"Ow," I heard a voice say from the back seat.

It went silent again for a mere moment and then...

"Ow," a different voice said.

"Guys," Gerard said as he angled his rear view mirror so he could see into the back of his car.

He glared at the two in the back seat and I had to stifle a small chuckle at his attempt at playing stern parent.

"Ow," the first voice said again.

Gerard crinkled his brow and glowered at the voices from the back.

"You know if you don't poke it it won't hurt," Gerard said into the mirror, eyes flicking back to the road continuously, keeping an eye on it so we wouldn't swerve.

"But they're funny shaped," K.C. said back in reply.

"I have one that looks like a duck I think," Frankie chimed in.

Gerard sighed heavily and shook his head before righting his rear view mirror for the thousandth time that car trip and went back to paying full attention to driving. Since we had finally left the venue, with the newly added K.C. in tow, her and Frankie had been poking their own, and each others, freshly forming bruises. I had been right about their earlier collision, bruises everywhere, though they didn't seem to mind and found them more or less amusing.

"I wish bruises didn't turn that icky green, yellow brown color," Frankie sighed as we pulled into Gerard, Mikey and Sharon's place.

"Well that's just the hemoglobin doing it's job," K.C. stated plainly.

Gerard and I's jaws both dropped. I knew what hemoglobin was, as did he I was assuming, but we were shocked to here such a simple sophisticated answer come from someone we thought to be exactly like Frankie.

"What? I have hobgoblins in my arms?" Frankie shrieked as he stared at his arm like it was a foreign object.

"No silly, Hemo-Globin. It's an iron containing substances that carries oxygen in your blood," K.C. explained as she got out of the back of Gerard's car.

Gerard, Frankie and I were still in the car though and out of the corner of my eye I could see the other guys starting to gather around it, confused looks on their faces. I shifted my eyes momentarily as felt my jaw finally close and saw Frankie looking dumbstruck and awestruck at the same time. Gerard was sporting a similar expression and I knew that if I could see my face it would be the same. I snapped out of it when Ray wrapped his knuckles on the door jam of my door.

"Uh hello?" he asked confused.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" Frankie shouted as he scrambled out of the car at top speed, almost tripping over his own feet in the process.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness what?" Bob asked as he stood arms cross over his chest.

"K.C.'s smart like Jay!" Frankie exclaimed loudly as he jumped up and down frantically.

Bob simply raised a confused eyebrow and looked over at Gerard and I as we got out of the car, as if looking for an explanation.

"She explained about the hobgoblins in my bruises!" Frankie explained joyously as he went and danced around K.C. for effect.

"Hemoglobin's," Bob and K.C. said at the same time.

At K.C.'s simultaneous answer Bob turned and looked at her, first in shock and then a wave of relief flowed over his features.

"Oh thank god, a Frankie with brains. The world isn't doomed," Bob said in a rough sigh, bowing to K.C. as he said it.

At that everyone, besides the now very confused looking K.C., burst out laughing. Frankie even joined in though he hadn't quite caught onto the fact that it had been a stab at his intelligence. And as if on cue...

"Heeey," Frankie called out indignantly.

That of course got us all to laugh harder than before. K.C. simply smiled at him and laid her head on his shoulder, causing him to pout a little less and blush slightly at her close sudden contact. And again we all laughed harder. It wasn't everyday we got to witness the ever amazing Frank Iero blush. Ever. No matter what the topic.

"To give him credit he is an amazing guitarist and lyricist," Sharon finally amended.

"Here, here!" Gerard, Mikey, Ray, Bob and I all chorused together, raising one of our hands into the air.

That made Frankie's pout disappear, but not his blush. That didn't even reside once K.C. lifted her head off his shoulder and walked off in some random direction, more than likely to inspect something that had caught her eye. Or well that is what I assumed as it would have been something Frankie would have done.

Notes

Oh no there are hob goblins in Frankie's bruises!
Save Frankie from the hob goblins!

Ahhh, that was one of my favorite things to write.
So much fun.