True Colors (joshler, multi-fandom)

21 - Keep It Outside

Tyler immediately took back his form and turned around to face Brendon, shocked like he just saw a ghost.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that loud. I was just gonna ask if you wanted to come back in and watch us perform, but it's okay if you don't."

Tyler and Josh looked at each other confused before Tyler turned back around. "Wait, you're not just...stopped dead in your tracks?"

Brendon shrugged like this was casual. "Of course I was, I didn't think I'd come outside and see-"

"This."

"Yeah. That. Also I hate to burst your bubble, but I kinda figured you two were, uh, not straight since the beginning of this year."

Josh, who had been hiding his face from embarrassment since Brendon came outside, piped in: "Well look who's got the gaydar."

Brendon grinned. "Well come back inside, unless you wanna make out all night. You heard us already, anyway."

The lovestruck boys look at each other again, then back at Brendon. "Nah, we wanna go back in."

"Cool." Tyler and Josh stood back up. Brendon added as they followed him inside, "Also, Frank and Gerard mysteriously disappeared. Mikey's still here though. Pretty suspicious, if you ask me."

Oooookay.

They watched as Brendon got up on the "stage" and pick up his guitar. They started the act with the opening rhythm they heard earlier that day, now a lot louder and clearer. Ryan started to sing, "I'm carving pumpkins, it's almost Halloween..."

Neither of them had heard Ryan sing before, and in a silly song like this, his voice was smooth like tulip petals.

Brendon sang the chorus, "Everybody screeeaaaaam!" It was so strange hearing him sing a not-choir song, but refreshing, because this band seems to be more for him.

As their performance came to a close, Brendon made the promotion for the band, "Thank you, thank you. We're Panic! At The Disco, and we have a case of 20 of our first CDs, first come, first serve. But trust me, none of those songs were like this one."

***

At the end of the party, only 8 of those CDs were actually taken, all by friends and guests of friends.

"Well that could've gone better." Brendon remarked. "Most everyone left by now. It's only 11, I expected this to go til at least midnight."

Jon added, "Guess it's time to start cleaning up. Don't want my parents coming home to this. Especially since the other two 'vampires' hung out upstairs doing hell knows what for half the party."

Josh joined in, "I saw them back here. They went out back after you guys performed."

"Really? Well they better pick up a CD before they leave. What about the third one?"

"I saw him leave with...the curly haired guy. Didn't wanna be here either." Ryan answered.

"Ray. His name is Ray."

"Oh. I knew that."

Brendon rolled his eyes playfully.

"I didn't. I also don't know who thought it was a good idea to bring a case of beer. This party was alcohol free for a reason." He put his head down in his hands, then put his hands back down, forgetting he still had face paint on. "I don't even wanna know how many people got intoxicated."

Tyler finally spoke up. "You want Josh and I to go look for Gerard and Frank?"

"Yeah, go. I need a minute." Brendon puts a hand on Ryan's shoulder.

Tyler and Josh headed back outside, where the flood lights were still on. Immediately, Josh spotted the two laying down in the grass next to each other on their backs.

"Tyler, look." Josh said in a low voice.

Tyler squinted at them, and noticed not only were they perfectly beside each other, Frank's hand was on top of Gerard's on the ground between them. "Am I seeing this right?" Tyler asked, confused.

"I guess we weren't the only ones who got together."

They walked towards the exhausted pair slowly, in case they were asleep, and didn't want to startle them awake. On closer approach, Tyler noticed their clothes looked like they were just thrown on haphazardly, neckties just hanging around their collars, and even Gerard's shirt was buttoned up unevenly. Did they show up to the house like this? Certainly not. Oh boy, what did they disappear to?

"Should we...wake them up?" Tyler whispered. Josh nodded. They hesitated for a bit, but Tyler was the first to kneel down and tapped Frank's shoulder, warranting no reaction. Josh went around to Gerard, and softly drug his fingers back and forth on his jaw, making him tense up and smile, before becoming quiet again.

Tyler looked up at Josh, then did the same thing to Frank. Still no reaction. Josh repeated the same method, but with both hands, finally making Gerard wake up giggling, pulling his hand out from underneath Frank's. "What-" he mumbled. "Josh?"

Tyler spoke to him first. "You were asleep. Time to wake up."

"Oh, I know that." He sat up and put his face in his hands, then rubbed his eyes, smearing his already disastrous makeup. "I got a huge headache." He kept his hands up to shield his eyes from the flood light.

"I can tell you've been drinking." Josh told him.

"Yeah, Frank and I both. Oh man, he's out cold. You try to wake him up?"

Tyler shut his eyes for a second before saying "Yeah, but I don't think I've been hard enough on him."

"I can get him up." Gerard turned over to the sleeping boy, and pinched the base of his neck, closer to his shoulder. "Frank. Hey, Frank." And just like that, Frank's hand came up and grabbed his fingers. Frank groaned, then sat up as Gerard got out of his space.

"Did we really fall asleep in the grass?"

"Yep."

"Man, what a night." Frank rubbed his eyes. "Wait, what time is it?"

Josh checked his phone. "11:08. Most everyone left, you know, besides us."

"Wait, are you kidding? Mikey went with Ray about an hour ago, then. God, I need some water." Gerard tried to stand up, but almost fell over. Tyler reached his arms out to help him up, but he almost took Tyler down with him. Frank could get up just fine. Apparently Gerard had more drinks.

"Let's just go inside and clean up. For all I know, you both need a ride home." Tyler stated.

"You sound like Ruby now."