The rest of the year flew by quickly. Frank and Mikey were mostly focused on school; Gerard was mostly focused on his comic book (and Frank, of course); and Ray... Well, nobody knew what Ray was doing. He would ghost out for days on end, then come back and pick up where he left off. Frank, Mikey, and Gerard thought it strange, but ultimate decided not to question him about it. The Fro's gotta do what The Fro's gotta do.

Somehow, in the four months that Frank and Gerard had been dating, Ray had never met Frank. He had heard about Gerard's nameless boyfriend, but never really bothered to ask for his name. After everything Gerard told him about the boyfriend who 'is hung like a fucking horse, Toro, stop laughing', Ray was sure he never wanted to know the man's identity.

New Year's Eve, 2001, Ray invited the Ways and their significant others over for a, what he called, "lowkey New Year's Eve party". Mikey agreed to come, sans significant other. Gerard agreed to come as well, as well as his boyfriend. Ray was sure that he would have to hear about The Boyfriend all night, considering the guy was going to be in his own living room, and resigned himself to having to hear stories he had already heard, this time with The Boyfriend's input.

"Holy shit," was the first thing Ray said when he opened his front door. "Frank?"

"Ray?" Frank exclaimed and hit Gerard's shoulder. "Why did you never tell me you were friends with Ray Fucking Toro?"

"It never came up?" Gerard asked. "How do you know Ray?"

"Jesus, how do I know him?" Frank asked. "He lived in the same dorm room I did when he went to Rutgers. He was moving out as I was moving in, and I saw his Les Paul and... We've been friends ever since."

"How did I not connect the dots?" Ray asked, shoving his curly hair out of his eyes. "Short, guitar player, tattoos. I'm a fucking idiot."

"You really are," Frank said and ruffles Ray's hair, making it even more voluminous.

Later that night, a few minutes before midnight, Ray cleared his throat and said: "Alright, I have an announcement. Frank already knows this. So, Mikey and I were working on the My Chem thing and we discovered that we need a second guitarist. Now, as we all know, Pencey disbanded a few weeks ago, so I asked Frank— unaware that he's Gerard's boyfriend— to be the rhythm guitarist."

"And I said yes," Frank finished, gripping Gerard's hand tightly.

"Seriously?" Gerard asked. "Are you playing with me?"

"I wish the fuck I was, Gee," Frank said, smiling.

"Holy..." Gerard started and hugged Frank tightly, laughing. "Frankie!"

"Shit!" Mikey cried and pointed at the clock. 12:01. They had missed midnight. "One fucking minute! We missed it by one fucking minute!"

After a few seconds of silence, Gerard said: "Happy 2002, everyone."

---

---

"Hey, Gee?" Frank asked a few days later. The two of them were in Gerard's bed, in only their boxers, as they always were. The two preferred Gerard's bedroom better than Frank's dorm; the bed was bigger, and there was no scare of Frank's roommate barging in.

"Yes, Frankie?" Gerard answered. His fingers traced over Frank's bare skin, drawing tattoos that only he could see.

"I was just wondering... When we get married, will you want kids?" Frank asked. When; not if.

"Well..." Gerard thought, tracing over the top of Frank's thigh, with Gerard imagining 'live each day as if it were your last' being imbedded Frank's skin. "I always wanted a daughter."

"What would you want to name her?" Frank asked. "I always liked Cherry Blossom or Lily Bloom."

"Bandit..." Gerard mumbled. Frank repositioned so that he was laying on top of Gerard, his lips touching Gerard's chest. "I like Bandit. I don't know about her middle name though."

"Okay. For a boy?" Frank asked.

"Anthony," Gerard answered immediately. "He could be Frank Anthony Iero III."

Frank giggled and said: "Miles. Miles Anthony Iero-Way, and Bandit... Lee Way-Iero."

"Lee?" Gerard asked. "Where'd that come from?"

"I dunno," Frank answered. "I just thought of it."

"Well, Lee is my grandmother's middle name," Gerard told him. "So, I actually really like that."
"That's good," Frank said. Then, after a bit of hesitation, asked: "Can you sing for me?"

"Oh, uh..." Gerard said and swallowed hard. "Sure. Anything particular?"

"No, you can choose."

Gerard cleared his throat and started to sing in a sweet, clear voice: "Hand in mine, into your icy blues
And then I'd say to you we could take to the highway
With this trunk of ammunition too
I'd end my days with you in a hail of bullets
I'm trying, I'm trying
To let you know just how much you mean to me
And after all the things we put each other through and..."

Frank had heard about Gerard's singing from Ray. At the time, neither of them knew that they were discussing the same person, but Ray likened Gerard's singing voice to Billy Corgan. But Frank had to disagree— yeah, Gerard did sound like the Smashing Pumpkins' frontman, but he also sounded a bit like Kurt Cobain, and David Bowie, and Freddie Mercury, and an unidentifiable voice that was simply Gerard Way.

"I'm trying, I'm trying
To let you know how much you mean
As days fade, and nights grow
And we go cold
But this time, we'll show them
We'll show them all how much we mean
As snow falls on desert sky
Until the end of every...
All we are, all we are
Is bullets, I mean this," Gerard continued, stopping only when he heard Frank take in a shaky breath. "Frankie, are you okay?" He asked, looking down at his boyfriend.

"I love you," Frank said quietly as liquid crystals fell from his eyes, wetting Gerard's chest. "God, you'll never know how much I fucking love you."

"I love you too, Frankie," Gerard said, running his fingers through Frank's hair. In the five months since the raggedy dye job, Frank had made a grave mistake: getting stoned dreads. Gerard had to admit that they looked nice, but Frank regretted it almost immediately. The worst part was that they weren't supposed to come out until May. And it was January 3rd. "I love you too."

Notes

The song Gerard was singing is Demolition Lovers, which just makes me cry everytime I hear it (Ghost of You, Disenchanted, and The Kids From Yesterday have the same effect on me); go listen to it, it's bomb af. I was gonna have him sing Superstar by The Carpenters, but I thought D.L would be more suited.

Be the color of lightening, motherfuckers.

xoøli

p.s (last chapter goes up tomorrow... Shit will go down)