Chemical City (An Mcr Fanfiction)

Chapter Ten (Gerard)

"So this guy is having me come to his place so I can rewire his auto-vent system. I'm getting some ramen out of it so that's good. Do you think you'll be fine wandering around here again?" Mikey asked Gerard. It had only been a day since he had a kinda one-sided conversation with Frank, who seemed almost too awkward while Gerard spoke. He actually didn't mind it though because it was amusing to watch Frank stammer and blush when he made small errors while he spoke and tried to come up with eligible words.

In fact, Gerard only appreciated Frank more because of the man's awkwardness. It was fun to watch him as he picked at his gloves while hiding his reddening face or when he turned away as an attempt to cover up his embaressment. Gerard just wanted to see him again to make him repeat those small actions.

"Hey. Gee. Gerard? Hey. Are you in there?" Gerard gasped a little while he brother waved his hands in his face. "Oh! Yeah, I'll be fine. Just a while without you. I'll be alright." Gerard accidentally rambled. His sibling sent him a concerned expression that stopped him from going further on. "Are you sure...?" "Mikes, it's food. We need it. I think a few hours apart won't do any harm, right?"

Biting his lip, Mikey slid his gas mask over his head while Gerard did the same. Unlike his younger brother, Gerard didn't trust himself to buckle the straps on his own so waited for Mikey to be done before asking for his help. Mikey, of course, didn't complain and assisted his brother while Gerard told him of the stalls he had visited and the others he wanted to see.

"That's nice, Gee. But we can't spend tokens on useless things or trade for needless objects." Gerard, nodding along, agreed solemnly. "Yeah. I know. But I still like to look, you know? There's a lot of cool stuff in the world that I'd like to see. Most of which, doesn't need to be paid for. Just think of it Mikes."

Gerard's voice became muffled by his mask. "I've been so captivated by those maps and some showed bodies of water that never seemed to end or mountains as tall as these skyscrapers. Wouldn't it be amazing to go somewhere with a lot of trees someday?"

"Yeah." Mikey agreed. "But it would never happen. Urie forbids travel outside of cities. We're not permitted to leave unless we have a pass. We're unlucky to have been born here-right where the chem house is located. Where he is located. We should've been born somewhere else like, anywhere else."

"Right outside of these boundary lines are endless rows of forests!" Gerard said in continued awe. "Yeah. Full of mutated creatures from God knows where. We wouldn't last a day out there-let alone the rest of our lives. Plus, we have a job to do here."

"A job? What?" Mikey chuckled as he worked on finishing up Gerard's mask. Gerard noticed his sibling had been taking his time as he strapped him in, much to Gerard's dislike. "Passing on our genes. Spreading our tainted blood everywhere in hopes that one day every child would be immune to the poisonous air!"

"Um," Said Gerard. "That is both disgusting and really weird." He paused before adding: "How do you have babies anyways?" And his brother burst out in laughter, falling backwards while Gerard gave him a confused expression. "What? I'm just asking." "I..." Mikey said between gasps for air.

"I know but it's funny be-because you're older than me and you should know but-" He held onto his stomach, laughing even harder when Gerard's confused expression failed to leave him. "You've been down here for so long, you bar-barely know anything and it's so fucking awesome!"

But to Gerard it wasn't awesome because he had no knowledge his younger sibling had, which made him feel stupid even though he knew it wasn't his fault. He couldn't blame himself for staying in hiding to keep safe from the outside world. He, after all, managed to survive five years alone by staying that way and he learned plenty by doing that.