Saturday // Peterick Oneshots

1. Pete gets shit because he likes Metallica.

Honestly I don't even know what this is, but the idea popped in my head and I wanted to get it down before it disappeared. FUTCT era. High school au of sorts. Kind of angsty, kind of fluffy. Pre-slash, as it's called on AO3. Trigger warnings: bullying, f slur. It ended up being longer that I anticipated so oops.

Pete gets shit from his teammates because he like Metallica. It's idiotic, because he's better than all of them at soccer, and it's really none of their fucking business what he listens to. Patrick, the freshman boy he always sits with on the bus, gets shit from his bullies because he likes Marina and the Diamonds. Pete thinks that's idiotic too, because Patrick is sweet and innocent and obviously just wants to make it out of this hell alive; he doesn't deserve the bruises he has when he slides into his spot next to Pete everyday.

Yes, his spot. And if any of Pete's teammates question why he sits (mostly in silence) next to some stupid freshman, he gladly tells them to fuck off, because it's their fault he sits next to Patrick anyway. Not that he's complaining, because he's definitely not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been one of those days when:
A) Practice had been cancelled, meaning Pete couldn't blow off the steam that's built up throughout the school day.
B) Pete had had a particularly hard day, meaning he had even more steam than usual.
C) His teammates that rode the bus with him decided they felt like being douches.

Not only did they poke fun at him for being the only person on the team without a girlfriend, when he decided he'd had enough and tried to shove on his headphones to drown them out, they swiped his iPod and started going through his music. They had a fucking field day when they found his playlist consisting of Metallica's entire discography. As soon as he got it back, he grabbed his things and moved to another seat, ignoring his teammates' calls to come back because "they were only joking." He flipped them off while half-sitting, half-falling into the new seat.

He had been halfway through getting his stuff re-situated when he heard a voice next to him, asking, "Can I sit here?" He didn't bother looking up before nodding. He shoved his earbuds in and leaned his head back while the boy sat down next to him.

The ceiling of the bus didn't have much to offer in terms of visual entertainment, so he glanced over at his seat mate. He could see pale skin and strawberry blonde hair poking out from underneath a green beanie, but because of the angle that was it. The boy was queueing up his own music: Electra Heart by Marina and the Diamonds. Pete couldn't help but chuckle.  "Don't usually see a lot of guys who listen to her," he said, turning his own music down a notch.

The boy tensed up. "Yeah, so?" he all but whimpered.

"Just saying." Pete shrugged. "You're pretty gutsy."

The kid turned slightly and Pete could see unfairly pretty blue eyes looking at him. "Thanks." The boy gave him a small, melancholy smile that Pete had no choice but to return.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second and the third time practice was cancelled, Pete didn't bother trying to sit with his teammates. He sat in roughly the same spot he had the first time and waited for blue eyes to show up. Both times he asked politely if he could sit in the empty spot next to him, and both times Pete said yes.

The fourth time, Pete noticed the bruise.

It was almost covered by the way the boy had arranged his hair, but the black eye was still visible when Pete looked up at him. The boy slid into his spot without a word (not even his usual "Can I sit here?") and just...sat. Didn't pull out his headphones to queue up Electra Heart (his favorite, Pete had gathered), didn't check to see if his battery was low, nothing. He sat and stared at his backpack.