Author's Notes: I'm glad to see that people think this story is so good! I strive to do my best with my writing. Thank you for all of the good comments! Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others :D Don't forget to review!

Henry sounded irritated. "What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what I said," Chris replied simply. "Why would I want to spend my birthday with my family? This is boring. I want to go out and dance somewhere and have a good time. I already spent my twentieth birthday with you guys and it wasn't anything special. I want to go out and have fun on this birthday. Get a drink or two, or something. I dunno. I'll see you guys later."

Without so much as another word about it, Chris orbed out of P3, though to where, none of them knew. This left the other five behind.

"Good point. In fact, why should we even be with family right now?" Wyatt, who had been sitting, now moved to stand and folded his arms over his chest. "There's plenty of stuff I need to get done. I'm gonna head home and talk to mom and dad about moving out. I don't want to be at the manor any longer than I have to. I'm tired of sharing a room with Chris."

"But Wyatt, what—" Patty began, but she was cut off when Wyatt, too, orbed up and out of the club. She turned and looked at Mel, frustrated. "What the hell is up with your brothers?"

"I dunno," Mel said. She, too, shrugged. "But I don't really want to stay her much longer either, honestly. Not if Chris isn't even gonna be here. This party was for him. And, you know, I canceled a date to be here…" She scratched her chin. "I wonder if he'd still want to meet up with me tonight?"

Patty, Penny and Henry all looked at each other in confusion.

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When Wyatt orbed into the manor again, Piper was in the living room, nestled into the corner of the couch while she read a book. She noticed her son's appearance almost right away. Having not expected him back for a while, she was surprised to see him standing there in the foyer. She looked over the rim of her glasses.

"Wyatt? What're you doing back home so early?"

Wyatt looked momentarily caught off guard. "Oh! Hey, Mom. I'm glad you're here."

Piper snorted. "Where else would I be? You only left about an hour ago."

"Uh…where's dad?"

"He's in the kitchen, getting a snack. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," Wyatt said. But he shook his head. "Actually, hang on…"

While Wyatt stepped into the kitchen, presumably to grab Leo, Piper shifted on the couch, closed her book and set it on the end table beside her. Her son was acting strangely, and she was a little worried about him. What would be so important that he needed to speak to both of them at the same time about it?

Piper was just moving to stand when Wyatt came in through the foyer, tugging Leo along.

"Wyatt, what is it?" Leo said, somewhat confused. "What's so important that it couldn't wait for me to finish making my sandwich?"

Wyatt waited until both of his parents were standing side by side before he said, and with a very final tone in his voice, "I'm gonna move out."

Had it been at all possible, Piper would have frozen him right then and there. Not for what he had said, but for the way that he said it. Something seemed off about it, and even if she couldn't put her finger on why right off the bat, she knew that it wasn't normal.

"What?" she asked.

"I want to move out." Wyatt cleared his throat. "I've been living here at the manor for a couple years longer than I thought I would, and…I'm really getting sick of sharing a room with Chris. We're adults. I think that if either of us should stay, it should be him. I've nearly graduated from college and…it's just time for me to get out."

It was Leo's turn to be confused. "Wyatt, what're you talking about? You were just saying yesterday how you wanted to stay here a little while longer until you got your bearings set and some money under your belt."

"Well, things change, Dad," Wyatt said. "I got a friend who'll get me a job working for him down at the docks. Making money won't be too hard."

"You're not moving out, Wyatt," Piper said, and with a finality in her own tone that trumped that of her son. "Because this isn't you." She looked up at Leo. "Leo, I think he's under a spell."

Wyatt spoke before Leo could even reply. "I'm not under a spell, Mom. I want to move out. You need to accept that."

"Piper, this—" Leo began. He stopped, however, and looked up, momentarily in thought. "…this seems a lot like when you were hit by that inhibition spell."

"Whoa…flashback." Piper blinked. "That was a long time ago. I thought—"

"Listen," Wyatt interrupted. "It's good that you two are strolling down memory lane, but I've to go start packing."

"Don't you—Wyatt!" Piper shouted. But it was no use; her son was already orbing, and by the time she had her hand out he was already upstairs. She looked at Leo. "Well, don't just stand there!" she exclaimed. "How did you knock that spell out of us?"

"It just sort of happened, if I remember right. You and your sisters were in trouble, and I think the connection between the three of you managed to get the spell to break. Sort of like when you, Prue, Phoebe and I were infected with those orbs of the seven deadly sins. Our love and worry for one another is what broke it," Leo explained. He was mildly exasperated. "I'm just…worried. If he was hit with it, then I'm gonna bet that Chris and Melinda were, too…and even Patty, Penny and Henry. Whichever demon chose to do this picked a really bad day for it. I don't think the spell lasted too long, from what I remember."

Out of the corner of her eye, Piper noticed a large collection of white-blue orbs appearing in the dining room. She made a face, though not in disgust—more in irritation with the situation. "Speaking of them…"

But her tone changed when she saw that not only were Patty, Penny and Henry all together, but her sisters, Phoebe and Paige too, both of whom were looking worried. That was never good.

And…where was Mel?

"Where's—"

Piper's worry was cut off by the frantic commotion of the family spilling out of the dining room and into the foyer and sitting room. She and Leo met them halfway.

"Penny had a premonition," Phoebe said. "She saw—"

Penny stepped in front of her mother. "I saw Mel being kidnapped."

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The music was pumping through Chris' body, guiding his movements with ease. The truth was, he had never really danced all that much before, but it didn't feel like he hadn't. And with the way the tall, light haired and slightly stocky guy he was dancing with was helping move their bodies together, it wasn't like he had to do much of the work anyways. With his arm draped loosely around the guy's neck, Chris brought himself closer, feeling the music almost coursing through him.

He had been dancing for a while now, longer than he had intended to. But the music transitioned easily and smoothly from one song to the next, which was hard for him to notice. The beat of the current song, however, didn't match the one that it faded into, and so he decided that if he was going to get a drink, it was now or never.

Chris licked his lips. "I gotta get some water…"

"Lemme buy you some…come on."

With his inhibitions comfortably packed deep down inside of him where they couldn't be active, Chris allowed himself to be pulled toward the bar. The club itself was warmer now than it had been at first, and he—even though dancing some more seemed like a great idea—wanted to take a little break first. His stomach was still digesting the cake from his party.

Once they sat down at the bar, the man ordered Chris his drink, and he turned on his stool to look at him. "You know, for someone who's never danced before, you did damn well."

"Thanks, Landon. Figured I needed to do something fun on my birthday. My family threw a party for me, but it was…" Chris laughed, "boring as fuck."

"Yeah. Lemme guess…parents and…siblings, right? They throw it for you?"

Chris noticed Landon leaning in a bit closer on the bar top. He, too, moved just a little closer, taking a long sip of his water. "Actually, just my brother, sister and my cousins. I've…got a pretty big family."

"Well," Landon began, "they can be a story for another day. You came here to get away from them all, obviously." He laughed. "We can just dance."

"Sounds like a plan." The smirk on Chris' face turned into one of an amused sort. Unabashedly he reached out and gripped Landon's hand, and he got out of his chair, tugging the other along back onto the dance floor.

There were a number of people around, which was somewhat surprising, given the time. It was just a little past ten, and most clubs—at least from what Wyatt had told him—didn't get busy until late into the night, somewhere around eleven or twelve, and sometimes even as late as one or two in the morning. Still, it wasn't as bad as it could be, he supposed. They still had room to dance, just the two of them, and once on the floor he noticed Landon's arms slipping under his own, wrapping loosely around his waist.

This felt nice, Chris thought. Not having to worry about demons, or what his siblings were doing, or his cousins…he was tired of having to constantly concern himself with the well being of everyone else and ignore his own needs and feelings. It was like his mother had told him: he wasn't everyone's caretaker. At times it felt that way, but in this moment, he knew that it had been self-induced, his worry. He wasn't letting himself be free, or get out there in the world and live a little. But here…here, he was.

And so was Landon. Chris could feel their bodies moving closer together as they danced, could feel their hips grind and then break apart, and could feel their faces coming in closer and closer contact. He almost kissed him—almost—but something stopped him. Instead he just focused on continuing to dance, letting himself go for once.

The two of them continued to dance just a little while longer, until the song began wind down and the beat shifted from something continuous to a more jagged and catchy. At this point Landon pulled his head back enough to look at Chris. It didn't take a genius to know what he wanted to do.

Landon walked with Chris over toward the stairs along the side of the club. They led up the balcony, where a number of chairs, plush couches and the bathrooms were. But he bypassed the bathrooms and the chairs, and he led Chris to one of the couches, guiding him onto it. The two sat side by side, a pair of hands intertwined. No words were shared, because they didn't need to be. Instead the two of them communicated with a few touches—Chris' free hand gliding up and over Landon's collarbone as he moved in, bringing his lips together with the other's. There was a bristly feel against his chin from Landon's goatee, but he ignored it.

Not surprisingly, once the kiss became somewhat deeper Chris moved in closer, and he slowly pushed Landon backward onto the couch.

Landon broke the kiss for just a moment. There was a grin on his face.

Chris responded with a grin of his own before kissing him again. It had been…a very long time since he had done something like this, and it felt nice. In fact, it felt better than nice. His fingers trailed over the other's collarbone once more and up his neck, the tips coming in contact with Landon's sideburns.

Soon there was a tongue prodding at his lips. This was the kind of kissing Chris had never really done—but he wasn't about to stop it. He would go with the flow. His lips parted, slowly, and he exhaled quick little breaths through his nose in the same way that he could feel Landon doing. It wasn't long thereafter that one of Landon's hands was working its way down his back, over his side, teasingly passing over his backside. Chris would have grinned again if his lips weren't occupied.

Not too far away in the bathroom, people were coming and going, as was normal. What people didn't notice was the mysterious, swirling blue lights that appeared in one of the stalls. A few seconds later out of it popped Wyatt. This had to be where Chris was…he could sense him here. So this was what Chris wanted? This was what he wanted when he was free of his inhibitions? He supposed he could see it. Chris always put family first and himself second…

When Wyatt stepped out of the bathroom, he looked around, squinting his eyes because of the lights swirling around on the ceiling. He had never been to this club before. But that was beside the point. Right now he needed to find his brother. He needed to find Chris.

"Chris?" he called out, even though part of him wondered if it would even work. When nobody responded, he didn't really take it to heart. Instead he walked over toward the railing of the balcony, hoping to see his brother on the dance floor. His focus stopped when he heard a strangely familiar laugh coming from not too far away.

On the couch, Landon had grabbed Chris' butt and squeezed it, which caused the darker haired one to laugh. Wyatt looked just in time to see his brother kiss him again.

He didn't know what to think when he saw that. Part of him had expected to see Chris dancing; see him drinking himself shitless; even see him making out with a girl…but not be sprawled out on a couch on top of another guy, and a guy that was groping his ass, nonetheless. A sour, tight sort of feeling suddenly gripped Wyatt's stomach, and he reached up to rub the side of his face.

He quickly stepped over to where Chris was, clearing his throat in an overtly audible manner. It caught Chris' attention for sure, but all it managed to make him do was pause and look up at him.

"…Hey, Wyatt," Chris said. "What're you doing here?"

"Saving you from making an ass of yourself," Wyatt said. He reached down and gripped his younger brother's shoulder, tugging him swiftly up off the couch and onto his feet. "God, Chris, what are you doing?"

"I'm enjoying my birthday." Chris snorted. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

At the same time, both Wyatt and Landon—who had moved to stand as well—asked while pointing at the other, "Who's this?"

"This is my brother," Wyatt stated. "And you—I dunno who you are, but my brother's not in the right state of mind right now, so I'm getting him away from the likes of you." Wyatt, who was easily taller than both Chris and Landon, didn't hesitate to use his height to make himself seem more daunting.

And it seemed to work, at least on Landon. "Yeah, well, he seemed fine to me."

"I am fine," Chris interjected petulantly. "Wyatt doesn't know what he's talking about. He always thinks that he knows what's best for us when he doesn't."

"Yeah, Wyatt does know what he's talking about, and he does know what's best for you right now." Wyatt gripped his brother's shoulder tersely and he pursed his lips. He looked at Landon. "You know what? Why don't you go find some other dude to mack on? I'm gonna take my brother home."

Chris was glaring daggers. "Wyatt, damn it, what are you—"

"Chris."

Landon rolled his eyes, reaching into his pocket to pull out a card, which he handed to Chris. "Dude, whatever, I've…gotta get going. Lemme know if you'll be around without your brother trying to keep a leash on you?"

"Landon—Landon, wait—" Before Chris was able to respond, Landon was already walking away, leaving the two Hailliwells alone by the couch. Chris angrily shoved at his brother's shoulder. "What the hell, Wyatt, I was—"

"Chris! Mel's…Mel's been kidnapped."

As if something cold had been splashed on him, Chris felt his senses coming back to him, his inhibitions. And, even though he couldn't see it, a glowing, opaque sheen of white washed over him from head to toe. He looked at Wyatt, mouth somewhat agape.

Swallowing, he said, "No."

Wyatt could only shake his head.