Stars

Chapter 11

Lingering at the doorway, Mikey waited until Gerard and Frank had entered the car before leaning down slightly and giving Pete a hug. He felt tattooed arms hug him back immediately, and the two shared a shy smile.

"I'll see you in a few weeks then?" Mikey questioned, pulling away from Pete.

"Yeah, unless we see each other before school, that is."

"Cool, well, um, bye then," Mikey waved, picking up his bag and making his way to the car, and Frank began to make his way back to the Ways' house.

After dropping Frank home, Gerard and Mikey were welcomed into the house with a shout from the living room,

"Gerard Arthur Way, if I find mud on my carpets one more time, I will destroy every pair of shoes you own."

"Love you too, mom," Gerard shouted back, kicking his shoes off and making his way to the fridge, while Mikey ran up the stairs to his room, leaning against his bed and pulling out his phone to a message from one of his few internet friends.

Only an hour later, Mikey heard his name called from downstairs,

"WHAT IS IT GEE?"

"JUST COME DOWNSTAIRS."

Mikey rolled his eyes, and made his way down to the living room, where Gerard was sitting with a controller and Mario Kart up on the screen.

"No, not again. Every single time you beat me, we are not doing this. Every. Single. Fucking. Time," Mikey said, while backing away slowly.

"Come on Mikes, we haven't done this in ages! Just one round?"

Mikey tried to maintain a straight face as he sat down on the couch, picking up a second controller while raising an eyebrow at Gee, who was grinning smugly. Hunched over the controllers, both brothers immediately switched into competitive mode, Gerard occasionally nudging Mikey's hands to throw him off the course,

"I swear I will throw you into the kitchen if you don't stop that, Gee."

"Try me, bitch," Gerard laughed back, hitting his brother with a bolt of lightning.

"MotherFUCKER!" Mikey shouted, pushing Gerard off the sofa.

"Michael!" Donna shouted, walking into the room only to laugh at the sight of her eldest son lying on the ground while Mikey remained focused on the game, throwing down the controller when he won. Standing up, he leaned over and let out a 'Ha!' laughing at Gerard.

"C'mon Gee, get up."

"Can't. I'm dead," he mumbled from the ground. Mikey flopped back down on the sofa,

"Gerard."

"Shhhhhh I'm dead."

"I'll just beat you again if you're not going to even try to play."

"You have to pull me up."

Sighing, Mikey looked down at his odd socks, catching a glimpse of black phone case under the sofa. Smirking, he picked it up and dangled it above his brother's face, moving back as Gee reached up to grab it, and running away up the stairs.

"Mikey! Give it back!" Gerard called, getting up from the floor less than gracefully, and chasing after his brother to the landing of the second floor, where he tackled him to the ground, struggling to pin the arm down that didn't have the phone. Laughing, Mikey twisted away and began to run again, holding Gerard's phone out ahead of him until he tripped, sprawling out on the floor with his arm outstretched, glasses about a foot away.

Gee dove to grab the phone, just as Mikey clutched it to his chest, causing his brother to scrabble at his hands,

"I will not fucking hesitate to tickle you if you don't give it back," Gerard warned, laughing with a serious glint in his eyes. Now slightly more threatened, Mikey hurled the phone at the wall opposite him, the color draining from his brother's face as he sprinted towards the possibly broken phone.

Upon finding it still intact, Gerard made his way to a now sitting Mikey and laughed,

"Asshole."

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Only five minutes later, the two were sat at the table, neither of them having the compulsion to change the program on the TV from Spongebob, or to admit that it was actually not horrible. A bowl of popcorn sat between the two, along with Mikey's math homework and Gee's sketchbook.

"I really think your drawing could be improved by just..." Mikey leaned over, adding a large circle with a cross through it in place of the undrawn eye of the in-progress character on the sketchbook page.

Without even looking up, Gerard raised an eyebrow, picked up a piece of popcorn, and threw it across at Mikey, hitting him square in the forehead and earning himself a middle finger.

"It's actually pretty good though," Mikey said, attempting to turn his head to see the sketch the right way round. At this, Gee looked up.

"Thanks Mikes."

The two sat in silence for another twenty minutes, each working on their respective projects with the occasional throwing of pencils and popcorn out of frustration, mostly from Mikey. After the 3rd time picking up his pencil from the ground opposite him, Mikey's torrents of annoyance were interrupted as Donna entered the room from her office, immediately looking over Mikey's shoulder at his work.

"Divide."

Mikey mumbled a quick 'thank you,' and kept going with his work.

"You two want bagels?" Donna asked, walking over to the cupboard. Both brothers nodded,

"Great, come and make them yourselves then," she retorted, smiling.

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Ten minutes later, the three were sat at the counter in the kitchen eating, bombarded by the awful puns that come from the mind of a bored Mikey Way.

"I find people who cut the crusts off sandwiches really uncrustworthy." Although smiling, the others just groaned,

"Mikey if you make another fucking pun I will kill myself," Gerard stated, only realizing what he had said when the previously laughing Mikey went silent, the color draining from his face. "Mikes, I'm sorry I didn't mean it, you know I didn't." Mikey just shook his head, walking to his room in silence.

Gerard followed quickly after, leaning against the white wooden door that wouldn't open.

"Mikey, please, I didn't mean it. Please let me in."

The only response he got was broken sobs from inside the room, stinging reminders of a night never forgotten.

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Yeah.