Bandfic: Prime Time (Patrick & Pete, PG.)
Title: Prime Time
Author: tigs
Characters: Patrick & Pete friendship
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't know or own.
Warnings: A few spoilers for Patrick's episode of L&O.
Summary: L&O night. Pete wants to throw a party. ~1260 words.
Author's Notes: Self-indulgent, as always. Many thanks to amy13 for looking this over! All remaining errors are my own.
Pete wants to throw a party. Once the date the episode will actually air is announced, he says, "Patrick, Patrick, Stump, Patrick, hey, this calls for a party, dude," but Patrick has many years of dealing with Pete under his belt, and he replies with, "No, no, no, no, no, and hell no. And also no."
Pete pouts, of course, because Pete is Pete, but Patrick is Patrick and he can mean no when he wants to. And in this case, he knows he wants to.
Because he is going to be on TV-and yes, it's only two scenes, but there will be upwards of 10 million people watching, and that's a whole hell of a lot more people than he played in front of at Reading, or at Live Earth, or, you know, ever.
Granted, it's not like the 10 million people were in the studio with him while he was filming, but they will be watching him, and the costume people told him he couldn't wear a hat, and Pete won't be on screen beside him to deflect attention. Also, what if he sucks? What if it's obvious the only experience he's had on a TV sound stage was one line on One Tree Hill, and if there's a party, and if he's awful, people will be there to *witness* it, and-
And so he says no.
Not that that stops Pete. He sends out invitations. Specially made cards with pictures of handcuffs in the corners.
Place: The Wentz House, hosted by Ma and Pa Wentz.
What: To witness our very own P. Stump make his Law & Order debut.
Time: 9/8 Central, motherfuckers. There will be cake.
Patrick says, repeatedly, "I'm not coming. I'm not," and Pete laughs at him and says they can't have a party without the guest of honor, until two days before the show actually airs, when Patrick maybe snaps the words instead of saying them, and Pete says, "Oh." Then, "You know you're going to be awesome, dude. You know that."
"No!" Patrick says. "I don't!" He pulls his hat off and runs his fingers over his hair, and the next thing he knows, Pete's wrapped himself around Patrick, chin on shoulder, squeezing him tight.
"No," Pete says. "You'll fucking *kill* them with your mad acting skills, okay? Because you're Patrick. You're going to, like, have to get an agent or something to handle all of the calls you're going to be getting, people wanting you to read their scripts. And then I'm going to have to put my foot down and tell them that you're my lead singer first, and everyone else's second. That's totally going to be the way it is."
Patrick feels himself grinning, ducking his head a little in embarrassment, and he says, "If I suck, though-No, Pete, if I do, I don't want to be there to watch people watching me suck, you know? And it's not like anyone there will let me go, like, hide in your mom and dad's bathroom, you know?"
He expects Pete to protest more, because he's *Pete*, but then Pete sighs and says, "Okay, fine. Fine. You'll just have to settle for a group phone call at, like, 10:01, with all of us telling you how fucking awesome you are and shit, okay?"
And Patrick says, "Okay." That, he can live with.
Of course, he's expecting a last ditch effort to get him to the party. He locks his door at 7:30. He takes his main phone off the hook at 7:45, even though his episode won't be on for another hour and fifteen minutes. He calls his mom on his cell phone and talks fifteen of those minutes away, until she says, "Okay, honey, I need to go make sure that my tape is recording. I don't want to miss a minute of this!"
So Patrick hangs up, and after a minute, he turns on his TV, too.
It's quite possibly the longest hour of his life. Not that it's not a good episode-because it is!-or that it isn't fun to watch these people in action after he actually *acted* with them, but.
But it's not his episode. It's not his half of the season premiere.
Except then it is: scenes from the script he read on his television screen. He knows the order of the scenes, recognizes the names of his supposed accomplices, sees the one he never actually shared screen time with. He can already hear his guys' jokes in his head: 'So, Stump, we should probably keep you away from abandoned pet stores, right? Don't want you killing any ladies in back rooms or anything.' Or 'hey, Stumpy, you aren't spending all of your time on the computer hacking into people's emails and plotting world domination, are you?'
Twenty minutes until the end, though, and he knows they're getting close to his first scene-the lawyers are in Marty's workplace, about to talk to people, discover things-and his doorbell rings. Then there's knocking.
And Patrick already knows it's Pete, because who else would it be?
He knows that he has two options: ignore him, and be distracted by the continued knocking on his door, or let him in, and let Pete be here, watching Patrick watch this. He picks the lesser of two evils and lets Pete in. Pete is the one who shushes him, though, before Patrick can even get his 'What the fuck, Pete?' out, and says, "Hurry. You're almost on, right?"
They get settled on the couch, Patrick sitting stiffly, Pete sprawled next to him, and then Patrick-or Marty-is on screen. Sharing the screen with Jesse L. Martin. Being interrogated and giving his defense, and Patrick-
To his own ears, he maybe sounds a little forced, a little too rehearsed, but when he glances over at Pete, Pete is staring at the TV, mouth just a little open, eyes fixed on the screen, and Patrick finds himself relaxing, slumping down on the couch. Because the next scene, he doesn't have to speak, he just has to look-excited, first, that he's going to get away with it, then shocked that his perfect plan could go so horribly wrong. The camera wasn't even focused on him most of the time.
Then the credits are rolling and Pete is turning to look at him, grin so fucking wide it almost makes Patrick's cheeks hurt, and then Pete is wrapping himself around Patrick tightly, saying, "See? See? I knew you'd do a fucking awesome job. Dude, dude."
Patrick's cheeks heat up, and then his cell phone is ringing-his mom-and she's babbling her praise, and then there's another call from his dad, and then halfway through that phone call, there's a knock on his door, and Pete motions for Patrick to stay sitting, and as he walks to the door, says, "So, you didn't want to come to the party, so we thought we'd bring the party to you." And just a moment or two later, Joe and Andy, each carrying one end of a large cake box, and Bill and Travis and a whole bunch of their friends who don't even live in Chicago come through the door, and-
Patrick tells his dad he has to go as Joe relinquishes his hold on the cake to Bill, pulls a tape out of his pocket and says, "Dude. Can you still recite your lines?"
"Of course he can," Pete says, then wraps himself around Patrick from behind. "Fucking awesome, dude," he whispers against Patrick's cheek.
Patrick smiles.
Author: tigs
Characters: Patrick & Pete friendship
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Don't know or own.
Warnings: A few spoilers for Patrick's episode of L&O.
Summary: L&O night. Pete wants to throw a party. ~1260 words.
Author's Notes: Self-indulgent, as always. Many thanks to amy13 for looking this over! All remaining errors are my own.
Pete wants to throw a party. Once the date the episode will actually air is announced, he says, "Patrick, Patrick, Stump, Patrick, hey, this calls for a party, dude," but Patrick has many years of dealing with Pete under his belt, and he replies with, "No, no, no, no, no, and hell no. And also no."
Pete pouts, of course, because Pete is Pete, but Patrick is Patrick and he can mean no when he wants to. And in this case, he knows he wants to.
Because he is going to be on TV-and yes, it's only two scenes, but there will be upwards of 10 million people watching, and that's a whole hell of a lot more people than he played in front of at Reading, or at Live Earth, or, you know, ever.
Granted, it's not like the 10 million people were in the studio with him while he was filming, but they will be watching him, and the costume people told him he couldn't wear a hat, and Pete won't be on screen beside him to deflect attention. Also, what if he sucks? What if it's obvious the only experience he's had on a TV sound stage was one line on One Tree Hill, and if there's a party, and if he's awful, people will be there to *witness* it, and-
And so he says no.
Not that that stops Pete. He sends out invitations. Specially made cards with pictures of handcuffs in the corners.
Place: The Wentz House, hosted by Ma and Pa Wentz.
What: To witness our very own P. Stump make his Law & Order debut.
Time: 9/8 Central, motherfuckers. There will be cake.
Patrick says, repeatedly, "I'm not coming. I'm not," and Pete laughs at him and says they can't have a party without the guest of honor, until two days before the show actually airs, when Patrick maybe snaps the words instead of saying them, and Pete says, "Oh." Then, "You know you're going to be awesome, dude. You know that."
"No!" Patrick says. "I don't!" He pulls his hat off and runs his fingers over his hair, and the next thing he knows, Pete's wrapped himself around Patrick, chin on shoulder, squeezing him tight.
"No," Pete says. "You'll fucking *kill* them with your mad acting skills, okay? Because you're Patrick. You're going to, like, have to get an agent or something to handle all of the calls you're going to be getting, people wanting you to read their scripts. And then I'm going to have to put my foot down and tell them that you're my lead singer first, and everyone else's second. That's totally going to be the way it is."
Patrick feels himself grinning, ducking his head a little in embarrassment, and he says, "If I suck, though-No, Pete, if I do, I don't want to be there to watch people watching me suck, you know? And it's not like anyone there will let me go, like, hide in your mom and dad's bathroom, you know?"
He expects Pete to protest more, because he's *Pete*, but then Pete sighs and says, "Okay, fine. Fine. You'll just have to settle for a group phone call at, like, 10:01, with all of us telling you how fucking awesome you are and shit, okay?"
And Patrick says, "Okay." That, he can live with.
Of course, he's expecting a last ditch effort to get him to the party. He locks his door at 7:30. He takes his main phone off the hook at 7:45, even though his episode won't be on for another hour and fifteen minutes. He calls his mom on his cell phone and talks fifteen of those minutes away, until she says, "Okay, honey, I need to go make sure that my tape is recording. I don't want to miss a minute of this!"
So Patrick hangs up, and after a minute, he turns on his TV, too.
It's quite possibly the longest hour of his life. Not that it's not a good episode-because it is!-or that it isn't fun to watch these people in action after he actually *acted* with them, but.
But it's not his episode. It's not his half of the season premiere.
Except then it is: scenes from the script he read on his television screen. He knows the order of the scenes, recognizes the names of his supposed accomplices, sees the one he never actually shared screen time with. He can already hear his guys' jokes in his head: 'So, Stump, we should probably keep you away from abandoned pet stores, right? Don't want you killing any ladies in back rooms or anything.' Or 'hey, Stumpy, you aren't spending all of your time on the computer hacking into people's emails and plotting world domination, are you?'
Twenty minutes until the end, though, and he knows they're getting close to his first scene-the lawyers are in Marty's workplace, about to talk to people, discover things-and his doorbell rings. Then there's knocking.
And Patrick already knows it's Pete, because who else would it be?
He knows that he has two options: ignore him, and be distracted by the continued knocking on his door, or let him in, and let Pete be here, watching Patrick watch this. He picks the lesser of two evils and lets Pete in. Pete is the one who shushes him, though, before Patrick can even get his 'What the fuck, Pete?' out, and says, "Hurry. You're almost on, right?"
They get settled on the couch, Patrick sitting stiffly, Pete sprawled next to him, and then Patrick-or Marty-is on screen. Sharing the screen with Jesse L. Martin. Being interrogated and giving his defense, and Patrick-
To his own ears, he maybe sounds a little forced, a little too rehearsed, but when he glances over at Pete, Pete is staring at the TV, mouth just a little open, eyes fixed on the screen, and Patrick finds himself relaxing, slumping down on the couch. Because the next scene, he doesn't have to speak, he just has to look-excited, first, that he's going to get away with it, then shocked that his perfect plan could go so horribly wrong. The camera wasn't even focused on him most of the time.
Then the credits are rolling and Pete is turning to look at him, grin so fucking wide it almost makes Patrick's cheeks hurt, and then Pete is wrapping himself around Patrick tightly, saying, "See? See? I knew you'd do a fucking awesome job. Dude, dude."
Patrick's cheeks heat up, and then his cell phone is ringing-his mom-and she's babbling her praise, and then there's another call from his dad, and then halfway through that phone call, there's a knock on his door, and Pete motions for Patrick to stay sitting, and as he walks to the door, says, "So, you didn't want to come to the party, so we thought we'd bring the party to you." And just a moment or two later, Joe and Andy, each carrying one end of a large cake box, and Bill and Travis and a whole bunch of their friends who don't even live in Chicago come through the door, and-
Patrick tells his dad he has to go as Joe relinquishes his hold on the cake to Bill, pulls a tape out of his pocket and says, "Dude. Can you still recite your lines?"
"Of course he can," Pete says, then wraps himself around Patrick from behind. "Fucking awesome, dude," he whispers against Patrick's cheek.
Patrick smiles.