Épousez-moi, Restez la Même Chose

"This is a good idea, you know," Mikey said to him while they were lounging on his couch in New York, both their feet resting up on his coffee table. Gerard had a sneaking suspicion--by the way Mikey was hesitant to wear his shoes while resting his feet on said coffee table--that Alicia would kill him if she knew. A small stirring in his blood alerted him that yes, he did have the best wife-husband/boyfriend he could ever hope for. Not deserve, since he fucked up from day one and never stopped. But wiL was a real catch, and Gerard knew that.

"Is it?" he asked worriedly, leaning his head on Mikey's shoulder. Light shone on the two brothers from the TV, projecting some sort of gory slasher film--what else would Mikey have in his house? Chick flicks? Nah. Gerard was also beginning to think that Alicia was secretly a man. 'S why she was so brutal.

"Yes. Geez. Don't start doubting yourself, loser. WiL's going to be thrilled that you're here. He might even stop moping."

He was moping over Gerard. Because Gerard was a fuck up, and wiL said that if he didn't quit, they wouldn't get married. But what if wiL thought that Gerard was being a fuck up by coming up here without warning? It was just so fucking lonely at the house by himself, he couldn't stand it. A whole fucking week of getting up, going through the motions, and waiting like a sap on the couch with his neck craned uncomfortably so he could see out the window just in case Mikey's car just happened to show up. It was maddening. By the last day, right before he found the resolve to make himself swallow down his fears and just pack up and leave, he'd taken to sitting out in the garden. Just. Sitting. Talking to the flowers like wiL did.

"I hope so. I miss him," Gerard muttered, snuggling back into the crevice between Mikey's shoulder and the couch.

He watched with detached awe as his brother grinned. Full out grinned, the dorky smile of his teen years finally making a reappearance after too many years of being a recluse. It lit up his face, and finally a full emotion greeted Gerard. He felt a tug on his heart as he realized how much he missed his brother.

"You're going to get married," he sang in a voice induced with giggles, nudging Gerard in the ribs with his pointy elbows.

"Oh my God, you've turned into a girl," Gerard muttered back, feeling giddy. WiL was going to be here soon, and Gerard will finally get to know if there's still a relationship salvageable between them. In the meantime, he resigned to settle himself between the wisp of a brother that he only claimed half the time--like right now, they were totally brothers--and the couch, turning his attention to the Home and Garden channel.

"You're so gay," Gerard told his brother, leaning in to bite his shoulder. He smiled up at him, seeing the return of the bitchface instead of the grin. That was okay, though. Gerard knew it wasn't permanent.

"You actually are."

And though Gerard could start a mega argument about how he wasn't gay--just a little un-straight for one boy, it's not like he was prowling gay bars for single men--he just shrugged and flicked Mikey on the jaw, glancing subtly over at the clock on the wall. It was only two. Mikey had said that Alicia took wiL out at eleven this morning, so two wasn't late. Probably wasn't going to be here for hours.

*

Sometime, between Trading Spaces and another show about horticulture ("Stick the roots of the plant close to the surface of the soil to retain the most light," a woman in a pastel pink shirt was lecturing him, the last he knew.), Gerard dozed off on Mikey's shoulder, the sound of the TV still going on in the background unheard. He curled up with his hands stuck behind his brother's back, his legs folded under him, and his chin tucked into Mikey's shoulder, drifting pretty peacefully for all the worry built up inside of him.

It wasn't a real sleep, it was a nap. Gerard doesn't really sleep, ever, but his mind was going in and out at random times, once catching Mikey flipping the channel to the food network, another hearing the door open and close in a detached way. Only when another body sunk down into the couch on his other side and he was warm all around did he stir, blink-wincing and snuggling into the new addition.

And then he heard the tell-tale giggle of his boyfriend--and he has totally resigned to get giddy over the fact that his mind is now referring to wiL as his boyfriend--and the wet warmth of a kiss pressed to his eyebrow.

"Hi," he muttered, cracking open an eye far enough to see and kiss wiL's neck in return. His voice was filled with sand and gravel.

"Hi, Gerard." Wil touched his nose to Gerard's. "What are you doing here?"

"M--was just, you know, in the neighborhood..."

"But we live in Maine."

Mikey giggled from beside him--another dorky giggle, Gerard was this close to getting his baby brother back from the clutches of evil--and Gerard had to smile and lean up to kiss wiL again.

"What he means to say," Mikey filled in for him, grabbing Alicia's elbows as she appeared out of nowhere to wrap her arms around his neck--it was kind of sweet, if Gerard could get past the fact of one, brother, and two, Alicia is evil and is trying to take his boyfriend away from him. "Is that he was missing you, and was too worried that you hated him to stay at home like the loser he sometimes is and rot in his loser-ness." Mikey tilted his head to kiss Alicia's arm and smirked over at Gerard's bitchface.

"That's seriously so gross," Gerard informed them, snuggling deeper into wiL's side. "Gross, gross."

"Your face is gross," Alicia said, but even she was smiling. Gerard was sort of awed to see that she had a dorky smile too, sometimes. It made her eyes squint, and even though she was still evil, he couldn't blame Mikey so much for liking her. "And you have tiny teeth," she told him when he started to grin.

"I think his face is cute," wiL said firmly, cuddling.

Alicia pouted, possibly the most ridiculous expression Gerard had ever seen on her face, geeky-smile included, and shook her head.

"You've brainwashed my baby, Gerard. I don't like it."

Gerard could feel the beginnings of a fight in the air, and he knew exactly how to start it--mentioning that wiL was older than Alicia would probably provoke her depressed bitchy tone--but he didn't want to. Not. Not when Alicia was rounding the couch to snuggle into Mikey's lap like she wasn't the man of the relationship. Not when there was a time when he finally wasn't having an existential crisis over anything.