(Mis)fortune (Frerard, Petekey)

Chapter 17

Gerard claimed he would feel better telling the story somewhere outside so they made their way to the park and sat on a bench. The wooden seat was out of sight to most of the people which they were both grateful for. The place could as well be mistaken for a junkies' hiding place but Frank was totally cool with anything Gerard suggested which was most likely the worst thing to do but Frank was something like a love-struck puppy when around Gerard so it was totally fucking okay.

"So, I should get started by saying you probably won't like what I'm about to tell you, and I totally get if you won't ever talk to me again after the story's done, but I still hope you will..." Gerard trailed off. Frank smiled softly, mostly to himself though, because Gerard must have been a total fool to think Frank would be getting off his back any time soon. He laced their fingers together, squeezing.

Gerard took a breath, then exhaled and opened his mouth as if he was about to start talking, but then he closed his mouth again. Then he repeated his actions.

"Gerard," Frank approached, "I know it's not easy for you, but whatever you say, I won't judge you for it, okay? Just keep that in mind." He ended his speech with a kiss pressed against Gerard's cheek which the artist grinned at and let out a shaky breath. He leaned his back against the backrest of the wooden bench and nodded to himself.

"O - okay, so what you should know is Mikey will always be my younger brother and I will love him no matter what, no matter how crazy I might have thought he was." Frank watched curiously Gerard's facial expressions, the movement of his eyebrows, his lips, eyes, just observing. "When we were younger, we were really close; we would read comic books on the weekend mornings, jam together, watch movies, we rarely fought."

They were times like these Frank felt sad he had never had any siblings to share his childhood memories with. He would have his friends and all but they weren't family, they weren't waiting for him when he got home from school just so they could play together. And Gerard's childhood seemed pretty damn awesome to Frank as he listened to the artist talk.

Gerard squirmed in his sitting position but didn't move anywhere, Frank didn't either, he just kept staring at the man beside as said man gazed in front of him. "There was nothing odd that I could pinpoint on Mikey's behavior until he was... I think 14 or 15, I can't really remember, it was then when I started noticing some stuff." Gerard cleared his throat, somehow managing to choke on his saliva in the process which, let's be honest, Frank would have normally laughed at, but this wasn't the kinda situation to be laughing. In fact, it didn't even occur to the younger man which was even weirder.

"He would talk to himself sometimes which actually wasn't that bad, I sometimes do it too - who doesn't, right?" Gerard laughed dryly, totally undermining Frank's non-laughing rule, goddammit.

"Right." Frank nodded, more out of habit than out of understanding but hey. Not that he wasn't paying attention to what Gerard was saying, he was just mesmerized by Gerard's extraordinary behavior, he had never seen the artist so shaky and nervous. His hand was even sweaty from all the nerviness.

Gerard smiled down at him when Frank spoke up. He leaned closer to the shorter man and connected their lips in an unexpected kiss, at least on Frank's side. He didn't protest, though, melting underneath Gerard's soft touch and chapped lips. The shorter man pulled away just after Gerard's tongue invaded his mouth.

"Gee, the story - continue." Frank gestured with his hand and smiled at the redhead who huffed in response.

"Spoilsport." He shook his head playfully, earning a punch in the shoulder. "Right, so, Mikey would talk to himself from time to time and really, it didn't seem odd to me. But then one day I burst into his room without knocking or anything and he was just there, on the floor, looking ahead and talking to someone. Only there was no one else in the room." Gerard explained, not really surprising Frank - he already knew of him.