they pleased. But now it was locked, why was it locked?

He knocked on the door, shifting from foot to foot as worry began to pool in his gut. He'd promised his mother that he would take his medicine. He was so young when he started taking it so he wasn't even positive what might happen to him without it, "Hey, Kenny? Are you in there?" He asked nervously, knocking on the door again. When no one answered he felt the panicked feeling return.

Taking a couple deep breaths to calm himself down, he went back down to the lobby, twiddling his thumbs nervously the entire time. He wasn't normally this nervous, it wasn't like anything bad could happen if he skipped one day right? Or maybe he was feeling nervous because the medicine wasn't in his system making him feel better. The thought alone only made him feel worse. He yelped when he bumped into someone, quickly backing up.

"Carlos?" He immediately feel himself calm down at the soothing voice of Mama Knight, "Are you okay?" She asked.

"Hi Mama Knight, could you let me into the apartment? The door is locked," He said with a sheepish smile.

She gave him a kind smile, reaching into her gym bag and producing a golden key card, "Just take my key, sweetie, and make sure to leave it open, okay?"

Carlos grinned and took the key, kissing Mama Knight on the cheek before racing back up to the apartment. He used the key to enter 2J, finding no one inside when he walked in. With a small shrug, he went to what used to be his and Logan's shared room and opened the drawers to the dresser. He frowned when he couldn't find the pill bottle at first, going through the drawers a second time to make sure he hadn't missed it.

He furrowed his brows together and sat on his bed, thinking about where he had thrown it yesterday. Panic set in his when he realized he just have thrown it into one of Logan's drawers. His friend must had been so mad that he didn't notice to bottle when he was packing.

Carlos' breathing picked up as he worried about breaking his promise. Would his mother hate him? Ever talk to him again? Those questions and a million others flew through his mind as he made his way back to the small basement he was calling home for the time being. He curled up in the bed and hugged his knees.

Minute by minute, he could feel himself slipping. The strangest thing? He liked it. It felt like he was finally peeling off the mask that he had worn his entire life and let his true self out. It made him ridiculously happy until he remembered that his friends all hated each other. A pout formed on his lips as he sat up, deciding it was time to do something about that.

"Ugh, I can't stand James and Logan,"

"I hate Kendall and James,"

"You know I've never liked Logan and Kendall,"

Carlos giggled from his spot on his bed in the dingy little basement. He loved it when all of his friends were together with him like they were now. It would be even better if they would all wake up so they could play games together.

His smile grew when he saw Kendall's eyes flutter open. The blond seemed not to know where he was for a long time before finally taking in his surroundings, "C-Carlos?" He asked in shock, his eyes widening when he found one of his wrists shackled to the wall with a yard long chain just like the other two boys that were on either side of him, still unconscious, "Where are we, what's going on?"

"Shh," Carlos hushed playfully, giggling like a child, "Wait until James and Logan wake up. I wouldn't want to leave them out," He said, very nearly bouncing on the bed. He'd always had a lot of energy but it was different now. It sounded far more innocent than he ever had before despite his actions reading the exact opposite.

"Carlos, did you do this?!" Kendall asked loudly, panic clear in his voice. Funny. Carlos remembered panicking earlier, but he felt a lot better now.

Kendall's voice seemed to stir the other two band members, he woke up with very similar reactions to Kendall.

"Litos…?" Logan said as he looked around at the dark basement they were all in, fear quickly pooling in his eyes, "What's going on, buddy…?" He asked, clearly trying to be friendly just to stay on Carlos' good side.

Carlos didn't really care, as long as they were all together and having fun, "You know guys, I've realized something. I hate my medicine. It makes me feel so boxed up and fake, like I'm not a real person," He said with a shudder, "I came back for it this morning but I guess Logie took it by accident," He said cheerfully, smiling at Logan.

The other two boys immediately whipped their heads around to glare at Logan, who paled upon realizing that this was his fault. Kendall and James suddenly shouted when an electrical current passed through them.

"What was that?!" James shouted, twitching slightly when he felt the after effects of the shock.

Carlos was pouting at them, "No fighting guys, we're all best friends forever remember?" He scolded, holding a little remote in his hand with three buttons and a dial, "And this is going to help me make sure of that!" He said, smiling again as he flicked the remote off.

"You hooked us up to a shock system?" Logan squeaked, suddenly trying to see if he could get the shackle off on his wrist which only earned him a jolt of electricity.

"Of course I did, it's the only way to stop you guy from fighting!" Carlos said, "Because we're going to be best friends forever and play games all day, whenever Gustavo doesn't need us that is."

He saw Kendall's face light up with an idea, something he was used to seeing, and he expected the blond to share his idea, only he didn't, "You know what, you're right Carlos. Let's play some games until Gustavo needs us. Say, is he back yet? I can't exactly tell what day it is," He said innocently, ignoring how his other two bandmates looked at him like he was crazy.

"Oh yeah he is! In fact, Rocque Records actually isn't very far from this place. Pretty cool huh?" Carlos said with a giggle.

"Well then we probably don't have much time to have fun, why don't you come over here and uncuff us and we can play some games!" Kendall said enthusiastically, seeing the other two in his peripheral vision begin to catch on.

Carlos frowned at Kendall, playing with the little remote in his hand before pressing the middle button and causing Kendall to shout again, "I'm not stupid Kenny. You're going to run to Gustavo and tell him I'm crazy aren't you? Why don't you like me? I thought we were friends," He said, tears forming in his eyes.

"Carlos…"

The teen turned to look at Logan, who seemed to be having an internal struggle. He knew Logan had the softest heart of the three of them and the brainiac could never stand to see him cry. Carlos sniffled and wiped his eyes, looking back at Logan, "Hey Logie, if I take off the shackles, will you come here and sit with me?"

Logan hesitated for a moment before nodding. He shared a room with the overeager blob that was Carlos so he was naturally closer to him than the other two were.

Carlos dug under his pillow and retrieved a small key before crawling off the bed and walking over to Logan. He kneeled down and took Logan's wrist gently, unlocking the cuff and letting the metal slide away. He went back over to the bed and looked at Logan expectantly with horribly innocent eyes that just begged for friendship.

His eyes lit up when he saw Logan stand up and walk over to the bed, sitting next to him and enveloping him in a hug, "I knew you'd understand Logie!" He said happily, hugging back.

The other two had remained quiet up until now, in which James began shouting in rage, "Are you crazy Logan? Why didn't you run? Or get Gustavo? Yanno so we can stop being prisoners to this lunatic!"

Carlos flinched at the less that kind name, holding onto the front of Logan's shirt in search of comfort. He felt better upon feeling Logan's warm hand rubbing his back in soothing circles, "You're not a prisoner, you're an idiot," He heard Logan snap, making his heart flutter at the thought of Logan defending him, "And a pretty insensitive friend,"

Carlos pulled at Logan's sleeve, a small pout on his lips, "No fighting…" He said weakly, knowing that without the shackles he couldn't really make Logan do anything, he could only hope that he would be a good friend and listen to him.

"I'm sorry, Litos," Logan said, stroking the shorter brunette's hair.

Carlos felt completely at ease with Logan holding him the way he was. This was what he wanted, he wanted his friends to love him just as much as they did when he was still taking him medicine. He wanted his friends to love the real him.

"Now why don't we play some of those games you were talking about?" Logan suggested, offering Carlos a small smile who returned it with a bright grin.

Hey guy! So how was that? This idea just attacked me in the middle of the night and wouldn't leave me alone so I had to write it down and I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. What do you guys think about Logan? Is he crazy? Does he have feelings for Carlos? Does he know something that the other two don't? Is he hiding something from the other three? Is he just gaining Carlos' trust? Let me know what you guys thing would happen next and if you're even interested in another chapter. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your reviews!