Petekey Oneshots

A child with a mop of dark curly hair was sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at me with some curiosity as I flicked idly through the pages of a magazine. She clambered up onto the chair next to me and imitated my pose of one leg folded over the other and slouched back.
"Kobra?" She said after a while.
"What's up?" I asked glancing at her.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure can, kiddo."
"Why do you always wear that necklace?" She gently took the chain around my neck and untucked it from inside my shirt. It revealed a small silver and black bat charm with a tiny heart cut out of the centre.
I smiled at it fondly and turned it over in my hand.

"Because somebody very stupid gave it to me."

Her eyebrows drew together
in confusion. "If they're very stupid why do you keep it?"

"Just because they're stupid doesn't mean I didn't like them a hell of a lot."

"Ohhhhh." She said with a grin. "Did you like like them?"
I sighed and chuckled "I suppose I did...unfortunately."

"Was he good looking?"

"What makes you think It was a he, huh?"

She raised an eyebrow at me and looked at me as if I was very stupid indeed. She certainly had a lot of sass for someone of her size.

"Prettiest boy you've ever seen. Short though. Only just bigger than Ghoul."

"Did you break up?"
I shook my head.

"Really? I haven't seen you with anyone in a long time. Maybe even forever." She stared at me. I turned to face her and pulled my knees up to my chest.
"Got time for a story?"
"Of course."
"A few years ago, maybe about a year before we got stuck with you....I'm kidding don't punch me! It was just me, Ghoul and Jet."

"What about Posion?" She interrupted.

"Hold on I'm getting to that! Poison got captured by BLI. That may or may not have been my fault but that's another story. We were planning how we were going to get him back but somebody broke into our camp. Ghoul said I had to interrogate them so that's what I did. Sort of.
He had hair brighter than any flare you've ever seen burning. Pink like the Western skies."
I sighed and shook my head, turning the necklace over again in my palm.

"No. Tell me more!" She demanded. "Your eyes went all sparkly, tell me more about what he looked like!"

"He was beautiful. He had tanned skin and scarred hands and reflexes like you've never seen. He would slice your hand off before you blinked if you tried anything with him. Oh and you'll like this, he had tattoos all down his arms, swirling patterns and characters in black and white, all the way from shoulder to wrist. He had this inked just below his stomach." I indicated to the necklace charm. "And a necklace of thorns round his chest and neck. He was weird but I guess that's why I liked him so much."

"What did you do to him when he broke in?"

"I kicked him in the head." I laughed at her shocked reaction. "Yet when he came around and talked to me, he still grinned like the Cheshire Cat. I let him go after a while and Ghoul didn't talk to me for three days."

"Why'd you let him go?"

"Because he was like us. His best friend got taken by the city and he wanted to help us. Ghoul wasn't having any of it. Until I ran into him a few weeks later at a diner. He payed for my food and told me he was going to break into the city."

"What did you say?" Her eyes were wide with fascination.

"I told him he was crazy and he told me he already knew that." I rolled my eyes

"Then what?"

"He kissed me and left."

"Wow he sounds wild!"

"Yeah right. He was a nerd with some knives and a cool bike."

"When did you see him after that?"

"A few days later actually. It was the middle of the night and I'd had an argument with Jet, so I was out for a walk on my own. He drove past and sprayed me with sand like the dick he was.
He turned round and offered me a lift after that. I never said to where so we just drove."

"For how long?"

"Until the sun came up. He left me outside the diner and told me to meet him there tomorrow, with the others. Ghoul certainly wasn't happy, he knew there was a rave going on a few miles away and did want to miss it for 'Kobra's latest toyboy's bullshit'."

"Kobra?"

"Yeah?"

"What was his name?"

"He called himself 'Mr Sandman' but I told him that was fucking dumb. I called him 'Cherry Blossom' because of his dumbass hair. He seemed to like it though so he stuck with it.
Anyway, we showed up like he asked and he took us into the back room of the diner. In there were maps and markers and all kinds of notes and pins and plans. And two other people. One had hair just like yours and was lying on the floor smoking. The other had sunglasses and a beard and sat drawing on the map. He told me the curly hair one was 'Novocaine' and sunglasses was 'Folie'. They were The Youngbloods."

"The Youngbloods"

"Yeah. Essentially the rip off version of the Killjoys. I have to give it to them though they'd worked hard. They showed us their plans to get into the city and exactly where they thought 'Phoenix', Cherry's best friend, and Poison were being held. Then they asked if we wanted to help and we agreed to leave at dusk the next day.
Then we finally agreed to go to the goddamn rave."

"Was it fun?"

"I'll take you to one when you're older, it was probably the best night of my life."

"Why? Did you get drunk?" She asked innocently and I couldn't help but laugh.

"Yes I got very drunk. And I danced with Cherry and we sang too loudly and we fell over and we got lost and we ended up in the middle of who-knows-where and we slept together and woke up in the middle of the afternoon not knowing where we were."

"Why did you laugh when you said you slept together? What does that mean?" She blinked at me.

"I'll tell you all about it when you fall in love. Now let me finish!"

"No tell me now!"

"Ask Poison. He and Ghoul would know a lot about that." I muttered.

"We eventually made it back to where we were staying and Jet was packing bags with supplies. Nobody was talking, it was weird. I remember Novocaine and Ghoul smirking at each other when Cherry and I came in so I guess they knew that we were a little more than friends."

"Did you win when you broke into the city? Did you do it?"

"Honestly. If you interrupt me once more you're not going to find out"

She mimed drawing a zip across her mouth and looked up at me with eyes filled with excitement and tension.

"That evening we drove. Two cars. Killjoys and Youngbloods. Funnily enough getting into the city wasn't all that hard. We'd managed to pick up some stolen city clothes. Cherry refused to change his hair like the stubborn shit he was so he wore a a hat. I think it belonged to his friend.
Once we were inside the city we found the building we were looking for. I can't help but think a few people recognised us. It's hard not to when we're on a poster every few feet in the city. We went round the back and the Youngbloods went round the front. Our plan was to meet at the top and whoever got there first, free the rebels. We walked with authority and got to the third floor before anyone noticed. We killed a whole floor of city guards and ran like hell. By the time we reached the top there were sirens going off and laser beams flying in every direction. I've never been so sure that I was going to die. Ghoul got shot in the leg and threw me his gun as he fell but I turned and a soldier had the barrel of his gun to my head."

She gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Well I'm still here aren't I." I smiled. "The soldier suddenly gasped and fell back. Cherry stabbed him from behind and was grinning at me like a maniac. Hell knows how but we held them off for long enough to get into the prison cells and we'd have teamed up with them a long time ago if we'd know the tech skills Folie had. He was on a city computer and had every door in the cell building open in two minutes. Cherry wasn't with me anymore. It took me a minute to find him.
He was hugging a tiny blonde man who looked half dead. Starved and beaten for who knows how long but his face lit up when he saw Cherry.
'Kobra!' I whipped around and Poison was hugging me so tight I couldn't breathe. I'd never been so happy to see him in my life, because you know he's a right pain in the ass most of the time, but fuck I'd missed him.
Now we had a challenge. Every unit in the city was on alert and the exits had been sealed off.
They knew exactly who and where we were and we had to get out alive. I'd never seen Poison in such a bad state but he was on it straight away, yelling instructions and gunning down anything that sent a beam his way.
We got down three floors, half carrying Ghoul and broke a window. There was a staircase on the outside of the building and suddenly we were jumping onto it and running. Taking it three steps at a time til we hit the ground. I thought my lungs were going to burst out of my chest, we didn't stop. We knocked over civilians, guards and soldiers. Hurdled cars and children not stopping for a second. We could see the cars."

"You made it!!" She cheered

I smiled at her sadly.
"I made it.
Two soldiers jumped out of an alley and slammed into Phoenix. Knocked him clean off his feet. Everyone kept running, I was at the back. Cherry turned when Phoenix screamed and stopped running. Torn between running back or following the others who were yelling at him. So I dived at the guard and killed him with one of Phoenix's knives. He thanked me and I yelled at him to run so he sprinted off. He was fast for someone of his height. I'd nearly caught up when the second guard grabbed me and dragged me down. I yelled and fought but he had me pinned down. I screamed for the others to run and shut my eyes but then there was a collision and I looked and Cherry had a gun trained on him. I though Cherry had him but as he pulled the trigger he stuttered back and sank to the ground along with the soldier he'd just killed. Both guns still smoking.
I screamed then. I really screamed. I fell down next to him and he smiled at me, still holding on but barely.
'I can carry you.' I insisted but he just shook his head.
That's when I started to cry.
'Go before they get you too, dustbrain.'
'Cherry...'
'Pete.'
'What?'
'That's the name I was born with. Pete Wentz.'
'Mikey Way.' I remember smiling at him with damp eyes and seeing glimmering hazel ones grinning back at me.
He handed me this."
I put the necklace back around my neck.

"It was still warm and it had some blood on it but he pressed it into my hand.
'Keep running, Mikey Way. And don't you ever forget about me.'
Sometimes I can still see the way his eyes turned to glass. Still happy, but at peace.
If you can call it that.
Still happy, but dead.
There was a pair of arms around my torso and I was being hauled to my feet.
Poison.
I was sobbing and thrashing against him but he dragged me away, to the car. I screamed and howled as I watched white uniforms close in on the figure with a mess of pink hair, laying still on the city ground.
I remember crying all the way home, until I thought I was going to throw up or die as well.
I didn't talk for a week after we got back to the zones. Not to anyone. I didn't go out until I was told there was going to be a small funeral. I wore all black and still didn't say a word right up until the end. Phoenix approached me and thanked me again. He'd cried the entire time and seemed to be the only person as grief stricken as I was. He told me that Novocaine and Folie said he'd talked about me often and even mentioned wanting to marry me once. He was impulsive like that. Not that I cared, I would have taken him up on that in a heartbeat. Just before we left, I didn't particularly feel like staying and getting drunk with everyone else, Phoenix gave me this. He said he'd found it with the few possessions Cherry had owned."

I found my wallet and pulled out an old but well kept Polaroid photo. It had faded a little but still visible were two men grinning affectionately at each other. One with shocking pink hair leaning his head against the shoulder of the other.
The other being me.

I glanced down and saw the child who had been so amazed and full of awe had tears running down her cheeks.

"Hey hey it's okay." I pulled her into a hug on my lap.

"No. It's not." She protested, wiping her face on her sleeve. "He wanted to marry you. You could've been happy. They took that away from you and it's not fair."

"Shh. I am happy, kiddo.
I know it's not fair but that's why we're here. We're going to stop them one day. We're going to make sure that nobody else loses people they love. Sure people might die, but they're dying for a cause. And a fucking good one at that. Like Cherry." I bounced her up and down a little and she offered me a watery smile.

"Do you miss him?" She asked.

"Every day." I replied

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a few people wanted a sequel to this so here it is: the sequel that absolutely no-one had in mind.
Sorry if I crushed your dreams or ripped your heart out ://
Wow I should really start writing some happier stuff tbh.
Send me prompts or ideas for one shots if you want, they can be as brief or as detailed as you like I'll roll with it!
I've broken up for summer now so I've got lots of time to write!
Thanks for the votes, comments and reads and I hope you're having a wonderful day (*^-^*)
Until the next chapter,
~Lauren xoxo