Fic: Nobody Puts (Patrick Stump's) Baby (Daddy) In The Corner (Pete/Patrick, various others)
Title: Nobody Puts (Patrick Stump’s) Baby (Daddy) In The Corner
Fandom Bandom (various)
Pairings: Pete/Patrick (with P!ATD, TAI, GCH, CS and MCR people in various pairings)
Rating: PG-13 for language
Disclaimer: AHAHAHAHA SO NOT TRUE. OR BIOLOGICALLY POSSIBLE
Warnings: MPREG. That’s men. Pregnant. With assbabies. You know you love it. But if you don’t, please click away now.
A/N: Written for loveyouallwrong because she is awesome and deserves a better fic than this is. Beta’d by the wonderful vampyreranger. This is an AU, in that male pregnancy is an everyday occurrence. Also, I’ve never been to a Lamaze class, and all I know about having a baby is from biology lessons and TV.
“I don’t know,” Patrick said anxiously, hesitating with his hand on the door handle. Through the glass window he could see people milling around inside the room, some settling themselves on the floor, others mingling and introducing each other.
“I’ll be fine,” Pete said, as soothingly as he could manage. “The doctor said this was important. We’ll just go in, do whatever it is we do in there, and then go home. It’s only once a week. And the people look…nice,” he finished, feebly.
Patrick didn’t look convinced. But he took a deep breath, and opened the door.
”Oh my god!” a tall, lanky man wearing what looked like a velvet vest- with roses on it- shrieked, and Patrick winced, automatically edging back out of the room. “Spencer! Spencer! There’s a draft! Make the draft go away, Spencer!”
“Excuse me,” a rather put upon young man- Spencer, Patrick assumed- said, reaching past him and Pete to pull the door shut. “Ryan hates drafts. Says they interfere with the precise body temperature maintenance the book recommends.”
Patrick could see Pete refraining from rolling his eyes. “Whatever, dude,” he said and let Spencer shut the door. Pete introduced himself, and then Patrick, who tensed up, but there was only a fleeting glimmer of recognition in Spencer’s face before Ryan was calling him back over to place his cushions on the floor in a very specific way that would provide optimum comfort.
Pete caught Patrick’s hand as they moved towards an empty spot on the floor, and pulled him in close to press a kiss to his forehead.
”What was that for?” Patrick asked, automatically suspicious.
Pete grinned. “For not being like that,” he said, nodding slightly in the direction of Ryan who was starting to have hysterics over the humidity in the room and how unhealthy it was, both for the baby and for his hair.
Patrick smiled back. “Well, one high maintenance person is more than enough in this relationship,” he replied, settling himself awkwardly on the floor.
”Hey!” Pete said, eventually catching up a moment or two later, but before he could respond the teacher was already standing up and gesturing at them to be silent, swinging his arms slightly as if he was nervous.
“Hello,” he said, brushing his blond fringe out of his eyes and glancing around the room with a small smile. “I’m Bob and I’ll be your Lamaze instructor for the next few months.”
~~~
As much as Patrick hated to admit it, Pete had been right. The classes were fine- in fact, they were something he was starting to look forward to every week- something to enjoy after the stress of their recording schedule and the discovery that he couldn’t sing the way he used to when the ever-growing baby wasn’t squishing his diaphragm.
Going to the classes was starting to become something he could almost describe as fun. And Pete, being Pete, had quickly made friends with other couples in the class, which made it even more bearable. They were interesting classmates too. Pete had announced Spencer and Ryan were adorable the moment they got home after the first class. There was also Gabe, who frequently bemoaned how the pregnancy was interfering with his and Travis’s sex lives, with detailed descriptions of what they could and couldn’t do (which made Pete nudge Patrick occasionally and give him meaningful looks that clearly meant he was filing this information away for later use).
Patrick’s secret favorite couple was Gerard and Frank, who were very tender with each other and spent large amounts of time before and after class arguing about baby names. This resulted in Frank conducting a number of impromptu surveys to ask everyone else’s opinions (Pete always agreed with Frank’s choices, which only made Patrick worry even more, because there was no way he was going to give birth to a kid named after a fruit, animal or city).
And finally, there was Jon and Brendon. The first week Jon came to class, Patrick had wondered if he were on his own. He’d sat quietly, rubbing his belly idly as he talked in soft tones to Spencer who was pouring a glass of distilled water for Ryan (who had been complaining loudly of a dry mouth for several minutes).
And then Brendon had dashed in, a whirlwind of noise and confusion and “Draft! Spencer!” and had thrown himself to his knees beside Jon saying “Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!” as he wrapped his arms around him and pressed his lips to Jon’s bump.
Pete had laughed, and -after he’d ensured Jon was intact and happy and fine- Brendon had looked up and grinned at Pete, eyes growing wide. And then his gaze had strayed to Patrick and he’d frozen for a second.
He had made a beeline towards them. “Pete Wentz!” he’d said, pointing at Pete, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “And you! You’re Patrick Stump!”
“Uh,” Patrick had said, because he couldn’t exactly deny it but-
“Yeah, he is,” Pete had broken in, stealing Brendon’s attention, which made Patrick relax a little. “But here he’s just Patrick, and I’m Pete and we’re just two normal guys, having a baby together.”
Patrick soon discovered that Brendon was a pretty good guy when he wasn’t running late or acting star struck or generally being overexcited. He found he liked Jon too, with his laid back, full of smiles attitude. It was fun to have them around, particularly as Brendon seemed to be an oddly calming influence on Ryan. He had been ever since their first class, when Ryan had sneered a little -after Brendon finished explaining to them how they were decorating the nursery with unicorns and fairies and how he wanted to buy the baby Barbie’s Dream House but Jon said he had to wait a few years yet- and said “How’d you manage to get anyone pregnant? You’re practically a girl. ”
Brendon’s lower lip had trembled slightly and Jon had opened his mouth to say something and Patrick had frowned and Spencer had sighed and lowered his head (and Pete had of course laughed).
But then Ryan had bitten his lip and reached out and patted Brendon’s arm and said “Sorry.” Everyone had just looked at him in surprise, because Ryan was always bitching at the rest of them, and had never once apologised (Once, when Pete had gotten fed up with him bossing Spencer around and had told him to shut the fuck up, Ryan had wobbled his chin and given him puppy dog eyes and had eventually buried his face in his hands, heaving loud, dry sobs that were surprisingly heartbreaking despite their fakeness).
After that, Ryan didn’t seem to bitch as much or, at least, Brendon’s presence was an amusing distraction from it. Patrick wouldn’t admit it to Pete, but it was only after Jon and Brendon started coming to class that he really started enjoying himself.
~~~
Sometimes, they all stayed around after the class, and would wander down to the Starbucks at the corner of the street where Bob, on the occasions he came with them, would frown a little when Jon would order anything caffeinated. Ryan would turn his nose up at the entire menu and order a glass of hot water to soak his special organic herbal teabags in, that his pregnancy book insisted was as essential part of his diet. And Pete always ordered whatever the fad drink du jour was, drank half of it and left the rest to go cold or melt.
There was a lot of the expected talk about babies and pregnancy and speculating the horrors of child-birth (that always made Brendon turn very pale and wide eyed). And there was a fair amount of talk about music too (although no one except Brendon ever made a big deal out of Pete and Patrick being in a band) and movies and hobbies and just about anything else too.
Joe came and met them one day after class, joining them for a coffee, sitting and listening quietly as they all talked about the pros and cons of breastfeeding. Later, back at the house, he’d lain on the sofa beside Patrick and pressed his ear to the bump, hair tickling Patrick’s bare skin.
He looked wistful, so Pete slid down the other side of Patrick and placed his head beside Joe’s. “Don’t worry man, you’ll get to have a kid one day too.”
Joe raised an eyebrow. “Dude,” he smirked. “Why d’you think I care so much about this one?” he patted Patrick’s swollen tummy lightly. “Didn’t Patrick tell you about that super hot affair we started right before he got knocked up? I’m the baby daddy.”
“Ha ha,” Pete said. “You can make do being the baby god-daddy,” but he shot Patrick a half questioning, half warning glance that made Patrick laugh and laugh until the baby started kicking and Joe and Pete spread their hands across his taut skin and oohed and aahed over the existence of a tiny person growing inside.
~~~
When a mix up in their recording schedules forced them switch their class from a Tuesday to a Thursday one week, Patrick was amazed to see Travis there.
“Dude!” Pete waved him over. “You guys couldn’t make Tuesday either?”
Travis made a slicing motion across his throat, grimacing at them.
“Why would you have been here on Tuesday?” someone asked from behind Travis, who they were surprised to see wasn’t Gabe.
Pete and Patrick stared for a long moment, Travis still making anxious faces at them.
“Um,” Patrick said eventually, studying not-Gabe, who was tall and willowy apart from the part of him that was incredibly pregnant. He was leaning against Travis, one hand rubbing his belly with his head bent over it, long hair dangling forward to hide his face. He looked peaceful and serene and almost angelic and-
“Well?” the guy’s head snapped up, voice pissy as he sent daggers in Travis’ direction that made Patrick step back against Pete a little.
“Bill, honey,” Travis said soothingly, placing a hand on Bill’s shoulder and kneading gently. “This is Pete and Patrick. Uh, Pete comes along on Tuesdays sometimes, but remember I told you I didn’t go this week? I was helping Disashi out instead?”
“Oh,” Bill looked vaguely uninterested, surveyed Patrick quickly and then turned his attention to Pete. “You rap then?” he sounded sceptical.
“What? Uh, no, I-“
“Pete’s just being modest,” Travis interrupted, opening his eyes really wide at Pete. “You know Pete, how you sometimes perform at the club. Where we go to do a bit of free stylin’. On a Tuesday evening.”
“Oh,” Pete glanced at Patrick. Patrick folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. “Uh, yeah, yeah, sorry, I just don’t like to…brag?” he finished lamely, but Bill seemed to believe him and had started to look bored.
“Ooh,” Bill said suddenly. “Someone’s brought bagels.” He wandered off towards the food and Travis watched him go, shaking his head fondly.
“He’s been having all these cravings for carbs lately- he’s going to be so pissed with he struggles to get his girlish figure back after the birth.” He turned back to them, a silly grin on his face, that slid off when he saw the looks on their faces.
Patrick and Pete stared at him.
“Dude,” Pete said. “What the fuck?”
Travis grimaced. “Uh, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation here,” he said, forehead crinkling as he frowned. “It’s complicated though. Difficult to explain.”
“You’ve been seeing two guys at the same time, knocked them both up, and you haven’t told either of them?” Patrick asked stonily, and Travis’s shoulders slumped a little.
“Okay, maybe not so difficult to explain then,” he said. “It really is complicated though. And Gabe knew about Bill, before. We had an open relationship. He just thinks it ended when he decided to keep the baby. But Bill had already started making all these plans for this kid, names and schools and what pets it could have and- I couldn’t leave him to deal with this on his own. Or Gabe. I love them both so much that I…” he ran his fingers through his hair, tugging in frustration.
Pete shook his head slowly, disappointment clearly written on his face.
”I know, man,” Travis said. “I’m a complete asshole. I should never have gotten them into this situation in the first place.”
“It’s not that,” Patrick snapped. “It’s that you still haven’t told them.” He turned on his heel and followed after Bill in search of bagels, trying to ignore the sharp twist of pain in his heart and the sting behind his eyes. He knew it was the hormones messing with him, making him emotional (Pete had been teasing him for weeks, ever since he’d come home to find Patrick watching Days of our Lives and sniffling into a handkerchief) but he couldn’t help but imagine how he’d feel if he were Bill or Gabe, and found out now, so close to their due dates.
Patrick helped himself to a bagel, made small talk with Bill and the other fathers-to-be who were gathered around the food and tried not to let his gaze linger on Pete and Travis in the corner, Pete gesturing emphatically up at him.
Pete sidled up to him right before the class started, after Bill had wandered back to Travis, who was looking very subdued.
“He’s going to tell them,” Pete said. He sounded sure, confident, and Patrick wondered what he’d said to Travis, and what Travis had said back, although he’d never ask, and Pete would probably never tell.
~~~
Travis and Gabe didn’t show up at Tuesday classes for the next two weeks and (since Pete was a terrible gossip and told the others as soon as he saw them) Brendon stopped by at the Thursday classes with the excuse of asking Bob an important question, reporting back that neither Travis nor Bill had shown up there either.
Patrick was starting to worry. And he wasn’t the only one. By the start of the third class since they’d seen any of them, they were all gathered in a worried huddle, discussing how they could track them down.
Which was when Gabe walked in. Followed by Travis. Followed by Bill.
Everyone stared. No one said anything. Travis had what looked like a fading black eye and an almost healed cut on his lip. But he was grinning from ear to ear, and Gabe and Bill were fussing over each other and they all looked pretty happy.
They didn’t hang around after class like they had done before, but Pete chased after them, coming back to report that he thought they were going to be very happy, all three of them, raising the babies together.
Later, he told Patrick that as he was talking to Travis, Gabe and Bill had been holding hands, and had leant in and kissed each other, swollen bellies bumping gently between them.
“It was totally hot,” Pete confided. “And, if you want to, maybe we could invite Ryan and Spencer round and we could all…”
Patrick threw a cushion at his head. But it gave him something interesting to ponder for the rest of the night.
~~~
One by one, couples stopped coming to the class, and Bob frequently announced various new arrivals into the world, which always made Pete go all doe eyed and stare at Patrick longingly.
“It’ll be our turn soon enough,” Patrick reassured him, hoping he was right, because as much as he’d loved being pregnant, he was ready to have the sore back, tender nipples, swollen feet, and lack of bladder control gone.
Frank and Gerard disappeared first. Then Jon and Brendon. Which meant the classes were a lot more boring and much, much quieter, apart from Ryan’s bitching, which only got louder and more annoying until Patrick snapped at him (he blamed his hormones completely) and Ryan snapped back. They spent the rest of the class sending death looks across the room, Spencer and Pete making amused faces at each other and rolling their eyes the entire time.
Patrick, irrationally, insisted he never wanted to go back to class if Ryan was there. Pete laughed and told him he was being silly, but in the end Patrick got his way, when he went into labour two days later.
To Patrick, it was all a rush of excitement, pain, panic, and an overwhelming amount of joy. To Pete, he was told afterwards, it was a rush of nervous breakdowns, pulling out his hair, biting off all his nails, and shouting at doctors and nurses and Joe and Andy (and apparently once to Patrick, although he’d been drugged up at the time and couldn’t remember and so Pete claimed he couldn’t get mad at him about it).
Not that Patrick could ever get mad at Pete ever again (until the next time he did something stupid, of course), not when he could now look down at the blanket swaddled baby in his arms with Pete cooing over her, looking so proud it made Patrick’s heart swell with overwhelming love to see them both.
~~~
The following year, it was Pete’s turn to hover by the door.
“It’s fine,” Patrick insisted, impatiently. “Look, I went through all of this already. So you can do it too. And oh, hey look- there’s Spencer!”
Pete smiled at the sight of a familiar face and stepped into the room.
“Pete!” Brendon bounded over, hands resting on his belly, which was swelling gently above his jeans. “Look at you! You’re huge!” He bumped their bellies together lightly. “Baby high five!” he said.
“Congratulations!” Patrick told him, and Brendon beamed.
”Thanks! I wanted a little brother or sister for little Princess Jasmine, so it’s fantastic!”
“Stop telling people that’s her name,” Jon called from across the room where he was talking with Ryan, and Brendon made a face at him, waving at him to shut up.
“Okay, let’s get the class started, guys!” Bob clapped his hands together, and Patrick helped Pete onto the ground. It was nice, he thought, to be surrounded by familiar faces. He glanced over at Brendon- and found Spencer sitting in front of Jon instead.
“Oh,” Jon said, catching Patrick’s confused look. “Er. We, um…we all kind of spent a lot of time together after the births and one thing led to another and-“
“You knocked Spence up?” Pete broke in. “Awesome. And go you, Ryan,” he added, nodding at Brendon’s baby bump. “Never knew you had it in you.”
Patrick watched as Ryan fussed over Brendon, more than Spencer had ever done when Ryan was being bitchy and annoying. It was cute, and Pete shot Patrick a look when Ryan pressed his face to the bump and talked softly to it.
”Yes, yes, alright,” Patrick said, exasperated. Pete had been pestering him for weeks to sing to the baby. He said it would soothe the kid, who kicked almost constantly and kept Pete up at night.
Patrick rubbed his hand across Pete’s belly and bending close, sang one of the songs they’d been working on recently.
It took him a moment or two to realise the room had gone silent and everyone was watching. He blushed.
”Damn,” Ryan said, sounding pissed. “I wish I hadn’t left my phone at home. I could’ve posted that to my blog.”
“Right, people,” Bob said, thankfully pulling the attention away from a very embarrassed Patrick. “We’re going to watch a video.”
“Oh god,” Brendon said, looking ill. “I really hate this part.”
Patrick grinned, seeing Brendon’s reaction mirrored on Pete’s face. He was definitely looking forward to what the next few months would bring.
Fandom Bandom (various)
Pairings: Pete/Patrick (with P!ATD, TAI, GCH, CS and MCR people in various pairings)
Rating: PG-13 for language
Disclaimer: AHAHAHAHA SO NOT TRUE. OR BIOLOGICALLY POSSIBLE
Warnings: MPREG. That’s men. Pregnant. With assbabies. You know you love it. But if you don’t, please click away now.
A/N: Written for loveyouallwrong because she is awesome and deserves a better fic than this is. Beta’d by the wonderful vampyreranger. This is an AU, in that male pregnancy is an everyday occurrence. Also, I’ve never been to a Lamaze class, and all I know about having a baby is from biology lessons and TV.
“I don’t know,” Patrick said anxiously, hesitating with his hand on the door handle. Through the glass window he could see people milling around inside the room, some settling themselves on the floor, others mingling and introducing each other.
“I’ll be fine,” Pete said, as soothingly as he could manage. “The doctor said this was important. We’ll just go in, do whatever it is we do in there, and then go home. It’s only once a week. And the people look…nice,” he finished, feebly.
Patrick didn’t look convinced. But he took a deep breath, and opened the door.
”Oh my god!” a tall, lanky man wearing what looked like a velvet vest- with roses on it- shrieked, and Patrick winced, automatically edging back out of the room. “Spencer! Spencer! There’s a draft! Make the draft go away, Spencer!”
“Excuse me,” a rather put upon young man- Spencer, Patrick assumed- said, reaching past him and Pete to pull the door shut. “Ryan hates drafts. Says they interfere with the precise body temperature maintenance the book recommends.”
Patrick could see Pete refraining from rolling his eyes. “Whatever, dude,” he said and let Spencer shut the door. Pete introduced himself, and then Patrick, who tensed up, but there was only a fleeting glimmer of recognition in Spencer’s face before Ryan was calling him back over to place his cushions on the floor in a very specific way that would provide optimum comfort.
Pete caught Patrick’s hand as they moved towards an empty spot on the floor, and pulled him in close to press a kiss to his forehead.
”What was that for?” Patrick asked, automatically suspicious.
Pete grinned. “For not being like that,” he said, nodding slightly in the direction of Ryan who was starting to have hysterics over the humidity in the room and how unhealthy it was, both for the baby and for his hair.
Patrick smiled back. “Well, one high maintenance person is more than enough in this relationship,” he replied, settling himself awkwardly on the floor.
”Hey!” Pete said, eventually catching up a moment or two later, but before he could respond the teacher was already standing up and gesturing at them to be silent, swinging his arms slightly as if he was nervous.
“Hello,” he said, brushing his blond fringe out of his eyes and glancing around the room with a small smile. “I’m Bob and I’ll be your Lamaze instructor for the next few months.”
~~~
As much as Patrick hated to admit it, Pete had been right. The classes were fine- in fact, they were something he was starting to look forward to every week- something to enjoy after the stress of their recording schedule and the discovery that he couldn’t sing the way he used to when the ever-growing baby wasn’t squishing his diaphragm.
Going to the classes was starting to become something he could almost describe as fun. And Pete, being Pete, had quickly made friends with other couples in the class, which made it even more bearable. They were interesting classmates too. Pete had announced Spencer and Ryan were adorable the moment they got home after the first class. There was also Gabe, who frequently bemoaned how the pregnancy was interfering with his and Travis’s sex lives, with detailed descriptions of what they could and couldn’t do (which made Pete nudge Patrick occasionally and give him meaningful looks that clearly meant he was filing this information away for later use).
Patrick’s secret favorite couple was Gerard and Frank, who were very tender with each other and spent large amounts of time before and after class arguing about baby names. This resulted in Frank conducting a number of impromptu surveys to ask everyone else’s opinions (Pete always agreed with Frank’s choices, which only made Patrick worry even more, because there was no way he was going to give birth to a kid named after a fruit, animal or city).
And finally, there was Jon and Brendon. The first week Jon came to class, Patrick had wondered if he were on his own. He’d sat quietly, rubbing his belly idly as he talked in soft tones to Spencer who was pouring a glass of distilled water for Ryan (who had been complaining loudly of a dry mouth for several minutes).
And then Brendon had dashed in, a whirlwind of noise and confusion and “Draft! Spencer!” and had thrown himself to his knees beside Jon saying “Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorry!” as he wrapped his arms around him and pressed his lips to Jon’s bump.
Pete had laughed, and -after he’d ensured Jon was intact and happy and fine- Brendon had looked up and grinned at Pete, eyes growing wide. And then his gaze had strayed to Patrick and he’d frozen for a second.
He had made a beeline towards them. “Pete Wentz!” he’d said, pointing at Pete, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “And you! You’re Patrick Stump!”
“Uh,” Patrick had said, because he couldn’t exactly deny it but-
“Yeah, he is,” Pete had broken in, stealing Brendon’s attention, which made Patrick relax a little. “But here he’s just Patrick, and I’m Pete and we’re just two normal guys, having a baby together.”
Patrick soon discovered that Brendon was a pretty good guy when he wasn’t running late or acting star struck or generally being overexcited. He found he liked Jon too, with his laid back, full of smiles attitude. It was fun to have them around, particularly as Brendon seemed to be an oddly calming influence on Ryan. He had been ever since their first class, when Ryan had sneered a little -after Brendon finished explaining to them how they were decorating the nursery with unicorns and fairies and how he wanted to buy the baby Barbie’s Dream House but Jon said he had to wait a few years yet- and said “How’d you manage to get anyone pregnant? You’re practically a girl. ”
Brendon’s lower lip had trembled slightly and Jon had opened his mouth to say something and Patrick had frowned and Spencer had sighed and lowered his head (and Pete had of course laughed).
But then Ryan had bitten his lip and reached out and patted Brendon’s arm and said “Sorry.” Everyone had just looked at him in surprise, because Ryan was always bitching at the rest of them, and had never once apologised (Once, when Pete had gotten fed up with him bossing Spencer around and had told him to shut the fuck up, Ryan had wobbled his chin and given him puppy dog eyes and had eventually buried his face in his hands, heaving loud, dry sobs that were surprisingly heartbreaking despite their fakeness).
After that, Ryan didn’t seem to bitch as much or, at least, Brendon’s presence was an amusing distraction from it. Patrick wouldn’t admit it to Pete, but it was only after Jon and Brendon started coming to class that he really started enjoying himself.
~~~
Sometimes, they all stayed around after the class, and would wander down to the Starbucks at the corner of the street where Bob, on the occasions he came with them, would frown a little when Jon would order anything caffeinated. Ryan would turn his nose up at the entire menu and order a glass of hot water to soak his special organic herbal teabags in, that his pregnancy book insisted was as essential part of his diet. And Pete always ordered whatever the fad drink du jour was, drank half of it and left the rest to go cold or melt.
There was a lot of the expected talk about babies and pregnancy and speculating the horrors of child-birth (that always made Brendon turn very pale and wide eyed). And there was a fair amount of talk about music too (although no one except Brendon ever made a big deal out of Pete and Patrick being in a band) and movies and hobbies and just about anything else too.
Joe came and met them one day after class, joining them for a coffee, sitting and listening quietly as they all talked about the pros and cons of breastfeeding. Later, back at the house, he’d lain on the sofa beside Patrick and pressed his ear to the bump, hair tickling Patrick’s bare skin.
He looked wistful, so Pete slid down the other side of Patrick and placed his head beside Joe’s. “Don’t worry man, you’ll get to have a kid one day too.”
Joe raised an eyebrow. “Dude,” he smirked. “Why d’you think I care so much about this one?” he patted Patrick’s swollen tummy lightly. “Didn’t Patrick tell you about that super hot affair we started right before he got knocked up? I’m the baby daddy.”
“Ha ha,” Pete said. “You can make do being the baby god-daddy,” but he shot Patrick a half questioning, half warning glance that made Patrick laugh and laugh until the baby started kicking and Joe and Pete spread their hands across his taut skin and oohed and aahed over the existence of a tiny person growing inside.
~~~
When a mix up in their recording schedules forced them switch their class from a Tuesday to a Thursday one week, Patrick was amazed to see Travis there.
“Dude!” Pete waved him over. “You guys couldn’t make Tuesday either?”
Travis made a slicing motion across his throat, grimacing at them.
“Why would you have been here on Tuesday?” someone asked from behind Travis, who they were surprised to see wasn’t Gabe.
Pete and Patrick stared for a long moment, Travis still making anxious faces at them.
“Um,” Patrick said eventually, studying not-Gabe, who was tall and willowy apart from the part of him that was incredibly pregnant. He was leaning against Travis, one hand rubbing his belly with his head bent over it, long hair dangling forward to hide his face. He looked peaceful and serene and almost angelic and-
“Well?” the guy’s head snapped up, voice pissy as he sent daggers in Travis’ direction that made Patrick step back against Pete a little.
“Bill, honey,” Travis said soothingly, placing a hand on Bill’s shoulder and kneading gently. “This is Pete and Patrick. Uh, Pete comes along on Tuesdays sometimes, but remember I told you I didn’t go this week? I was helping Disashi out instead?”
“Oh,” Bill looked vaguely uninterested, surveyed Patrick quickly and then turned his attention to Pete. “You rap then?” he sounded sceptical.
“What? Uh, no, I-“
“Pete’s just being modest,” Travis interrupted, opening his eyes really wide at Pete. “You know Pete, how you sometimes perform at the club. Where we go to do a bit of free stylin’. On a Tuesday evening.”
“Oh,” Pete glanced at Patrick. Patrick folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. “Uh, yeah, yeah, sorry, I just don’t like to…brag?” he finished lamely, but Bill seemed to believe him and had started to look bored.
“Ooh,” Bill said suddenly. “Someone’s brought bagels.” He wandered off towards the food and Travis watched him go, shaking his head fondly.
“He’s been having all these cravings for carbs lately- he’s going to be so pissed with he struggles to get his girlish figure back after the birth.” He turned back to them, a silly grin on his face, that slid off when he saw the looks on their faces.
Patrick and Pete stared at him.
“Dude,” Pete said. “What the fuck?”
Travis grimaced. “Uh, there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation here,” he said, forehead crinkling as he frowned. “It’s complicated though. Difficult to explain.”
“You’ve been seeing two guys at the same time, knocked them both up, and you haven’t told either of them?” Patrick asked stonily, and Travis’s shoulders slumped a little.
“Okay, maybe not so difficult to explain then,” he said. “It really is complicated though. And Gabe knew about Bill, before. We had an open relationship. He just thinks it ended when he decided to keep the baby. But Bill had already started making all these plans for this kid, names and schools and what pets it could have and- I couldn’t leave him to deal with this on his own. Or Gabe. I love them both so much that I…” he ran his fingers through his hair, tugging in frustration.
Pete shook his head slowly, disappointment clearly written on his face.
”I know, man,” Travis said. “I’m a complete asshole. I should never have gotten them into this situation in the first place.”
“It’s not that,” Patrick snapped. “It’s that you still haven’t told them.” He turned on his heel and followed after Bill in search of bagels, trying to ignore the sharp twist of pain in his heart and the sting behind his eyes. He knew it was the hormones messing with him, making him emotional (Pete had been teasing him for weeks, ever since he’d come home to find Patrick watching Days of our Lives and sniffling into a handkerchief) but he couldn’t help but imagine how he’d feel if he were Bill or Gabe, and found out now, so close to their due dates.
Patrick helped himself to a bagel, made small talk with Bill and the other fathers-to-be who were gathered around the food and tried not to let his gaze linger on Pete and Travis in the corner, Pete gesturing emphatically up at him.
Pete sidled up to him right before the class started, after Bill had wandered back to Travis, who was looking very subdued.
“He’s going to tell them,” Pete said. He sounded sure, confident, and Patrick wondered what he’d said to Travis, and what Travis had said back, although he’d never ask, and Pete would probably never tell.
~~~
Travis and Gabe didn’t show up at Tuesday classes for the next two weeks and (since Pete was a terrible gossip and told the others as soon as he saw them) Brendon stopped by at the Thursday classes with the excuse of asking Bob an important question, reporting back that neither Travis nor Bill had shown up there either.
Patrick was starting to worry. And he wasn’t the only one. By the start of the third class since they’d seen any of them, they were all gathered in a worried huddle, discussing how they could track them down.
Which was when Gabe walked in. Followed by Travis. Followed by Bill.
Everyone stared. No one said anything. Travis had what looked like a fading black eye and an almost healed cut on his lip. But he was grinning from ear to ear, and Gabe and Bill were fussing over each other and they all looked pretty happy.
They didn’t hang around after class like they had done before, but Pete chased after them, coming back to report that he thought they were going to be very happy, all three of them, raising the babies together.
Later, he told Patrick that as he was talking to Travis, Gabe and Bill had been holding hands, and had leant in and kissed each other, swollen bellies bumping gently between them.
“It was totally hot,” Pete confided. “And, if you want to, maybe we could invite Ryan and Spencer round and we could all…”
Patrick threw a cushion at his head. But it gave him something interesting to ponder for the rest of the night.
~~~
One by one, couples stopped coming to the class, and Bob frequently announced various new arrivals into the world, which always made Pete go all doe eyed and stare at Patrick longingly.
“It’ll be our turn soon enough,” Patrick reassured him, hoping he was right, because as much as he’d loved being pregnant, he was ready to have the sore back, tender nipples, swollen feet, and lack of bladder control gone.
Frank and Gerard disappeared first. Then Jon and Brendon. Which meant the classes were a lot more boring and much, much quieter, apart from Ryan’s bitching, which only got louder and more annoying until Patrick snapped at him (he blamed his hormones completely) and Ryan snapped back. They spent the rest of the class sending death looks across the room, Spencer and Pete making amused faces at each other and rolling their eyes the entire time.
Patrick, irrationally, insisted he never wanted to go back to class if Ryan was there. Pete laughed and told him he was being silly, but in the end Patrick got his way, when he went into labour two days later.
To Patrick, it was all a rush of excitement, pain, panic, and an overwhelming amount of joy. To Pete, he was told afterwards, it was a rush of nervous breakdowns, pulling out his hair, biting off all his nails, and shouting at doctors and nurses and Joe and Andy (and apparently once to Patrick, although he’d been drugged up at the time and couldn’t remember and so Pete claimed he couldn’t get mad at him about it).
Not that Patrick could ever get mad at Pete ever again (until the next time he did something stupid, of course), not when he could now look down at the blanket swaddled baby in his arms with Pete cooing over her, looking so proud it made Patrick’s heart swell with overwhelming love to see them both.
~~~
The following year, it was Pete’s turn to hover by the door.
“It’s fine,” Patrick insisted, impatiently. “Look, I went through all of this already. So you can do it too. And oh, hey look- there’s Spencer!”
Pete smiled at the sight of a familiar face and stepped into the room.
“Pete!” Brendon bounded over, hands resting on his belly, which was swelling gently above his jeans. “Look at you! You’re huge!” He bumped their bellies together lightly. “Baby high five!” he said.
“Congratulations!” Patrick told him, and Brendon beamed.
”Thanks! I wanted a little brother or sister for little Princess Jasmine, so it’s fantastic!”
“Stop telling people that’s her name,” Jon called from across the room where he was talking with Ryan, and Brendon made a face at him, waving at him to shut up.
“Okay, let’s get the class started, guys!” Bob clapped his hands together, and Patrick helped Pete onto the ground. It was nice, he thought, to be surrounded by familiar faces. He glanced over at Brendon- and found Spencer sitting in front of Jon instead.
“Oh,” Jon said, catching Patrick’s confused look. “Er. We, um…we all kind of spent a lot of time together after the births and one thing led to another and-“
“You knocked Spence up?” Pete broke in. “Awesome. And go you, Ryan,” he added, nodding at Brendon’s baby bump. “Never knew you had it in you.”
Patrick watched as Ryan fussed over Brendon, more than Spencer had ever done when Ryan was being bitchy and annoying. It was cute, and Pete shot Patrick a look when Ryan pressed his face to the bump and talked softly to it.
”Yes, yes, alright,” Patrick said, exasperated. Pete had been pestering him for weeks to sing to the baby. He said it would soothe the kid, who kicked almost constantly and kept Pete up at night.
Patrick rubbed his hand across Pete’s belly and bending close, sang one of the songs they’d been working on recently.
It took him a moment or two to realise the room had gone silent and everyone was watching. He blushed.
”Damn,” Ryan said, sounding pissed. “I wish I hadn’t left my phone at home. I could’ve posted that to my blog.”
“Right, people,” Bob said, thankfully pulling the attention away from a very embarrassed Patrick. “We’re going to watch a video.”
“Oh god,” Brendon said, looking ill. “I really hate this part.”
Patrick grinned, seeing Brendon’s reaction mirrored on Pete’s face. He was definitely looking forward to what the next few months would bring.