MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE ONESHOTS

mikey's creature: pride edition

(happy pride month dudes. even though it's coming to an end relatively soon, you will always be valid. stay cool)

Frank might have very short legs for a sixteen-year-old, but he's very, very speedy. His arm swings around aimlessly as he darts to his best friends' house. His other arm is still, and carries some very precious cargo.

Since the first creature Mikey had bestowed upon Frank, they'd collected about six more. Unfortunately, possums only live to about two years old, so Daisy, their first friend, was long gone and most likely fully rotten in her tiny grave in the backyard. Alongside her other six friends, who were named Janet, Magnus, Vader, Batman, Peppers, and Vanilla.

But this possum was probably the coolest possum Frank had ever seen. It was mostly white, with only a short black stripe that barely reached the top of the animal's head. It almost looked like a mouse.

He wanted to name it either Freddie or Bowie, since it was the first day of pride month (and also just because David Bowie and Freddie Mercury are otherwise very cool), or Totino, for some reason.

So he ran up to his friends' doorstep, knocked seven times to the beat of the Star Wars theme, and waited with Bowie/Freddie/Totino clutched carefully in his hands.

He barely had to wait for Mikey to answer before the door cautiously slid open and Mikey was revealed, adorning a nerdy shirt and glasses perched on his nose. He grinned. "Hey, Frank!" Then he looked down and his grin closed into a softer smile. "Another one? What should we name them?"

"It's a dude this time," Frank informed him, "so Freddie or Bowie. Y'know, since it's June. Or Totino."

Mikey pursed his lips. "Why Totino?"

Frank closed his eyes and shrugged obnoxiously. "Totinos are delicious."

Mikey's frown somehow tightened. "You don't plan on eating Bowie, right?"

"You take things too literally," Frank sighed. "So it's Bowie, then?" Mikey just nodded in response. Meanwhile, Gerard snuck up from behind and looked over his younger brother's shoulder. "Bowie, huh?"

Mikey startled and swiveled around. "Dude—"

Gerard was already in front of him and scratching Bowie's tiny chin from Frank's hands. "Hi there, little guy," he cooed. "You have a very rad name."

Bowie snapped at Gerard with his small teeth and Gerard pulled his finger back before it was munched upon. He giggled.

Frank beamed. "Should we take him with us?"

Mikey nodded and Gerard smiled widely. "Duh," Gerard said.

"Hey guys," said a voice from behind. Everyone spun around. "Are we still going?"

Frank recognized this person as his third best friend, Ray, although he looked very different from yesterday. He still wore ratty, clunky jeans and a boring gray top, but his huge brown hair wasn't brown anymore. It was rainbow.

"Woah, man," Frank exclaimed dumbly. Mikey laughed.

Ray shrugged. "Bigger is better, right?" He held up his wrists, which were covered in rainbow-colored bracelets and were even painted queer colors with marker. "So are we still going?"

Mikey nodded once. "You know it," he cheered, or cheered as much as he could. He was a usually calm person. He offered a light smirk-smile. Meanwhile, Gerard scooped up the possum and took him into his palms. Frank grabbed Mikey and Ray's hands and lead them to his house down the street where his car was parked.

Together they ran towards Frank's mom's van and hopped inside. Unfortunately, Frank's requests for markers to decorate the car windows with pride flags had been denied, so they instead blasted Cavetown all the way to the pride parade, thus annoying every single one of their neighbors.

There had been actually quite the predicament in trying to choose which homosexual music should be played in the car.

"I'm hooking up my phone," Ray said. "I'm gonna play Cavetown."

Gerard leaned his head against the car seat and groaned dramatically. "But I wanted to play Clairo."

Ray did a death glare from his place in the passenger's seat back at Gerard in the backseat. "You and your lesbian music," he mumbled before saying more clearly, "It's pride month! Don't be transphobic, Gerard."

Gerard scoffed, insulted, and placed a hand over his heart as if Ray had pained him. "I am not being transphobic, Ray, but if I have to hear 'This Is Home' one more time — and I don't care how emotional it makes us both — I will smite you."

Ray showed him a rude gesture with a specific finger and turned around and played Cavetown anyway, specifically playing 'This Is Home' first. "I need my trans solidarity," he muttered angrily. He also made sure to put it on full volume.

When they at last arrived at the parade, they went to the souvenir shop first to buy their respective flags; Mikey got both a bisexual and a demisexual flag, Ray bought a gay and a trans flag ("I'm gay Ray," he had exclaimed, and everyone else complained that he had overused that joke), Gerard got a pansexual flag, and Frank also bought a bisexual flag. Then they moved to a food booth to buy some ice cream to cool themselves down under the summer sun.

They were slightly late to the parade; people were already passing by. But they still had fun, joining in with the stampede of queers and laughing and smiling the entire time.

Perhaps it should also be mentioned that at the very end of the event when the parade was done, the group lost Bowie and found him with an incredibly muscular butch that they had to thumb wrestle to get him back. But it was all okay after that.

On the way back home, Gerard got to play his lesbian music. And after they got home, they all had a sleepover at Mikey and Gerard's house.

Ray and Gerard didn't stay up much longer since it was already very late, but Frank and Mikey were still sprawled out on the floor together, wide awake with Bowie sitting in between them.

"I'm glad you're my friend," Mikey said randomly.

"Oh?" Frank questioned, grinning at him. "Any particular reason you're bringing this up?"

Mikey made a noncommittal noise, but then became serious again. "You're the one who... gave me the courage to come out to my parents. I'm so glad I did, because otherwise, I never would've had this awesome day with all of you. You're... great."

Frank's wide grin became a soft smile. "You're pretty rad too, Mikey. I'm glad I didn't just fade into obscurity for you."

Mikey shrugged. "Even though we're older now, you'll still be the weird creature-collecting kid from down the street to me."

Frank's eyes seemed to shine, remembering when they'd caught lizards together in the park and even tried to chase squirrels. "I think I can live with that."

(IT'S DONE)