FicWad

Pairing: Pikey (Pete/Mikey)

It wasn't until they were a good distance from the apartment that Pete dared look at Mikey and ask the question that was on his mind. "How can you do this to them?" Mikey looked surprised.

"Well, I didn't exactly choose to die, Pete." Pete shook his head, exasperated.

"You know that's not what I meant, Mikey. How can you hide this from them until all they have time to do is say goodbye?" Mikey spoke softly when he answered.

"Yeah, Pete. They love me. Do you really think that knowing ahead of time is going to make this any easier on them?" Mikey looked away. "They're going to be devastated. I know that. I can't keep myself from dying. I can't make this less difficult for the people I love. All I can do is keep them as happy as possible for as long as possible." Mikey opened the door to the pet shop for Pete and Hemingway. "I don't need you to take care of me for me, Pete. I need you to take care of me for them."

Pete would never bring up the subject again, but Mikey had a little bit more to say on the matter. "Hey, Pete?"

"Yeah?" Mikey looked away, blushing.

"I'd still want you here. Even if I didn't need you to- … you know what I mean." Pete blushed himself.

"Well, you know I would've come anyway." Mikey nodded.

"I know."

The remaining four days before they were to begin the tour passed slowly for everyone but Mikey. He soaked in all the bustle of packing and running around trying to find lost things. He visited his parents (with Pete tagging along, of course) and looked at all of the family pictures on the walls. If he got a little bit teary; well, Pete certainly wasn't going to tell anyone. Mikey took Pete to see his old schools, to put flowers on his grandmother's grave, to the Barnes and Noble where he worked to support the band (and eventually got Gerard a job); he even showed him the comic book store where Gerard was held at gunpoint. All of the good and the bad from all of his memories; Pete heard it all gladly and would have listened more if they'd had time.

Time. Why did it always come down to time? Pete was grateful for his insomnia for the first time in his life. He stayed up every night and watched Mikey sleep next to him. After the exchange in the pet store, he decided not to bother pretending that he wasn't still crazy about Mikey. The Summer of Like was really more wishful thinking than fact at the time. It was his way of convincing himself that it wasn't ever intended to survive in the long run. The morbidly ironic part of his mind told him that it obviously wasn't meant to last. Even if they'd been together the whole time, he'd still be losing Mikey in three months.

"What am I supposed to do about you, Mikeyway?" Pete whispered to Mikey's sleeping face on their last night in the apartment. "What am I supposed to do?" He didn't expect Mikey to still be somewhat conscious.

"What d'you mean?" He asked sleepily, eyes still shut. Pete pulled him closer and stroked his hair.

"Nothing, Mikes. Go back to sleep."

"M'kay." So Mikey rolled over and burrowed his head into Pete's chest. Pete rolled his eyes; then they began to close of their own accord.

When he woke up the next morning the previously clean room was torn completely apart, clothes all over the place. Mikey sat in the middle of it in his t-shirt and boxers with his bass in his lap, plugged into its amp on low volume as he worked out what must've been a new riff, as Pete had never heard it before. It sounded good. Pete sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Mikey?" Mikey gave no indication that he'd heard Pete.

"Mikey?"

"Miiiikey?"

"MIKEY!" Mikey jumped.

"Huh?!" Mikey looked up and glanced wildly around until he spotted Pete on the bed. "Oh! Hi… What's up?" Pete rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't really know, would I?" Mikey blushed again.

"Oh. Right." He giggled, embarrassed.

"You didn't pack yesterday when you told me you were going to, did you?" Mikey paled, rather than blushing this time. It was a reaction that screamed 'I'm hiding something from you so please don't ask any more questions!' Pete let Mikey have his way for the moment. He'd merely bring it up again at a random time in the future to catch Mikey off guard and force the truth out of him. Yeah. That sounded good. Pete sighed.

"Alright, put the bass away and scoot over. I'll help you." Mikey beamed at him.

"Thank you!" A few hours later they were packed and the others were beginning to show up.

"The first leg of the tour we'll be on the bus, right?" Mikey nodded with a happily nostalgic look in his eyes.

"It's nice. I miss my bunk." Frank turned around to stare at Mikey with an incredulous expression. Mikey didn't notice.

"Yeah, it'll be just like Warped. Won't it, Mikey?" Mikey grinned at him.

"Not really. We won't be constantly running from bus to bus and there'll be no way to avoid Gerard." Pete let out a snort of laughter just as Ray opened the door and Gerard followed him inside. Gerard instantly glared at their spare bassist.

"What's so funny, Wentz?" Pete straightened his back and his face at once.

"Nothing!" Mikey and Frank burst out laughing. Bob just growled in irritation.

"Can we just get going please?" He ground out.

"Aww, anxious to be in such close quarters with everyone again, Bob?" Frank taunted him.

"No. Just fucking tired of these two flirting constantly. I'm hoping they'll feel the need to whisper if Gerard's constantly acting as a cock-block." Pete's and Mikey's mouths dropped open as their faces quickly turned red. Pete's turned from red to purple in a matter of seconds as he slowly and subtly edged himself behind Mikey.

"Alright." Gerard called. "Let's lay this to rest right now." He turned to Pete. "You. You're coming on tour with us. Obviously you care about my little brother. But he's still my LITTLE brother. So I don't want to see or hear any of that shit. And you're still dead if you hurt him." Gerard walked right out the door and boarded the bus.