Sail along

Chapter 29

"Oww." Mike groaned looking at the door.

"Mike, you nut," Micky said finally catching up to him "are you okay?"

"Bad door." Mike said, shaking his finger at it.

"Yeah Mike," Micky said rolling his eyes "The door is bad."

"PETER!!!!" Mike yelled as he ran at the door again.

"What?" Micky said looking around and sure enough there was Peter looking at Mike and Micky with a bemused expression on his face. He unlocked the door and opened it.

"Peter, Peter, Peter, Peter." Mike chanted as he hugged the blond.

"Hey Mike." Peter said, yawning "Micky it's 3AM, what are you two doing here?"

"Blame Mike." Micky grumbled.

"Me, me , me," Mike sang out "I'm to blame."

"Mike, are you okay?" Peter asked, looking at him closer.

"I have no more than I did before, but now I've got all that I need," Mike sang happily. "For I love you and I know you love me."

"I guess that's a yes," Micky sighed and Peter frowned at him.

"It looks like he's got a bruise forming on his forehead." Peter said, a little worried.

"Probably from running into the door to come see you."

"Shouldn't you be at Millie's?" Peter asked as Micky plopped himself on the couch. Mike smiled and tried to copy his moves right beside him.

"We should be, yeah," Micky said in a huff. He knew there was no good in getting frustrated with Mike, but after everything, it was just tiring and he couldn't help it. Mike senses a change in Micky's mood and looked at him eyes brimming with unshed tears.

"Are you mad at me?" He asked. Micky sighed.

"No Mike," He said tiredly "I'm not mad at you, I'm frustrated with the situation."

"Situation?" Mike asked "home now. Stay. Sleep. Night night?"

"What?" Micky frowned, confused at what Mike was trying to say. Mike sniffled and smiled at him.

"Home," he said, pointing at Micky. "Don't worry about situation, you home."

Micky let out a sigh and smiled slightly.

"Thank you Mike," he said finally "why don't you go up to bed okay?"

"Okay!" Mike said giving him a hug then getting up and giving Peter a hug too.

"Night night Peter! Night night Micky. Three squeezes."

"Good Night Mike." Peter said "sweet dreams."

Mike smiled and hurried up the stairs. Peter let out a sigh and walked toward Micky.

"Do you want me to call Millie and tell her everything's alright?"

Micky closed his eyes as he remembered. Millie must've been worried sick about them.

"I'll tell her," Micky said, standing up. "You can go ahead and go to bed if you want to.

"I'll wait." Peter said as Micky sighed and made his way over to the phone and picked it up and dilled Millie's phone number. After he got done talking to her and assuring her that they were fine he hung up and looked at Peter and all the emotions he had been feeling for the past 24 hours and the lack of sleep caught up to him and he started shaking with quiet sobs.

"Micky?" Peter said worriedly.

"I-I can't do it Peter, I just...seeing M-Mike like that and trying not to get mad at him..." Micky cried "I just-I'm exhausted just from trying to make sure that he's not going to hurt himself."

"It's okay," Peter whispered, pulling him into a hug. "You've been doing so much. It's okay. Just let it out."

Micky returned the hug and allowed himself to cry into Peter's shoulder. When he finally got everything out of his system, he took a few deep breaths and an idea came into his head.

Was this what Mike felt like with all his responsibilities?

"We gotta get better Peter," Micky whispered "We need to get better. God, we act like Mike is acting, but we do it all the time. No wonder he's always snappy at us."

"Oh Micky," Peter said "I don't think we all act exactly like Mike is acting now."

"Well, no," Micky said. "But you get my point. Mike's always the responsible one, and we're always the ones goofing off...Peter, I'm always the one goofing off..."

When the realization hit him, he let out a sigh and slumped down on the couch.

"No wonder he still feels so alone," he muttered. "Because we won't help him, because I won't help him..." Peter sat down next to Micky.

"It's okay Micky," he said "once Mike gets better we'll get organized, we'll make a big calendar and put all the chores on it and colour code it and we'll all have different colours so we all know who has what chores....or something. We'll figure something out."

"I'm such an idiot." Micky said "I should've stepped up sooner to help him."

"Hey Micky," Peter said "it's not all your fault. Davy and I could've stepped up as well, but we didn't. It falls on all of us." Micky nodded absentmindedly.

"Come on," Peter said, getting up "Let's go to bed." He pulled Micky up and followed him up stairs and into the bedroom.

"Micky mad?" A voice whispered from the dark. Micky sighed.

"No Mike," he said "I'm not mad. Go to bed. Good night."

"Night." Mike said giggling. Micky sighed and crawled into his bed.

"Hey," Peter's voice whispered from the dark "Mike, why are you in my bed? You have your own bed."

"Sleep with you." Mike whispered "Night night. Three squeezes."

Peter sighed and crawled into his bed, Mike wrapping his arms around him.

"Hi," he whispered with a smile.

"Hey, Mike," Peter smiled back. "Give me your hand."

Mike squinted at him, confused.

"Just for a second, Mike. I wanna show you something."

Mike nodded and hesitantly put his hand into Peter's. Peter smiled and squeezed his hand three times.

"You keep saying three squeezes," Peter said looking down. "This is what that actually is."

Mike smiled and squeezed his hand back.

"Three squeezes," he said as he did.

"Yeah, that's right," Peter smiled.

"Night night, Peter," Mike said, closing his eyes and resting his head on his shoulder.

"Good night, Mike." Soon the room was quiet as they all fell asleep.