Chapter Text
“Hi Mikey! Long time no see?!” Pete said as if they were old friends, not just two people in the scene who had only spoken in passing,
“Oh, hey! Pete, was it? It’s been a while… Jeez, when even was that?”
“That would’ve been. God—” he paused, thinking, “over two years ago…”
“Yeah,”
“That fireside bowl show you guys played… think Chris might’ve dragged me to that one…” Pete trailed off, laughing awkwardly.
“Man, I miss that place, miss playing smaller venues where the crowd in the pit felt more like friends than fans,”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself.” Pete was beaming; they had finally made it past the small talk stage in the conversation. (1)
“Are you sure you shouldn’t be the one writing the lyrics?”
“Two bassists in the spotlight?” “Nah, the media couldn’t manage,” They laughed in unison as if it was some inside joke the two had been sharing for years.
“I meant to catch up last Warped, but some… stuff… got in the way…” Mikey said, omitting that the “stuff” in question was making sure his older brother, Gerard, wasn’t passed out in some parking lot or drinking himself to sleep in the back of their bus.
“No, yeah, I get it, things get messy sometimes,”
Mikey was starting to realize that Pete might’ve known a bit more than he was letting on. I mean, what does “messy” even mean? The younger Way brother didn’t know how to feel about any and all of that, so he quickly decided to change the subject. To avoid having to confront his feelings on the matter, of course, “Oh, by the way, congrats on the new album,”
“Oh, ‘Cork Tree’, yeah, ‘Trick and the guys are really proud of it,”
“And you’re not?”
“I, — I guess you could say that.” Pete felt like Mikey was boring into his soul
“Why? It’s a great album?” (2)
“I just get in my head sometimes, like maybe…” he trailed off, “sorry I’m probably oversharing, aren’t I?”
Mikey interrupted him, “No, no, keep going, you’re not oversharing.” (3)
Pete continued, “like maybe people don’t actually like the parts of it I make; the lyrics, as much as they say they do, or what if ‘Cork Tree’ is it. A one-hit wonder before we fade into obscurity —”
“Pete, if any of that was true, would you be headlining this festival? Would kids be packing together like sardines to get a peek at the stage if you were just a ‘one hit wonder’?
“But —”
Mikey cut him off again. “No Pete, I watched your guys’ set yesterday, you were on fire! You made the music come alive. I don’t see that kind of passion for music every day.”
“Thank you, Mikey, I—I don’t know what to say…” Because, really, what do you say to that? It ended up taking a few more seconds for Pete to finish processing what Mikey had said, “Wait… You Saw Us Play?!?”
“Yes?” Mikey said, confused as to what the big deal was,
“Like in the pit?”
“Yeah?”
“You should’ve asked! I would’ve totally saved a spot for you side stage…”
“It’s just not the same —”
“What, why?” Pete asked, confused
“I had to know if it was worth the hype, even from the worst seat in the house—” he paused “—the view was definitely worth it,”
Pete must’ve been imagining things because there was no way Mikey had winked at him. There was no possible universe in which the angel walking amongst humans that was Mikey Fuckin’ Way had winked at some backwater bassist who only got lucky enough to share a name with a saint. Mikey owned his name. And well, Pete was simply incomparable to the holy being before him. Yeah… maybe Pete needs to take Patrick's advice and go back to therapy… (4)
“Guess I’ll just have to repay the favor,”
“Huh? Whad’you mea—”
Mikey was brashly cut off by Patrick yelling, “Pete! Where the hell have you been!? Soundcheck starts in 5 minutes!”
“Aw shit…” Pete muttered under his breath
“I heard that!” Patrick was now taking long, commanding strides towards Mikey and Pete. (5)
Reasonably confused, Mikey asked: “How did he even—”
“Shhh… Don’t question the pattycake powers.”
As Patrick finally arrived next to the pair, he leaned into Pete’s ear and whispered, “Pete, I implore you to stop using that nickname,” angrily in Pete's ear.
So, of course, Pete decided that just then was the perfect time to belt out: “What was that ‘Trick? You want me to stop calling you embarrassing nicknames around cute guys?” while staring onoxiously into Mikey’s eyes
“I swear to god Pete, stop projecting! It’s not that fucking hard not to…” Patrick trailed off into incomprehensible mumble-yelling before pausing himself, “Breath-in—” inhale, “Breath-out.” exhale. Patrick grabbed Pete by the ear as he started, “Very sorry Mikey, but our little rock-star over here has to go fulfill his duties.”
As Pete was dragged away by one very angry Patrick Stump, he yelled over his shoulder, “I’ll be at the barricade tonight! You won’t regret it!”