I'm the Last One That You'll Ever Remember

Both Gerard and Frank’s eyes snapped in the direction of the stairs where they heard the sound of a small child’s voice over their quarreling. They had thought themselves to be alone since they tucked all their children into bed upstairs. But they were wrong. It turned out they had an audience witnessing their loud and serious squabble over Frank meeting Gerard’s brother, Michael, and working things out.

In line on the stairwell were all of their oldest children standing there with their hands curled around the rails and their shimmering eyes wide with worry. Never in their life had they ever seen their parents argue before so tonight was a first. And it was something they didn't like at all. In fact, if it was up to them, this would be the very last blowup the couple ever had.

Simultaneously becoming rigid in shock that they’d been caught, both mother and father gaped right back at their kids in horror as their jaws dropped. Neither one knew what to say to the little faces staring back at them with dread. Neither one could come up with an answer that would erase the fear from their eyes and light them up with happiness again.

Gerard and Frank seldom argued. When they did, they always made sure they were alone, or the children were too preoccupied to notice anything going on. Majority of the time their arguments could be handled in the form of low-key discussion between two parents so none of their babies could tell anything was wrong. But tonight was different. The couple were too caught up on the sensitive subject of Michael Way to be cognizant of their surroundings and who could be eavesdropping on them.

Especially Gerard. He above all should have heard his little ones first. As a highly trained Killjoy, his children had never been able to get the upper hand on him when it came to sneaking around. He’d always been one step ahead of them. Tonight should have been no different.

Letting out a gasp at the sight of his children overhearing them, Frank’s hand flew to his open mouth. Ashamed of himself as a parent, he felt his heart shrivel up in his chest and wither away. Never did he ever wish for his children to see them argue. He never wanted to be one of those parents that didn’t care what their children saw or heard in such strained times. Frank wanted to be better, but now they were caught arguing and so it’s ruined any hope of preserving his children's innocence. Unless…

With wide hazel eyes, Frank snapped his head towards his husband, praying that he had some sort of strategy up his sleeve to restore their blunder before it was too late.

Knowing all eyes were now on him, Gerard became even more apprehensive than before. It was up to him to save the day, to make everything bright, sunny and peaceful again. His children had seen other parents bicker in front of their kids in public before, and he always assured them that he and their mother would never stoop to such levels. But tonight they had, and there was no pretending that it didn’t happen.

Wait…pretending!

A light bulb went off in Gerard’s head as he thought ‘of course’ to himself. Much like his four oldest had been pretending while playing outside in the backyard earlier that day, adults do the same things too!

Enacting on that option, Gerard suddenly burst out laughing like he just saw the funniest thing he’d ever seen before in his life. Smacking a hand on his thigh, he bent himself over, wrapping his arms around his middle as he cackled like a lunatic.

No longer looking to him for an answer, Frank and the kids were now staring at him like he lost his damn mind. Still robbed of speech, they watched him under raised brows of distraction, awaiting him to get a hold of himself and offer up an explanation.

Straightening himself up, Gerard swept back his dark hair to reveal a dazzling open mouth grin underneath and light brown eyes sparkling with humor. Splaying his arms open wide, he inquired to the kids with a child-like excitement that would have mirrored their own if they only knew what was so funny. “Alright, you caught us! Now be honest with us, what did you think of our performance?”

Just as clueless as his kids, Frank looked from his deranged husband to their children to see how they’d respond to their dad’s bait, his hand gradually lowering from his mouth.

“Huh?” Lorenzo muttered with a frown, tilting his head to the side in further bafflement.

“Our performance. Your mommy and I.” Gerard explained, gesturing between both him and Frank. “Were we as good actors as the ones in your favorite movies?”

Lorenzo slowly shook his head, his frown only deepening in remembrance. “No…it was scary.”

“Well then, that’s good too!” Gerard announced, throwing both hands up in great relief.

Frank continued to stare at his husband through worried eyes, not grasping onto his grand plan here.

“It’s good?” Venetia repeated in her Sleeping Beauty nightgown. Tilting her own head now, she inquired further. “Why is it good, daddy?”

“It’s good because I was only acting, Princess. It wasn’t real.” Gerard reminded her, not expecting them to get it just yet. He had to build this up first.

“I no get.” Jovani lamented, his face scrunching up in dissatisfaction because he didn’t understand what everyone else likely understood. Unbeknownst to him they were just as lost as him on this one.

“Me either.” Venetia added, looking down at her frustrated little brother.

“Alright, let me explain it to you better.” Gerard told them, looking at his just as befuddled husband. With a wink, he led the way, hoping the shorter male will trust him and follow close behind. “Those superheroes you see in the movies aren’t real superheroes. They are called actors or actresses that are paid to ACT like superheroes. Your mommy and I were just pretending to ACT too!”

“Absolutely, that’s exactly what we were doing!” Frank hastily backed him up once he comprehended what Gerard was trying to do. Sliding up against his side, he put on a smile for their children while speaking out of the corner of his mouth to his husband. “You can drill another baby into me for this.”

Chuckling at his husband’s version of a ‘thank you’, Gerard focused on his children. “Get it now?”

“But you weren’t fighting bad guys.” Lorenzo brought up, his frown still there. “How can you act as superheroes if you’re not fighting bad guys?”

“We were leading up to that!” Frank stepped in, snaking his arms around his husband’s waist and leaning his head against his chest. “We were practicing the part where the two friendly superheroes have a fight with each other before becoming best friends again just in time to save the day.”

“You were?” Venetia inquired with growing excitement, the worry gone from her eyes as she looked at them with an enthusiastic grin.

“Of course. You guys just have bad timing.” Frank accused them as Gerard wrapped his arms around him to give him a side hug, then kissed the top of his head.

One by one, the children fell for their parent’s deceitfulness. Frowns became open-mouth grins now that they saw they overreacted and that everything was okay after all.

“It’s true. We’re becoming pretty good actors whenever we practice after you all go to bed.” Frank fed into the lie. “We must have gotten too loud tonight and woke you all up. We’re so sorry about that.”

“I wanna axe!” Jovani announced, hopping in place on the step.

“Me too!” Lorenzo and Venetia joined in. “Mommy, Daddy can you teach us how to act?”

“You’ve been acting.” Gerard pointed out. “Whenever you pretend to be a dragon, knight, ninja or superhero you’ve been acting. It’s just like pretending.”

“We have!? YAY!” The kids all cheered at once as they raced down the stairs to their parents.

Lifting them in time and swinging them about, Gerard rejoiced along with them with just as much jubilation. Frank watched the group hurrah like a band of Superbowl fans, boisterous and obnoxious. Giving it a shrug, the young man opted to join them in their merry celebration.