warnings: mentions of rape/non-consensual touching, past trauma
(though it does not really get into it, it is worth mentioning.)

general information:
- brendon is older than patrick in this (we're going to say brendon is eighteen, and patrick is turning seventeen)
- this one is about time travel
- it may seem a bit out there (due to the fact that it's about time travel and I am not the best with stories like that, so I apologise)
- patrick's past self is often referred to as "the young man" or "past self" and other similar terms (because wasn't sure of what I was really to call him)


"this is so stupid!" patrick laughs, assuming this old man was actually crazy.

"no, no!" the man insists. "is there something that you would like to go back and change? I sense something about you... something bad that happened."

patrick shakes his head, leaving this old man and his crazy looking machine.

"I'm serious! it's real! how do you think I got here?!"

patrick only laughed, leaving the alleyway.
~~~

"hey, baby," pete smiles, pulling his boyfriend into a hug. "what took so long?"

patrick hugged back, laughing softly as he thought of why he was late. "this crazy old dude pulled me into an alley and offered to let me try his time machine. isn't that crazy? he asked me if there was something I wanted to go back and change. he said that he sensed something bad that happened to me."

pete nods some, watching patrick seriously. "where was he?" he asks after a moment. "I would love to meet this man." he spoke, only half joking.

"pete, no! he was creepy, and it's rude to endulge in whatever the hell is wrong with him that thinks this time travel thing is real."

"c'mooon!" pete whines. "I just want to see, please?"

patrick sighs, and reluctantly bring pete to the old man in the alleyway.
~~~

"I see you've returned," the old man smiles creepily. "ooh, and you've brought someone? your friend... ooh, boyfriend?"

patrick sighs, pushing pete ahead. "yeah, he wanted to see your 'time machine'." patrick rolls his eyes, putting quotes around "time machine."

"right here then!" the man said, directing pete and patrick towards the colorful, glowing machine.

"is it real?" pete muses, glancing at the man.

"yes, yes!" the man nods. "put in any date you want." he smiles, urging them both to decide on a time to go.

"pete, c'mon." patrick whined, tugging pete's arm. "you'd have to be completely stupid to believe him! time travel isn't real. petey, let's go!"

pete shakes his head, putting in a date: april 27, 2001

patrick watched, shaking his head quickly. "pete, no!" he whimpers, remembering everything he hoped to have forgotten.

"it isn't real, remember?"

a part of pete might have believed, or at least hoped, this man was really a time traveler. a part of pete was hoping that this worked. he wanted to go back to that date. -especially- if patrick did not.

"hmmm," the old man hums, watching between the two. "now," he starts, smiling as he grabbed patrick's hand. "take his hand, and pete, was it? I need you to pull the lever."

pete nods, squeezing patrick's hand gently and pulling the lever as per the old man's instructions.

suddenly a huge burst of light and loud sounds shot from the machine. a bubble of light energy surrounded the three men and they were suddenly in a much different place.

no longer were they in a dark alley, but a bright, open street. it was only pete and patrick now, the old man was gone, and they were alone in the empty road.

pete smiles, happy that it had actually worked. they were back in 2001.

patrick looks around, eyes wide in terror. "i-it worked... we're in 2001! pete, why would you do that?! why? I told you no! oh my god, pete!"

"I didn't know that it would work!"

"why would you take me back here, you bastard! you know what happened!"

pete gently held patrick by shoulders, wanting to stop patrick from hitting him. "I know, baby. I know," he promises, bringing patrick to the sidewalk and out of the road. "that's the point, okay? in the -tiniest- chance that the man could have told the truth, I wanted to come back here. I wanted to stop what happened."

"I don't want to be here, petey..." patrick whispers, hugging pete. "I want to go home. I want to go home with you."

"soon, baby, but I want to fix this. I don't want you to hurt anymore."

patrick nodded a little, understanding the reasoning.
~~~

"there it is." patrick sighs, stopping in front of his childhood home. "the party won't be starting until seven. the -party- won't be starting until five."

pete knew what -party- meant, and he hated it. "and it's okay, baby, I promise, it will be." he said softly, gently squeezing patrick's hand.

neither man had thought of -how- they would stop what was to happen, but they were determined to do so. pete mostly.

it was not that patrick did not want to stop it. not that patrick enjoyed that this happened- nobody would enjoy this.

patrick just realized that if pete stops what happens, he and pete never meet, and patrick -needs- pete.
~~~

"baby?"

"yeah?"

"are you doing alright?"

patrick nods, hugging pete, hiding his face as pete watches for brendon.

"it'll be okay, I promise."

"I know," patrick whispers.
~~~

"hey, baby boy," a strange voice to pete, but an all too familiar one to patrick.

(past) patrick smiles up at his boyfriend, waving a bit as brendon joins him on the park bench. "hi," he says softly, allowing himself to be pulled close to the older.

"happy birthday," the older smiles, gently rubbing patrick's thigh. "are you going to be a good boy?" he whispers into patrick's ear.

patrick shakes softly, carefully removing brendon's hand from his inner thigh- where it had suddenly migrated. "i-i don't like when you do that, brenny..."

"and? you're mine. I can do whatever I want."

pete, pissed off in general, shoots up from the bushes. "you cannot! he is not -yours- he is not an -object- you do not -own- him. you cannot touch him like that!"

"who the hell are you?" brendon scoffs, shoving the small boy away.

"doesn't matter who I am, you delinquent bastard. you can't just touch him like that."

as brendon stands, clearly intending on fighting, patrick grabs his younger self from the bench.

"shh," patrick says, gently covering the small boy's mouth. "I know you're scared, trust me, I know, but I need you to listen. neither of us will hurt you, and I need you to trust that. do you trust me?"

stupid question. patrick never trusted himself in anything, why would he do it now?

despite knowing he did not trust in himself completely, patrick watches the young boy as he nods.

"good," patrick nods. "now, I need you report brendon, okay? I need you to do that. I know you don't think too much into it now, but later he intends to hurt you, and I need you to report him now so that he can't do that, okay?"

the young boy stares at himself in confusion, gently removing the hand from over his face. "but he loves me... he would never hurt me."

patrick whimpers, staring at his stupid, naive self, shaking his head. "i-i just need you to trust me on this, and do what I say. please..."

patrick's seventeen year old self simply nods and stands, followed by the older.

this seemed to be going a lot smoother than patrick thought it would.
~~~

"thank you for bringing this our attention, young man." the officer smiles, dismissing the two from the office.

patrick forced his younger self to file for a restraining order while also reporting brendon. he even talked himself out of the relationship, all that was left to do was get his younger self home safely and in time for his party.

"you might meet this really cool guy in the future, y'know? and he'll really love you, and he'll take care of you when you're upset, and it'll just be the best because he loves you." patrick speaks fondly of his boyfriend, smiling happily as he told the young boy about possibly meeting him. he only hoped that he was right. "anyway! here you are, right?"

the slightly shorter male nods as they stop in front of the house. "thank you... and your friend," he says, hugging the older version of himself tight.

"of course," patrick smiled, hugging himself.

soon, the young boy was off to wash up for his stupid party.
~~~

"they arrested right there," pete laughs. "but on a few other charges as well..."

patrick nods, walking with pete with a soft sigh. "thank you, petey..." he says quietly, hugging pete tight as though he never see his boyfriend again.

to his knowledge, he would not.

"of course, baby," pete smiles, holding the man close for a long moment.

"hey, idiots!" the familiar voice comes from yet another dark alley, causing the men to look over. "ya done?"

the two nod, returning to the old man and his time machine.

the same thing as before, loud sounds, bright lights and energy orb surrounding them.
~~~

just like any other day, patrick wakes up to his blaring alarm, groaning as he remembered his ridiculous dream.

"who the hell is pete?" patrick questions, climbing out of his bed. "why the hell do I keep having this dream?"

the very same questions he asks every morning for the past month.
~~~

pete sighs, trying to remember his dream exactly, but as usual, he only remembers fragments. he remembers the name patrick. he remembers the date was the 27th, but of what month? pete remembers the old guy very well.

he writes it all down, bullet points the most basic things because his memory does not serve him well. though, everyday, he remembered different things about the dream. sometimes it was facial features, and sometimes it was something as useless as the color of his own shirt.

pete sighs, putting his notebook aside as he got ready with his list full of tasks for that day.
~~~

"tortilla chips, ramen...," patrick reads his list quietly, glancing up every second or so to find the right isle.

"shit!" a slightly taller man, cursed as he stumbles back.

"i-i'm so so-" patrick stares blankly at the tanned man in front of him.

"oh, it's okay- oh," the man stared back, pointing in horror as he remembered. seafoam blue eyes..., but not exactly. that is one feature he remembered clearly. mostly because he had never seen such beautiful eyes before. the nose. it was so vague, but he would know if he saw, and he did. "eyes, nose..." pete whispers, knowing this -must- be patrick.

"you," patrick whispers, watching. "i-i..." he whimpers, trying not to sound creepy in any way. "this... this sounds ridiculous, trust me, I know... but i-"

"I've been dreaming about you." they speak in unison, watching each other in pure shock and possible fear.

"for over a month..." patrick whispers.

"feels like longer," the tall man chuckles. "y-you must be patrick...?"

the question was fearful, and patrick could tell, though he still nods.

"yeah, and you're-"

"pete," pete nods as well, smiling some at patrick.

and finally, they meet again, having never known that their dreams were once a reality.

the two finally meet, and most literally are, the man of each other's dreams.