The sun was slowly setting and the sky was getting crowded with a couple of grey clouds, though the summer heat was still very much choking the air around them.
A bunch of them went swimming earlier but the relief of the cold water had worn off and he was already sticky with sweat again.
Pete was sprawled out in the grass next to their abandoned signing tent.
There were fences covered with plastic banners surrounding them to shut out anyone who wasn't band or crew.
It was for the better because if anyone saw a shirtless Pete lying in the grass with a very lazy and equally shirtless Mikey resting his head on his tattooed chest people would talk.
No one needed to know about this and no one did, apart from their band members and some rumours that were going around by some people from the other bands and their crews about how the two of them were just having some fun together, playing the occasional dirty games friends with benefits shared.

Pete wasn't sure if he'd be ready to tell the world that Mikey was his boyfriend, his partner, his whatever they were and would be after the summer was over.
He really liked Mikey, hell butterflies started fluttering from his toes to his skull the second someone mentioned the guy's name.

It was undeniable that they were falling for eachother, they were in love.

But a part of him was worried, after the sun would trade itself for harsh wind and grey clouds, green leaves would fall and paint city streets in copper and orange, what would be left of them?
They hadn't seen eachother for months before this tour started, and both of their bands would start touring right after the summer was over.
My Chem would start doing their tour through Europe and Asia a week after Warped and his band was doing the States, it would be three months apart and then My Chem would do their US tour and Fall Out Boy would go to Europe.
That would make it 6 months atleast before they'd see eachother again, a lot could happen in six months, a person could get lonely.

He felt a hand creep up through his hair and a pair of lips planted on his neck, murmuring soft words that he couldn't quite make out but the vibrations made him shiver while he was still hot and bothered by the summer air.
Mikey shifted his weight and was now lying half on top of Pete, this was one of those things that killed all the doubts he had about the two of them; their bodies fit together so painfully perfect that even in this almost unbearable weather they felt better close together than even an inch apart.
He dragged his fingers across Mikey's spine, making him hum softly.
Pete put his arms around Mikey so their bodies were pressed together, their crotches too clothed for his liking and their lips and tongues dancing.

Mikey inched his face up a littlle, he looked a bit flushed and his lips were swollen and red, he was beautiful Pete thought.
"Hey" he almost whispered, once again dragging his thumbs across the other's spine.
Mikey smiled at him "hey there Mr.Wentz" he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Fuck, you're so lame" Pete giggled, pecking a kiss on Mikey's nose before he rolled them both on their sides, facing eachother.
Mikey laced their fingers together "that's why you like me jerkface" he said and kissed the back of Pete's hand that was resting in his.
He watched as Mikey, scooted a little closer, settling in the grass and finally lying still with their hands still together and pressed against his chest, Pete could feel his steady heartbeat and he could swear that his was beating at the exact same pace.
"You know" Mikey started "this weather fucking sucks, it's way too hot to do anything, Gerard almost slipped on his own pool of sweat when we were on stage today" he sighed "and the weirdest thing about it is that I still want to be all up against you eventhough we're soaked in our own sweat, I like it".
Pete grinned "I like [i]you[/i]" he whispered with his lips almost touching Mikey's cheek.

Mikey quickly turned his head around and kissed Pete "I like you too, but we have bus call in 15 minutes " he said before standing up and reaching out his hand.
Pete grabbed it and pulled himself up and against Mikey, wrapping his arms around his waist and peppering kisses from his shoulder to his neck, making him groan "damn it Pete, we really have to go" he whined.
Pete chuckled but didn't seize his motions on Mikey's neck, instead he started to bite down and suck, hoping to leave atleast one mark.

He felt a drop falling onto his shoulder, and another one, and another one and suddenly it was as if all the clouds collapsed, showering them in countless raindrops, within seconds they were soaking wet.
Pete looked up to Mikey and moved his hands up where he let his fingers tangle in his hair so he could pull their lips together.
Mikey pulled Pete closer and had his arms wrapped around his body, one hand on Pete's ass to press their hard crotches together and one hand on his back where he dug his nails into the skin, sure to leave some marks himself.
Mikey bucked and rubbed his hips against Pete's and he could clearly feel that Pete wanted him just as much as he wanted Pete through the thin fabric of their swimming shorts.
Their chests were slick against eachother and Pete was just about to move one of his hands when they heard a voice yell form behind the fence:

"MIKEY PULL YOUR TONGUE FROM WENTZ'S MOUTH AND GET YOUR ASS TO THE BUS"

"BUS CALL WAS 10 MINUTES AGO YOU HORNY BASTARD" a different voice yelled.

Mikey pulled his head back and groaned "come on".
They pushed the fence open and saw a very annoyed looking Bob and Frank, standing there in their drenched hoodies.
"I swear next time you're too busy groping loverboy over here" Bob pointed at Pete "we're just gonna leave your ass behind".
Mikey and Pete giggled and gave eachother one more kiss, much to the disdain of Frank and Bob who were rolling their eyes, before walking off to their busses.

-
Gerard was putting the finishing touches to his latest project.
It was dark outside, rain was clattering against the windows and he was hidden in his bunk, curtain closed and just a small, faint battery-ran night light to illuminate the small space but enough for him to see his work.
His fingertips were colored by the graphite and smudged black ink, he was careful not to touch the pages while he drew in the details to the last panel with a steady hand.

It had been a while since he drew anything worth the sight of a stranger, but this was meant to be seen by someone else, it was created for someone.
His apology didn't need to be a grand gesture, it needed to be personal and sincere.
After contemplating writing down his feelings into a letter, song or even a poem he came up with writing and drawing up a comic for Frank.
It started out as one page, but he quickly found that one page wasn't even nearly enough, the first paper ended up crumpled at the bottom of the garbage can.
He thought about it some more, about what exactly he wanted to tell Frank, how the guitar player had made his heart jump on multiple occasions eversince he auditioned for the band.

[i]They had just finished their first band practice with Frank as their rhythm guitarist.
It had gone well and they all agreed that Frank, with his aggressive style of playing was the finishing touch to their line-up.
What was even better was that their newest member brought a bag of weed with him that still contained more than enough to get the whole band baked.

After passing around three joints to the point where they were smoked up to sickly grey butts, Ray, Mikey and Matt decided that pizza was the only way to solve their munchies and went out, leaving a very lazy Gerard and Frank behind with the promise to maybe bring something back for them.
Which they ofcourse wouldn't.

Both men were melting back into the kinda filthy but soft matress that they used as a couch in their practicing space.
He could feel that his eyes were probably bloodshot and his limbs were heavy while he stretched them above his head.
For a moment his thoughts dazed off when he remembered that he was laying down next to some dude pretty closely.
Ofcourse Frank wasn't just some dude, they had been friends for a couple of months now but they never really got the chance to get to know eachother besides the shallow "what's up"s and casual talk.
"Hey Frankie" he brought out lazily, turning his head a little so he was facing Frank, who was laying on his stomach with his hands tucked beneath his face.

"Yeah?"
"Tell me 'bout you".
Frank raised his eyebrows a little "what d'you wanna know?"
Gerard rubbed his face with one hand, his fingers smelled like the joint and he dropped it again, letting it brush Frank's side.
"Just.." his brain was searching for the right words but in this cloud of pot haze he settled for simple "the usual, favorite movie genre, favorite band, girls and or boys, whatever man, just..tell me".
Frank giggled "ah, well you know my name, I like horror movies, the Misfits, girls and boys, I'm a vegetarian and I'm too fucking baked to come up with good facts or answers about my humble self".

Gerard rolled over, mimicking Frank by using his arms as a pillow while he stared at the other man's face for a while.
The dim orange light of the lamppost outside was peeking through the curtains and lit the room up just enough for Gerard to study Frank's face a little.
The perfect arch of his eyebrows, the chickenpock scar between them, his long eyelashes and his warm, slightly bloodshot, hazel eyes.
Any artist would beg to draw someone that shamelessly beautiful, in fact Gerard's own hands were itching for a pencil so he could try to translate some of that beauty to an image on paper.
He didn't have one on him, and in all honesty even if he had any drawing supplies, his hands were to unfocused to sketch up anything good.

Instead he settled for using the tips of his fingers to draw imaginary patterns on Frank's face, from his forehead to his cheekbones, down to his jaw where they stayed, softly stroking a line back and forward.
Frank stared at him, not complaining about the touches "I feel like kissing you, can I kiss you?" he asked.
Gerard nodded and cupped the back of Frank's head to bring him closer, he closed his eyes and felt the other's lips softly press into his.

Somewhere in his stomach he felt something faintly familiar, like the feeling you get when you're on a rollercoaster or when you're a child, waking up on Christmas morning to a tree surrounded by gifts.
Frank had slid away one of his hands and let it rest on Gerard's side, where it felt warm and he didn't really want Frank to move it.
He was just about to use his tongue when he heard voices in the hallway and keys clicking into the lock, he immediately turned away from Frank and lay on his back with his hands chastely folded over his stomach.

Just as he thought, the guys hadn't brought back pizza.[/i]

Now they were years later and they had thousands of memories together, some lost along the way but others permanently engraved in his mind.
Those memories, the good ones and the bad ones were the things that had made their bond grow stronger over time, Gerard knew that it was still there, only slightly bruised.

-

Frank practically ran into the bus, swiftly followed by Bob and Mikey, the three of them were drenched and he quickly started to strip off his wet clothes, eagerly accepting the towels Ray had grabbed for them when he saw the trio run up through the rain.

"I call dibs on the shower" he yelled before sprinting across the bus to the bathroom and closed the door just in time to hear Bob cuss behind him.
He turned on the water, rid himself from his boxers and stepped under the warm spray, the rain hadn't exactly been freezing but he didn't want to risk catching a cold on tour.
After he washed his hair he got out, having enough mercy to leave some hot water for Bob, who hopefully wouldn't leave any for Mikey who looked like he was in need of a cold shower anyway.

He tugged his boxers back on and the second he opened the lock and pushed the doorhandle down, the door flew open and Frank got pulled into the hallway.
Bob wasn't one for waiting and made this move, while getting inside the bathroom himself in a mere 2 seconds, Frank was impressed and chuckled softly while he walked to the refrigerator.
It was still warm outside and even hotter on the bus, with their airconditioning being broken in the middle of a July heatwave, he deserved a cold beer which he gladly chugged down in less than a minute before heading to his bunk.

He heard the faint music coming from Gerard's bunk, he was probably listening to his iPod on full volume again, he'd been ignoring the world like that for the past few days.
Frank sighed and crawled into his own bunk, closing the curtain behind him, his hands felt something unfamiliar when he reached for his pillow behind him.
It was a small stack of papers, held together by a red paperclip, the front page simply said "for Frank" it didn't say who it was from but he had seen that handwriting countless times before.

He flipped to the next page, there were a bunch of panels, in the first panel he recognized himself, Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Matt smoking a joint. Then the guys leaving him and Gerard alone to eat some pizza, some talking between the two of them, Frank remembered this faintly.
He caught himself smiling and tracing the lines of the next panel, it was Gerard and him kissing, it was quick and chaste but it had been what ignited everything he was feeling today.
In the last panel the guys came back and Frank and Gerard weren't even touching anymore, just staring at the ceiling.
He read the thought bubble Gerard had drawn for his comic-Gerard;

[i]"Wow. Wow. Holy fuck that was amazing, so this is what it's supposed to feel like, oh fuck no I'm screwed.. I hope he liked it too.. NO GERARD STOP.[/i]

Frank scrunched his eyebrows and turned the page, comic-Frank and comic-Gerard were now sitting on the roof of their first touring van, this had to be somewhere half way through their first tour, when they were still sleeping on people's floors and played for 20 man crowds on a lucky night.

[i]Gerard: Frankie, I don't want to be a pessimist, but if we go back now we'll atleast have some of our dignity left.[/i]

He looked at the next panel, comic-Gerard was staring into his lap and comic-Frank was staring at him, even back then.

[i]Frank: Then stop being a pessimist, we're gonna get there just wait Gerard, it's gonna be great.[/i]

Three panels of them doing nothing but staring at the night sky over the cornfield next to where their van was parked.
The panel after those had a speechbubble again, comic-Gerard was looking comic-Frank in the eyes with a hopeful spark in his own eyes.

[i]Gerard: Are you sure?[/i]
[i]Frank: Yes jackass, we're guaranteed to reach loads of people and change lives when we have an amazing frontman like you[/i]

In the next panel neither of them said anything, they just hugged and comic-Gerard had a blush on his face.
Frank remembered throwing his arms around Gerard before they cracked up laughing at Ray who was passed out in the van with Matt and Mikey, blurting out random Madonna lyrics.
It was probably a result of Like A Virgin for some reason being the only casette tape that they had left in the van after the others had been stepped on or just lost along the road.

He flipped the page again, this one was filled with one big panel, it had been their first big crowd and they had given it their all that night.
Gerard had outdone himself on their facial expressions because Frank could remember the determination Matt and Ray had that night, how Mikey looked beyond amazed and how Gerard lead them through it with a look of pride painted all across his face.

He looked at comic-Frank. Comic-Frank had his eyes closed, was on his knees, bent over his guitar with drops of blood on his fingers. He remembered how painful playing was for the next few days, but it had been worth it.

He flipped the page again, it were fragments of them filming the video for I'm Not Okay, it was their first big production video, they were tired as fuck but it turned out better than any of them could have imagined.
Bob had just replaced Matt and was only there for the garage shots that earned their own panel.
Just like Ray headbanging, the four of them sitting in the library while people waltzed around them, and in the last one Frank kissing Gerard.

He turned another page, this one portrayed a show they'd give a couple of weeks ago when this tour just started.
The panels were just comic-Frank and comic-Gerard glancing at eachother when they thought the other wasn't watching.
Then comic-Frank walked over to comic Gerard and grabbed his face when comic Gerard sang "I kiss your lips again".
Frank had seen it as a now or never sign, he flipped the page, this was again a full page panel.

It was comic-Gerard and comic-Frank with their lips locked, the background was a spectrum of different colours, fireworks.
He stared at it for a while, traced the lines with his fingertips, replaying the moment a few times in his head.

He turned to what was the last page, this one didn't have a single drawing on it, just words, it was a letter.

[i]Dear Frank[s]ie[/s],

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm so fucking sorry.

I don't know how to begin, how to explain myself or if you're ever gonna read this.
We've been best friends for years now, from the day you walked into my life I knew you were something special.
You're passionate, loyal, insanely talented, creative, smart, hilarious, an annoying little shit, a perfect annoying little shit.

Sometimes it takes a while for a person to truly see what they could have.
I never thought I could have you, hell, didn't even know how bad I fucking wanted you until it hit me.
Eversince we kissed on that nasty matress, that time when we were too stoned to even walk, I knew that I liked you more than I should.
But I remember exactly when I really fell for you.

Mikey, Ray and Matt were still out at that bar where we played, it was the first time we'd played for a 200 people crowd, remember that one?
You and me where really fucking overwhelmed and tired so we went back to the van and you kept going on and on about how amazing that night had been.
Suddenly you yawned and crawled half up in my lap and buried your face against my chest, right next to my armpit, I remember how scared I was of repulsing you with my aftershow sweat-stench.

We cuddled like that for a bit and just before you fell asleep, and I fucking remember this word for word Frank[s]ie[/s], you said; "Gee, thank you so much for making my dream come true, I'm proud of you, so proud".
You didn't hear or see it because you were knocked the fuck out right after that, but I cried because I was so happy.
Happy that you were proud of me, that you believed in the band before I did, happy that you were in my arms that night.

I fell in love with you right there and then.

Every mistake I've made over the past few weeks was made because I'm scared.
Scared of losing you.
Scared of breaking up the band with my feelings.
Scared of myself.

See, after what happened at the campfire I wanted you so bad because I knew you wanted me too, but I was so afraid that I would fuck it up and you'd never wanna see me again. It would screw up the band too and I couldn't let that happen, I could never crush your dreams like that.

I never meant to hurt you, I just thought I had to move on so neither of us would get hurt, that both of us would get over eachother.

I don't want to get over you, you're everything I've ever wanted Frankie.
I'm sorry.

Please be my friend again if that's all we can be but please know that I'm all yours if you'll have me.

Love,

Gerard (also known as Lord Asshole of Douchebagdickfaceville)[/i]

Frank had tears in his eyes and his hands were trembling, he noticed that Gerard hadn't crossed out the "ie" the last time he wrote "Frankie" and it made him smile a little, that smile grew when he read Gerard's A.K.A.

He wiped his tears on his blanket, carefully clipped the pages back together and put them back on his pillow.
The guys were still in the lounge, watching TV or a movie, he could here them laughing loudly.
He pulled open Gerard's bunk curtain, the singer was biting his nails and his eyes looked like he'd cried a lot over the past few days.
Frank didn't say anything but slipped into the bunk and closed the curtain behind him.

"I'm sorr-" Gerard tried to say but Frank broke him off with a kiss.
"Don't you ever fucking screw me over like that again because I don't know if I can take another round of heartbreak" Frank whispered against his mouth.
Gerard wrapped his arms around Frank "I won't I promise, fuck I love you so fucking much Frank-" he abruptly stopped, not sure if he earned that privilege back.
Frank giggled and kissed him again "you can call me Frankie again you jackass".
"Alright Frankie" Gerard said while laying them both down on their sides.
Now they could look eachother clear in the eyes, Frank's face became serious again.
He softly touched Gerard's cheek with his rough fingertips "I really fucking love you too".

Gerard's face turned bright and he softly squeezed Frank's hand "turn around" he said softly.
Frank tried to turn around in the small space and almost fell of the bed, Gerard caught him just before he rolled off and both of them giggled.
When he was finally settled on his side with his back against Gerard he shuffled back until every inch of his backside was pressed against Gerard.
He felt an arm snake around his waist, pulling him even closer.
"I love you Frankie" Gerard whispered against Frank's hair.
Frank pulled Gerard's hand that was resting on his waist into his own and wove their fingers together.
He brought their hands down next to his face and closed his eyes, reveling in the comfort of finally being in the arms of the person he loved.
"I love you too Gee" he whispered back.

And just like that, they fell asleep.