stardustonsable | (no subject)

Pieces Mended
Spencer/Travis
PG-13 3,649

Thanks to the lovely stepps for whipping my tenses into shape, and being a great beta. Comments, as always, are love.

Its very likely that Spencer has a thing for privacy. That’s why he and Pete would have never worked out, if either of them had wanted to elevate their relationship past fucking. Well, that and the fact that Pete was in love with someone else. Spencer maintained that the only reason he hadn’t shoved his sticks up Pete’s ass after being called Patrick again was because Pete had apologized profusely. Actually, it was because he looked so damn in love every time Patrick walked past. And maybe Spencer was a little afraid of Patrick’s retribution, but it wasn’t like he’d ever tell anyone that. So yes, Spencer liked privacy. He liked privacy, and silence and stability. That’s why he and Bob had worked so well, and why the breakup was so easy. Bob looked honestly sorry when he left, and there were no hard feeling between the two. Which was why he was here, sharing a couch with Ray Toro and Bob Bryar at some function that had somehow brought together all Fueled By Ramen’s bands, and My Chemical Romance. And possibly others. Spencer knew he’d almost tripped over Tyson and Nick attached at the face. And Straylight Sunday or Brand Run or whatever the hell the Long Island boys where calling themselves today were milling around alternately glaring or making googly-eyes at each other.

Spencer entertains the thought the he was a bit bitter for a second then disregards it in favor of asking Ray about the last leg of the MCR tour. Ray is halfway through some story about Gerard involving cigarettes and a koala when a brown, tattooed hand wraps around Spencer’s wrist and pulls. He’s pressed to a flat chest and warm air, that smells suspiciously sweet, blows at the tip of his ear. “Sorry dudes, I need to borrow this one.” Travis is grinning, Spencer can hear it in his voice. Bob and Ray have identical quietly amused faces, Spencer ignores the way his chest clenched when he notices it.

“Try not to break him.” Ray says, and Spencer wonders how many times he’s uttered that phrase. It has to be a lot, he is in a band with Mikey Way and Frank Iero.

Spencer recognizes the way to the balcony and is starting to say something about it being wintertime when cold air rushes past him as the doors open. He allows himself to be dragged out the pulls away from Travis.

“You were looking sad in there.” Travis says. Spencer shrugs and turns to lean against the railing of the balcony. He doesn’t respond, instead he crosses his arms and shivers. It might not have been below 70 but he was from Vegas for fuck’s sake.

“Wanna tell me why?” Travis asks, his eyes sliding from the skyline to Spencer then back.

Spencer only has a passing knowledge of Travis. He knows he’s done a song with William Beckett and that once Spencer had walked in on his with him mouth almost touching Joe Trohman’s, and smoke passing through the sliver of open space. He knew that, and he knew that he was a rapper from new York. So, maybe Spencer was hesitant to share his gay romance woes. But he was also curious about Travis’s reaction.

“Yes, well, sitting with one’s ex and their new boyfriend tends to have that effect. Not that you’d know anything about that.” He sneers a little, already putting up his defenses.

Travis shakes his head. “Nah, man. Don’t really hang out with ‘Sashi when he’s with Bill. Not unless they ask.” He grins at Spencer and streetlight glints off the metal of his grill. “Thought I was one of those homophobic dicks, didn’t you. I’m on Pete Wentz’s label, Spence. Is anyone straight on this label?”

Spencer looks through the glass doors leading inside, fighting his blush. Ian and Johnson look back curiously. Spencer rolls his eyes and is making shooing motions at them when something heavy and warm settles around him. Travis shrugs when Spencer looks at him and runs hand across one color-splattered arm.

“You looked cold.”

The jacket smelled sweet too. “I’m not a girl, y’know.” He pulls the jacket closer as he says it.

“For real?” Travis asks. “Hips coulda fooled me.” He taps his hand to Spencer’s hips the backs up dodging his punch. “Just playin’ lil’ dude, we know you’re all man.” Travis gives him a blatant once over and Spencer ignores the goose bumps that suddenly rise.

Travis keeps backing up and is leaning against the glass doors. “You oughta come see me sometime, shorty.”

Spencer glares. “Just because you and Beckett are giant freaks of nature doesn’t mean-“

Travis goes inside with a grin, missing the rest of his statement.

“Why do you smell like pot?” Ryan asks from under Brendon, who has fallen asleep in his lap, when Spencer sits next to them.

Patrick looks at him curiously from Ryan’s other side. Spencer waves the too-long sleeves, like they can’t see the purple, green-skull covered monstrosity that is just unnecessarily warm. “Travis,” he adds as more explanation.

The suspicion in Ryan’s eyes doesn’t abate, and Patrick’s eyes harden.

“Travis,” he half-growls and walks off. Spencer guesses its in the direction Travis went in.

He thinks he should be worried, but he can’t bring himself to be. He inhales deeply, and Ryan’s frown grows, though its weakened by the singer in his lap. “There’s this thing called a contact high, Spence.”

Spencer waves a hand at him and wanders over to Nate.

~*~

The dynamic between Gym Class and The Academy is kind of amazing. Spencer has seen Travis and William grope each other during 7 Weeks, and once during Slow Down, then nearly gotten ran over by William on his way to Disashi. And the fans never said anything. Weird.

Of course, Spencer was not thinking about why he was at Warped Tour ’06. It would be too much like admitting something.

“Hey, shorty.” A figure leans against one of the buses, and still towers over him. Still smells sweet.

“Are you ever not high?” Spencer asks, not really expecting an answer. Travis shrugs.

“Give me a break, man. I’m heartbroken.” Travis grabs his chest and gives him a kicked puppy look.

“Brendon does it better.” Spencer tells him and looks at the halo of curls that seem to be exploding from Travis’s head. He wants to tug on one, to see if it’ll spring back to its place. He doesn’t wonder if they’re as soft as they look.

“He has the mouth for it.” Travis leers a little then straightens his face. “You still heartbroken, little drummer boy?” Travis looks directly at him. Spencer looks away.

“I was never-“ He starts then frowns. “How many tattoos do you have, anyway?” He was changing the subject and wasn’t in the mood for subtlety. Travis shrugs and someone calls his name. “Dunno. You can count them one day. You got a place to crash?” He does. He follows Travis to his bus anyway.

~*~

“It’s a boy!” William crows from his curled position on the couch. “Mostly. If you ignore the hips.”

Spencer looks at him. He’d glare if he could actually open his eyes. Stupid too-tall rapper with his too-warm bed. “Don’t you have your own bus? You can’t see my hips, Beckett.” Travis’s shirt, which was about 5 times bigger than Travis, falls mid-knee on Spencer, making his hips invisible. An arm, the monochrome side, wraps around him. He leans against the flat planes of Travis’s chest and doesn’t think about how easy it would be to get used to this.

“Wrong, Will. He’s all man. The hips are just buffers so you won’t be blinded by the manliness.”

Spencer is going to kill them all, one day.

“I always knew you liked ‘em girly, Travie.” William stretches, cat-like, and grins at Travis, a hand resting low on one of his own hips.

He’ll be the first to die.

“Must be something about all that soft supple boy-flesh.” William grins.

Spencer chokes, on air, apparently. When he gets his coughing under control he manages to rasp out, “We didn’t fuck.”

William gives him a knowing, disbelieving, look and the rest of Disashi steps onto the bus, giving Spencer a curious look. Spencer pushes Travis out of the way and retreats back to the bus.

He’s texting Ryan when Travis pushes the curtains aside, and leans into the bunk. “Sorry about, Bill. He’s just a little jealous.”

“Of what?” Spencer asks, and flicks a perfected disinterested look at Travis.

“You. He thinks…he’s not used to not getting whatever he wants.”

“What do I have to do with that? I’m not keeping you from fucking him through a mattress the way you both want so badly.” Okay, maybe that was a bit more venomous than Spencer intended.

“Yea, actually you are. For real, man.” Travis is gone then and Spencer looks at his flattened pillows wondering if they’re enough to smother him.

He catches a plan back o Vegas at their next major stop and spends the rest of the summer hiding in his room watching YouTube videos tagged “Treckett 7 Weeks”.

~*~

“You’re kind of an idiot.”

Spencer doesn’t bother to minimize the screen. He just leans back against and sighs. “What do you want, Ross?”

“Spence.” Ryan says softly.

Spencer doesn’t answer, he turns away, looking at the walls of his room. He inhales, ignoring the slow burning that was building up behind his eyelids. It was spreading to his chest, a warm aching strain that made it hard to breath. “What, Ryan?” He finally asks when the silence is almost as heavy as the water clinging his eyelashes.

Thin arms slide around his waist, and he turns into Ryan, burying his face into his neck. If Ryan notices the shoulder of his shirt dampening he doesn’t say anything.

~*~

Spencer pretends he’s over it. He starts making plans with the others. Starts taking lessons on various instruments, agrees with Ryan’s plans, starts anticipating going to the cabin. Maybe he has an untitled playlist on his iPod, and more than once falls asleep with nothing but the cool dark and Travis’s voice, his words promising him things he didn’t know he wanted. And he’s ok.

Until he wakes up after one of Pete’s parties naked. And in bed with Jon Walker.

Jon is ok with it, once they figure out just what happen. For Spencer the night before is a blur of pretty drinks, dark eyes and overheated skin. They agree that it was a onetime thing, and that it wouldn’t be weird. Normally none of that would have assured Spencer, but Jon Walker’s open smile, and the way he lisps around Spencer’s name makes him say ok. And Spencer knows that in another universe, he would have been in love with Jon Walker.

It would have all been over, if they weren’t on a record label with thirteen year old girls. Now he gets furtive looks any time he and Jon are together. Pete shows all of his horse teeth and hums “Lets Get It On” whenever he sees the two of them. And Patrick keeps staring at him. Spencer’s bitchface is pretty much notorious. But Patrick is fucking scary. Maybe it’s because of the temper that they’ve all heard about but never seen. Maybe it was because Patrick could fuck them all over, not that Spencer thought he would. Either way Patrick was a scary fucker, and he’s set his sights on Spencer.

The cabin is possibly the greatest idea that Ryan ever had. It is also ridiculous. By the second week Ryan has exhausted three notebooks and Brendon’s beaten Jon at Guitar Hero twice. Spencer’s beat them all every time he plays, and Brendon keeps ranting about how scientifically impossible it is for the drummer to be better than all three of them. Spencer is amused. He’s also genuinely happy, that doesn’t stop him from falling asleep to his untitled playlist. Everything becomes a sort of routine, until one day Spencer comes back from a walk and Patrick Stump is sitting on their couch. He considers turning around and not coming back, maybe he could send in recordings of his drumming and the guys could use that. And he could hide somewhere. Somewhere that Patrick could never find. But Patrick sees him before he can back out of the door and motions for him to come closer.

“Travis wants you to be in his video.” Patrick says it calmly, and Spencer knows that he knows everything.

“I thought Pete was supposed to be the caretaker of all of us. Shouldn’t he be here?” Spencer is nervous, apparently his nerves manifest as snarkiness and a death wish.

Patrick just gives him a bored look. “Maybe. But Travis is my business. You’re an idiot Spencer Smith.”

“Gee, thanks,” Spencer says “Here I was thinking I was smart getting out before Beckett impaled me on one of his hip bones. “

Patrick laughs a little then shakes his head. “You could take William, Spencer, and he is not an issue at this point. William had his turn and fucked it up. Massively. And you-“

“Whoa, hold on.” Spencer cuts Patrick off. “You can’t say that and not tell me that story.”

Patrick shrugs. “Travis was… I’d just broken up with him,” He pauses to look for recognition in Spencer’s face. Spencer shrugged. He was dating, fucking whatever, Pete at the time, he knew exactly who Patrick was with. “And Will was there. They fucked around for a while and then Travis wanted more. William agreed, then he fucked Gabe. Travis… he took it really well actually. Threw all of William’s shit out of his apartment, finished 7 Weeks and told Will to never speak to him again. Then he told Disashi that if he still wanted him, William that is, he could have him. ‘Sashi waited for a while, then got with him. I don’t know if Will is any more faithful to him than he was with Travis but they’re going strong so, whatever” Patrick shrugs.

Spencer frowns. “But, Travis, he acts like nothing happened, and William was there the whole time on the Warped Tour, and when they performed 7 Weeks they looked—.”

“Like they were lovers?” Patrick raises an eyebrow. “That was their song. I think Travis just goes back to how it was when they recorded it. He doesn’t want William, Spencer. He hasn’t since he told him to fuck off. You, on the other hand, he’s still pining after. Even after the whole Jon fiasco.”

Jon, who was walking by, blushes and walks faster. Spencer laughs at him then looks back at Patrick.

“You know that was an accident, right? Me and Jon…it never meant anything.”

Patrick nods. “I know it. Most of your labelmates have forgotten by now. I think Travis has you adopting Cambodian babies by now.”

Spencer’s eyes widen. “Camb…what song are we doing?”

“Clothes off.” Patrick says and Spencer makes a face. “What?”

Spencer shrugs, “You already did Cupid, and now Clothes Off? People are gonna think they’re just some bubblegum pop gimmick band. I like Viva better, at least there’s some substance.”

Patrick smiles and stands up. “I’ll be sure to tell Travis about your opinions. He’ll enjoy the fact that you know his music so well.”

Spencer blushes but doesn’t say anything.

~*~

So, he has to be in a furry suit. Spencer’s okay with that, its certainly not unheard of on this label. And there will be a dance sequence that he can (will) opt out of. And Ryan keeps sending him concerned looks. He hasn’t even seen Travis. Spencer would laugh, if he wasn’t so close to crying.

He was avoiding anyone he knew in a group of make up people when a brown arm slid around his shoulder and he was pulled away from the group. The weight on his shoulder feels wrong, like its in the wrong place, but he allows it because its Travis. “Didn’t think you’d make it, little drummer boy.” Travis says low, and directly into his ear. A spark of something runs down Spencer’s spine at the sound of Travis’s voice, but he forces himself to focus. “I see you’re rocking the mountain man look.”

Spencer blushes under his new-ish facial hair. He considered it for a few minutes before they came here. Thought about William’s comment about Travis liking girly-boys. William’s words make him more determined to make it look good.

“Yeah,” He says, and he isn’t sure what he’s ‘yeah’ing to. “ I wasn’t sure you where here.”

Travis grins. “Baby, I’m the star.” He frowns. “One of ‘em, anyway. Huh, need to tone that down, prima donna attitudes aren’t cool, y’know.”

Spencer slowly realizes that he’s getting a more affectionate version of Travis’s friend treatment. He’s surprised by how fast he gets angry. Travis is making some lame joke when he mutters “what the fuck, McCoy?” And pushes Travis arm off his shoulder. He likes to think he walked calmly over to where the “showdown” would be but later Brendon asks why he was storming away from Travis.

Their parts are finished and Spencer is getting dressed when Travis tracks him down.

“Smith, what’s wrong with you?” Spencer focuses on pulling his belt through the last loop when Travis pulls his hand away. “What, Smith? I backed off, even though I didn’t want to.”

Spencer’s eyes narrow. “Yeah, I noticed. I get that I fucked up, ok Travis? I get that I let William get under my skin and fucked whatever we had up. But you’re over it, so you can stop fucking around with me.”

Anger washes over Travis’s face and Spencer hates that he makes it look good. “Me fucking around?” Travis asks and crowds him back until Spencer bumps into the wall behind him. Travis still pushes closer until Spencer hisses at the cold metal buckle presses into his bare stomach and Travis’s breath, not suspiciously sweet this time, blowing warm into his face. “You’re the one that left after I basically told you I was interested.” Travis moves forward until there’s no space between their bodies and Spencer can feel Travis’s heart racing through his shirt. Spencer only comes to his chest but Travis is leaning over. Travis’s eyes are wide and brown, and Spencer feels heat wherever they focus on his face. Travis starts again, “You’re the one that—“

Spencer rocks up on his toes and his mouth bumps roughly with Travis’s. “Ow,” he mumbles into Travis’s mouth. Maybe he misjudged the distance a bit. He doesn’t care when Travis’s hand curls up around the back of his neck and up into his hair, warm and heavy like his arm on Spencer’s waist that first night. Spencer is about to nip at his lips when Travis pulls away shaking his head. His hair is loose for the next scene and it moves with the motion. “I’m not that guy, Spencer Smith. You…I can’t do that to Walker, and…I didn’t think that you’d be the type that’d want me to.” Spencer opens his mouth trying to explain but Travis just shakes his head and backs out of the room. Spencer slides down the wall and Ryan finds him there a few minutes later, tucked into the corner, goosebumps raised on his arms.

Spencer has given up. Its obvious now that The Powers That Be don’t want him and Travis together. So he gives up. He settles at Ryan’s apartment, and is about to settle into a long and much needed sulk when Pete and Patrick show up. His first reaction is a childish desire to throw something at Pete and tell him that if he didn’t have to be so damn in love maybe Spencer wouldn’t be so fucked right now. But Patrick is still a scary fucker. He looks at Patrick defiantly and waits for the lecture. Patrick just rolls his eyes and hands him an envelope that looks suspiciously like a plane ticket. Spencer takes it. It is indeed a plane ticket, along with a scrap of paper with a few phone numbers and an address in Patrick’s semi-neat scrawl. And a small bartskull drawn on one corner. He rolls his eyes at the whole thing and stands up. “Fine, fine. If you insist.” He can almost hear Patrick roll his eyes and Pete snickers.

It doesn’t occur to him until he’s rode from Vegas to New York, from the airport to this apartment. It doesn’t occur to him until after he’s knocked on the door that he has no clue what he’s going to say. He still doesn’t have a clue when the door swings open and Travis blinks at him sleepily, his hair, pulled up into a puff at the top of his head, waving a little.

“Um,” he says and licks his suddenly dry lips. “I was in the neighborhood and, ah. Wanted to say hi? And wow that was a really bad opening line. Um. Jon…was a mistake. We both know that. And I even got Patrick’s approval and he’s like crazy protective of you, and I want to try this and maybe it’s a bad idea, but so was Bob but he made me better an um…what?”

Travis was fighting a smile, and Spencer stared at his Monroe, because he doesn’t think he could stand looking in Travis’s eyes while he laughs at him. Then he has a mouthful of Travis’s shirt and Travis is laughing and he smells sweet but not suspiciously, and his weight is heavy and warm. Spencer’s life has been reduced to a bad romantic comedy, and all he can do is exhale a little laugh and listen to the hum of Travis’s voice as he tells Spencer how stupid he really is.