The Majesty of Choice

Moment

Gerard talks to Mikey for a little while longer, because he can't really focus on anything at all for more than a couple of seconds before his mind immediately jumps back to how depressed he is. He had been so sure that he was going to get rid of the curse today. He wanted so much for it to go away, but life does not agree with him.

"Don't worry, Gerard," Mikey says, "it'll happen someday."

"But what if it doesn't?"

"Don't allow yourself to think like that," Mikey shakes his head.

"Sorry, it's just... it's hard not to be negative when all I've seen of the world so far has been negative."

"I get it, believe me, I do. Part of the thing that sucks the most about being, well, a fucking book, is that I can see just about anyone, at any time I want, and what I have seen does not always give me hope, but people are not all bad. I would actually say that people are basically good."

"Yeah?" Gerard asks. "How much do you actually know about Frank? Like, not to be creepy, but have you ever looked in on him, do you know anything about him that I should maybe know?"

"Uh, I mean of course I've checked in on him a couple of time, he's the Prince."

"Yeah?" Gerard asks.

"Well, I can tell you that recently he's got a crush on this one guy-"

"Oh, shut up," Gerard says, blushing.

"Other than that his life is actually super boring. Like he doesn't do much. At the castle, he mainly just walks around and talks to himself."

"About what?"

"I don't know!" Mikey says, "I can only look at people, I can't hear them."

"Oh," Gerard sighs. "Well do you know... does he... is he any different now than he used to be?"

"By 'now' do you mean since he's met you?" Mikey asks.

"Well, kind of, yeah."

"Well, if you want the completely honest answer, yes. There's definitely a change in his demeanor. He's much, I don't know, I guess he's just happier, and more upbeat. He smiles a lot more than he used to. That's not saying much, because he really didn't smile at all when I saw him, maybe I just never caught him when he was, but he always looked super bummed out about something or other."

"Does he really smile more?" Gerard asks, his spirits perking up a little bit. Gerard thinks back and he's surprised to find that almost all of his memories of Frank are of him smiling. He barely knows what Frank looks like when he's not smiling. He doesn't frown much. Or maybe, Gerard just has a really big effect on him, which sounds like it might be the case given what Mikey just said.

"Yeah, definitely," Mikey says, "listen, I love you, bro, I do, but I really don't want to talk about your boyfriend with you, it's making me uncomfortable."

"My what?" Gerard asks, looking scared. "No, no. God, no. Definitely not. Fuck, maybe? I don't know. Just, I'm sorry. I should go anyway."

"Yeah, probably," Mikey says. "Gotta go pretend you're not falling in love with Frank."

"Shut up," Gerard says, but Mikey just laughs. Gerard hurries a goodbye, and then he's heading out the door, trying to take his mind off of how much it hurts that he missed Brendon by a mere hour.

Gerard, after solemnly walking down the stairs of the inn, informs Patrick and Pete to tell the others where he and Frank will be. He heads back to the tavern, not wanting to leave Frank alone for any longer. He's starting to miss Frank's company. It feels weird that Frank's not here, like he's just supposed to be by Gerard's side.