"You need this one," Ryan insisted as he sat on the floor with Brendon next to him.

"No, this one's better. Trust me," Brendon said, pulling at Pete's pant leg.

"Do you really wanna side with him? Remember what happened last time?" 

"Excuse me, Pete enjoyed himself when he picked mine last time." Pete groaned inwardly as he looked through the glass over the pair's shoulders. 

"Guys, they're just muffins," Pete whispered, not wanting the cashier to hear him. He learned the hard way that he was the only one who could hear and see the two winged men-children. 

"Yeah, but mine's better."

"Not true! Chocolate chip is way better than apple cinnamon," Brendon says defensively. Pete rolled his eyes and faced the cashier.

"Can I have a blueberry muffin with a black coffee please?" She nodded, bagged up a muffin and poured a cup while Pete paid. He nodded in thanks and turned to sit at one of the empty tables along the window. He watched Brendon and Ryan sit across from him with pouts on their faces. 

"Sometimes it feels like you just ignore us," Brendon huffed. Pete took a bite out of his muffin and stared out the window. A smirk played his lips as he stayed quiet. "How rude! I don't even know why we even bother with him," Brendon said to Ryan.  

"I don't know why either," Pete said, giving his full attention to the two. "You guys have been following me around for months and all you've done is stop me from having a few too many drunken nights." Pete looked at Ryan. "And land me a few extra hookups." He turned to Brendon who smiled proudly. 

"Hey, Ryan helped you get promoted. That's something." Pete rolled his eyes and stared back out the window. 

"How much longer are you two gonna be in my life because I'm getting real sick and tired of you." Brendon slammed his hand on the table.  

"Do you really think we wanna be here either? You're no walk in the park either. You're a real pain in the ass." Pete sighed and waited for Brendon to get over his little tantrum. It didn't take long to realize that he had some anger issues. He tuned out Brendon's complaining until one thing caught his attention.

"We put everything on the line for this and you can't even, OW!" Ryan kicked Brendon under the table, effectively shutting him up. Pete looked between the two. 

"On the line? What the hell are you talking about?" Ryan shook his head at Brendon which only led to Pete getting frustrated. "What are you hiding from me?" 

"I told you before," Ryan said. "It's.."

"Complicated," Pete said with Ryan. "I know. I know it's complicated. That's your answer for everything. I'm just trying to figure out how to get you out of my life." Ryan gave him a guilty smile and shrugged. 

"I'm sorry." Pete scoffed in annoyance and finished off his muffin. From the corner of his eye, he saw Brendon pulling Ryan into his arms, murmuring something into Ryan's ear. Pete didn't realize how tense Ryan was until he saw how Brendon's words helped him relax. 

A part of him was jealous of their relationship no matter how "complicated" it was. He noticed when Ryan panicked at seemingly random moments, Brendon was always there to calm him down. Ryan would do the same thing to Brendon whenever he got to heated over anything. They balanced each other out so perfectly. It was like they were made to love each other rather than hate like they were taught to. 

Pete could see the strain in their relationship though. They would get into quiet arguments, but stop whenever Pete came into the room. Once Pete caught Brendon telling Ryan how they still had more time for something, but didn't hear anything else from the conversation. The nights Ryan panics, Brendon would hold him a little tighter, protecting him from something Pete couldn't see coming. 

A crash pulled Pete out of his thoughts and turned his head to the source. It didn't take a detective to know what happened. There was a taller man with coffee spilled down the front of his shirt while a shorter was grabbing napkins with apologies spilling from his mouth. Pete thought it was adorable how he stuttered. It was obvious he didn't have encounters like this often.

"What the fuck man?" The taller man hissed angrily, pushing away the short man's hands as he attempted to wipe off the growing stain. "Are you so stupid you can't even look where you're going?" Pete's body tensed in anger. It was obviously an accident and the cute boy was trying to help. 

"I'm so sorry. I-I didn't see you a-and I.."

"I don't give a fuck what your excuse is you fag." The man shoved the shorter one, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. Pete quickly made his way over to the two.

"Hey!" Pete shoved the taller man's shoulder. The man turned and looked Pete up and down. 

"Who are you? His boyfriend or something?" 

"You better watch your mouth before I punch your teeth out." The man laughed.

"You can try, but I don't think you can reach this high, short stack." The man easily had half a foot over Pete, but that didn't stop him from swinging his fist into the man's jaw. From behind him, Pete could hear Brendon whistling and chanting his name while Ryan shouted for Pete to stop.

When the man regained his momentary loss of balance, he went to hit Pete before a voice stopped him. "You need to leave." The manager was standing in between them, staring at the taller man. The man looked at Pete before turning and storming out of the coffee shop. 

Pete moved to the shorter man who was still on the floor, frozen in shock. He offered his hand which the man gratefully took. Pete took a quick moment to look over the boy as he pulled him to his feet. He dressed simply in jeans and a t-shirt, but that didn't stop a part of Pete's mind from finding look attractive. 

As his eyes went up to meet the short boy's, he saw strawberry blonde hair sticking out from the fedora he shouldn't be able to pull off that well. When their eyes locked, Pete was entranced by the way the gold ring around the man's pupil made his blue eyes appear green. 

"Are you okay?" The man nodded and opened his mouth, ready to apologize for the inconvenience, but was interrupted before he could get a word out.

"Hey Pete," the manager tore Pete's eyes away from the handsome man standing in front of him.

"Yeah, Joe." He knew what was coming when he saw Joe giving him guilty eyes.

"Hate to do this to you kid, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave too. You know my rules." Pete sighed and ran a hand through his hair. 

"'Kay Joe." Pete turned his head and saw Brendon and Ryan walking over to him as he made his way to the exit. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Brendon whined as they walked down the street. Pete stuffed his hands in his pockets as he mindlessly walked the direction to his house.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going home."

"But what about the guy?"

"What about him?"

"Don't act like you didn't just defend a hot stranger from an angry man." Pete only shrugged. "I thought that you would.."

"Brendon," Pete looked over his shoulder to see Ryan giving Brendon a warning stare. 

"Hmm. Surprised you're not the one trying to get me to go back." Ryan turned to Pete and bit his lip nervously. What Pete would do to finally get some real answers out of that man. 

"Hey wait up." All three stopped and turned to see the man running to catch up to Pete. When he finally stood in front of Pete, he took a moment to steady his breathing. "I didn't get a chance to thank you back there." The man peeked up at Pete from under his fedora. Pete grinned when he saw the other man had a smile of his own. 

"It was no problem at all."

"I didn't mean to get you kicked out. Let me make it up to you." Pete was all prepared to decline, but hesitated when he saw how nervous the man was. He was fidgeting with his fingers and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. When Pete nodded, the man had a smile stretched across his face. 

"Can I see your phone? I'll put my number in it and you can give me yours." After they exchanged numbers, Pete smiled down at the name now on his phone. "Are you free tomorrow?" Pete nodded. 

"I'll text you my address, so you can pick me up." 

"It's a date," the man smiled. "Later Pete." 

"Bye Patrick." Pete watched Patrick walk away until he was out of view. He turned back to continue his walk home. He saw Brendon and Ryan smirking at him. "What?" He asked irritated.

"Nothing," they both answered in unison, still wearing their smirks.