Welcome to the Pride Parade [Frerard AU]

Part III: Chapter 1

PART III: HALLELUJAH

CHAPTER 1 – PAINT FOR HANDS

A/N: Gerard paints on his arm in this chapter, and while I tried to describe what it looks like, I painted myself the way it looks just for clarification (and also for fun ;) ). The picture is above if you're on the app. Enjoy the chapter!

My alarm buzzed at nine, which confused me for a few seconds until I remembered what day it was. I hadn't picked out an outfit yet, but also knew I didn't have a lot to choose from to begin with.

In opening my closet door, all I found was plain – blacks and grays and neutral colors. I'd never been the type to have a colorful wardrobe. The closest thing I could find to a bright color was a white polo. It would have to do. Pride being a very rainbow event, though, I'd have to find something else to add. My hair was still red from when I had dyed it last spring, but the color was starting to fade. Even that wouldn't be perfect for the festival.

I threw on the shirt and some black skinny jeans, then looked around my room for some creative inspiration. Surely there was something I could do to enhance my outfit to be more suitable. A tie, a necklace, a bright pair of socks? Nothing.

Under my bed I found an old paint kit from when I was little. In opening it, I discovered every color of paint and pastel that I could imagine, surprisingly in good condition. I hadn't used it very much then, but grew to like art as I got older. What a discovery this was.

I pulled out a few acrylics, wondering what I could do with them. I laid out a few pastels on my floor, too, to take inventory of what I had.

And suddenly, inspiration was staring me in the face.

I put the paints away – all of the brushes in my room were dried solid – and looked over my pastels. I picked up a red one and pressed one end to the skin of my arm.

I dragged the color across my wrist and curved it down my arm, then thickened the line in the middle until I had a bold arch standing out on my skin. Putting that one away, I realized there was no orange or yellow, but the light green would have to do. I dragged that pastel along the lower border of the red. Then I switched that out for a bright blue, then switched that out for a deep purple. To square off the corners, I used a pink pastel to color the top and bottom, which linked the gradient together.

Using a different finger for each line, I made an attempt at blending my art into more of a gradient. This resulted only in smudged lines and my fingertips becoming just as colorful as my arm itself. I returned to the pastels to touch up my mistakes, remedy the issues.

Once my final touches with white were completed, I pulled the pastel away to examine the whole thing. It didn't look bad at all. It had defined borders on it, like I'd painted a window to a segment of a long gradient – I was glad I'd thought to bookend the colors with the same shade of pink. I wondered if I should add more or make it wrap the entire way around my arm, but I knew that would be more trouble than it was worth.