So, hey, you know what the world needs more of? Pete/Mikey sekrit marriage shenanigans!
OH WAIT.
Moving to Hong Kong on Business
by Pearl-o
Pete/Mikey. 1100 words. Amazingly not real! Thanks to
etben for looking this over.
Pete could admit, in retrospect, that it had probably been a stupid idea.
*****
Pete could admit, in retrospect, that it had probably been a stupid idea. Pete was used to having stupid ideas, though, and this one wasn't even in the top ten. Because even if it was dumb, it was a pretty harmless type of dumb, not something that affected his life much at all.
It wasn't a big deal, was the thing, and it had been a couple of weeks since the last time Pete had bothered to stop and think about it when he got the call from Mikey.
He sat straight up in his chair, beaming, at the sound of Mikey's voice. "Hey, Mikey, what's up?"
Mikey said, his voice completely flat, "Kiddo, I need a divorce."
*****
He'd been on the My Chem tour bus, somewhere in the Midwest, lying on the couch with his head in Mikey's lap and his feet hanging over the arm while Mikey texted someone on his phone. Pete wasn't sleeping -- he wouldn't have been able to sleep, even if Bob and Frank weren't having something that sounded like a pillow fight in the other room -- but he had his eyes closed, his body curled into Mikey's. It was peaceful.
It was a nice moment, and Pete remembered it perfectly, because that was when Gerard said, "You guys," in an excited tone, and Pete opened his eyes to watch Gerard put his coffee cup down beside the laptop with a clink and say, "They legalized same-sex marriage in Canada!"
There were yells of approval from around the bus. Mikey pumped one fist in the air. Pete grinned up at him and said, "Awesome."
*****
The idea hadn't come to him right away. It wasn't like Pete planned the whole thing out. It was more of a flash of inspiration. The tour had three dates in Canada, right at the end of that same month, and before they had to leave, the idea just came to Pete, all at once.
Of course, he hadn't expected Mikey to say yes. Actually, that was a total surprise. But after that it all happened so quickly, and it was kind of awsome, anyway, and then they were married. Pete was somebody's husband. Mikey's husband.
Their honeymoon was spent on the bus while it drove back down to Detroit and the U.S, scrunched up together in Mikey's bunk, trying to be very, very quiet in their celebratory sex. They didn't quite succeed, if the disapproval of Mikey's bandmates was anything to go by.
*****
"The first rule of our awesome marriage," Pete said, "is you can't tell anyone about our awesome marriage."
Mikey raised one eyebrow at him.
"The second rule of our awesome marriage," Pete said, "is you can't tell anyone about our awesome marriage."
Mikey said, "Dude, you're comparing our relationship to Fight Club."
"Um. Is that a problem?"
Mikey thought it over for a moment. "If you're Edward Norton, does that make me Helena Bonham Carter?"
Pete threw his arm around Mikey's shoulder and said, "Dude, you can be my Brad Pitt if you want."
"Hmmm," Mikey said. He leaned in, resting his head against Pete's. "I think I'll stick with Helena Bonham Carter."
Mikey was better at keeping secrets than Pete was, for the most part. Gerard seemed like kind of a loudmouth, though.
"Can you actually do that?" Pete said doubtfully. "Not tell Gerard?"
Mikey shrugged. "I don't tell him everything. Just most stuff. What about you? If I can't tell Gee, you can't tell Patrick."
"That's easy," Pete said. There were plenty of things Pete had never told Patrick.
*****
It stopped being romantic after the first month or so apart. After that it became kind of funny.
*****
Mikey had thought they should set some ground rules, and Pete agreed, but it was hard to think up what they should be. They figured out that neither of them expected monogamy, so that was one thing. After that they sort of stared at each other awkwardly. Eventually Pete distracted Mikey from the topic with a well-timed jump.
*****
"I ... I found someone I want to spend the rest of my life with," Mikey said, and Pete clutched the phone tighter between his fingers.
"So what? There's nothing stopping you. That doesn't mean anything." He was curled up on himself in the big easy chair, hood pulled down over his head. He drummed the fingers of his free hand on his knee in an uneven rhythm.
"Pete, you have to--" Mikey broke off.
"What?" said Pete.
Mikey said, really softly, "I love Alicia, okay? I want to marry her."
"Well, you can't," Pete said, and he could hear the snotty tone in his own voice but not quite stop it. "You're married to me."
He hung up.
*****
Patrick might be off-limits, but Pete figured there had to be a loophole for Hemmy. There had to be.
"They're getting matching tattoos," Pete said. "He never got a matching tattoo with me. I totally would have done it, too!"
Hemmy wuffled in agreement and rested his head on Pete's thigh.
Hemmy was the best.
*****
It took two weeks for Pete to calm down enough to return any of Mikey's calls, texts or emails. Two weeks was, coincidentally, the longest possible span of time Pete was allowed to conduct himself in complete and utter self-pity before Patrick would smack him upside the head and say, "I have no fucking idea what's wrong with you, but seriously, do something about it. God, Pete."
Mikey's voice sounded wary when he answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Okay. I'll do it," Pete said. No preliminaries.
"Um," said Mikey. "Really? Are you sure? Because. You sounded."
"Yeah, no, I just," Pete said, and then stopped. "I mean, it wasn't a real marriage anyway, right? So I shouldn't be stupid and mess stuff up for you."
Pete listened to the faint buzz of the tone while Mikey was quiet for a long moment.
"It was real, though," Mikey said finally. "It kind of was. It wasn't just a joke or whatever. It was."
Pete let out a long, deep breath, and he could feel his face break out into a smile despite himself. "Just remember, Mikey Way, I was first, okay?"
"Okay," said Mikey. "You're still my favorite husband, dude, I promise."
"Damn straight," Pete said. "So does this make us exes-with-benefits?"