FicWad

The 46th Street Theatre is sturdy and safe around them, and it echoes with Pete's laughter as he drags Mikey by the hand down the stairs. Mikey stumbles after him, feeling like he's soaring despite his clumsy feet.
They stop in front of the stage and flop down on the ground. "Oof," Pete grunts, giggling, and stretches out on his back beside Mikey. He laces their fingers together and squeezes.
Mikey can't stop smiling. "Tell me what you're thinking," Pete would say normally, but now he doesn't say anything. Mikey speaks up anyway. He feels like something in his chest might burst if he doesn't.
"I could die right now, Pete," he says, his voice trembling with meaning. "I'm just... happy. I've never felt like this before. I'm exactly where I want to be."
Pete curls an arm over Mikey's waist and rests his head on Mikey's chest. His smile speaks more than words.
Before Mikey can wrap an arm around him, Pete is being yanked back and dragged into the darkness. He reaches desperately for Mikey as he disappears, yelling his name helplessly.
"No!" Mikey scrambles to his feet. "Pete!"
It's too dark. He can't see. He stumbles over something and trips, falling to his knees.
"I wanna call it off!" he screams, throwing his head back towards the ceiling. "Can anybody hear me?! I changed my mind, I don't want this anymore, I wanna call it off!"
The silence that follows feels like it's suffocating him. He makes a frustrated noise and digs his hands into his hair.
His head snaps up when he hears a weak voice behind him.
"Mikey?"
"Pete...?" Mikey starts crawling in the direction the voice is coming from. He gropes around in the dark until he finds Pete's hand.
"We gotta go," he says urgently, pulling Pete to his feet. "Pete, come on, we gotta go."
"Where?"
"I dunno, but we gotta go."
Holding hands tightly, they run up the stairs.

They're wrestling on Mikey's bed under a blanket, laughing.

"Concentrate!" Mikey says urgently.
They run.

The theatre door leads to the hallway of Mikey's apartment building. Mikey doesn't stop to question it. He walks as fast as he can, dragging Pete by the hand behind him.
They walk past sex in the shower, past Christmas last year at Frank and Gerard's, past coffee shops and waterparks. Mikey's heading straight for the door at the end of the hall. It's labelled /Dr Asher/.
"Don't let the recorder intimidate you," she is saying to him inside. "Just tell me about Pete."
"I changed my mind," he says from the doorway. Dr Asher and the memory of himself turn to look at him. "I don't want this anymore. You gotta stop it. Wake me up!"
"Oh," says Dr Asher, sounding alarmed. "Well, I'm sorry, Mr Way, but I can't stop it from in here!"
Mikey's heart sinks. "What do you mean?"
"I'm in your head too, you know. And soon I'll be gone. How can I wake you up?"
Mikey looks over his shoulder. Pete is gone.
There's a clatter in the opposite doorway and a flash of brown hair. Mikey walks forward to get a closer look.
It's a young man, or it was; his features are contorted horrifically and look like they're melting off his face. "Sorry," he says.
"Who's that?" Mikey demands, whipping around to face Dr Asher again.
She frowns. "Oh," she says. "That's Brendon. Brennnnnnny." Her voice slurs bizarrely; for a moment she sounds like Pete. "He works here."
"He's stealing my identity." Mikey is breathing heavily. "He's using my words."
"That sounds pretty messed up," says Dr Asher.

The floor of the theatre is dusty and uncomfortable. Brendon peers around in the darkness and wonders what Pete likes so much about this crummy old place anyway. Pete's just lying there quietly and has been for a while, so Brendon decides now is as good a time as any to speak up.
"I could die right now, Pete," he says hurriedly, stumbling over his words a little. "I'm just happy. I've never felt like this before. I'm exactly where I want to be."
Pete sits up abruptly. "I want to go home."
Brendon blinks in surprise as Pete getss to his feet. "Wait, what?"
He scrambles after Pete as he walks away up the stairs.

"Pete? Pete?!"
Mikey looks around frantically. He can't see Pete anywhere. He's not in line for any of the nearby waterslides. He's not floating around in the pool with Mikey. He's not sitting beside the pool either. Maybe he wandered off. He does that a lot at Camelbeach. Normally Mikey wouldn't be worried, because Pete always finds his way back to Mikey. But they seriously don't have time for this right now.
"Boo!" Pete pops up from underwater beside Mikey with a huge splash. Mikey jumps.
"Pete! Jesus Christ! We gotta focus," he hisses.
"Why do we have to focus again?" Pete asks, seeming confused.
"Because they're erasing you." Mikey runs a frustrated hand through his hair. "I hired them. I'm sorry, I'm so fucking stupid."
Pete rolls his eyes and smiles. "Relax, Mikeyway. Enjoy the water."
He goes to float away, but Mikey grabs his hand. "No," he says firmly, starting to pull them both towards the ladder. "We gotta do something. Before morning comes and I don't know you anymore." The thought feels like a punch in the gut.
"Okay, well, tell them to call it off!" Pete says as they climb out of the pool. Mikey lets himself take a moment to drink Pete in before he answers, admiring his tattoos and tanned skin, glistening with water.
"I can't," he eventually says. "I'm asleep."
"Wake yourself up!" says Pete, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
Mikey groans in frustration. "I can't just wake myself up!"
"That sounds like a signature Mikeyway self-fulfilling prophecy."
"Fine!" Mikey snaps. "I'll wake myself up!" He reaches up to hold his eyelids open.
Pete rolls his eyes. "Mikey-"

Mikey doesn't hear the rest of the sentence because suddenly he's back in his apartment.
"It's a birthmark!" someone is squealing. Someone else is laughing.

He startles, and he's back in the waterpark. Pete is staring at him in confusion. "What? Are you okay?"
"It worked," Mikey says in astonishment. "I mean, only for a second, and I couldn't move..."
Pete groans. "Shit, okay. What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know." Mikey palms at his eyes, suddenly angry. "This is your fault, anyway. You erased me!"
"I'm sorry." Pete sounds more serious than Mikey's heard him be since he met. "I'm really sorry, Mikey. You know me, I'm-"
"Impulsive," Mikey finishes for him. "Yeah."