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It was a random Monday and the guys were out filming a vlog for their new video that was due on Wednesday. They decided to keep it casual, so they just vlogged walking around town and visiting different stores.
At some point they passed an old antiquities store and decided to go in for fun, expecting to find all sorts of weird or funny items. They walked around, scanning the shelves for anything interesting.
Chris was almost starting to get bored, when a very specific statue caught his eye, so he walked closer to inspect it. It was quite small, maybe around the length of his phone and it seemed like it was made out of wood. Now what was special about this was its design; it looked like it was two different wooden carvings glued together. The left side of the statue was a carving of a man, but the right part was that of a cat. So basically, like two figures were cut straight down the middle and put together with switched parts.
Chris wanted to pick it up, but noticed the ‘Do not touch’ sign bellow that entire shelf. Well, it’s not like I’ll break it, he thought as he subtly looked around to see if any employees were watching, then went ahead and took the half and half statue in his hands.
Chris turned it over a few times, touching both sides with one hand. Then suddenly, the statue vibrated and for just a moment, its eyes lit up, the eye on the human part lightly glowing blue and the one on the cat’s side yellow, before switching the next second and turning off again. Woah, what the fuck.
“Nick, Matt, come check this out”, he called them over, wanting to share what he found.
Nick was the first to join him, looking at the statue with a disapproving expression “Ew, what the hell is that?”
“Dude, did you take this from the ‘do not touch’ shelf?”, Matt laughed as he joined them.
“Chris!”, Nick smacked him when he noticed, “Put that shit down immediately”.
“Come on I like it, the bitch looks freaky as fuuuck”, Chris laughed, shoving it closer to the others.
“Umm no, ‘the bitch’ looks fucking cursed, get it away from me like right now”, Nick said annoyed and moved to walk away.
“We should take it, I think it’s a light or something because it vibrated and then the eyes lit up in different colours when I rubbed it, they switched too”, Chris grinned excitedly.
“I’m not taking that shit in the car with me, sorry, find something less creepy”, Matt side-eyed him and left to follow Nick.
Chris sighed, disappointed the others didn’t share his enthusiasm, but quickly got over it and placed the statue back where he found it.
He then caught up to the others and they laughed over some other goofy items in the store, before eventually moving on.
Nothing that interesting happened for the rest of the day; they got home and spent their evening in their respective rooms, each doing their own thing after a long day of hanging out.
Chris tended to stay up later, but he started feeling a bit light headed and sleepy around 3am, so he decided he probably needed the extra rest, he went downstairs to get a glass of water and then returned to his room and went to sleep for the night.
Chris
Usually Chris woke up slowly; awareness comes slowly, he spends a few minutes laying down with his eyes still closed, then slowly blinks a few times to get them used to the light, waiting for his mind to come fully online.
This morning was different though, and not for any reason he could ever predict. When first traces of awareness started rousing him, he immediately registered his weird sleeping position; instead of on his side or back, he was laying on his stomach, curled and arms beneath his head. Although it was strangely comfortable, he tried shifting a bit, but his body didn’t move or feel like normal. He wanted to groan, but the sound that came out made his eyes shot open quicker than anything in his life.
And it only got weirder from there.
Chris looked around and then down on himself and it took him a solid few seconds for his mind to catch up with him and to process what he was seeing. He didn’t see his arms or his legs, there were only little furry paws. He instinctively tried moving and jumped from his bed, and while he could move his body, it felt wrong, it was completely different.
Chris landed on all fours and tried to say ‘What the fuck’, but only a long “meeoooww” was heard. He ran to the full-length mirror in his room and did a double take when he saw his reflection. Is that me?? No way, what the actual fuck, I have to be dreaming. Staring back at him was not his face, but rather a dark brown, blue eyed cat.
Chris automatically tried to rub his eyes, but his arms didn’t work because he didn’t have arms anymore, he had paws. He was properly freaking out by this point, not knowing what was going on. He knew he must be dreaming but it didn’t feel like it, this felt real. This would be the coolest thing ever if it wasn’t literally impossible.
He didn’t know what was going on, if he was going crazy or what he was going to do. He needed to get to his brothers, he needed their help right now.
But the “Niiiiick, Maaatttt, come here right now!” came out as a series of loud meows, he couldn’t even speak. It did the trick though, as he heard footsteps quickly approaching his room.
He heard Nick’s voice call out “Chris?”, followed by three short knock. “Nick, please, come help me!”, but again, only meowing was heard.
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Nick slowly opened the door and peaked inside. Chris hadn’t answered him, but he could hear the meowing clearly now and knew his ears weren’t deceiving him. Nick scanned the room, and instead of seeing Chris, he was met with the sight of a unusually coloured cat staring up at him wide-eyed.
“What in the actual fuck”, Nick mumbled. Chris wasn’t in his room, which was weird enough since his phone was still on his nightstand, Nick knew he wasn’t downstairs, which only left Matt’s room. But for some reason, he apparently sneaked in a random cat without telling anyone and left it alone in his room. For the life of him, Nick couldn’t understand how Chris’s mind worked.
“Nick you dumb fuck it’s me, Chris!”, he meowed.
“Ooh, you sure are a vocal little shit aren’t you”, Nick moved to pick him up, not wanting to leave him locked in the room any longer. Chris let himself get scooped up, wanting to be near his brother. He figured out by now that no one would be able to understand him, so he had to look for his chance to find another way to communicate. I could probably type with my nose, if I just got to a phone…
Nick carried the cat over to Matt’s room, intending to confront Chris with it. He didn’t bother knocking and just let himself in “Chris you little bitch! What kind of asshole-“, he started yelling, but quickly noticed there was only one person here and it wasn’t Chris…
“The fuck are you doing? Barging in here yelling first thing in the morning”, Matt grumbled, rubbing his eyes. There was no way he was falling back asleep after that and he was becoming progressively annoyed.
“Chris isn’t here?”, Nick asked, now slightly uneasy. Where was he then?...
“Obviously fucking not, why would he be?”, Matt groaned, “Wait… is that a cat?”, tone becoming softer and more excited by the end.
“I was in the kitchen and heard fucking meowing, so I checked Chris’s room and found this guy. But Chris is nowhere in the house so I thought he was here, but now I have no clue where he could be, his phone is in his room”, Nick explained.
Chris could only listen to his brothers, annoyed that he couldn’t talk and answer them. It was taking all of his will-power to remain still, since he was slightly worried Nick would legit throw him outside if he seemed aggressive or caused trouble. They did think he was just a random cat after all.
Matt had gotten up and went to admire the cat, “Oohhh it’s so cute aawh”, he said smiling, extending his arms and gesturing for Nick to hand it over, who did so gladly. Matt was now holding cat-Chris with one arm, scratching his head with the other.
“Matt, focus. Chris isn’t home and he left his phone”, Nick said a bit impatient, wanting Matt to see the issue at hand.
“Let’s check everywhere again before we freak out. He has to be somewhere close”, Matt said calmly, distracted by the cute fluffy animal in his arms.
Buddy you have no idea, Chris would roll his eyes if he could.
After checking each room again, Nick and Matt met in the kitchen to talk. Matt set the cat down on the table, giving it a bowl of milk as they talked.
“Okay so he’s not home… we know his phone is here and there was a cat in his room, so what does that tell us?”, Matt asked, getting just a tiny bit anxious about not knowing the whereabouts of his brother.
“Shit Matt, I don’t know, maybe he woke up first and heard the cat crying outside and brought it in?”, Nick suggested as a possibility.
“That would make sense I guess… he could’ve gone to the store for cat food and supplies, but why wouldn’t he take his phone or leave a note?”, Matt continued.
“I have no idea, I can’t comprehend how that kid’s mind works”, Nick sighed, “Let’s just wait for a little while longer for him to come home”.
“And if he doesn’t?”, asked Matt, already imagining the worst case-scenario.
“If he’s not home in like, an hour, then we can panic. Not before though”, Nick said, looking at Matt with a raised brow, knowing the other was likely overthinking the situation.
“Yeah yeah, you’re right. We’ll wait for him and I can play with this cutie in the meantime”, he replied, turning his attention back to the cat.
Shit, this is bad, Chris was now starting to panic again. He obviously wouldn’t ‘come home’, which meant that Nick and Matt would worry over him. Out of the three, he was probably the worst one to go missing – Nick felt a sense of responsibility over their safety and always made sure they are safe and Matt’s anxiety made him overthink everything and imagine horrible scenarios. If he didn’t turn back soon or find a way to communicate with them… This won’t end well, Chris mentally groaned.
They moved to the living room, where Chris started making a more earnest effort to show his brothers it was him.
Chris pawed at Matt’s phone, trying to get it so he could try typing with his nose. But obviously life couldn’t be that easy, as Matt didn’t understand his wishes and only put the phone further away.
Chris meowed loudly at that, jumping out of Matt’s lap and trying to get to the phone again.
“What’s up with this little shit”, “I’ve no clue, he was so calm before too”, Matt and Nick observed him confused, watching the cat attempt and fail to play(?) with Matt’s phone.
The more time had passed, the worse Nick and Matt felt. After the hour was almost over, they were both becoming properly anxious, already discussing their next move. They agreed to first snoop through Chris’s phone for any clues, then call their friends if they know anything, and lastly to go look for him. If all that fails…. Well… they would cross that bridge when they got to it.
Chris’s own anxiety started spiking during this. Nonono, this can’t go any further, he needed them to pay attention to him like, right now. He started meowing loudly, jumping on them, even standing on his back legs and tapping his chest with his front.
The cat’s increasingly annoying and unpredictable behaviour was getting too much even for Matt, since they were both worried and honestly didn’t have time for a crazy animal on top of that. So that’s how the situation got even worse when Nick suddenly had enough and picked up the cat and carried it outside.
“I don’t know where you came from buddy but you have to go back, we don’t have time for your shit right now”, Nick’s voice was tense, it was really obvious he was stressed. Matt didn’t say anything and just walked away, presumably to go get Chris’s phone.
“Oh fuck no, you’re not putting me outside, Nick please, it’s me”, Chris cried, which in hindsight wasn’t a smart idea, since it made Nick only that more sure that the cat would only get in the way.
Nick put cat-Chris outside and locked the door behind him. Normally he would feel bad, but right now he only had one thing on his mind, and that was finding his brother.
Chris
Chris was now alone outside in his cat form, completely lost on what to do. He obviously couldn’t go anywhere on his own, so he legit couldn’t think of anything else than just waiting outside for his chance to get in the house again.
If he couldn’t find a way to tell his brothers that he was in fact here and okay (relatively speaking), things would get a lot worse and more complicated very soon. He knew their worry and panic would only grow as more time passed and it likely wouldn’t take long for them to get their parents and then even the police involved. Chris shivered at the thought.
He was pacing in front of their house, trying to see if there was anything useful around. After a few minutes of searching, his eyes stopped on the small package behind the big flower pot on their doorstep. Chris guessed it was the new shoes he ordered and probably came early this morning, when all of them were still sleeping and blissfully unaware of the problems this day would bring.
Chris got the idea to try and scratch a message on the box, his claws were probably sharp enough to cut through cardboard. I might as well try. So he did his best to awkwardly push and pull the box from behind the pot, to wait directly in front of their door, so either Nick or Matt would have to notice it and pick it up. It was much more tiring and pathetic than Chris was willing to admit, but at least he did it. Now for the important part; he got to it and slowly scratched a ‘ITS CHRIS, IM A CAT, HELP’, again with greater effort than expected.
He wanted to write more, but before he could, Matt opened the front door, after hearing a strange noise from outside and going to check it out, and caught cat-Chris in the act. “What the… stop destroying shit you little weirdo, go away”, he said and took the package from him, closing the door behind him too quickly for Chris to follow.
Fuck… at least they have the package now, all they have to do is read my message and we’ll work through this situation together, Chris thought, feeling a bit more hopeful.
Though something else had to go wrong of course, as Chris heard growling from behind him. He quickly turned to see what was happening and his heart dropped to his stomach when he noticed the big fucking dog with no owner in sight, staring at him from a few feet away, looking ready to pounce at any second.
Oh fuck no, this is NOT how I’m going out, Chris thought and made a mad dash for it, just as the dog made another step closer. And so the chase began, Chris ran away as fast as he could, jumping and dodging random obstacles, luckily already used to moving around in this cat-body.
He came all the way to the edge of the sidewalk and since the dog was still closely behind him, his only choice was to run across the busy, car-filled street and hope he wouldn’t get hit. At least getting hit by a car would be less painful than getting ripped apart by that fucking mutt, he thought bitterly as he sprinted along the street, dodging the oncoming cars as best as he could, not checking to see whether the dog was still following.
At one point, he knew he wouldn’t escape a car, so he froze and curled down on himself, fully expecting to feel a burst of pain… but it never came. He opened his eyes, not realising when he had shut them, oh, it went over me, I’m alive, shit that was close. He didn’t wait any longer and ran the rest of the way over the street and into the bushes on the other side.
Luckily the dog was no longer anywhere near him, but that didn’t mean he was safe. He was tense, breathing heavily, trying to calm down after the near death experience he just had.
“Guys look, a cat!”, wait no, “Awesome, lets catch it!”, Chris heard the voices of young children way too close for comfort and didn’t plan to stick around to find out how well-raised they were.
He needed to get somewhere safe, to have even a few minutes to clear his head and think. The most obvious choice was the tree a few feet away, so he gathered his remaining energy and made a dash for it, then climbing it in one go without stopping.
He only stopped when he made it to the first branch, high enough to be out of reach, where he finally allowed himself to relax for a second. Dogs, cars, people,… shit, being a cat is harder than you’d think.
Chris took a few minutes to just focus on his breathing, trying to calm down so he wouldn’t have a panic attack. He was never in a situation like this before, even without the obvious, he was never alone like this, away from home, potential danger coming from all sides and without even the slightest idea of what to do.
I want Nick and Matt, he thought, burying his head between his front paws. He would start crying right about now, if this body was physically able to.
Then, as if they could hear him, Nick and Matt came running down the sidewalk on the other side of the road, yelling for him.
“Chris!!”, “Chris! Where are you, you shithead, Chris!!”, Matt and Nick were yelling as loud as they could, frantically looking around.
Chris’s head shut up at that, instantly spotting them across the street. ‘Niiick, Maattt, I’m here, guuyyss!’, Chris stood up and screamed at the top of his lungs, silently begging to be heard. Luckily, the meowing seemed to be loud enough, since he saw them turn in his direction, spotting him just a few seconds later.
They locked eyes, then Nick and Matt were immediately running towards him, and Chris could swear he had never felt such intense relief as he did in that moment. They’re here, they know it’s me, I’m safe, if he could cry he definitely would have.
Chris tried climbing down the tree, but quickly realised it wouldn’t work. Great. Thankfully he didn’t need to wait long, as Nick and Matt reached the tree he was apparently stuck on.
“Chris, oh my god, is that really you?”, Matt asked, breathing heavily while staring up at him.
‘Of course it’s me, have you seen many fully brown cats with fucking blue eyes, idiot’, Chris replied automatically, nodding his head the best he could, not caring they wouldn’t actually understand him. He was standing on the edge of the branch, looking for the best way to get down.
“I don’t know what he said but it feels like he’s cursing at me”, Matt elbowed Nick.
“Woah, be careful Chris, we can’t have you breaking your legs now. Just like you to get stuck on a tree, I swear to god…”, Nick complained, gesturing with his hands for Chris to stop, “We’ll hold up my hoody, you’ll jump and we’ll catch you with it. Matt, come help me”, Nick said, already taking off his hoody.
Chris didn’t overthink it and jumped the second the other held up the hoody for him. They caught him and Matt immediately grabbed him in his arms, hugging him close.
“We were so worried, you had no idea. When I brought in your box I didn’t even notice the message until Nick pointed it out, and by that point we were already too late, we just saw you running away from that dog through the window and followed you as fast as we could, but we didn’t see where you went, I thought something happened to you and I couldn’t handle it”, he explained, on the verge of crying.
‘I’m okay Matt, I’m here, you found me, I knew you would’, Chris meowed, doing his best to cuddle up close to Matt.
“Okay my turn now, I was worried too you know”, Nick said and took cat-Chris in his arms, hugging him to his chest. “I don’t know what’s going on but we’ve got you now, we’ll figure it out together”, he said calmy and lovingly.
Chris was so happy, after feeling so frustrated about not being understood, lonely, scared, confused and then the whole almost dying situation… he was finally with his brothers, they believed it was him and they would help him…
He didn’t even notice the noise at first, not until he saw Nick and Matt look at each other in confusion, that back down at him and smiled softly.
“Chris… you’re purring, that’s so cute”, Matt said happily, moving closer to pet him.
“Don’t pet him that’s weird, but he’s right Chris, it is kind of cute”, Nick added, laughing lightly.
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They quickly made their way back after that, wanting to get home as soon as possible and start figuring out what to do. At first they asked Chris if he wanted to walk beside them, wanting to give him a sense of independence, but he vehemently refused, grabbing firmly on Matt’s hoody. ‘If you think you’re setting me down before we get home I’ll make you regret being born you fucker just try it’, he complained loudly.
“Alright alright, I get it, no need to be dramatic about it, sheesh”, Matt laughed, tightening his hold on him.
Back at home, they first gave Chris some water and left over chicken, knowing he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink yet that day.
“Okay now that we have this little shit back home and safe, what the fuck happened?”, Nick started, gesturing at Chris, who was still very much a cat. Chris just gave him an unimpressed stare.
“We need a way for him to talk to us, do we give him paper and some ink or something?”, Matt suggested.
“Let him try typing on your phone again, maybe it’ll work if we unlick it and give him time”, replied Nick.
After a few tries, that ended up working, so Chris was finally able to communicate a bit, albeit slowly, since he had to use his nose.
‘how tf am I a cat’, was the first thing he typed.
“Dude, you were supposed to tell us that, what the fuck”, Nick sighed, rubbing his hand over his face.
“You were fine when we went to bed last night, did something happen in the morning?”, Matt asked.
‘woke up like this’, Chris typed, already getting annoyed with how long it was taking.
“It couldn’t have just came out of nowhere, something must have happened yesterday”, Nick reasoned. He knew it was an impossible situation, but still.
Chris thought back for a second and suddenly it clicked. “What? What did you remember?”, Matt asked. The realisation was clear from how his head shot up.
‘statue yesterday’, Chris typed, wanting to say more but it took too long, and he knew they should understand what he meant from that.
Nick and Matt looked at each other confused, thinking it over, before it clicked.
“Oh my god, the weird-ass half man, half cat statue from that antique shop we went to”, Nick exclaimed, eyes wide.
“Fuck, I remember now, the sign said not to touch it”, Matt side-eyed Chris as he said that, “and Chris said he felt it vibrate and saw the eyes light up”.
They looked between each other, knowing this was most likely the reason behind it, feeling a bit more hopeful about finding a solution, now that they at least knew the cause.
“So what now, do we- ouch!”, Nick’s exclaimed in pain, “Motherfucker, did you just bite me? Oh no bitch, you did not just do that”, he yelled, immediately moving to grab Chris, who was meowing loudly, as if yelling back at him.
Matt quickly put a stop to it, not willing to put up with their arguing right now. “Nick, you’re arguing with a cat, let it go”.
“Chris is Chris, I don’t care what body he’s in”, Nick yelled back, glaring at Chris who was now hiding behind Matt.
“I think he’s just eager to fix this already, we know what probably caused this so we should just go”, Matt said and picked up Chris with one hand and his car keys with the other, then went to his car, knowing Nick was right behind him.
They drove back to town, with Nick sitting in the front this time and Chris lying on his lap. Matt parked as close as he could and they were relieved to see that the shop was still open.
“Excuse me, ma’am?”, Matt said to the old lady behind the counter.
She looked up and her eyes widened a bit in a mixture of surprise and realisation when she saw two of the three boys from the previous day entering her store with a cat.
“Oh? What do we have here?”, she said smiling, knowing perfectly well what happened.
“Um, this might sound crazy, but we were here yesterday with our brother and he touched something he shouldn’t have and…”, Nick started explaining, but didn’t really want to say the next part since he knew how insane it would sound.
“… and he turned into this cute little thing eh?”, the old lady chuckled.
“You- you know about this?”, Nick, Matt and Chris looked between each other and the lady in surprise.
“Oh yes, he found the transformation statute, it seems I’ve mistakenly put it up there instead of the Chinese waving cat, my sight isn’t what it used to be”, she sighed regretfully.
“Well, um… can you fix it? We kind of like our brother back if we can”, Matt said firmly but politely.
“Yeah, he might be easier to handle like this-,“, ‘Hey!’, “but we still want him back to human now”, Nick added jokingly.
Chris glared up at them annoyed, eager to get on with it already.
“Of course, first bring the statue here without touching it with your skin”, the old lady instructed.
Nick looked a bit hesitant, so Matt gave Chris over to him, rolling his eyes while he went to get the statue. It’s not like it was hard not to accidentally touch it, he just wrapped it in his hoody.
“Now set it down in front of your brother”, they followed her instructions, setting both Chris and the statue down on the ground, “and you just have to rub it again”, she looked at Chris and smiled.
Chris looked up at her and meowed in a questioning tone.
“Mmm, nothing more to it, it really is that simple dear”, she said reassuringly.
All the of them sighed in relief, happy with how easy the solution turned out to be. Chris went right ahead and rubbed the statue with his front paws until he felt the vibration again. Then the eyes lit up and switched colours once more. Hmm, I don’t feel any different.
Nick and Matt stared at him intently, waiting for something to happen.
“Umm, did it work?”, Matt asked, looking at the old lady.
“Oh yes, don’t worry, it just takes a few hours to take effect. He’ll be back to normal by tomorrow morning”, she laughed softly.
“Oh, that makes sense… I guess…”, Nick mumbled.
The old lady promised to get rid of the statue, not wanting to risk any more accidents like that. They thanked her and left soon after that.
Once home, they still had a few hours to kill before going to sleep for the night.
“Sooo, what do you wanna do?”, Nick asked.
“I feel like we should take advantage of Chris being this cute while we still can”, Matt laughed, moving closer to Chris with outstretched arms.
‘Matt I swear to god if you keep treating me like a cat-‘, Chris hissed, hitting Matt with his paw.
“Oohh Chris, look what I’ve got here buddy”, Nick laughed, dangling a piece of string in front of Chris.
Matt and Nick both burst out in fits of laughter as Chris started chasing them and biting and scratching their ankles.
They spent the rest of their day like this; joking around and playing, testing Chris’s cat abilities, like testing how far he can jump, throwing him to each other like passing a ball, and even dressing him in some of their old clothes. They also documented everything, taking lots of pictures and videos, wanting to remember the fun, happy part of this story.
At around 2am, they were all properly tired, barely keeping their eyes open. They had a long day; from waking up early, to all the stress, panic and running around… needless to say, they were more than ready to go to sleep.
They wordlessly decided to sleep together that night, Nick and Matt got under the covers normally, while Chris curled up in the corner of the bed by their feet, so they wouldn’t accidentally roll over him during the night.
“Night Chris, love you”, Matt said quietly, petting him one last time and then laying back down.
“Night you unpredictable fucker, I’m glad you’re safe”, Nick ruffled his fur playfully, looking at him fondly and then going to sleep as well.
Chris just meowed at them, feeling content and happy, more glad than ever to have such caring and understanding brothers. He laid his head back down and was asleep a moment later.
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.
.
When they woke up the next morning, they were cuddled up together, with Chris in the middle. They looked at each other, smiling, not saying anything, just enjoying the rare moment of peaceful silence in their shared home.