FicWad

At roughly half five, Gerard finished his painting. Mikey was slouched in the armchair and cocked his head to the side, admiring in its entirety the thing he'd been watching take shape for almost an hour. Gerard breathed out heavily and stepped back, looking critically at the canvas whilst wiping his paint covered hands on his jeans.

"That's amazing, seriously." Mikey said. He looked up through the peaks of his eyebrows at Gerard.

"Really? You reckon?" Gerard asked doubtfully. He looked around at Mikey, his eyes flicking unnoticeably up and down him before resting on his eyes.

"I don't lie to you." Mikey lied - but that was another matter. "I don't even know how you do it, you make beautiful things out of nothing." he muttered.

Gerard's eyebrows lifted and he smiled shyly. "S'all about having the right muse, really." he muttered back, quieter than Mikey, and Mikey had to take a moment to hear it correctly, frowning as he processed.

"What's yours?" Mikey asked.

"Private." Gerard answered with a grin, his eyes inadvertently flicking over Mikey again.

The corner of Mikey's mouth pulled up in a smirk and he looked at his thumbs playing together.

Gerard disappeared for a couple of minutes to wash his hands. When he came back in he stood against the back of the sofa with a thoughtful expression, lips slightly parted and eyes squinted staring off into the distance.

"Mm?" Mikey made a meaningless noise to bring him back to earth and question his thought process.

"Are you hungry yet?" Gerard asked, and Mikey was honestly expecting something a little more dramatic.

He thought about it. "Yeah actually, I haven't eaten all day, it wouldn't be a bad idea."

Gerard frowned. "Don't make me go all clucky-mother and force feed you, you know I will." he warned.

Mikey rolled his eyes. "I said I'd eat now didn't I? I was just busy this morning."

Gerard nodded still with the trace of a smile. "How was Frank?" he asked suddenly, remembering he hadn't asked earlier.

"Fine - his usual self." Mikey smirked and looked at Gerard, making Gerard laugh.

"I can only imagine." he said. "Anyway," He perched on the arm of the sofa and leant forward, facing Mikey. "what are we gonna feed your scrawny white ass with tonight?"

"Uhh..." Mikey thought about that too, pursing his lips and pushing them to one side.

"I ain't cookin' tonight," Gerard interjected. "it's Saturday and this art business' tiring."

"I can only imagine." Mikey mimicked, rolling his eyes playfully.

Gerard threw a rogue pencil at him.

Mikey rubbed the spot on the side of his head that was hit quite forcefully with the rubber end. "Tosser." he said, though with a slight smirk betraying him.

Gerard shrugged and grinned cockily. "Come at me bro."

Mikey instantly had to banish the incredibly erotic image of Gerard tossing himself off before anything bad happened or he gave himself away. "Anyway."
Gerard just laughed. "Anyway. Basically seeing as I ain't cookin' and I know not to trust you with fire what I'm asking is what takeout you want."

Mikey pouted slightly indignantly while he was speaking then just smiled at the last bit. "Do you even need to ask?"

Gerard grinned. "Chinese?"

Mikey smiled innocently at him.

"You get the menu I'll get the phone." Gerard said with a smirk as he stood up and walked into the other room.

*

"I fuckin' love chow mein." Mikey announced, slightly muffled by the partial mouthful, and Gerard just grinned at him across the table.

"I know you do." he laughed fondly. "You always did, I remember when you went through that phase where you wouldn't eat anything else, d'you remember that?" he smiled up at Mikey, his eyes squinted slightly.

Mikey stared back at him with his eyes narrowed too, trying to recall. "Oh yeah!" he laughed, "Man, that must have sucked for mom. I was like, what, nine?"

"Eight and a half." Gerard corrected. He gave a quick shy smile then looked down at his plate and twirled some noodles round his fork, Mikey's eyes on his head.

"Do you remember everything?" Mikey teased, lifting another forkful into his mouth.

"Pretty much." Gerard grinned, looking up at him. "You used- Oh Mikes." He shook his head and started giggling.

"What?" Mikey asked, slightly squeakily, watching him with an infectious smile creeping onto his face.

Gerard just shook his head and leant over the table, taking Mikey's face in his hands and rubbing a glob of sauce off his chin with both of his thumbs. Mikey just burst out laughing and grinned innocently at his brother as he wiped it off, for just a few seconds longer than Mikey thought would have been necessary, smirking affectionately at Mikey. The skin-contact didn't feel invasive, the closeness not awkward, the smiles not cosmetic.

When Gerard sat back down he still had a little far-away smile on his face, lightly shaking his head at Mikey. "You're so messy Mikes, what am I gonna do with you."

Mikey had several answers to that, but there wasn't really one that he felt appropriate, so he just grinned and glanced down shyly, hiding the hint of a blush.

"Do you remember that winter when we were kids, you were six I think, and we made that huge den in your room?" Gerard asked suddenly then, making Mikey's eyes flick up.

"The Batcave?" Mikey smirked, pushing his empty plate away from him and leaning back in his chair, putting his feet up on the end of the table and crossing one over the other.

"Yeah! -That was so awesome wasn't it?" Gerard laughed, doing the same, his feet forming the point of a triangle at the end of the table with Mikey's. "We dressed up and played inside it all week."

"Yeah we swapped between Bruce Wayne and Alfred."

"I painted little bats on the ceiling for you." Gerard smiled fondly.

"You told me they could see everything I did." Mikey said, trying to be hostile but biting back a smile.

"To be fair, you got more scared than I thought you would. I didn't think you'd start getting changed in the bathroom-"

"Hey they were very intimidating!" Mikey defended, pointing his finger at Gerard, but after a moment they both just burst out laughing.

Though their laughs are aurally totally different, they both share exactly the same body language when they really, properly laugh; one hand comes up in front of the lower part of their face and they laugh into the back of their knuckles, fingers loosely curled, the corners of their eyes wrinkle as their eyes squint almost closed and their heads tilt back then forward, slightly hunched over - all unconsciously and within the space of a few seconds.

Gerard was the first to finish laughing, disintegrating into smaller giggles and staring at Mikey with a wide smile on his face. Mikey sighed out a laugh and sniffed, looking first at Gerard to grin, then down at his beer bottle as he ran his finger around the rim, smile lurking.

"You were a bad person." he said, glancing up and raising his eyebrows, looking accusingly through them at Gerard, but still not able to get rid of the smirk.

Gerard looked incredibly indignant, his mouth falling open dramatically. "I was not! I was the best big brother to you! Did I not carry you home from school when you were in kindergarten every day 'cause you'd tired yourself out playing?"

Mikey stared at Gerard, a truly honest and loving smile forming on his lips, his eyes nostalgic and adoring. "Yeah, you did." he said softly.

"And did I not make you a to-scale model of Mos Espa out of saved up plastic packaging and egg boxes for no reason other than 'cause I thought it'd make you smile?"

"Yeah - you did." Mikey's smile grew more loving by the second, forgetting to even shield what he felt for his brother at that point.

"And when you grew your hair and had a bouffant in high school and the kids called you Mikey Dykie - who held you every day and let you cry into their neck and told you you were so beautiful and they were just confused because they couldn't help but be attracted to you?"

Gerard stared at Mikey intensely, holding eye contact - it was an electric intensity that was reciprocated and created a heated atmosphere in the room that, had they not been brothers, anyone else there would have understood in a heartbeat and said 'Oh for god's sake just fuck already!'.

Mikey didn't really want to break the moment, as it was almost too perfect to be true, but he heard himself whisper, "You did."

Gerard didn't break the eye contact for another few seconds, till he smiled, looked at Mikey's lips, then back to his eyes and smiled wider. "Exactly. Could you ask for a better big brother?" he teased. Mikey wasn't sure if he knew exactly what level he was teasing on or not.

"Never."

Gerard grinned. "So was I a bad person?" To say he looked smug would not do Gerard justice: his head was cocked to the side, chin raised, eyebrows peaked, lips parted and turned up at the corners, tongue stroking his canine, eyes smiling and fiery, fixed on Mikey: he was thoroughly enjoying himself, more than a brother should.

Mikey nearly choked looking at Gerard. He was absolutely stunning like that - more exquisite than any piece of art he'd ever seen or movie star on a billboard. If you looked up 'beauty' in the dictionary there would be a photograph of Gerard like this.

He managed to get out, "No." without giving himself away.

"No?" Gerard taunted, pouting at Mikey through his eyelashes.

There's no way he could know what he was doing to his baby brother. "Not in the slightest." Mikey breathed, and he hoped it was steadier than his heartbeat.

"So if I wasn't a bad person, what was I?"

Mikey gulped. "An amazing one."

"And what am I now?" Gerard blinked, fluttering his eyelashes, and looked back up at Mikey with one perfect eyebrow peaked.

Mikey almost malfunctioned. He was pretty sure he had lost control of his bodily reactions a good few minutes ago, and he was concentrating so hard on trying to control his face and breathing to be cool - that and restraining from leaning over, grabbing his brother by the collar, throwing him on the table, climbing on top of him, sucking his face off and making him writhe and scream his name. "The..."

He coughed, stuttering. "The best person on the planet."

Gerard's eyes flashed and he grinned widely, wetting his lips. "Best is kinda vague..."

Without even thinking Mikey elaborated, "The most wonderful in every aspect." He swallowed thickly and kept his eyes locked with Gerard's.

Gerard didn't say anything for a while then. His smug grin smoothed into one of deep affection, deep love, and he just held his brother's eyes, examining every fleck of green and brown that mixed together to make the extraordinary, penetrating hazel.

Outside, a cat screeched, followed by another hiss and the sound of swiping claws. Gerard and Mikey both snapped out of their thoughts and automatically turned to the window. Two scraggly balls of fluff were sprinting away from the house. The room was silent again.

Gerard and Mikey looked first anywhere but each other, then finally Gerard narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at his younger brother. Mikey felt the gaze and looked up nervously from the used cutlery on the table in front of him to look at Gerard.

"Mikes, are you, y'know, alright at the moment?" Gerard asked with concern, eyes fixed on Mikey.

It wasn't what Mikey was expecting, not that he knew what he was expecting. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" he asked automatically.

Gerard looked down at his lap, played with a dent in the edge of the table, shrugged one shoulder slightly. "Well, you were just, y'know, really distant all day, I thought, I thought I'd done something to upset you." He glanced up at Mikey and his eyes were now shy and worried. He bit his lip.

Mikey didn't know what to say to that. He had a horrible feeling that he'd suddenly turned transparent and, regardless of what he said, Gerard would be able to see the true answer as clear as if it was painted on his body in bright red.

"Oh, no, I'm - I'm fine, just, y'know, been a bit hungover."

He tried a one-sided casual smirk, and Gerard smiled lightly too, and nodded wordlessly.

"Alright. -Do you wanna watch a movie?"

Mikey smiled, slightly hollowly as the moment he didn't want to let go of had quite clearly slipped from his grasp. "What are you thinking?"

Gerard seemed relieved by that, and smiled genuinely. He tipped his head back to think for a moment. "Well, if we wanna stick to tradition... it's Saturday night..."

He caught Mikey's eye and they both grinned.

"Star Wars?" Mikey finished for him.

"Which episode though?" Gerard grimaced, posing the question he had done every Saturday night since Mikey was old enough to watch the films.

"Well," Mikey said, feeling himself cheer up again. "we could start from the top?"

"The first episode or the first made?"

"First episode and work our way through?"

Gerard grinned. "Sounds awesome dude. I'll clear the table if you wanna grab a couple more beers and put the disc in?"

"Yeah, perfect." Mikey grinned back, walking into the kitchen. He pulled two bottles out of the fridge and smoothly cracked the tops off, then almost walked straight into Gerard coming through the door with the plates balanced on his arm. "Fuck-"

"Ooh shit!" Gerard stepped back and balanced the crockery. "You almost had me there Mikes." he grinned playfully, waiting politely for Mikey to pass through.

"Not intentional, I promise." Mikey muttered with a trace of a smirk, brushing past Gerard as he walked through the door and through to the living room.

He set about pulling the film out of the DVD collection and setting up the player, listening to Gerard humming a song to himself in the kitchen.

"Right! Onwards to Tatooine!" Gerard said when he sat down heavily on the sofa and dropped his feet on the coffee table, crossing one over the other and folding his hands behind his head.

"'m on it." Mikey said back, searching for the remote before spotting it behind the TV and going over to the sofa, sitting on Gerard's left, less than a foot of space between them.

"And heerrrre... weeeeee... go." he quoted in his best Joker voice as he pressed 'play', making Gerard chuckle and pick up their untouched drinks, handing one to Mikey.

Without a voiced toast, they chinked the bottles with smirks and simultaneously took sips, watching the screen.

The first half hour of the film passed with little movement in the room, both Gerard and Mikey engrossed in the story.

After forty minutes or so, Gerard moved his feet up next to him on his right to get more comfortable, his eyes not leaving the screen.

At fifty minutes in Mikey shifted down in the seat, slouching a bit.

Sporadically the liquid level in their bottles lessened.

Gradually, as he became less able or willing to consciously hold a seating position, gravity started pulling Gerard's body left, his legs being by his other side upsetting his balance. He found himself leaning naturally more and more towards Mikey. After five minutes of trying to fight gravity, Gerard just shifted slightly and leant on Mikey, head resting on his shoulder and his shoulder pressed against Mikey's bicep, hip more logically on the sofa cushion.

An hour in, Mikey moved the arm Gerard was leaning on slightly.

"Oh! Sorry, I'll move-" Gerard muttered, about to sit up.

"No, no, shoulder cramp." Mikey mumbled dismissively, moving his arm backwards a couple of inches, opening it out. Gerard's head rested more comfortably on the inside of his shoulder and Mikey let his arm rest on Gerard's right arm, effectively wrapping it around him.

An hour and a quarter in, Mikey let his head rest against the top of Gerard's. He shuffled down a bit more in the seat to get comfy, his body inclining slightly towards Gerard's. Gerard moved with him, his head fitting naturally with Mikey's, his forehead in the hollow of Mikey's neck.

At an hour and a half, Gerard turned his body in to face Mikey, feet tucked underneath him, with his head still facing the screen. Mikey's arm lost its rest when he moved, so he curled it around Gerard's back, hand hanging over Gerard's upper arm. In doing so, he pulled Gerard slightly closer, making Gerard's bent knees lean up against his.

One hour forty five; Mikey's hand spread out on Gerard's arm and wrapped around it.

One hour fifty; Gerard stretched his neck, his nose brushing up Mikey's throat, then settled his forehead back deeply in Mikey's neck. Mikey lifted his head ever so slightly to allow him to move then rested it again on Gerard's, this time letting his cheekbone press into Gerard's hair, not his ear, face being drawn magnetically closer. This way he also got to smell Gerard's hair, which considering his new apple shampoo and the usual cigarette smoke, was pleasant to say the least.

Two hours in and Gerard shifted his body again, bringing his knees up in front of him. Mikey lifted his right thigh slightly so Gerard could have his feet there comfortably, then lowered his leg back down over Gerard's feet - he didn't want them to get cold.

Mikey inclined his body towards Gerard as well, bending his knees to point at him and basically had his body curled to fit perfectly around Gerard's. With the angle of his body, his left arm hung uselessly behind him, so he let his hand flop over and rest in his lap.

Two hours and five minutes in, Gerard's right arm, resting on the seat by his side, edged forwards and he threaded his fingers through those of Mikey's hand resting in his lap. Mikey closed his fingers around Gerard's knuckles and pressed their palms further together, entwined hands resting comfortably on his leg. A serene smile drew itself on his face, and he turned his head further into Gerard, his nose pressing in his soft hair, lips resting just above his ear. Gerard's thumb rubbed soft, rhythmic strokes across Mikey's.

At two hours and thirteen minutes the credits rolled up. Neither moved. Both pretended to be interested in finding out who was the runner on set, what company provided the cameras and what each piece of background music was entitled. It was the first time the credits had run to the very end and the screen went black of its own accord. Still neither moved.

After two minutes of silence, Gerard still stroking Mikey's hand, Mikey took his other hand off Gerard's arm and picked up the handily placed remote. He killed the DVD player and the TV so there was no more annoying buzzing sound, then dropped the remote and returned his hand to the warmth of Gerard's arm, rubbing it a couple of times before settling with his fingers wrapped around it.

"You were thirteen when this first came out," Gerard murmured then, his lips brushing against Mikey's collarbone as he spoke. "I took you to go see it at the cinema and you got so creeped out by Darth Maul that that night you slept in my bed."

Mikey laughed softly through his nose, disturbing a couple of hairs on Gerard's head. "He's very threatening to a pubescent boy with thick glasses and awkward knees, I'll have you know." he smiled, warm breath washing over Gerard's ear.

Gerard's lips stretched into a smile and he nuzzled his head more into Mikey's neck, smile brushing against his throat. "Apparently so."

"Not that you can talk, you cried when Qui-Gon got killed." Mikey muttered, smirking against Gerard.

"He was a strong man and the world is emptier without him." Gerard replied, smirking as well as his eyes slipped shut, lashes tickling Mikey's neck.

"Hell no, Obi-Wan stole that film and you know it, much more presence." Mikey mumbled.

"You always did want to be him when we were playing Jedis." Gerard smiled.

"Well duh, he was a total badass. He didn't die for three more films, and when he did it was for his friends." Mikey said sleepily, letting his eyes close as well, turning his cheek a little more to have the tip of his nose resting against Gerard's hairline.

"Agreed, he was a badass. Still got killed by his protégé though, which is a pretty low blow."

"Granted. But he just couldn't bring himself to kill someone he loved."

Gerard's thumb continued rubbing over Mikey's - the only movement between them apart from their breath against each other's skin.

"Well that I can forgive him for." Gerard smiled, his lips pressed against the side of Mikey's neck.

"Can't we all." Mikey mumbled, Gerard's temple fitting perfectly in the soft hollow between his jaw and his cheekbone.

Five minutes passed wordlessly. Their breathing both becoming deeper and slower as the minutes flowed serenely into each other.

"I'm tired." Gerard muttered.

Mikey just nodded against his head.

They slowly disentangled themselves, straightening legs and righting heads, all apart from their hands which they kept together, holding onto each other, and gradually stood up, stretching their stiff muscles. Mikey walked towards the stairs and Gerard turned the lights off as they passed the switch, climbing the stairs one step behind Mikey, relying on his hand to keep himself from stumbling.

When they reached the landing Mikey turned and led them into the bathroom, switching on the light. Gerard came alive a bit more in the artificial brightness and was able to stand up straight on his own. They broke hands to brush their teeth. Mikey sat on the lid of the toilet and Gerard sat on the rim of the bath opposite him, on either sides of the sink, as they sluggishly scrubbed their teeth and went through the necessaries of dental hygiene.

After they'd both rinsed and wiped their mouths, they walked back out onto the landing and stood in the hallway between their two bedroom doors. They looked at each other, some non-verbal communication going on, but silence still surrounding them.

"Night Mikes." Gerard finally sighed, putting one hand on Mikey's shoulder and leaning forward, kissing him softly on the cheek. His lips lingered for a few seconds.

"Night Gee." Mikey replied, pressing their cheeks together affectionately before Gerard pulled away and smiled at him.

They stood there again, staring and smiling faintly at each other, both refusing to look at or mention the blindingly obvious strain on each other's jeans' zips.

Gerard gave another warm, meaningful smile, his eyes soft and slightly sad, and Mikey nodded, smiling back, then opened his door as Gerard slipped into his. When he quietly closed the door behind him, Mikey leaned against it and let his head fall back against the wood, eyes closing.




(I'm aware I had to change the ages for the film release dates, sorry if it's confusing. And for my American friends - tosser = jerk-off.)