The Blade You Stained // Frerard // SEQUEL TO "NEVER COMING HOME"

• Chapter 5 •

Again, I found myself standing in front of my bedroom mirror, straightening my tie and meticulously checking every part of my outfit to make sure that everything looked nice. This would be my last time seeing my family, and I wanted them to remember me well.

Mikey had asked if he could invite Ray, which I obviously said yes to. Basically, tonight was going to be a double date plus my mother.

"You look fine," Frank assured me. I jumped, not even knowing he was there, and turned around to face him. He wore a white button-up shirt with a red tie, and I wore a black button-up shirt with a red tie.

"It seems we had the same idea," I laughed. Frank giggled, and I grabbed his tie, pulling him in for a kiss. It was soft and loving, but it didn't last nearly as long as I wanted it to.

"Are you okay?" He asked. "You seem deflated. What's wrong?"

I sighed, knowing that I couldn't keep anything from him. "It makes me kind of sad to think that I'm never going to see my family again, you know? They don't even know that this is the last time."

"Gerard, you can back out if you wa-"

"No. I want to get revenge. I want to make Linda suffer for what she did to you. A crime like this isn't supposed to be easy, but I want to see it through to the end with you."

Frank looked as if he was about to say something, but my phone rang before he could form his thought. It was Mikey.

"Hey," I answered, "We're about to leave. Are you guys setting up yet?"

"Yeah, we're doing a sound check before the evening rush starts. Hey, I have a question."

"Shoot."

"Is Frank still a vegetarian?"

"Wow, I'm surprised you even remembered that. Yeah, he's still going strong with that. Why?"

"I checked the menu here just in case, and it isn't very veggie-friendly. Also it's a bar, and I know that you still struggle in alcohol-heavy environments. There's a little Italian restaurant right across the street from here that's 24-hour. Do you want to have dinner there after the show instead?"

"Sure, that sounds great!"

"Alright, I'll see you there in a little bit. Love ya."

"Love ya," I replied before hanging up.

"Shall we be on our way?" Frank asked.

"I believe we shall," I responded. Frank took my hand, and we walked out.

-

Mikey's band was really good. They had some real talent, and they worked well as a group. It was amusing and awe-inspiring to see how successful and happy my little brother had become.

Once he finished, he and the rest of the band packed up. One of Mikey's other band mates offered to take his bass home for the night so that he didn't have to worry about taking the instrument and the amp to dinner with him. He agreed, and came out to greet us once everything was taken care of. He greeted Ray with a kiss, and then he came around and hugged Frank, my mom and I.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm fuckin starving," He said, brushing his slightly sweaty hair back.

"Language!" Mom scoffed and hit Mikey on the arm.

"Yeah, bro, language!" I jokingly added.

"You used to curse like a sailor, Gerard! Why are you ganging up with Mom?"

"I have seniority," I grinned. Mikey rolled his eyes, took Ray's hand, and we all walked across the street to the restaurant.

Once we were seated and had gotten our drinks, Frank started the conversation.

"So, how did you two start dating?" He asked Ray and Mikey.

"Well," Mikey started, "Ray is a guitarist, and I'm obviously a bassist. Ray has a YouTube channel that he used to post stupid videos of pranks he pulled on teachers in high school. Once school was over, we both started getting more into our music. We started working together to make videos on that channel where we covered different songs. There was a lot of romantic tension for a while, to the point where most of the comments on our videos were things like 'kiss already!' and 'I ship them so much!' So, I decided to 'prank' Ray by kissing him in the middle of a video and asking him to be my boyfriend, and he obviously said yes." Mikey told the whole story with rosy cheeks and an uncontrollable grin on his face. Ray was giggling and smiling through the story, looking at Mikey with heart eyes the whole time.

"What about you guys?" Ray asked. "Why did you break up? How did you get back together?"

Frank looked at me, cueing me to tell the story. "So, we broke up because Frank had a very... unforgiving mom. When she found out that we were dating, she kind of lost her shit. Frank didn't want to disappoint her, so he broke up with me and left school." I looked at Frank as a nonverbal way of asking if I'd said anything wrong. He nodded, so I kept going. "Recently," I took Frank's hand, "He sent a letter to the old house, which Mom redirected to my apartment, in which he asked me on a date. We went on the date and came out the other end as if no time had passed, and we've been going strong ever since." A smile crept onto my face as I spoke, and I couldn't resist leaning over and kissing Frank on the cheek when I finished talking. Mikey made a fake gagging sound, and Ray lightly slapped him on the arm as a way of nonverbally saying 'shut up, stupid'. Lovingly, of course.

I looked at Mom and asked a question, half as a joke. "Mom, did you ever think that you would have two varyingly gay children in very gay relationships?"

She chuckled. "I didn't even think I'd be having two children," She laughed. "My game plan was to stop at one, but here you two are."

"Why'd you have me, then?" Mikey asked curiously.

"Well, when I checked the test, I was very scared. But then I thought, 'fuck it, my lady parts can handle one more birth'."

Mikey and I both shuddered and laughed at the same time, and the conversation continued on.

We stayed at the restaurant long after we finished eating. We exchanged embarrasing childhood stories, we talked about high school, and just joked around and had a good time. It was a really great night.

Eventually, we decided that we were all too tired to keep talking, so we said our goodbyes.

I hugged Ray, and a tear rushed to my eye that I quickly blinked away.

I hugged Mom, and tears rushed to both of my eyes, one managing to escape before I could blink it away. I subtly wiped it off when I pulled away.

I hugged Mikey, and the tears began to flow as I said, "Goodbye, Mikey."

A/N: Okay this one also kind of hurt my soul a bit

I changed my username and it's very niche and I really don't expect anybody to understand it, but if you have a burning desire to know, message me and ask. I don't bite.

Also I changed the name of this book from 'This Blade You Stained' to 'The Blade You Stained' because I went back and listened to Helena again and apparently I got the line wrong???

I also changed the cover of this book and Never Coming Home so that they could have a somewhat matching aesthetic

I think that's it??

Oh I took my pet snake to Petsmart today and a nice mom came up and told me that both of her children were scared of snakes and that she wanted to help them get over it. Lilith is a ball python whose size is very stunted (she was a rescue and was being kept in very poor conditions so she's about half the size that she should be at her age) so she said that it seemed like a good place to start, and asked if her kids could pet my snake. Of course I said yes and they very hesitantly pet her and it was really cool so I just wanted to share that with you

-Chase