Birds of a Feather

4. Insomniac

After dinner, everything was sort of back to the way it was, except Ray and Mikey had asked Gerard and Frank if they wanted to play Mario Kart. Gerard wanted to protest because he wasn't good at Mario Kart, but Frank dragged him over to the couch and made him play anyway.

"This is so fucking stupid," Gerard said as he got hit with a red turtle shell in fucking last place. "Shouldn't there be a rule that you can't hit the person in last place? I mean they're already struggling enough."

"That's not how the game works," Ray replied. "Nothing is fair and your goal is to hit people with shells and bananas. That pretty much sums it up I think." Mikey laughed, but Frank and Gerard just stayed concentrated on the game.

Frank was in first place of course, and he was doing a good job of making sure that didn't change. He kept a turtle shell behind his back so that he wouldn't get hit by greens or reds. The only thing that could really hurt him was a blue turtle shell, or if he somehow slipped on a banana peel.

He crossed the finish line though, and proceeded to celebrate by throwing his hands in the air and pumping his fist. That made Gerard giggle, which in return made Frank smile, which led to Mikey being angry for getting 3rd place behind Ray. "You guys fucking suck," he said out of game rage.

"Oh shut up Micheal at least you aren't in last place," Gerard remarked, making the other guys laugh. After a handful of seconds, he managed to cross the finish line, and he even got 11th place instead of 12th. Better than he thought he would do.

"Well me and Ray are going to crash on the couch now," Mikey commented while turning the game console off. "You guys should probably go to sleep too. Or at least talk quietly so I don't get all cranky and have to march upstairs to make you stop." Gerard rolled his eyes playfully and stood up from the couch, motioning for Frank to get up with him.

They retreated back upstairs to Gerard's room and sat down on his bed, closing the door so they wouldn't disturb anyone. "I don't know where you want to sleep tonight, but you can use that bed right there if you want," he said while pointing to another bed on the opposite side of the room. "It was Mikey's old bed back when we had to share a room. Mom was going to get rid of it, but she decided it would be useful for sleepovers, so that's why we still have it."

"That's fine with me," Frank replied. Suddenly he became nervous again. He was real good about shaking the nervousness away earlier that day, but the idea of sleeping in the same room as Gerard made his heart pound rapidly. He knew it was such a simple thing and nothing to get worked up over, but his heart couldn't help it.

Frank tried to deny the fact that the nervousness was probably coming from his 'crush' phase, where everything that your crush did was significant to you. He tried to brush it off as being shy, but deep in the back of his mind, the facts were there plainly. He was getting attached to Gerard even more than before, and with every second he spent with him, the deeper he fell.

"Do you want to go to sleep now or-?" Gerard trailed off, wanting to make sure that Frank was comfortable, being the guest and all. "We don't have to. We can stay up and talk if you want."

Frank didn't want to force Gerard to stay up longer than he wanted to, but he also didn't want to be up alone while Gerard slept. Frank was a massive insomniac, and he could usually cope with it, but probably not so much in an unfamiliar place. "Are you fine with staying up?" He asked shyly.

"That's fine with me, I don't ever go to bed early anyway," Gerard chuckled and Frank felt relieved. "What do you want to talk about?" Gerard then laid down on his stomach, and propped his head up with his elbows, facing Frank. Frank giggled a little and mimicked Gerard's actions, facing his direction.