Mikey rolled his eyes. "Never gonna happen," he drawled, making Gerard smile and look away. "Frank, you need to go to the bathroom."
"What?" Frank actually did, but he was used to announcing it to Mikey, not the other way around. Mikey made his eyebrows move in the way that meant, 'private conversation right now!' though, so Frank said, "Oh, uh, yeah, I totally do," and started squirming towards the edge of the bed.
It didn't hurt nearly as much as it should have done to walk on feet with holes in them. Mikey had to help him stay upright while he was pissing and brushing his teeth, which was sort of embarrassing but nothing they hadn't done for each other before on any given Friday night.
He helped Frank change into fresh sweats and a clean T-shirt, and then folded his arms and fixed him with a serious look.
"What?" Frank said, trying not to look nervous. It was just Mikey, for God's sake.
"Dude," Mikey started, and then he stopped for a really long time and just looked at Frank really seriously.
"What?" Frank asked again.
Mikey sighed. "Look...dude, you and my brother." Frank opened his mouth, but Mikey made a frustrated gesture and went on, "He's not. I mean, you can't. I don't want...you know?"
"I really don't." Frank shook his head.
Mikey made some more gestures, and rolled his head on his neck a little bit, and sighed some more. Frank just waited. Eventually Mikey would get to the point, it was just sometimes you had to suffer through some nervous calisthenics first.
"He's been thinking about leaving the priesthood," Mikey admitted finally, in a low voice.
"Oh my God," Frank whispered back. "Why?"
Mikey shook his head. "A lot of stuff. Mostly he doesn't feel like he's helping anyone, and there's...like, political stuff. He's progressive, or whatever. I don't know."
Frank eyed him. "You do know."
"All right, I do know," Mikey smiled a tiny bit. "But I'm not telling you. The point is, he's really confused right now. And he's...he's lonely, Frank, and..."
"And?"
"And you're," Mikey waved his hands at Frank's general being. Frank raised an eyebrow and Mikey sighed. "You're persistent."
"I'm - Mikey, Jesus!" Frank hissed, shoving at him as best he could without falling over himself. "I'm not gonna try to get in his pants, for fuck's sake, who do you think I am?"
"I know you!" Mikey hissed back. "I know what you look like when you're really into someone, Frank, I'm not an idiot!"
"And I'm not a," Frank couldn't think of a word for someone who would try to seduce a priest. Even if that priest was totally hot and had magical hands. "A harlot," he finished finally.
Mikey's eyes almost fell out of his head, they rolled so hard. "A harlot, seriously?"
Frank clicked his tongue irritably. "Look, Mikey, your brother's an awesome dude, and - okay," he said quickly, holding his hands out to placate Mikey, who was practically grinding his teeth. "If things were different...but they aren't. Christ, Mikey, I think I should be offended, here! What am I, faking all of this just because I've got designs on your brother's virtue?"
"I'm not just worried about him," Mikey said carefully, searching Frank's face with his eyes. "You're all needy and shit."
"Oh, well." Frank folded his arms. "Thank you, Doctor Phil."
Mikey made a face. "All right, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to look out for you, fuck."
"Whatever." Frank leaned against the door, rolling his forehead against the grain. He needed to get back; the pain was starting to lap at the edges of his consciousness like a really horrible wave. "It hurts, Mikey. It hurts, and he helps. That's it. I promise."
"You promise," Mikey said, but not in his doubtful voice. He touched Frank's shoulder. "Okay."
Gerard went off to the bathroom after Frank came back - whether or not he was getting his own version of The Talk from Mikey, Frank didn't know, because he was too busy listening to Ray, Bob and Brian argue about who got to share the couch with Mikey.
"I'm short," Brian kept saying, "And I'm your boss."
When Gerard came back in, Frank had already turned off the lights and burrowed down under the covers.
"Hey," Gerard said quietly, inching onto the mattress. He sat back stiffly, as far away from Frank as possible, and Frank felt bad for putting the dude in this position, really he did, but not as bad as he felt about maybe getting stabbed, so he reached out and curled his hand over Gerard's wrist. Gerard jumped a little bit, even though he could clearly see Frank's hand coming towards him, what the fuck, and cleared his throat. "Um."
"Um," Frank agreed, rolling forward to rest his forehead against Gerard's forearm. He kept the rest of his body away from Gerard's and sighed, closing his eyes and enjoying the respite from pain. "Is this okay? Not too weird? We can maybe work out some kind of thing with the chair, and...I don't know, we can hook feet or something."
Gerard made a funny noise that might have been a laugh or a strangled cough, and patted Frank's head clumsily. "It's fine. I'm going to call the Cardinal in a little while, okay?"
"Mmph," Frank told him, completely unwilling and unable to form words. He was already mostly asleep - he was vaguely aware of Gerard getting something out of his pocket, and then he was asleep.
