Better Off In Love (Peterick Au)

Carry On

Pete had received a text early in the morning from his manager, asking for a 'quick meeting', which knowing her, could be about anything at all. Hayley had been known to call him in just to tell him about a really shitty date she'd been on the night before, so he really didn't know what to expect.

He strolled into the record label's building, unwinding a pale grey scarf from around his neck as he passed through sleek white hallways before reaching Hayley's office. He knocked, and she yelled something that sounded like 'come in', so he did.

Hayley looked up from her laptop and smiled, and he took in her now bright orange hair. He'd seen her only two days ago with purple hair, but as someone with a self proclaimed hair dye fetish, her colour seemed to change almost weekly.

"So, my dude," she smiled as Pete flopped down in the tub chair facing his desk.

"Did you call me here to look at your new hair? It's nice,"

"What?" She brought a hand up to touch her hair, as if she could feel the colour. "Oh, no. I still think you should let me play with your hair some time,"

"I'm not a scene kid any more, Hayls,"

"You're no fun," She whined, sliding down in her chair a little. Combined with the yellow dungarees she was rocking, she resembled a four year old, despite being a over twenty years older than that.

"Why am I here, Hayley?"

"You want a drink or something?" She sat back up, switching into business mode.

"Hayley," he said with a warning tone.

"Look, Pete, the fangirls love the you and Patrick thing. We're going to need you to make an effort to publicly keep up the flirting. They love the tension," Pete's manager told him, barely holding back her smile.

Hayley knew Pete well, and she suspected she knew a love-struck Pete when she saw him. She didn't doubt that there'd been some level of feelings there for some time, but the pair being thrown suddenly together really seemed to have taken it all to the next level. She was only encouraging him, in a professional way, of course.

"So you're telling me to keep doing what I'm doing?" Pete questioned.

"Is what you're doing trying to flirt with and maybe date Patrick Stump?"

"Yeah," He confessed, gazing at his hands as his cheeks flushed pink.

"Ok," Hayley grinned, "Carry on with that,"

Feeling almost as if he'd just admitted to doing something wrong, he jumped up to leave.

"Oh, and Pete?"

He stopped and turned back to Hayley.

"I totally ship it,"

Laughing, he walked out of the office, a definite skip in his step.