HAHAHAHA WHATEVER!

[skoosiepants]

I love when I'm trying to decide what to write next and you guys give me this and then this and my brain explodes of awesome.

I also kind of want to write a fic where Brendon is Patrick's invisible muse. Whatever, shut up.

And then I started surfing around my unfinished fic word docs and I found this, and I remembered that once upon a time I'd started a sequel to Everything Else is Secondary with special guest stars, and I have no idea where I was going with this, but now I kinda want to write Rodney texting Patrick all the time and John getting jealous.

There are three beats in Marshall Tucker's Rearview Mirror that John always fucks up. He twists his wrist coming off the hi-hat and catches the snare a second too late, and he's three beats behind by the time Parrish starts the chorus again. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal, but his shoulders tense up even more each time it happens.

McKay scowls and says, "Feel free to become a professional drummer any time now, Sheppard," but John just gives him a shit-eating grin and a tight shrug.

Later, though, after Parrish and Bates and Cadman are gone, he'll pound out the same measure over and over again, and McKay'll wordlessly follow him on the keyboard and neither of them will leave until John's on point, until he can play it in his sleep.

He wants to drum. He's gonna make damn sure he does it right.

*

McKay has no tact and little to no social acuity, despite being in a fairly popular band. John's pretty sure that's why he thinks nothing of saying, "Pete Wentz is clearly the devil," in the middle of a bar packed with Fall Out Boy fans.

A guy behind them bursts out laughing, then says, "Sorry, sorry," when John arches an eyebrow. "That's just." The guy shakes his head. "Hi," he says, holding out a hand. "I'm Patrick."

His other hand is pushing back his hat a little, and John recognizes his smile, his eyes, and shit. It's Patrick.

McKay is bright red and stammers an, "Oh my god," and McKay is always confident until he's not, and insulting Patrick's bass player was not the smoothest introduction he could make.

John shakes his hand and apologizes and Patrick says, "Seriously, if you knew him, you'd know he totally would’ve taken that as a compliment."