The Art Way

“Gerard and Frank”, Frank said. “We could form a club for young people with old-people names. Well, 'Gerard' is at least more nickname friendly then 'Frank' let me guess your friends call you-”
“Gez. Or Gezza.”, Gerard interrupted him. That was of course complete bullshit, the names were the ones a British art magazine, the one that was so obsessed with him that people started theorising he had a thing with the editor, had given him. He just knew that he had to separate himself as far as possible from “G” in Frank's head.
“Not what I would have expected, but O.K., Gez it is”, Frank smiled.
Gerard tried to smile back confidently.
They drank their coffee and ate their sandwiches quickly, because even though both of them had a lot of time Gerard had to keep up the pretence of being an intern with a limited lunch break. The positive aspect of that was, that there was not too much opportunity for small talk, which Gerard was predictably awful at. Frank provided most of it while Gerard kept to nodding and/or humming.
He told Gerard about Leathermouth and how they made it to where they are now.
When the lunch break of intern Gerard was almost over they said their goodbyes and Gerard went back to TAW to inform Ryan he could stop avoiding Jamia now.

~*~*~

After Ryan had seen Gerard and Frank leave he had made his way into the lobby to spend his own lunch break with Spencer and Brendon.
After a few minutes Patrick walked into the lobby, greeting the boys at the reception desk.
“Hi, Spencer, Brendon, …?”, he trailed off.
“Gerard”, said Ryan, introducing himself, “I'm Pete's new intern.”
“Really? I thought he didn't get one because Andy won the lottery for that? I'm Patrick, Pete's boyfriend by the way...”
“I know”, Ryan smiled, “And yeah, they originally didn't give Pete an intern, but they decided to hire two this time.”
“Oh, that's very good for you then, everybody here is very friendly, as far as I can tell. I assume I'll see you later then, Gerard.”

~*~*~

Patrick exited the elevator on top floor and made his way over to Pete's office.
It didn't surprise him that Pete was writing in his journal, Pete tended to write a lot of poetry, some of which he had shared with Patrick and Patrick had turned some of them into songs that would be included on his next album. It was going to sound much more pop-punk than his previous releases, because he felt that genre that fit the lyrics best, but his solid fan base was used to his changing styles and collaborations with different artists such as Timbaland and Weekend Nachos.
Then there were people who only liked certain albums or songs but Patrick was O.K. with that. He made music for himself, not for other people.
Pete looked up when he noticed Patrick had entered and smiled at him.
“Hi Trick!”
“Hi, Pete. So, I met your new intern downstairs...”
“Oh, yeah...”
“What is it?”, Patrick asked, walking around Pete's desk to lean against it.
“It's just a bit weird, you know? This morning Brian just shows up with him, out of the blue and assigns me an intern I have never heard of before. They won't tell me why I got one after they first told me I wouldn't. Then the guy basically looks like G. 2.0, is even called Gerard and weirdest of all, keeps running off to talk to G.”
“Why is that so weird?”
“G. doesn't talk to people! I've never even seen him acknowledge anyone in the hallway except for Mikey and Ray and these two basically founded this whole company with him so that's no surprise.”
“And what do you think? That he's spying on you? That'd be ridiculous, Pete.”
“I don't know, maybe they think I fucked something up? Hell, I am surprised that I haven't fucked up yet! Maybe I did fuck up and didn't even notice it yet???”
“Pete! Calm down! Mikey is one of your best friends, do you really think he would do something like that? There might be a reason for all this, but if there is it has nothing to do with you.”
“I hope you're right.”
Before Patrick could give his boyfriend more reassurances Ryan walked in, ending their conversation for them.
Patrick stayed in Pete's office while he and Ryan continued their work. Since both Pete and Patrick had very busy schedules and Patrick had periods where he was often also occupied in the evenings they just tried to see each other as often as possible during those times, even if it just meant Patrick's presence in Pete's office for however long he had a free spot on his timetable.
Speaking of which, he had to leave 45 minutes after Ryan had come back from his lunch break.
Next on Patrick's roster was a live interview at a TV station, not uncommon in the promoting stage shortly before an albums release, even though these would even double after the release and before, ultimately, touring. Sometimes Patrick wished he had a real band, somebody else as a front man and other members whom he could split the promoting activities. As it was, his contract was a solo one, but his friend Joe, who just so happened to have introduced him to Pete, was his touring guitarist and also featured as a session guitarist on some of Patrick's tracks. He was just not well recognised enough by people to join in on interviews, even though he also had a small fan base.
When he arrived at the TV station Patrick mentally prepared himself for the interview itself and the torture that the make-up people would put him through before it. He would get gradually more anxious until the questions started, then it was eerily close enough to performing that he didn't mind anymore.
He answered a few of the usual questions about the album (Yes, it would be as usual different from everything released before that and the rumours he wasn't the primary lyricist were correct) the upcoming tour (Yes, he would tour with twenty one pilots as his opener), private life (Yes, he was happy with his boyfriend, no they didn't plan to make the relationship more public) and so on.
But the interviewer also asked him if he had enjoyed any other artists particularly recently.
“I generally listen to a lot of radio, I like what is new in the charts.”, he told her, “but I briefly met Frank Iero from Leathermouth yesterday and had a chance to tell him I really enjoy his band's music.”
“I don't think I ever heard of them.”, she confesses.
“Well, they are this punk band from New Jersey, I was at one of their gigs a while ago.”, he explained.

At home, channel surfing and soon having to leave for a writing and practising session with his band Frank stopped dead in his tracks.
Patrick Stumph was talking about Leathermouth. On live TV.

~*~*~

Frank arrived at their rehearsal place ten minutes too late. He had been glued to his TV to catch the rest of Patrick's interview.
“Guys”, he announced as he shouldered open the door, “I think we should concentrate more on practising than writing new songs for a while, because we're gonna play a few sold out shows.”
Four pairs of curious eyes turned to look at him.