Let Them Eat Cake.

Mikey looks over at the calender next to his bed and winces. Halloween is next week, which means it's also Frank's birthday.

He always hated Frank's birthday. Not only cause he hated seeing girls all over him giving him "birthday kisses" (which he really, really hated), but because he always didn't know what to get him. And when Mikey DOES give him something, he doesn't think it's enough. Even when Frank says he 'loves it' and gives him a hug that makes Mikey's heart stop, he thinks, as cheesy as it fucking sounds, that Frank deserves the world.

Okay, Mikey is in love. Fuck, he's head over fucking heals. And no matter how much his older brother, Gerard, and his best friend, Ray, taunt him endlessly that he should tell Frank, Mikey refuses. He's not exactly the most outgoing person and seldom talks in front of people unless it's Frank, Gerard, or Ray.

Mikey takes a second defeating look at his calender and flops on his bed and shoves his face in his pillow.

"What am I going to fucking do?" he muffles.

"You can start by cleaning up around here. Look at this room!" A voice says that would only belong to Gerard.

Mikey doesn't even look up. "You're one to fucking talk, Gee! Have you taken a look at YOUR room lately?!" He muffles.

Gerard doesn't even answer. He flops down on the bed next to Mikey and rubs his back and sighs deeply.

"Whats wrong?" He asks in mono-tone.

Mikey rolls on his back and looks up at his brother. "Do you know what today is?"

Gerard glances over at the calender on the wall. "Uh..The twenty-fourth?" he asks, confused.

"Yes! And what happens in one week?!"

Gerard raises an eyebrow and looks back at the calender "The thirty-..OH GOD Mikes not this shit again!"

Mikey hits Gerard over the head with his pillow and throws it over his face again. Gerard doesn't seemed moved by the blow, but he fixes his hair and looks down at Mikey.

"Look, what you're doing to yourself is unhealthy," he says like a doctor or their mother would. "You need to stop. Halloween is supposed to be a FUN holiday, ya know?"

Mikey lifts the pillow off his head. "Yeah, Gerard, for people ages 3 to 13. Or people who refuse to grow up, like you."

Even though this was meant to be an insult, Gerard grins at this. "You can have fun if you want to, too, ya know. You can go to Frank's party and actually be social and not sit at home like every year wallowing in your self pity because you're in love with him and you're too pussy to tell him that."

This sets Mikey off. "I am not a pussy!" he screams. "I just..I don't want to, okay? I don't..I don't know how."

Gerard rolls his eyes. "You're an idiot. Just say that you love him! No fluff or bells and whistles. You're making it way harder than it needs to be."

Mikey takes a deep breath and lets it out slow. "And what if he gets so grossed out that he won't wanna be friends anymore," He asks silently.

"Frank's not the kind of person to get offended over that shit. Worst case? He'll probably want to be just friends and you'll eventually move on."

Mikey bites his lip. Gerard actually has a point. The whole reason Mikey has been holding on to Frank so long is that he's hoping that Frank would feel the same. If he heard from Frank himself that he doesn't return the feelings, Mikey knows he'll give up and move forward.

At least he hopes so.

Mikey sits up and actually feels pretty confident, until he realizes that he doesn't fucking know what to get Frank for his birthday.

It has to be perfect. It has to top all the other gifts he's gotten him in the years before. If telling him that he loves him won't be good enough, he needs something to fall back on that Frank will love.

But what?

Mikey gets off the bed without a word and walks over to his sock drawer where his wallet is that contains practically his life savings. Gerard eyes him attentively as Mikey counts the money. Mikey frowns. It's less than he thought. A lot less. Then he remembered all of the beer runs he's taken with Gerard, on top of all the other unnecessary spendings he's made in the past few months without thinking that the cost would add up. He throws the wallet at the wall frustratingly.

"What in the hell is 100 bucks gonna get me?" Mikey groans.

Gerard laughs at the scene Mikey is making. "100 bucks is more than enough, Mikey. Frank isn't picky when it comes to gifts. You know that. He loves all the gifts you get him every year."

Mikey runs his fingers over his eyes. "You don't UNDERSTAND, Gerard, this gift has to be perfect. 100 fucking dollars isn't gonna get me that!"

"Mikes, you really need to relax," Gerard says calmly. "Tell you what. Let ME think of something, and I'll let you know what I come up with, and if it's over your 100 dollar budget..I'll pitch in."

Mikey shakes his head furiously and before he can protest Gerard stops him. "Shut the hell up Mikey, I don't wanna hear it. I'm gonna help you. I'm kind of obliged considering I'm your brother, but I've been waiting for you to do this for fucking I don't even know how long now."

Gerard leaves the room and goes downstairs to his room. Mikey is pleased by this, considering this is where Gerard goes when he's figuring out something important. Mikey really thinks that Gerard is going to come up with something perfect.

______________________________

Mikey is fast asleep when all of a sudden someone is shaking him furiously, whispering "I got it! I got it! Mikey, fucking wake up, I have an idea!"

"uhmmmfff?" Mikey groans. "Okay, okayyyy, STOP SHAKING ME GEE FUCK I'M AWAKE!"

Gerard stops immediately. "Sorry," he says, even though Mikey knows he doesn't really mean it.

"Listen, I have an idea of what you can get Frank!"

Mikey sits up, excited. "Is it within my budget?" he asks, hopeful.

Gerard nods. "Definitely!"

Mikey nods. Good. The last thing he needs is the feeling that he needs to repay Gerard back. Mikey isn't the kind of person who deals with favors well.

"My idea is," he says, "Is you make Frank a cake."

Mikey is floored. He almost wants to laugh because he thinks it's a joke, but the expression on Gerard's face confirms he's being serious.

"A...cake?"

Gerard nods. "It's perfect!"

Mikey's jaw drops to the floor. "You HAVE to be joking. A fucking CAKE? That's so lame!"

Gerard shakes his head. "Oh come on, what's a better way of telling someone you love them than making a cake?! Everyone loves cake! Frank would think it's sweet."

Mikey is so disappointed and angry at this point he could puke. He really thought Gerard had a great idea. And he comes up with THIS? Mikey can't exactly say this is his best idea yet.

But what else can he do?

Mikey sighs. "I can't bake.." he says.

Gerard smiles. "Who says you're gonna do this alone? I'll help you."

Mikey raises his eyebrows. "You can't bake either," He says bluntly.

"I've never tried. We can try this together. And, uh," Gerard giggles, "It might be..fun?"

______________________________

The next few days consisted of buying cake ingredients at the store, Trying to ask-but-not-ask Frank for his favorite cake flavor (which they eventually find out is chocolate), and calling up mother Way and asking her for tips on baking without much luck.

The night before Frank's party came around and Gerard and Mikey are tackling this cake recipe they found online (again, with not much luck).

"Gee, I think you're supposed to, like, stir the dry ingredients and moist ingredients separately?" Mikey says, looking at the flour-covered paper.

Gerard groans and puts his cake-battered hands over his face in frustration. "I don't fucking knowwwww," He says. "Let's just put it all the shit together and hope to god it doesn't explode in the oven."

Exactly thirty minutes later at the oven set at 350, the cake comes out, and it actually looks pretty good.

Gerard, with his artistic skills, decorates it with icing by putting "Happy birthday, Frankie," with an orange creepy-looking pumpkin at the side. Gerard tops it off with a little orange candle in the middle. Mikey has to admit, it looks pretty bad ass. Maybe Frank won't shove it in his face after all..

______________________________

Mikey wakes up groggily in the morning and checks his phone. October 31st. Halloween. Frank's Birthday! Mikey's head is spinning a mile a minute and he feels like he's going to throw up.

Nightfall rolls around and the Ways are getting into their Halloween costumes.

Mikey looks in the mirror. He's dressed up as a vampire. He hasn't dressed up for Halloween since he was in his early teens when it was cool to dress up. He feels kind of lame dressing up, but it's for Frank.

Gerard walks in his room dressed up as what he dresses up as every year, a dead corpse, adding more and more blood every year.

"You ready, Mikes?" he asks. Mikey nods.

"Did you tell Frank you were going?"

Mikey nods again. "He's really surprised I'm going this year."

Gerard smiles. "He'll be happy you're coming," he says, patting his shoulder affectionately. "Don't forget the cake," he says on his way out of Mikey's room.

"How could I?" Mikey responds quietly, not caring if Gerard actually heard.

______________________________

They go to the party (with the cake, of course,) as planned, and all goes well. Frank goes as a skeleton and is happy to see Gerard and especially happy to see Mikey. Mikey decides to give him the cake in private, so he leaves it in the car.

The party goes on, Mikey being a wall-flower and anti-social as usual, and it eventually ends until everyone leaves except for Gerard, Ray, and Mikey.

The four of them are cleaning up the living room when Gerard motions to him that it's time. Ray giggles a little at this, and Mikey figured Gerard told him the plan. If he wasn't so fucking nervous, Mikey would be pissed.

Frank was cleaning up the kitchen when Mikey approached him. "Hey, Frank..?"

Frank looks up. "Yeah?"

Mikey bites his lip. "Uh, can you go up to your room? I have a..a gift for you."

Frank eyes him confusingly. "Uh, yeah? Sure?" and drops the broom in his hand and goes upstairs to his room.

Mikey runs out to the car like he's running a marathon, grabs the cake, runs inside, and runs upstairs with Ray and Gerard cheering quietly "GO MIKEY!"

He gets to the outside of Franks door and calms his breathing. "Close your eyes," Mikey calls from outside the door.

Frank giggles. "Okay."

Mikey takes the lighter out of his pocket and lights the candle. With a big gulp, he walks in the room.

He sits down in front of him on his bed and eyes up Frank, feeling more lightheaded by the second. Mikey's attention are on Frank's lips, desperately wanting his lips on his.

"Can I open my eyes now?" Frank whispers.

All of Mikey's control is gone. Without dropping the cake and burning himself with the candle, he leans in and pecks a small kiss on Frank's lips.

Frank freezes and his eyes fly open. Mikey breaks the kiss and Frank looks at Mikey, then down at the cake.

Mikey is at loss for words. What the fuck did he just do?

"Ha-..Happy birthday!" He bursts out.

Frank is frozen and unresponsive.

Mikey goes into panic mode. "I..I can't bake for shit, and I mean, Gerard helped a lot, and it might not taste the best..so..blow out your candle and make a wish.."

Frank looks down and silently blows out the candle, and looks back up at Mikey.

"I failed," Mikey thought. "Fuck."

Suddenly, Frank grabs the cake out of Mikey's hands and puts it on his nightstand table, and then grabs a hold of the back of Mikey's neck and crashes his lips on to his.

Frank finally breaks the kiss. "Looks like I got my wish before I even made it," He said, smiling.

Mikey is at loss for words again. Suddenly he hears silent giggling behind Frank's door.

"FUCKING SERIOUSLY, YOU GUYS?!" Mikey bursts out.

"It's about DAMN time!" Gerard yells from behind the door, accompanied by Ray's hysterical laughter.