Standalone: No One Can Find The Rewind Button (Shane/Brendon PG-13)
PART ONE
The next day Brendon is awoken by the sound of the hotel room phone ringing. Bleary eyed and half asleep he makes it to the phone before it stops ringing.
“’llo?” he asks, throat rough and dry.
“Hey, Bren, sorry for waking you up,” Shane says and Brendon instantly perks up.
“No, it’s cool, what’s up?” Brendon stretches and his back makes an uncomfortable yet satisfying cracking noise.
“Um, you’re gonna need to leave the room. Some big shot business man just paid for it.” Brendon’s heart skips a beat. “You don’t have to leave, don’t worry, I got another room for you.”
Brendon lets out the breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“But, it isn’t exactly a suite,” Shane says.
“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s fine.” Brendon smiles.
“It was the only room they had available,” Brendon says as he sits out in the porch of his new room which, incidentally, happens to be next door to Ryan’s.
“Uh huh, I’m sure,” Ryan says curtly from behind the useless wall that separates their porches.
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Ryan doesn’t know what he’s doing. He doesn’t know why he’s in the lobby, at the front desk. When he sees Shane, though, something in his chest tightens. He can’t help it.
“Um, hi,” Ryan says catching Shane’s attention.
“Yeah, how may I help you?” Shane asks with a smile.
“I was, uh, I was wondering if there were any places to get good sushi.” What the hell? Ryan doesn’t even like sushi.
“Actually, yeah, there’s this nice restaurant a few minutes from here - here, let me get you a map.”
Ryan nods and without thinking he says, “I saw you with Brendon - Urie, my ex boyfriend.”
Shane looks at Ryan, mouth agape and eyes slightly wider than usual.
“Oh, well, yeah,” He says awkwardly, handing Ryan the map.
“Oh, it’s okay, really,” Ryan says, “you seem like a great person and it’s nice to see him happy.” Ryan folds the map up about four times. “He’s a really great guy, he deserves to be happy.”
Shane looks at Ryan and he can see the same self pity he saw in Brendon.
“Um, I should go.” Ryan walks away, leaving the map on the front desk.
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“Yo, Bill!” Brendon calls approaching the surf hut.
“Yeah?” Bill asks coming out from behind the counter. “How can I help you, my man?”
“I think I’m ready,” Brendon says with determination.
“Oh yeah?” Bill just stares at him with a dazed grin on his face. “Ready for what?”
“Surfing - I wanna surf.” Brendon taps out an anxious beat on the wooden surface.
“Well, alright then, let’s suit up. I’m going to have to teach you the basics though,” Bill says.
Brendon would tell Bill that they already did that but he wouldn’t be surprised if Bill can barely remember what he did this morning.
Now Brendon is certain; he doesn’t surf. He can’t, even if his life depended on it. He wipes out more times than he can count so he just ends up sitting on his board, floating out at sea.
“Hey, dude.” Brendon looks and sees Alex paddling towards him. Brendon groans but doesn’t swim away. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, you surf too?” Of course he can, if Brendon can’t.
“Yeah, I mean, I am from California.” Alex shrugs and Brendon wants to punch him in the face.
Alex looks up at the sky and breathes in deeply. “God, smell that air, marvelous isn’t it?”
“Sure, I guess.” Brendon kicks his feet around, contemplating whether dunking Alex under water would be completely immature. “Listen, I’m gonna head in -”
“Oh, wait, I was flipping around Ryan’s iPod and I found something under your name - something about Holy Friends in Space? Whatever - I listened to it and I must say, you are quite talented.” Alex smiles amiably.
“Wait, Ryan has one of my songs on his iPod?” Brendon asks a little shocked. “He never really took interest in my passion for music.”
“Yeah well, if you’re ever serious about the music business we should talk.” Alex just grins and Brendon can’t deal with it.
“Fuck, you’re cool.” Brendon slaps the water. “And, like, it’s hard to admit because I hate you. But I can see why Ryan likes you. You’re edgy and I’m not.”
“I’m not that edgy,” says Alex.
“Seriously, we were together for five years and not once did I ever do anything risky,” Brendon says.
“Five, well you’ve got four on me, dude.” Alex lightly punches Brendon’s shoulder.
“Wait, what?” Brendon gives Alex the most genuine shocked expression ever. “You’ve been sleeping with Ryan for a year?”
Alex makes an ‘oops’ face and says, “Oh, dude, I thought he told you. I - I thought that’s why you guys broke up.” Alex laughs like it’s the world’s funniest joke.
“Oh man, I’m sorry - but don’t take it personally, I mean -”
“No, fuck you! You can’t be so casual about this -”
“No, dude, it’s okay -”
“There is nothing okay about what you do!” Brendon shouts. “I swear - fuck, I can’t even.” Brendon splashes and kicks towards Alex.
“Oh, come on man. Fine, you can forget about the music thing,” Alex says and he paddles away from Brendon.
“Yeah, fuck you buddy.” Brendon sits on the board, steaming mad.
He’s so livid, he starts to paddle, gaining speed and then he stands on his board and to his surprise, he’s standing and he’s surfing. He can’t really believe it. It doesn’t last very long because before he knows it he’s colliding with Alex and he sends them both under water.
Oh, shit, Brendon thinks as he comes up. He doesn’t see Alex so he submerges and ends up pulling him to shore.
“Fuck,” Alex gasps.
“Bill! Shit - Bill!” Brendon calls and Bill bounds over on his long legs.
“Whoa man, what happened?” Bill asks with a stones look on his face. “Shit, you got a piece of coral in your leg.” Sure enough, there’s a good sized chunk of coral in Alex’s thigh.
“Bill, call the front desk,” Brendon says. Bill nods and stumbles away.
“Shit, Brendon can you get the coral out of my leg, please?” Alex asks, biting his lip.
Why should I “Yeah, um, I have this thing about blood -”
“Oh, come on, Brendon,” Alex says in a panicky tone.
Brendon winces and reaches for it. He ends up pulling it out without much difficulty and it’s not a huge chunk.
“Okay, okay it’s done. Huh, you’re not really bleeding -” Brendon speaks too soon as the wound begins to drip blood rather fast.
“Oh god,” is the last thing Brendon says before he passes out.
“Ah, shit,” Brendon groans as he comes too.
“Hey, be careful,” someone says.
“Shane?”
“No, it’s Ryan, they called me down because of Alex.” Ryan looks down at Brendon with a sympathetic smile. “I didn’t think you’d want to wake up alone.”
I would liked to have woken up with Shane here instead. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Brendon tries to sit up but is hit with a wave of dizziness.
“How’s, um -?”
“Oh, Alex, he’s fine. Stitched him up and gave him a few pain killers.” Ryan nods and looks over to the bed where Alex is sleeping.
“That’s good - hey, wanna hear something funny?” He smiles at Ryan and Ryan smiles back.
“Um, sure, what?”
“Surfin’ Sammy over there told me that you two were fucking for a year before we broke up.” Ryan’s face falls as Brendon gets up.
“Shit, Brendon -”
“No, Ry, don’t even. I cannot believe you.” Brendon walks out to the porch but Ryan grabs his elbow.
“Brendon, stop, it’s not like that -”
“Why? Can you just tell me why?” Brendon looks at Ryan with disappointment. “Why couldn’t you be honest with me?”
Ryan open and closes his mouth several times but doesn’t say anything.
“That’s what I fucking thought.” Brendon walks away to his room, leaving Ryan with his own thoughts.
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“I’m taking you out,” Brendon says once he’s at the front desk.
He isn’t smiling so Shane knows something is up. “Okay, but what’s wrong?”
Brendon shakes his head. “Nothing, just. I wanna take you out.” He musters up a smile and leans over the counter to peck Shane on the lips.
“Yeah, okay, I get off in an hour so -”
“Great, I’ll see you in a bit.” Brendon kisses Shane once more before leaving.
Brendon looks down the entire time he and Shane wait for a table. Shane grabs his hand and tugs.
“Hey, you wanna tell me what’s up?” Shane asks softly.
“I’d rather not talk about it, let’s just -”
“Goddamned, this is a small resort.” Brendon turns and, of course, there are Alex and Ryan.
“Oh, hey guys,” Shane says. Brendon just smiles and nods.
“Um, your table is ready Mr. Urie,” says the waiter holding two menus. “You’ll have to wait Mr. Greenwald.”
“Oh, it’s cool,” He says. “You two have a wonderful evening.”
And for some reason Shane ends up saying, “You’re welcome to join us, obviously -”
“Okay,” Ryan says instantaneously. Alex gives Ryan a look but they follow Brendon and Shane to their table.
“I didn’t think he’d agree,” Shane whispers.
Brendon chuckles bitterly. “I did.”
“So, Alex, you’re uh, you’re in a band?” Shane says awkwardly.
“Yep, Phantom Planet, best thing that could have ever happened to me - well, besides Ryan.” He smiles and Shane feels sorry for asking.
Brendon stops one of the waiters and asks, “Excuse me, could we get some wine over here, thanks.”
“Oh, and a cranberry juice for me,” Alex adds.
The waiter sets down the wine and there’s a long awkward silence at the table before Shane says, “This is really awkward.” Brendon snorts into his wine glass.
They’ve all gotten substantially drunk, all except Alex. He’s just going on about life on tour and all the boys and girls who throw themselves at him. Ryan doesn’t really find this all to be that funny. Brendon, though, is having a blast.
“So, there I was at this signing and this boy - honest to God - he gives me his number and the hotel he’s staying at.” Brendon’s laughing right along with Alex, something he never thought he’d do. “Now, I’m sure this boy was, at least, 20 so I took my chance and hoped it wasn’t a bust.”
“So you slept with him?” Shane asks, swirling the wine around in his glass.
Alex nods as he takes a sip from his cranberry juice. “Yeah, but I don’t mean to sound lewd or anything like that. I think one’s expression through sexuality is quite healthy, I for one partake in sex several times a week -” He gives Ryan a pointed look. “I just think it’s a lot better than actually talking to someone. You can connect on a much deeper level, in my opinion, through sex.”
“Well, I have to disagree with you, my friend - I don’t mean any offence to your lifestyle but, I think it’s much nicer to actually get to know someone, to talk to them before I sleep with them.” He looks at Shane and blushes.
Ryan buts in and says, rather drunkenly, “No, but - okay, what Alex is trying to say is that, yeah, he’s gonna sleep with whomever he wants but he’s not being serious, he just -”
“Actually, I am serious, babe. You remember the first time we met? Yeah, I don’t think I spoke to you for a whole five minutes before we were back at my hotel.” He smirks and gives Ryan a little wink.
“So you’re saying you just fucked me and that was that? You had no intention of speaking to me afterwards or -”
“Well, I’m sure we’d have gone our separate ways but I had such a connection with you that night that I just couldn’t let that go.” Brendon covers his mouth and tries to suppress his giggles. “You see what I mean, with the deeper connection. If we’d have spent the night in conversation I would have never gotten to know you in that state of being.”
“I can’t believe you,” Ryan downs the wine from his glass and leans back.
“Oh, my god,” Brendon says as the waiter brings in a chocolate tart for desert.
Brendon reaches for the fork but Shane beats him to it and decides to feed Brendon some of the chocolate, right in front of Ryan’s face.
“Oh, yes,” Brendon moans wickedly. “I fucking love Hawaii.”
“Yeah,” Ryan laughs bitterly, “but I think after a week I’d go nuts. Hawaii is just a place where people go because they can’t deal with the real world.” Ryan shrugs and smiles sarcastically.
Shane bites his tongue to keep from saying something he’ll regret so he opts for, “Yeah, I guess I know what you mean, life can get hard.” He feeds Brendon another piece of tart but before Brendon can swallow it he presses their mouths together, tasting the chocolate on Brendon’s tongue.
When Shane pulls away, he wipes his mouth and smiles mockingly at Ryan.
“I like living here.”
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“Oh, god, Shane,” Brendon rasps as Shane attacks his neck. “Can I open the door first?”
Shane laughs against Brendon’s neck and they stumble into the hotel room. Brendon barely has the door closed before Shane is back to kissing him everywhere his mouth can touch.
Brendon falls backwards onto the bed with Shane on top of him. They pull at each other’s clothes but Brendon stops them from going any further.
“What - what’s wrong?” Shane asks.
Brendon looks up at Shane through the darkness of the room. “I just want to make sure this isn’t a dream.”
Shane rolls his eyes before fumbling around with Brendon’s belt. When they’re left in nothing but bed sheets, kissing and groping at each other’s bare flesh, Brendon finally speaks up.
“I don’t really have any -”
“I do,” Shane says. “I’m not gonna lie, I was hoping we’d do this tonight.” Shane takes a condom, the kind that already comes lubricated, from his pocket. “How, um -?”
“You. In me. Now,” Brendon demands breathlessly.
“Aye, aye.” Shane spits on his fingers and hastily prepares Brendon before ripping open the condom packet with his teeth.
In the other room, Ryan lies awake next to Alex when he suddenly hears noises coming from next door. He presses his ear to the wall and he can clearly hear breathy moans and groans coming from Brendon’s room.
Slack jawed and offended he shakes Alex trying to wake him.
“Alex - Alex, come on, wake up!” He hisses.
“Hunf,” Alex snores into his pillow. “What’ya want”
Ryan leans in close and whispers into Alex’s ear, “Want you to fuck me.”
At this, Alex perks up and turns around, allowing Ryan to crawl on top of him.
“Are you even gonna -”
“Shut up and make some noise,” Ryan says.
“Huh - what are you -” Alex stops short when he hears the commotion coming from the other room. “Oh, jeez.”
“Oh, yes, Alex! Fuck yeah, right there!”
Shane stops abruptly when he hears this and looks at Brendon. Brendon smirks and pushes against Shane’s body.
“Oh my god, Shane, yes, yes, fuck!” Shane chuckles but pounds into Brendon with more force than before. This time Brendon moans for real. “Oh - fuck, Shane - yes.”
“Alex, harder, yes!” Ryan moans dramatically. Alex isn’t even doing anything. He isn’t even in Ryan. Ryan moves his hips a few more times and tries to compete with Brendon and Shane’s moans but Alex soon tires of it and throws Ryan off.
“Oh, fuck yes, Shane, right there -”
“Shut up, Bren, he stopped,” Shane laughs. Brendon giggles and pulls Shane down for a kiss before rocking his hips to meet Shane’s thrusts.
“Shane,” Brendon pants. Shane hmm’s, urging Brendon to speak. “This is the best sex I’ve even had.”
“I should have never come here with you,” Alex says.
“What - what are you talking about -”
“You still love him,” Alex states.
“What? I do not - that’s -”
“Oh, please, that was the worst performance I’ve ever seen in my life. Honestly, you’re not over him and it eats you up inside that he’s found someone to make him happy.” Alex turns his head to see Ryan’s silhouette.
Ryan’s chest heaves up and down with every angry breath he takes as he tries to think of a comeback.
“You are so full of bullshit,” Ryan snaps.
“Yeah, well at least I’m not in denial.” Alex turns on his side, back facing Ryan, and tries to go back to sleep.
“Hey, Bren,” Shane whispers as they lay under the covers in post coital bliss. “Bren, you awake?”
Brendon shakes his head, no, against Shane’s chest and curls further into his side. Shane smiles and runs his hand up and down Brendon’s side.
“I know you’re leaving in a few days. But I just want you to know,” Brendon looks up at Shane with lidded eyes and Shane pauses, “I really like being with you and I don’t know what all of this means but.” Brendon doesn’t let Shane finish. He presses a kiss to Shane’s jaw and up to his mouth.
“I like being with you too,” Brendon says with a sleepy smile. “And I’m really glad this isn’t a dream.”
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When the bright sun hits his eyes, Brendon wakes almost immediately. There’s no one in bed with him but he catches Shane quietly opening the sliding glass door.
“Hey,” Brendon says in a rough voice.
Shane looks back and closes the door. He slinks back over to the bed and sits next to Brendon’s legs.
“Where you off to?” Brendon asks through a yawn.
“Oh, you see, there’s this thing called work and some people have to go to it in order to make a living.” Shane smiles indulgently as Brendon mumbles a ‘Fuck you’ in response.
“Hmm, maybe later, but I gotta go.” Shane leans down to kiss Brendon’s forehead and Brendon could cry at how sweet it all is.
“I’ll see you tonight, when you get off?” Brendon asks. Shane nods. “Yay.”
Shane giggles and leans down to brush their lips together before he leaves the room.
Brendon’s on cloud fucking nine and nothing could bring him down.
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“Hey, Brendon!” Alex calls from his chair as Brendon passes through the lobby.
“Oh, hey Alex, how’s it going?” Brendon sits in the chair next to Alex and props his feet up on the small table.
“Good, good, you look jovial, my friend.”
Brendon nods. “Yeah, I had the best time last night.”
“Good for you, dude, really.” Alex nods along with him.
“What about you, what’s going on there?” Brendon glances at Alex’s bags.
Oh, I’m, uh, I’m going back to California.” Alex pats his messenger bag.
“Oh, you and Ryan are moving to California?” Brendon asks.
“No, no no no, I’m going back - by myself,” Alex says solemnly.
“Oh, did you guys fight or -”
“Yeah, actually - how you stayed with the guy for five years - you deserve a medal or your own movie, seriously.” Alex sighs and runs his fingers through his hair.
“You were only here for a week,” Brendon says disagreeably.
“Yeah, and it was the worst week of my life.” Alex shudders slightly. “But, hey, at least now you too can get back together.”
“Oh, no, Shane and I - we have a good thing going so, thanks but no thanks.” Brendon grins and leans back into the chair.
“Well then, good for you - oh, my car’s here, I should get going.” Alex gets up and takes his bags. “I wish you the best of luck, my friend, and I’m serious about the music thing -” He hands Brendon a card, “we’ll talk.” He salutes Brendon before walking over to the car.
Brendon salutes him back and looks down at the business card with Alex Greenwald - Phantom Planet printed on it along with a phone number, email address, and website url. Brendon laughs to himself as he watches the car drive off.
He pockets the card and he decides to take a little trip.
“And he said that I wasn’t over you.” Ryan sits on the bed, shirtless, up against the wall, his knees pulled to his bare chest. “So he left. Fucking prick.”
Brendon sits a good distance away from Ryan, at the edge of his bed, as he listens to this.
“And then I started thinking - what if he’s right, Bren, what if I’m not over you -”
“Ryan, don’t -”
“No, listen, please,” Ryan moves closer to Brendon, sitting close enough so their legs touch. Ryan places a hand on Brendon’s neck, playing with the hair at his nape. “What if I made a really big mistake?” Ryan places both of his hands on Brendon face and tries to pull him close.
“Ryan, come on, don’t -”
“Please, Bren, just one more night here and then we can go back home and -”
“And what, we can pretend that none of this ever happened?”
“No, we can fix this, Brendon, please, we can fix this.” Ryan manages to pull Brendon’s face towards his. “I love you.”
“That’s not fair, Ry, you can’t say that to me - not after what you did -”
“Please, Brendon.” Ryan gives Brendon the saddest, most pathetic look he can muster.
Brendon takes a deep breath before saying, “Tell me you’re sorry.”
“I’m so, so sorry.” Those simple words and Brendon is pushing Ryan down onto the bed, mouths and chests pressed closed together.
“Oh god, Bren, I’ve missed you.” Ryan slips Brendon’s shirt off and works on his pants. “Really, I’ve missed you so much, god, I love you.”
Brendon kisses his mouth shut and he can feel Ryan’s hand over his chest and back, and down into his pants.
“Ryan -” Brendon chokes as Ryan grasps at his cock and strokes him.
“Come on, Bren, get hard for me.” Brendon looks down at Ryan with a dull look on his face.
After a few more seconds of Ryan stroking him he says again, “Come on, Bren, get hard -”
“Yeah, I know what I’m supposed to do - here let me do it.” He swats Ryan’s hand away and continues to stroke himself.
“Are you sure, because I can -”
“Maybe don’t talk.”
Ryan shuts his mouth and keeps it shut until, “How about I just suck you off?”
Brendon thinks for a moment but nods and says, “Yeah, okay.”
They flip position and Brendon is on his back with Ryan’s hovering over his dick. Ryan takes him into his mouth and works slowly, wet and hot around Brendon’s cock.
Brendon still isn’t hard after a few seconds. “What’s the matter Bren? More?”
“I guess you can try.” Ryan dives back down but what should be extremely arousing to Brendon doesn’t seem to be working at all. He is still completely flaccid.
“What’s going on, Bren, what’s wrong with you?” Ryan asks.
“Nothing is wrong with me, Ryan,” Brendon snaps. “This doesn’t feel right, I -”
“No, I can fix this, let me -”
“You can’t fix this, Ryan, stop.” Brendon gets up off the bed and pulls his pants back up. “No, I know what the problem is.”
“Brendon, I don’t -”
“No, the problem is - is that you broke my heart and now my cock doesn’t like you anymore!” Brendon shouts as he collects his shirt and shoes. “You are the fucking devil and I don’t blame Alex for leaving you. Have a nice fucking life!” Brendon storms out of the room and leaves Ryan, this time for good.
Brendon walks up to the front desk to see Shane, to tell him what happened. There’s a voice in his head that is screaming for him to reconsider but he can’t. He can’t lie to Shane.
“Hey.” Shane smiles when he sees Brendon.
“Yeah, hey, guess what? Alex and Ryan broke up,” Brendon says quickly.
“Oh, what a shame,” Shane says in mock sympathy.
“Yeah, so I went to see how Ryan was doing and I don’t want to lie to you. Some stuff happened.” He pauses to take a deep, shaky breath. “And I’m so glad it did because now I know - I know how much you really mean to me.”
Shane’s face falls and he asks, “What kind of stuff?”
“I went up to check on him and it got really weird but everything is okay now and I just want you to know how much I care about you and I want to be with you -”
“Cut the bullshit and tell me exactly what happened.”
“We fooled around - and -”
“What did you do?” Shane snaps.
“Okay, I went to his room and he was really upset and then he kissed me and I thought it would be comforting to him so I kissed him back and before I knew it he was giving me a blowjob - but it only lasted about ten seconds and I didn’t even get hard!”
“Get the fuck out -”
“I didn’t get hard because of you -!”
“Just leave me alone, Brendon, god, you’re just like those other guys.” Shane doesn’t even look at Brendon. “Can’t believe I trusted you.”
“Shane, please, I -”
“Please! Just leave.”
“Shane, I love you!”
“Do not call me, email me, <>think about me. Just go.”
Brendon breathes out, shakily, and nods. He walks back to his room, packs his stuff and leaves Turtle Bay.
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Brendon sits at his piano and lethargically hits random keys. It’s been a few weeks, a month tops, since he left Hawaii and he’s back to square one, stuck in self loathing. He hasn’t written anything except random tunes about how much he sucks. He gave up when he couldn’t find anything to rhyme with selfish asshole.
It takes three straight days of lying in bed and twenty phone calls from Pete to get Brendon up and out of his room. He sits at his piano again and this time, like a shooting star, inspiration hits him. He starts playing and soon he’s filling in his staff paper and has an actual melody, something he can write words too.
“Pete, listen to this.” He plays it for Pete and Patrick and Pete’s the first one to say anything when he’s done.
“Fuck, we need to get Jon and Spence over here.”
When he plays it for them they’re all convinced that something needs to be done.
“Guys, we can’t just do this, I mean, it’s gonna take some planning -”
“Fuck planning, Bren, this is gold,” Spencer says. “We need to do this now. Or never.”
Brendon smiles and looks at his friends.
“Can we really pull this band thing off?” he asks.
“When there’s a will, there’s certainly a way, my friend,” Jon says grinning crookedly.
Brendon turns to Patrick for approval.
“As long as my name is on the thank you’s and production credits, I’m in.” Patrick smiles, patting Brendon’s shoulder.
Brendon slams his palm on his coffee table and says, “Let’s do this!”
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A few months later Shane get’s a flyer in his mail. He opens it up and printed on it is: The Paul Revere Jumpsuit Apparatus with a time, date and address. Underneath all that are the names: Jon walker, Pete Wentz, Spencer Smith, Patrick Stump, and Brendon Urie
“He licked the tip, Shane, that doesn’t count,” says Zack as Shane sits at the bar holding the flyer in his hand.
“Yes, it does,” Shane argues. Shane looks down at the bright pink flyer, thoughtfully.
“No, he refused a blowjob from his ex boyfriend mid blowjob. That is a case of serious blue balls, this guy is a saint and you’re not even gonna show up to his debut?” Zack shakes his head and continues cleaning glasses.
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“So, you guys ready?” Alex asks as they’re backstage.
“Alex, seriously, I can’t thank you enough.” Brendon bounces on the balls of his feet and he can hear the crowd out there.
“Dude, it is no problem, I like your stuff.” Alex grins and tries to stop Brendon from moving so much.
“I never thought I’d be friends with my ex-boyfriend’s ex-boyfriend,” Brendon says a bit skeptically.
“I told you, you deserve a medal or something.” Alex winks before a stage director is shouting at them to get on stage. “Okay, guys, you’re on. Break a leg.” Alex gives them all high fives before he disappears.
When they take the stage, Brendon’s heart pounds in his ears and he starts to sweat. He glances over at Jon with a guitar slung over his shoulder. He looks back at Spencer at his drums and nods.
Brendon grabs the mic stand and looks out at the audience. It’s standing room only and the place is packed. He’s never had so many people in one place just to see him. Granted, without Alex’s help they wouldn’t be up on stage. But it’s all too surreal. He scans the audience and sees people of all ages. Then his eyes land on one specific person. Shane.
He’s smiling up at Brendon from right in front of the stage, leaning against the metal barricade. Brendon grins down at him and without hesitation Brendon signals to Jon and they start their set.
Brendon’s never felt so alive and as he sings out the words that he wrote along with the music that his band has made he looks at Shane, sings to him, promising him that he won’t regret making the trip. Promising Shane everything and more.
“Oh man, that was the best!” Pete whoops.
Patrick pats him on the back and says, “Remind you of the good ol’ days?” Pete waggles his eyebrows and bites his bottom lip exaggeratedly.
Brendon laughs and excuses himself from backstage so he can go look for Shane.
He goes to the bar but there’s no sign of Shane, but people do come up to him and congratulate him and the band on their performance. He thanks them politely and says he hopes they’ll show up to the next one.
He finally gets outside, where no one really recognizes him, but there’s still no Shane. Brendon lets the cool Las Vegas breeze hit his face and chill his sweaty body.
“Good show tonight,” someone behind him says.
Brendon whips around to see who it is but he knows that voice all too well.
“Hey, thanks.” Brendon smiles and shoves his hands in his pockets. Shane leans against a light post with a cigarette in his hand and a small cloud of smoke from his lips.
“Since when do you smoke?” Brendon asks. Shane just shrugs and puts the cig out on the bottom of his shoe.
He walks closer to Brendon, long black coat blowing in the slight wind.
“I, uh, I’ve had a lot on my mind,” says Shane.
Brendon blushes and looks down, digging his shoe into the pavement below. When he looks back up Shane’s face is only a few inches from his.
“I missed you,” Shane says, relief in his eyes, as if those three words were a breath he were holding.
“Is that what made you come here?” Brendon asks staring into Shane’s green eyes. They seem to sparkle under the bright Vegas lights.
“Well, let me put it this way, I came for the music but I’ll stay for the sexy front man.” Shane smirks and rests his arms over Brendon’s shoulders.
“Stay?” Brendon beams as he grips onto Shane’s arms.
Shane shrugs like it really doesn’t matter. “Only if you want me too.”
Brendon grins so wide and hard that his cheeks start to hurt but he doesn’t care. He leans forward and catches Shane’s mouth with his own.
“Oh, I totally want you - to stay, I mean, well, I want you too,” Brendon babbles on.
Shane smiles and presses their foreheads together.
“No more fuck ups, right?” Shane teases. “I mean, you don’t have any other ex-boyfriends I have to worry about, right?”
Brendon laughs softly through his nose. “No, actually, I think I’m best friends with Alex Greenwald now.”
“Well, duh, you’ve connected over a common interest,” Shane says.
“Music?”
“You’re mutual dislike for a certain ex-boyfriend.” Shane winks and kisses Brendon before he can say anything.
“Mm, I’m glad you decided to forgive me.” Brendon wraps his arms around Shane’s waist, like he’s trying to secure him in that exact spot, forever.
Shane gives Brendon a lopsided smile. “I don’t mean to kill the moment but can we just go back inside. I’m sure your friends are wondering where you went.”
“Ha, they don’t care,” Brendon grunts affectionately. “They’ve got their music and I’ve got my man.” Shane laughs but quickly shuts up when Brendon kisses him, open mouthed and wet.
Brendon laughs against Shane’s mouth and pulls back.
“Seriously, never kissed anyone so much,” Shane comments and he pulls Brendon back to the club.