(FIC:) 24 Frames Per Second: How (not) to be Friends - Part 4
Title: 24 Frames Per Second: How (not) to be Friends
Author: lea_ndra
Band: My Chemical Romance
Pairings: Frank/Gerard, Mikey/Alicia
Word Count: 24.500
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None, apart from how this is total fluff, suitable for Christmas. Oh, I should probably warn for the mangling of one of the most beloved Christmas songs of all times.
Disclaimer: Obviously, this is all fiction.
Thanks: To my betas eldaileana and rubytuesday5681, who did an awesome job and really helped make this fic so much better!! And to my lovely wife raina_at, whom I’m just as ridiculously in love with as this Gerard is with Frank, for all her suggestions and all the hours of listening to me.
Summary: This is a sequel to 24 Frames Per Second: The Belleville Fright Night Experiment of 1984 and it picks up 9 years later: It's 1993 and Gerard runs into Frank at the movie theater - where else? - after Frank returns from his 4-year stint in Seattle. While everybody around Gerard turns out to be a traitor siding with the enemy, Gerard himself wants nothing more desperately than Frank back...
Features a pug puppy, a nasty fight, a near-car accident and a little baby-girl called "AnnieWay".
Chapter 4
They arrived at the hospital two phone calls and a frantic one-hour drive later. Gerard would always remember the drive as the longest of his life, with his brother sitting in the passenger seat, gripping his own knees with white knuckles grip and Ray and Frank giving him poor advice on traffic routes through Manhattan from the backseat. It was their luck that Alicia had to get her baby on the one night Mikey and Gerard actually were in Jersey and not at home in Brooklyn. (“Lincoln Tunnel,” Ray said. “No, Holland, I heard earlier a couple of lanes are closed on Lincoln,” Frank suggested. “It’s the middle of the fucking night, there’s not gonna be a traffic jam,” Ray protested. “There’s always a traffic jam into Lincoln!”)
Luckily, they found a parking spot right away on the street a little down from the hospital. Mikey didn't even really wait until the car was in park, before he jumped out and legged it up the street towards the hospital entry.
“Mikeyway, wait up!“ Ray called after him, before falling into a jog as well, leaving the car door wide open.
Gerard followed him shortly, kind of proud that in all the excitement he didn't forget to lock his car doors. He turned to Frank who was catching up to him after getting out of the backseat, frowning when he noted that he was in short sleeves, his tattooed arms covered in goose bumps.
“Where's your coat?”
Frank looked a bit sheepish and wrapped his arms around himself, shivering in the threadbare t-shirt he was wearing. “Kind of forgot it.“
“How can you forget your coat?“ Gerard asked, shaking his head.
“This is exciting, okay?“ Frank said petulantly and Gerard snorted.
“It's okay for Mikey to be scatter-brained, he's going to be a father, but you... At least he had the sense to grab his coat before he left.“
“Shut up,“ Frank complained, although it sounded alarmingly more like “Ssh-shh-shhu-ut uuuup.“
Wordlessly, Gerard unwound his scarf from around his own neck and wrapped it around Frank's. He blushed when he noted Frank’s eyes on him, soft and warm, and he cleared his throat, adjusting the end of the scarf so it fell over Frank’s back.
“We should hurry and get inside. Get you warm,“ he said softly, turning on his heel and in the direction of the hospital up the street.
“Wait.” A hand touched his arm, holding him back.
Curiously, he turned, glancing down at Frank, who didn't meet his eyes but was staring at his feet instead. “What?”
It took quite some time for Frank to answer and when he did he sounded embarrassed, the cold making him shiver a bit. “I - I don't wanna go in there.”
At Gerard's confused look, Frank bit his lip and flushed. “Alicia's family will be there,” he said, “And your parents. This is awkward, I shouldn't be here.”
For a moment Gerard was almost tempted to laugh at the expression on Frank's face, but in the end he reached for Frank, placing his hands on his upper arms, right where his shirt-sleeves ended. “No, Frank,” he said slowly, “It's fucking perfect you being here.”
Frank was blushing even more, but now the worried expression on his face shifted to a grin, the corners of his mouth pulling up. “Yeah?” he asked softly.
“Fucking perfect,” Gerard repeated determinedly.
Frank was beaming now, and Gerard smiled back, feeling things shift into place the way they were supposed to.
“I still think I'm gonna need a cigarette before fa-facing your r-relatives.” Frank was shivering now, his whole upper body shaking with the cold.
Gerard slowly pulled his arms away and undid the front of his coat, holding it open invitingly. “Come over here. We can share my coat. You'll get pneumonia.”
He waited until Frank was nestled against his front, before wrapping his arms around Frank.
“Your coat is awesome,” Frank said happily, snuggling against him.
With one hand, Gerard reached into his pocket, pulling out his cigarettes and lighter. He lit one and exhaled slowly, before holding the cigarette out for Frank to take a drag off.
“Wait,” Frank said. “I'm gonna turn around.” He shifted in the warm cocoon of Gerard's coat until he was nestled with his back against Gerard's front. When Gerard held out his cigarette, he closed his lips around it, taking a drag.
For a while they just smoked, sharing the cigarette between them.
“Mhmm, I could almost get warm,” Frank said, sounding satisfied, pushing back against Gerard. He suddenly laughed. “Bet we look really stupid. Like a monster with two heads.”
“You mean the monster with two backs,” Gerard said lewdly, making Frank giggle, his body trembling with his laughter.
“You have a one tracked mind,” Frank mock-complained.
“Uh-hmmm,” Gerard agreed, pressing his hips forward against Frank's backside just to hear him make an undignified sound.
“Hnnf,” Frank gasped, then laughed.
“I wouldn't mind doing it again,” Gerard said huskily, rocking his hips forward some more, enjoying the press of Frank’s body against him. He remembered being inside Frank earlier, thinking there was just no better feeling in the world. “We could like... get back into the car, where it's warm. I would just pull down your jeans, it'd be easy...”
“Gerard-” Frank breathed.
“-bet you're still all slick and warm and loo-”
“G, fucking hell!” Frank laughed, knocking his pointy sharp elbow into Gerard’s unguarded side.
Gerard growled a bit when Frank extracted himself from his arms, but he didn't resist when Frank pushed away. Frank turned around, looking at him with a strange mixture of turned on and exasperated.
“That's not fair. I'm freaking out over seeing your family in there and you dirty-talk me into a hard-on.”
Gerard took a last drag from the cigarette he was holding before tossing it into the gutter. “All right,” he said, “I'm gonna behave. But we really should go inside now.”
“I hate you for having a coat to cover yourself,” Frank said darkly as they started walking up the sidewalk towards the hospital entry. He was shivering again, his hands jammed into the pockets of his baggy jeans.
“Considering you don't have one, it should be way too cold to pop a boner,” Gerard retorted.
“You u-und-derestimate your al-allure,” Frank snarked, his teeth chattering.
“You want my coat?” Gerard asked.
The fist Frank knocked into his arm made him laugh, even though it hurt and he would most likely have a bruise there tomorrow.
“Fuck off.”
*-*
When they stepped into the waiting area of the maternity ward, Mikey had already been led through to the delivery room and they found Ray in conversation with Alicia's mother, looking as prim as ever in her blouse and skirt combo even though it was 1.15 in the morning.
“Gerard!“ she greeted him with false cheer, and Gerard just barely suppressed the roll of his eyes as he stepped up to her to kiss her cheek. “Hi, Mona.”
He pulled back quickly, reaching behind himself blindly for Frank's hand, locking their fingers together and pulling Frank gently forward. “You remember Frank?”
It was kind of satisfying to see the surprise on her face, but she caught herself quickly, smiling sweetly. “Of course. Frank, how are you?”
Frank shook her hand, shooting a glare at Gerard. “I’m good, how are you?,” he said politely but with lack of inflection that would do Mikey proud and left no doubt that he was just as disinterested in Mona's wellbeing as she was in his. They had never got along well and Mona had always given Frank the feeling that he didn't belong to the Way family the way Alicia did.
“Isn't it exciting?” Mona asked, and Frank and Gerard both nodded mutely. Gerard was dimly aware that he was still holding Frank's hand, but he didn't know whether he was supposed to let go of it, because Frank had his fingers wrapped tightly around his knuckles. He looked down, glancing at their locked hands, feeling a thrill run through him at the sight of Frank's tattooed fingers laced with his own.
“Hey,” Ray interrupted Gerard's thoughts, “I thought I lost you outside.”
“We had stuff to talk about,” Gerard explained, looking at Frank for help.
“Yeah. Stuff,” Frank echoed, blushing a bit and dropping Gerard's fingers as if he just now realized that they were still holding hands.
Ray grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “Cool.”
Gerard was just racking his brain about what kind of small talk to make with Mona, when he was fortunately interrupted by the arrival of his parents. It was weird seeing his mother fully dressed without any make-up, but she made up for her tired appearance with her loud voice.
“Hey, honey,” she greeted him and he wrapped her in a hug, waving at his father from over her shoulder.
Suddenly, she stiffened in his arms and then exclaimed, her shrill voice even louder and completely astounded, “Oh my God! Is that you, Frank?”
It wasn't a really nice thing being pushed aside by his own mother for his (ex?-) boyfriend, but the woman seriously had never had any shame when it came to Frank, and Gerard stepped out of her way, wincing as he watched his mother practically throw herself at a blushing Frank.
“Frankie, how are you?” she asked, enveloping him in a crushing hug.
She let him go for just a second to hold him at arm's length to look him over, before pulling him in again. “Oh, look at you, you look good, sweetie.” Over her shoulder, Frank looked helplessly at Gerard, flailing his arms, his eyes wide.
Gerard's father had looked on in stoic amusement and Gerard turned to him, sending a long-suffering look his way.
“Dad, she's smothering him in motherly love,” Gerard complained and his father rolled his eyes, but cleared his voice and took a step forward, extending his hand for Frank to shake so his wife had to let go.
Moments later, Frank stumbled over to Gerard, looking even more rumpled than he had before.
“God,” Gerard groaned, resisting the impulse to smooth down Frank's hair, “she's so embarrassing.”
“She's sweet,” Ray protested.
“I think she cracked a rib,” Frank wheezed, clutching his side.
“It's your own fault. Sucking up to her for years,” Gerard said a bit reproachfully.
“I did not!” Frank exclaimed indignantly, straightening his shirt.
“You so did,” Ray agreed and Gerard gave Frank a “told you so” look. “Man, you ate everything she ever put in front of you.”
Frank grimaced as if he only now remembered all the awful cheese toasts, tasteless veggie stews and overcooked lasagnas Gerard's mother had fed him over the years. “Sad but true,” he finally admitted.
Gerard's parents had finished greeting Mona and Gerard's Mom came over to them, reaching for Gerard's arm.
“Excuse us,” she said sweetly to Ray and Frank, “I gotta talk to my son.”
Gerard could just make out the gleeful look on Ray's face, before his mother pulled him away and shoved him behind the coffee vending machine, scarcely out of sight and certainly not out of earshot.
“Mom,” Gerard hissed, shaking off her hand of his arm.
She scowled for a moment and crossed her arms in front of her chest, before her face shifted into a bright smile. “So,” she said, raising her perfectly trimmed, pencil-stroke thin eyebrows at him, “Frank.”
Gerard sighed and refused to catch her eyes. “Yeah. Frank,” he said, thinking he sounded defeated. Why did his mother always, always meddle with his affairs?
Her grin grew and Gerard thought she looked incredibly smug and self-satisfied. “Does that mean I can invite Linda over for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Mom, I really don't kn-“
She held up a hand and tsked. “Don't think I'm stupid. It's the middle of the night and you're both here, looking rumpled and-“
“- you said it, 'it's the middle of the night' of course everyone is rumpled. Ray's here, too and-“ Gerard interjected only to be interrupted as well.
“... rumpled and couply,” his mother continued, only to run over any of Gerard's further protests by reaching out and pulling on the fabric of the shirt he was wearing, “and anyway, you didn't even manage to get dressed in your own shirt.”
Gerard followed her gaze down to where her manicured fingers were twisted into his shirt, and yes, now that she mentioned it - the shirt he was wearing was the one Frank had worn earlier this evening. How did she even know his shirts? Was it a wild guess? Then again, Frank's shirt was a bit too small on him.
“We are not-” he stopped and lowered his voice, mindful of everyone else being just around the corner of the vending machine. “We are not together. You can't invite him for Thanksgiving.”
“But you will be, right?“ she asked, and it was said in a tone of voice that left no doubt about how very, very disappointed she would be in him if he failed to fix things with Frank.
He was searching for an answer wanting to tell her to back off his case, but she didn't wait for him to reply, stepping out from behind the vending machine before he could follow.
“Frank, you have to come over for Thanksgiving!” she called, loud enough that there was no possibility that Frank might not have heard her.
Gerard groaned and pressed his heated face into the cool side of the vending machine, before slowly trailing out from behind it, watching as his mother descended on Frank again.
“I'm gonna make Tofurkey!” he heard her say.
With a sigh, Gerard slumped against the wall next to where his father and Ray were standing in conversation.
“Dad, why is she so evil?” he moaned. “She can't invite him for Thanksgiving.”
“Yum,” his father said sarcastically and without feeling for his personal misery, “how I missed those Tofurkey Thanksgivings.“
“I'll be with Christa's family in Connecticut,“ Ray said sounding mock-sad, “I can't believe I'm gonna miss your Mom's Tofurkey!”
“Her Tofurkey totally beats her Turkey,” Gerard's father said agreeably.
“If there's a death-match between Donna's Tofurkey and Donna's Turkey, the Tofurkey would win. It's deadlier,” Ray added and both he and Gerard's father cackled.
Gerard heaved a sigh. “You guys suck,” he groaned and left them to walk over and do the sensible thing and support Frank against his Mom.
*-*
At 6.25 a.m., Gerard's niece had still refused to be born. Gerard was sitting in one of the plastic chairs, wishing he could go out for a cigarette or get up for a cup of coffee or both. He wasn't going to wake up Frank, though, who was sleeping with his head in Gerard's lap, stretched out on four of the orange plastic chairs, knees tucked up and looking about five years old, if it hadn't been for his inked arms lurking from beneath the folds of Gerard's coat.
Gerard looked up when someone used the coffee vending machine, finding his Dad standing next to it, pushing the buttons. He was looking tired and bleary-eyed - just like Gerard he hadn't been able to sleep. Across from Gerard, Mona, Ray and his Mom were huddled on some chairs. For a while Gerard had enjoyed the unflattering expression on Mona's face as she slept, her head dipped back, mouth agape.
It was much more pleasant watching Frank's sleep, his face pressed against Gerard's thigh, warm breath puffing out against his jeans. Gerard once more resisted the impulse to reach out and stroke Frank's hair the way he had done too often in the last two hours, instead readjusting the coat he had thrown over Frank as a blanket.
When he finished fussing with his coat, someone cleared his throat above him and he looked up, finding his Dad standing over him, holding out a cup of coffee. He took it gratefully, hissing when he nearly burnt his fingers on the cup's rim.
In his lap, Frank stirred, slowly and groggily pushing himself up. His hair was all over the place, dark strands tangled in front of his face and knotting up in the back. Gerard loved the way his now long hair curled at this neck and over his ears and he valiantly resisted his need to reach out and touch him. It was really difficult to keep his fingers to himself.
“How long was I out?” he asked sleepily, brushing his hair out of his face and rubbing his eyes.
“About two hours,” Gerard's Dad said. “The baby's not here yet.”
“Man,” Frank groaned, “poor Alicia.” He sniffed, then leaned closer towards Gerard, pointedly looking at the cup of coffee in his hands.
“Yeah, you can have it,” Gerard said long-sufferingly, pressing the cup into Frank's hands, smiling when Frank made a happy sound and gulped down half of the hot liquid. He didn't mind that he hadn't yet even taken a sip, the content smile on Frank's face was better than coffee.
There was some noise from the corridor, and when they all looked up, Mikey rounded the corner in dark green scrubs, surgical mask dangling around his neck, the biggest smile on his face. In fact, he was beaming like a lunatic, not an expression Gerard had seen on Mikey's face often, if ever.
“She's here!” he said, sounding excited, before immediately turning on his heel again, as if he couldn't bear to be away from his newborn child for even just a second. For a moment nobody moved as the realization sunk in that the thing they had been waiting for all night had finally transpired. Then, they jumped to their feet, following Mikey's quickly retreating steps down the corridor.
*-*
Afterwards, outside on the curb Mikey, Ray, Frank and Gerard stood next to Gerard's car, smoking, slowly coming down from the excitement of the night. They had been allowed to see the mother and child after clean-up for a couple of minutes, before they had been asked to leave to give Alicia and the baby some rest.
Gerard still couldn't quite believe that he now had a niece, that the weird growing thing in Alicia's belly had turned out to be a beautiful little baby girl with tiny red hands and sharp nails and a smattering of blonde hair. His mother actually cried when she had held her granddaughter in her arms and Gerard had instantly forgiven her every little evil deed of the night. Just as wonderful as his niece had been the twin expressions of exhausted happiness on Alicia's and Mikey's faces. Gerard definitely would need to get used to it - his baby brother with the unfortunate succession of weird haircuts and his insane love for geeky computer games was now a father.
Mikey took another puff from his cigarette, coughing. “I never thought I'd need a cigarette again, but I tell you guys, I'll have fucking nightmares about this for weeks.”
Ray patted his shoulder. He was the only one not smoking, but peer pressure made him wait outside the car in the cold with the rest of them. “You’re a fucking sissy, man. Bet it’s not that bad.”
“You wait, Toro, until your girlfriend pops out a baby. We'll talk then. Nightmares, I tell you. Nightmares,” Mikey said, sounding animated and dramatic.
Against Gerard's chest, once again huddled in his coat, Frank chuckled. “Oh, come one. You'll probably have worse nightmares from changing her diapers.”
They all giggled a bit, but it was the kind of good-natured teasing people did when they loved someone very much. Mikey rolled his eyes, but he was smiling even through the next coughing fit.
“I remember why I gave that shit up,” he wheezed, tears in his eyes. He tossed the cigarette into the gutter, before reaching for the door handle of the car.
“I need breakfast and lots of it. G, you gotta drive us to Ted and Honey.”
They all got into the car, Mikey sliding in the passenger seat and hitting his long legs on the dashboard, Ray and Frank shuffling into the backseat. The wheel was ice cold underneath Gerard's stiff fingers. He blew into his cold hands, wriggling them to warm them up before he started the car. Mikey immediately reached for the heat, turning it up, before looking through the cassette tapes haphazardly piled on the dashboard and in the glove compartment.
The car started on the third try, and Mikey looked up from studying a Smashing Pumpkins tape to roll his eyes at Gerard. “Your car is a piece of shit. You should get a new one.”
“At least it has a tape player,” Ray said from the backseat. “And he kind of cleans it more often than the Escort. That car should have come with a ‘Toxic Waste’ warning.”
“Says the guy whose car was held together with gaffer tape,” Gerard shot back, looking over his shoulder and slowly backing out of the parking space.
“I want it put on record that I drive a brand-new Hyundai now,“ Ray announced, voice smug.
“I miss the Escort,” Frank sighed, leaning closer to Ray so he could leach some body heat. He was rubbing his naked arms again, burying his slightly red nose deep in the scarf Gerard had lent him.
“You would,” Mikey said, looking up from the cassette tapes and glancing over his shoulder. “Considering all you lost in its backseat-”
“Ha, fucking hah,” Frank growled, leaning forward to whack Mikey over the back of his head, making Mikey duck and cackle. “G, you wanna tell him about the one time we did it in his bed or should I?” Frank asked in a dangerously innocent and playful tone of voice.
In the rearview mirror, Gerard gave Frank a warning look, but it was much too late. Next to him on the seat, Mikey exploded in a fit of outrage, twisting so sharply in his seat to glare back at Frank that the seat belt creaked in its socket.
“You did not!” he howled, voice full of indignation.
Gerard could just make out Frank grinning in triumph, before he vanished out of the rearview mirror to scoot back and evade Mikey's badly aimed punch.
“You were sleeping over at Alicia's-” Frank started gleefully, sounding every little bit the shit he was, “- and Gerard's tv was broken, so we watched a movie on yours, and one thing led to another -”
“You disgusting perverts! Oh my God,” Mikey groaned. “I really didn't need to know this.”
“Payback's a bitch,” Ray snarked, jostling Frank's elbow and holding up his palm for a high-five.
“Argh,” Mikey moaned. “I can't believe you fucked on my bed. That's so-”
“I changed the sheets, after, so chill,” Gerard said dryly, trying to concentrate on the road and not give a shit about Mikey's fit.
His calming words didn't go over well, because Mikey glared at him. “What's going on, anyway? Is he still your ex-boyfriend? Because then I'm gonna punch him in the fucking face!”
“Now you want to punch his face?” Gerard blurted out. “Now, seriously? What about when he really deserved it!”
“Hey!” Frank protested from the backseat.
Gerard bit his lip, glancing between Frank's wide, accusing eyes in the rearview mirror and Mikey's glare. Mikey's question was relevant, but so far they hadn't really talked about what this night meant. It had all happened so fast and instead of talking it out, they had spent the rest of the night with Gerard's family waiting for Mikey's baby-girl to be delivered. Gerard just knew what he hoped it meant.
In the end he sighed, rubbed his free hand over his face and said, “You can't punch him in the face.”
From the backseat, Frank whooped, before he threw himself forward, his weight jostling Gerard's seat, startling Gerard so badly he nearly drove the car into the ditch. He held onto the wheel with both hands, slowing down a bit, his heart beating wildly. Behind him, Frank was being kind of restless and hyper, his hands sliding over the seat and his fingers digging hard in Gerard's arm.
“See?” Frank crowed, blowing a raspberry at Mikey. “You're not allowed to punch me.” Frank had moved even further forward and was now hanging onto the back of Gerard's seat. His face was pressed into Gerard’s neck and Gerard could feel him grinning against his skin.
“Insufferable little...” Mikey growled.
Frank, in his apparent overexcitement, chose that moment to dig his sharp little teeth into Gerard's neck and Gerard howled, jerking forward, causing the car to swerve.
“Guys-” Ray said warningly.
“... brother-perverting, backstabbing sh-”
“ - could someone please stop the car?” Ray asked, sounding slightly hysterical, gripping the back of Mikey's seat hard.
“You crazy bitch, stop it,“ Mikey said, reaching back to hit Frank over the head for real now, “I don't wanna end up in a car accident because you think this is the perfect time to grope my brother!”
“Didn't you hear him? He wants me back! No punching my face! He totally wants me back!” Frank said, a bit giggly and breathy, trying to evade Mikey's hits.
“Big fucking surprise,” Mikey scoffed, before muttering under his breath, “Fucking idiots.”
Gerard decided that Ray's suggestion was actually the right idea, especially when Frank started to hit Mikey back, jostling Gerard’s seat some more.
He slowed down the car and pulled over at the side of the road, and just when he was done, even before he killed the engine, Frank had climbed over the gap between the seats and slid into his lap, nearly kicking Ray in the face with his foot.
“Fucking vampire,” Gerard complained, reaching up to rub at his throbbing neck. Frank giggled, scooting forward in Gerard's lap, his dirty sneakers hitting the dashboard, making the piled up cassette tapes tumble to the floor.
“G?” he said questioningly, settling on his thighs, hands buried in the folds of Gerard's coat, “you are taking me back, right?”
“God, Ray, let's walk the rest of the way to the diner,” Mikey moaned, before he opened the car door, letting in a cold gust of wind.
Two car doors slammed as Mikey and Ray left them alone in the car.
“Gerard?” Frank repeated his voice soft now, a bit hesitant and less sure. “I know this has been a crazy fucking night, but I seriously hope you're not regretting anything and-”
Gerard couldn't bear to listen to anymore of Frank's anxious words and he reached out, carding his fingers through Frank's tangled hair, stroking the side of his face and rubbing behind his ear.
“I often regretted my decision to stay,” Gerard said softly, liking the way his words made Frank's face heat up.
“I often regretted my decision to leave,” Frank replied, and Gerard felt the grin tug at the corner of his mouth and he gave into it, seeing the answering smile that blossomed on Frank's face.
“Come home with me?” he heard himself say and he knew that this was the only way he was going to be able to do this. All or nothing.
Frank looked at him for so long that Gerard feared he had said the wrong thing, that he had somehow misunderstood what Frank had been asking of him, but then Frank threw himself forward, kissing him so hard that their teeth clashed.
“Yes,” he said when he pulled away, breathless and relieved, “yes, thank God.”
*-*
Epilogue
Christmas Eve, 1993.
The deeds for the day were finally done - the last of the gifts had been wrapped, the stockings had been hung up over the radiator (the lack of a mantelpiece had definitely made Gerard's Mom creative) and they had a couple of hours to relax before Gerard and Mikey would drive to Bernard’s to get Christmas dinner. (It was the one time of the year where they had successfully convinced their mother to not cook, and traditionally, they ordered turkey, roast vegetables and mashed potatoes at a local restaurant.)
Mikey, Alicia and their kid had retreated to Mikey's room for a nap, and Gerard had decided that it was actually a good idea, considering that he hadn't slept that much either what with Buzz keeping them up all night. Of course Frank had to be the sensible one, and while Gerard already curled up underneath a tower of blankets in bed, Frank had taken Buzz for a walk in the snow.
When he trudged in, Buzz in tow, Gerard was already half-asleep and not exactly responding well to being woken up again by a yipping dog and an over-animated boyfriend.
He growled softly to announce his discontent with the noise they made and buried deeper into his pile of blankets. Frank's soft answering laughter made him smile into his pillow, and he half-listened to Frank's voice shushing Buzz and making her lie down on her pillows near the door, before he heard Frank shrug out of his jacket and toe off his boots, his clothes hitting the floor.
When Frank lifted the blanket to slide into bed as well, Gerard grumpily made a noise of protest, a protest he followed with a hoarse shout when Frank pressed himself against him, all icy feet and cold hands.
“Oh my fucking God, get off me! You're a fucking popsicle!” he complained, hissing and trying to move away, backing up towards the wall.
Against his back, Frank giggled, reaching for him with icy fingers. “C'mon,” he said, shuddering happily, “you're all nice and toasty. You gotta share! I walked the dog.”
Gerard whimpered when Frank scratched his cold toes down his calf, his icy fingers dancing over Gerard's belly, puffing softly into his ear. “Oh the weather outside is frightful,” he hummed, pressing closer, “but in here it's so delightful...”
“Argh,“ Gerard complained, but finally accepted his fate as a human substitute for a hot-water bottle, letting Frank snuggle closer, while Frank continued to butcher the lyrics of “Let it Snow”.
“... but if you really hold me tight, I'm gonna show you a fucking good night...”
“Oh please, shut up,” Gerard said good-naturedly, giving up and tangling their legs together.
“Just getting into the Christmas spirit,” Frank said, pressing his cold nose between Gerard's shoulder blades and rubbing himself against Gerard's back.
“You call this Christmas spirit?” Gerard asked, moving back a bit against what he rightly thought was Frank's hard-on against the back of his thigh.
“Mhmmm,” Frank said happily, pushing forward a bit, his breath quickening.
Gerard couldn't resist pressing back, also because that was a part of Frank that was definitely not frosty. Cool fingers trailed down his side, skittering over his hip and back.
“Now that's an idea that certainly would lift my Christmas spirit,” Frank said, humping his ass. His breath was puffing over the shell of Gerard's ear, making Gerard shiver. “I will totally make it worth your while, too.”
Gerard half-twisted, craning his neck back and stealing a kiss, as Frank trailed his fingers down to his naked backside, petting and stroking.
“You gotta let me fuck you, because otherwise my poor cold dick is going to fall off, and it desperately wants to go someplace warm and snug and-”
Gerard laughed against Frank's lips as Frank's fingers slid between his ass cheeks. He let Frank kiss him again, before Frank reached behind him towards the nightstand, getting the tube of lube lying there. He hissed when Frank's fingers returned, the lube just as cold if not colder than his fingers earlier, but it warmed up quickly. Heat shot through him as Frank opened him up carefully, getting Gerard on track with the program.
He dipped his head back, moaning against Frank's hair, shifting his hips so Frank had better access.
It was way too soon when Frank rolled him onto his belly, but he was too lazy to protest and the thought of the burn and stretch when Frank would enter him was turning him on.
They shifted around a bit, Gerard pushing his elbows beneath him and his ass up while Frank settled between his legs, brushing the head of his dick against Gerard's opening.
“Doggy-style!” Frank suddenly snorted into his ear, but Gerard had no breath left to complain at his boyfriend's inappropriate attempt at humor, because Frank didn't waste any time and pressed forward, making him breathe out a groan.
He bit his lip as Frank slid forward, hissing through his teeth, but he forgot about the sting the moment Frank bottomed out and rested against his back, suddenly all warm. Frank just lay there a moment, breathing unsteadily into Gerard's neck, before he pushed himself up and slowly pulled back. He thrust forward with a sigh, burying himself in one stroke.
Gerard yelped against the pillow, shifting so he could get a hand underneath himself. Behind him, Frank cursed, murmuring praise, his hand coming down on Gerard's upper back, holding him down as he sped up the movement of his hips, pistoning into Gerard hard and fast.
Gerard could always tell when Frank was close and it didn’t take long, his thrusts becoming almost brutal, until Gerard pulled his hand away from his dick so he could brace himself against Frank's movement. He grinned against the pillow, listening to Frank curse. He would never get enough of the way Frank did this when he was losing it - it always made him feel so very much alive. Frank growled low in his throat, his hips stuttering out of synch and he shoved into him once, twice more, before he bottomed out, shuddering into him, a yell muffled against Gerard's hair.
For a moment they lay there, panting hard, Frank sucking in breath desperately, before he rolled them over onto their sides, still staying inside him, trailing wet, open-mouthed kisses against Gerard's neck, his fingers roaming Gerard's sweat-slick belly.
“Wait, wait,” Frank whispered, gasping in another round of breaths, his fingers trailing through Gerard's pubic hair until he reached his cock. Gerard closed his eyes, feeling the need strum through him.
For a while they breathed together, Frank’s fingers dancing on his cock, with the purpose of teasing him rather than getting off. Gerard waited patiently, sighing contently when he felt Frank shift behind him and press shallowly into him again.
“There we go,” Frank groaned, moving his hips in small circles, rocking into him gently, while his fingers moved on Gerard's cock.
“Fuck,” he breathed, “fuck.” He loved it when they fucked like this and Frank didn't pull away after he came. He hitched his hips into Frank's touch, urging him on. Frank's hand was warm and tight on his cock and Gerard felt sweat run down his neck. He was suddenly too warm, clammy with sweat, Frank behind him like a furnace. He felt the sticky trickle of Frank's release against the back of his thighs, but he didn't care, feeling himself build up towards his own orgasm.
Frank rocked into him carefully, almost lazily, but his movement picked up speed again the longer they moved together. Gerard felt himself slip away, caught in the rhythm and press of their bodies, their panting breaths loud in his ear. He felt warm and cared for, swimming in a cloud of heat, his body tingling with it. When he finally came after what seemed an eternity, shouting at the sudden sharp sensation of his orgasm ripping through him, Frank bit his neck, following him shortly, moaning and whispering his name into his skin, reverent and desperate.
He came down slowly to Frank's fingers petting his trembling, sticky stomach and he twisted onto his back, despite knowing he was gonna make a mess of the sheets. Frank was lying on his side, curling against him, his chin propped up on Gerard's shoulder, his eyes shining, hair sticking to his sweaty face.
“Warm now?” Gerard asked, reaching out and brushing a strand of dark hair from Frank's face.
“You should see yourself,” Frank said hoarsely. “You should totally be able to see yourself the way I see you.”
Flushing, Gerard rolled his eyes. “How? Sticky and disgusting?”
Frank glared a bit. “I fucking love you,” he said instead of an answer, pressing a kiss to Gerard's shoulder.
“I love you so much I want your fucking babies,” Gerard replied. “I mean, little fat dogs.”
“Buzz is not fat,” Frank protested, but he giggled.
“She will be.”
“Says the man who feeds her bacon for breakfast.”
He sounded sleepy, and Gerard poked him gently. “You know, you can't actually sleep now? We gotta get up and get dinner.”
“Pfft,“ Frank said, wiping his slightly snotty nose against Gerard's arm, which should have been gross but was actually just endearing. “Are you saying that your absolutely fabulous boyfriend, who walks your fat dog and gives you awesome orgasms can't snooze in bed while you and your brother bring home the bacon? On Christmas?”
“All right,” Gerard sighed. “Then I'm gonna get up alone. But only because it's Christmas.”
He slowly pushed himself up and climbed over Frank's prone body, tempted to slap his naked ass but valiantly resisting.
“Yeah, yeah, just because it's Christmas,” Frank murmured, flapping a hand at him.
*-*
Later that night, after a nice but still exhausting family dinner - Christmas was never entirely leisurely when the Ways, their extended family, the Simmons and now once more the Ieros came together at a table - Gerard sat in the freshly upholstered red seats of Cinema A in the Belleville Film Palace.
He looked around at the faces of the other people in the movie theater, recognizing a lot of the regulars still. In the row in front of them, Lindsay sat with husband number two, an animals’ rights activist from the WWF - they had married only a couple of weeks ago and were in Jersey to visit the family. Ray and his girlfriend were there, too, sitting on Frank’s left side, talking quietly.
When he looked over at them, he caught Frank’s eyes, and he grinned. He loved the expression on Frank’s face, unguarded and excited and childlike, like the best thing was about to happen. It was only Gremlins, but the fact that watching a movie could key up Frank so much made Gerard maybe love him even more.
Around them, the lights dimmed and the whispers from the movie goers toned down apart from the occasional cough. Gerard exhaled a breath. For a moment he could almost imagine that they had never been apart, that they had never broken up. Then again, maybe it had had to happen. Right now, he was pretty sure that they would stand against anything that life may throw their way, together.
Frank bumped his warm fingers against Gerard’s in his lap, and Gerard looked down and watched as Frank locked their hands together, his thumb drawing circles in the palm of Gerard’s hands. When Gerard turned his head, Frank was still smiling, his face glowing, happy and content.
For the first time in a long time, things were just as they were supposed to be.
The End
Author: lea_ndra
Band: My Chemical Romance
Pairings: Frank/Gerard, Mikey/Alicia
Word Count: 24.500
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None, apart from how this is total fluff, suitable for Christmas. Oh, I should probably warn for the mangling of one of the most beloved Christmas songs of all times.
Disclaimer: Obviously, this is all fiction.
Thanks: To my betas eldaileana and rubytuesday5681, who did an awesome job and really helped make this fic so much better!! And to my lovely wife raina_at, whom I’m just as ridiculously in love with as this Gerard is with Frank, for all her suggestions and all the hours of listening to me.
Summary: This is a sequel to 24 Frames Per Second: The Belleville Fright Night Experiment of 1984 and it picks up 9 years later: It's 1993 and Gerard runs into Frank at the movie theater - where else? - after Frank returns from his 4-year stint in Seattle. While everybody around Gerard turns out to be a traitor siding with the enemy, Gerard himself wants nothing more desperately than Frank back...
Features a pug puppy, a nasty fight, a near-car accident and a little baby-girl called "AnnieWay".
Chapter 4
They arrived at the hospital two phone calls and a frantic one-hour drive later. Gerard would always remember the drive as the longest of his life, with his brother sitting in the passenger seat, gripping his own knees with white knuckles grip and Ray and Frank giving him poor advice on traffic routes through Manhattan from the backseat. It was their luck that Alicia had to get her baby on the one night Mikey and Gerard actually were in Jersey and not at home in Brooklyn. (“Lincoln Tunnel,” Ray said. “No, Holland, I heard earlier a couple of lanes are closed on Lincoln,” Frank suggested. “It’s the middle of the fucking night, there’s not gonna be a traffic jam,” Ray protested. “There’s always a traffic jam into Lincoln!”)
Luckily, they found a parking spot right away on the street a little down from the hospital. Mikey didn't even really wait until the car was in park, before he jumped out and legged it up the street towards the hospital entry.
“Mikeyway, wait up!“ Ray called after him, before falling into a jog as well, leaving the car door wide open.
Gerard followed him shortly, kind of proud that in all the excitement he didn't forget to lock his car doors. He turned to Frank who was catching up to him after getting out of the backseat, frowning when he noted that he was in short sleeves, his tattooed arms covered in goose bumps.
“Where's your coat?”
Frank looked a bit sheepish and wrapped his arms around himself, shivering in the threadbare t-shirt he was wearing. “Kind of forgot it.“
“How can you forget your coat?“ Gerard asked, shaking his head.
“This is exciting, okay?“ Frank said petulantly and Gerard snorted.
“It's okay for Mikey to be scatter-brained, he's going to be a father, but you... At least he had the sense to grab his coat before he left.“
“Shut up,“ Frank complained, although it sounded alarmingly more like “Ssh-shh-shhu-ut uuuup.“
Wordlessly, Gerard unwound his scarf from around his own neck and wrapped it around Frank's. He blushed when he noted Frank’s eyes on him, soft and warm, and he cleared his throat, adjusting the end of the scarf so it fell over Frank’s back.
“We should hurry and get inside. Get you warm,“ he said softly, turning on his heel and in the direction of the hospital up the street.
“Wait.” A hand touched his arm, holding him back.
Curiously, he turned, glancing down at Frank, who didn't meet his eyes but was staring at his feet instead. “What?”
It took quite some time for Frank to answer and when he did he sounded embarrassed, the cold making him shiver a bit. “I - I don't wanna go in there.”
At Gerard's confused look, Frank bit his lip and flushed. “Alicia's family will be there,” he said, “And your parents. This is awkward, I shouldn't be here.”
For a moment Gerard was almost tempted to laugh at the expression on Frank's face, but in the end he reached for Frank, placing his hands on his upper arms, right where his shirt-sleeves ended. “No, Frank,” he said slowly, “It's fucking perfect you being here.”
Frank was blushing even more, but now the worried expression on his face shifted to a grin, the corners of his mouth pulling up. “Yeah?” he asked softly.
“Fucking perfect,” Gerard repeated determinedly.
Frank was beaming now, and Gerard smiled back, feeling things shift into place the way they were supposed to.
“I still think I'm gonna need a cigarette before fa-facing your r-relatives.” Frank was shivering now, his whole upper body shaking with the cold.
Gerard slowly pulled his arms away and undid the front of his coat, holding it open invitingly. “Come over here. We can share my coat. You'll get pneumonia.”
He waited until Frank was nestled against his front, before wrapping his arms around Frank.
“Your coat is awesome,” Frank said happily, snuggling against him.
With one hand, Gerard reached into his pocket, pulling out his cigarettes and lighter. He lit one and exhaled slowly, before holding the cigarette out for Frank to take a drag off.
“Wait,” Frank said. “I'm gonna turn around.” He shifted in the warm cocoon of Gerard's coat until he was nestled with his back against Gerard's front. When Gerard held out his cigarette, he closed his lips around it, taking a drag.
For a while they just smoked, sharing the cigarette between them.
“Mhmm, I could almost get warm,” Frank said, sounding satisfied, pushing back against Gerard. He suddenly laughed. “Bet we look really stupid. Like a monster with two heads.”
“You mean the monster with two backs,” Gerard said lewdly, making Frank giggle, his body trembling with his laughter.
“You have a one tracked mind,” Frank mock-complained.
“Uh-hmmm,” Gerard agreed, pressing his hips forward against Frank's backside just to hear him make an undignified sound.
“Hnnf,” Frank gasped, then laughed.
“I wouldn't mind doing it again,” Gerard said huskily, rocking his hips forward some more, enjoying the press of Frank’s body against him. He remembered being inside Frank earlier, thinking there was just no better feeling in the world. “We could like... get back into the car, where it's warm. I would just pull down your jeans, it'd be easy...”
“Gerard-” Frank breathed.
“-bet you're still all slick and warm and loo-”
“G, fucking hell!” Frank laughed, knocking his pointy sharp elbow into Gerard’s unguarded side.
Gerard growled a bit when Frank extracted himself from his arms, but he didn't resist when Frank pushed away. Frank turned around, looking at him with a strange mixture of turned on and exasperated.
“That's not fair. I'm freaking out over seeing your family in there and you dirty-talk me into a hard-on.”
Gerard took a last drag from the cigarette he was holding before tossing it into the gutter. “All right,” he said, “I'm gonna behave. But we really should go inside now.”
“I hate you for having a coat to cover yourself,” Frank said darkly as they started walking up the sidewalk towards the hospital entry. He was shivering again, his hands jammed into the pockets of his baggy jeans.
“Considering you don't have one, it should be way too cold to pop a boner,” Gerard retorted.
“You u-und-derestimate your al-allure,” Frank snarked, his teeth chattering.
“You want my coat?” Gerard asked.
The fist Frank knocked into his arm made him laugh, even though it hurt and he would most likely have a bruise there tomorrow.
“Fuck off.”
*-*
When they stepped into the waiting area of the maternity ward, Mikey had already been led through to the delivery room and they found Ray in conversation with Alicia's mother, looking as prim as ever in her blouse and skirt combo even though it was 1.15 in the morning.
“Gerard!“ she greeted him with false cheer, and Gerard just barely suppressed the roll of his eyes as he stepped up to her to kiss her cheek. “Hi, Mona.”
He pulled back quickly, reaching behind himself blindly for Frank's hand, locking their fingers together and pulling Frank gently forward. “You remember Frank?”
It was kind of satisfying to see the surprise on her face, but she caught herself quickly, smiling sweetly. “Of course. Frank, how are you?”
Frank shook her hand, shooting a glare at Gerard. “I’m good, how are you?,” he said politely but with lack of inflection that would do Mikey proud and left no doubt that he was just as disinterested in Mona's wellbeing as she was in his. They had never got along well and Mona had always given Frank the feeling that he didn't belong to the Way family the way Alicia did.
“Isn't it exciting?” Mona asked, and Frank and Gerard both nodded mutely. Gerard was dimly aware that he was still holding Frank's hand, but he didn't know whether he was supposed to let go of it, because Frank had his fingers wrapped tightly around his knuckles. He looked down, glancing at their locked hands, feeling a thrill run through him at the sight of Frank's tattooed fingers laced with his own.
“Hey,” Ray interrupted Gerard's thoughts, “I thought I lost you outside.”
“We had stuff to talk about,” Gerard explained, looking at Frank for help.
“Yeah. Stuff,” Frank echoed, blushing a bit and dropping Gerard's fingers as if he just now realized that they were still holding hands.
Ray grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “Cool.”
Gerard was just racking his brain about what kind of small talk to make with Mona, when he was fortunately interrupted by the arrival of his parents. It was weird seeing his mother fully dressed without any make-up, but she made up for her tired appearance with her loud voice.
“Hey, honey,” she greeted him and he wrapped her in a hug, waving at his father from over her shoulder.
Suddenly, she stiffened in his arms and then exclaimed, her shrill voice even louder and completely astounded, “Oh my God! Is that you, Frank?”
It wasn't a really nice thing being pushed aside by his own mother for his (ex?-) boyfriend, but the woman seriously had never had any shame when it came to Frank, and Gerard stepped out of her way, wincing as he watched his mother practically throw herself at a blushing Frank.
“Frankie, how are you?” she asked, enveloping him in a crushing hug.
She let him go for just a second to hold him at arm's length to look him over, before pulling him in again. “Oh, look at you, you look good, sweetie.” Over her shoulder, Frank looked helplessly at Gerard, flailing his arms, his eyes wide.
Gerard's father had looked on in stoic amusement and Gerard turned to him, sending a long-suffering look his way.
“Dad, she's smothering him in motherly love,” Gerard complained and his father rolled his eyes, but cleared his voice and took a step forward, extending his hand for Frank to shake so his wife had to let go.
Moments later, Frank stumbled over to Gerard, looking even more rumpled than he had before.
“God,” Gerard groaned, resisting the impulse to smooth down Frank's hair, “she's so embarrassing.”
“She's sweet,” Ray protested.
“I think she cracked a rib,” Frank wheezed, clutching his side.
“It's your own fault. Sucking up to her for years,” Gerard said a bit reproachfully.
“I did not!” Frank exclaimed indignantly, straightening his shirt.
“You so did,” Ray agreed and Gerard gave Frank a “told you so” look. “Man, you ate everything she ever put in front of you.”
Frank grimaced as if he only now remembered all the awful cheese toasts, tasteless veggie stews and overcooked lasagnas Gerard's mother had fed him over the years. “Sad but true,” he finally admitted.
Gerard's parents had finished greeting Mona and Gerard's Mom came over to them, reaching for Gerard's arm.
“Excuse us,” she said sweetly to Ray and Frank, “I gotta talk to my son.”
Gerard could just make out the gleeful look on Ray's face, before his mother pulled him away and shoved him behind the coffee vending machine, scarcely out of sight and certainly not out of earshot.
“Mom,” Gerard hissed, shaking off her hand of his arm.
She scowled for a moment and crossed her arms in front of her chest, before her face shifted into a bright smile. “So,” she said, raising her perfectly trimmed, pencil-stroke thin eyebrows at him, “Frank.”
Gerard sighed and refused to catch her eyes. “Yeah. Frank,” he said, thinking he sounded defeated. Why did his mother always, always meddle with his affairs?
Her grin grew and Gerard thought she looked incredibly smug and self-satisfied. “Does that mean I can invite Linda over for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“Mom, I really don't kn-“
She held up a hand and tsked. “Don't think I'm stupid. It's the middle of the night and you're both here, looking rumpled and-“
“- you said it, 'it's the middle of the night' of course everyone is rumpled. Ray's here, too and-“ Gerard interjected only to be interrupted as well.
“... rumpled and couply,” his mother continued, only to run over any of Gerard's further protests by reaching out and pulling on the fabric of the shirt he was wearing, “and anyway, you didn't even manage to get dressed in your own shirt.”
Gerard followed her gaze down to where her manicured fingers were twisted into his shirt, and yes, now that she mentioned it - the shirt he was wearing was the one Frank had worn earlier this evening. How did she even know his shirts? Was it a wild guess? Then again, Frank's shirt was a bit too small on him.
“We are not-” he stopped and lowered his voice, mindful of everyone else being just around the corner of the vending machine. “We are not together. You can't invite him for Thanksgiving.”
“But you will be, right?“ she asked, and it was said in a tone of voice that left no doubt about how very, very disappointed she would be in him if he failed to fix things with Frank.
He was searching for an answer wanting to tell her to back off his case, but she didn't wait for him to reply, stepping out from behind the vending machine before he could follow.
“Frank, you have to come over for Thanksgiving!” she called, loud enough that there was no possibility that Frank might not have heard her.
Gerard groaned and pressed his heated face into the cool side of the vending machine, before slowly trailing out from behind it, watching as his mother descended on Frank again.
“I'm gonna make Tofurkey!” he heard her say.
With a sigh, Gerard slumped against the wall next to where his father and Ray were standing in conversation.
“Dad, why is she so evil?” he moaned. “She can't invite him for Thanksgiving.”
“Yum,” his father said sarcastically and without feeling for his personal misery, “how I missed those Tofurkey Thanksgivings.“
“I'll be with Christa's family in Connecticut,“ Ray said sounding mock-sad, “I can't believe I'm gonna miss your Mom's Tofurkey!”
“Her Tofurkey totally beats her Turkey,” Gerard's father said agreeably.
“If there's a death-match between Donna's Tofurkey and Donna's Turkey, the Tofurkey would win. It's deadlier,” Ray added and both he and Gerard's father cackled.
Gerard heaved a sigh. “You guys suck,” he groaned and left them to walk over and do the sensible thing and support Frank against his Mom.
*-*
At 6.25 a.m., Gerard's niece had still refused to be born. Gerard was sitting in one of the plastic chairs, wishing he could go out for a cigarette or get up for a cup of coffee or both. He wasn't going to wake up Frank, though, who was sleeping with his head in Gerard's lap, stretched out on four of the orange plastic chairs, knees tucked up and looking about five years old, if it hadn't been for his inked arms lurking from beneath the folds of Gerard's coat.
Gerard looked up when someone used the coffee vending machine, finding his Dad standing next to it, pushing the buttons. He was looking tired and bleary-eyed - just like Gerard he hadn't been able to sleep. Across from Gerard, Mona, Ray and his Mom were huddled on some chairs. For a while Gerard had enjoyed the unflattering expression on Mona's face as she slept, her head dipped back, mouth agape.
It was much more pleasant watching Frank's sleep, his face pressed against Gerard's thigh, warm breath puffing out against his jeans. Gerard once more resisted the impulse to reach out and stroke Frank's hair the way he had done too often in the last two hours, instead readjusting the coat he had thrown over Frank as a blanket.
When he finished fussing with his coat, someone cleared his throat above him and he looked up, finding his Dad standing over him, holding out a cup of coffee. He took it gratefully, hissing when he nearly burnt his fingers on the cup's rim.
In his lap, Frank stirred, slowly and groggily pushing himself up. His hair was all over the place, dark strands tangled in front of his face and knotting up in the back. Gerard loved the way his now long hair curled at this neck and over his ears and he valiantly resisted his need to reach out and touch him. It was really difficult to keep his fingers to himself.
“How long was I out?” he asked sleepily, brushing his hair out of his face and rubbing his eyes.
“About two hours,” Gerard's Dad said. “The baby's not here yet.”
“Man,” Frank groaned, “poor Alicia.” He sniffed, then leaned closer towards Gerard, pointedly looking at the cup of coffee in his hands.
“Yeah, you can have it,” Gerard said long-sufferingly, pressing the cup into Frank's hands, smiling when Frank made a happy sound and gulped down half of the hot liquid. He didn't mind that he hadn't yet even taken a sip, the content smile on Frank's face was better than coffee.
There was some noise from the corridor, and when they all looked up, Mikey rounded the corner in dark green scrubs, surgical mask dangling around his neck, the biggest smile on his face. In fact, he was beaming like a lunatic, not an expression Gerard had seen on Mikey's face often, if ever.
“She's here!” he said, sounding excited, before immediately turning on his heel again, as if he couldn't bear to be away from his newborn child for even just a second. For a moment nobody moved as the realization sunk in that the thing they had been waiting for all night had finally transpired. Then, they jumped to their feet, following Mikey's quickly retreating steps down the corridor.
*-*
Afterwards, outside on the curb Mikey, Ray, Frank and Gerard stood next to Gerard's car, smoking, slowly coming down from the excitement of the night. They had been allowed to see the mother and child after clean-up for a couple of minutes, before they had been asked to leave to give Alicia and the baby some rest.
Gerard still couldn't quite believe that he now had a niece, that the weird growing thing in Alicia's belly had turned out to be a beautiful little baby girl with tiny red hands and sharp nails and a smattering of blonde hair. His mother actually cried when she had held her granddaughter in her arms and Gerard had instantly forgiven her every little evil deed of the night. Just as wonderful as his niece had been the twin expressions of exhausted happiness on Alicia's and Mikey's faces. Gerard definitely would need to get used to it - his baby brother with the unfortunate succession of weird haircuts and his insane love for geeky computer games was now a father.
Mikey took another puff from his cigarette, coughing. “I never thought I'd need a cigarette again, but I tell you guys, I'll have fucking nightmares about this for weeks.”
Ray patted his shoulder. He was the only one not smoking, but peer pressure made him wait outside the car in the cold with the rest of them. “You’re a fucking sissy, man. Bet it’s not that bad.”
“You wait, Toro, until your girlfriend pops out a baby. We'll talk then. Nightmares, I tell you. Nightmares,” Mikey said, sounding animated and dramatic.
Against Gerard's chest, once again huddled in his coat, Frank chuckled. “Oh, come one. You'll probably have worse nightmares from changing her diapers.”
They all giggled a bit, but it was the kind of good-natured teasing people did when they loved someone very much. Mikey rolled his eyes, but he was smiling even through the next coughing fit.
“I remember why I gave that shit up,” he wheezed, tears in his eyes. He tossed the cigarette into the gutter, before reaching for the door handle of the car.
“I need breakfast and lots of it. G, you gotta drive us to Ted and Honey.”
They all got into the car, Mikey sliding in the passenger seat and hitting his long legs on the dashboard, Ray and Frank shuffling into the backseat. The wheel was ice cold underneath Gerard's stiff fingers. He blew into his cold hands, wriggling them to warm them up before he started the car. Mikey immediately reached for the heat, turning it up, before looking through the cassette tapes haphazardly piled on the dashboard and in the glove compartment.
The car started on the third try, and Mikey looked up from studying a Smashing Pumpkins tape to roll his eyes at Gerard. “Your car is a piece of shit. You should get a new one.”
“At least it has a tape player,” Ray said from the backseat. “And he kind of cleans it more often than the Escort. That car should have come with a ‘Toxic Waste’ warning.”
“Says the guy whose car was held together with gaffer tape,” Gerard shot back, looking over his shoulder and slowly backing out of the parking space.
“I want it put on record that I drive a brand-new Hyundai now,“ Ray announced, voice smug.
“I miss the Escort,” Frank sighed, leaning closer to Ray so he could leach some body heat. He was rubbing his naked arms again, burying his slightly red nose deep in the scarf Gerard had lent him.
“You would,” Mikey said, looking up from the cassette tapes and glancing over his shoulder. “Considering all you lost in its backseat-”
“Ha, fucking hah,” Frank growled, leaning forward to whack Mikey over the back of his head, making Mikey duck and cackle. “G, you wanna tell him about the one time we did it in his bed or should I?” Frank asked in a dangerously innocent and playful tone of voice.
In the rearview mirror, Gerard gave Frank a warning look, but it was much too late. Next to him on the seat, Mikey exploded in a fit of outrage, twisting so sharply in his seat to glare back at Frank that the seat belt creaked in its socket.
“You did not!” he howled, voice full of indignation.
Gerard could just make out Frank grinning in triumph, before he vanished out of the rearview mirror to scoot back and evade Mikey's badly aimed punch.
“You were sleeping over at Alicia's-” Frank started gleefully, sounding every little bit the shit he was, “- and Gerard's tv was broken, so we watched a movie on yours, and one thing led to another -”
“You disgusting perverts! Oh my God,” Mikey groaned. “I really didn't need to know this.”
“Payback's a bitch,” Ray snarked, jostling Frank's elbow and holding up his palm for a high-five.
“Argh,” Mikey moaned. “I can't believe you fucked on my bed. That's so-”
“I changed the sheets, after, so chill,” Gerard said dryly, trying to concentrate on the road and not give a shit about Mikey's fit.
His calming words didn't go over well, because Mikey glared at him. “What's going on, anyway? Is he still your ex-boyfriend? Because then I'm gonna punch him in the fucking face!”
“Now you want to punch his face?” Gerard blurted out. “Now, seriously? What about when he really deserved it!”
“Hey!” Frank protested from the backseat.
Gerard bit his lip, glancing between Frank's wide, accusing eyes in the rearview mirror and Mikey's glare. Mikey's question was relevant, but so far they hadn't really talked about what this night meant. It had all happened so fast and instead of talking it out, they had spent the rest of the night with Gerard's family waiting for Mikey's baby-girl to be delivered. Gerard just knew what he hoped it meant.
In the end he sighed, rubbed his free hand over his face and said, “You can't punch him in the face.”
From the backseat, Frank whooped, before he threw himself forward, his weight jostling Gerard's seat, startling Gerard so badly he nearly drove the car into the ditch. He held onto the wheel with both hands, slowing down a bit, his heart beating wildly. Behind him, Frank was being kind of restless and hyper, his hands sliding over the seat and his fingers digging hard in Gerard's arm.
“See?” Frank crowed, blowing a raspberry at Mikey. “You're not allowed to punch me.” Frank had moved even further forward and was now hanging onto the back of Gerard's seat. His face was pressed into Gerard’s neck and Gerard could feel him grinning against his skin.
“Insufferable little...” Mikey growled.
Frank, in his apparent overexcitement, chose that moment to dig his sharp little teeth into Gerard's neck and Gerard howled, jerking forward, causing the car to swerve.
“Guys-” Ray said warningly.
“... brother-perverting, backstabbing sh-”
“ - could someone please stop the car?” Ray asked, sounding slightly hysterical, gripping the back of Mikey's seat hard.
“You crazy bitch, stop it,“ Mikey said, reaching back to hit Frank over the head for real now, “I don't wanna end up in a car accident because you think this is the perfect time to grope my brother!”
“Didn't you hear him? He wants me back! No punching my face! He totally wants me back!” Frank said, a bit giggly and breathy, trying to evade Mikey's hits.
“Big fucking surprise,” Mikey scoffed, before muttering under his breath, “Fucking idiots.”
Gerard decided that Ray's suggestion was actually the right idea, especially when Frank started to hit Mikey back, jostling Gerard’s seat some more.
He slowed down the car and pulled over at the side of the road, and just when he was done, even before he killed the engine, Frank had climbed over the gap between the seats and slid into his lap, nearly kicking Ray in the face with his foot.
“Fucking vampire,” Gerard complained, reaching up to rub at his throbbing neck. Frank giggled, scooting forward in Gerard's lap, his dirty sneakers hitting the dashboard, making the piled up cassette tapes tumble to the floor.
“G?” he said questioningly, settling on his thighs, hands buried in the folds of Gerard's coat, “you are taking me back, right?”
“God, Ray, let's walk the rest of the way to the diner,” Mikey moaned, before he opened the car door, letting in a cold gust of wind.
Two car doors slammed as Mikey and Ray left them alone in the car.
“Gerard?” Frank repeated his voice soft now, a bit hesitant and less sure. “I know this has been a crazy fucking night, but I seriously hope you're not regretting anything and-”
Gerard couldn't bear to listen to anymore of Frank's anxious words and he reached out, carding his fingers through Frank's tangled hair, stroking the side of his face and rubbing behind his ear.
“I often regretted my decision to stay,” Gerard said softly, liking the way his words made Frank's face heat up.
“I often regretted my decision to leave,” Frank replied, and Gerard felt the grin tug at the corner of his mouth and he gave into it, seeing the answering smile that blossomed on Frank's face.
“Come home with me?” he heard himself say and he knew that this was the only way he was going to be able to do this. All or nothing.
Frank looked at him for so long that Gerard feared he had said the wrong thing, that he had somehow misunderstood what Frank had been asking of him, but then Frank threw himself forward, kissing him so hard that their teeth clashed.
“Yes,” he said when he pulled away, breathless and relieved, “yes, thank God.”
*-*
Epilogue
Christmas Eve, 1993.
The deeds for the day were finally done - the last of the gifts had been wrapped, the stockings had been hung up over the radiator (the lack of a mantelpiece had definitely made Gerard's Mom creative) and they had a couple of hours to relax before Gerard and Mikey would drive to Bernard’s to get Christmas dinner. (It was the one time of the year where they had successfully convinced their mother to not cook, and traditionally, they ordered turkey, roast vegetables and mashed potatoes at a local restaurant.)
Mikey, Alicia and their kid had retreated to Mikey's room for a nap, and Gerard had decided that it was actually a good idea, considering that he hadn't slept that much either what with Buzz keeping them up all night. Of course Frank had to be the sensible one, and while Gerard already curled up underneath a tower of blankets in bed, Frank had taken Buzz for a walk in the snow.
When he trudged in, Buzz in tow, Gerard was already half-asleep and not exactly responding well to being woken up again by a yipping dog and an over-animated boyfriend.
He growled softly to announce his discontent with the noise they made and buried deeper into his pile of blankets. Frank's soft answering laughter made him smile into his pillow, and he half-listened to Frank's voice shushing Buzz and making her lie down on her pillows near the door, before he heard Frank shrug out of his jacket and toe off his boots, his clothes hitting the floor.
When Frank lifted the blanket to slide into bed as well, Gerard grumpily made a noise of protest, a protest he followed with a hoarse shout when Frank pressed himself against him, all icy feet and cold hands.
“Oh my fucking God, get off me! You're a fucking popsicle!” he complained, hissing and trying to move away, backing up towards the wall.
Against his back, Frank giggled, reaching for him with icy fingers. “C'mon,” he said, shuddering happily, “you're all nice and toasty. You gotta share! I walked the dog.”
Gerard whimpered when Frank scratched his cold toes down his calf, his icy fingers dancing over Gerard's belly, puffing softly into his ear. “Oh the weather outside is frightful,” he hummed, pressing closer, “but in here it's so delightful...”
“Argh,“ Gerard complained, but finally accepted his fate as a human substitute for a hot-water bottle, letting Frank snuggle closer, while Frank continued to butcher the lyrics of “Let it Snow”.
“... but if you really hold me tight, I'm gonna show you a fucking good night...”
“Oh please, shut up,” Gerard said good-naturedly, giving up and tangling their legs together.
“Just getting into the Christmas spirit,” Frank said, pressing his cold nose between Gerard's shoulder blades and rubbing himself against Gerard's back.
“You call this Christmas spirit?” Gerard asked, moving back a bit against what he rightly thought was Frank's hard-on against the back of his thigh.
“Mhmmm,” Frank said happily, pushing forward a bit, his breath quickening.
Gerard couldn't resist pressing back, also because that was a part of Frank that was definitely not frosty. Cool fingers trailed down his side, skittering over his hip and back.
“Now that's an idea that certainly would lift my Christmas spirit,” Frank said, humping his ass. His breath was puffing over the shell of Gerard's ear, making Gerard shiver. “I will totally make it worth your while, too.”
Gerard half-twisted, craning his neck back and stealing a kiss, as Frank trailed his fingers down to his naked backside, petting and stroking.
“You gotta let me fuck you, because otherwise my poor cold dick is going to fall off, and it desperately wants to go someplace warm and snug and-”
Gerard laughed against Frank's lips as Frank's fingers slid between his ass cheeks. He let Frank kiss him again, before Frank reached behind him towards the nightstand, getting the tube of lube lying there. He hissed when Frank's fingers returned, the lube just as cold if not colder than his fingers earlier, but it warmed up quickly. Heat shot through him as Frank opened him up carefully, getting Gerard on track with the program.
He dipped his head back, moaning against Frank's hair, shifting his hips so Frank had better access.
It was way too soon when Frank rolled him onto his belly, but he was too lazy to protest and the thought of the burn and stretch when Frank would enter him was turning him on.
They shifted around a bit, Gerard pushing his elbows beneath him and his ass up while Frank settled between his legs, brushing the head of his dick against Gerard's opening.
“Doggy-style!” Frank suddenly snorted into his ear, but Gerard had no breath left to complain at his boyfriend's inappropriate attempt at humor, because Frank didn't waste any time and pressed forward, making him breathe out a groan.
He bit his lip as Frank slid forward, hissing through his teeth, but he forgot about the sting the moment Frank bottomed out and rested against his back, suddenly all warm. Frank just lay there a moment, breathing unsteadily into Gerard's neck, before he pushed himself up and slowly pulled back. He thrust forward with a sigh, burying himself in one stroke.
Gerard yelped against the pillow, shifting so he could get a hand underneath himself. Behind him, Frank cursed, murmuring praise, his hand coming down on Gerard's upper back, holding him down as he sped up the movement of his hips, pistoning into Gerard hard and fast.
Gerard could always tell when Frank was close and it didn’t take long, his thrusts becoming almost brutal, until Gerard pulled his hand away from his dick so he could brace himself against Frank's movement. He grinned against the pillow, listening to Frank curse. He would never get enough of the way Frank did this when he was losing it - it always made him feel so very much alive. Frank growled low in his throat, his hips stuttering out of synch and he shoved into him once, twice more, before he bottomed out, shuddering into him, a yell muffled against Gerard's hair.
For a moment they lay there, panting hard, Frank sucking in breath desperately, before he rolled them over onto their sides, still staying inside him, trailing wet, open-mouthed kisses against Gerard's neck, his fingers roaming Gerard's sweat-slick belly.
“Wait, wait,” Frank whispered, gasping in another round of breaths, his fingers trailing through Gerard's pubic hair until he reached his cock. Gerard closed his eyes, feeling the need strum through him.
For a while they breathed together, Frank’s fingers dancing on his cock, with the purpose of teasing him rather than getting off. Gerard waited patiently, sighing contently when he felt Frank shift behind him and press shallowly into him again.
“There we go,” Frank groaned, moving his hips in small circles, rocking into him gently, while his fingers moved on Gerard's cock.
“Fuck,” he breathed, “fuck.” He loved it when they fucked like this and Frank didn't pull away after he came. He hitched his hips into Frank's touch, urging him on. Frank's hand was warm and tight on his cock and Gerard felt sweat run down his neck. He was suddenly too warm, clammy with sweat, Frank behind him like a furnace. He felt the sticky trickle of Frank's release against the back of his thighs, but he didn't care, feeling himself build up towards his own orgasm.
Frank rocked into him carefully, almost lazily, but his movement picked up speed again the longer they moved together. Gerard felt himself slip away, caught in the rhythm and press of their bodies, their panting breaths loud in his ear. He felt warm and cared for, swimming in a cloud of heat, his body tingling with it. When he finally came after what seemed an eternity, shouting at the sudden sharp sensation of his orgasm ripping through him, Frank bit his neck, following him shortly, moaning and whispering his name into his skin, reverent and desperate.
He came down slowly to Frank's fingers petting his trembling, sticky stomach and he twisted onto his back, despite knowing he was gonna make a mess of the sheets. Frank was lying on his side, curling against him, his chin propped up on Gerard's shoulder, his eyes shining, hair sticking to his sweaty face.
“Warm now?” Gerard asked, reaching out and brushing a strand of dark hair from Frank's face.
“You should see yourself,” Frank said hoarsely. “You should totally be able to see yourself the way I see you.”
Flushing, Gerard rolled his eyes. “How? Sticky and disgusting?”
Frank glared a bit. “I fucking love you,” he said instead of an answer, pressing a kiss to Gerard's shoulder.
“I love you so much I want your fucking babies,” Gerard replied. “I mean, little fat dogs.”
“Buzz is not fat,” Frank protested, but he giggled.
“She will be.”
“Says the man who feeds her bacon for breakfast.”
He sounded sleepy, and Gerard poked him gently. “You know, you can't actually sleep now? We gotta get up and get dinner.”
“Pfft,“ Frank said, wiping his slightly snotty nose against Gerard's arm, which should have been gross but was actually just endearing. “Are you saying that your absolutely fabulous boyfriend, who walks your fat dog and gives you awesome orgasms can't snooze in bed while you and your brother bring home the bacon? On Christmas?”
“All right,” Gerard sighed. “Then I'm gonna get up alone. But only because it's Christmas.”
He slowly pushed himself up and climbed over Frank's prone body, tempted to slap his naked ass but valiantly resisting.
“Yeah, yeah, just because it's Christmas,” Frank murmured, flapping a hand at him.
*-*
Later that night, after a nice but still exhausting family dinner - Christmas was never entirely leisurely when the Ways, their extended family, the Simmons and now once more the Ieros came together at a table - Gerard sat in the freshly upholstered red seats of Cinema A in the Belleville Film Palace.
He looked around at the faces of the other people in the movie theater, recognizing a lot of the regulars still. In the row in front of them, Lindsay sat with husband number two, an animals’ rights activist from the WWF - they had married only a couple of weeks ago and were in Jersey to visit the family. Ray and his girlfriend were there, too, sitting on Frank’s left side, talking quietly.
When he looked over at them, he caught Frank’s eyes, and he grinned. He loved the expression on Frank’s face, unguarded and excited and childlike, like the best thing was about to happen. It was only Gremlins, but the fact that watching a movie could key up Frank so much made Gerard maybe love him even more.
Around them, the lights dimmed and the whispers from the movie goers toned down apart from the occasional cough. Gerard exhaled a breath. For a moment he could almost imagine that they had never been apart, that they had never broken up. Then again, maybe it had had to happen. Right now, he was pretty sure that they would stand against anything that life may throw their way, together.
Frank bumped his warm fingers against Gerard’s in his lap, and Gerard looked down and watched as Frank locked their hands together, his thumb drawing circles in the palm of Gerard’s hands. When Gerard turned his head, Frank was still smiling, his face glowing, happy and content.
For the first time in a long time, things were just as they were supposed to be.
The End