The Gameing Widower

Wednesday 12th October

The sound of Gerard’s foot tapping consistently impatient against the hardwood floor was clearly lost to the younger man sat on the edge of the beanbag in front of him, the only thing his mind able to concentrate on at that moment the kill score marked on the screen that was slowly inching higher and higher.
“Hah! Take that you cocky motherfucker!” Gerard rolled his eyes, no doubt there was some fourteen year old kid somewhere now crying because Frank had blown his head off and apparently ended his part in the game. To be honest Gerard couldn’t see the appeal, at all. Why on earth would you want to sit around and pretend to be a soldier randomly shooting strangers whilst receiving torrents of abuse from said strangers?

Franks eyes flickered across the screen, fingers moving madly across the console, thumb slamming down on the x a couple of hundred times before he was satisfied his target was 100% dead and moved on…Still oblivious to the agitated male behind him.
“Frank!” The console seemed to almost leap out of tattooed hands before landing neatly back in them, Frank however leapt near clean off the bean bag, only to find hardwood flooring. The dull throb in his butt the last thing on his mind as a gunshot sounded from the television, his character suddenly dropping to its knees and keeling over dead. He stared dumbfounded at the screen as whooping sounded in his earpiece, the brat was back and celebrating his vengeance more than liberally.

Gerard meanwhile had given up and left the room, leaving his boyfriend to mourn in peace.

Switching on the coffee machine he shook his head to himself, still mighty annoyed but deciding he would just have to sit it out, after all it was a new game. Of course Frank was going to play it a lot, but give it time and he was sure that the novelty would wear of, it had too.

Friday 28th October

Gerard’s hand was going numb from the weight of his head resting on it, but he couldn’t be asked to move, the book he had been reading was laying open on the sheets as he stared mindlessly at the same page for about the 20th time. Groaning he slammed the book shut and threw it down onto the carpet beside the bed, throwing the covers back at the same time, exposing his bare flesh to the tepid air, nearly three hours he had been waiting for Frank to finish up whatever it was he had to do and get his scrawny ass up stairs, an hour and a half of which he had been sprawled rather uncomfortably in a provocative ‘come and get me’ pose. That had been given up when his joints began to ache from being held into the same position for so long, so the sound of them popping obnoxiously into the still air was hardly a surprise to him, but it didn’t stop him from flinching at the unpleasant sound.

Snatching the comforter off the top of the bed he wrapped it around his body and stomped out of the room and down the stairs, his feet speeding up as he reached halfway and heard a set of tinny gunshots reverberate through the night air. A part of him kept telling himself not to be ridiculous; it must be coming from next door, no way would Frank ditch him for a damn video game. Not if he was wise.
“Hah Cocksucker!” the hushed victory cry made his blood boil, this was going too far. Nothing, absolutely nothing gave Frank the right to choose a game over him.
“What the FUCK!” Frank froze, his body hunched in front of the television, his hands pulling the remote into his chest as if trying to protect it from his rampaging boyfriend. Glancing out the corner of his eye he could see Gerard stood at the base of the stairs, Hazel eyes wide and hurt.
“Uh…hi…” Gerard Frank watched as Gerard’s face began to pale out and braced himself, eyes glancing to the clock nailed on the wall behind his boyfriend he noted that it was now approaching half three in the morning.
“I thought you were coming up soon.” the stress on the last word made Frank flinch as his hands gripped at the remote like a life raft.
“Uh I was-“ He got no further.
“Three hours isn’t soon Frank! It’s far from soon! In fact it’s about as far away from ‘soon’ as you can damn well get!” Gerard hands clenched around the comforter, drawing it tight around his shoulders as he glared his boyfriend down, eventually Frank sighed and looked away, tossing the remote into his lap (after pausing the gameplay of course).
“I thought you were going to sleep, I didn’t expect you to wait up for me alright?” Frank crossed his arms across his chest, locking his eyes on his now furious boyfriend, if Frank was perfectly honest with himself at this point he would probably have to say he was shiting his pants the tiniest bit, just waiting for Gerard’s eyes to start glowing red and the steam to billow out of his ears.
“YOU KNEW I WASN’T GOING TO SLEEP!” Frank tried to disguise the wince as Gerard yelled, stomping forwards, bare feet thudding almost painfully against the hardwood flooring. “When your boyfriend suggest an early night Frank, sleep is hardly the first thing meant to come to mind!” He stopped in front of a near cowering Frank, he knew he had screwed up this time, Gerard was usually relatively understanding, hell he had been ever since Frank had become damn near addicted to the game, but this time he realised he had crossed the line. “No, you were hoping I had gone to sleep. You were hoping I would forget and fall asleep so you could stay up all damn night and play this stupid, pathetic game!” He stepped forwards one more half step and pressed his pointer finger painfully into Frank’s chest. “Coz that’s all you damn well think about now! Never mind your boyfriend, or the dinner he cooked, or the lunch date he set up, to hell with it all! Just so long as you can shoot fucking dickheads just like you all over the world and blow their cyber brains all over god-damn cyberspace!”

Frank sat on the floor, legs now numb, Gerard finger pressing hard against his sternum and voice unable to conjure a decent counter argument; even the previously jeering voices on the over end of the headset had fallen silent. Frank could feel Gerard’s erratic breaths fanning over his skin and he knew it was only a matter of time before the older male was reduced to tears, and he felt like shit.
‘Ha! Douche-bags getting ripped a new one by his faggot friend!’ the high nasally voice penetrated the air between the two males, Gerard’s eyes narrowing at the headset, before Frank could react Gerard’s hand had shot out of the comforter and ripped it off Frank’s head (Rather painfully as Gerard hadn’t been careful as to whether or not he had headset or hair) and raised the microphone to his lips.
“Yeah he is, as are you about to be.” Frank watched wide eyed, shaking his head fiercely at his boyfriend, who by this point had well and truly crossed the line of no return in his bitch fit and just didn’t give a damn any more.
‘what the fuck? Who the hell do you think you are?’
“I’m Gerard God-Damn Way, and I’m not about to be questioned by some-one who clearly hasn’t even completed puberty yet, now get your spotty ass off the game and actually go meet a real person without the assistance of technology, learn some social skills, get laid and then maybe I’ll actually take anything you’ve gotta say to me into account. Although I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you; It’s not healthy to hold it that long.” And without waiting for a reply, he whipped the headset off his head and lobbed it across the room, Frank’s hands moving franticly to catch it as it flew directly past him and hit the plastered wall, splitting in two.

Frank’s eyes moved from the pile of splintered plastic to his boyfriend and back again, unable to believe he had actually just done that.
“You broke it…” Frank’s voice was small and barely audible over Gerard’s heavy breathing, the comforter now hung loosely, being held almost half-heartedly to protect his modesty.
“Damn right I did.” Gerard growled, spinning on his heel towards the console, Frank’s heart rate speeding up as he approached the black rectangle on the floor.
“NO!” Frank’s hands were gripping at his knee caps as Gerard ripped the leads from the back of the console, the grip his fingers had on them painful as the leads clattered against the flooring, the screen on the television blacking out. Frank’s breathing right about stopped as he realise his kill score wasn’t saved. “Dude! My score…” He turned his head to see Gerard’s eyes narrowed, the usually light hazel darkened, upper lip pulled back almost ferociously. “Doesn’t really matter…” He squeaked, watching as his lovers face relaxed, the light hazel slowly mixing back into his orbs as the muscles around his eyes laxed.
“Good.” Gerard’s voice came out breathy as he stalked back towards Frank, a familiar smirk beginning to play across his lips. “Now, get up. And go upstairs.” Frank noted the calm tone to his voice, and was almost afraid to ask, but the question had slipped out before he could stop it.
“W-why?” Gerard merely hummed ion the back of his throat, watching as Frank pulled himself to his feet despite the question, but made no move towards the staircase. The smirk on Gerard’s lips didn’t falter as he moved forwards, letting the comforter slip further down his body with each step until his bare body was pressed up against Frank’s fully clothed one.
“Well, let’s see…” Gerard slowly let his head fall till it rested on Frank’s shoulder, his face turned towards the crook of his neck, letting his breath fan evenly over the younger man’s skin before letting his lips slowly begin skim over his neck. “I think…” He trailed off, letting his lips work higher up Frank neck until his teeth where toying at his pierced lobe, his hands resting on Frank’s denim clad hips. “You, have something to make up to me…” He pulled away, his hands staying in their place where his thumbs gently rubbed circles on the sensitive area, his eyes meeting Frank’s half lidded ones. “Don’t you?” Frank’s breath stuttered before picking up, those words the only encouragement needed to grip his boyfriend’s wrists and tug him up the stairs after him.

_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Stretching out Gerard yawned, his left hand resting over bare flesh, his left leg intertwined with two others. A soft, lazy smile twisted across his lips as his hand gently ran over the tattooed flesh, the slight pain in the small of his back a familiar reminder of the previous night’s activities. Carefully he disentangled himself from Frank’s damn near comatose form and tugged on a pair of sweats, relishing in the pleasant glow he could still fell strumming through his body. Reaching the bottom of the stairs his quest to the kitchen was delayed as his foot caught on something lying across the floor; his feet stumbled over one another as he tried to regain his balance, his head bowing as he noticed he had tripped on the comforter he had dragged downstairs the night before. Scooping it up he winced for two reasons, one the pain that suddenly shot up his spine, and two, the memories of last night’s rampage against the video game and the snot nosed brat spinning back into his mind.

Mentally scorning himself for losing control, he tucked a stray strand of ebony behind his ear and folded the comforter in his arms and walked across the living room to lay it across the back of the sofa to take upstairs later when Frank was up. As he threw it over the back of the sofa his eyes fell on the broken headset and made a mental note to buy a replacement for Frank, he had totally over-reacted. Picking up the pieces the console caught his eyes, the cables hanging limply in a pile behind it, glancing at the ceiling and exhaling loudly he moved over an knelt beside the console, trying to remember which lead came out of where.
“Well, if I’m gonna throw a fit at him, the least I can do is try and put it back together…” as he picked at the mass of wires tentatively confidence all but left his body.
_*_*_*_*_*

The first thing Frank noticed when he woke up was that he did so alone, no arms wrapped around him, no Gerard practically clinging to his side like a lovable limpet as he was used to the morning after. Pushing himself up onto his elbows he could see no sign of his lover at all, the bed was still unmade on his side of the bed and there was no empty coffee cup on the bedside table, the room was silent…the house was silent…

Panic flared through his system as he shot out of bed, feet skidding on a book that lay sprawled open on the floor. Grunting as he kicked it under the bed he moved over to the dresser and tugged out a pair of boxers, slipping them onto his hips he noticed them begin to ride down and realised they were a pair of Gerard’s, shrugging indifferently he took a little comfort in that his boyfriend’s clothes where still there, that meant he hadn’t upped and left him for being a jackass and choosing the stupid video game over him.

Walking out of the bedroom and down the stairs he tried to avoid mentally beating himself up over his behaviour over the fortnight just under, unable to believe he had really thought that the game was more important than spending time with the man he loved. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he could hear some-one moving around in the living room, the momentary panic that had somehow gripped him released its grip as he stepped round into the room, only for it to be replaced with disbelief at the sight in front of him.

Gerard was sat on the very edge of the sofa, in his hand the remote control for the game console, the sound of car engines hummed around the room as he leaned in time with the car he was controlling on the video game, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth as he concentrated. So absorbed was he, he never noticed Frank stood in the doorway, rubbing at his eyes to check he was indeed seeing what he was seeing. A high pitched squeak followed by the sound of metal crunching made Frank move further into the room to see the television screen clearly where his boyfriend’s car had just spun on the tracks causing a six car pileup, while the culprit sat giggling on the couch.
“Enjoying yourself?” Gerard jumped at the sound of Frank’s voice, time seemed to slip away while he played the game and he hadn’t noticed the clock ticking round to nearly mid-day. Sheepishly he turned in the seat; aiming his best ‘you know you love me’ looks at his boyfriend.
“I was fixing it for you I swear!” He placed the control down on the arm of the couch as Frank moved round and sat down beside the sheepish male. “But I had to check it was working properly, and…I guess while I was checking time sort of escaped me. Sorry…” Frank chuckled, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend’s temple. “They are quite addictive though…” Frank hummed, leaning down and pushing the power button in on the console, the game screen shutting down and the television channel that had been playing before cut back in.
“Best in moderation though huh?” He took Gerard’s hand in his own as the ebony haired male smiled fondly at him. “Just like everything that’s good, best in moderation…” Gerard’s smile twisted into a smirk as he shifted on the seat, throwing one leg easily over both his boyfriends and pulling himself into his lap. The movement took Frank by surprise making a gasp slip past his lips, soon muffled by Gerard’s pressing down on his own before he spoke, his voice taking on a husky edge with his murmured words.
“well…most things…”