Work Text:
“Come on, Mikey!”
Gerard was almost bouncing with excitement, itching to run over to the playground. To his friends. Mikey didn’t really have any of those.
“I want to stay here.” He muttered looking down at his shoes, they were tired and well used, but he loved them, they used to belong to Gerard. He wanted to stay here with his parents. Gerard’s friends were big and scary. Gerard deflated slightly at Mikey’s rejection, but recovered fast, turned around and all but ran over to where Frank and Ray were climbing the monkey bars.
“Can’t you go play in the sandbox, Michael?” His mom was stroking his hair. She did that whenever she would try to comfort him, it worked just a little bit. “Maybe you could try to make a new friend.”
As much as Mikey wanted to argue that, no he wouldn’t make a new friend, just like he hadn’t every other time she had said that exact same thing, he knew it wouldn’t help. She would always convince him to go play in the stupid sandbox until they had to go home. He didn’t bother resisting, and sludged over to the wooden edge of the sandbox, there were two girls there already, they were giggling and playing with a baby doll, its eyes bright blue and its head bald. Playing with an ugly doll didn’t seem very fun to Mikey so he decided to sit himself on the opposite side of the sandbox and try to make some kind of castle.
It certainly didn’t look like a castle. It didn’t really look like anything. Mikey didn’t have a bucket or a shovel or anything other than his hands and some damp sand to work with. He felt like he had been sitting there for hours. He hoped Gerard would come over and tell him they were going home. Mikey glanced over to the playground tower where Gerard was, He and Frank were on the top, hanging over the railing, yelling something down to Ray, who was down on the ground, holding a long stick with what looked to be a mitten on the end.
Mikey was still looking at Gerard and his friends when something barreled into his side, and landed on top of his sad sand castle. It was a boy. He had dark hair and wide eyes, his shirt was red.
“Hey! You ruined my castle!” Mikey couldn’t help feeling angry at this boy, who had crashed into him and ruined his hard work.
“I didn’t mean to! I swear! I’m sorry, I will help you build a new one!” The boy got up from the crushed castle. His pants were covered in sand. Mikey frowned. He didn’t want help from this boy.
“No”
He looked dejected. “I said I was sorry.”
Mikey didn’t say anything as the boy sat in front of him, he just watched as the boy started shoveling nearby sand into a small hill between them.
“What’s your name?” The boy was looking at Mikey expectantly. Wide brown eyes staring at him while his hands were still working on the vague sand pile.
“Mikey”
“Cool! My name is Pete!”
Mikey shrugged and looked back down at the pile of sand. His hands were fidgeting. “Why are you helping me?”
“Because we’re friends now, of course!”
Mikey looked at him, confused. He pushed his glasses higher on his nose.
“We are?”
“Yes! You looked like you needed one, and now I’m here so we are best friends now!” Pete seemed excited about being Mikey’s friend. “And I like your shirt.” Mikey looked down, the shirt he was wearing was blue, it had a picture of a superhero. Another thing of his that used to belong to Gerard.
“...Thanks” Mikey didn’t know what more to say, but it didn’t matter. Pete did enough talking for the both of them, and then some. At some point Mikey decided Pete wasn’t so bad, and even laughed a few times at his jokes. Pete was good at this friend thing, and he didn’t seem to mind how quiet Mikey was.
Together they built a new sandcastle, and this one actually looked like a castle. It was infinitely better than what Mikey had made earlier. Pete knew a lot about sandcastles; how it needed multiple towers, and how it absolutely needed a moat, and how there had to be defences and how it needed a flag. They didn’t have any small flags with them, but they made do with a leaf they found on the ground near the fence, separating them from a biking path. Pete had started rambling about his new bike that he had gotten for his birthday a week ago.
Mikey had started smiling a while ago, around the time they were looking for tiny acorns to be soldiers around the castle, once his face first broke out in a smile he couldn’t seem to stop. He was having fun.
Before he knew it Gerard was calling his name from a few feet away, telling him it’s time to go home. Mikey felt a pang of disappointment about having to leave the park. He turned back to Pete, he looked sad now. “I’m sorry, I have to go home now.”
“Will you come back tomorrow?” Pete looked at Mikey as the latter stood up, about to step out of the sandbox and towards his brother. He looked hopeful.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Pete looked disappointed again, Mikey felt guilty so with a small smile he added, “I hope so”.
And just like that Pete was beaming again.
“MIKEYYY!”
Mikey had almost forgotten about his brother, lost in his new best friend’s massive grin.
“Goodbye, Pete”
“Goodbye, Mikey!”
It was hard to walk away from Pete, he didn’t want to go home yet. He felt bad about leaving Pete alone. He found himself really excited to come back tomorrow.
When he reached Gerard, his brother was smiling wide and proud at him. “You made a friend!”
Best friend actually.
Mikey didn’t respond, he only looked up at his brother with a smile.