Inseparable

V

“Guess who’s got a date?” Gerard says as he walks back into the living room of Vic’s house, their chosen hangout spot for the rest of the day.

“If the answer is you, I will kiss Oli,” Andy says, looking at Gerard with a mixture of doubt and suspicion.

“Pucker up, bitch,” Oli replies, the look on Gerard’s face giving it all away.

Andy’s jaw drops, practically hitting the floor. “For serious? You actually managed to ask him out and not pass out in the process?”

Any further statements were muffled by Oli’s lips as he jumps on Andy and presses a quick kiss to his mouth, nearly cackling with amusement at the look of discontent on Andy’s face when they part.

“Gross gross gross, you fuck. Would it kill you to stop taking every damned thing I say seriously?”

“Yes. I would die. And you would be to blame,” Oli replies, turning his attention back to the blond who had joined the group in the floor, sitting with his legs crossed next to Tony.

“But seriously? You’ve got a date with Lip Ring Boy?” Andy asks.

“Yes, I seriously do, and his name is Frank,” Gerard says with a smile.

“Aw, look at that! Our Gee’s got a crush!” Vic teases.

“Shut the fuck up,” Gerard mutters.

“I’m bored,” Oli whines, interrupting any further conversation by dramatically collapsing forward in a pile on the floor.

“You’re always bored. Besides, we can’t really do much until the buzz about the fight dies down,” Gerard says, reaching out to pat his friend on the head.

“We should do something though. You all know what happens if I stay bored for too long,” Oli says, the borders between a statement and a threat a little unclear.

Tony shoots Vic look of confusion, to which Vic responds with a brief explanation of what his friend means.

“If he stays bored for too long we all become human beanbag chairs. Or Santa. Depends, really.”

Taking Vic’s response as a cue, Oli crawls across the room and sits in Gerard’s lap, throwing his arms around his neck.

“Santa, I want a puppy. And a pony. And infinite cupcakes,” He says, and Gerard reaches up and pats him on the head again.

“Hey, we could go to that movie theater on the other side of town. You know, the one that’s open at ungodly hours and is nearly always empty, no matter what movie is showing?” Tony proposes, and Oli’s face lights up like someone’s flipped a light switch on.

“Andy, I wanna go see a movie. Please?” He asks, drawing out the vowels. “When was the last time we all went out and did something actually legal together and none of us separated? The answer is never. Please?” Oli begs again, continuing to draw out the vowels in the word ‘please’.

Andy looks at Oli like he’s insane.

“If you say no I will shove my tongue down your throat,” Oli threatens.

At that, Andy scoots away from Oli and ducks behind the much shorter Vic, using him as a human shield.

“Yes! Sure! Fine! Whatever! Just don’t tongue fuck my throat!”

Oli releases a cackle of a laugh and throws his arms into the air in victory.

“I win! Let’s go!” Oli shouts, jumping to his feet and bounding towards the door.

“Wait a second, we should wait for Mike to get home, and we should probably mention to Gee’s little bro where we’re going. Maybe see if they want to come,” Vic says, his parental instincts kicking in, and Gerard nods.

“Half an hour Oli, you can do it,” Gerard says. Oli shakes his head.

“No, no I can’t,” He disagrees.

So, for the next half hour, all the boys take turns being human beanbag chairs and/or Santa. Since Oli is not particularly pleased with Andy, he gets the worst of it, Oli burrowing into Andy’s chest and leaning into him so much he nearly knocks Andy over.

“What are you? A human cat?” Andy asks, one arm around the boy in his lap and the other behind the pair, trying to keep them up.

“Yes. I am a vengeful cat. This is my revenge. Tremble in fear, mere human,” Oli says, his voice muffled by the fabric of Andy’s shirt.

Thankfully, Vic’s brother walks into the house at that minute, slamming the front door loudly and saving Andy form any more potential torture.

“Going to the theater on the other side of town, you in?” Vic calls into the kitchen, undoubtedly where his younger sibling is.

The boy comes into view, a partially eaten sandwich in hand. He scans the room quickly and gestures to Oli, who is still comfortably situated in Andy’s lap.

“Didn’t get his way did he?” He says, taking a bite from the sandwich.

“Nope. We made him wait till you were home so we could let you know where we were going,” Vic replies. Mike nods.

“Explains... that.” Mike says, gesturing to the curled up ball that is Oli claiming Andy for temporary chair purposes. Andy raises his arms in an “I don’t know” gesture, one he’s all too familiar with when it comes to Oli.

“Anyway, coming?” Vic continues. Mike shoves the rest of the sandwich unceremoniously into his mouth and replies with a plain ‘sure’.

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The task of informing Mikey Way of their whereabouts involves the restraint and/or slight evasion of Pete Wentz. Easier said than done, so they have learned.

Andy currently has the boy held off the ground by at least two feet, a firm grip on his shoulders. Pete has stopped struggling by now, and the protests and foul language have slowed to a minimum.

For some unknown reason, Pete absolutely hates Gerard and his friends. He’s always sending them dirty looks, protesting both physically and verbally when they show up to take Mikey home or tell him where they’re going. Vic has never really understood why he felt the need to put up such a fuss.

Oh right. They’re wanted criminals.

“You wanna come with us?” Gerard asks, ignoring Pete’s renewed protests, this time saying something about guilt by association and how many people they’ve killed.

To both Mikey and Mike, their brothers are still their brothers, and they’ll never once be anything less. No matter how much blood sheds because of them, no matter if billions of dollars are stolen by their hands, they’re still family, and with family, you are always willing to overlook everything.

“Sure. Mike coming?” Mikey asks, leaning over the couch to grab his jacket.

“MICHAEL JAMES WAY DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS LYING, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING CRIMINAL AND HIS ‘FRIENDS’! THEY WILL SUCK YOU INTO A LIFE OF CRIME AND-” Pete shouts, stopping and choosing to resume thrashing in Andy’s grip.

“OH FOR GOD’S SAKE SHUT UP WENTZ!” The usually peaceful Gerard shouts, causing Pete to fall into a stunned silence and Mikey to flinch.

“Sorry, sorry, he’s just really getting on my nerves. Let’s go before I pop a cap in his ass,” Gerard says as he spins on his heel and heads out the door.

Andy carries Pete over to the couch and drops him on it, Pete scrambling to get up and catch them before they’re out the door.

They are gone before Pete can even stand.

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The theater is dark and cold and everything but sanitary. It doesn’t exactly matter though, the guy at the counter was one of Tony’s customers and let them in for half price.

No one had really paid attention to what movie was showing, they just claimed the theater as theirs and began stuffing their faces with the popcorn, talking over the commercials until the film started.

Within the first fifteen minutes of the movie, they’re no longer alone in the theater. Andy had been cautiously glancing behind his shoulder at the group of people that had entered, occasionally nudging Oli and whispering to him.

It’s not long after that that Vic and Gerard move to either side of their siblings Vic in front of Andy, Gerard in front of Oli, tense with guns loaded and ready. Oli leans over and tells Tony quickly what to do, which is the basic ‘get down when we say get down’.

“Let them make the first move,” Andy whispers roughly. He leans back in his seat and puts his legs up on the seat in front of him, meaning that his legs are over Vic’s shoulders, and he continues to eat his popcorn.

Mike shifts a glance at Mikey, who’s leaning into his brother, as always. Mike nudges Mikey’s foot with his own, and when Mikey looks up at him he mouths ‘you okay?’

Mikey simply shakes his head no.

Flickering his gaze around, Mike tries to find the cause of Mikey’s tensions. The movie on the screen isn’t scary at all, it’s some animated Disney shit... The rest of their crew is right behind them, in fact, Andy’s legs are resting on Vic’s shoulders.... What could it... oh.

At the back of the theater, there’s a group of about seven guys and a couple girls (or really girly looking guys, he can’t exactly tell) with their eyes trained on them.

So that’s why Vic and Gee had moved down here next to them.

“Dammit Vic,” Mike hisses at his brother. A single glimpse at him and Vic realizes that Mike knows the potential danger around him, and that they’re waiting for the other gang to make the first move, if they so choose.

“I know. So much for keeping our heads down,” Vic whispers back.

Mike shakes his head and leans back in his seat, watching the movie and bracing himself for gunfire or some other form of mayhem.

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An hour has now passed since the other people had entered the theater. They have kept their distance and haven’t said a single word to any of the boys, which is setting everyone on edge.

Andy had had Tony check twice to see if he knew any of the other people, and he didn’t. Something that didn’t happen too often, he had said.

Basically, if any of these people wanted to start shit, they are beyond fucked. It’s always better to know who you’re up against, because you can track their weak spots, know who’s got an attachment to who, make sure to get them where it really hurts. Not knowing anything, you would just let the bullets fly and wouldn’t even cause any emotional damage, the worst kind of damage and most definitely the kind that lasts the longest.

It doesn’t matter now though, the house lights are coming up and the tension in the air has risen so high a plane couldn’t even pass above it.

Andy stands first, followed by Oli. Gerard and Vic stay seated, waiting for the all clear, turned around slightly in their seats, guns loaded and ready.

Just as Andy is about to get to the door, one of the other people jumps up and pushes him back a few paces.

Immediately, Oli pulls his gun and aims it point-blank at the other boy’s head. Vic and Gerard jump up too, pushing their brothers out of the way of any potential crossfire. Their guns drawn and all pointed at the boy who had pushed Andy. The boy holds his hands up, as if he’s surrendering.

“Woah there boys, I don’t want anything but to talk to Andy here,” He says. Oli glares at him sharply and suspiciously and keeps his gun up, gesturing to Gerard and Vic to lower theirs.

Andy sizes the boy up. He has feminine features that are overridden by the lack of a shirt, the only thing covering his torso being a leather jacket, open just enough so that you can see a tattoo that runs across his lower abdomen. The boy is quite a bit shorter than Andy, about the same height as Gerard, with a build the exact opposite of Andy’s thinner, lankier frame. His muscles are much more defined and his shoulders are wider, broader set.

“My name is Ashley Purdy, and if you say that Ashley is a girl’s name I will punch you in the face,” He says, feigning dominancy even though he’s a good handful of inches shorter than Andy.

“Alright then, whadda ya want?” Oli spits from behind Andy. Andy raises a hand, indicating that Oli should fucking cool it.

“Keep talking,” Andy says, interested.

“I wanna propose a joining of our gangs. Yours is quite small, and mine has bigger numbers, but hasn’t got a big name yet. Hell, we don’t even have any enemies. They’re good guys, well, and gals, can shoot pretty well and are masters in the art of lying. They just need a more dependable leader. You.”

Andy stands there for a moment, pondering his answer. Oli tenses even more, if that’s even possible.

“Why? Why do you want this? How do we know you’re not trying to take us out?” Oli says through gritted teeth.

“He’s got a point. Why, Ashley?” Andy asks, swatting his hand backwards without taking his eyes off of Ashley, grabbing Oli’s hip and pinching it.

“Ow, motherfucker,” Oli hisses.

“Lower the damned gun, idiot,” Andy says, not taking his eyes off of Ashley. Oli mutters a few swear words, but lowers his gun to his side, posture still tense, eyes ablaze with fight.

“Like I said, you guys are pretty small in numbers. Can’t be easy carrying out missions like that.”

“Contrary to popular belief, it’s easier. Less people to worry about.”

“But that fight couldn’t have been easy. You were a bigger liability, less people to cover ground with.”

“True, true. But we rarely get in fights.”

“Even so, wouldn’t hurt to have more people. Think of it, you could carry out multiple missions at once.”

Andy crosses his arms and rocks back on his heels.

“Give me a week. Meet us at the kiddy park off of the highway at, eh, nine P.M. ish,” Andy says. He throws one quick signal at his friends and they all exit the theater, Oli and Andy waiting for the other five to catch up to them, Gerard and Vic sticking to their brothers as if one wrong move could take them away forever.

Which is a very high risk that they all run.

And that is the painful reality gnawing on the inside of their hearts.
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No matter what you think, people aren't mind readers, they don't know what you've done. Paranoia, my friends, paranoia.