the picture above is the guys' necklaces. from the top to the bottom, it goes pete, andy, joe, patrick.

s/o to @BTRandPHANarelife for drawing this awesome piece of work. you're the best !

Patrick Stump is a strange guy. Pete has been going to school with him for two weeks and still hasn't heard him utter a single word - not even under his breath. He's also a strong guy, taking the most verbal abuse from Ace and stepping up when he has to.

Everytime Ace even as little as raised his voice a few notches, Patrick would be there, stepping in front of whoever was about to get the fifth degree. Including Pete, who Patrick had known for a measly two weeks.

Pete still hasn't gotten any closer to the mystery that is Patrick Stump, and it's not from lack of trying, either. In the course of the immensely short time he's been at the academy, Pete has: asked Patrick various personal questions, invaded Patrick's personal space more than once, and even tried to talk Ace into giving him more details about Patrick. None of it has worked. All it gets him is Patrick's stupid smirk, his eyes flashing red.

Which is why he's probably snooping around Patrick's room right now. He managed to steal the key card off of him when he wasn't looking, concentrating on toasting Andy's hot pocket so his friend didn't have to wait in line for the microwave.

Pete opens a drawer and expects to find anything - a diary, a bottle of pills, headphones - except what he does find: lube and condoms. He should've known not to open the first drawer of the nightstand. That's where everyone keeps their condoms.

Pete closes it quickly and opens the next drawer, smiling at the contents. He picks a pair of thick-rimmed glasses up to make sure he doesn't break them before finding multiple letters all addressed to Patrick's mother, dating back to as far as twenty-ten. None of them are sent, of course, but Pete doesn't read them, feeling bad enough that he's doing this already and moves those aside as well until he finds a picture.

The picture isn't in a frame and is at the bottom of the now empty drawer. The back of it reads 'The Stump children. Kevin-eleven, Patrick-nine, Megan-six.' When he turns it over, three children stare back at him, big smiles on their faces as they cheese for the camera.

He can tell which one is Patrick easily, even though his hair is a dirty blonde colour rather than the firetruck red it is now. His eyes, still blue, look more alive and emotional than they are today.

Pete sets the things back down, closing the drawer quickly as he continues to search. He gets exactly what he's looking for when he finds Patrick's laptop wide open on the desk in a nearby room. He moves the mouse to wake it up and finds it already on, which means he doesn't need Patrick's password to access the file titled 'IMPORTANT'.

Pete double clicks it, not expecting to find what he sees. "Vocal cord paralysis?" He mumbles to himself, flipping through pictures. He sees X-rays and scans of many vocal cords, stopping at the one that looks the worst. The cords are linked together, almost as if they were sewn shut.

Pete gasps when he sees what the title of the picture is: 'Patrick Stump, age ten'. He exits out quickly, and basically runs out of Patrick's room and down to Andy and Joe's.

He knocks until they open the door, confused to see him when he should be in class with Patrick. This is their off period. "Why didn't anyone tell me he can't talk?" He can't help himself from asking. Joe's eyes widen, and Andy's jaw clenches as they both pull him into their room and close the door.

"Do you know how fucking self-absorbed you are?" Andy hisses, sitting down in a chair at the dining table. "It took you two fucking weeks to realise there was something wrong with him. He can talk. He doesn't because he's been insecure about his voice ever since .. the incident occurred."

"What .. how did it happen?" Pete says after a few seconds, his gaze concentrated on his shoes. Andy looks at Joe, who nods and gestures for Pete to sit in the chair in the middle.

"A few days before Patrick's tenth birthday, he discovered his ability in a rather harsh way. He hadn't gotten his way or something like that and got extremely mad. His whole body burst into flames, and his vocal cords were damaged beyond repair. Everyday at the beginning of fourth period, right after we leave Mr. Wells' class, Patrick is to report to the infirmary to take his pills and hopefully one day get his voice back." Andy explains fairly quickly, not meeting Pete's eyes. "He doesn't want Ace to know because Ace is a fucking dick and would rather Patrick never speak again than to miss five minutes of his class."

"What the fuck? Shouldn't Ace get in trouble for treating Patrick like that? For treating all of us like we're slaves?" Pete demands, looking into Andy's eyes, which have gone a greenish shade since he's gotten mad.

"We've tried time and time again to turn Ace in to Principal Rodgers. Patrick refuses to go against Ace because he's been here for eight years of his life and has gotten used to it." Joe clarifies, reaching across the table to link hands with Andy.

"Patrick puts too much trust into people that don't deserve it." Andy says, and at first Pete thinks he's talking about Ace, but when Pete's eyes return to Andy, he can tell Andy is talking about him.

"Don't pin this on me. I like Patrick. He's a cool dude, even if he can't talk." Pete says coolly, eyes trained on their linked hands.

"He can talk, Pete. I just told you that. He chooses not to because a year ago, a pretty boy - like you - walked into his life. Patrick fell in love with him, and he walked right back out when he heard Patrick's voice." Andy shoots back, jaw clenching again. Pete can see Joe's muscles flex, which means he's squeezing Andy's hand.

"I would never." Pete says, hands in the air as if he's surrendering. "I like him. He's cute."

"Yeah, he is. But I swear to god if you hurt him, you'll have a hard time doing anything with water without fingers." Andy threatens, and Pete nods, eyes wide as he backs up towards the door.

"I'm gonna go do a paper. Don't wait up for me at dinner." He turns to leave, but not before Andy has something to say.

He hears Andy mutter, "I don't give a fuck if you're at dinner or not," but Pete doesn't say anything, just walking out of their door. On the walk back to his own room, he runs into Patrick, who smiles at him.

Pete realises he still has Patrick's key and internally freaks out. There's no way he's going to be able to plant it back on Patrick without him noticing it was missing in the first place. "Hey, man." He pulls Patrick in for a hug, ignoring the funny look he gets, and slips the key card in his back pocket.

Patrick just smiles when they pull away, waving at Pete as he walks the rest of the way to his room. Pete collapses on his bed when he gets back to his own room, looking up at the ceiling.

How is it that it took him two weeks to notice that Patrick couldn't talk? Does that make him a bad person? A bad friend?

Does Patrick consider Pete to be his friend? Would he ever consider Pete as more?

ch. 2 is here

how is this going?