Dom stirred the Shirley Temple sitting in front of her and tried to keep her eyes on the table. She placed a finger over the end of her straw and brought the other end to her mouth lifting her finger away from the top and drinking what was trapped in the straw. She repeated this three more times before Nat slapped her hand down on the table in frustration.

“Dom, I swear to god you do that again I will smack you.”

Frank giggled beside her and Dom glanced at him only to receive an encouraging wink. She rolled her eyes and stuck the straw back in her drink. Beside her Ray flipped through his menu and Mikey and Gerard sat quietly, Gerard tearing apart his napkin.

“So, about that guitar lesson,” Ray smiled and placed his menu on the table. Dom shrugged and took another sip of her soda.

“What about it?”

“You want to try a bit when we head back to your place? I brought the acoustic.”

Dom smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, “You’re so focused, Ray,” she breathed. “Yes. That would be nice. I miss making noise on the guitar.”

“Great,” he nudged her gently and she grinned, turning her face so her chin rested on his shoulder.

“Ray, your fro smells great,” she commented, not really thinking about what she was saying. Her cheeks flushed when he laughed and she pulled away. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. Thanks though,” he chuckled.

Dom finished off her drink and glanced around for a waitress. When she couldn’t find one she pushed her glass toward Mikey and he glared at her.

“What’s with the puss, Mikes?” She asked with a playful smile. “No need to be so blue all the time.”

“Why are you so bubbly all of a sudden?” He asked and she shrugged.

“Dunno. I think it’s the sugar,” she smiled again. She glanced down at her place and pulled a chunk of hair between her fingers, studying the ends when their waitress returned to take their orders. When she flounced away again Mikey stood up and sighed.

“Listen, I can’t ignore this anymore. Dom, can I talk to you?”

Stunned and relieved, she nodded, scooting out of the booth with Ray and following Mikey toward the front of the restaurant. When they were safely outside he pulled her around the side of the building for privacy and leaned up against the wall. Dom eyed him with a smirk until he looked at her, a determined set in his jaw.

“What’s bugging you?” she asked softly, her rush of bubbly disappearing.

“Everything. How can you just pretend nothing is going on?”

She gaped at him. “Mikey, I’m not. I know it’s there I’m just trying to enjoy a night out with my closest friends. Yeah there’s still shit but I’ve missed you guys and I just want to have a nice time. You have no idea how fucked up things have been since you went on tour.”

She pulled out a pack of cigarettes and stuck one between her lips. Mikey frowned as she lit it and took a long drag. The curls of smoke filtered through her nose and she sighed, another rush of smoke leaving with her breath.

“I know you were in the hospital. Frank told me,” he mumbled.

“Figures,” she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. “He never was good at keeping secrets.”

Mikey chuckled and he watched as she took another shorter drag. “Dom, I want to be friends again. I miss just hanging out and talking until four in the morning about nothing. I miss laughing at stupid jokes with you and having ridiculous art sessions at ungodly hours of the morning. I miss my best friend.”

He watched as she leaned against the wall, the space separating them too far for his liking. She turned to him and flicked some ash off the tip of the cigarette. “I miss my best friend too, Mikey, but he’s gone. Instead we’re stuck with this slightly jealous forever fucked up bass player.” She motioned to him and poked the cigarette between her lips, letting it hang there. Her eyes narrowed when he didn’t respond to her name calling and crossed her arms over her chest.

“Nothing? Not even a ‘Fuck you’? Am I talking to the right Mikey Way?” she waved her hands in front of his face and he cracked a smile.

“I’m tired of being pissed off. I forgave Gerard and I’m trying to forgive you. I’m trying so fucking hard.”

“What’s keeping you?” she asked, her eyes boring into his with an intensity that made him shiver.

He broke their stare and looked at the ground, pushing a stray piece of gravel around with his sneaker. “I still love you.”

The mumble was quiet and Dom barely caught his words. She sighed, taking a drag on the cigarette and mulling over what she wanted to say before turning to him. She pinched the cigarette between her fingers and dropped it on the ground, stomping on it before meeting his eyes. Mikey eyed her with curiosity as she got rid of her smoke and turned to him with determination, her lips pressed in a thin line.

“I’m going to try something that you’ll either really like or really hate but I feel like it’s necessary in order to get over this, okay?”

He frowned at her. “Depends on what you do.”

She took a step closer to him. Then another. Mikey fought the urge to back away from her as she stood merely inches from him. He could feel the heat of her breath flutter over his face and he suppressed another shiver when she placed her hands gently on his chest and looked up at him.

“Mikey, I want you to kiss me.”

His breath caught in his throat.

“What?”

“Just fucking do it.”

“I-I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” he rambled and she sighed, wrapping her hand around his neck. His entire body stiffened at the contact but he didn’t pull away as she leaned toward him, her lips slightly parted.

She paused before their lips met and her eyes closed. Mikey kept his eyes on her mouth, completely enthralled as she took a second to collect herself before pressing her mouth to his. His eyes drifted closed and they stood there, lips pressed together, Dom’s hand wrapped around the back of his neck, holding him in place. The moment stretched for a while before she moved her mouth against his, urging him to kiss her back. Snapping out of it, he found her rhythm and leaned into it. Dom squeezed his neck and pulled away, her long eyelashes lifting as they separated and they both stared at each other, catching their breath.

“Verdict?” she whispered, wiping the corner of her mouth and clearing her throat.

Mikey blinked a few times, still processing what had just happened. He’d actually kissed, no, made out with his best friend. Slowly he raised his hand to his mouth and touched his bottom lip, his eyebrows pulling together.

“Mikey?” Dom asked and his eyes snapped onto her. Her lips were slightly reddened from the kiss and she had her arms crossed over her chest and her hip cocked as she waited for him. He cleared his throat and scattered the cobwebs from his brain.

“I—I, um, that was weird,” he mumbled. “Like, really weird.”

“Like kissing your sister weird? Or like kissing a new girlfriend weird?” she pressed and Mikey took a second to consider. He studied her, watching her pale eyes as she stared up at the sky, waiting for him to speak. He didn’t see any hint of anything sexual from her body language and he sighed.

“It was like kissing my fucking sister,” he grumbled. There. It was out there. All the dreaming and wondering had come down to this. He felt like he’d just made out with his sibling and it was freaking him out. Ray had been right, he’d been building up this image of the girl standing before him and she’d shattered that image with one touch of the lips.

A satisfied sigh escaped her and she moved back to him, this time draping her arm around his shoulders. “It’s weird how one kiss can put things in perspective,” she winked.

“Tell me about it,” he grumbled.

Dom giggled and rested her head against his. “Don’t be sad, Mikey. It’s not like you’re a bad kisser… Quite the contrary actually.”

This brought a slight grin to his face and she squeezed him playfully.

“No, I rather enjoyed that, other than that weird feeling that I was doing something incestuous,” she teased and the blush on his neck rose to his cheeks.

“Shut up.”

“No. Whoever you end up with will be a lucky woman. You know how to use those lips, boy,” she ignored his embarrassed deflections as they made their way back into the restaurant. When they approached the table everyone was eating heartily, Dom and Mikey’s meals waiting for them as Nat and Frank fed each other while Gerard and Ray sat awkwardly staring at their plates.

“Relax, boys, we’re back to make this a little less awkward,” Dom announced and Ray grinned.

“Finally.”

The two returned to their seats and the tension eased as Dom initiated conversation, breaking up Nat and Frank’s little PDA session. She avoided Gerard’s eyes for most of the meal only glancing his way when their waitress approached to check on them. By the time their places were cleared and the check settled Dom was smiling and eager to get to her studio for her guitar lesson.

“So, I was working on pieces for one of the songs we scrapped and I thought it would be cool to teach it to you.” Ray slapped his notebook between them as the group sat around Dom’s studio a half hour later.

Dom chewed her lip and shrugged. “I guess that’d be cool.”

Ray handed her the acoustic and picked up Frank’s to show her where to place her fingers. “Okay so we start with this.”

As the halting music filled the space Gerard found himself watching Dom’s nervous movements from where he sat across the room, his legs draped over the side of an armchair he’d helped her scrounge from a garage sale a few years back. He smiled at the memory. They’d struggled so hard to get the thing into Nat’s truck. They’d both laughed so hard out of pure exhaustion at their ridiculous efforts. Shaking his head, Gerard’s heart skipped when Dom giggled, the sweet sound helping the corner of his mouth rise in a half smile.

“What are you smiling about?” Mikey sat down on the floor in front of him, crossing his legs and handing him a Red Bull.

“Nothing.”

“Right,” he rolled his eyes to earn a nudge to the head from his older brother.

Paging through one of the sketchbooks Dom had left lying around, Mikey took a sip of the coffee he’d made and stopped on a particular page his eyes moving over the scribbles and scrawls of the entire band. A red circle had been drawn around a phone number in the corner and a few exclamation points when his attention was drawn to name beneath it. Bob.

“Hey, check this out,” he held the book up to Gerard’s eye level and waited for a reaction only to receive a grunt and a shrug from his brother.

“What was that?” Mikey demanded, turning a little further to face him. “That grunt. What’s going on?”

Leaning close so his voice didn’t rise over the guitar, Gerard sighed and whispered, “Dom’s leaving. I kind of forced it out of her earlier. She was gonna tell us later but I guess she hasn’t gotten to it yet. And now I think I know just who gave her the fucking idea. Just, don’t take it personally, man.” He patted Mikey’s shoulder and took a long sip from the Red Bull can.

“Why’s she leaving?”

“Ask her.”