Épousez-moi, Restez la Même Chose

Rain pounded unrelentingly on the big Bay window in the living room of Mikey's apartment where Gerard and wiL laid on the pull-out couch, creating dark streaks on the patches of moonlight that hit the thin white sheet wiL was clinging to. Gerard would hear wiL's squeaks every time a bolt of lightning would hit, felt his trembling from two feet away where he laid half-falling off of the bed. Despite telling himself when he first found out that he'd have to share a bed with wiL that he wasn't to touch him at all, he couldn't just lay there while the other boy was miserable, it wasn't humane. Gerard turned over on his side to look at wiL.

"Hey," he called softly, reaching out to put his hand on wiL's shaking shoulder. There was a tiny squeak in response, so Gerard slipped his arm around wiL's stomach and slid him closer to the middle of the bed, all the while thinking this was a bad idea and hoping wiL didn't interpret it wrongly. WiL squirmed around a bit before hesitantly tucking his head under Gerard's chin.

"Are you okay?" Gerard asked hesitantly, biting back the urge to puke everywhere because this just didn't feel right. Social situations weren't easy for him. He couldn't just smooth down wiL's hair and tell him everything's okay like Mikey could.

WiL made some sort of affirmative noise and nodded, pulling away and arching his back to look up at Gerard without having to be released from the hold. He smiled at Gerard and his insides went for a loop, his intestines painfully twisting around his spleen and launching itself up into his throat. Gerard didn't know yet what to make of the feeling, if it was just apprehension or if he really was going to be sick.

"Merci, Gerard." WiL's voice was barely a whisper against the patter of rain that all but drowned out his words.

Gerard sputtered out a "You're welcome," before tearing his gaze to the ceiling fan and keeping it there, using it as his sobriety point to pull him away and make himself numb.

*

Mikey tried to keep what masculinity he had left--the unicorns and tutu did a number on his rep--and not squeal like a girl when he went into the living room the next morning at the ungodly hour of 5:19 to check on his brother and wiL. All night he had worried that they wouldn't get along, that Gerard wouldn't let wiL come and live with him. In the short time that Mikey had known wiL, he'd come very attached to him. He was adorable, Alicia loved him, and he was really sweet. Mikey honestly thought that wiL was perfect for Gerard, this wasn't some stupid joke that he wanted to play on his brother. At the beginning, yeah, he just wanted to see the look on Gerard's face when he found out that he had a wife, but this had turned out a lot better than Mikey could have ever imagined.

"Mikey."

He jumped up when he heard his name coming from Gerard, knowing this wasn't going to be pleasant. Gerard looked up at his brother, not moving in fear of waking the boy nestled into his chest.

"I don't want to hear shit about this in the morning. And don't tell your evil wife either." He narrowed his eyes, stressing that last part. Because Alicia would tell Jamia, and Jamia would tell Frank, and Frank would tell Bob, and Bob would...well, no, Frank would tell Ray too, and Gerard would end up being made fun of for the rest of forever.

Mikey would have scoffed loudly if wiL didn't look so damn peaceful. "Shut up, she's not evil, you are. Well, right now you look pretty fuckin' sweet, but most of the time you're pure, nerdy evil. Like, Mandark evil." And, with his obscure cartoon reference done for the morning, Mikey turned and skipped up the steps to finally get a little bit of sleep before the damned sun came up and made things chirp. Like, birds and squirrels and other shit that could possibly disturb him.

*

WiL looked positively entranced as he watched Alicia make pancakes for breakfast, every now and then adding a commentary that she couldn't understand but made her coo and pat him on the head nevertheless. Gerard sat at the island-thing in the middle of the kitchen on a stool beside Mikey, hoping that Mikey wouldn't find the need to break the silence and mention anything about seeing him wrapped up with wiL this morning. After the pancakes were done and set in front of his little brother, Gerard felt himself pretty safe, and reached out to fork himself a pancake out onto his own plate. Alicia and wiL stood on the opposite side of the island, neither feeling the urge to go get a seat to use or sit at the kitchen table that was just feet away.

It was Alicia who, not being able to stand the silence while the boys stuffed their faces, started up a conversation.

"So, Gerard, you're taking wiL back to your house today?" She asked, hoping that he didn't want wiL so she could adopt him and smother him to death with all the motherly attention she had no one else to use on, because she sure as hell was not getting pregnant.

Gerard poked at his pancakes moodily before answering, sighing like the world was ending. "Yep."

Mikey scoffed loudly to make up for earlier when he couldn't. "Oh my god, you had to go all drama queen to say one word? You're pathetic. I don't know if we should trust you to take care of wiL."

"We shouldn't! He can stay here and I can cuddle him and make him a sweater and tell him to brush his teeth!" Alicia piped up.

"Shut up, he's mine, remember?" Gerard growled. Not that he was getting protective of the kid, but depriving his brother and sister-in-law of an outlet for all their...parental wishes was funny.

"But you didn't want him yesterday!" Alicia wailed.

"Well, he's still mine, so get over it!"

"But I want to keep him...he's like a little kid that I didn't have to go through 20 hours of labor and 3 years of diapers to get. And, he's fucken adorable, look at his pretty eyes! And his cute ears! You can't take him out of New York, I'll die!" With that cry, Alicia collapsed on the table and pouted. WiL glanced over at her, concerned, and poked her in the shoulder.

"Licia?"

She poked her head up and glanced over at him. A smile grew on her lips and she threw her arms around him, kissing him on the cheek. "Aw, wiL, you're such a sweetie! I'm gonna leave my husband for you."

Mikey threw his fork at Gerard. "You are not! Gerard, take him away!" He gestured wildly between the two until Gerard, annoyed, stood up from his stool, and all gesturing/raping of wiL stopped.

He sighed, and, with a shake of his head, held out his hand. "Come on, wiL."

WiL scampered over to Gerard in a hurry, latching himself onto him immediately because he knew his place. Gerard took him into the living room, where they sat and watched an odd cartoon about a purple dog that was afraid of everything. He smiled when Gerard put an arm around him and didn't move it away. He leaned into Gerard's side and focused on yet another talking dog. This one was funnier.