Mikey, as Gerard's brother and also as one of his very best friends, notices a lot of things about Gerard. He notices when his brother is sad, or mad, or having a bad day or on the verge of a breakthrough.
Mikey has always been a people-watcher, an observer of the highest degree. He's not blind, he can see when something is forming between two people, be it romantic or otherwise.
This being said, it took Mikey a while to figure out what was up between Frank and Gerard. He knew his brother like the back of his hand, yet he had never seen anything quite like this.
Mikey first notices the looks. The slow, long, memorizing gazes that slide over and stick like molasses, gazes full of emotion and thought. Those happen while one is on the phone, or lighting a cigarette, and slide away as soon as the other looks up. Gerard is far more guilty of these than Frank. Frank, however, is guilty of lots of short glances, fast ones, like he's making sure Gerard is still there. His eyes dart over Gerard's face, quickly, before he's sucking his head and pretending he wasn't looking.
Gerard will look at Frank, and then Frank will look up and Gerard will look away. And then Frank looks away and Gerard's gaze slides back and the whole exchange repeats ad infinum. When Mikey thinks about it, it's a miracle the two ever make eye contact at all.
The two are always very careful to keep emotion out of their face, but Mikey notices a lot of things that other people don't, and the tiny hints of smiles or softening around the eyes don't get past Mikey. At first, he rolls his eyes and looks away, but after a while, after things begin to click into place, Mikey finds the looks intriguing. It's the tiny moments, the ones when they believe that no one is watching them, that are the most telling of a person. Mikey happens to catch a lot of these moments.
If the looks weren't telling enough, the cuddling sure was. Gerard and Frank are both very huggy, cuddly people, and they tended to gravitate towards one another, partially because they knew that about the other person. Mikey had witnessed one of Frank's best moves several times. They would all be watching a movie, the three of them and Ray and Bob, and Frank would inevitably be sitting next to Gerard and suddenly say/demand,
"I'm in a cuddly mood; cuddle with me, dude." And then Gerard would pull a satisfied Frank to his side, and the two would be draped over one another for the rest of the night.
It wasn't just during movie nights, too. It wasn't uncommon for Frank to come up behind Gerard and hug him from behind, and Gerard wouldn't even blink. Instead, he'd often turn around and hug Frank back. The pair would often sit next to each other, legs brushing, even if there was more room on the couch or bench or wherever they were sitting. They seemed to gravitate towards one another, no matter the setting.
Mikey's bunk was on the bottom, below Gerard's. He was woken one night to feet pressing into his space, of someone standing on his bunk to see into Gerard's.
"Gerard?" Frank whispered after a moment.
Gerard was awake instantly. "Yeah?" There was a pause when no one said anything. Then Gerard asked, softly, "Hey, are you okay?"
When Frank answered, his voice was strained. "I just-uh. I had a bad nightmare and I-well. Nevermind, it was stupid." Before he began to slip away. The feet left the vicinity of Mikey's bunk.
"No, Frank, wait." Gerard said. "You can sleep here with me, if you want." He offered after a moment. The feet reappeared near Mikey's face.
"Really?" Frank sounded hopeful and relieved. "I mean, you're okay with that?"
"Of course." Gerard answered. Then, the feet left Mikey's bunk once and for all. The bunk above Mikey squeaked as the two rearranged themselves to accommodate the other. Mikey rolled his eyes at the bunk above him, before promptly falling asleep.
In the morning, Mikey got immense pleasure at yanking open the curtains to Gerard's bunk to let the sunlight in, all at once. Gerard was facing the curtain, and when his eyes cracked open, he groaned and attempted to block out the light. Frank was curled in towards Gerard, and he just buried his face into Gerard's chest, which Mikey found oddly endearing.
"Up and at 'em, guys." Mikey said weakly, not feeling very awake himself.
"Fuck off." Came the muffled reply from Frank. Gerard grinned sleepily at that, ruffling Frank's hair messily with his free hand.
"Un-fucking-believable." Mikey muttered as he left the two in Gerard's bunk, in favor of waking Ray and Bob.
Since that night, Mikey had been woken up on several accounts to the same thing happening. Gerard seemed to be okay with it, hell, he seemed happy about it, and Mikey used his better judgement, and didn't tease either about the occurrence.
Everyone knew that Gerard liked to talk on length about any number of things, but not many people knew that one of his favorite subjects of conversation was Frank. Sure, he could talk about other things for longer, but a certain light entered his eyes when he talked about Frank. He became more animated, more excited, more alive in general.
Mikey noticed the same change come over Frank when he talked about Gerard. The knee would start bouncing and his eyes would sparkle and a smile would come onto his face, and Mikey found himself spending more and more time in interviews watching Gerard and Frank instead of listening to the questions asked.
It didn't matter in what way they were talking about each other, either. Gerard had the exact same expression when he was talking about how bad Frank smelled in the van days as when he was talking about how amazing Frank's energy was onstage.
Speaking of onstage energy, the duo had plenty of chemistry when it came to the other. Everyone knew that Frank basically went crazy on stage, high off of the crowd and the sweat and the music, and everyone knew that Gerard was on top of a symphony of experience, guiding the audience through an amazing show. Somewhere in the middle, the two met. The number of times Frank had jumped on or messed with Gerard was out of hand, and Mikey noticed that Gerard didn't try to get action out of anyone else. Ray wouldn't rise to the bait anyway, and Mikey would just duck his head and play harder if Gerard tried to get him to do anything. So, Frank was not only the best option of onstage Tom-foolery, he was basically the only option.
Then, of course, there was the art. Somewhere in between concerts, Gerard had failed to tell Mikey that Frank had practically become his fucking muse. One time, Gerard was sitting on the couch, drawing, when Mikey tried to see what had captured Gerard's artistic eye. Gerard, who was usually more than willing to show his little brother his awesome art, was suddenly reserved and blushing, clutching his sketchbook to his chest and refusing to show Mikey. Mikey knew something was up, so he interrogated Gerard in the only way he knew worked like a charm: with tickles.
