#polyamore

Mikey gets home after the third time and says, "Alicia, I think Pete is living in the park. He's there every time I go, and always wearing the same clothes, and there are leaves in his hair."

And Alicia rolls her eyes, gets the car keys, and drives to the park without a word.

Pete's sitting on his bench, kicking at leaves, just listening to the wind.

Alicia asks him, "Are you living in the park?" without any preliminaries.

"Yeah," Pete says. "I thought it was time for a change. And I like it here. It's quiet."

"Did you get tired of showering?" Pete kind of smells.

"Well, there aren't any showers here, that was a trade-off I had to make."

Of course. "There's a shower at my house," says Alicia. "We're going to go there now."

"It's okay. It's cool. I like it here." He kicks at the leaves some more. "The hot dog guy gives me his leftover stuff at the end of the day. He's cool."

"You're going to get food poisoning and die, Pete. Seriously, get the fuck in my car."

"You're going to put me in a headlock if I keep arguing, huh?"

"I'd just grab you by the scruff and toss you into the car. Get in." Maybe she should call Mikey to order food, but she doesn't need Pete to freak out about Mikey right now.

He gets up and follows her to the car, climbing into the passenger seat and obediently putting on his seatbelt when she glares. "I feel like I'm having a lot of clarity."

"From watching the leaves?" Alicia asks, flooring it.

"Yeah. The leaves and the clouds and the rain and the hot dog guy."

"Pete... are you okay? Did something happen?" In theory, Alicia is in favor of Pete having clarity, but in practice, she's dubious.

"I needed to change my life. Stop with the pills and the Internet and the lies."

"Uh-huh." This sounds promising. "What've you been lying about?"

"I don't know. What haven't I been lying about?" He chews on the string of his hoodie. "Meagan broke up with me. Ashlee took Bronx to New York. I don't know. It just seemed like a good time to walk away."

"You can't walk away from your life to a fucking park, Pete. You work on that shit." Alicia pulls into the driveway and pauses before unlocking the door. "Promise you won't walk away from dinner? It's just dinner."

"I'm really tired of working on shit." Pete looks really small and, well, tired. "I'll stay for dinner."

"Good." She reaches out on impulse and puts her arms around him. "Piglet will be happy to see you. Mikey said she liked you when she saw you in the park."

"Piglet's a sweetie. Good for hugs."

"She is. Now get your ass into the house."

Pete goes inside and carefully takes his shoes off in the entryway. He kneels down to hug Piglet and rumple her ears. "Your house is awesome, Licia."

Alicia grins. Pete always looks cute next to animals. "Thanks. Want to check out the shower while we order food?" She wonders where Mikey is, if he's hiding.

"Okay. I don't have any clean clothes, though. I left them all behind."

"I'll find you something to wear." She walks him to the guest shower and thrusts a towel into his arms. "I'll leave you clothes outside. Use whatever stuff is in there."

"Okay." It's kind of nice, doing what he's told. Not as nice as just sitting in the park, but if that's not allowed, this works.

Mikey's in the bedroom with Bunny lying on his chest. "Did you find him?"

Alicia drops down next to Mikey and pets Bunny's ears. "Yeah. He was exactly where you said. But now he's in the shower."

"Are we going to keep him for a while?"

"That's sort of up to you, baby. But I don't want him to go back to the park. He's going to get mugged at some point."

"Why is it up to me?"

Alicia shrugs. "I always got the feeling you two were still weird about each other."

"So shouldn't that make it up to you?"

"I guess that I don't mind that."

"I'll go talk to him if you take Bun."

"Okay. And call the Chinese place." Alicia grabs Bunny and puts her on her boobs. "She's all warm."

"She's in full-on cuddle mode. You'll be here for an hour."

"That's perfect, because I am too. Call me downstairs when the food gets here."

"Got it." Mikey goes to the kitchen and calls in the food order, then makes his way to the bathroom and knocks. "Pete? Can I come in?"

Pete's just tying the towel around his waist. "Uh, yeah," he calls through the door, trying not to sound awkward. "Did Alicia find anything for me to wear or should I just put my stuff on?"

"Yeah, there are clothes here." Mikey's t-shirt and boxers, Alicia's sweatpants. That's about right for Pete's size and shape. "Coming in."

"Okay." Pete takes a step back and waits for the door to swing open. Being in this bathroom and smelling like Mikey's shampoo and Alicia's lotion is making his mind race.

Mikey comes in and hands over the clothes, then boosts himself up to sit on the counter. "Do you want to shave?"

"What, you don't like my casually chic scruff?" asks Pete. "Can you close your eyes? I want to put the clothes on."

Mikey closes his eyes and swings his legs, kicking at the cabinets under the sink. "You off your meds, dude?" He doesn't say it accusingly. It's just a question.

"Kind of. I left them in my house with the rest of my stuff." Pete pulls on a pair of old boxers he knows can't be the ones he remembers, and Alicia's jeans that smell like her, and a t-shirt he definitely does recognize.

"Maybe later I can go over and get them for you? And some of your clothes?"

"I'm not sure they were working that well. I was taking them and everything went to shit anyway."

"Yeah, I get that. Maybe we can call your doctor tomorrow."

Pete sighs. It's good to let Mikey suggest things and to just say yes. "Could you get my wallet too when you're at my house? My insurance card is in it."

"Sure. Clothes, wallet. Do you want your phone?"

Pete's heart starts to thump in his chest when Mikey mentions the phone. "I don't know."

"Okay. You don't want it, I won't get it. That's cool. Can I text, like, Gabe and Ashlee and some of the guys at Atlantic and Crush and let them know you're here so none of them call the cops?"

"Sure." Ashlee won't give a shit, and Pete doesn't think that Gabe will be too reassured to know that Pete came over for dinner and left. But whatever.

"Ash needs to know how to reach you in case anything happens with Bronx, Pete." Mikey can be very patient. "And if you haven't been answering your phone for days, Gabe and the suits probably think you're dead."

"Oh. That makes sense. I don't want Bronx or Gabe to worry." Pete stares at himself in the mirror. "I think I'll shave after all, if you think I should. You should also get my phone. Just, like... don't give it to me or tell me you have it, okay?"

"Sounds good. It will be Schrodinger's phone. You want a hug?"

"I really want a hug." Pete steps sideways towards Mikey and there's more of that shampoo smell.

Mikey slides off the counter and wraps his arms around Pete nice and tight and warm. "Don't live in the park, Pete."

"Two days ago I woke up and there was a bird sleeping in my hair," Pete confesses.

"That's kind of cool but also pretty scary and kind of gross."

"I think it got tangled up in it and couldn't get out. I should probably get a haircut."

The doorbell rings and Pete shudders. "Did I crash a dinner party?"

"Nope. That's Chinese food delivery. You hang out up here, I'll go pay and set the table. It's okay. Just the three of us tonight."

"Okay." Pete can handle that. He sits down on the bathroom rug and waits.

Mikey pays for the food, sets up the table, and goes to get Alicia. "He's cleaned up, he's off his meds, he's having a major episode of something, and he hasn't checked his phone in ages so a bunch of people probably think he's dead in a ditch somewhere."

Alicia loves Mikey for always sounding calm. "It could be worse, right?"

"He could actually be dead in a ditch somewhere."

"I love it when you look on the bright side. Let's go feed him?"

"Yeah. Then I'll go to his house and pick up stuff for him. Can you get him out of the bathroom and get him started? I'm going to call Gabe, who is probably, like, burning shit."

"Tell him that if he breaks down our door, I'm making him pay for it."

Alicia gives Mikey a kiss and goes to find Pete. He's still sitting on the rug. She's choosing to ignore that. "Hey. Hungry?"

"Pretty hungry, yeah. Mikey said there was going to be Chinese delivery and no other people?"

"There is Chinese delivery and absolutely no one downstairs except for some pets." She sticks her hand out. "Help you up?"

Pete lets her pull him up and tries not to fall into her, but he's clumsy and a little bit dizzy, so he kind of flops into her boobs anyway.

Alicia catches him and squeezes him close. She wants to kiss his hair. "Hey. Let me give you some eggrolls and whatever else Mikey randomly picked off the menu, okay?"

"Sure. No hot dogs, okay? I guess I'm kind of sick of hot dogs."

"I would be too," Alicia says and guides him downstairs. Mikey set out Avengers glasses and there's over a dozen delivery containers piled in the center of the table. "Where do you want to sit?"

"On the floor."

Okay, she didn't expect that. "Um, like next to the table? Or like a picnic in the living room? I'm down with a picnic."

Pete blushes and ducks his head. "Sorry. I'm being weird. I can sit at the table."

She pictures Pete sitting on the floor between her legs and Mikey's and it makes her feel warm inside. She brushes it aside. "I'll get you a pillow for the floor, okay?"

Pete nods and pets Piglet. Piglet's great. Maybe later they won't mind if he just lies on the floor with the dogs for a while before he leaves.

Alicia gets him a pillow and then puts a little of everything onto Pete's plate and sets it in front of him on the floor. "Don't feed Piglet. She's already stealing eggrolls."

Mikey comes in with a slightly wide-eyed, startled expression and steps carefully around Pete. "Okay, that's taken care of with a lot of confusing shouting, but we're good."

"Our front door is safe?" Alicia asks. She has to step around Pete too to get to her chair, and her hand automatically drops to his hair.

"Yep. I convinced him to wait a week. You can do a lot of meditating in a week. Find your Zen."

"Of all your friends, he's the strangest." She lets her hand stay on top of Pete's head, because he's pushing up into it a bit. She'll deal with how weird that is later, after they eat and she convinces Pete to stay in the guest bedroom.

"He's a good guy," Mikey says with a shrug. "Pass me the rangoons? Pete, do you want a rangoon?"

Pete nods and Alicia reluctantly takes her hand out of Pete's hair to grab the container. Mikey hands one to Pete with his fingers. He figures Pete won't mind.

"I think I'll tell Gerard I'm gonna sit out tomorrow," Mikey says casually. "They can work on guitar lines without me."

"I think that's a good idea. I have to go to the tar pits in the morning, but we'll hang out in the afternoon. Is that okay, Pete?"

Pete looks up, startled. "Um. I thought I was leaving after dinner?"

"We can't eat all this Chinese food by ourselves, dude," says Mikey. "You have to help us with the leftovers tomorrow."

"Oh." Pete eats his rangoon and thinks about that. His park bench is going to be all unattended. But Mikey doesn't sound like it's a big problem to have Pete around. "Okay, I guess. If you need my help."

"You can also help me walk the dogs in the morning. If you want. If you just want to chill out in the bedroom, that's cool too."

"Bedroom?" Pete puts his fork down.

"You're not sleeping under the table," Alicia says. "I'm putting my foot down. We have a perfectly fine guest room."

"Oh. Guest room." Pete blushes again and looks down. He's so stupid. "Right, yeah, guest room, okay. If you're sure."

Alicia looks at Pete and then looks at Mikey, raising her eyebrow. Mikey's the one who translates from Pete-ese. She's out of practice.

"It's totally fine," Mikey says. "You want to watch a movie after dinner or lie down for a while?"

Pete thinks about it. He's kind of tired, but lying down means a dark empty room, and if they watch a movie, maybe he can sit between them. Or at least next to one of them. "I'm not tired. Movie? If that's really okay."

"It's totally fine." Mikey goes back to eating, not looking directly at Pete but keeping his leg close enough that Pete can lean on it if he wants to.

Pete leans his head against Mikey's leg and picks at his tofu, turning the impending movie-viewing over in his head. "Can I sit between you?" he asks suddenly. "When we're watching, I mean."

"Sure." Mikey glances at Alicia. "Piglet likes to be on the couch, too, so you might have her in your lap."

Piglet comes trotting up at the sound of her name and noses into Pete's hands. "I like Piglet," says Pete. "The park was, like, full of raccoons and squirrels. I miss normal animals."

"Raccoons are pretty rad. But, you know. Wild. None of them bit you, right? That would suck."

"They mostly hung out next to the hot dog guy." Pete gives Piglet a bite of tofu. "Oh, sorry. I wasn't supposed to do that, right?"

"In theory, but none of us can actually resist her."

Pete grins. "She's a connoisseur of international cuisine, huh?"

"She's a vacuum cleaner," Alicia says affectionately. "She'll eat anything."

"That's a useful trait in a dog." Pete puts his empty plate onto the table and thinks about what to do next. Should he get up? Help clean up? In the end he presses his forehead to Alicia's leg.

Alicia pets his hair gently. "Go get comfortable in the living room with Piglet. Mikey and I will put all this away and come join you."

Pete nods and stands up. His legs are half-asleep and Piglet isn't helping, weaving around them as he makes his way to the living room. There are blankets on the couch, lots of them. When he burrows in, Piglet sits on his lap as promised.

Bunny chirps at him from the back of the couch, putting her paw on his head to tell him to hold still.  Pete is really warm and reaching some kind of unfamiliar contentedness. "Maybe I'll go to therapy soon," he tells Piglet. Piglet wags at him.

Mikey puts the leftovers in the refrigerator. "Movie first, then I'll go get his stuff? He wants people with him, so I probably shouldn't go now."

Alicia wipes the table and puts her arms around Mikey. "Yeah, go after he goes to bed. I'll stay here to make sure he's okay."

"He's dissociating really hard. But I think the pets help. And having us around but not pressuring him."

"I kind of want to keep him in bed with us. But maybe the pets will keep him company there too."

"I think being in bed with us would be too overwhelming right now. Low-pressure is really important. Gabe's handling calling Ashlee and Crush and everything."

"Yeah. If we offer that, he'll be gone in the morning. And then death by raccoon." Alicia frowns at the coffee maker on the counter. "Should we make some or is that just going to keep him from falling asleep?"

"No coffee. He drinks sleepytime tea. Do we have that? What IS that?"

"It sounds horrifying," says Alicia. "Maybe milk. And cookies."

"Milk and cookies are always a good answer. Milk, cookies, and a Shar Pei all up in his junk."

"She's so excited about new junk," Alicia nods. "Okay, Way. Let's go cuddle the shit out of him."

"Cuddle team powers activate." Mikey offers his hand for a fist-bump.

Alicia knocks her fist against his and kisses him on the lips. "It's on."

Pete allows cuddling and eats his cookies and is visibly yawning when the movie is over. "That was a good one. You have good taste, Mikes."

"Alicia picked that one," Mikey says and lets himself pet Pete's leg. "Do you want to stay up a bit more or go to bed?"

Pete's face twists. "I... I could stay up. If you guys are staying up."

"How about I stay with you until you fall asleep?" Alicia asks. "You look really tired, honey."

"Do, um. Do your pets ever sleep in the guest room?"

"I think I can pretty much guarantee that. They'll edge you out of the bed if you let them." Alicia strokes Pete's head and pulls him off the couch, and Piglet and Bunny's ears come up in excitement. "See?"

"Piglet's a good blanket. I wouldn't mind her sleeping in there with me." He more than wouldn't mind, he'd feel really safe. "Okay. Show me where it is?"

Alicia leads him upstairs to the guest bedroom. Mikey trails behind them. "You're right across from us, so knock or yell if you need anything. I'll go get you some pajamas."

"It's really nice of you to let me stay."

"We like having you here," Alicia says. She'd do anything to get that sad look out of Pete's eyes. "We missed you."

"Yeah? For real? I mean, I've missed you guys, too, a lot."

Alicia nudges him towards the bed and makes eyes at Mikey, who's hovering in the doorway, to stay with Pete. "For real," Mikey says. "I'm sorry I kind of lost touch with you."

"You were busy. You had stuff. And I was kind of a major downer for a long time, there."

Mikey shrugs. "Me too. That's not really an excuse."

Alicia comes in with the pajamas. "I hope these fit."

"Thank you." Pete takes them and sets them carefully on the bed. "For dinner, too. And all of it. I think maybe I'm not really doing okay right now."

Alicia steps a little closer and wraps her arms around him. "We'll help you work on it if you let us. Right, Mikey?"

"Definitely." Mikey puts his arms around both of them. "I'll get your wallet and stuff right now, and tomorrow we can call and make appointments. We'll go with you to all of them. Cool?"

Pete thinks about it. "If you go with me, I'll be able to go. It got really hard doing it on my own lately, you know?"

"I know." Mikey squeezes Pete's arm. "Sometimes Alicia takes me and we get doughnuts after."

"If we get doughnuts after, I'll definitely go." Pete yawns in Alicia's face. "Wow, I'm more tired than I thought."

"Hop in bed. Pig will crash out with you."

Pete takes his pants off, not even caring that the two of them are watching him, and crawls into the bed. As promised, Piglet jumps up and stretches out along Pete's body. She's warm and smells like clean dog. "Good dog," Pete whispers.

Mikey goes to find his keys. And his phone, so he can text Gerard that he's bailing on recording tomorrow for reasons. He's going to have to tell Gerard not to come visit either. He'll have a lot of explaining to do. He can just say there's something he and Alicia need to do, maybe. Gerard usually respects that.

He sends his texts and drives over to Pete's, letting himself in and frowning at the mess inside. Pete must have cancelled his cleaners at some point. He makes a mental note to set up the cleaning service again before they let Pete go back home and starts to check logical places for the wallet, phone, and meds. They're all set carefully in a row on the kitchen counter, not forgotten but deliberately left behind.

Mikey kind of wants to punch Pete. But only kind of; the rest of him gets it. It's scary and overwhelming sometimes, and Pete doesn't have an Alicia and a Gerard to lean on. They're going to help Pete fix it and keep an eye on him this time, so it doesn't get this bad again.

The phone is dead. Mikey goes on a hunt for the charger. It's still plugged in in the bedroom and there are clothes and a duffel bag on the bed, like Pete thought about taking clothes with him and decided against it.

Mikey puts the clothes and everything else in the duffel bag, along with a picture of Bronx from the top of Pete's dresser. That's probably the most important things. They can always come back for other stuff later.

When he gets back to the house, Alicia's peering into Pete's bedroom through the cracked door and jumps guiltily aside when Mikey taps her on the shoulder.

"Is he asleep?" Mikey whispers.

Alicia pulls the door shut. "I think so. He was petting Piglet for a while and talking to her, but he's not moving now. Did you find his things?"

"Yeah. They were all lined up on the counter, clothes and bag on the bed. He definitely had a kind of a plan in mind."

They go into the bedroom and Alicia lies back on the bed. "Is it better or worse that he thought about leaving instead of just walking out the door, even if it was terrible and dumb?"

"I'm not sure. It's really good that we found him, though. He could've... been hurt."

Alicia squeezes her eyes shut. Fucking Pete. "Him not getting assaulted or catching something is a plus. You wanna plug that phone in and see how many people we have to call?"

"Gabe covered some of them. But yeah. I'll plug it in in a minute." First he needs to wrap his arms around her and breathe in the smell of her hair.

Alicia snuggles up to him and strokes his back. "I really want him to be okay."

"He will be. We'll take care of him."

"I really love you, Mikey."

"I really love you, too, Licia."

* * *

Alicia wakes up first in the morning and she's cold, which means that the animals have been with Pete all night. That's good.

She goes downstairs to start the coffee maker and finds Pete and the animals standing at the pantry door, staring at the bags of pet food. "One at a time," Pete says. "One at a time. I only have two hands, dudes."

"Hey," she says sleepily. Pete looks wide awake but also rested, not quite ten times better than the day before, but close. "Bunny steals Pig's food unless you feed her first."

"The cat steals the dog food? That's different. Pig, sit. Sit. Good girl."

Both Piglet and Bunny sit. "She likes to pretend she's a dog," says Alicia and starts the coffee. "Coffee for you or do you want something else?"

"Coffee's good. Thank you." Pete measures out food into the bowls. "I slept really well. Your guest room is nice and Piglet's a great blanket."

"If she slobbered all over you in the night, you're welcome to have another shower. Actually, you can have a shower or nap or anything you like whenever you want, okay?"

"Maybe." Pete sets the bowls out and watches the animals go at them. "I think I should maybe call my doctor."

"I think that's a good idea." Alicia looks at the contents of the fridge critically. "Do you eat meat right now? Should I make bacon?"

"I'm on meat right now, yeah. Though the hot dogs might put me back off it. But bacon would be good."

"Mikey brought your meds and wallet over last night," says Alicia carefully after starting breakfast. "Do you want to take your meds now? Or wait for what the doctor says?"

"He's going to be really annoyed with me."

"You don't need him to love you. You have other people for that."

"It's going to be all, Peter, we've talked about noncompliance." He makes a face. "But I tried."

Alicia hides a smile behind her hand at 'Peter.' "I'm sure you're not his first person with med problems. Sit down, breakfast is ready. I'll go get Mikey."

Pete sits down obediently. Alicia and Mikey are so good at making their requests and expectations clear. There aren't any mind games or tricks. It's really nice.

Alicia puts a fork in Pete's hand and that's when Mikey walks in. His hair's sticking up in every single direction.

"That looks good," Pete says. "It reminds me of Warped."

Mikey knows Pete means it, too, so he doesn't try to fix it. "That was a good summer."

"Yeah." Pete opens his mouth like he's going to say something else, then shuts it and looks down at his plate.

Alicia exchanges looks with Mikey. This isn't the right time to be bringing any of it up, but she wants to. "I have to go to work," she says instead. "You two can handle the doctor stuff, right? And we can talk tonight."

"You want me to stay another night?"

"Definitely," she says. "If you liked staying here last night."

"It was nice. Really nice. I slept." He rubs the back of his neck, still looking down at the table. "But I don't want to be in the way."

"You're not in the way. We like having you here and so do the pets." Alicia pours Pete more coffee. "I know it's probably hard for you to ask for what you need, but you officially can, by the way."

"I need..." Pete takes a shaky breath and still doesn't look at either of them. "I need to not be all alone with nothing but my brain."

"We can do that." Mikey inches his chair a little closer to Pete's. He's been on both sides of needing that. "That's, like, the easiest request you could make."

"I know you need to go to the studio and stuff. Maybe I can stay with the pets while you do that?"

Mikey shrugs. "Maybe tomorrow. I took today off."

"That's right. You said that." Pete nods. "I guess I should call my doctor, then."

Mikey pats him on the shoulder. "Want me to stay with you while you do that?"

"Yeah. Please. He's going to get all... and then I'll get all..." Hand gestures accompany the gaps.

"Even if it's painful, it'll be quick," Alicia says and grabs her handbag. "I have to run. Call me if you need me."

Pete swings his feet and watches her go. "She's so great."

"Yeah, she is. Did she wrestle you into the car yesterday?"

"No, but I could tell that if I kept arguing she was going to." Pete glances at him. "I'm not, like, going to hit on your wife, Mikey. I'm not going to be a jerk and ruin everything. I'm really trying to cut back on the 'ruining everything' hobby."

Mikey blinks at him slowly. "I wasn't worried about that. Do you want to hit on her?"

"No. She's your wife. I'm not an asshole. Cheating sucks."

"You're not an asshole," Mikey agrees. "I don't think Alicia worries that you'll hit on me either, so we're all good here."

"Okay. So we're good?"

"We're good." Mikey slides his own phone towards Pete. "Call your doctor."

Pete takes a breath, looks at his insurance card, and dials. This is going to suck. But Mikey's got his back.

Mikey watches him and drinks his coffee. The comments about hitting on Alicia are interesting, but the personal shit is being shelved until further notice. "You can put it on speakerphone if you want."

Pete nods and hits the speakerphone button, then makes his way through the maze of receptionists to get directly to his psychiatrist. He reaches across the table and hooks his finger in Mikey's sweatshirt.

Pete's hand is almost imperceptibly shaking, so Mikey takes it and presses it. "It's okay."

The doctor picks up and Pete closes his eyes and holds on to Mikey's hand tightly while he explains what happened and how long he's been off his meds. The doctor sighs and lectures and gives him numbers about how to step back onto them. Pete doesn't write them down, just keeps his eyes closed and nods and mumbles "okay" every so often.

Mikey reaches over for a pad of paper by the landline and a pen. "Hi," he interjects. "I'm Pete's friend. Could you repeat that so I can write it down?" The doctor rattles off the information again irritably and transfers Pete to reception, where Mikey makes him an appointment for next week.

"All done," Mikey says when they hang up and hands Pete his pills and a glass of water.

"Thanks." Pete squeezes Mikey's hand. "I should call my therapist, too. For an appointment. He's really nice, though, he won't yell."

"Let's do it right now. And then you can take your meds and we'll hang out."

Pete takes a deep breath and dials. This time he just has to talk to the receptionist and make an appointment. That's better.

The appointment is for the next day, so Mikey writes that down, too. He might have to take off from recording again if Alicia has work. "Come on," Mikey tells Pete. "Your choices are ice cream, nap, or cartoons. What do you want to do?"

Pete laughs. "Is that the same list of options you have for your niece?"

"She likes it," Mikey says defensively.

"I wasn't complaining, just... laughing at myself for being a toddler."

"Toddlers are awesome," says Mikey. "You'd like her, I think. Bronx would too."

"Toddlers are great." Pete brightens visibly thinking about Bronx. "I would love to let them play."

"When you're ready, you should call and talk to him. I bet he misses you."

"Yeah. Maybe... maybe this afternoon. He's in New York, it's so far away."

Mikey walks around the table and gives Pete a hug. "He won't be there forever."

"Thanks, Mikey. I couldn't do this without you."

Mikey squeezes Pete more tightly. "You're welcome. Oh, hey. I forgot another option. We could go walk Piglet."  

"Let's do that first. She'll like it."

"Pig!" Mikey yells. "We're going for a walk." She comes galloping up. "Do you want to check on your friend the hot dog guy or go to a different park?"

"Different park." Pete ducks his head. "It'd be awkward to go back there right now."

"I agree," Mikey says. "There's a playground the next block over, with swings. We'll go there."

Pete gets Piglet's leash from the door and lets her drag him out the door. She is on a mission.

Mikey has to jog to catch up with them. Pete turns around and laughs when he's half a block ahead of Mikey and twisted up in the leash. Piglet knows exactly where she's going.

"Pig loves the park," Mikey says once he's caught up. "Lots of things to sniff and pee on and sometimes kids who will give her snacks."

"That's what I like about the park too," says Pete. "Except they frown on peeing and talking to strange kids."

"So you like sniffing things."

Pete waggles his eyebrows and cracks up. "You know it."

Mikey grins and bumps his hip against Pete's. Pete is definitely doing better. This is going to be okay.

The playground is completely deserted so they let Piglet off the leash. Pete's as restless as she is for a while, hanging on the monkey bars while Pig jumps below, but then he seems to settle down and makes his way to the swing where Mikey's checking his phone.

"They're putting out a patch for my Star Wars game. That's awesome. I'm gonna level up so hard." Mikey glances up at Pete through his hair. "How're you doing, dude?"

Pete walks the swing back until he's up on tiptoes and lets go. "I feel like I'm doing something. That's better than hiding."

"Yeah, I hear you." Mikey watches Piglet sniff around at the base of a tree. "You want to help me paint the fence tomorrow?"

"Totally." Pete looks down at his sneakers and gives himself another push. "Can we watch another movie tonight? You know, on the couch like last night?"

"Yeah. We can have popcorn, too. Pig loves popcorn."

"Sweet. I'll feed her. Does Bunny eat popcorn?"

"Bunny licks the salt off and then bats it around. It's really cute." Mikey tucks his phone away and smiles at Pete. "This is cool. I like hanging out."

"I like hanging out with you too," Pete says quietly. There are butterflies in his stomach. "With just you and with you and Alicia. I thought it would be weird for me to be in your house but it's not."

"I'm glad. I want you to feel comfortable there."

"Just promise me if I'm outstaying my welcome, okay? Or being too clingy? I promise not to go back to the park." Pete doesn't want to go back to the park anymore, not really. Sleeping on an actual mattress felt too great.

"Where would you go instead?"

Pete shrugs and kicks at the sawdust under his feet. It gets into his sneakers and he wrinkles his nose. "I'd go back to my house. Pretend the backyard is a park if I really need to, I guess."

"I'm glad you would go home instead of finding another park. But you can stay with us for as long as you want."

"I want to for a while." Pete looks at Mikey out of the corner of his eye. "Cuddling with you two is nice."

"It's awesome. Between the three of us I bet we have a PhD in cuddling."

"Maybe even two PhDs, if you count the animals." Piglet runs around them in circles, nosing at their legs and yipping.

"What do you want, Pig? You want to play? You want to wrestle?"

Piglet barks and puts her legs on Pete's knees. Pete laughs. "I think she wants to wrestle," he says and launches himself at her.

Pete needed to roll around with a dog. He's flushed and breathing hard and it makes Mikey remember Pete the way he was on his best days, when he smiled so wide that Mikey forgot all the shitty parts of his life.

"I miss having a dog," Pete says, looking up at him from the ground. "I didn't even realize how much I missed it."

"You can play with Piglet any time you want. Standing offer." Right now, Mikey would even let Pete take Piglet home for a night. Just one night, though. And Pete would have to bring her back in time for breakfast.

"She's a good girl. Doesn't get mouthy at all."

"She plays nice." Mikey thinks about helping Pete up, but he looks so happy lying down in the sawdust with Pig's paws all over him, so he sits down next to Pete instead.

"Maybe I'll get another dog. When I go home."

"That would be pretty cool. You could take it on playdates with Pig."

"Yeah. Maybe a really big dog. A mastiff."

"Those are really great to cuddle with. It would be, like, your size." Mikey drums his fingers on his jeans. "Do you want to go get coffee?"

"Yeah. And maybe, like, some muffins."

"I will totally find you a coffee and a muffin, Pete Wentz. And you, Piglet."

"Does she get her own muffin?"

"She isn't really supposed to have anything with sugar in it," says Mikey, clipping the leash to Pig's collar and starting to walk towards the house. "But if I don't get her one she'll get all up in my face until I cave and we like to circumvent that kind of thing while I'm driving. Alicia insists."

"We could get her a gluten-free muffin."

"I don't think gluten-free is the same as sugar-free," Mikey says thoughtfully. "But maybe she would like one of those better. Usually I get her carrot cake because it's with vegetables."

"But it has frosting, right?"

"I scrape it off and eat it myself." They come up to the car and Mikey clicks it open. "No, Pig, you do not get shotgun. Pete gets shotgun."

Piglet hops into the seat before Pete can and gives Mikey a woeful look.

Pete's watching them both with big eyes. "You can't guilt-trip me, Pig," says Mikey. "Pete, haul her out and get in."

"I can ride in the back if she really wants it."

"You're going to spoil her," says Mikey but relents. "Okay. Sit in the back and let's roll. I need a venti."

Pete climbs into the backseat and rests his chin on the back of Piglet's seat. "She's the co-pilot."

"She takes on the role when Alicia's not here. She knows exactly how to get to Starbucks, too."

"Like, if you take a wrong turn she'll bark at you?"

"Yeah. She also yips at me if I take my phone out when I'm driving." Mikey fishes it out of his pocket and Piglet yips right on cue. "I don't know how we ended up with these weirdo smart pets."

"She's looking out for you. That's awesome."

"I'm pretty lucky."

The Starbucks isn't far at all, and there's an open spot right in front of the door.

"I can go in and order and you stay with her?"

Pete nods. He's not ready to see any people other than Mikey and Alicia, and part of him is petrified that one or, worse, both of them will be recognized. "Can you get me a medium? Black?"

"Yeah. I'm on it. And what kind of muffin?"

"Chocolate, please." Pete pets Piglet and puts his hood up. "Fuck, there are all these people around."

"Stay in the back. I'll be quick. Promise."

Pete nods and makes himself small in the middle of the backseat. "Hey Pig, want to come here and cuddle?"

Piglet hops over the divider and climbs into Pete's lap like he’s a chair. He nuzzles into Piglet's face until Mikey comes back with coffee and a bag of muffins and Piglet jumps back into the front seat to sniff and pant at the bag. "I see how I rate," Pete says, but he's relieved Mikey is back.

"Hold these so she doesn't eat them? You're a pig, Pig."

Pete grabs the bag and finds Pig's muffin. It's carrot cake covered in frosting, just like Mikey said. "Can I eat her frosting?" he asks.

"Stealing my sugar fix, Wentz. But yeah, go ahead, or she'll wrestle you to the floor for it."

Pete scrapes the frosting off with his finger and licks it, holding the muffin in the air away from Piglet. "It's really good," he says quietly, mumbling around his finger. Mikey's watching him in the rearview. "Eyes on the road."

"Right." Mikey drops his eyes to the road. "I got you a chocolate one, like you asked."

"Thanks." Pete licks the rest of the frosting off and wonders if Mikey's has frosting too. Piglet is whining for her muffin now, poking her wet nose into Pete's face, so he gives it to her and she scarfs it up. "Can we go home now, please?"

"Right." Mikey eases the car back into traffic. He doesn't know why he's so agitated all of a sudden. "You feeling okay?"

Pete feels kind of warm and his stomach is kind of fluttering in a way he's learned to associate with wanting to lie down and close his eyes forever, but he doesn't really want to do either of those things right now. "I'm okay. Just tired. And I kind of miss your house. Is that weird?"

"I don't think so. It's a good house. Hang in there, okay?"

Pete closes his eyes and pinches a bit off his muffin. "Yeah. I'm sorry I'm so messed up."

"You don't have to apologize to me, Pete."

"Thanks." It's nice not to have to apologize. It's an instinct Pete has by now, though.

"Alicia and I talked last night and we both totally agree we want you to stay as long as you want to."

Pete nods. "I really appreciate it. I--" He thinks about what he was going to say, and yeah. "I don't want to leave right now. I want to stay with you."

"Cool." Mikey smiles at him in the rearview mirror. "Then it's settled."

Bunny is really glad to see them. She ignores the muffins but rubs against Pete's ankles and sniffs at his sawdust-covered clothes.

"Can we sit in the living room with the coffee?" asks Pete. Maybe he can get an extra cuddle.

"Yeah." Mikey leads the way and flops down on the couch. "Ow. Bunny. Not on my crotch, dude."

Bunny walks all over Mikey, on his crotch and up his abs and chest, and Pete wants to get in on that. Bunny walking on him, not Pete walking on Mikey. He sits down too. The cushions are so soft he ends up leaning into Mikey's side.

"So later I'm supposed to log on to Call of Duty with Suarez," Mikey says around a mouthful of muffin. "You can hang in here or if you don't like the game, the pets will keep you company while you nap or read or whatever. You can grab any book you want. Alicia's on a sci-fi kick."

Mikey offering him a few choices again is so exactly what Pete needs. "I'll hang around." Pete wants to stay near Mikey even though the thought of Suarez makes him a little nervous. He's not nervous enough to ask Mikey not to tell him that Pete's there, anyway.

"Cool. Alicia will get home sometime after that and I think she wanted to go grocery shopping later. You can go with her if you want to, or I'll go with her and you can keep the pets company."

Pete shrugs. "Maybe. That's people again, but I guess I gotta get back on that horse sometime, right?"

"There are a lot more days for sometime. You don't have to do it yet if you don't want to. Tomorrow's your therapy appointment, that might be enough to focus on."

"Shit." Pete forgot about that. "Will one of you come with me?"

"Yeah. Or both of us, if you want. And doughnuts after."

Pete carefully leans into Mikey's side. "I'm glad you found me in the park."

"I'm glad, too. You know, when things get bad and scary in your head, you can call me. Any time. Or Gabe. Or Patrick. Or, like, the Maddens, even. Any of us would come help you."

Pete nods. "I know that. I don't know why I didn't this time."

"It's hard. I know it's hard." Mikey puts his arm around Pete's shoulders. "I have an unfair advantage, which is even if Alicia wasn't around, my brother can't go more than twenty-four hours without being all up in my business. I've never been alone."

Pete turns his face into Mikey's side. He smells like the Mikey Pete remembers, just slightly more washed and shampooed, which is weird because now he's all, like, wise and shit. "Speaking of your brother, it's been about twenty-four hours since you found me. Is he going to come around?"

"I texted him last night. Didn't tell him you were here, just that I was helping a friend and would be a little out of pocket for a couple days."

Pete nods. "How is he?"

"He's good. He's great, really. He's got the world in the palm of his hand."

"Good for him. I never felt like that."

"You and Gerard are different people. Just like me and him are different."

"How's the album going? I'm distracting you from recording, aren't I?" Pete chews on his knuckle.

"Nah, we needed a break. It's going okay, but we need a creative refresh. Gerard's gonna write a comic book, see if that makes his brain shift gears."

"It'd be cool if you showed me your studio. I miss recording, sometimes."

"Totally. You can fool around with my basses, if you want."

Pete chokes on an innuendo. "Sure, yeah. That would be awesome."

"No joke? Not even a little one?"

"Yours is the only bass I ever wanted to fool around with, Mikeyway," Pete says, and it comes out way too fucking truthful.

"Gabe put down the bass years ago, I guess."

"And he'd never offer."

"He loves you."

"Yeah," Pete says warmly. "He does. He doesn't love me like that, though, and I'm okay with that, I think."

"As long as you know he'd take a bullet for you. I think. Well, unless the bullet would fuck up his jacket or his hair."

Pete punches Mikey in the side. "It depends on what jacket."

"I'm teasing you, man. Gabe would do anything for you."

"I know. I shouldn't have disappeared without letting him know. That was shitty. I texted him to say I'd be offline, but he freaked out anyway, didn't he?"

"Yeah, kinda. He was really upset. But he knows Alicia and I are taking care of you now, and he sends his love. So does Travis."

"Okay." Pete swallows the lump in his throat. He owes each of them a vegan cake and, like, puppy toys. "I love them too, you can tell them that if they call. Can you call Patrick later and tell him too?"

"Yeah. I can definitely do that. They're not mad at you. They're glad you're okay."

Pete gathers Bunny to his chest and pets her ears. "Is it okay if I just nap on the couch while you're gaming? I don't want to be in the room alone, but I'm kind of tired."

"Yeah, that's fine. You'll probably have pets on top of you."

"I was counting on it."

Pete slides down sideways onto the couch and pulls his legs up, pressing them into Mikey's thigh. "I can do some chores after. Just tell me what to do."

"You don't have to. But if you want to help me vacuum later, that'd be cool."

"Cool. I'm good at picking stuff up. It comes with being a dad." Pete yawns. "Shit, I'm wiped."

"Lie down. I'll grab you a blanket."

Pete presses himself further into the cushions and sticks a pillow under his head. Bunny curls up in front of his face and Piglet lies down where Mikey was sitting.

Mikey drapes a blanket over Pete and Piglet. "Sleep well, dude."

Pete looks up at Mikey before closing his eyes. He looks completely normal, none of that painful, careful kindness that's so hard for Pete to handle sometimes. "Thanks."

Mikey sits down on the floor and texts Suarez that he's about to sign on. He shoots a quick text to Gabe, Travie, and Patrick, too, saying "pete loves u & has therp appt 2mrrw. going back on meds. still off phone/net. ive got this."

The phone starts buzzing with reply texts and Mikey sets it to silent. Gaming time is quiet time, and it would suck to wake Pete up. He's already breathing evenly.

* * *

Alicia gets home a few hours later. "Babe?" she calls from the entryway. "Hey, Mikes? You home?"

Pete stirs on the couch and Mikey trails a hand over his hair on complete autopilot as he goes to meet Alicia at the door. "Hey, Licia. How was work?"

"Pretty good. We got a lot done. Is he still here?"

Mikey takes Alicia's hand and walks with her to the living room. Pete's still half-asleep but starting to move. "He said he wanted to stay for a while. And he promised not to go back to the park."

Alicia smiles. "Good. Now we don't have to chain him to the wall in the laundry room."

"Kinky," says Mikey.

"What's kinky?" Pete asks in a bleary voice.

"Alicia is," Mikey says. "You hungry?"

"Yeah," Pete says, getting off the couch and dislodging the animals. "I was promised Chinese leftovers?"

"All of the Chinese leftovers in the world. Come on."

Alicia notices Pete looking wistfully at the floor, but he sits at the table this time. "How is Chinese even better reheated?"

"Magic." Mikey moves around the kitchen, getting everything out and heated up. "We went to the park with Pig. It was pretty rad."

"We wrestled," Pete nods. "We're very well-matched."

"You and Mikey wrestled, or you and Piglet?"

"Uh. Me and Piglet." Pete looks at Alicia nervously.

"It's hard to tell sometimes. They both love wrestling so much." Alicia rolls her eyes at Mikey, but she's grinning.

"I wouldn't wrestle with Mikey without your permission."

"Don't let him body-slam you. He almost broke my brother's neck."

"That was one time," says Mikey. "And I apologized."

"Doesn't Gerard have scars from your overly enthusiastic wrestling as a child?"

"That is badass, Mikeyway," says Pete.

"I hit him with a folding chair," Mikey says with mixed pride and embarrassment. "Right across the back."

"Brutal," says Pete, impressed. "You've got style."

"He fell off the porch. Blood everywhere. It was a thing."

"I will never be misled by your joined-at-the-hip front again," says Pete, eating the last eggroll. "Are there fortune cookies?"

"We ate them all last night. We have Oreos, though."

"Double-stuffed?"

"Fuck yes." Mikey goes to the pantry and Alicia stares at Pete.

Pete feels his cheeks get red and looks down at the table to avoid Alicia's eyes. He wishes he had more hair to hide behind. "So, uh. How are the tar pits? I haven't been there since I was still a new kid in town."

"They're good. Full of fossils. You're feeling better. There's, like, an actual person behind your eyes instead of just numbness."

Pete rubs his eyes and looks back up at Alicia. "The TLC helped. Thank you."

"I'm glad. I don't like seeing you all numb and sad."

"I don't like seeing me like that either. I keep trying to not make that my default state."

"Good." She smiles. "What do you want to do tonight?"

"Mikey said you had to go to the grocery store."

"Yeah. Stock up on all the goodies."

"I could help. I have good taste in goodies." He still feels a little nervous about going out in public, but it's less scary with Alicia.

"Yeah? Awesome. Maybe you get less distracted by cheese products than Mikey does."

"Cheese is an important part of the food pyramid," says Mikey.

"It's not the entire pyramid, though."

"There are also crackers," says Pete. "According to my son."

"Dude." Mikey points at him. "What are Bronx's thoughts on fruit snacks?"

"He'd wrap himself up in fruit roll-ups like a mummy if he could." Pete's voice catches. "I should call him now before it's too late in New York."

Alicia nods and reaches out to squeeze Pete's arm. "Totally. You want to use one of our phones, or yours?"

"Ashlee's number is in my phone," says Pete. "I have to use it, but can you put it away after I'm done?"

"Absolutely." She squeezes again. "Do you want us to be in the room, or should we go in the living room?"

"Living room, please. I don't... let's just say me crying isn't my most attractive look."

"Okay. We'll be right there." Alicia kisses his cheek and takes Mikey's hand, tugging him along to the living room.

The phone is upstairs and it only takes Mikey a couple of minutes to bring it down to Pete, and then he sits down on the couch next to Alicia. "Hope that goes well."

"Hopefully he'll just talk to Bronx. Have kiddo time."

Mikey runs his fingers over Alicia's knee. "Maybe this weekend we could go over to Gee and Lindsey's. Play with Bandit."

"Yeah, maybe." Alicia leans on his shoulder. "You holding up okay, babe?"

"Yeah, it's not too bad. I like being around him. It's kind of hard to see him like this but I try not to think about it."

"It's not messing up your routine too much?"

Mikey shrugs. "It's okay right now. At some point I'm going to have to go back to the studio. Maybe I can take Pete with me."

"Okay. Let me know if it gets rough, okay? Promise?"

"Promise." He links his fingers with hers. "Look, maybe this isn't the right time, but for full disclosure purposes, you know that I still have, like, feelings for him, right? Not like I have feelings for you, obviously."

"I'm not blind, Mikey."

Mikey smiles. "Just checking. You don't have to worry about me."

"I dated him too, remember?"

"Yeah. But he promised me he wouldn't hit on you. I am not sure why he said that. It was kind of weird."

"He said he won't hit on me?" Alicia frowns and thinks about it for a minute. "Maybe he still has feelings too."

"Huh. You think so?"

"How can we test this?"

"He's going to think we're playing mind games if we try to test him. Maybe you can ask him at the store."

"Right. No mind games. I'll bribe him with candy."

"He'll go for that." Mikey listens to Pete's voice in the kitchen. It's too quiet to make out individual words, but it sounds pretty calm. "I kind of want to make out with you right now."

"Well, if you insist."

Mikey laughs and pulls her into his lap. "Hi."

"Hi. You being loving and taking care of people and all strong and wise really turns me on."

"It's totally mutual," Mikey says and kisses her. "We should do something tonight. After we go to bed."

"Something of the sex variety?"

"No, I was thinking we could do the New York Times crossword in bed," says Mikey and gasps when Alicia squeezes his dick.

"You think you're so clever, Mr. Way."

"I can stop that if you want."

"I don't think you can."

Pete's voice in the kitchen goes quiet. "Oops," says Mikey and kisses Alicia for the last time.

"We'll pick this up later, don't worry." Alicia eases off his lap. "Pete?"

Pete walks into the living room gingerly holding the phone. He doesn't look like he's been crying, but he doesn't look deliriously happy either. "Hey. I miss my kid."

"Sorry, man." Mikey holds his arms out. "Is he having fun in New York?"

Pete awkwardly leans in for a hug. "Yeah. He likes spending time with his mom. I guess I can't be mad at that."

Alicia takes Pete's phone and switches it off. "Grocery store, or you need a few minutes?"

"We can go to the store. I'm okay." Pete finally looks at them properly. "Um, your t-shirt, Alicia, it's kind of riding up."

"Boobs, stop trying to escape." She tugs her shirt back into place. "They're incorrigible. Like puppies."

"Chest puppies." Mikey grins. "We should make that a thing."

Pete stares. "Like, stick little googly eyes and whiskers on them?"

"No, no, we should just make the term a thing. Chest puppies." Mikey laughs, his stupid honking giggle. "Chest puppies."

"You are twelve years old, Mikey, and I'm rethinking your earlier request to do something," says Alicia. "Please don't tweet that."

"I'm just gonna text it to Frank, he'll be into it."

"You do that." Alicia pats his knee and gets off the couch. "Pete and I are going to the store. You want to take anything with you, Pete? Piglet is not allowed."

"Just a hoodie, I guess." Pete grabs the one he'd worn to the park earlier. "Is this store, like, crowded usually?"

Alicia herds him out the door. "It's not too bad. But if it is and you don't like it, you can wait for me in the car and I'll try to be quick, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you." He flips his hood up in the car and watches the traffic go by. "Bronx said he misses me."

"Of course he misses you, Pete. You're his dad."

"I guess I didn't even think about that when I went to the park. That he would miss me. I kind of assumed he'd forget about me."

"You're kind of unforgettable."

"I don't know, I could give you a list of people who haven't had that problem."

"Fuck them," Alicia says viciously. "The point is, your kid isn't going to forget you."

"He's such a good kid. So smart."

"I'd like to meet him sometime." She pulls into the parking lot and sees with relief that it's not full at all.

"Yeah? It wouldn't be too... I don't know. Crossing streams?"

"You're going to have to translate that one for me."

Pete shrugs and follows her into the store. "Getting too much reality in the friendship."

Alicia wrinkles her nose and puts a bag of apples into the cart. "Do you think this friendship isn't real? We're only just picking it up, I know, but Mikey and I care about you for real."

"I know it's real. I phrased that wrong. I guess it's a question of... depth? Like, casual friends or I can cry all over you and puke on your floor friends. Which. I guess I'm living in your guest room, so... that question's kind of moot, huh?"

Alicia squeezes his shoulder. "Yeah, dumbass. If you have to puke on the floor, though, just try to do it on tile."

"Got it. Does Mikey need cheese?"

"Mikey always needs cheese." She steers the cart to the deli section. "If we can limit the selection to four different kinds of cheese things, that would be awesome."

"Does it all need to be for-real cheese, or does cheese from a can count? Cheez with a Z."

"It can be cheez with a Z. He eats it with Gerard when he comes over for gaming. There's always an empty can on the floor the next morning." She purses her lips at the cheese selection and throws a few things into the cart. "That's done."

"What do you like? Your cheese equivalent."

She grins at him. He's smiling back and he looks almost happy. "Cookies."

"Chocolate chip?"

"Yeah. And thumbprint ones with jam."

"I'm on it. I'll be right back."

Alicia leans on the cart and watches as Pete disappears into the cookie aisle. She's starting to feel nervous.

He comes back with bags of cookies and a big smile that fades when he sees her face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. Just thinking. I'll tell you if you tell me your cheese equivalent."

"Doritos. No, wait, guacamole."

"We'll get both," Alicia says decisively and rolls the cart on. She takes a deep breath. "I just wanted to ask you something."

"Okay. Shoot."

Alicia bites her lip and says, "Mikey and I were talking about feelings earlier. Feelings that might still be there."

Pete hugs the cookies to his chest. "Oh?"

"We still have them for you. You and I can pretend I didn't say anything if it makes you uncomfortable, though. Which flavor Doritos do you want?"

"Both of you do?"

Alicia nods and looks at Pete out of the corner of her eye. He's standing stock-still, studying the Doritos like they're the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

"Even... even after everything," he says.

"I guess it never went away. I didn't realize until I saw you yesterday."

"So... so you want me to leave so I won't fuck you guys up. Okay. Yeah. I... yeah, of course, definitely."

Alicia whips around. "That's not what I said at all."

"But you guys are having feelings about me. I don't want to mess up your marriage."

"You couldn't mess up our marriage if you tried, Wentz. I just wanted you to know because if there are any feelings you still have, too, I thought we could do something about them. Something that involves you staying, not leaving."

Pete's mouth falls open and he stares at her.

"Obviously you can stay with us even if you don't want to be with us. We'll still be your friends, always. Maybe you can think about that in the car?" Being brave is exhausting. "Pick your chips first."

Pete blindly reaches out and grabs a bag of chips. "Wait. Alicia. You. For real?"

"I wouldn't joke about this," Alicia says forcefully.

"Be with both of you. Like. At once?"

Alicia shivers. "Yeah. That would be nice."

"Wow. I didn't think that was... an option."

Alicia rolls the cart back to produce, glancing back at Pete. She'll make Pete guac from scratch. That'll be good. "Mikey and I have never tried it."

"Neither have I."

"Are you okay with trying it with us? I can't promise it'll work, but I can promise that we'll try and that we'll never deliberately hurt you."

"I know you guys wouldn't. And, just, like, for the record, I've had opportunities for threesomes. I just. Never."

Alicia hides her smile in her shoulder. "Well, I'm honored. Any reason you're changing your stance on threesomes now?"

"Like you said. You and Mikey won't hurt me."

"Damn straight." She picks out some avocados and limes. "Ready to check out? Anything else you want?"

"Can I get treats for Bunny and Piglet?"

Alicia reaches out then and touches him on the cheek because she can't not anymore. "Yeah. I'll meet you here in a few minutes? I just thought of something else we'll need."

Pete nods and hurries off to the pet supply aisle. Treats and toys. Bunny and Piglet need to live it up. He's glad he took his wallet. Now he can really spoil the pets. The way he hasn't given them any treats yet is appalling.

Alicia has to pick up condoms and lube. She and Mikey are so unprepared for threesomes, it's embarrassing.

She texts Mikey, too, so he's not totally blindsided when they get back. "pete on board. change sheets on bed." It gives her a thrill to type that, those mundane words implying so much.

"do we even have other sheets???"

"mikey i dont care find other sheets"

"i dont even know where they would be. where do we keep sheets?"

"i am going to draw up blueprints of the house for you. try linen closet next to bthroom"

Pete comes back with treats and toys. "I wasn't sure if Bunny liked fish or chicken better."

"She likes both," Alicia says. She's got a box of condoms in one hand and a bottle of lube in the other.

"Oh. You were getting supplies."

"I thought we should have them." She feels kind of embarrassed now. "Pete? Okay?"

"Yeah. That's okay. Safety first. Uh, I'm flattered that you went with Magnums, but..."

She starts to smile again. "Maybe those are for Mikey."

"Ouch. Zinged."

Alicia laughs. "Or maybe they're for me. We should go home and find out."

"Okay. Let me pay, cool?"

"It's just some snacks. But if you really want to, okay."

Pete pays and they drive home quietly, Pete staring out the window and Alicia hoping they're doing the right thing.

"We'll watch a movie like we planned, okay?" Alicia says quietly when she parks in the driveway. "Get comfortable."

"I'm comfortable. I'm totally comfortable."

"I'm kind of nervous," she says with a laugh. "Full disclosure."

"Oh, thank god. Me too."

Pete's not hiding it that well. "It'll be really good," Alicia promises. "Let's go find Mikey."

Pete carries the grocery bags in, weaving around the pets to get to the kitchen. "Yeah, hey, guys, hey, I have treats for you, can you smell them?"

Bunny and Piglet sprint towards Pete and paw at him, begging, and Mikey comes downstairs to investigate. "You're going to make them love you more than anyone, Wentz."

Pete kneels down to distribute treats and toys and belly-rubs. "Animals are easy like that."

Mikey gets on his knees next to Pete and strokes Piglet's side. "You're good with them."

"They don't expect anything but you being nice to them."

"Yeah. I know what you mean." Mikey's not sure if Pete would believe any promises about mind games, but he can at least cuddle him. "You ready to watch that movie?"

"Yeah." Pete ruffles Piglet's ears and stands up, shooting Mikey an awkward smile. "I'm making it weird, huh?"

Mikey bumps Pete's shoulder with his. "We're pretty good with weird. Lots of practice."

"We should have popcorn. With the movie."

"Right." Mikey rifles through the snack cupboard. "We have caramel and plain. Let's do plain, so Bunny and Pig can have some?"

"Yeah. Awesome. Microwave or stovetop?"

"Microwave all the way." Mikey throws the bag into the microwave and punches the popcorn setting. "I burn things."

"Dude, me too. But Bronx loves the noise stovetop popping makes, so I'm trying to get better at it."

"I'm totally with your kid on that." Piglet whines when Mikey pries the first bag open. "You should give her some right away or she won't let us leave the kitchen."

Pete takes a handful and tosses the pieces at Piglet one at a time, making her jump for them.

"Now we make a break for it," Mikey whispers and tugs Pete out of the kitchen by the hand.

Alicia's already set up on the couch with the remote in her hand and Bunny on her lap. "Were you guys tormenting Piglet?"

"Pete was, as per my instructions," says Mikey. Pete looks at the couch and Mikey uncertainly.

"Come sit down, Pete," Alicia says, patting the cushion next to her. "I want the popcorn bowl in the middle."

Mikey nudges Pete a little and sits down on his other side. "I can't promise I won't try to touch your hand when we both reach for the popcorn."

"Dude, I'm not, like, afraid of you."

Alicia laughs. "Smooth moves, Mikey."

"I'm not making fun, either!" Pete blushes furiously. "I'm making this so weird."

"We both really like weird," says Mikey and takes Pete's hand. "I told you."

Pete squeezes Mikey's hand tightly. "I like weird too."

Alicia's not paying attention to the movie at all. She cuddles up to Pete's side instead, feeling him breathe and Bunny purr.

Pete carefully rests his head on Mikey's shoulder. He's ready to pull back if Mikey shifts or frowns, but Mikey just keeps eating popcorn and watching the movie. Pete's kind of sandwiched between the two of them now. It feels...nice. Really nice.

Mikey starts rubbing little circles on Pete's hand with his thumb and that feels more than nice. "You can keep doing that," Pete says, even though he feels the furthest from assertive.

Mikey smiles and rests his head against Pete's. "You're all tense. I can feel it."

"I'm waiting for one of you to make a move," Pete says honestly.

"We don't have to do anything but this tonight, Pete." Alicia rubs her cheek against Pete's arm. "Seriously. We're not crazed nymphomaniacs."

"Uh." Pete laughs nervously and touches her hair. "Maybe it's too soon for sex. But a little kissing could be nice. I just don't know what you want."

"I can't speak for Mikey, but I want to cuddle like this and maybe kiss."

"That works for me," Mikey says and puts his head on Pete's shoulder. "I'll kiss you when the next scene is over, okay? There's about to be a big fight. It's kick-ass."

"I like that you have priorities, man." Pete glances at Alicia. He can't kiss her without dislodging Mikey. Maybe after Mikey kisses him, though, then he can.

"We're big on priorities," Alicia nods. "The scene is pretty short, though, don't worry."

"Stop talking," Mikey says. "This is seriously the best part."

Pete pokes his fingers into Mikey's side but goes quiet. It helps to know that he's not going to be ambushed by kissing. Someone's going to be punched out, and then he'll be kissed. It's great.

Mikey has seen this movie five million times. He doesn't really need to watch even the best part. But he knows Pete needs some time to prepare before he's kissed.

When the movie cuts away from the last explosion, Alicia sits up and looks at the two of them with a smirk. "I want my turn after."

"Bossy, bossy." Mikey turns and cups Pete's chin in his hands. "Ignore her, dude. I got this."

Pete closes his eyes and leans up, kissing Mikey before Mikey kisses him, because he thinks he should show some initiative.

Mikey smiles against his mouth. "Hey."

Pete really missed Mikey's lips pressed to his and his smile, too. "Hey. Kiss me, I'm not going to break."

"Promise?"

"I fucking promise," Pete says and threads his fingers through Mikey's hair, pulling him close. "Come on."

Mikey grins and kisses Pete properly, hard and deep, letting his tongue push into Pete's mouth and taste him. God, it's been a long time.

Pete reaches back to clasp Alicia's hand, hanging onto her as he takes Mikey's kiss and returns it as best as he can. Second first kisses are better than a first kiss could ever be.

Alicia kisses the back of Pete's neck, smiling over his shoulder at Mikey. Kissing is one of Mikey's top five talents.

Pete shivers, because that's two people who might even almost LOVE him kissing him. Mikey's so GOOD at it, and he can't wait to kiss Alicia's mouth too as soon as Mikey lets him go.

"My turn," Alicia says, reaching out to tug Mikey's hair. "My turn, Way, let him go."

"If you insist," says Mikey, putting his hands on Pete's back and gently turning him around to face Alicia, and hooks his chin over Pete's shoulder to watch.

Alicia threads her fingers in Pete's hair and holds him still, taking charge of the kiss. She wants Pete to know that he is hers, as far as she's concerned.

Pete whines into her mouth, completely involuntarily. He forgot what being with her was like, how it felt like being owned. And with both of them here, it's twice as intense, because Mikey's pressed up to Pete's back and ass with his hand on Pete's thigh.

"Share," Mikey says, tapping at Alicia's wrist. "My turn."

Pete shivers and turns back to Mikey, tilting his face up. "There could be some under the clothes touching."

"Of you? Or of us? Because if you want to touch Alicia's boobs, I totally get it."

Pete moans as Mikey kisses his neck. "Well, I was thinking of me, but the other thing is really tempting."

"My boobs are great," Alicia agrees, slipping her hands under Pete's t-shirt. "But they'll still be there tomorrow."

Pete can feel them pressed up to his side. "Can't wait, Licia. Fuck, I missed you. I missed both of you."

"We missed you too, baby."

"This is, like, the most human contact I've had in weeks."

"You're going to sleep with us tonight."

Pete turns his head to kiss Alicia. "Can we start now? Cuddle in bed?"

"Definitely." She kisses him slowly. "We definitely can do that."

Mikey kisses Pete again too. "I'll dump the rest of this popcorn out into Pig's bowl and catch up with you upstairs. I changed the sheets, by the way."

"I'm so proud," Alicia says, sticking her tongue out at him. "Where did you find them?"

Mikey shrugs. "Where you said."

"You changed the sheets for me?" Pete asks.

"We have manners." Alicia stands up and offers Pete her hands. "C'mon."

Pete looks at Mikey but follows Alicia upstairs, letting her kiss him every other step.

"Welcome to where the magic happens," she says, switching on the bedroom light. "Sorry about the mess."

"I don't care about the mess," says Pete, staring at the bed.

"You want to borrow some of my sweatpants to sleep in?"

"Can I sleep in my boxers?"

"Yes." She kisses his nose and tugs her t-shirt off over her head.

Pete's eyes go round. "You're not wearing a bra."

"I took it off while you guys were making popcorn. Underwires suck."

"You're so gorgeous." Pete wants to touch, but Mikey's not there. He doesn't know if he's allowed.

She smiles at him and grabs a tank top from the stack of laundry on top of the dresser. "Thank you."

Pete sits on the edge of the bed, watching her. "This is definitely the best non-sex I've ever had."

"I should be flattered, right?"

Pete nods. "It's a good thing."

Mikey walks in the room and starts taking off his clothes as soon as he gets through the door. "Hey. Animals love us even more now. Popcorn is effective."

"So we have a whole five minutes before they're up here begging for their piece of the bed?"

Mikey nods. "Let's batten the hatches. Pete, you're in the middle. We want to cuddle."

"On it." Pete climbs into the bed, feeling awkward at having his ass up in the air and the two of them looking at him hungrily.

"Shit," Mikey says under his breath. "Pete."

"What?"

Mikey shakes his head and climbs into the bed next to Pete. "Nothing. I just can't really believe this is happening."

"You can't believe you took me in from living on a park bench? Yeah, me either."

Alicia presses all along Pete's other side and kisses his shoulder. "Nope. The change in the number of hot dudes in this bed. It's really exciting."

Pete's pretty sure that if he makes another self-deprecating comment, Alicia will smack him in a not-fun way. "I'm glad to be here."

Mikey kisses the corner of Pete's mouth and slides his hand under Pete's t-shirt. "We're glad too."

"I'll try not to kick during the night."

"That makes one of you," Alicia mutters and wraps her arms around Pete. "Sleep now."

* * *

Pete wakes up first, and for a minute he almost panics, because he's pinned in on both sides and there's a weight across his legs. He twists around, trying to figure out what's trapping him, and throws an elbow into Mikey's ribs before he realizes that is Mikey. And on the other side, that's Alicia. And the thing on his legs is Piglet. He tries to figure out where Bunny is for a few moments and then relaxes back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. He made out with Mikey and Alicia last night.

Piglet snorfles at him and paws at his legs. "Do you need to go outside?" Pete asks her softly, and she wags frantically. "You are totally making me get up, dog."

Pete slides out carefully from between Mikey and Alicia and they roll towards each other into the spot where he was. He pulls on his jeans, trying not to let Piglet push him over.

Piglet leads him to the back door and woofs unhappily until he lets her out. The air outside is cool and clear and morning-ish. he shoves his hands in his pockets and stares up at the sky, thinking about Mikey's hands and Alicia's face. And her breasts, too. Those kind of sneak in there.

He has therapy later, and for once that doesn't make him want to go back to bed forever. Except... Mikey and Alicia are there. "Hurry up, Pig," he whispers. "It's too early for walks."

Piglet ignores him. It takes as long as it takes to finish the morning sniff routine.

"Bad dog," Pete laughs quietly. "Don't look at me like that. I was kidding."

Piglet wags and rushes past him back to the door. Now it is time for breakfast and coffee and toast and sharing toast with her.

Pete follows her into the kitchen. The house is still very quiet. He throws a look at the staircase and strains his hearing for any signs of Mikey and Alicia waking up, but Pig herds him into the kitchen, where Bunny is already expectantly sitting next to her bowl.  "Okay, okay, I can take a hint."

Mikey's floating in the vague gray space between asleep and awake. he hears noises downstairs, but he doesn't smell coffee. Therefore, it cannot actually be morning.

It takes several minutes of distressed-sounding clanging for Alicia to realize that Pete must be trying to work the coffeemaker and failing. She makes her way blearily downstairs. Pete's standing in front of the coffeemaker, looking very close to defeated.

"What even IS this thing? It's like HAL."

"Mikey's on a quest to conquer every coffee maker on the planet." Alicia wraps her arms around Pete from behind and nuzzles into his neck. "Hi."

"But how do you make it make coffee?" He leans back into her. "Hi."

"Oh, you just press-- hold on." She pushes Mikey's favorite preprogrammed sequence. "He and Gerard have some kind of coffee one-upmanship going, the more complicated the better."

"Do they ever just literally compare dicks or is it all through proxies?"

"I can't promise that's never happened. But enough about Gerard's dick." Alicia tips Pete's chin up and kisses him sleepily. "You escaped from bed too early."

"Piglet needed to go out. She was very insistent."

"You're her favorite now." Alicia kisses him again, slowly, pushing him back into the counter. "Was last night good for you?"

"It was really good. Really, really good."

"Good." She smoothes Pete's hair down and smiles. "I want to do more with you."

"Do you have specifics in mind?" He rests his hands on her waist. It feels...daring. Scary. But good.

"Hmm. I have some ideas. I want to boss you around a little. I want to ride you and watch you with Mikey. That's just a shortlist."

"Watch me do what with Mikey? Be specific."

"I want him to fuck you," she says challengingly. "That specific enough?"

Pete's eyes widen. "Um."

"Hey. It's okay. Obviously we're only going to do stuff you like."

"I'm just not sure I can jump right into that."

"Fuck, Pete, I'm sorry. I'd be happy just watching you touch. You're so fucking gorgeous together."

Pete rubs his face and looks at Alicia. "Kiss me."

Alicia kisses him the way he kissed her last night, slow and gentle. "It's okay. You can decide everything."

"I definitely want to start with kissing. Both of you."

"I like kissing." Alicia kisses him again. "Mikey better wake up soon. I love it when you kiss him."

"Kissing would be a good distraction before therapy."

Alicia hugs him. "Take your meds now and we can make out until we have to leave."

Pete nods and counts his meds out, then takes them standing at the sink, washing them down with handfuls of water. He's scared shitless, but he can't tell her that.

Alicia comes up behind him and wraps her arms about his waist. "Mikey and I like you so much."

"I like you guys, too. You're part of me."

"You're part of us too." Alicia prods the coffeemaker. "I can smell the coffee, but he's not coming down."

"I could go get him?"

"Let's bring him coffee and hang out in bed. You got up too early to get the cuddling I wanted."

"I'm just really wound up. I'm sorry."

Alicia holds his hand for a few moments before she gets the mugs out of the cupboard. "That's okay."

"I'm really mad at myself for falling apart, you know? Dropping the ball."

Alicia shrugs and pours the coffee. "It's not like you wanted to do it. It wasn't your fault."

"It was, though. If I stay in charge of myself and on top of things it doesn't get so bad."

"I know how hard it is to always have to be the one who takes care of yourself. Cut yourself some slack." She gives him two of the full mugs and kisses him. "You're trying."

"Yeah. I'm back to trying now."

"We're not going to let you stop trying."

"And you're not going to let me go back to the park." He tries to smile and doesn't quite make it.

"The park is out of the question. You can go there under strict supervision only."

"Can I ask you something kind of... harsh?"

Alicia raises an eyebrow. "Okay."

"What made you decide to bring me home instead of checking me into the psych ward?"

"We weren't really deciding between those two things, Pete."

"I'm just asking. A lot of people would have. Probably my doctor would have, if he found me. Or, like. The guys from Crush."

Alicia smiles a little. "I guess we wanted to take you home. The other thing didn't even occur to us."

"I appreciate that."

"Can I ask you something in return? Answer for an answer."

"That's fair. Yeah."

"Mikey and I were shit about keeping up a friendship with you. How come you aren't mad at us?"

He smiles at her a little. "I don't blame anyone for not wanting to be friends with me, Licia."

Alicia can't keep a cheerful face up anymore. "Pete."

"I'm hard to love. I know that. I wear people out. I'm trying to get better about that, too."

"Well. There are two of us for one of you, so I think we have a chance."

"I hurt you guys a lot. Back then. With the songs, and with how I acted, and just... I sucked."

Alicia sets the mugs down on the counter, splashing coffee everywhere, and clings to Pete. "That's in the past now, okay? Blank slate. Forgiven?"

Pete leans into her, hiding his face against her shoulder. She smells so good, like sleep and sweat and herself. "Nothing to forgive. I'm just glad you got me."

"I'm so glad too. So, so glad."

He just wants to stay there being held by her forever.

"Come on, baby," Alicia whispers into his ear. "Let's go upstairs. Let me kiss you in bed."

"Okay." He nods against her, not pulling back. "Okay."

Alicia kisses Pete's neck and reluctantly pulls away. "Coffee. Mikey will be really confused if we don't bring him any."

"Don't want to confuse Mikeyway. He'll put a curse on us."

"He'll make a hilarious face."

"You wake him up. I want to see the face."

"Yes, good idea." They walk upstairs quietly. There are animals on the bed on either side of Mikey.

Pete takes the coffee from Alicia and steps back so she can wake Mikey up. They're so beautiful together it makes his heart ache.

Alicia climbs on the bed, covering Mikey's body with hers. "Hey, sunshine, it's morning."

"Nnngghhhh." Mikey tries to burrow deeper into the blankets, but he can't escape.

Alicia grins at Pete and waves him closer. "Wake uuuuuuuuup."

"Why? Go 'way."

Alicia patiently pulls back layers of blankets until there is skin she can tickle. "You're being a bad host. Pete's here and he wants to make out."

"Make out?" Mikey pokes his head up. "Now?"

"That's the hilarious face, Pete," says Alicia, tickling Mikey only a little bit. "Come here."

Pete comes over to the side of the bed. "I have coffee."

"Oh god, thank you," says Mikey, stretching out his hands. "Give me that."

Pete hands it over and leans on Alicia. "You look good with bedhead, Mikes."

Mikey blinks sleep out of his eyes and chugs half the coffee in one go. "Wow, so do you. Both of you look awesome."

"You're just saying that so we'll kiss you."

"I'm not just saying that! But I WAS promised making out."

"Who do you want first?"

"Alicia said you wanted to make out, so come here." Alicia takes the mug away from him and sets it on the bedside table. They learned that the hard way.

Pete climbs on the bed and crawls up to Mikey. "Good morning."

Mikey tangles his fingers in Pete's hair. "Good morning. Kiss me."

Pete closes his eyes and does. He will never get tired of kissing Mikey. Never ever.

"I get to kiss you again," Mikey says into Pete's mouth. "I won the lottery."

"Kissing you is amazing, Mikey."

Bunny walks over onto the pillow by Pete and Mikey's heads and observes. Alicia laughs softly and takes her t-shirt off. "If I don't get this started you two will just sit there and smile at each other all day."

"We're also smiling at Bunny," Pete protests, and then goes quiet, because Alicia's boobs are right there.

"Take your shirt off, Pete."

"Yeah," says Pete, and gets tangled in the t-shirt. Behind him, Mikey laughs and helps him drag his t-shirt off. His fingers are warm and callused and just like Pete remembered.

"Way, you'd better be naked under that sheet."

"Uh, not yet," laughs Mikey. "Give me a second." He performs some complex manipulations under the sheet and reaches for Pete again. "Hi. Are we just rolling around this morning or having sex?"

"I hate myself for saying this," Pete says, "but it's therapy day. That has to be taken into account."

Alicia snuggles up behind Pete on his other side and wow, she's only got panties on and her breasts are pressing into his back. "Just rolling around is good. Or clothes can come back on."

"Does rolling around include cuddling?"

"As much cuddling as you like," Alicia says and rubs her face against his back. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah. It's... really okay. I can feel your boobs."

"I love that," says Mikey and wraps his arms around Pete's waist. "Can I move closer to you?"

"Yeah. Please." Pete closes his eyes and just concentrates on how their skin feels. They both are really soft, and warm. Well, some parts of Mikey are hard and/or bony. But his skin is soft everywhere. And Alicia's boobs are really squishy.

Mikey wiggles closer to him and slips his thigh between Pete's. "Okay? You feel really good."

"So do you. Both of you guys. Fuck. I really love you guys a lot."

Mikey's breath hitches. Pete can feel it because they're so close. "We love you a lot too," Alicia says in Pete's ear.

Pete leans forward and kisses Mikey, soft and slow.

Mikey kisses back the same way, following Pete's lead, and Alicia kisses Pete's shoulders. "I want my turn," she whispers.

Pete laughs and turns his head as far as he can. "Can't quite reach. Meet me halfway?"

Alicia sits up and cups Pete's upturned face in her hands. "I like it when you laugh."

"I like it, too." He closes his eyes and waits for her to kiss him. He just wants to spend the day like this, going back and forth between them. "Let's forget therapy and stay here all day."

Alicia shakes her head. Her hair's falling over Pete's face, keeping the light out. "Nope." Her smile makes it okay.

"You can be my therapy."

"We're your supplement," Alicia says and leans down to kiss him deeply.

Mikey loves watching Alicia kiss. And Pete takes it so pretty, just surrendering to her.

He tucks Alicia's hair aside and listens to Pete's quiet sighs and whimpers. "You guys are amazing."

"You could help." Alicia smiles at him over Pete's shoulder. "Touch him."

Mikey grins back and slips his hands into Pete's hair, tugging him towards him for a quick kiss. Then he gives Pete back to Alicia and slides his hands lower over Pete's shoulders and down to his chest.

Pete feels warm and safe and content. He didn't think it would be like this, not... easy. Alicia's murmuring to him between kisses and her breasts are lightly brushing his chest and it's just... nice. Not frantic, not scary. No hidden expectations. He's hard, but it's not a frantic, need-to-fuck-now thing. He's happy to just kind of stay like this. Enjoy it.

"This is the best morning ever," says Mikey burrowing his face into Pete's shoulder. His hand is kind of... roaming around Pete's chest and dipping towards his belly.

Pete pushes his body back against Mikey's. "I can tell you're happy, Mikey."

Mikey makes a pleased noise and pushes back. His dick's poking Pete high up on his thigh. "I can't help it that you're so hot."

"Maybe... maybe you two could have sex and I could watch."

"Fuck." Mikey looks at Alicia with wide eyes and she laughs. "I'm in, Licia."

"Well, you're not in yet."

Pete laughs loudly and covers his mouth with his hands. "Sorry."

"I'm just saying. I am sadly un-fucked as of right now, boys."

"Come here." Mikey reaches for Alicia. "Let's fix that."

Pete pulls back, moving down to the foot of the bed so he has a good view. Mikey and Alicia move together so easily. They fit.

"Do you have a position on positions?" Alicia asks Pete over her shoulder.

"Can, um. Can he take you from behind? I kind of have a... a thing. Which I guess you both know. Um."

Alicia grins and crawls over to Pete to give him a kiss. "Yeah. Let's do it. Way, come here and fuck me."

Mikey crawls up behind her and kisses the small of her back, slipping his fingers between her legs to make sure she's wet and ready. "Condom or no, babe?"

Alicia gasps and lowers her head on the mattress. "No condom. Come on, just do it, I'm ready."

Pete reaches out and pets her neck and the back of her head, watching as Mikey pushes inside her. "Fuck, Licia. Look at you."

Alicia feels so hot. "I love you watching me. Touch me."

"Where? Your boobs? Your... girl-ness?"

Mikey giggles and his rhythm stutters. "Girl-ness."

"Technical term, dude."

"Touch my clit, Pete," Alicia demands. "Joking later, orgasms now."

Pete moves closer and reaches underneath her, brushing his fingers over her breasts and stomach before he gets to the patch of hair between her thighs and then lower, sliding his finger against the wet lips of her vulva.

"Yeah," she gasps. "That's good. Mikey, come on, harder."

"Be patient, baby."

Pete watches Alicia's face as Mikey drives into her and strokes her cheek. "You're so fucking pretty." If he slips his other hand lower, he'll touch Mikey's cock. Pete can already feel it, sort of, as Alicia bucks back into him.

"Mm." Alicia catches his fingers in her mouth and sucks at them, looking at him through her lashes.

"Oh my god." Pete's going to die, maybe. Instead he pushes his fingers in further. "Licia, fuck."

She uses her teeth a little bit, scraping them over his knuckles. If she remembers right, he has a thing for that, too.

Pete's eyes slide shut when she does it. Later, much later, he'll ask them to work him over with bites.

Mikey is trying to watch them and thrust at the same time. Mikey is so close watching them. He got so worked up having Pete's body next to him. "Kiss her."

Pete eases his fingers free and leans in, nuzzling Alicia's lips before he kisses her.

Alicia cries out into Pete's mouth on a hard thrust. "Get your hand back down there, Pete, I need to come."

Pete kisses her more and does as he's told, finding her clit and pressing against it hard, then rubbing in fast circles.

"Like that. That's so good." Alicia kisses him back and drops her head between her shoulders. Pete slides his other hand on her back and it's slick with sweat.

Mikey leans down and bites her shoulder, scraping his teeth over the slick skin. "C'mon, baby. C'mon."

Alicia grabs Pete's hand and presses it to her clit hard, rocking into it, and it's only a few seconds until she shudders with it.

Mikey groans deep in his throat when she pulses around him. "Thank you, baby, thank you." He thrusts into it, twice, three times, then comes as well.

Pete brushes Alicia's hair off her face and looks at Mikey. He feels stunned and like his whole body is buzzing. "Holy shit."

"Kiss," Alicia says, her voice rough and thick. "Kiss me, Pete. And touch yourself."

Mikey eases Alicia up so she leans back against his chest and Pete knee-walks over to kiss her mouth. It's red and swollen and tastes so good.

"Touch yourself," Alicia reminds him. "I want you to get off, too, Wentz."

Pete presses his face into Alicia's neck and wraps his hand around his dick. He's got smears of come all over his stomach already and his dick hurts from how hard he is. "Mikey, kiss me too, I want you to kiss me."

Mikey leans over Alicia and kisses him, biting playfully at his mouth. "C'mon, Pete. Not fair to be the only one here not sticky."

Pete strokes himself faster. "Wanted to get sticky with you two forever."

"You're part of us. Always."

Pete squeezes his eyes shut and jerks himself off thinking about Mikey's come sliding out of Alicia, how wet she was down there. "I'm yours."

Mikey eases out of the bed and grabs a towel from the hamper to clean them all up. "Can we do this every morning?"

Alicia holds Pete up while Pete comes down. "I vote yes."

Pete rests his head on Alicia's shoulder. "What do you guys usually do in the morning?"

Mikey pushes them over gently and wraps his arms around both of them. "Walk the dog. Play video games. Or go over to Gerard's house."

That's something Pete hadn't thought about until just now. "I've been here for days and you haven't seen your brother once."

Mikey nuzzles Pete's neck. "Believe it or not, we've gone longer without seeing each other."

"So you've been talking on the phone, then."

"We've been texting." Mikey strokes Pete's waist. "Are you freaking out?"

"No. Surprisingly."

Alicia smiles into Pete's shoulder. "Good. I think we can fend Gerard off for another day, but he'll probably come over eventually. Is that okay?"

"Will he be mad at me?"

"I'll protect you," says Alicia at the same time that Mikey indignantly says "No!"

"Because if he's mad I can just stay in here and hang out. I don't mind."

"He's not going to be mad." Mikey is very sure of that. "And you have to meet him eventually. You're with us now. You gotta at least meet our family."

Pete has to smile. "I've met him, Mikey."

"Like a million years ago."

"I guess he's different now, yeah. He's a dad. That changes everything."

Mikey kisses Pete's shoulder. "He's different. You'll like him. I'll tell him about us ahead of time so he doesn't freak out in front of you."

"Okay." Pete takes a deep breath and nods. "Okay. Cool. I'd offer to let you meet Gabe, but..."

Alicia hmms. "He's going to be really protective of you. I like that."

"He's been like my brother the last couple of years. Always got my back. Even when he was, like, losing his mind, he was there for me."

"Everyone needs someone like that." Mikey kisses Pete's neck. "I'm glad you have him."

"I should call and talk to him. He's probably pretty pissed."

"He shouted a lot when I talked to him. I think he'd appreciate a call. Do you think you'd want to call him before your appointment, or later?"

"Well, now I need to call him now, I'll be upset all day if I think he's mad at me."

"Sorry," says Alicia. "One step at a time, right, baby?"

"Yeah. One shitty step at a time."

Alicia presses a kiss into Pete's hair. "He loves you. He'll be relieved to hear from you."

Pete leans into her. "Mikey, may I have my phone, please?"

"Sure." Mikey digs it out of the bedside table. "Do you want us here?"

"Yeah. Please." Pete takes a deep breath, turns the phone on, and closes out all of the texts and missed-call alerts to get to his contacts. Gabe is #2, right after Hilary.

Gabe picks up right away. "Pete, fucking finally."

"Hey, man. How's it going?"

"Just fine, aside from the heart attack you gave me." There's a deep calming breath over the phone line. "Pete. Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I mean, I am now. I wasn't, for a while. But now I am."

"Mikey and Alicia are taking care of you?" Gabe doesn't really sound mad, but Pete's not sure.

"Yeah. They're really amazing. They're going to take me to therapy today, and we'll get doughnuts after. Wow, I sound like a toddler. Sorry."

"You're sometimes a toddler. Don't apologize, doughnuts are awesome."

Pete takes a deep breath. "Are you angry?"

"I was pretty mad for a while that you didn't call me. But I'm not mad anymore. I'm glad you're okay."

"I didn't want to worry anybody. I just wanted to go away."

"But do you see the flaw in that chain of logic now?"

"Yeah. I wasn't really thinking in logic at the time, though, I just wanted everything to stop."

There's rustling and the sound of Gabe typing. "I'm flying out there this weekend to give you a fucking hug, Pete."

"Yeah? For real?" He presses closer to Alicia and smiles a little. He could have Mikey, Gabe, and Alicia all in the same place. All he needs is Bronx, Patrick, and Travie and his life would be complete.

"For real. Are you still staying with Mikey and Alicia? Should I get a hotel close to them?"  

"Yeah, I'm still with them. They're taking really good care of me. Not letting me get away with bullshit."

Mikey smiles happily at him and links their hands together.

"I'm glad," Gabe says, still typing. "And I'm glad you're letting them."

"We're kind of, um," Pete starts and looks at Mikey. He's not sure whether to tell Gabe now or in person later.

"Kind of what, Wentzy?"

Mikey nods a little and Alicia hums encouragingly behind him. Pete squeezes his eyes shut. "Kind of starting a... relationship."

There's a long silence. "I'll see you this weekend and you can tell me about it in person."

"Don't be mad."

"I'm not mad, Pete."

"You sound kind of mad."

"Not mad. Concerned, a little. Jumping right from a rough time into a relationship, you know?"

"Yeah," Pete says quietly. "But I've always wanted to, with them."

"Both of them? Together?"

"I don't know. I didn't really think that far."

"I'll see you this weekend, okay? I love you, brother."

"I love you too." Pete kind of wants Gabe to stay on the line with him forever, but Gabe's probably busy. "See you soon."

Mikey takes the phone and puts it back in the drawer. "You okay?"

Pete nods. "I think so. Can both of you hug me?"

Alicia wraps her arms around his waist so Mikey can put his around Pete's shoulders. "Do we need to kick Gabe's ass?"

Pete closes his eyes and presses close to Mikey's chest. "No. He wasn't mad at me. He's coming to visit."

"Rad. He can sleep on the couch with Pig."

Pete laughs and pulls Alicia's arm higher so it covers his heart. "I think he was booking a hotel."

"What, our house isn't good enough for him?" Mikey kisses Pete's hair again. "He can have the guest room, since you'll be in here with us."

Pete grins. "I'll tell him. Is that really okay?"

"Of course. He's our friend, too. Well. My friend. Alicia still reserves the right to hate him."

"I am not going to hate Pete's best friend," Alicia protests.

"Last time you saw him you got drunk and told him he wasn't funny or cute, babe."

"Well, he was being a dick."

"He's better about that now." Pete looks over Mikey's arm at the clock. "I should shower."

Alicia shifts. "We should all shower. I feel gross."

"Hey," Mikey protests. "I'm not gross."

"No," Alicia agrees and reaches over Pete and gives Mikey a deep kiss. "But you try getting fucked bare."

"I have tried but you won't let me." He sticks his tongue out at her.

Alicia pinches Mikey' tongue and jumps out of bed. "First shower."

Pete watches her go and glances at Mikey. "You guys really are pretty perfect, huh?"

"We're really happy." Mikey hugs Pete closer to his chest. They're still sticky. "Even happier with you."

"But, like, do you want to be yourselves with me on the side? Like, I'll still live at my house and just come over when you want me? Or..."

Mikey frowns and thinks about it. "You'd have to drive over here every day. Wouldn't that get annoying for you? I don't know, Alicia is better at logistics stuff."

"No, Mikes, I mean, are you guys a pair with me as your boyfriend, or is it more like... all three of us?"

"Oh. I guess you're our boyfriend now? Like, a serious boyfriend? I'm not sure what the difference is."

"I don't know either. I don't want to, like, try to take more than I'm allowed."

Mikey strokes Pete's cheek. "There's no hidden rulebook. We just love you and want you here."

Pete kisses Mikey's fingers and closes his eyes. "I want to be here."

Mikey traces Pete's collarbones and the thorns there. "I really missed you naked."

"I don't look like I did then. Neither do you, though, I guess."

"You still look hot. Hotter, really."

"You turned into a supermodel sex god when nobody was looking."

Mikey bites back a smile. "I'm stealthy."

"I kind of miss the dark hair, though." Pete touches Mikey's face. "And the glasses."

Mikey makes a face. "The glasses were a pain in the ass."

"Dude." Pete makes a face at him. "Now you wear sunglasses all the time."

Mikey rolls him over and kisses him. "That's different."

Pete closes his eyes and gives in to the kissing. This is so much better than going to therapy.

Mikey loves how Pete's pliant and willing under him and how soft his mouth is. He's definitely ready for round two, but then Alicia coughs from the doorway.

"Pete," she says, hitching her towel up higher around herself. "You need to get ready. You will not distract us with sex."

Pete groans and kisses Mikey one last time. "You're like a steel trap."

"Mikey has spent years trying to use that trick on me."

Mikey sits up. "I guess I should set an example. Licia, show Pete our shower while I get dressed?"

"I can find it." Pete gets out of the bed. "You guys have couple time."

"Don't be silly, Pete." Alicia gets him a towel and takes him into the bathroom. "Don't take too long, okay? If we're on time, that means it'll end sooner."

"Right. Quick scrub, wash my face and my balls, good to go."

Alicia grins at him. "It's like you were made for us."

Pete blushes and gets in the shower. Oh, god, he's falling so hard. He can't help it.

Alicia goes back into the bedroom. "I'd say I was shocked you weren't taking the chance to shower too, but I've met you before."

"You can't smell sex on someone once they get dressed. Science."

"You've tested this hypothesis multiple times and every time you were wrong, Mikeyway."

"Nobody's going to be sniffing me today."

Alicia pulls on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. "We'll just come back home after and cuddle. Maybe walk Pig. She's probably tired of being downstairs all morning."

"Yeah, she needs some exercise." Mikey glances over at her. "You doing okay? I'm checking in."

Alicia can't help smiling wide. "I'm really happy. Is that weird? He's not really doing that well, and I feel happy."

"It's not weird unless you're happy because he's not doing well."

"That's not why." Alicia sits down next to Mikey on the bed and puts her head on his shoulder. "Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah. I like this."

"I like it too. What did you guys talk about when I was in the shower? You looked serious."

"He wanted to know if, like, you and I were a relationship and he was an add-on, or what the status was."

"What did you say?"

"That I didn't know."

"But he's our boyfriend, right?"

"I figured I should check with you before I said so."

"I think he should be our boyfriend. For real. I want serious with him, you want it too."

"Should he still live at his house and commute back and forth?"

"I want to say no, but maybe it's a good idea for us to take it slow? Do you know what he wants?"

"He's being hard to read about it. Maybe he'll talk about it with the therapist."

"I hope so." Alicia holds Mikey's hand. "We should talk to him later too."

"After we have sex, right?"

"Totally. That was awesome. I want to do it again. With full Pete-participation, if he's into it."

"I really want to go down on him."

Alicia nods vigorously. "Yeah. Me too."

"We're not, just, like, playing with him like a new toy, right?"

Alicia wrinkles her nose. "We're not just playing with him like a new toy. I want to kiss him and watch movies with him and, like, other non-sex stuff with him too. Right?"

"Yeah. Totally. But I also want to bite him on the ass."

"Biting him is great," Alicia agrees. "We're going to be late if he doesn't come out of there right now."

"I'll go get him." Mikey kisses her forehead and goes to knock on the bathroom door. "Pants on, dude."

Pete has been drying himself very thoroughly, both as a procrastination tactic and because he wants to hold on to the images of Mikey and Alicia naked together. "I'll be right out."

"It'll be okay."

"Yeah." Pete ties the towel around his waist and comes out of the bathroom. Alicia hands him his clothes. "You'll be with me."

"Yep. Right outside."

Pete nods and pulls his jeans on. "Let's go, I guess. The only way out is through."

Alicia and Mikey sit in the waiting room like parents, both of them bent over their phones the whole ninety minutes of Pete's super-sized appointment. Gerard texted Mikey six times while Mikey was busy that morning, and once Mikey texts him back, Gerard pounces.

"Where are you?" Gerard texts. "You've been off-radar all day."

"pete emergency"

"???"

"pete was having a hard time and licia and i adopted him"

"Like legally?"

"no. hes staying with us. also were dating him now."

"Wow you've been busy the last three days."

"We had sex this morning sort of."

"Which we?"

"it was a threesome Geezy keep up"

"wow a REALLY busy 3 days"

"are you pissed?"

"Its fine I just had no idea you were dating & sexing & adopting"

"i wasn't sure what was happening for a while. he was homeless in the park."

"Wait what?"

The recap of the last three days takes most of the ninety minutes, and by the end of it Mikey's battery is at 5%.

Pete comes out of the office with his hood up and his hands shoved in his pockets, but he smiles when he sees them. "Doughnuts now. A whole box of them."

Mikey and Alicia smile back at him and hold hands with him all the way to the car. "What's your chain of choice?"

"Anywhere. I don't care. I just want doughnuts and then, like, a nap, I think."

Alicia squeezes his hand and gets in the driver's seat. "We can do that."

"He says I need to go slow and be honest with myself."

"Be honest with us too if you can, okay? If something's not working for you or if you're worried about something."

"I'll try. Going slow is hard, though. I want the good times while I can get them."

"We're not going to drop you just like that." Alicia stays in the car while Mikey goes in to order the doughnuts. "Mikey and I really want to make this work out."

"I'm trying. I really am. I'm just...I'm a little gun-shy, I guess."

Alicia twists around to look at him. "Are we going too fast for you? We haven't really been helping with slow. At all. I guess we were kind of selfish."

"It's made me feel really wanted. So I don't get the slow part. If we go slow then I'll have time to think about how I'll fuck it up."

"We do really want you. A lot."

"So maybe I can do the be honest with myself part and skip the go slow part."

"Replace it with being honest with us if you can." Alicia unbuckles her seat belt and reaches over to kiss Pete. "We'll figure the relationship stuff out. Mikey and I have practice."

"You've had bonus people before?"

Alicia shakes her head. "No threesomes before, remember? We've just been married a long time."

"Oh. Right. I wasn't great at that part."

Mikey returns with a dozen doughnuts. "I thought about getting two dozen but then I remembered they might go stale."

"Not if you leave them down where Piglet can get them."

"I'm not cleaning up that much vomit again," says Mikey. "You guys look serious. Are we making major decisions?"

Pete shrugs and reaches for the box of doughnuts. "Talking about it. I really need a nap, though. Or at least somewhere quiet I can sit for a while and, like, process." Mikey hands Pete the box. "Let's go home."

Pete eats two doughnuts and closes his eyes, trying to internalize the thrum of the engine. It's okay. He's okay. His therapist didn't kick him out and call him a horrible person. Alicia and Mikey waited for him.

* * *

Alicia and Mikey help him out of the car and take him upstairs. Alicia even quickly changes the sheets before tucking Pete in. He feels kind of like a child again, but it makes him feel better anyway.

"What are you guys going to do?" he asks, burrowing down under the blankets.

"We'll play with Pig and Bunny outside and then just hang out downstairs, I guess," says Mikey. "Come find us when you're ready."

"Okay." Fuck, he feels like a tool, but he's supposed to be being honest. "If Pig or Bunny wants to stay inside, though that would... that would be okay, too."

Alicia runs a hand through Pete's hair. "I think Pig needs a walk. But I can find Bunny and bring her here. Would you like that?"

"Yeah. That'd be nice. She's good at cuddling."

Alicia finds Bunny curled up on Pete's pillow in the guest room. "He doesn't live here anymore, Bun." Bunny squeaks at her and allows herself to be picked up. Alicia scritches her under the chin and deposits her next to Pete's head, where she curls up, purring loudly.

"We're going to go downstairs now," says Mikey. "Just yell if you need anything."

Pete nods and rests his hand on Bunny's paws. "Thank you."

Bunny breathes wetly into Pete's face. It tickles. Her purring and soft fur are just what Pete needs to drift off and he doesn't even hear the door close.

Mikey takes Piglet into the back yard and throws her Frisbee for her for a while.

Alicia eats a doughnut and watches them play. Piglet is wagging her tail happily. She obviously felt a bit ignored.

"Who's my good girl? Who's my good baby pig?" Piglet wuffs and slobbers all over Mikey and steals the Frisbee.

"Now you definitely have to shower before we have sex again," says Alicia.

"She's not germy. She's a baby pig."

"Dogs totally have germs in their mouths, genius."

"Not Piglet. She's special. Hypoallergenic."

"You still have to shower." Alicia picks dirt out from under her nails. "We should feed him lunch when he wakes up."

"I'll make grilled cheeses."

"Awesome." Alicia steals the Frisbee from Mikey and tosses it to Pig. "I hope he's okay."

"Therapy is really tiring."

"I know." Alicia pets Piglet's muzzle and ears. "Is there anything different I should do with him than I did with you, do you think?"

"Remember he doesn't have the same backup. I always had Gerard and my band right there. He doesn't have that."

Alicia nods. "Okay. Love you."

"I love you too. You're rad."

"You are super extra rad, Mikey Way." Alicia kisses him despite the dog slobber.

"I love you almost as much as I love my bass."

Alicia shoves him. "I love you almost as much as I love fossils."

"Shit. We're both doing pretty good."

"Yeah, I think this relationship might work out."

He kisses her on the nose. "The dog needs our attention now. Look at how patient she's being."

Piglet is sitting on the ground in front of them and wagging her tail. "Who’s a good dog?" Alicia asks. "Maybe I should take her for a run."

"She'd like that. I'll stay here and do manly things."

"Can you sneak in some laundry into your manly things, baby?" Alicia suspects they might run out of clean sheets.

"Yeah, I can schedule in a load between lifting heavy objects and scratching my balls."

"Sweet. Please don't scratch your balls off. I need those." Alicia ruffles his hair. "Piggy, want to go for a run?"

Piglet barks and runs in a circle. Mikey salutes them both and goes into the house to gather up the laundry.

He loves his home. The house feels a little empty without Alicia and Piglet there, but knowing Pete is in their bed is exciting. He gets the washer going and goes upstairs to peek in on Pete. He and Bunny are both asleep. It's fucking cute, so he digs his phone out and takes a picture. He almost texts it to Gerard, but decides against it. That probably shouldn't be his first image of Mikey and Alicia's new relationship.

He also thinks about Tweeting it, just to really give the Internet something to talk about, but that would be really upsetting really fast. Gabe and Gerard knowing is enough for now. This new thing feels fragile.

Pete sighs in his sleep and curls up smaller around Bunny. Mikey really wants to lie down next to Pete and wrap his arms around him, but Pete wanted alone time. So Mikey pulls the door shut and goes downstairs.

* * *

Pete wakes up a few hours later and lies still for a few minutes, sorting out the facts from the grogginess in his head. He's in Mikey and Alicia's bed. Bunny is asleep on his arm. The sun through the window is definitely in the afternoon part of the sky. He's really hungry and he has to pee. All systems normal, then.

The peeing comes first, after the arm-from-Bunny extraction. Then Pete brushes his teeth, because his mouth feels gross and he thinks maybe it would be nice to kiss someone soon.

Mikey is sitting on the living room floor with a stack of comic books when he comes downstairs. "Hey, dude. Good nap?"

Mikey looks unbelievably good. Pete's not sure if he should come over and just get to the kissing part now. "Yeah. Your cat's a nap charmer."

"She's so good at napping. Olympic gold medalist in naps."

Pete sits down next to Mikey. "Sorry I bailed on you and Licia. There was... a lot, today. Where is she, by the way?"

"Running with the Pigster. They've been gone long enough now that I assume they stopped at Sarah's, though."

"Cool." Pete picks up a comic book and leafs through it without reading or retaining anything. "Can we have lunch?"

"Yes! I was going to make grilled cheese. Is that cool?"

"That's awesome." Pete looks a little below Mikey's eyes to avoid eye contact and then leans in for a kiss anyway.

Mikey makes a pleased noise and kisses him back. "I was hoping for that."

That makes a warm feeling rush through Pete. "I've been thinking about it since I woke up. Kiss me again?"

"Yup." Mikey kisses him long and thorough. "Feel any better?"

Pete runs his hand through Mikey's hair and keeps his lips pressed to Mikey's cheek. "Much. Lunch now?"

"In one second." Mikey turns his head fast and kisses Pete again. "You need to talk about anything?"

The nice buzz from kissing Mikey dies down a little bit. "In the car, I told Alicia that I don't want to go slow with you two."

Mikey nuzzles him. "That's cool."

"Really?" Pete tilts his neck so Mikey knows to kiss him there. "If you guys want me here, I want to be here. Not at my place."

"Okay." Mikey kisses along Pete's neck as directed. "We'll fix up the guest room so you have your own space when you want it, or as an office or whatever. Will you bring the little dude here or not explain this to him yet?"

"Really, you'd be okay with him hanging out here sometimes?" Nothing is that simple, in Pete's experience.

"I like kids if I don't have to parent them. But I don't want to get you in shit with the lawyers, man."

"This is probably why my therapist told me to go slow." Pete rubs his face. "Being with you is easy. Everything else is so fucking hard."

"We don't have to figure every detail out now. We can figure things out as they come up. One day at a time or whatever."

Pete leans heavily on Mikey. "Ashlee still has Bronx for another month. I guess that part can wait."

"Okay." Mikey kisses the top of his head. "Food now. Post-therapy protein boost."

Pete follows Mikey into the kitchen and sits at the counter, swinging his legs. "I want to see that cheese I picked out in action."

"This is some powerhouse cheese, I have to say."

"Watching you cook is pretty sexy, Mway."

"Oh yeah. Me and my frying pan. All greased up."

"Smells really good, too." And Mikey's arms look good in his t-shirt. "I think I feel better already."

"Good." Mikey starts making the sandwiches. "So I'm thinking later maybe I'll blow you."

Pete almost falls off the stool. "Yes. Please."

"I think Alicia maybe wants to do that, too, if that's cool. We can take turns."

Mikey hands him a grilled cheese sandwich like they're not talking about sex at all. "That's...more than cool," Pete says faintly.

"Good. And you don't have to touch us at all if you don't want to, but if you do want to, we'd be really happy."

Pete takes a bite of the sandwich. It's really good. Perfect, really. "I think I'm done with slow here, too. I wanted to touch you this morning."

"Yeah? Awesome. I can't wait to get naked with you when Alicia gets back."

Mikey's mouth is all shiny from the sandwich. "Maybe you could text her," Pete says.

Mikey nods and chews, digging his phone out of his pocket and punching in a message.

Pete looks at the phone and waits for it to buzz with a return text. "Does Sarah live far away?"

"Nope, only like half an hour jogging. Quicker if Alicia has her drive them back."

"Cool." Pete feels jittery all of a sudden. "How does this work? Is it okay for me to make out with one of you when the other isn't here? Obviously sex is off the table." There are so many questions. Pete's therapist was smart.

"I think so? We'll make sure she's on board when she gets back."

"Okay." Pete twiddles his thumbs. "Thanks for cooking for me. You take good care of me. Both of you do."

"We love you."

Pete smiles at Mikey. "I feel it. Can I help you wash up?"

"Yeah. And then we can read comics together till she gets back."

"Okay."

The washing up goes quickly and Mikey watches him the whole time and points out where things should go. Mikey puts his arm around Pete's waist when they're done. "Is this cool? Casual touching?"

Pete turns into it and presses close to Mikey. "It's good. Living in a park makes you miss being touched."

Mikey wraps both arms around him and holds tight. "Now you live in a house."

"Your house." He's never going to get over this.

"Piglet's house, really. We just rent."

Pete laughs. "Does she do all the repairs?"

"No, no, that's what she keeps us around for."

"Oh good." Pete takes one last deep breath and disentangles himself from Mikey so only their hands are touching. "You said something about comics?"

"Yeah. C'mon." Mikey takes his hand and squeezes it.

Pete holds Mikey's hand during comics-reading and listens to Mikey tell him all about the current plotlines. Mostly he just likes listening to Mikey talk. It's impossible to follow what Grant Morrison's done on Batman, anyway, so just letting Mikey's voice wash around him is better anyway.

Pete feels a little sleepy again, but also excited. If Mikey wasn't holding his hand, he'd be tapping out a rhythm waiting for Alicia to get back.

The front door opens and Piglet comes stampeding through like a herd of buffalo. She gallops directly at Pete and launches herself at him, licking all over his face. "Slobber everywhere," says Alicia.

"Do we both have to shower before bed now?" Mikey asks.

"Ideally. Unless you convince me otherwise."

"You are totally delaying hot threesome sex times, Licia." He wraps his arms around her legs and hugs her. "How's Sarah?"

"Good. We caught up." Alicia hugs Mikey back. "Hey, Pete. You're up."

"Yeah. We had lunch, too."

Alicia gets on her knees next to Pete and hugs him. "How are you?"

"Good. Pretty good. Mikey said something about blowjobs."

"Oh. Yes." Alicia looks up at Mikey. "The hot threesome sex you mentioned was, like, a for real right now kind of thing?"

"Yeah. We talked it out. We're ready to go. The bro code is bro'd."

"Okay!" Alicia jumps up. "Operation: blowjob underway. To the bedroom!"

"She doesn't waste any time," Mikey tells Pete. "And she's totally forgotten about making us shower, so, high-five for that."

"I heard that," Alicia yells from the stairs, but Pete high-fives Mikey anyway. And then he goes upstairs quickly, because he's ready.

Alicia's in the bedroom pulling her t-shirt off. "You want to be on the bed or standing up?"

"Bed, please," Pete says, and Mikey pushes him there, already reaching for his jeans.

Alicia steps out of her shorts and panties, then climbs up the bed to kneel between Pete's legs. "Hi. Nice to see you here again."

"Hi," Pete says weakly. She's so pretty and Pete kind of wants to apologize for being a loser, but he keeps his mouth shut. Mikey reaches inside Pete's jeans and palms his dick and Pete gasps.

"Be gentle, Mikey. Not everybody has one that's ready to go on a hair trigger like yours."

"Oh, mine's ready," Pete gasps when Mikey eases his boxers down. "Alicia."

"Take your pants off, Pete."

Pete squirms out of his pants like Alicia said with great effort, because Mikey's rucking his t-shirt up and tonguing the skin over his ribs. "That's not conducive to hand-eye coordination, Mikey."

"Mikey's a troublemaker. But just ignore him for now." Alicia leans in and licks up the length of Pete's cock. "Focus on me."

Pete tries hard to keep his eyes open and his hips still because she's so good. "Fuck, Alicia, you're amazing."

"I haven't even started yet."

Alicia breathes over the head of Pete's cock and sinks down, sucking gently. Pete cries out and Mikey kisses his neck. "Take it easy. This is going to last."

"She feels so good."

Alicia pulls off and bites the jut of Pete's hipbone. "Gonna make it even better."

"Don't tease, Licia." Mikey sticks his tongue out at her.

"That's like telling me not to breathe." Alicia bites Pete harder, until he cries out and fists a hand in her hair.

"Please, Licia."

"Be nice to him," Mikey says. Do I have to come down there and take over?"

Alicia hums and licks at the tip of Pete's cock. "Give me a minute." She sucks him into her mouth again and moves up and down, setting a rhythm.

Pete's whole body shudders. God, this is so good, so good. He can't believe he gets to have this.

"Stay still," says Mikey and sucks on Pete's nipple. "Don't come until I've had a turn."

"Kiss me?"

"Thought you'd never ask." Mikey tilts Pete's head and kisses him deep, pushing his tongue into Pete's mouth. He's going to take every bit of Pete he can. Pete presses up against Mikey's kiss, then falls back against the pillow and rocks his hips up toward Alicia.

Alicia rolls with it, sucking around him and pinching Pete's side. "Mikey, your turn now, I think. And my turn to kiss Pete."

They crawl all over him to switch positions. It's like he's part of the bedding. But instead of being upsetting, it's nice.

Alicia trails her hand along Pete's side and chest and Mikey runs his hands up and down Pete's thighs. He's kneeling between Pete's legs and his mouth is wet from Pete's mouth, and Alicia's mouth is all swollen from Pete's dick. "This is happening," Pete tells himself and the ceiling.

Mikey takes Pete deep right away. Alicia curves her hand around Pete's jaw and kisses him before he can cry out, swallowing the noises he makes.

Pete lets Alicia control the kiss and buries his hand in Mikey's hair and lets them take him and pull him apart.

"You can be loud," Mikey says when he pulls off to breathe, pressing a kiss to Pete's thigh. "You can yell all you want."

Pete cries out like it was an order and Alicia smiles against his mouth. "I'm going to help Mikey out."

"I'm going to die," Pete says hoarsely.

Alicia pets his cheek and slides down next to Mikey. They both look up at Pete with matching dark eyes and he bites his lip. "Please, please."

They take turns sucking him, pulling off slow and wet to kiss his thighs. He can't keep his hips from jerking or his thighs from shaking. It's so much sensation, too much, overwhelming. Pete knows he's being loud, but he can't help that either, and Mikey and Alicia urge him on with quiet firm voices until he shakes and falls apart, coming into Mikey's mouth while Alicia watches them hotly.

Alicia crawls up his body and kisses him. "Fingers. C'mon, Pete. Touch me."

Even her thighs are wet with how turned on she is. Pete sinks his fingers deep into her and rubs her clit with his thumb. Alicia arches up and her breasts brush Pete's face.

"You can suck them," she gasps. "Lick or bite or-- or whatever. C'mon. Harder."

Pete cups one of them with his free hand and licks and sucks the other, feeling her clench around him. "Next time I want to go down on you. Mikey too. Fuck."

"Okay." She tilts her head back and reaches for Mikey. "Get up here and kiss me."

Mikey kneels up next to her and kisses her hard. Pete gets distracted looking at Mikey's cock, red and curving up and leaking against his belly, until Alicia grabs his hand and presses it harder against her vulva. "Pete, pay attention."

"Sorry. Sorry. Just, his dick is... you should jerk him off."

Alicia smirks and wraps her hand around Mikey's cock. "His dick is what?"

"It needs attention."

Mikey's eyes flutter shut when Alicia moves her hand. "Did you mean that about going down?"

"Yes." Pete works his fingers harder against Alicia. "Absolutely."

Pete catches every change in Alicia's expression as her orgasm builds and her rhythm on Mikey's dick falters. "So fucking gorgeous, Licia, come for me. Come on."

Mikey kisses along her shoulders, then bites, and she jerks her head forward, coming hot and tight around Pete's fingers. "F-fuck."

"Fuck me," Pete says, catching her mouth in a kiss. Alicia slumps forward, still shivering jerkily, and lets go of Mikey's cock. "Finish him off, Pete."

Mikey crawls up to Pete, his dick flushed so dark now, his breathing rough and desperate. "Please."

Pete knows how to do this, he does. He jerks Mikey off with the same hand that was in Alicia and watches Mikey's face. Mikey never looks away from Pete even as he moans louder and louder.

"Come on me," Pete whispers. "Come on my chest, Mikey."

Mikey cries out and shudders, jerking his hips forward into Pete's hand and coming in hot splashes on Pete's skin.

Alicia flops down on the bed next to Pete. "Fuck."

"Fuck," Pete agrees. There's come on his chest. Mikey's come.

Mikey lies down on Pete's other side and buries his face in the pillow. "Wow."

"We totally had sex," says Pete. "Actual sex."

"We did." Alicia holds her hand up. "High-fives all around."

Pete and Mikey slap it. "What happens how?" Pete asks.

"We take a nap and later we order pizza for dinner," Mikey says. "Piglet doesn't get any because she's a chunk on legs."

"I might not be able to resist if she begs for crusts." Pete runs a finger along the curve of Alicia's breast. "But I meant more like existentially."

"That's what happens existentially, too." Alicia smiles at him. "Sometimes it's that simple." Pete kisses her smile and then turns around to kiss Mikey too. "I like that about you two."

"Me, too." Mikey kisses him back and then pulls a pillow over his head. "Now I need a post-orgasm nap. Go downstairs if you want to keep talking about existentialism."

"Veto," says Alicia and cuddles up close so Pete is firmly sandwiched between them, no room to move even if he wanted to. "We're all staying here."