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It all started when Pete got the job at Toys R Us.
Lame, right? That’s what Mikey thought at first. Like, who wants to help a bunch of snotty nosed kids crying to their dads about Transformers or Barbies? Mikey didn’t understand, but he guessed that Pete liked working with kids or something.
Mikey worked at the Burger King across the street so he really shouldn’t be one to judge. He leaned against the counter waiting for customers. No one really came in during the middle of the week.
Suddenly, Pete burst in, propping his sunglasses on the top of his head. “Hey, Mikey!”
Mikey rolled his eyes. It’s not that Mikey didn’t like Pete, it’s just he could be annoying and made everything they talked about sexual somehow. His sense of humor made Mikey laugh, so he was a better friend than anyone else he knew.
“Shouldn’t you be working?” Mikey asked, chewing obnoxiously on his bubblegum.
“Break,” Pete said, leaning against the counter, “I just wanted to visit my gorgeous friend, Mikeyway, is that too much to ask?”
Mikey rolled his eyes yet again and walked over to the back. “You want a soda or something?”
“A soda for me?” Pete grinned, “Mikey, you’re precious.”
Mikey mumbled something under his breath before filling a cup up with Coke. He set a lid on top and put in a straw and handed it to Pete who graciously accepted it.
“How much?” Pete asked, sipping his drink. He dug his wallet out from the sweatshirt pocket.
“Nothing,” Mikey sighed, “not like too many people are gonna come in today.”
Pete made an amused noise while sipping. “Dude, you’re the best, but--” he picked out a five dollar bill and slipping it into the tip jar, “here you go.”
Mikey stared at him. “You didn’t have to, Pete, we’re friends.”
“I wanted to,” Pete said, “now shut up.”
Mikey shut his mouth. It was oddly… sweet of Pete to donate like that (Mikey would never tell him, but the soda costed like $2 so he was basically donating twice as much as he would’ve paid). Pete cheated anyone and everyone out of getting things for free back when they were in college so it was pretty nice of him to tip Mikey.
He turned pink, watching Pete finish the last of his drink. “You finished that in five minutes.”
“I did,” Pete agreed, tossing the cup into the trash, “it’s true Mikey, I only have you as a friend for the free food.”
“Wouldn’t be surprised if that were true,” Mikey muttered.
Pete’s eyes widened. “I was joking.”
Mikey smiled. “I know, Pete, don’t worry.”
“Good,” Pete said, slipping his sunglasses back on, “can I meet you at your place after work?”
Mikey blinked. Were Gerard and his boyfriend coming over this week or next week? He was pretty sure it was next week. He shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I can beat you in Mario Kart again.”
Pete turned red. “That was one time!”
Mikey smirked. “Whatever you say.”
“You suck,” Pete mumbled, “I’ll see you later.” He pushed the door open and left. Mikey watched Pete run across the street from the window.
He sighed, leaning against the counter once again.
“Mikey,” Brendon called from the back. He was helping with the drive thru. “Was that your boyfriend?”
Mikey groaned. “No, Brendon.”
“Okay,” Brendon sing-songed, “if you say so.”
“Oh my God, shut up.”
--
As soon as Mikey got home, he crashed down face first on the couch. He lay there for several minutes, still in his collared shirt and hat. He decided to throw his hat across the living room and propped himself up, smoothing down his hair.
Mikey sighed. Pete would be here soon so he ought to change into something other than his uniform before he got here. He rushed into his bedroom and stripped off his collared shirt and pants.
Just as Mikey pulled his jeans on, his doorbell rang.
It was when he opened his door that he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt yet.
Pete stared at him for a second smiling before his eyes raked over his chest. His mouth shut and his eyes widened.
“Um,” Mikey said.
“Hi?” Pete tested his voice, swallowing what seemed like a lump in his throat.
“I’m gonna put a shirt on,” Mikey stated awkwardly before zipping back into his bedroom and yanking on the closest shirt he could find.
“You know, you looked just fine without a shirt,” Pete yelled from the living room.
Mikey turned pink again and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re gross,” he said once he entered the living room.
“You love me,” Pete countered, setting a Toys R Us shopping bag on the floor next to Mikey’s couch.
“What’s that?” Mikey asked, folding his arms and nodding his head towards the bag, “Pete, I swear if you bought me something--”
“It’s not for you, it’s for us,” Pete assured, kneeling down to pull whatever he bought out of the bag.
Mikey watched as Pete took out… an ouija board.
“Eh, Mikey?”
Mikey sighed. “Pete, we’re not summoning spirits in my house.”
“Oh yes we are,” Pete set the box down and poked Mikey in the stomach.
“Ow, hey,” Mikey mumbled, clutching his stomach.
Pete ran back to the box and brought it to the middle of living room floor and set it down. Hesat down cross legged and lifted the top of the box up and pulled out the ouija board. Pete pushed the rest of the contents away and patted a spot across on the carpet next to him. “Come on, Mikes, have a seat.”
“I don’t want to summon spirits with you,” Mikey kept his arms folded, standing his ground a few feet away from Pete, "summon your own goddamn spirits in your own house.”
Pete frowned. “Mikey pleeeease.”
“No.”
“Mikey, come on, it’s not like anything’ll happen, we just have to remember to say goodbye at the end,” Pete said, he looked up and caught Mikey’s gaze, “dude, seriously, just sit down, it’s be fine.”
Mikey considered this. It’s just poking fun, right? Not like anything bad will happen, like, there’s gotta be friendly ghosts around here. Not like they’re summoning Satan or something. Are they?
He swallowed and slowly crept over to Pete and sat across from him.
Mikey stared at the ouija board. “Don’t we need to like, light some candles and dim the lights or some shit?”
“Well, if you really want to make this romantic, Mikey--”
“Oh my God, you’re insufferable.”
“I’m kidding,” Pete rolled his eyes, “come on, you wanna get started?”
“I’m only doing this because you made me,” Mikey pointed out, leaning over and setting his hands on the pointer.
Pete grinned and set his hands on the other side of the pointer. “You’ll thank me later.”
“Yeah, right,” Mikey whispered to himself. “Anyways, what do you wanna ask it?”
“Hmm,” Pete stuck his tongue in cheek, thinking for a while, “how about,” he stopped, as if revising his question, “are you… a friendly spirit?”
“That’s so lame,” Mikey grumbled.
“Hey, like you could come up with something better,” Pete snapped.
Mikey remained quiet.
The pointer moved up to the corner over to the yes.
“Did you move it?” Pete asked.
“Did you?” Mikey countered.
Pete blinked before a smile spread across his face.
Mikey sighed. They had just started and he already didn’t like it. “At least it’s, um, a nice ghost.”
“Are you a boy?” Pete asked, not looking up from the board.
The pointer moved up to the other side and up to the no.
“She’s a girl, then,” Pete nodded, proud of himself, “mystery solved.”
“You don’t know that,” Mikey replied, “they could be non-binary or agender or something.”
Pete bit his lip. “You’re right,” he stared at the board for a few seconds, “nah, I feel like their gender’s kinda private, let’s just use they/them for now.”
Mikey shrugged. “Alright.”
Pete brought his head back up to look at Mikey. “Hey, you ask a question now.”
“I don’t have any,” Mikey said truthfully. What would he ask a spirit? They were just minding their own business until he and Pete had to go bothering them.
“You sure?” Pete asked. He then laughed, “‘cause I’ve got loads.”
“Go ahead, then.”
“Okay,” Pete started, “can you tell the future?”
“Pete…” Mikey protested.
“What?” Pete asked, “I wanna know.”
The pointer moved to the corner and pointed to yes.
Pete laughed. “Yo, nice.”
Mikey chewed on his bottom lip. “Do you really want to know your future?”
“Um, yes?”
“That’s it,” Mikey sighed, “we’re done.” He lifted his hands from the pointer.
Pete grew wide-eyed. “Dude, we didn’t even say goodbye.”
Mikey reluctantly set his hands back down. “Fine, we’ll move it to goodbye and then-- wait, fuck, Pete what are you doing?”
The pointer began to move wildly, going from left to right.
“I’m not doing it, I swear,” Pete’s eyes were wide, “dude, did you like ask them something telepathically?”
The pointer stopped, designated on the letter y.
“‘Y’?” Pete whispered.
“You should like,” Mikey breathed, “write this down, whatever they’re spelling.”
Pete looked around and grabbed an absent pen from Mikey’s coffee table and ripped part of the ouija board instructions off. He pulled the cap off the pen and wrote a y on the paper all while keeping one hand on the pointer
“Okay,” Mikey said, “oh shit, it’s moving again.”
The pointer moved to and o, then a u.
Pete scribbled this down. “‘You’?”
Mikey shrugged.
This went on for about five minutes, the pointer going to several letters and Pete writing them down after each one until Mikey and Pete found the pointer leading itself to the goodbye.
“Oh,” Mikey found himself saying. “I guess, uh--”
“--they’re done,” Pete finished for him.
Mikey finally let go of the pointer as Pete did. “So what does it spell?”
“Hm,” Pete lifted paper up
“Give me that,” Mikey snatched the paper from him before he could fully read it. He squinted at it for the longest time before he turned red. “Oh my God.”
“What? What does it say?” Pete asked.
“You fucking planned this, dick,” Mikey said, crumpling up the piece of paper and shooting it across the room.
Pete turned pale. “Mikey, I swear, I didn’t,” he made an X with his finger across his chest, “cross my heart.”
Then Mikey frowned. “You sure?”
“I promise,” Pete looked upset, really upset. Mikey guessed that he thought it was something mean about Mikey, “please, Mikey, what did it say.”
“Y-o-u-t-w-o-s-h-o-u-l-d-d-a-t-e,” Mikey turned pink before staring back down at his lap, “‘you two should date’.”
“Oh,” Pete raised his eyebrows, “you’re serious?”
“Yeah, you can go grab the paper if you want proof,” Mikey nodded his head over to where he had thrown it. “You swear you didn’t plan this?”
Pete giggled. “I wish. Damn, ghost, that’s good.”
Mikey wrinkled his nose. “This ghost is just as annoying as you.”
“Rude,” Pete hit Mikey’s shoulder, “and we should follow this ghost’s orders. They could be, like, evil or something so we gotta do what they say.”
“Okay, first of all, the ghost said it was a friendly ghost.”
“Still,” Pete continued, “if the ghost says we should date, then we should.”
Mikey stood up. “Whatever, Pete, I’m gonna make a sandwich, you want something--”
Pete groaned. “Oh my God, you’re so clueless.”
Mikey stopped.
“Every single time I flirt with you, you don’t seem to get it,” Pete rolled his eyes, “even my dumb ouija board trick didn’t work.” He stood up from the floor.
“Bitch, you did plan this.”
“I’m sorry, I was getting desperate, I wanna kiss you so bad,” Pete rubbed his forehead, like he was in pain. “Dude, do you even know how smart and hot you are?”
“What the fuck,” Mikey blinked, “so… you haven’t been joking about how hot I am?”
“Never have I joked about hotness, Mikeyway,” Pete said seriously, “can you please go out with me and end my suffering?”
Mikey blushed. What would dating Pete be like? It would probably just be the same except a lot more making out.
Eh, Mikey wouldn’t mind, Pete was hot and he thought that he was ever since day he met him. Also Pete seemed like a good boyfriend, like caring and stuff-- Mikey noticed how Pete was always concerned for him when he complained about work and life in general.
“Okay,” Mikey started to walk back towards Pete, “I’ll go out with you.”
“Really?” Pete smiled, “finally.”
When Mikey was finally close enough, he kissed Pete on the lips. “You’re annoying.”
Pete shook his head. “Kiss me again and you’ll change your mind.”
Mikey rolled his eyes. “Did you really just buy and ouija board to ask me out?”
“What the fuck, no, it was supposed to be a fun thing. It totally moved on it’s own the first time,” Pete said, “I thought of the ‘you two should date’ thing last minute.”
“That’s smart,” Mikey frowned, “I hate you.”
Pete rolled his eyes. “No you don’t.”
“You’re right,” Mikey leaned forward, running his thumb over Pete's jawline. He captured Pete’s lips in another soft kiss, “I don’t.”