Hello Angel

They drove for almost another hour until they finally reached the concert area. Gerard had gotten off the bus with Frank almost immediately, after spending half the drive arguing in hushed tones in the back of the bus. Mikey refused to move from where he was leaning against Maddie, and she didn't particularly mind since he was playing Super Mario 3 on his Gameboy SP. "Whatever it is, they can wait. I'm almost done with the level."

"You've been saying that for the last ten minutes and you're still replaying it over and over..." She tousled his hair and he looked up at her, grinning.

"Hey, it's not that easy!"

"You two dweebs can sit here for now, we'll unpack the bus," Ray said, laughing as Mikey practically went cross eyed looking at the tiny screen.

"Don't you have roadies for that?" Maddie asked.

"By the time they show up? I'd rather set my shit up myself," Bob grunted from the back, lugging himself out of his bunk and following Ray out of the bus. Mikey grumbled and snapped the SP shut.

"Fuckin' Mario..." Madeleine laughed at him, waiting for her brother to get up so she could finally go stretch her legs. Fetching her purse from the overhead, Maddie stepped outside, shielding her eyes from the sun. The concert space was pretty big, with multiple stages set up in different places. She was tempted to explore, but she clung to Mikey instead. After all, she'd never been here before... She'd probably get lost and end up in the wrong tour bus. And Gerard promised her that she could go shopping for the bare essentials before the show.

Just as she let go of Mikey's arm, Gerard came back with Frank not too far behind. "We've got a few hours, the set up crews will be here in a couple minutes to get all our gear set up and ready." The band nodded in understanding, and before everyone broke off to go do whatever it is they did at venues, Gerard spoke again. "Frank, you're gonna go into town with Maddie because she needs clean clothes for the rest of the tour."

Even though there was a ton of commotion going on around them, Maddie felt like she could cut the tension between them with a knife. The band members grew silent as Gerard looked expectantly at Frank, who in turn looked like he was going to rip Gerard's head off. Maddie locked her eyes on her eldest brother, who pulled out two cigarettes and lit one for himself. "There you go, Frank. Now, go. As a favor to me?"

"You owe me. Big time," Frank muttered, butt-fucking Gerard's cigarette with his own and heading towards the main gates. Madeleine hadn't moved and Frank turned to see if she was following. "Are you coming or not?" he scowled, and Mikey gave her a nudge.

"Go. Maybe he'll apologize for being so mean."

She sighed and took off running after Frank. Mikey looked over at his brother. "You did this on purpose right? I could have gone with her or something if you didn't want to..." Gerard took a drag of his cigarette and took a minute before he blew the smoke out.

"Listen, Mikes. I talked to him about everything today and not to blame Madeleine for anything. Like, it's not her fault. I made a decision and it was the wrong one. She shouldn't be getting shit for it." Gerard had rationalized everything in his head. It was only Mikey who managed to send all of his logic crashing down.

"So you put two people who had just had an explosive confrontation the night before together?"

Gerard shrugged and wandered away, leaving Mikey with his concerns. Gerard wasn't worried. Frank was his best friend, and Madeleine was bound to have the right amount of genetic Way charm to win him over.

-----

"So are you going to talk to me or just grunt any time I ask you a question?"

Frank had been ignoring her on the entire trip into the town. The cigarette Gerard gave him was short lived, and he'd just put on his sunglasses and kept walking towards the bus stop. Madeleine was getting tired of trying to keep up with him. For someone with such short legs, he was covering a lot of ground. Madeleine jogged up next to him and grabbed him by the arm. He whirled around, but when he saw how out of breath she was, his frown softened.

"I'm sorry."

The bus stop was not too far away, and they made it there in silence - and at the same pace. Frank checked the bus map and conveniently, the one about to pull in was going to the nearby shopping center. He threw some coins into the slot and motioned for Madeleine to come sit down next to him. She tried to keep her space, but the constant motion of the bus kept bumping her knee into his. She kept her eyes focused on the floor, but she couldn't help but notice that after a while he had stopped moving his knee out of the way, letting her knock against him.

Progress?

She looked into her bag to make sure she had her wallet and phone on her. Frank rested his elbows on his knees and head in his hands until they finally got to the shopping center. "I'm not going to force you to come with me. Give me your number, I'll meet up with you when I'm done." She held her phone out to Frank, but he sheepishly rubbed the side of his neck.

"Didn't bring mine with me."

"Oh." She bit her lip. "I guess you're stuck with me then." Madeleine wasn't exactly thrilled - oh who was she kidding, of course she was. This was Frank Iero. This was one of her favorite band members. And she was going to drag him out to buy underwear and a few camis. Frank, on the other hand, seemed entirely not enthused by the whole situation. He let out a sigh and shrugged. Madeleine turned to look around at the stores and heard Frank say something else.

"Lead the way..."

She turned around and he was trying to hide the smirk on his stupid, perfect face.

"Was that supposed to be a joke? I think you just tried to make a joke."

"Don't take it too seriously, doll."

Frank nodded at her and she headed towards the first store - Victoria's Secret - where Frank adamantly stated that he would wait outside. She shrugged at him and went to go pick out some underwear. Thankfully they were having a sale, and she ended up with a handful of cute and colorful lacy panties. As she turned to find the register, she ended up face to face with Frank.

"You were supposed to wait outside," Maddie said, trying to suppress the shock in her voice. He'd startled her so badly that she almost lost her grip on the pile of undergarments.

"Well, shit happens."

And by shit happens, of course Frank meant that he wanted to look at boobs but didn't want to give off that impression at first. Madeleine frowned at him and she went to go pay at the register. After that they wandered over to some store that Madeleine never heard of, and she found a few camis in different colors that she purchased.

"Do you guys have deodorant and basic toiletries, or is that asking too much?"

Frank smirked at her. "You're probably shit out of luck in that department, but I'm sure Mikey had a second little travel case." Of course Mikey was the only one to take care of his personal hygiene on the bus. She made a note to ask him, mainly because this little excursion was getting to be painfully awkward.

When she was finally done shopping around, she turned to Frank and pointed at the bus stop. He shook his head and led her to the nearest Starbucks, ordering them both plain coffee with room. Of course that wasn't her coffee order, but she appreciated the gesture and would deal with it for now. Madeleine went to get a table while Frank waited around for their drinks. She dropped the bags to the floor and fished her phone out.

New message: Gerard
Hey kid. How's it going? Ripped each other's heads off yet?

She narrowed her eyes and responded: No, he's getting me coffee so I suspect poison.

New Message: Gerard
Entirely possible. Please talk to him.

Reply: Why???? About what???

New Message: Gerard
Anything. He promised me he'd make up for yesterday.

Madeleine put her phone away when Frank suddenly returned with the cups of coffee. "Thanks."

He grunted again and sat down across from her. Both of them awkwardly looked at their hands and away from each other for a few minutes until Maddie finally got sick of the silence and piped up. "So, are you always this dramatic?" He choked on his coffee and look up at her.

"What do you mean?" Frank asked, the corner of his mouth twitching. Madeleine was already in too deep and she couldn't back out of it now.

"You know what I mean. Like last night, with the screaming and the yelling and blaming me for pre-existing problems." She smiled sweetly at him, the bitterness dripping in her voice. Madeleine raised the coffee to her lips and watched Frank carefully as his face started flushing red. She couldn't tell if he was upset or embarrassed, but holy hell did it make her feel good.Frank set his coffee down and looked her right in the eye.

You're one to talk about dramatics, doll," he said, prodding her wrist. "What was that all about, huh?" Now it was her turn to turn red. "This my fault?" he asked in a slightly lighter tone. He highly doubted this was the first time she'd done it, and he had prepared an entire comeback about pre-existing problems about it, but was cut short when she set her coffee down a little too hard and mumbled "No."

No? The fuck does she mean, 'no'? he thought, watching droplets of coffee spurt out from the top of her lid.

"It's not your fault I have the coping mechanisms of a time bomb, just like it's not my fault Gerard went a little overboard last night." She'd taken his retort right out from under his nose and he felt like shit. She'd gone quiet again, staring at her hands and avoiding his gaze. He reached out to put his hand on hers, but instead flipped her arm over and grazed his thumb over the mess of scratches. He took a deep breath before speaking.

"But I'm sure I exacerbated it. I shouldn't have reacted the way I did, especially because now that's your first impression of me. You're Gerard's family and I should have kept myself under control."

He shouldn't have had to apologize - he didn't want to apologize. His pride was hurt, but Gerard had asked Frank to patch things up with the youngest Way. No matter what Gerard did, Frank knew he could never stay mad at him - so why should he keep a grudge against a girl he hadn't formally even been introduced to yet. "Can we start over?"

Madeleine hardly heard what he was saying. She was fixated on his thumb running over her skin. The same electricity surged through her veins as the night before when he'd grabbed her. It was different from when Gerard was holding her - much different. Frank's words brought her out of her trance. "Huh?"

"Start over. You know. Hi, I'm Frank. It's... nice to meet you."

She smiled slightly. He hadn't let go of her arm the entire time.

"Madeleine. Maddie for short." Frank grinned back at her. This would take some time to finally clear the air, but at least he had that off his conscience. They cleaned up their cups and went back to the bus stop, catching the next one back to their friends.

Notes