Chapter 1: Oh baby, let me in
Chapter Text
Gerard is trying his hardest to speed walk while drunk. Walking is hard enough inebriated, never mind the fact that a handsome stranger is latched onto his side and keeps stopping them to press his strangely cold mouth to Gerards like he keeps remembering that's something he can do. Gerard’s had a lucky night, the man currently licking at his lips is way out of his league, muscled, tattooed, his black hair is styled into a pseudo-mohawk that keeps tickling Gerards lashes when they kiss. He kisses back the best he can while trying not to fall over onto the unforgiving concrete, probably still warm from the summer's day.
“We’re almost there” He whispers into the man's hair, Hank? He doesn't really remember, the club was loud, and they weren't really doing a lot of talking with their mouths, mostly just grinding and eyefucking until Gerard invited him back home.
Eventually they make it back to his house, grateful that Mikey was out at one of those studio parties and wouldn’t be home for probably a few more hours. Grateful, and sad that the two of them had the house all to themselves. Even though it's been a while, the death of their parents still stung. He had no time for mourning though, when the man kept kissing his neck as they stumbled to his front door.
Gerrard lets out a frustrated sigh after a few failed attempts at sticking the key in the keyhole. Again, another task that is hard drunk, but even harder with the feeling of someone behind you breathing down your neck, a constant reminder of who he’s bringing home, and what they’re about to do. When he finally opens the door and steps inside, the guy lingers outside, like he’s waiting for an invitation.
“C’mon” Gerard urges, because he misses five seconds ago when they were all over each other.
He feels a thrum of arousal shoot down his spine when as soon as he’s shut the door, the man is pushing him hard against the entry wall. The force of it makes him gasp, but he’s shut up quickly by another kiss.
“You smell good..” The man huskily informs, once they break for air, Gerard giggles in between panting breaths and shakes his head, that's not something he hears often and he tries to say this when the man shuts him up with another kiss, Gerards hands come up to wrestle with the man's leather jacket. Trying to expose more smooth inked flesh. When he realizes what Gerard is trying to do, he shrugs his own jacket. When he slides one chilly hand up Gerards shirt to grip the small of his back, Gerard shivers. In the back of his mind he wonders how someone could be so cold on a warm summer's night, but it's pretty far back there. More important things are taking up his brain power, like how the man is now mouthing at his neck.
“What are you? A vampire?” Gerard teases, but he really would like it if they could hurry this up. It's been a few weeks since he was last laid, and he's missing the wonderful full feeding that filled the empty space inside his heart.
“Maybe, that alright baby?” The man asks, voice close to Gerards ear, and hushed, like he’s telling Gerard a secret. All he can do in response is tug him down for another kiss, more sloppy this time. Gerards about to make some crude unfunny joke about vampires and sucking but he doesn’t really get the chance to when he's spun around, chest pressed against the wall, ass grinding with the man's quickly hardening semi. He lets out a whine at the sensation, feeling his handsome stranger mouth along the junction between his neck and his shoulder.
“Y’like that? When I push you around?” It should be criminal, the voice those words are uttered in. Rough and dark, teasing but in the best way that makes him feel a little slutty(whose he kidding, totally slutty). Gerard nods his face half pressed against the wall, he cranes his neck to try and meet his hookup with a kiss.
He feels his belt being undone, sliding out of its loops, and the buttons on his jeans being fumbled with. His hands go down to help, freeing the button from its fabric confines hurriedly, it really has been ages since he got laid, busy work schedule, no time for anything more than his fingers to stretch him out. Thats partly why he was so keen on bringing this stranger home, Gerard could tell he was big. He felt his mouth watering at the thought.
He feels fingers curl around the waistband of his boxers when the front door swings open. Gerard doesn't process what happened at first, frowning when the guy stopped his movements and went silent. He follows where the man's head has turned and sees the door wide open with Mikey standing there, hand still on the doorknob.
“What the fuck Gerard!, Frank?!” Mikey seems torn between being angry and utterly appalled. Frank? Oh yeah that’s what the guy's name was. Frank looks from Gerard, still pressed against the wall, pants half off then to Mikey, who looks like he’s trying his hardest not to start freaking out. Gerard frowns, brows furrowing, how the hell does Mikey know this guy.
“What the fuck Mikey!” Gerard protests, because, hey he was busy, also, knock before you just come in.
“Mikey hey.. We were” Frank starts, hes caught off guard, looking at Mikey now, hands up in surrender. Gerard pulls his pants back up, because the last thing he wants to do is prolong this awful embarrassing event. What he cant figure out is why Mikey isnt leaving, or shutting the door at least so him and Frank can get sorted. Thats what Gerard did on the few times he’d found his brother in bed… or up against a wall in this case.
“You guys know each other?” Gerard asks, trying to distract from what Mikey had just stumbled upon, and to satisfy his own curiosity, why wouldn’t Mikey introduce them, Frank is just his type. It's not like they haven’t hooked up with each other's friends before, but usually when either of them found out the reaction wasn’t a mix of horror and anger like Mikeys right now.
“Dude i cant believe you were tryna bang my brother” Mikey half shouts, ignoring Gerards question. “Not fucking cool!”
“I didn't know he was your brother!” Frank defends, stepping away from Gerard, owch.
Gerard turned around and crossed his arms, he was upset, naturally, little brothers are such boner killers.
“Mikey chill im allowed to fuck whoever” He says, willing the awfulness of the situation to go away. Maybe once Mikeys had his freak out he can exchange numbers with Frank. And continue this at the next possible Mikey free moment.
“Not him” Mikey asserts, he walks in the house and shuts the door, he turns the front room light on illuminating the space,Gerard doesn’t miss the way Frank winces, but he figures its just cause they were in the dark not long ago.
“Why not him” Gerard asks incredulously, they we’re both having a good time, whats the problem?
“I should probably go..” Frank starts, looking like he’s heading for the door when Mikey stops him and grabs him by the hoodie sleeve.
“You and me need to talk” Mikey says, and hes dragging Frank off upstairs before Gerard can get a word of protest in. Leaving him pissed and lost. Since when did Mikey care so much about who he fucks. Really, they both try to forget the other even has a sex life, doing their best when they stumbled upon to ignore it as quickly as possible.
Gerard sighed in frustration, raking his fingers through his mused hair and walks out to the front porch, pulling out his pack of Marlboro reds and rifling through the pockets in his leather jacket for his zippo. Once he finds it(Inner left pocket) he lights a cigarette and takes a deep inhale. Nicotine fixes most of his problems.
When he’s halfway through his cig Mikey and Frank come out the front door, Frank waving awkwardly and quickly getting the hell out of there. Gerard is giving Mikey a look, and Mikey turns to look at him with frustration evident on his expression too.
“You should stay away from him” Mikey asserts, and Gerard scoffs.
“Why, seriously why.” Gerard shoots back, taking another long drag and trying not to be too pissed at his brother. When they’d inherited the house after mom and dad died, they’d made a rule that they wouldn’t fight and to keep the peace for their poor parents sakes Tonight was probably going to be an exception, because Mikey just shook his head and gave Gerard a cryptic look, mostly furrowed brows and a tight frown.
“He's dangerous” At that Gerard actually laughs. Frank was muscular for sure, strong arms and toned muscles that drew him in, But Gerard was also taller than him, and wasn’t no fainting damsel.
“Mikey i'm a grown man I can handle myself” Gerards tone is tight and unwavering, ashing his cig over an empty coke can he’d dranken yesterday and hadn’t taken care of yet.
“Not with him you can’t” Mikey asserts, he's not budging on this and he’s not explaining. A combination that's utterly frustrating.
“Are you kidding me!?” Gerard raises an eyebrow, seriously wondering if Mikey hit his head or something while at that party. “
“Just stay away from him Gerard!” Mikey snaps before heading back inside, slamming the door behind him.
Once he’s gone Gerard stamps the butt of his cig out on the shitty porch chair and shoves it into the drink hole of the can before lighting another up. He wasn’t mad, not really, just upset, mostly confused and definitely frustrated that Mikey's acting like he couldn’t handle himself if it came down to it.
He should probably go makeup with him. They don't go to bed upset at each other. Gerard promised himself he’d always protect his kid brother, no matter how frustrating or stubborn or gross he could be.
Gerard made his way inside, he could hear murmuring coming from upstairs and that confused him, maybe he was more drunk than he thought. When he finally made it up the stairs, he was surprised to find Mikey's bedroom empty, but their parents door cracked slightly open. Gerard didn’t go in there, they hadn’t touched it after the funeral. Gerard crept up to the door, he could tell now that the murmuring was coming from Mikey. Though, it was less like murmuring, and more chanting.
Gerard pushed the door open softly, already anticipating a sad Mikey maybe trying to console himself after their fight, usually it was Gerard who’d bust out the waterworks, but Mikey had his moments.
That's when he was met with an alarming sight that looked like it came straight out of the craft or something. Mikey had moved their parents' bed into the corner of the room, freeing up the middle of the room for a circle of long red candles that were flickering with lit flames. He was in the middle of the circle, holding a book and chanting something that was definitely NOT english, and.. Was that Gerards toothbrush?
“Mikey-” He started, but he never got to finish, because as soon as Mikey's concentration was broken a powerful surge of energy knocked him onto his ass and extinguished all of the candles in one fail swoop. Gerard had the wind knocked out of him with how unexpected the blow was, and for a second he thought that Mikey had hit him, but the other boy was still in the middle of the candle circle, he’d dropped the book, eyes wide and was staring at Gerard with a look of surprise.
“Gerard! Ever heard of fucking knocking?!” Mikey said, scrambling to try and hide the evidence of his… ritual? Gerard didn't really know what was going on, he had no clue what threw him back either. He was almost too confused to process the irony of Mikey's statement.
“What the hell was that??” Gerard exclaimed, trying to stand up but failing, god, the first thing that left him when he was drunk was his coordination, though he was basically sober now.
“It was nothing” Came Mikey's reply, cold and stoney. He was gathering up the candles and he seemed pissed off.
“No seriously, what the hell is that, you practicing hoodoo now?” Gerards laughs though it's humorless and more of a stress response. He's seriously lost, his head hurts and he just knows the hangover tomorrow is going to make work hell.
“I'm going to bed” Mikey starts, trying to push past Gerard to head to his room, but Gerard blocks his path. He isn’t going to let his brother by until they either talk this out. Mikey knows this, and he obviously knows Gerard won't let this go because he sighs and gives Gerard an unamused frown.
“I'm not mad. Can we just for once talk about this in the morning? You have work tomorrow and I don't think I'd be able to explain this to you in a timely manner.” Mikey tries, and Gerard shakes his head.
“Dude, I just caught you trying to summon the devil and you wanna talk about it in the morning?!” Gerard questions, exasperated and still a little shaken up from his fall. That had to have been caused by Mikey right? He didn’t just trip over himself…
“I wasn't trying to-! Gerard jesus! I'm not having this conversation right now.” Mikey pushes past Gerard and storms off to his room. Since when did Gerard's little brother grow up to be such a cryptic ass??
That wasn’t fair, they’d both been going through a lot, he had his own moments himself sometimes.. Most times. Gerard was tempted to knock on Mikey's door and push the issue, but he would just end up fighting with him again, and his head already ached. Gerard resigned to talking about it in the morning, making his way to his room downstairs.
They’d talk about it, probably after Gerard got home from work, and they’d work things out. Then maybe Gerard could see about hitting the bar again, seeing that his latest hookup ended in disaster, he’d insist that they went to their place, and maybe, just maybe Gerard could let go for a few hours, forget his problems and the empty void he’d been desperately trying to fill with alcohol and hot men.
He wished this was easier, a few times he’d contemplated putting an ad online, but he barely knew how to operate their computer, that was Mikey’s forte. Gerard collapsed onto his bed, stale sheets that needed to be washed, cold and empty. He resigned himself to sleep, his mind still swirling with questions, feelings and frustrations.
Chapter Text
Mikey hid in his room all morning, waiting for G to leave before he even got out of bed. He wasn’t ready for the conversation that Gerard was going to try and have with him. He himself wasn’t even sure what really happened last night. All he knew was that he fucked up majorly.
Mikey was just trying to be a good brother, after their parents' death Mikey promised himself that he’d always look out for his sensitive older brother, who loved with his whole soul and was emotionally raw.
Mikey never wanted to see G like he was after their parent's funeral again. Quiet, and not in the normal Gerard thinking-about-the-complexities-of-comics quiet, but an utterly heartbreaking silence that shook Mikey to his core. It took him months of work to get Gerard back to the semi-functional state that he was in right now.
So when he came home last night to Frank Fucking Iero with his brother pressed against their entry room wall. He freaked the fuck out. Not that Gerard couldn’t handle a random hook-up without getting his heart broken, but it was that Frank.. was a Vampire.
Mikey had only discovered the supernatural after their parent's death, when going through their mother's stuff, he’d stumbled across a book that looked ancient and well used. Inside it was filled with what he at the time thought was nonsense. Recipes for spell boils, potions and a few hexes here and there. Mikey didn’t know what compelled him to try it out, maybe it was the thrum of energy he felt when he touched the pages, or the electricity that coursed through him when he chanted those strange words.
Mikey knew one thing for sure, magic was real, and it was wildly unpredictable. He’d almost burnt the whole house down while trying to straighten his hair by using magic(one of his dumber uses of the book.) But Magic was also incredibly useful, it had gotten him a new job at the old bookstore he’d wanted, it got G his rare star wars collectible(Both through means of a powerful manifestation spell). So Mikey considered it a net positive.
The development of magical creatures was something he’d been unprepared for, until Frank Iero showed up to a house party, naturally the two nearly hooked up, until he’d caught the man's fangs out, leaching blood out of a field rabbit when he was supposedly taking a leak. He’d almost staked the vampire with a discarded fencepost.
However Frank was able to talk his way out of becoming a shishkabob. Frank was a ‘vegetarian’ essentially he only drank from animals, never humans. Mikey and him had formed a reluctant friendship.
But when Mikey walked in on him and Gerard.. He felt a sense of doom wash over him, He hadn’t thought of the danger of Gerards consistent casual hookups. Mikey was letting his brother- intoxicated, trusting, trying-to-fill-a-hole brother, out onto the Jersey streets that, according to Frank, were quickly being filled with bloodsuckers trying to expand their territory.
So that led Mikey to try something incredibly stupid. Though in his defense, he’d been messing around with the spell book for almost a year and a half. So he’d attempted to rewire one of the hexes, the original hex caused the hex-ee to become a monster magnet amplifying their scent just a little, causing monsters within a 100ft radius to instantly know where the hex-ee was.
So Mikey had attempted to rewire it, what if he made G a monster repellant, that way Mikey could get some sleep after the events of last night.
But when Gerard had interrupted the spell, that was a factor Mikey had never planned for. Gerard usually left him alone, and Mikey thought he still had at least 20 minutes before G would try and talk things out.
He was wrong, and the spell had been cast throughout the room before he had the chance to finish it. All morning he’d been reading the spell book, hoping it would give him insight onto what happened.
No luck so far, the closest thing he’d found to an explanation was that interrupted spells were volatile, but all of the spells were pretty volatile(again, magical hair straighteners don't do well around vintage curtains.)
G had left for work an hour ago, so Mikey was sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee in one hand and the spellbook in front of him. He’s flipping through the pages for a third time when someone knocks on the door.
Mikey makes his way cautiously to the front door, before he approaches it he grabs the silver knife from their kitchen. In that time, the person at the door had knocked again… and again. When he slowly creaks the front door open he’s met with Frank standing close to the door, fist up ready to knock for a fourth time.
Frank has a huge coat on, hood up to protect his sun fearing skin and his hands are covered in leather gloves. He has a grim and almost panicked expression on his handsome features. Mikey frowns and cocks his head.
“Mikey we need to talk, it's about Gerard” Frank says urgently, and this catches Mikey's attention. His stomach swoops in a horrified way, this probably had to do with his backfired spell. Judging by Franks face, its nothing good.
“Okay..” Mikey closes the door to unlatch it, when he opens it again Frank is pulling his hood further down over his face. “Come in”
They moved into the front room, door shutting behind them leaving the two in relative darkness, Frank shucks off his jacket and starts pacing. The vampire is worrying his lip ring between his teeth. “Mikey is Gerard home right now?”
“No..? he left a little bit ago”
“Fuck… where’d he go?” Frank runs his fingers through the shaved side of his head.
“To work? He should be on the train right now.. What's this about?” Mikey questions, a sinking feeling dragging his stomach down.
“I can still smell him.. It's like his scent has been amplified tenfold, and it’s different now, I can only smell his blood” Frank stresses, he stops pacing to stare directly at Mikey. “What did you do..”
“Shit..” Mikey rushes to the kitchen table and flips to the hex he had tried to rewire, rereading the section; it wasn’t supposed to amplify his scent like that. Frank followed him into the kitchen, cowering in his hood till he shut the curtains that were letting in the soft rays of light. “The spell doesn't mention anything like what you’re describing..”
“You tried to hex your brother?!” Frank exclaimed, having suddenly appeared over Mikey's shoulder. Vampire speed, it's something he’s never gonna get used to. “What the fuck!”
“No! I tried to rewrite it! I wanted the opposite effect!” Mikey explains, scooting away from Frank's cold proximity. “I got interrupted near the end though.. You don't think..?”
“That your ‘rewiring’ just made the hex worse?” Frank asked, his tone panicked. “That's what it smells like! I can still scent him like he's right in front of me.”
Mikey was silent for a moment, stomach doing flips, he felt himself start to sweat even before he heard Frank's next words: “And if I can? That means every other monster can as well”
The two shared a horrified look, Mikey at a loss for words. Guilt and fear curled around his mind.
-
Gerard was sitting in the back of the subway car, he’s trying his best to sketch with the jostling of the subway coming to a stop and letting new passengers in. He’s working on a zombie eating brains with chopsticks.
He’s trying to perfect the exposed bone in its hand when a stranger sits down in the seat next to him. Gerard glances up, the subway car is mostly empty, just him, the man next to him and a couple making out on the opposite side of the car, there's plenty of seats. That's not the oddest thing however, the man next to him is staring at him, nostrils flared. Gerards gut sinks, something telling him he’s in a dangerous position.
“‘Ello lovely…” The man says, voice rough, but the man's smile is almost picture perfect when he flashes it, his teeth are sharp.
Gerard looks around, feeling awkward and hoping that the man wasn’t actually talking to him, but they’re the only two sitting in this part of the car. “Hello..?”
Gerard goes to move away, when the man leans in and sniffs. Gerard almost falls off the seat when he recoils, the man just follows though, encroaching on Gerards personal space. “You are simply mouthwatering…”
“I'm sorry- what?” He feels panic start to swell in his chest, feeling cornered, almost like prey. “Did you just smell me?”
“Been smellin’ ya, since last night.. Just couldn't find ya till now..” The man licks his lips, eyeing Gerard like a piece of meat. G grabs his bag, trying to shove his art pad back into it so he can move away from this creep. He doesn’t understand anything this guy is talking about… smelling him? He’d taken a shower just yesterday, how is that possible?
“Right- uhh” Gerard tries to stand up, but a combination of the subway train comes to another lurching stop and a harsh tug on his jacket sleeve, he's thrown back into the seat and closer to the man than ever. Throwing his bag to the floor and spilling his things out.
“Let me go!” Gerard starts to panic, but the man just laughs, grabbing Gerards wrist now, with a grip that's strong and probably bruising. He winces and tries pulling away, to no avail, the man seems to relish in his struggle.
“Never met a morsel so appetizing before...” The man goes for Gerards other wrist, trying to pull him closer.
“Don't touch me!” Gerard tries to kick away, but it seems almost like this guy has some kind of superhuman endurance, and he stays perfectly in place despite Gerards protests.
However, before the man can do anything further another hand yanks the man away from Gerard. His assailant releases Gerards wrists. G scoots away quickly, crading the sore and bruised flesh. He finally snaps his head up to gaze upon the scene unfolding in front of him.
The man that had been harassing him now has an almost horrified look, and he's blubbering out an apology to the guy who pulled him away from Gerard. His savior seems to be about his age, maybe a little younger, long black hair but roots dyed a bright red. He’s wearing a hoodie and generally looks largely unassuming.
“He said leave him alone” The guy said, he has a gruff but assertive voice. Before Gerard can really process what's happened the man that had been bothering Gerard darted out of the subway car just before the doors closed.
Gerard turns to look fully at the guy who’d just saved his ass, he’s turned to G now, an apologetic smile on his face.
“Some assholes have no manners” He tries to joke, which gets an awkward chuckle from Gerard. “You okay?”
Gerard still has that gut feeling like somethings wrong, but he chalks it up to lingering anxiety from before. He nods his head after realizing he was just staring for a moment there. “Yeah- I mean, thank you so much”
“It's no big deal, Im Bert” He says, settling down in the seat next to Gerard and extending his hand for Gerard to shake.
“Gerard..” Bert’s hand is cold, but so is Gerards, the subway always went overboard with the air conditioning. “That was so crazy, i've never been harassed like that before”
Gerard sighs out, reaching down to gather his things from where it was thrown to the floor. Bert leans back in his spot and lights up a cigarette. Gerard frowns and yearns for his own. “Isn’t there some kinda rule against smoking in the subway?”
“Yeah, I'm not much of a samaritan though” Bert chuckles, offering the cig to Gerard. Part of him knows this is a bad idea, as if accepting a hit would seal his fate, but fuck it, he almost got asaluted and nobody said anything.
After taking a drag and passing it back to Bert, the other man takes a lazy slow inhale, blowing the smoke through his nose. “Where are you headed?”
“Just to work, I'm a background artist for cartoon network.” Gerard finished organizing his belongings in his bag, not realizing he left his cellphone on the ground. “You?”
“Not headed anywhere in specific, just love the tube y’know? The daytime is so boring” Bert shrugs, laughing to himself. “I really come alive at night”
Gerard cuckles, nodding his head. “I get that, haven’t had much luck with the nightlife lately though”
Bert nodded, pushing the hand that didn't have the half burned cig in it to run his fingers through his dyed hair. “Yeah?”
“Its a long story, I just dont think im hitting the right bars” Gerard sighs out, the intercom announces his stop is coming up soon.
“Hard for me to believe you’re having trouble picking people up” Bert smiles slowly, eyeing G. He feels blood rush to his face, probably going splotchy pink in the cheeks, and Bert takes a deep inhale that he tries to disguise with another drag of his cig.
“Thank you again” Gerard says sincerely, standing up, Bert watches him with calculating eyes and a lazy smile. “I don’t know what he would’ve done”
“Trust me, nothing good” Bert shakes his head knowingly, eyeing Gerards ass as the raven haired man exited. “Stay safe, handsome”
Gerard darts off onto the platform, that was weird. Probably the worst encounter he’s ever had on the subway, he was going to have to tell Mikey all about that. Mikey… He was still frustrated and upset at his brother. G also still had no clue what the hell even happened last night, his memories slightly blurred together, but he swore something shoved him to the ground after he’d interrupted Mikey's spell(?) Gerard wasn't even sure what he’d accidentally stumbled into.
He walked up the metro stairs, checking his watch and noticing he was going to be late if he didn't hurry. All thoughts about the odd encounter on the subway left his mind as he focused on navigating the sprawling streets.
-
“He’s not picking up his phone” Mikey panicked.
“You said he's at work? Maybe call his office?” Frank offered, he was perched at the dinner table, smoking a cig and trying to help mikey calm down.
“Right, good idea, wish i knew what that number was” Mikey snarks back, letting out a frustrated huff and biting his nails anxiously. He calls again, no answer.
“Listen Mikey, I can still scent him, I’m sure he just forgot to charge his phone.” Frank says, ashing his cig onto a napkin. “Plus it's still light out, no vampire would dare strike during the daytime”
Mikey shakes his head, finding little comfort in Frank's words. “Its my fault he’s in danger”
He finally sits down in one of the dining room chairs, grabbing his shitty laptop and starts furiously googling. “I need to figure out how to reverse it and soon, Gerard usually doesn’t even get home till 7”
Frank nods, understanding Mikey's twitchy, angsty energy. “If the sunsets before we’ve heard from him, I’ll go looking, try and track him down”
That seems to mollify Mikey a little, who lets out a sigh, trying to ease the tension in his shoulders and the anxiety in his stomach.
“Besides, I doubt he smells this intense to other vamps, its just cause my diet, s’like dangling water above a dying man…” Frank admits, sighing and stubbing out his cig.
“Can I even trust you to be in the same room as him? Your fangs have been out since you entered the house” Mikey questions seriously, looking up from his laptop. He’s staring at Frank like he can read the vampire's mind.
“Yea- Mikey I’d never hurt your brother” Frank insists.
“Promise? Fucking Promise me” Mikey gives Frank a sharp look. He’s already lost his parents, he can't lose Gerard too.
“I promise”
-
Work was slow, Gerard sometimes wondered if he was on the right path. Doodling during company time had become the norm and he’d fallen out of love with his position. He really couldn’t wait to get back home and maybe crack open a cold beer. He made his way down the grody stairway to the sub platform.
He’s waiting for his train to come when someone approaches him, he looks up from the character he’d been doodling and sees a familiar face. It was the guy from this morning, Bert.
“Oh hi” He says, smiling a little awkwardly. Bert smiles and holds something out to Gerard. It takes him a second to recognize what he’s being presented with. Was that.. His phone?
“You dropped it on the train, thank god I found you again.” Bert explained, Gerard took his phone back. Feeling supremely embarrassed he doesn’t say anything for a moment.
“Wow, thanks, that's twice you’ve saved me today” He says finally, feeling a little dumb just sitting there. “I really owe you”
Bert laughs at that, “Here's an idea, where you headed?”
“Home probably, I live in Jersey” Gerard shrugs.
“Funny, me too, how ‘bout, you and me stop for a drink on your way home” Bert offers, a sharp smile on his face. Gerard smiles back, the embarrassment fading and excitement rushing in. Bert was just his type, handsome, mysterious and almost dangerous looking.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to that, you have no idea the shitty few days i’ve had..” Gerard says, standing up and slinging his bag over his shoulder, gesturing for Bert to follow him onto the train.
“Great, I know just the spot to take your mind off things” Bert says. When they get on the train, it's much more crowded than that morning. Both of them huddled in a corner near the back.
“Always so packed around this time” Bert comments after they get situated.
Gerard nods holding onto the same pole that Bert was, their fingers almost brushing. “You take this route often?”
“No, usually I don't go to new york, in fact, I just moved to Jersey a few weeks ago” Bert said, looking around the subway car for a second, like he was making sure nobody was looking. He turned back to Gerard, and suddenly G had Berts entire attention.
“Really? Where from” Gerard asked, feeling his face heat up under Berts eyes that were raking over his face and body.
“Utah”
“Wow, that's far” Gerard thinks back to his highschool geography class, he was pretty sure Utah was on the west side.
“Yeah, needed somewhere new, somewhere with greener pastures if you know what I mean” Bert said, and Gerard was pretty sure that it was some kind of double entendre, but he really couldn’t figure it out.
They chatted easily for the rest of the ride there. Gerard leaned a few new things about Bert, turns out the other man was only a few years younger than him, he was in a band and he was really funny. Gerard found himself laughing loud enough that the woman standing next to them glared.
When they exited the train, and made their way up into the pleasant summers evening, the sun had just set, leaving the sky a dark moody red. Bert was leading him through the mostly empty streets.
“Where are we going?” He asked, taking off his hoodie and stuffing it into his bag, it was nice out, and he was quickly warming up now that he was out of the cool subway. Gerard was wearing a black button up, but he rolled the sleeves up enjoying the warm night air.
“Friend of mine owns a bar, His name’s Jepha,” Bert answered, eyeing the newly exposed pale skin. “always hooks me up with free drinks, i’m sure he’ll hook you up too”
“What are we waiting for then?” Gerard laughed, letting Bert take his hand and the two of them walking faster through the street. Berts hand was strangely cool, the touch feeling almost electric against G’s own warm skin.
They were walking past
“I think you’ll like him, he’s also into nerdy shit” Bert jokes, watching for Gerards embarrassed reaction.
“Hey I said no teasing” Gerard scoffs, but he feels his face heat up a little. Bert revels in the reaction. Gerard's face was slowly turning pink, from Berts teasing, he’d been doing it all evening, making little comments to see how much he could make the other blush.
The two of them walk with easy conversation for a minute, when a beaten up black car pulls up next to them, the driver rolling the window down manually, when Gerard turns to see who's keeping pace with them, it's his hookup from last night. Frank was it? What the fuck.
“Gerard. Mikey was calling you all morning, what are you doing?!” Frank huffed, he had a stressed expression on his face and Gerard stopped in his tracks.
“Really?” Gerard pulls his phone out of his pocket and turns it on. Sure enough, there was over twenty missed calls from Mikey. “Is everything okay?”
Instantly going from confused to worried, Mikey never called that much unless it was something important. Gerard gave Bert an apologetic look as he walked up to Frank's car. For the first time, Frank's eyes land on Bert, and the relieved expression he had turned into a scowl. “Whose that”
“I'm Bert, who are you?” Bert asked, standing behind Gerard, and crossing his arms, meeting Frank's scowl with a smirk.
“Nevermind, Gerard, you need to come home now, Mikey wants to talk.” Frank says, shooting Bert a dangerous look before turning his attention back to Gerard.
“Frank, is he okay?” Gerard presses, his protective instinct kicking in.
“Yeah, he’s fine, it's about you though” Frank answers in a tense voice, eyes back on Bert. Gerard takes notice how the two of them are glaring daggers at each other, almost ignoring him.
“Ill drive us back, get in” Frank said, unlocking his car. Gerard turns back to Bert with a small frown.
“Im sorry, family calls” He says solemnly, he was really looking forward to free beer. Though he was more worried about what Mikey had to say that he had Frank out searching for him. Bert huffed and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
“S’alright Gee, we can do this another time..” He lights up and tosses another glare in Frank's way. Bert smirked and then added “I put my number in your phone, text me when you’re free”
“Will do” Gerard giggled, waving before crossing over to Frank's passenger seat and getting in. Franks speeding off before he has his seatbelt fastened.
The car ride is awkward and tense, G can feel himself sweating. When he looks over to Frank, the man is gripping the steering wheel harshly. It was almost too quiet in the car, just the sound of the engine running and faint static coming from the clearly busted stereo.
“What's Mikey wanna talk about?” Gerard asked, trying to break the suffocating silence. He’s met with a glance from Frank, who just turns his eyes back to the road and somehow grips the steering wheel even harder.
“Its better if it comes from him” Frank grunts out.
The rest of the car ride was quiet, but thankfully it was quick. Gerard felt like he could’ve cut the tension with a butterknife. When they finally pulled into the driveway of the Way house. Gerard exited the car as quickly as possible.
He walks up and Mikeys is already waiting on the porch, Mikey lets out a sigh of relief when he sees Gerard. Then he switches to being pissed off. “Why didn’t you answer my calls?!”
“Lost my phone, sorry Mikes” Gerard said, putting his hands up in a mock surrender, he really didn’t wanna fight again, they still hadn’t fully reconciled since last night.
“Whatever, sit down we need to talk” Mikey said, himself sitting down in one of the porch chairs, his expression is stressed and dark, Gerard feels himself getting anxious. Frank joins them, standing with his arms crossed against the porch frame, he’s not looking their way.
It's awfully quiet for a long tense moment, Gerard feels like he’s being cornered. Why Mikey would need Frank for this discussion is beyond him.
“So what is this all about.." Gerard starts slowly, breaking the tense silence. "If its about my drinking I don't wanna hear it”
“Frank is a vampire” Mikey says bluntly.
Gerard bursts out with his honking laughter, shaking his head, Mikey only tenses, and for the first time since they got here Frank spoke up. “He’s not joking. Gerard, Mikey fucked up and now you’re a walking talking monster magnet.”
Notes:
Here's my twitter for extra content @Mrkknifefingers
Thread of what everyone looks like: https://x.com/Mrkknifefingers/status/1901889170215477477
makarpo96 on Chapter 2 Wed 19 Mar 2025 06:36AM UTC
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