Fuck.
Fuck.
Gerard Way, comic artist, 24, and now undoubtedly single, pulled up alongside the road. He thumped the steering wheel in anger and despair, snarling out another ‘fuck’ before exiting the car. Christmas day was just getting better and better. He had arrived at Bert’s house, ready to spend Christmas with him, only to discover that the son-of-a-bitch was cheating on him. Next thing Gerard knew, he was dumped, it was almost midnight, and he was stuck on the highway, low on gas in Palm Springs.
“How the fuck,” he asked out loud, lighting a cigarette, “Did I get into this mess?”
“I dunno man.” The voice came from the vague vicinity of Gerard’s left shoulder. “But it’s fucking freezing. Can I bum one?”
Gerard yelped and fell back onto his car, dropping his smoke. “Fuck,” he said mournfully, hauling himself up on his elbows. He seemed to be saying ‘fuck’ a lot, Gerard thought as he looked up, meeting the bright eyes of some kid, all tattoos and piercings and shit-eating grin.
“Sorry dude,” he sniggered, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as he tried to keep warm. “Didn’t mean to scare ya.”
Gerard bit back a snarky reply. For fuck’s sake, it was 11:53pm, and he was tired and it was dark. If the wind blew a little harder, he would probably crap a toaster, because if horror movies had taught him one thing, it’s never the wind. It’s always the monster or an angry ex-boyfriend with a penchant for blood and chainsaws. This time, in his horror movie of a life, it was a tiny punk kid with HALLOWEEN tattooed across his knuckles.
“How old are you, even?” Gerard grumbled before passing over the box of Marlboros. The guy took them, picking out the second last one before handing them back to Gerard. “21.”
Gee stared stupidly at the box, before his sleep-deprived mind registered why the final cigarette was upside down. For luck, he remembered, fumbling to light it, his numb fingers bringing it to his mouth, inhaling the first hit of nicotine, feeling just that bit more relaxed. Gerard exhaled, watching the other man do the same.
Huh. Luck. Stuck in the middle of fucking nowhere with some 21 year old who looked 16, him low on gas and the other needing a jacket.
“I’m Gerard,” he finally said, offering a hand, hoping it didn’t make him look like a tool. To his relief, the other guy took it.
“Frank.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Pretty shitty place for this meeting, though.”
Above, a car brushed past on the overpass. A heavy mass of clouds was moving towards them, eating up the clear sky and stars. Gerard smoked down to the filter, dropping the butt and grinding it out with his heel, feeling tiny pebbles move against the sole of his foot. Pushing back a wayward lock of black hair, he jabbed at his phone, holding it up like that scene in the Lion King to gain a signal.
Next to him, Frank was shivering. “Looks like snow,” he commented as the clouds made their way across the darkness, replacing almost-black with a boiling mass of dark grey. Gerard was currently clambering on top of the beat down sedan, desperately searching for some bars. Swiftly he sent off a text.
“So,” he began, sliding off the other side of the car and opening up the boot. “How did you get out here?”
“Well,” Frank began, cracking a smile. “I got kicked out of my hotel for starting a fight. I managed to hitch out here, but then they kicked me out too.” He glanced sideways at Gerard, who was rifling through the mess of books, art supplies, and old bottles. Eventually, he found a half empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s. “What about you?”
Gerard took a swig, grimacing at the burn. Offering it to the smaller man, he replied, “Drove up to spend time with my boyfriend. Then he cheated on me and we broke up. Now I’ve gotta wait for my brother to pick me up tomorrow.”
“Tough, dude,” sympathised Frank. He waved the bottle away. Gerard shrugged. More for him, right?
“I don’t even know how I thought I liked that asshole. He was just…shallow, in the end, I guess. I can’t even remember the colour of his eyes,” Gee confessed, not knowing why the fuck he was speaking so, so honestly to a guy he barely knew. “Like, I found him with another guy. It wasn’t even the first time. God knows how many people he’s been fucking behind my back.” The alcohol was beginning to work on his system.
Turning his face up to the sky, clouds creeping along, Gerard screamed, “Fuck you, Bert! Fuck you. What the fuck was I supposed to be, huh? Impressed? That you could get into another guy’s pants when you told me I was the only one? Fuck you!”
Snow began to fall as Gerard slumped against the scratched paintwork of his car, worn out by his outburst. Frank still stood there, snow caught in his hair and lashes. A tear crept down Gerard’s cheek, and he angrily swiped it away. He didn’t even know why he still cared, about Bert, about the cheating, about everything. Frank moved closer, sitting down by Gerard, brushing away the next tear, and tucking the pieces of hair that fell into his face.
Gerard laughed bitterly. “I don’t even know you, Frank,” he mumbled. “I’m sorry.”
Frank quirked his lips in a sideways smile, nibbling on his lip ring. “Nah man, it’s fine. Forget that Bert asshole, yeah? He can go eat a bag of dicks.” Gerard huffed out a breath, half giggle, half sigh. They sat, side by side, the snowflakes settling on their shoulders as they huddled to keep warm. Gerard didn’t offer for them to get in the car, but Frank didn’t ask either. It just seemed…too intimate, for the current moment of time, all frost and muted words and tired chuckles.
Gerard talked until he ran out of words, Frank nodding along, making sympathetic noises and laughing and offering insults at the right moments.
When Gerard inquired further into Frank’s story, he leaned back against the car. “I’ve just been…looking, I suppose. For that…something, in my life, you know? I can’t seem to find it. No matter what I try, or do, I just feel kinda empty. Like there’s something missing. Something’s just not clicking.”
“Me and Bert…we never really clicked,” Gerard agreed. “I guess it’s what I’ve been looking for, too. That…that click.”
“Yeah?” asked Frank, leaning over.
“Yeah,” Gerard replied, words catching in his throat as he cast his eyes down.
The next words were barely audible, although they were murmured next to Gerard’s ear. “Like this?”
And there was a shock of warmth on Gee’s lips, and Frank ran his hands through the twisted strands of Gerard’s hair as he kissed him, slow and sweet. Gerard’s mind was telling him, what the fuck, no, you just met this guy, but his body was telling him yes, because that was what he had been missing, soft and gentle and oh so sweet, the bottle of whiskey long forgotten and abandoned.
Frank hooked his leg over Gerard’s, rising to straddle him, his hands roaming from his shoulders to his back and his face, cupping it as Frank found his way into Gerard’s mouth, sliding past, licking at his lips and tangling with his tongue.
“Car?” mumbled Frank. Gerard nodded, dragging the door open as Frank bore him down, slamming the door behind as he scattered melting snowflakes everywhere. Gerard couldn’t care less, because he had found what he was looking for, and oh god, it was just so good.
Frank rutted his hips against Gerard’s, sucking on the spot on his neck that made Gerard twist and gasp, writhing up as Frank licked back into his mouth, tasting like smoke and the tang of steel, sweet and heady and sharp all at the same time. And Gerard realised what he had been missing, being with Bert all that time. But fuck him, he thought. It was the time to live in the moment.
Gerard tugged on Frank’s hair, manoeuvring him around so that he was on top, crouched over the smaller man, braced up on his elbows and knees. He rubbed his thumbs over Frank’s cheekbones before leaning down to trace his lips with his own.
What Gerard liked about this was how real it all was. Frank’s bare arms were cold from the time spent outside, his lips slightly chapped. And Gee could feel all of this, and it filled that void within him that had gaped and eaten away at his heart when he was still together with Bert McCracken. And Frank felt it too, spilling over within him as he let himself go, reaching the bliss that he had been searching for.
Because, for Frank, the thing he was looking for wasn’t just exactly happiness or a wild time, it was companionship.
Because, for Gerard, although he had been broken badly by one, all it took was the right other to come along and glue his shattered pieces back together.
Because, for both of them, what they wanted and needed found them eventually, of their own accord, from chance meetings.
Because they fit together, like two puzzle pieces, on the back seat as they rose and fell like the drifting tides, finally slumping together, intertwined in a tangle of limbs and soft kisses, each listening to the beating of the other’s heart.
But, most of all, because one of them was low on gas, and the other needed a jacket.

Notes

I haven't written for a long time guys, please don't hate me.