Gave me something (I could) - Cobra Starship, gen.
a Cobra Starship love story
Gen, or, U-rated gsf? :D Cobras are the new Panic \o/
~2750
So, when I first heard The World Has Its Shine, I went to Camden and said 'Gabe's love song for his band, y/y?' and she said 'y!' and I said 'you should write that!' and she was like 'yes i will!' but then I remember she takes months to write things, so I did it instead. Hurray! I am bringing Cobra fic to the masses, y'all. Next time it won't be Gabe-centric I swear :x
Would have major issues if it weren't for heartequals.
Anyway, it's silly, but I hope you like it.
Gave me something (I could)
Travis hears it first when he and Gabe are on the phone. They are discussing Travis' verse, Gabe lying on his back on a bus couch and Travis walking the streets of New York. It is two in the morning, a time more conducive to finding tangents than getting anything done, so they get side-tracked, start talking about writing on the road and inspirations coming from unexpected places.
"What else are you writing, Gabe? Gimme something."
Gabe changes the phone to the other ear, rubs his palm on his jeans. He looks around him but the others retired to bed an hour ago and the door to the bunks is shut. He closes his eyes, and hums a little, finding the right key. Then he sort of half sings a line to Travis, he sings, "...but the world has its shine, and I'd drop it on a dime for you..."
There's a pause on the other end. Then Travis says, "That's cute, Gabe," and Gabe can hear the smile carrying down the phone. The door to the bunk opens and Alex comes in. He smiles at Gabe. Gabe says, "Yeah," to Travis, and, "Hey sexy, what's up?" to Alex.
Alex shrugs, he says, "I just got off the phone with an old friend, wouldn't shut up. Now I'm not even tired."
Gabe lifts his feet a little so Alex can sit down. "Who's on the phone?" Alex says, and Gabe mouths 'Travie', as Travis says, "Who's that?"
"Alex," Gabe says, and Alex leans over. He says, "Hey McCoy, get off the phone you bitch. Your sexy cobra time is up."
Gabe laughs, and Alex leans back, reaches down the side of the sofa and comes up with a Back To The Future boxset. He waves it at Gabe.
Gabe draws in a loud breath, excited. "Trav," he says, "I'm gonna go. The Suarez has arrived."
"You writing?" Travis says, sounding a bit wistful. "Oh, dude, no," Gabe moves the phone away from his ear and tells Alex to put the film in. "No, we're having a Back To The Future marathon."
Travis breathes in sharp, "Ooh. Gabe. Gabe. You fucker. You were going to do that with Bill and I."
Across the room Alex is having difficulties with the title menu and Gabe laughs, distracted. "Shit. Oh well. Alex, pause it you dick."
"Yo, Gabe, I'll leave you to it."
Gabe says, "Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Okay - Alex!" Alex is staring bemusedly at the remote while the film plays in the background. "You retard, give me that." Gabe laughs. "Okay, okay. I'll call you, dude."
He hangs up.
Two minutes later, while Gabe is sprawled half on Alex, half on their beat up old bus couches, Pete gets a text: Gabe's getting soft in his old age xoxo. He texts back, Little Gabe or Big Gabe? It's the only time Pete Wentz has ever used capitals on a sidekick. On the Cobras' bus Marty grabs his skateboard and the opening chords of 'Power of Love' kick in. Miles across the country, Travis replies, He's writing love songs these days.
Pete kind of hears it second, although he doesn't know this at the time. He spends the three days after receiving the text bugging Gabe, hoping to catch a glimpse of these love songs. On the bus, in the venue, in car parks and truck stops and once onstage when he yells it in Gabe's ear, away from the mic.
"Come on, Gabe," Pete shouts, "Where is the love?"
Gabe laughs. He says, "I'm not one for love songs." Then he lopes across the stage, drops a kiss on Patrick's head and blows a few to the crowd. Pete scowls.
Gabe is sitting on the bus one night after a show, on a couch in the back lounge, when Bill appears. He stands in the doorway, looks askance at Gabe who is talking to his Dad on the phone. Gabe smiles, gestures him in. He reaches out an arm and beckons until Bill is within grabbing distance, then he tugs him down next to him. He puts an arm around Bill's shoulders and Bill tips his head back on it. Gabe is not talking much, just making agreeing noises and saying yes and no when his father pauses for breath. Half his attention is on Bill, who is gazing around the room.
After a few minutes, Gabe makes his excuses and says goodbye. He hangs up. "Billvy," he says, "What's up?"
"I'm tired," Bill says, "I'm really, really tired." He rolls his head right to left and sighs. "I just keep thinking, all I want to do is go home and all I'm doing is getting further from it."
Gabe leans his head against Bill's, and lets the words run back and forth through his head. They fall asleep like that.
In Salt Lake City they are all sitting around a table being catered for, food that doesn't inspire. Gabe pushes some creamed leeks around his plate, leaving little trails in the sauce. He is feeling introspective and sullen and not in the mood to be around this many people. Pete and Joe are across the table, discussing romance in the modern age and Gabe thinks the situation is getting a bit Garden State. That makes him laugh in his head. Then he hears Pete say, loudly, "I know someone who's in love."
Gabe looks up and sees Pete, Joe, and Bob staring at him. He raises his eyebrows in reply.
Pete grins. "So who is it Gabe? Who are you writing love songs to?"
Gabe looks around for Patrick but he is all the way down the table whispering with Victoria. He shakes his head. "Your mom," he says, and reaches for the water. Joe laughs, but Pete just stares at Gabe even harder. Pete's a persistent man and Gabe finds him still staring a few minutes later when Gabe has cleaned his plate completely, apart from the neat pile of leeky mush in the centre. He looks away, looks down again at Patrick and wills him to come back, to save Gabe. Then he looks at Victoria, and she's laughing and leaning across Patrick to make a disgusting face at Ryland. Gabe smiles, then, and wishes he was down there too.
Pete follows his gaze, and his mouth makes a little 'o'. "So," he says, drawing Gabe's attention back to him, "It's either Victoria, or Patrick."
Gabe looks confused. "What the fuck?"
"And if it's Patrick," Pete continues blithely, "I'll kick your ass." He pauses in thought. "And if it's Victoria, she'll kick your ass." He makes a face, like, 'what can you do'. "...Bummer."
Then he grabs his bottle of water and leaves. Gabe frowns.
It's a few shows, a few days, a few thousand miles later and they are in Vancouver. Gabe is in high spirits and so are his band, they bounce around the venue like five year olds, getting in everyone's way and being loud and obnoxious. Victoria has the video camera and Gabe has his camera phone and even Pete tells them to shut the fuck up. They get herded from room to corridor to outside to inside until they are back in their dressing room, shrieking and laughing. Gabe has his arm round Nate's neck and Ryland is telling a story that has them in stitches. For a second, his sides aching and unable to stop laughing, Gabe feels like he has never ever been happier. He kisses Nate right on the lips and Nate, bless him, doesn't bat an eyelid. Gabe looks up and there is the camera and Victoria, and she is laughing at him and at Ryland.
A few minutes later they get the call to soundcheck and they all sober up a little - just enough to play their music - but Gabe keeps hold of that feeling for the rest of the night. Onstage, he looks out at the crowd, tries to pick out individual faces, wants to share something more than usual. He thinks about playing a new song. He looks around at his band, and they're all looking at each other. For a moment, he's going to do it, but then he chickens out. "This next song," Gabe says, "This next song is about being young, and in love, and high. Sometimes you feel fucked up, but sometimes so do I, and so does Alex, and Ryland, and Nate, and Victoria, so do the boy next to you and the girl you have a crush on at school." He pauses for breath, doesn't think too hard about what he says. "But that's cool, because it doesn't matter, what matters is you're young, and you're in love."
He stops then, and his band wait for half a second then start the song. Gabe holds the mic so hard his knuckles start to hurt, and he looks at them, feeling helplessly caught up in the moment.
Then Alex smiles at him, and Gabe spins, runs to the front of the stage and tells the crowd to jump for him, and they do.
It is Patrick who hears it third, but he's the first to get it. When the tour finishes they go almost immediately into the studio. They record Guilty Pleasure and Pleasure Ryland and have a lot of fun with Paparazzi. Then they wind down a bit; Gabe finishes up Angie with the help of Patrick and they take a short break. "Take an hour," Patrick says, "Or you'll regret it."
Everyone but Gabe takes Gizmo to the nearest green space, where they do more running than the dog. Gabe elects to call his mother. He hasn't talked to her in weeks and he's starting to feel a bit guilty. The answering machine picks it up, though, and after toying with the idea of calling someone else, Gabe goes back into the studio. Patrick is hunched over the desk, writing something on a scrap of paper, pausing every so often to scratch behind his ear and adjust the headphones. After a while, he looks up and looks around him, scanning the floor for some other scrap. When he sees Gabe he visibly starts. "Jesus," he says, removing the headphones, "I thought you had gone with the others."
Gabe shrugs. "Can I lay something down? Just, like. Acoustic?" Patrick nods, sure, and Gabe goes through into the other room. He says, "I'm just going to sing it no accompaniment." Then, after Patrick gives him the thumbs up, he says, "I'm not sure about this one."
He starts singing, and it's alright at first, but then he gets to the second verse and he stumbles over the words a bit, changes them on a whim and gets thrown. He stops, and Patrick tells him to start over. This time Gabe keeps the change and it feels more right. Patrick smiles. He says, "That's really... different. Good different." Then he asks, "Have you sung it to the others yet?"
Gabe shakes his head and lifts one shoulder. "I wanted to get it really right," he says, jigging one leg and frowning at the wall. "Before I play it to them. It's gotta be..." he trails off. Patrick nods, "Okay," he says, "we'll get it right. Sing it through again, I think that last chorus was a bit off." And he puts his headphones back on.
When the others get back they collapse exhausted on the sofas, but Gabe wants to fill the quiet. He takes videos and talks enthusiastically about complete rubbish at Ryland until Ryland kicks him out. Gabe gets out his phone but when he calls Alex, Alex just comes outside and confiscates the Sidekick.
Gabe thinks he might be going crazy.
Gizmo hears it fourth, one night when Gabe's been saddled with him and he doesn't go to sleep until Gabe sings to him. He sings as softly as he can manage, turns the tune into a lullaby. Afterwards, he wonders what his old punk friends would think if they could see him now, crooning I used to dream you up and make you up in my mind to a tiny ridiculous dog.
The fifth and sixth and seventh hearings, and on and on, are by the tiles in Gabe's shower. Every day he changes a word or a note but by the twenty seventh run through he finds himself back where he started. He leans against the shower door, tips his head back. He feels like he's going into battle.
That afternoon, his band hear the whole thing.
They are slumped comfortably about the studio, having sent Patrick off on dog walking duties ("Don't you know who I am?" Patrick says, "Big shot producers walking dogs, it's ridiculous."). Victoria has the camera out and is filming Nate's profile. Every few seconds they will collapse in laughter - Victoria shouting and Nate saying "Sorry, sorry, okay," - and no one else knows what they're doing but the laughter is infectious.
Gabe looks at both his watches. He can never remember which one works, but weirdly, they are telling almost the same time anyway. Patrick has been gone ten (or twelve) minutes. It's now or never, he thinks.
"Yo, guys, I want to try something." Gabe snaps his fingers in front of the camera. "Victoria, turn that shit off, this isn't for Friends or Enemies."
Victoria laughs. Across the room, Ryland grimaces, "Gabe, we're not doing your porno."
"Seriously," Alex says, "Gabe, seriously. And don't even try using your 'for the fans' speech."
"Nate still has his innocence, don't take that away from him!"
Nate throws a cushion at Ryland for that, but he's laughing, they all are.
Gabe sits himself down between Ryland and Alex, reaches across Alex to pick up the guitar that's leaning against his knees. He says, "You can all shut the fuck up, the fans would love it," and grins. He passes the guitar to Ryland, and pulls some paper from his pocket. "Here," he says, "I want to play you guys something new. Don't laugh at it, okay?" And he laughs like he's not serious. He hands the paper to Ryland. There are chords and a few words scribbled across it in a makeshift score. Victoria turns off the camera, leans forward a bit, and Alex leans back, away from Gabe and Ryland. He adjusts his glasses. Nate pulls his feet up onto the couch and tucks them under him. Then Gabe nods to Ryland, and starts the song.
He sings most of it with his eyes closed.
Afterwards, Gabe sits on the couch and looks a bit stricken. He's pretty sure he's just lost his voice but he feels like laughing hysterically. Just as he looks up, ready to judge their reactions, Alex says, "Is it just me or should that have been filmed or something? For posterity..." And they all laugh, a little relieved, and agree and smile, except Gabe. Victoria gets up from the floor, crosses the room, and deposits herself in Gabe's lap. "Gabe," she says, and winds her arms around his neck. "You are an idiot."
Next to Gabe, Ryland nudges Gabe's knee with his own, plays the last chord again very softly. He says, "Yeah, what she said," and smiles at Alex, who smiles at Nate, who rolls his eyes at Gabe. Victoria laughs and kisses the top of his head. "We love you too, you sap."
Two months and a day after Gabe first sings it to Travis, Cobras stand in the studio and record The World Has Its Shine. That night they go out to celebrate, and drag Patrick with them. At four in the morning, Patrick steps outside the club and calls Pete. "Hey," he says, "You're completely retarded, you know that?"
Standing in his kitchen at an equally absurd time of the night, Pete chokes on the poptart he is eating, in outrage. "I love you too," he says through crumbs, and hastily swallows.
Patrick sighs. He still feels as though there is a bass rhythm thumping around him. "Gabe's love song? It's for his band."
Pete chokes again. In the midst of the coughing, Patrick hears, "That's so cute it's making me sick."
Patrick smiles. The rhythm inside him morphs into the one he heard earlier as Alex perfected the bassline for Gabe's song. "That'll be the choking," he says, "But yeah. It kind of is."
Gen, or, U-rated gsf? :D Cobras are the new Panic \o/
~2750
So, when I first heard The World Has Its Shine, I went to Camden and said 'Gabe's love song for his band, y/y?' and she said 'y!' and I said 'you should write that!' and she was like 'yes i will!' but then I remember she takes months to write things, so I did it instead. Hurray! I am bringing Cobra fic to the masses, y'all. Next time it won't be Gabe-centric I swear :x
Would have major issues if it weren't for heartequals.
Anyway, it's silly, but I hope you like it.
Gave me something (I could)
Travis hears it first when he and Gabe are on the phone. They are discussing Travis' verse, Gabe lying on his back on a bus couch and Travis walking the streets of New York. It is two in the morning, a time more conducive to finding tangents than getting anything done, so they get side-tracked, start talking about writing on the road and inspirations coming from unexpected places.
"What else are you writing, Gabe? Gimme something."
Gabe changes the phone to the other ear, rubs his palm on his jeans. He looks around him but the others retired to bed an hour ago and the door to the bunks is shut. He closes his eyes, and hums a little, finding the right key. Then he sort of half sings a line to Travis, he sings, "...but the world has its shine, and I'd drop it on a dime for you..."
There's a pause on the other end. Then Travis says, "That's cute, Gabe," and Gabe can hear the smile carrying down the phone. The door to the bunk opens and Alex comes in. He smiles at Gabe. Gabe says, "Yeah," to Travis, and, "Hey sexy, what's up?" to Alex.
Alex shrugs, he says, "I just got off the phone with an old friend, wouldn't shut up. Now I'm not even tired."
Gabe lifts his feet a little so Alex can sit down. "Who's on the phone?" Alex says, and Gabe mouths 'Travie', as Travis says, "Who's that?"
"Alex," Gabe says, and Alex leans over. He says, "Hey McCoy, get off the phone you bitch. Your sexy cobra time is up."
Gabe laughs, and Alex leans back, reaches down the side of the sofa and comes up with a Back To The Future boxset. He waves it at Gabe.
Gabe draws in a loud breath, excited. "Trav," he says, "I'm gonna go. The Suarez has arrived."
"You writing?" Travis says, sounding a bit wistful. "Oh, dude, no," Gabe moves the phone away from his ear and tells Alex to put the film in. "No, we're having a Back To The Future marathon."
Travis breathes in sharp, "Ooh. Gabe. Gabe. You fucker. You were going to do that with Bill and I."
Across the room Alex is having difficulties with the title menu and Gabe laughs, distracted. "Shit. Oh well. Alex, pause it you dick."
"Yo, Gabe, I'll leave you to it."
Gabe says, "Yeah. Yeah. Wait. Okay - Alex!" Alex is staring bemusedly at the remote while the film plays in the background. "You retard, give me that." Gabe laughs. "Okay, okay. I'll call you, dude."
He hangs up.
Two minutes later, while Gabe is sprawled half on Alex, half on their beat up old bus couches, Pete gets a text: Gabe's getting soft in his old age xoxo. He texts back, Little Gabe or Big Gabe? It's the only time Pete Wentz has ever used capitals on a sidekick. On the Cobras' bus Marty grabs his skateboard and the opening chords of 'Power of Love' kick in. Miles across the country, Travis replies, He's writing love songs these days.
Pete kind of hears it second, although he doesn't know this at the time. He spends the three days after receiving the text bugging Gabe, hoping to catch a glimpse of these love songs. On the bus, in the venue, in car parks and truck stops and once onstage when he yells it in Gabe's ear, away from the mic.
"Come on, Gabe," Pete shouts, "Where is the love?"
Gabe laughs. He says, "I'm not one for love songs." Then he lopes across the stage, drops a kiss on Patrick's head and blows a few to the crowd. Pete scowls.
Gabe is sitting on the bus one night after a show, on a couch in the back lounge, when Bill appears. He stands in the doorway, looks askance at Gabe who is talking to his Dad on the phone. Gabe smiles, gestures him in. He reaches out an arm and beckons until Bill is within grabbing distance, then he tugs him down next to him. He puts an arm around Bill's shoulders and Bill tips his head back on it. Gabe is not talking much, just making agreeing noises and saying yes and no when his father pauses for breath. Half his attention is on Bill, who is gazing around the room.
After a few minutes, Gabe makes his excuses and says goodbye. He hangs up. "Billvy," he says, "What's up?"
"I'm tired," Bill says, "I'm really, really tired." He rolls his head right to left and sighs. "I just keep thinking, all I want to do is go home and all I'm doing is getting further from it."
Gabe leans his head against Bill's, and lets the words run back and forth through his head. They fall asleep like that.
In Salt Lake City they are all sitting around a table being catered for, food that doesn't inspire. Gabe pushes some creamed leeks around his plate, leaving little trails in the sauce. He is feeling introspective and sullen and not in the mood to be around this many people. Pete and Joe are across the table, discussing romance in the modern age and Gabe thinks the situation is getting a bit Garden State. That makes him laugh in his head. Then he hears Pete say, loudly, "I know someone who's in love."
Gabe looks up and sees Pete, Joe, and Bob staring at him. He raises his eyebrows in reply.
Pete grins. "So who is it Gabe? Who are you writing love songs to?"
Gabe looks around for Patrick but he is all the way down the table whispering with Victoria. He shakes his head. "Your mom," he says, and reaches for the water. Joe laughs, but Pete just stares at Gabe even harder. Pete's a persistent man and Gabe finds him still staring a few minutes later when Gabe has cleaned his plate completely, apart from the neat pile of leeky mush in the centre. He looks away, looks down again at Patrick and wills him to come back, to save Gabe. Then he looks at Victoria, and she's laughing and leaning across Patrick to make a disgusting face at Ryland. Gabe smiles, then, and wishes he was down there too.
Pete follows his gaze, and his mouth makes a little 'o'. "So," he says, drawing Gabe's attention back to him, "It's either Victoria, or Patrick."
Gabe looks confused. "What the fuck?"
"And if it's Patrick," Pete continues blithely, "I'll kick your ass." He pauses in thought. "And if it's Victoria, she'll kick your ass." He makes a face, like, 'what can you do'. "...Bummer."
Then he grabs his bottle of water and leaves. Gabe frowns.
It's a few shows, a few days, a few thousand miles later and they are in Vancouver. Gabe is in high spirits and so are his band, they bounce around the venue like five year olds, getting in everyone's way and being loud and obnoxious. Victoria has the video camera and Gabe has his camera phone and even Pete tells them to shut the fuck up. They get herded from room to corridor to outside to inside until they are back in their dressing room, shrieking and laughing. Gabe has his arm round Nate's neck and Ryland is telling a story that has them in stitches. For a second, his sides aching and unable to stop laughing, Gabe feels like he has never ever been happier. He kisses Nate right on the lips and Nate, bless him, doesn't bat an eyelid. Gabe looks up and there is the camera and Victoria, and she is laughing at him and at Ryland.
A few minutes later they get the call to soundcheck and they all sober up a little - just enough to play their music - but Gabe keeps hold of that feeling for the rest of the night. Onstage, he looks out at the crowd, tries to pick out individual faces, wants to share something more than usual. He thinks about playing a new song. He looks around at his band, and they're all looking at each other. For a moment, he's going to do it, but then he chickens out. "This next song," Gabe says, "This next song is about being young, and in love, and high. Sometimes you feel fucked up, but sometimes so do I, and so does Alex, and Ryland, and Nate, and Victoria, so do the boy next to you and the girl you have a crush on at school." He pauses for breath, doesn't think too hard about what he says. "But that's cool, because it doesn't matter, what matters is you're young, and you're in love."
He stops then, and his band wait for half a second then start the song. Gabe holds the mic so hard his knuckles start to hurt, and he looks at them, feeling helplessly caught up in the moment.
Then Alex smiles at him, and Gabe spins, runs to the front of the stage and tells the crowd to jump for him, and they do.
It is Patrick who hears it third, but he's the first to get it. When the tour finishes they go almost immediately into the studio. They record Guilty Pleasure and Pleasure Ryland and have a lot of fun with Paparazzi. Then they wind down a bit; Gabe finishes up Angie with the help of Patrick and they take a short break. "Take an hour," Patrick says, "Or you'll regret it."
Everyone but Gabe takes Gizmo to the nearest green space, where they do more running than the dog. Gabe elects to call his mother. He hasn't talked to her in weeks and he's starting to feel a bit guilty. The answering machine picks it up, though, and after toying with the idea of calling someone else, Gabe goes back into the studio. Patrick is hunched over the desk, writing something on a scrap of paper, pausing every so often to scratch behind his ear and adjust the headphones. After a while, he looks up and looks around him, scanning the floor for some other scrap. When he sees Gabe he visibly starts. "Jesus," he says, removing the headphones, "I thought you had gone with the others."
Gabe shrugs. "Can I lay something down? Just, like. Acoustic?" Patrick nods, sure, and Gabe goes through into the other room. He says, "I'm just going to sing it no accompaniment." Then, after Patrick gives him the thumbs up, he says, "I'm not sure about this one."
He starts singing, and it's alright at first, but then he gets to the second verse and he stumbles over the words a bit, changes them on a whim and gets thrown. He stops, and Patrick tells him to start over. This time Gabe keeps the change and it feels more right. Patrick smiles. He says, "That's really... different. Good different." Then he asks, "Have you sung it to the others yet?"
Gabe shakes his head and lifts one shoulder. "I wanted to get it really right," he says, jigging one leg and frowning at the wall. "Before I play it to them. It's gotta be..." he trails off. Patrick nods, "Okay," he says, "we'll get it right. Sing it through again, I think that last chorus was a bit off." And he puts his headphones back on.
When the others get back they collapse exhausted on the sofas, but Gabe wants to fill the quiet. He takes videos and talks enthusiastically about complete rubbish at Ryland until Ryland kicks him out. Gabe gets out his phone but when he calls Alex, Alex just comes outside and confiscates the Sidekick.
Gabe thinks he might be going crazy.
Gizmo hears it fourth, one night when Gabe's been saddled with him and he doesn't go to sleep until Gabe sings to him. He sings as softly as he can manage, turns the tune into a lullaby. Afterwards, he wonders what his old punk friends would think if they could see him now, crooning I used to dream you up and make you up in my mind to a tiny ridiculous dog.
The fifth and sixth and seventh hearings, and on and on, are by the tiles in Gabe's shower. Every day he changes a word or a note but by the twenty seventh run through he finds himself back where he started. He leans against the shower door, tips his head back. He feels like he's going into battle.
That afternoon, his band hear the whole thing.
They are slumped comfortably about the studio, having sent Patrick off on dog walking duties ("Don't you know who I am?" Patrick says, "Big shot producers walking dogs, it's ridiculous."). Victoria has the camera out and is filming Nate's profile. Every few seconds they will collapse in laughter - Victoria shouting and Nate saying "Sorry, sorry, okay," - and no one else knows what they're doing but the laughter is infectious.
Gabe looks at both his watches. He can never remember which one works, but weirdly, they are telling almost the same time anyway. Patrick has been gone ten (or twelve) minutes. It's now or never, he thinks.
"Yo, guys, I want to try something." Gabe snaps his fingers in front of the camera. "Victoria, turn that shit off, this isn't for Friends or Enemies."
Victoria laughs. Across the room, Ryland grimaces, "Gabe, we're not doing your porno."
"Seriously," Alex says, "Gabe, seriously. And don't even try using your 'for the fans' speech."
"Nate still has his innocence, don't take that away from him!"
Nate throws a cushion at Ryland for that, but he's laughing, they all are.
Gabe sits himself down between Ryland and Alex, reaches across Alex to pick up the guitar that's leaning against his knees. He says, "You can all shut the fuck up, the fans would love it," and grins. He passes the guitar to Ryland, and pulls some paper from his pocket. "Here," he says, "I want to play you guys something new. Don't laugh at it, okay?" And he laughs like he's not serious. He hands the paper to Ryland. There are chords and a few words scribbled across it in a makeshift score. Victoria turns off the camera, leans forward a bit, and Alex leans back, away from Gabe and Ryland. He adjusts his glasses. Nate pulls his feet up onto the couch and tucks them under him. Then Gabe nods to Ryland, and starts the song.
He sings most of it with his eyes closed.
Afterwards, Gabe sits on the couch and looks a bit stricken. He's pretty sure he's just lost his voice but he feels like laughing hysterically. Just as he looks up, ready to judge their reactions, Alex says, "Is it just me or should that have been filmed or something? For posterity..." And they all laugh, a little relieved, and agree and smile, except Gabe. Victoria gets up from the floor, crosses the room, and deposits herself in Gabe's lap. "Gabe," she says, and winds her arms around his neck. "You are an idiot."
Next to Gabe, Ryland nudges Gabe's knee with his own, plays the last chord again very softly. He says, "Yeah, what she said," and smiles at Alex, who smiles at Nate, who rolls his eyes at Gabe. Victoria laughs and kisses the top of his head. "We love you too, you sap."
Two months and a day after Gabe first sings it to Travis, Cobras stand in the studio and record The World Has Its Shine. That night they go out to celebrate, and drag Patrick with them. At four in the morning, Patrick steps outside the club and calls Pete. "Hey," he says, "You're completely retarded, you know that?"
Standing in his kitchen at an equally absurd time of the night, Pete chokes on the poptart he is eating, in outrage. "I love you too," he says through crumbs, and hastily swallows.
Patrick sighs. He still feels as though there is a bass rhythm thumping around him. "Gabe's love song? It's for his band."
Pete chokes again. In the midst of the coughing, Patrick hears, "That's so cute it's making me sick."
Patrick smiles. The rhythm inside him morphs into the one he heard earlier as Alex perfected the bassline for Gabe's song. "That'll be the choking," he says, "But yeah. It kind of is."