Another Way | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Three)

5

A/N: only five chapters in and i was already in desperate need of a break. nice. whatever. i'm better now but not more motivated to write. i'm not gonna give up on this fic though... hold me to that, please.

• • •

"So you woke up and she's just gone?" Frank asked, looking at the ground as he walked next to Gerard. The sky that morning was overcast, but the sun was beginning to peek through the clouds.

"Yeah, exactly, but apparently it's normal for her to do back home," Gerard explained, waving one hand around as he spoke like he always did, holding a cigarette between two fingers of his other hand. "But I'd rather she not do it around here since she doesn't really know the place, you know?"

"Yeah, of course, that makes sense."

Somehow, when Gerard woke up that morning to find that Harley had already left the house, he knew exactly where he'd find her. He wasn't surprised that she was gone, either, based on what Evelyn and Emerald had told him back in New York, and that he'd witnessed her leave for hours every day the week he'd stayed with them. He held off on texting her and texted Frank instead because he was so sure he was right about where they'd find her and that they could show up and take her by surprise.

With his cigarette in the way, he spoke out of the corner of his mouth, "At least I know where she is."

"Okay, but how do you know where she is if you haven't asked her?"

"Just trust me on this one," Gerard said. He sounded sincere enough, so Frank decided to do just that and trust him without another word.

The two fell silent as they walked along the pavement. It was still wet from the heavy rain the night before and there were worms on the sidewalk every so often. Every car that drove by put them in danger of being splashed by dirty puddle water, but at least the rain seemed to have stopped falling sometime throughout the night. The silence gave Frank time to think about the failed barbecue. It was still a lot of fun, but there was a part of it he couldn't seem to stop thinking back to and replaying in his mind no matter how hard he tried to push it away.

He cleared his throat causing Gerard's head to snap up in his direction. "So, do you know that Harley does the whole 'playing with her hands' thing when she's nervous?"

"Like Eve did?" Gerard asked immediately.

"Exactly like Eve did. It's almost scary how similar they are sometimes."

"I know and it's weird 'cause, you know, they aren't biologically related or whatever. But I guess being around her for what? ten years now can do that."

"Man, ten years already. That's wild."

"Yeah," Gerard said, nodding slowly, "time flies." They could've plunged down the rabbit hole of reminiscing about the first time they met Harley, or when Evelyn announced that she and Emerald would be adopting her, or any of the hundreds of memories they had of her as they watched her grow up— but they didn't. They could've gotten lost in those memories for hours, but instead Gerard had questions. "Why do you bring that up?"

"I was in the car with Harley last night, right? And we were just talking and I don't remember exactly how the topic of driving came up but, man, she seems to be terrified of it."

"Terrified of driving?"

"Yeah. So, of course I had to ask why, and— do you know how Eve still doesn't have her license?"