Little Glass Heart (Petekey)

9

Pete's allowed to stay at Patrick's house a week before he leaves.

That, coincidentally, is also the week Mikey pretty much lives at Patrick's house.

Well, Andy drives Mikey (along with the rest of the crew) to Patrick's house every day after school. Patrick's mom doesn't seem to mind, but Mikey makes sure to bring her something small every day; chocolates, or a gift card to Target, or even fresh fruits and vegetables.

"Tell your mother she raised you very well," Mrs. Stump says every time.

"Thank you, ma'am, you're lovely." Mikey always replies.

Patrick seems to have forgiven Mikey for lying to him. Or maybe he's just too distracted with Pete to do anything else. Mikey tries to enjoy his company while he can, before Pete leaves, because when Pete leaves, so does everything else, right?

He's pretty sure that's how the deal works.

He and Pete don't get any time alone, but Mikey doesn't complain. He's played the memory of Pete leaning close to him since the moment it happened. Pete was about to kiss him. Pete had touched Mikey's face carefully, pressed his fingers to his lips, even started whispering and now he was about to leave.

Mikey can't stand it.

He can't exactly confess now, not when a) They were constantly surrounded by their intrusive yet lovable friends, and b) when only Patrick and Andy knew about the fake dating. If he did confess, Pete might just assume he did it for their whole "dating" thing, and even though the past month was not real at all, Mikey wanted this to be true.

Wow. How lame. Gerard would be laughing at him.

The week goes by too quickly. Everyone's desperate to cling onto Pete, making jokes about how they're going to kidnap him, trying to get as many pictures of him as they can, and at one point Ryan (bless his soul) starts crying, and that starts a chain reaction, and soon half the crew are crying and the other half are just trying to comfort each other.

They play truth or dare (Gabe licks whipped cream off Andy's face), many rounds of Mario Kart ("I swear to god, Urie, I will rip your head of."), and tell many glorious stories about Pete ("One time he stepped on Joe and then wouldn't stop crying.")

On the Friday evening, the entire crew stay overnight and they plan a road trip for the summer. Mikey has one of Pete's hands, Patrick has the other, and Brendon has clung onto Pete's back and wouldn't let go. Joe and Andy each attached themselves to Pete's legs, and Gabe is curled up onto his chest. Ryan wraps his arms around Pete's torso and William is clutching Gabe. By the end of the night, Pete has to carefully untangle himself from everyone and nudges Mikey awake. "Let's go onto the roof." He whispers.

"It's five thirty." Mikey replies, not exactly arguing.

Pete smiles. "Fluffer nutter, let us go." He carefully steps over Joe and offers his hand to Mikey.

"That was, by far, the worst pet name yet." Mikey says, but takes Pete's hand anyways. Pete guides Mikey the roof, past all of Patrick's childhood photos which are absolutely adorable, 10/10 would look again.

"He wanted to take them down." Pete says when he notices Mikey staring. He points to a picture of baby Patrick dressed up as a duckling. "This one is my favorite."

"Aww." Mikey murmurs. He wishes his photos were this cute. All of his photos are just Gerard mushing various foods onto his head while Mikey cries. Not exactly photogenic.

They make it up to the roof by crawling through Patrick's window. They sky is dark blue, with little streaks of pink and orange in the distance. It's a little cold, but Pete smiles at him and that could probably warm Mikey up for the rest of his life.