'We're The Chemists Who've Found The Formula...' [Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz]
Title: 'We're The Chemists Who've Found The Formula To Make Your Heart Swell & Burst'
Author: that_1_incident
Fandom: Fall Out Boy
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Profanity
Pairing: Pete Wentz/Patrick Stump
Word Count: ~1,000
Summary: When Pete first told Patrick he was going to write a screenplay, Patrick said to him in his steady Patrick way, “Cool, okay, that’s cool.”
Disclaimer: To my knowledge this never happened but that doesn't mean it hasn't. The title is taken from Fall Out Boy's 'Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year.' babynames.com & babynamesworld.com are real sites & the definitions on there match up to the definitions in the fic. Huge thanks to chem4kids.com for rekindling my love for the periodic table & also helping me to brush up on stuff I haven't looked at since the beginning of high school. The valency definition is verbatim from there.
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When Pete first told Patrick he was going to write a screenplay, Patrick said to him in his steady Patrick way, “Cool, okay, that’s cool.”
Pete hadn’t expected this. He had expected people to laugh at him, because that’s what people did. But Patrick wasn’t people. So two weeks later when he’d got the main characters down, and the skeleton of the storyline, Patrick was the one he went back to.
“Okay,” Pete said nervously. “First, there’s Theo. I know it’s a weird name but I looked it up and it means ‘brave’, and I think it fits him.”
He had been directly addressing the leather couch in the living room of their tour bus up until this point, but now he glanced up at Patrick to gauge whether what he was saying was completely ridiculous. Patrick’s eyes were trained unblinkingly on him, and when Pete looked up, Patrick gave him a small nod that he took as encouragement to continue.
“Theo isn’t special,” he went on, looking back down at the couch and reciting the description as if he had learnt it by heart. “He doesn’t know why people like him, but there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about him and he thinks that might be the reason. He thinks the people who like him don’t actually count, because they really only like a list of positive attributes with his face on them.”
Patrick curled his arms around his knees, bringing them up to his chest. “Go on.”
“And then there’s Truman, and his name means ‘faithful man’, just ‘faithful’, which is weird because you’d think it’d mean ‘truthful’ but according to babynames.com, it doesn’t. I even looked it up on babynamesworld.com to confirm it. But anyway, it was either that or Fidelis or some shit like that, so it had to be Truman because he’s not a Roman emperor - he’s not even emperor of his own life, he’d rather let life carry him along than go out and… pillage, and take things that aren’t his, you know?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said quietly.
“So Theo lives in a haze a lot of the time,” Pete continued, getting into his description now. “And it’s hard for Truman to reach him. That’s difficult for Truman to deal with, and it’s also difficult for Theo because he hates seeing Truman struggle and he hates seeing Truman sad. See, Theo did something really stupid a couple of years ago and Truman almost lost him forever.”
“What did he do?” Patrick asked. “Or isn’t that important to the story?”
Pete considered this. “It kind of is, but there aren’t specifics. It just… changed things a lot. It made Truman scared. It made Truman tiptoe around Theo a whole lot more because he’s scared that if he does something wrong, Theo might go off the deep end again. And Theo -” Pete stopped.
“Theo…?” Patrick prompted.
Pete ran his hand over the leather on the arm of the couch he was leaning against. “Theo hates that,” he continued softly, “because after he made that really stupid mistake, he realized he couldn’t live without Truman and he didn’t want to try - he didn’t want to leave Truman behind. Ever.”
“Okay…” Patrick said slowly.
“But it’s not just about that,” Pete went on. “It’s not just about their relationship with each other, it’s also about them as people, because you need to know who they are as people before you can see how perfect they are together.”
“Ah,” said Patrick. “So why are they perfect together?”
“Well,” said Pete, “they’re complete opposites. Theo hates clichés because he is one, but he has to admit that in this case opposites really do attract. Truman is steady and dependable, just like his name says he is. He’s like one of the noble gases - it’s really hard to get him to react or freak out about something. Theo’s more like a halogen - fluorine or astatine. He’ll react to almost anything. His valence is through the roof.”
“Valence?” Patrick queried, wondering where the hell Pete was coming up with this stuff. The last time he’d heard the term ‘noble gas’ was in his high school Chem class, and he was pretty sure he’d never heard of astatine.
Pete blinked at him. “The measure of how much an atom wants to form compounds with other elements,” he said, as if Patrick had just asked him the answer to two plus two.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. But when they come together, it’s like, insane. It’s like they’re not nobles or halogens anymore, it’s like they’re defying all the rules of chemistry by becoming titanium or iron or something. Something strong. Something that’s, like, really really hard to break.”
Patrick may not have been a stellar chemist, but this was a concept he could certainly grasp.
“Something like what we have,” Pete finished.
And then Patrick knew. “Pete, are you… Theo?” There was a hint of a question mark in Patrick’s tone, even though he knew he could not possibly be mistaken. In fact, he was amazed he hadn’t picked up on it earlier.
“Yeah,” Pete acknowledged, nodding at the man sitting in front of him. “Yeah, Truman, I am.”
“Pete,” Patrick said again, more confident this time, and more tender, reaching out a hand and stroking down the left side of Pete’s face from his prominent cheekbone to the bottom of his jaw line. Pete leaned in and touched Patrick’s lips with his own - a light brush at first, then an increase in pressure which Patrick returned and they kissed passionately for a moment before Pete broke away.
“Patrick,” he breathed, a dazed and awestruck expression on his picture-perfect face. “I thought you’d never understand, you and me, we’re -”
“Titanium,” Patrick finished, chuckling and grinning and fervently hoping he hadn’t gone bright red. “I know. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier, I didn’t even… I’m sorry, you know, for all the times I treated you like you were about to fall apart, and -”
Pete captured his lips in another kiss, rendering him silent. “Most of the time I was,” he said simply, and reached for Patrick’s hand. “So you’re… you’re cool with this?” he asked hesitantly. “This is okay?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said breathlessly. “‘Course it is, Pete. We have chemistry.”
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Author: that_1_incident
Fandom: Fall Out Boy
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Profanity
Pairing: Pete Wentz/Patrick Stump
Word Count: ~1,000
Summary: When Pete first told Patrick he was going to write a screenplay, Patrick said to him in his steady Patrick way, “Cool, okay, that’s cool.”
Disclaimer: To my knowledge this never happened but that doesn't mean it hasn't. The title is taken from Fall Out Boy's 'Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year.' babynames.com & babynamesworld.com are real sites & the definitions on there match up to the definitions in the fic. Huge thanks to chem4kids.com for rekindling my love for the periodic table & also helping me to brush up on stuff I haven't looked at since the beginning of high school. The valency definition is verbatim from there.
---<---<---@
When Pete first told Patrick he was going to write a screenplay, Patrick said to him in his steady Patrick way, “Cool, okay, that’s cool.”
Pete hadn’t expected this. He had expected people to laugh at him, because that’s what people did. But Patrick wasn’t people. So two weeks later when he’d got the main characters down, and the skeleton of the storyline, Patrick was the one he went back to.
“Okay,” Pete said nervously. “First, there’s Theo. I know it’s a weird name but I looked it up and it means ‘brave’, and I think it fits him.”
He had been directly addressing the leather couch in the living room of their tour bus up until this point, but now he glanced up at Patrick to gauge whether what he was saying was completely ridiculous. Patrick’s eyes were trained unblinkingly on him, and when Pete looked up, Patrick gave him a small nod that he took as encouragement to continue.
“Theo isn’t special,” he went on, looking back down at the couch and reciting the description as if he had learnt it by heart. “He doesn’t know why people like him, but there are a lot of misconceptions floating around about him and he thinks that might be the reason. He thinks the people who like him don’t actually count, because they really only like a list of positive attributes with his face on them.”
Patrick curled his arms around his knees, bringing them up to his chest. “Go on.”
“And then there’s Truman, and his name means ‘faithful man’, just ‘faithful’, which is weird because you’d think it’d mean ‘truthful’ but according to babynames.com, it doesn’t. I even looked it up on babynamesworld.com to confirm it. But anyway, it was either that or Fidelis or some shit like that, so it had to be Truman because he’s not a Roman emperor - he’s not even emperor of his own life, he’d rather let life carry him along than go out and… pillage, and take things that aren’t his, you know?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said quietly.
“So Theo lives in a haze a lot of the time,” Pete continued, getting into his description now. “And it’s hard for Truman to reach him. That’s difficult for Truman to deal with, and it’s also difficult for Theo because he hates seeing Truman struggle and he hates seeing Truman sad. See, Theo did something really stupid a couple of years ago and Truman almost lost him forever.”
“What did he do?” Patrick asked. “Or isn’t that important to the story?”
Pete considered this. “It kind of is, but there aren’t specifics. It just… changed things a lot. It made Truman scared. It made Truman tiptoe around Theo a whole lot more because he’s scared that if he does something wrong, Theo might go off the deep end again. And Theo -” Pete stopped.
“Theo…?” Patrick prompted.
Pete ran his hand over the leather on the arm of the couch he was leaning against. “Theo hates that,” he continued softly, “because after he made that really stupid mistake, he realized he couldn’t live without Truman and he didn’t want to try - he didn’t want to leave Truman behind. Ever.”
“Okay…” Patrick said slowly.
“But it’s not just about that,” Pete went on. “It’s not just about their relationship with each other, it’s also about them as people, because you need to know who they are as people before you can see how perfect they are together.”
“Ah,” said Patrick. “So why are they perfect together?”
“Well,” said Pete, “they’re complete opposites. Theo hates clichés because he is one, but he has to admit that in this case opposites really do attract. Truman is steady and dependable, just like his name says he is. He’s like one of the noble gases - it’s really hard to get him to react or freak out about something. Theo’s more like a halogen - fluorine or astatine. He’ll react to almost anything. His valence is through the roof.”
“Valence?” Patrick queried, wondering where the hell Pete was coming up with this stuff. The last time he’d heard the term ‘noble gas’ was in his high school Chem class, and he was pretty sure he’d never heard of astatine.
Pete blinked at him. “The measure of how much an atom wants to form compounds with other elements,” he said, as if Patrick had just asked him the answer to two plus two.
“Oh.”
“Yeah. But when they come together, it’s like, insane. It’s like they’re not nobles or halogens anymore, it’s like they’re defying all the rules of chemistry by becoming titanium or iron or something. Something strong. Something that’s, like, really really hard to break.”
Patrick may not have been a stellar chemist, but this was a concept he could certainly grasp.
“Something like what we have,” Pete finished.
And then Patrick knew. “Pete, are you… Theo?” There was a hint of a question mark in Patrick’s tone, even though he knew he could not possibly be mistaken. In fact, he was amazed he hadn’t picked up on it earlier.
“Yeah,” Pete acknowledged, nodding at the man sitting in front of him. “Yeah, Truman, I am.”
“Pete,” Patrick said again, more confident this time, and more tender, reaching out a hand and stroking down the left side of Pete’s face from his prominent cheekbone to the bottom of his jaw line. Pete leaned in and touched Patrick’s lips with his own - a light brush at first, then an increase in pressure which Patrick returned and they kissed passionately for a moment before Pete broke away.
“Patrick,” he breathed, a dazed and awestruck expression on his picture-perfect face. “I thought you’d never understand, you and me, we’re -”
“Titanium,” Patrick finished, chuckling and grinning and fervently hoping he hadn’t gone bright red. “I know. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier, I didn’t even… I’m sorry, you know, for all the times I treated you like you were about to fall apart, and -”
Pete captured his lips in another kiss, rendering him silent. “Most of the time I was,” he said simply, and reached for Patrick’s hand. “So you’re… you’re cool with this?” he asked hesitantly. “This is okay?”
“Yeah,” Patrick said breathlessly. “‘Course it is, Pete. We have chemistry.”
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