A nice change

19

Gerard and Shadow had just been quietly talking about their lives when Remington finally saw them (he had already started driving around the neighborhood looking for them before they went outside to wait) and drove up in a rush, obviously speeding. "Shadow!" He practically screamed when he saw them. He quickly ran out his car, leaving the engine running and practically tackled Shadow in a hug. "Don't you ever, EVER, scare me like that again!"

"I'm sorry," They started to cry. He sounded so desperate they started to feel guilty.

"You could have been hurt! Or something could have happened, or-"

"Remington, I'm fine." They said firmly.

He pulled out of their hug to look them in the eye and only then noticed Gerard awkwardly standing there. "Um, hi."

"Who are you?" Asked Remington, way too emotional to even think about being polite.

"They're Viola's Uncle, he saw me out here and decided to make sure nothing happened to me." Cut in Shadow, having already caught on the Gerard wasn't the best in social settings.

"Oh. Well thank you for looking after them."

"It's no problem, they're a pretty cool kid."

"Um, yeah." Said Remington, kind of uncomfortable.

"Well thanks for talking with me Gerard."

"No problem kid."

Shadow walked over to lean against the car and Remington said to Gerard "Sorry about them, I don't know why they're acting up, they're usually not like this." He chuckled slightly.

Gerard just smiled back. "You should just ask them, it seems like you've raised a very intelligent kid, not that I can judge."

"Thanks, Gerard was it?"

"Yeah, Gerard Way." He offered a handshake.

"I'm Remington Leith," He said shaking their hand "I swear I've heard that name before."

Gerard shrugged "I don't know, I'm just a comic book writer," he said, knowing most people recognized him from his work but not wanting to awkwardly brag that he was an award winning author.

"Oh yeah, I meant to ask you more about Party Poison," said Shadow, who had of course been listening from over by the car.

"Party Poison?" Remington asked remembering "Wait I do know you!"

"Huh?"

"Gee Way, we used to play Killjoys out in the desert when we were kids with Ray, Mikey, Fr-"

"Wait wait how do you know about the Killjoys?" He sounded almost panicked.

"Remember, I was that kid who you let play with you guys. You used to call me X cuz I wasn't creative enough to think of a better name."

He looked incredibly confused for a second before he realized something. "Oh, uh, yes, we should, uh, maybe re-introduce you to Mikey."

"Yeah, we definitely should catch up, here I'll give you my phone number."

"Uh, yeah, that uh sounds great." The odd look of panic hadn't left his eyes.

With that Remington joined Shadow in the car and drove away, trying to find the words to ask the most reasonable person he knew why they ran away. But he knew he didn't have to. Because he's been there before. Things need to change between him and Sebastian. For Shadow's sake.