Guy With a Tattooed Neck

I did not see Gerard again until lunch time.

I had not known what to do in his absence, too afraid to clean out the spare room in fear of breaking something, whether it be my bones or Gerard’s, more valuable, art tools, therefore I had simply grabbed the closest book to me and started to read.

It was an illustrated novel on art in the 1960's. Not something that I would usually read, but I had no choice and actually found myself rather enjoying the change.

I had actually gotten so into the book that I almost fell off my chair when a tray of food landed next to me. I looked up at Gerard, but only caught sight of the back of his head as he had already turned in the direction of the spare room. Guessing that he was going to start cleaning, I asked if I could help with anything.

"What could you possibly do?" Was Gerard's cold and harsh answer. It was strange; for once I didn't feel the overwhelming sadness and depression that usually followed comments that reminded me how pathetic I am, for once, I felt anger.

"Gather up all the fucking moth-balls on the floor and force them to do the Riverdance." I growled out. Gerard turned and met my angry glare with a look of utter shock. Then a smile broke out on his face as he snorted and started to laugh.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you." He said warmly. He walked over to my chair and with an added, 'come on', he pulled me up and lead me into the spare room. It was purely my shock at his sudden mood swing that stopped me from turning my back on his reaching arms....I think.

Cleaning the spare room was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be, Gerard and I, after cleaning up the bigger items, well, he did, ended up having a massive dust fight. I was currently using an overturned dresser as a barrier to Gerard's assault of moldy smelling balls of clothes.
I was waiting for the next assault, but it never came. I peered out cautiously from behind my only defence and let out a startled scream as Gerard, somehow, came from behind me and pinned me to the ground, not that that wasn’t hard.

"Hey! That's not fair! I'm a cripple remember." I said, pouting without realizing. It was meant to be a glare, really, it was.

Gerard just gazed down at my face with a soft kind of look on his face.

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"You have no idea how gorgeous you are, do you?" And with that he lowered his head and I received the most tear-jerking, tender kiss I had ever had, hell, I had ever read about.

"Why do you keep doing that?" I whispered against his lips, which were still ghosting over mine.

"I don't know, I can't stop." Was his reply before replacing his lips back on mine.

~

“Gerard!” At the call of his name, Gerard jerked his head away from mine and looked in the direction of the doorway.
He got up, gave me a some-what apologetic glance and proceeded to leave the room, and I presumed, go downstairs.

I was left sitting in a pile of dust in the dank room that, minutes ago, had seemed like the brightest place imaginable.

A few minutes later, Gerard re-appeared.

“I’m so sorry, I have to go out to grab some stuff. Here…” He grabbed me under the arms and pulled me to a standing position. Wrapping one arm around my waist, and the other around my middle, I was slowly transported back out into the bright art studio.

“I will be gone for about an hour, so um, here’s some stuff to do, and the foods still there.” Gerard deposited me back in my chair by the window and dumped some art crap and books on the side table that wasn’t holding food.
He then rushed out of the room, almost running into the side of the door when he looked back at me.
~

I couldn't stop gazing at the sketch Gerard had done, of both the instruments and the surrounding scenery. He made it looks so easy to turn a hard piece of lead into a masterpiece.

I got the sudden urge to see if it was just that, easy.
I grabbed a nearby pencil and proceeded to attempt to draw the fruit bowl off to the side of the scene.

An hour later and many failed attempts, I was still trying to draw the stupid object.
I almost leapt out of my skin as I felt a strong pair of arms encircle me from behind, but relaxed instantly when Gerard's head appeared on my right shoulder.

"Relax your grip on the pencil, and hold it further up." He instructed as he covered my hand with his, moving my fingers with ease as I was slightly distracted by his other hand on my waist.

"Draw a rough outline, and then begin shading in more accurate lines." As he spoke, his breath ghosted over my ear and warmed me to the core. I was beginning to like this feeling, a lot.

I decided it was a lost cause trying to concentrate on what Gerard was saying when I had such a massive urge to just turn my face towards his, snake a hand around his head and kiss him.

I thought, fuck it, and did exactly that.

Gerard gasped with shock before kissing me back and coming around to face me and hold my head in his hands.

I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck, obviously forgetting how close to the edge of the chair I was, and fell off. Because I was holding onto Gerard and vise-versa, he came tumbling to the ground with me.

Instead of being yelled at, like I was expecting, Gerard burst into fits of laughter, laying his head and half his body on top of mine.

I could feel the effects of his laughter tickling my stomach, and along with how amusing the situation was to him, I started laughing too.

After a few minutes, Gerard raised his head and gazed down at me through his curtain of messy black hair.

“I haven’t laughed like that in a long time, and I’ve never, heard you laugh like that.”

I just grinned up at him, and then blushed as my stomach made itself known.

Gerard let out a giggle and helped my back into the chair.
“Here. Read this while I get you some food, it’s like the book you were reading before but I like this one better. Oh, and I’ll make your bed up when I get back. In case you didn’t realize, there was actually a bed under all that dust.”

I laughed again as Gerard left the room, this time actually running into the door frame when he looked back at me this time.

~