Shiny things outside the picture frame
Title: Shiny things outside the picture frame
Author:
alles_luege
Pairing: Pete/Patrick, Patrick/William
Rating: PG -13
Summary: Pete obsesses about Patrick, William obsesses about Pete and Patrick is caught somewhere in the middle. Set in the early and pre - fall out boy days.
Warning(s): angst (a bit), boys kissing
Author’s Notes: So many thanks to my beta because she has no clue about bandom at all, doesn’t know me and was the ONLY one willing to beta read it.
Word Count: 1.559
Beta: myonlydri
Disclaimer: Don’t know, don’t own, not real
~1~
William is fourteen when he first sees Patrick play. It’s a party of a friend’s friend or something and he shouldn’t be there, didn’t want to come, wants really to go home. He stays and he hears Patrick play drums but that’s not why he stays. He stays because a cute girl catches his eye.
~*~
The first time Patrick sees William is in a garage. He’s sitting on a box and scribbling into a notebook. He doesn’t see Patrick and Patrick doesn’t recognize him at first. He’s just a kid in a garage, listening to a crappy band he will not join for sure.
~*~
Patrick meets Pete when he’s sixteen. Pete says something rude about Patrick’s clothes and Patrick considers just shutting the door and going to watch TV, or playing some music in the basement (more likely). But then Pete smiles and pushes Patrick aside to enter and well…that’s how Patrick meets Pete.
~*~
When Pete meets Patrick, William is fifteen. He knows who Pete is, because who in Chicago’s music scene doesn’t? What William doesn’t know is that Pete is meeting Patrick and falling in love with his voice in a basement. Maybe if William knew he would be jealous.
~*~
Pete is twenty-one when he says something along the lines of: ‘You’ve got to be kidding me’ to Patrick while standing in Patrick’s door. The kid has no fashion sense at all Pete thinks, but he has a good feeling about the whole band thing.
~2~
William is seventeen when he records his first album. Remember Maine is something he needs to do …even if he doesn’t know why. Maybe because all his thoughts need an outlet, or maybe because he wants to prove something. Maybe because that stupid jerk in school calls him ‘faggot’ and other things, and he just doesn’t want to deal with this shit. Really. Maybe it isn’t even about making it, maybe it isn’t about revenge. Maybe it’s about both.
He sees Fall out Boy play that year too. He remembers Patrick. What he doesn’t remember is that voice, because Patrick doesn’t sound like THAT when he speaks. He just plain doesn’t. It’s no wonder William thinks that Pete wanted him, wants him. William can see it in the way Pete’s on stage, in the way Pete smiles when he presses against Patrick’s back. William isn’t jealous; he just can’t understand it. But he knows he will never have that voice…that voice that makes one shiver. He will not even begin to compare himself with Pete’s lead singer. It would do him no good. Patrick is shy and short and awkward at best - everything that William isn’t, and William knows that. He knows…he isn’t Patrick. If he were, maybe Pete would press against him, or maybe he wouldn’t because William doesn’t need that when he’s on stage like Patrick does. When William’s honest he doesn’t want that either.
He doesn’t stay to talk after the show. He doesn’t know why. He knows he probably should because he knows Patrick, because Patrick played drums in one of his shitty bands, and because it would be the polite thing to do. He doesn’t stay. He makes it outside the door and into the cool night before anyone can say something or even see him leave.
~*~
Patrick catches William’s set a few weeks later. He isn’t entirely sure why he’s there and why he is alone-that is, without Pete. William isn’t shy on stage, isn’t terrified like Patrick is every fucking time, doesn’t look out of place or awkward. And he’s pretty, even if too thin. Maybe that’s the reason Patrick is alone here. Maybe the reason is that William saw them play but didn’t stay to talk afterwards.
Maybe Patrick just wants to know why.
~*~
William sees Patrick in the crowd and he scans it for Pete, but it’s just Patrick, and he knows why. He wouldn’t risk it either, he thinks. His lips curl into a smile and he looks at Patrick as he sings.
Patrick stays after the show, waits for him, but then William knew he would because it’s Patrick, and Patrick just does things like that. Patrick, he thinks, is a far better person than he is.
“You didn’t stay to talk…,” Patrick says instead of a greeting.
“Didn’t know you saw me,” William answers. It isn’t an explanation, but then Patrick didn’t ask. Patrick nods.
The silence is heavy with all the things they both don’t say, don’t want say, can’t say… until Patrick breaks it, saying softly, “I’m glad you didn’t.” He doesn’t meet William’s eyes.
“I’m not.” William answers.
“I know.” Patrick says.
Yes, William thinks, of course he does.
~3~
Patrick is eighteen when William grabs his hand and pulls him into a dark corner the first time after a show they played. He knows it’s William and that’s why he doesn’t stop him. Doesn’t say anything when William licks hot across his neck. Just the same spot Pete kissed a few minutes earlier.
“It tastes more like you than him,” William whispers in his ear.
Patrick knows that and he wants to say something like ‘What did you expect?’ But he doesn’t.
“It isn’t bad…you taste good too,” Williams says letting go of his hand. He leans against the wall and closes his eyes like he’s savouring the taste, the smell of Patrick’s skin maybe.
“I need to go,” Patrick says after a while. William nods.
~*~
It happens every time they play in Chicago because William is always there and eventually Pete sees him too. Because he tends to remember pretty faces and William is pretty…even more now than he was. Patrick knows William is feeling comfortable in his body.
~*~
It’s a cold winter day when Pete kisses Patrick the first time, full on his lips on stage. It’s just a second, a heartbeat, maybe two.
“I was waiting for this,” William says as he drags him into a dark corner afterwards. William’s kiss isn’t chaste or soft. William explores, chases the taste that may linger on Patrick’s lips with his tongue.
“It’s not enough,” William says his breathing is ragged and he’s holding Patrick’s shirt in closed fists.
“I know,” Patrick tells him, and William smiles.
Yes, of course Patrick knows that.
~*~
Patrick is nearly nineteen when Pete kisses him. Really kisses him, with tongue hard and demanding. It’s after a really good show and he is so worked up, full of energy that has no outlet yet. Patrick lets him for a whole minute, maybe three, and then pushes him away. Pete laughs, pecks him on the cheek, and goes off to bother Andy.
Seconds later Patrick’s standing outside the club, William pressed up against his front and the wall in his back. William’s hold on his wrist is painful - he’s sure there will be bruises tomorrow, but he just can’t bring himself to care. Not now because William is warm and solid against him, his tongue is agile and it all feels just too good.
“I could come from this,” William whispers hotly in his ear.
“That is so fucked up,” Patrick says clinging to William’s shirt.
A shaky laugh escapes William. “I know.” He answers.
Of course he does, Patrick thinks, closing his eyes and breathing in the night and William’s scent.
~*~
Pete doesn’t know what it is about that thin kid in the back…it’s just something. Maybe because he stares at Pete with this burning intensity but just doesn’t come over after the shows. Never speaks a word with Pete.
Maybe it’s because he sees him leave with Patrick a few times and Patrick never mentions it at all.
~*~
“Does he want to sleep with you?” William asks one Friday night after licking Patrick’s neck and cheek - Pete didn’t kiss him this time.
“Would you sleep with me afterwards?” Patrick wants to know…but really he knows the answer to that. Maybe…
“I would lick you clean Patrick…” William says softly in his ear as if it were a secret. It is one. Clean, Patrick thinks, clean of Pete’s taste, his scent…just to replace it with William’s.
“God! William…” he whispers. He feels shaky and exhausted. William’s body is trembling.
“I know…I know.” He answers.
Of course he does, Patrick thinks. He kisses William just under the jaw and William says again softly, “I know.”
~*~
He knows he shouldn’t do it anymore and William does too, but it’s too late now and they both know it. Patrick is worked up and dizzy because Pete was worked up and a little pissed, wanting to know what it is with Patrick and that pretty kid. Patrick couldn’t say a single word. Pete’s voice was rough as he whispered ‘Patrick’ and then pressed him into a wall, kissing him, his hold on Patrick just on this side of painful. Patrick couldn’t help thinking William will trace the marks Pete left on his skin with his fingertips and tongue because he always does.
“That is so fucked up,” Patrick says quietly into William’s ear.
“That’s the only way Patrick.”
“I know.” Patrick answers.
William looks into his eyes and says, “I know you do.” And kisses him again, his fingers trailing the imprints Pete left not an hour ago on his skin.
~End~