Saturday // Peterick Oneshots

63. Eye of the Beholder

Guess what! I've got a new Peterick fic up if you want to go check it out! Anyway, here's the real reason Patrick's glad Pete stopped wearing eyeliner. Starts in FUTCT and ends sometime after the hiatus.

Patrick did not fall in love with Pete at first sight. It took him two whole months to love Pete even a little, and the first thing he fell in love with was Pete's laugh during a late night writing session that made him drowsy with affection. The second thing he fell in love with was Pete's ability to remember his Taco Bell order when band practice ran long and he went out to buy everyone food. There were a lot of things he came to love about Pete, but it was a slow process.

The thing that made all of it come together- the thing that made Patrick fall in love with Pete for real- was his eyes.

Patrick had already known he liked Pete's eyes; they're sweet and emotive and there's a gleam he gets in them when he's about to do something batshit crazy that makes Patrick's heart race. Then, sometime during their tour for From Under the Cork Tree, Pete started wearing eyeliner.

Patrick almost lost his mind.

The moment it happened was during an album release party hosted by the label. Patrick had gone outside to get a break from all the noise, and Pete quickly followed him out. The sun had just begun to set, painting everything within view golden (including Pete).

Pete turned to Patrick and started talking, and Patrick turned to listen, and his breath was taken away as soon as he met Pete's eye. His eyes were glowing in the dying sunlight, and the contrast created by his eyeliner only highlighted the color more.

"Hello? Earth to Patrick?"

Patrick blinked, flushed at the cockiness of Pete's smirk. "I'm listening."

Pete had smiled. "Uh huh. Sure you are." He kept talking, and Patrick tried his hardest to pay attention. Eye contact wasn't doing him any favors.

Unfortunately, the affect turned out to work both ways: the eyeliner either made Pete's eyes look like liquid gold in the light, or it made them look as dark as mini galaxies. Patrick was fucked no matter which extreme was met; it was just too easy to get lost in Pete's eyes.

Cliché, he knows- but it wasn't just the color.

One night while on tour for Infinity on High, Patrick realized Pete wasn't sleeping in the bunk above him. He had exited his own bunk and knocked on Pete's, and the curtain opened instantly. Patrick climbed in, and he could make out the dark circles under Pete's eyes.

"Pete." Patrick had squinted, leaning closer to Pete's face. "Are you still wearing the eyeliner?"

Pete nodded. "Too tired to take it off." Patrick believed him; Pete's eyes were half closed and his voice was ten times softer than usual.

Patrick sighed. "Do you have any makeup wipes?"

"In my bag."

So Patrick had gone out to the kitchenette and living room and dug around in Pete's bag until he found the packet of wipes. He returned to Pete's bunk and turned on the overhead light.

And fuck. This was a whole new level of intimacy Patrick didn't expect.

Because holding Pete's face in one hand and tenderly wiping away the black lines encircling his closed eyes with the other was almost too much for him to handle. He thanked whatever god may exist over and over that Pete didn't comment on his shaking hands. Then when he was done, Pete opened his eyes halfway and said "thank you" in a whisper and smiled sleepily and Patrick almost kissed him.

Instead he got to up to throw away the dirty wipe before he had a heart attack from Pete's beauty. He cuddled the shit out of Pete when he came back, though.

Patrick was glad that Pete stopped wearing eyeliner after the hiatus. Even though he sometimes misses how pretty it makes Pete's eyes, it made his life ten times easier during tour.

That doesn't mean he won't ask Pete to wear it on their weekly date night though.