Notes: MissPamela told me to write Joe Troh. So I did.
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The first and really only time that Joe ever talked to Gerard Way was on one of the last nights of Warped, one of those nights where everyone was exhausted and more than a little punchy, and ended up wandering in and out of each other's trailers, talking to people they'd been seeing all summer but had never said more than three words to.
Pete and Mikey had been holed up in the My Chem trailer for most of the night, and Patrick had dragged Gerard back to the Fall Out Boy trailer and planted him on the couch to talk music.
"It's not that I feel bad for him," he said to Joe when Gerard was in the bathroom. "It's just. You know. I feel bad for him." He waved a hand in the vague direction of Gerard's trailer. "With the whole�Pete thing. And�stuff."
Joe shrugged, not looking up from the video game he was playing with Ray. "Yeah, ok," he said, and didn't really pay any attention when Gerard came back and curled himself around Patrick in a way that might not have been entirely just friendly.
He did start to pay attention when Patrick wrapped his arms around Gerard.
In fact, he paid enough attention that Ray kicked his ass at the game. "I'm going for a smoke," he said, shoving his controller across the floor at Ray. "Pick something else to play next." As he was shutting the door behind himself, Patrick looked up and smiled contentedly at him over Gerard's head.
He didn't smile like that nearly enough.
Joe was alone for a few minutes, but then the door opened again and he wasn't surprised to feel Gerard settle down onto the steps next to him. Joe offered him a light, and they smoked in silence.
"Don't do anything stupid," Joe said eventually, tracing patterns in the dirt at their feet with his sneaker.
"I�" Gerard said, and Joe cut him off.
"I'm not saying you're going to. I'm just saying�" he dropped his cigarette on the ground and stepped on it. "Don't." He stood up and stretched, then made his way up the stairs past Gerard. "Nobody hurts him," he said before he opened the door, not threatening, just putting it out there.
He half expected Gerard to get all defensive, but instead a tiny smile appeared on his lips. "I don't plan on it," he said in the same tone.
"Good," Joe said.
"You're a good guy, Joe Trohman," Gerard said, but when Joe turned back to him, he was still looking away, staring off into the darkness, as if he hadn't said anything at all.
"I try," he said, and let himself back into the trailer. Ray held up his controller for him, and Patrick smiled sleepily at him from the couch.
"Didn't scare him away, did you?" he asked, and Joe smiled, settling back down onto the floor.
"Tried. Turns out he doesn't scare that easily," he said, and Ray laughed quietly beside him.
Hours later, when Ray disappeared for his own bus, Joe stood there for a minute and watched Patrick and Gerard sleeping in the flickering light of the screen. He tossed a blanket over them and tugged Patrick's glasses off, setting them carefully on the windowsill. Patrick's eyes blinked open, sleepy and unfocused.
"Hey," he whispered.
"'s'ok," Joe told him. "Go back to sleep."
Patrick seemed to think about it for a moment or two, then decide that it was a good idea. He wrapped his arm a little tighter around Gerard and fell back asleep with a tiny smile on his face.
Joe went to bed alone, and when he woke in the morning, Gerard was still there, making them all pancakes.
Patrick was still smiling.
Joe counted that as a win.