Into Your Icy Blues

The day had finally come that Jade was to fly back home. Bob, on the other hand, had decided to stick around Jersey for a while longer.

Jade sat on the bed of the guest room with an almost full suitcase on the floor in front of her. She was going to miss the guys, she would admit. And one of the girls. A knocking knocked her out of her thoughts. Looking up, her eyes her eyes landed on Gerard standing in the doorway, both hand shoved in his jean pockets. Smiling, she beckoned him in.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Way?"

"I was wondering... if you could maybe, uh, go talk to Frank."

"Is he okay? I mean, what happened with whatsherface?"

"Yeah, well, no. He's not really okay. They got into a pretty big fight and he's pretty down. She hasn't been home in a few days."

"Oh," Jade murmured, her eyes trained on her suitcase. "You think me talking to him would help?"

"It might," Gerard shrugged. "It's worth a shot. Will you?"

"Yeah, if you think it'll help."

"Thanks, Jadey," the man grinned, taking her hand in his and pulling her to her feet. "We can head over there now. Your flight doesn't leave until tonight, does it?"

"Not until 10."

"Alright. Off we go."

The two made their way out to his car, and then drove the few blocks to Frank's house.

"Frank?" Gerard called, knocking on the front door of the house for the third time. Furrowing his eyebrows, he pulled a key ring out of his pocket and shifted through the keys for a moment before producing a silver key and sliding it into the lock. Pushing the door open he called out Frank's name again. As Jade shut the door behind them, a figure appeared at the top of the stairs. Squinting, she could make out a rough looking Frank Iero.

"Hey, you okay, dude?" Gerard called, hurrying up the stairs to his friend.

"Yeah, I'm okay." she heard his response. Frank's eyes widened a bit as he saw who had accompanied Gerard to his house.

"Uh, Jade. Hi."

"Hey," she shot him a crooked smile. By now, all three of them stood on the top landing of the stairs.

"Well, I'm just going to let you two talk," Gerard rushed out, herding the two towards a door at the end of the hall. When they reached it, he pushed the two into the room and shut the door behind them.

"Guess he wants us to talk then?" Frank got out, still staring at the now closed door of his bedroom.

Jade and Frank sat in a silent room for almost five minutes. Frank sat on his bed with his legs crossed, while Jade sat against the wall on the far side of the room. Her legs were curled up against her chest and her eyes hadn't left the carpeted floor in front of her since she had sat down.

"Why did Gerard bring you here?" Jade glanced up in surprise and stared at him for a moment before answering.

"To talk to you, I'd assume," was all she could come up with.

"Well, yeah. But about what?"

"What happened with Jamia." It came out as more of a question than a statement.

"We got into an argument."

"About me," Jade supplied. Frank had the grace to look a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah."

"I knew that you shouldn't have bought that dog for me, Iero," she began ranting. "I told you it would bring trouble, but did you listen? No. And now your girlfriend is mad at you and she hates me even more."

"Jamia doesn't hate you."

"Liar."

"I'm not," he insisted.

"Are too," she countered, her narrowed eyes boring into his.

"Whatever," he muttered, looking away. Jade rolled her eyes.

"Gerard seems to think that me talking to you will help," she offered.

"Yeah? How?"

"Well if I knew, I don't think we'd be having this conversation right now."

"We might be," Frank muttered, his hands fidgeting in his lap.

"Why would we be having an argument about why Gerard brought me if we knew why?" Jade scoffed, eyed traveling back where Frank sat on his bed.

"I don't know!" he threw his hands into the air in defeat. "Why are you always picking a fight with me?"

"You're kind of fun to get riled up," she shrugged.

"I'm- what?!"

"Yeah, your eyes get all squinty and you kind of look like you're going to hit something really hard," Jade continued carelessly. Frustrated, Frank chose to keep his mouth shut. Instead, he took to studying the girl sitting against the wall of his bedroom wall. He wondered why Gerard had sent her of all people, when she had been the cause of the argument in the first place.

"I don't regret buying you Kono," he said, finally.

"No?" The blue eyes gazed back at him questioning.

"No," he started, now standing up from the bed and making his way over to the girl. "Jamia had no right to get mad just because I bought my best friend's little sister a dog," he concluded, now sliding down the wall to sit next to her. He casually let his knee bump against hers.

"Well when you put it like that," Jade laughed a bit bitterly.

"Well, that's probably not how she saw it," Frank admitted, now turning his head to look at her.

"Probably not," she agreed, turning her head in his direction. He noticed her eyes widening a bit when she realized how close they were, but did nothing to distance herself from him.

"In fact," his mouth continued running aimlessly as his face got slightly closer to hers, "I think her anger was entirely misplaced."

"Yeah?" Jade wondered, her mind running frantically as his face moved slightly closer to hers.

"Mhm," he mumbled mindlessly, his hands itching to touch her. Wrong, wrong, wrong was chanted somewhere in the back of his mind, but he paid no mind. Instead, he moved his head forward a bit more so that his hair touched Jade's face just slightly. He wondered if he was imagining her moving forward slightly as well. "I think," he was still talking, "that she was angry at someone in her past. She probably wanted a dog when she as younger, and didn't get one."

"Frank, somehow I don't think-," she was cut off. Not by the other person speaking, but by him pressing his lips against hers slightly. Panicking, she pulled away immediately. "Bad idea," she warned, pointing a finger at him. "Bad, bad idea."

Seemingly annoyed, Frank wrapped her outstretched hand in his and closing it into a fist before pushing his lips to hers again. This time, she didn't pull away.

It was an innocently kiss, really. No tongue, just lips against lips. Ironically, it was about as far from innocent as it could be. When footsteps were heard coming down the hall, however, their minds were changed drastically. Jade pulled away quickly and, eyes flying around the room rapidly, she flew to her feet and hurried to the door. She opened it just as Gerard's hand was raised to knock.

"Hello," he greeted, looking a bit amused. "How are things going?"

"They're, uh, going, I guess," she responded stiffly. His eyes narrowed at her suspiciously.

"What did you do to Frank?"

"Nothing!" she exclaimed, smacking him a bit harder than she intended to. He peeked his head into the room and after a moment, he noticed Frank sitting up against the wall. "See? He's fine."

"Frankie, you okay?"

"Fine," he scowled with his head resting against his knees.

"See? He's fine. Off we go, then. Jade would like to go home now."

"You're leaving?" Frank asked, sounded surprised.

"Yes," she responded, not bothering to turn around. "My flight leaves in a few hours."

"Oh," Frank whispering, obviously not expecting this. "Well, I hope I'll see you again, sometimes. Good-bye, Jade." He made no indication that he was going to give her a proper good-bye.

"Good-bye, Frank," was all that she had to say before she led Gerard to the front door.

"So how'd it go?" was the first thing he said when the two got outside of the house.

"Okay, I guess," she said after a moment of contemplation. She couldn't tell him what had happened.