FicWad

Then

Honestly, sometimes, Gerard really hated his brother. Well, not so much his brother as his mom. Every year around Christmas, she made Gerard take Mikey to see Santa Claus in the middle of the mall while she did some shopping in the stores nearby. It’s not like Gerard didn’t know that she was getting their gifts and that Santa was just a hoax since A – that was not a really bad sunburn that one year, and B- they did have cable. But the way his little brother’s eyes always lit up when he saw the fat man perched on the large chair surrounded by the sad excuses for elves – well.

Gerard kind of couldn’t say no.

It didn’t help that the mall was always crowded around Christmas. Gerard wasn’t exactly a people person. He’d never been shy, exactly, just not real social. He preferred being by himself most of the time. Or with Mikey. His mom had him go to the school counselor once when she found out Gerard only had one friend when he was in fourth grade, but at least his friend was real. Gerard had quite an imagination for his age, but he wasn’t desperate enough to create fake people to amuse himself with.

Mikey was always there when he was lonely.

“Come on, big brother!” Mikey whined, yanking Gerard through the groups of shoppers. The five-year-old’s glasses were half off his face already and his treasured knit unicorn hat was lopsided on his head, causing his hair to stick out awkwardly around his face. Gerard wanted to fix the boys appearance, but Mikey had fierce determination and a solid grip on his hand that kept Gerard stumbling along behind the younger boy.

The line was already considerably long and Gerard inwardly groaned. This was going to be a huge waste of his time. There were tons of little kids and less-than-pleased babies all getting talks from parents about being quick and polite and making sure to tell them what they asked Santa for afterwards.

Mikey dashed to the end of the line, skidding to a stop just before knocking into the woman holding a baby in front of them who was crying despite her desperate attempt to hush the kid. “I’m going to ask for the new Spiderman!” Mikey grinned, rocking back and forth on his feet, peeking around the woman to see how far back in line he was.

Gerard rolled his eyes and got his hand free, fixing Mikey’s hat and glasses at last before getting on his knees to retie Mikey’s shoelaces which always seemed to be coming undone regardless of Gerard’s efforts. When he stood, he pointed to the side and said, “I’m going to sit right there at the fountain, okay? Don’t go nowhere and yell if you need me.”

Hardly listening, Mikey nodded eagerly and continued to bounce about as Gerard made his way towards the fountain. He sat on the side facing the line so he could keep an eye on Mikey – only able to see the tip of the pink unicorn’s horn atop the boys head – and dug the sharpie out of his pants pocket to doodle on the remaining white parts of his shoes. It was something he did often, especially during gym class, because sports and running bored him, regardless of his mother’s constant reprimanding him about ruining all his shoes.

Gerard liked to doodle, and when it wasn’t on his shoes it was on paper, himself, or occasionally Mikey. But ever since Gerard accidentally stabbed Mikey in the eye when trying to draw a wicked awesome mask, his brother wasn’t all too willing to be his canvas anymore.

After Gerard drew a zombie Santa on his shoe, he glanced up to check on Mikey only to find himself face-to-face with two very large brown eyes. A little boy around Mikey’s age was standing in front of Gerard – face half hidden by a too-large winter hat and a scarf – staring at Gerard intensely. “Hello?” Gerard frowned.

Almost instantly a huge grin spread across the boy’s face. “Hi!” he chimed merrily, cramming a huge lollipop into his mouth. “Wh’er y’doin’?” the boy asked around the candy occupying what Gerard guessed to be the entirety of his mouth.

“Um…” Gerard bit his lip. “Drawing?”

The boy grinned wider and suddenly pulled himself onto the fountain ledge beside Gerard, sitting on his knees and leaning over to peer at Gerard’s sneaker; the stick of the lollipop jetting out of the corner of his mouth and hands gripping Gerard’s leg for balance. Strands of chocolate hair fell over his eyes from beneath the rim of the hat that flopped forward as it got shifted with gravity so it was nearly over his face entirely. If the scarf around his neck wasn’t tucked neatly into his partially unzipped coat, it probably would be losing the battle to gravity as well.

Gerard leaned back a little, blinking slowly, trying to figure out where this kid came from and why he was suddenly in Gerard’s personal space.

The boy balanced with one hand as the other reached up to remove the lollipop from his mouth with a loud ‘pop’. “That’s so cool!” he exclaimed, pointing the lollipop at Gerard’s sneaker.

“Thanks?”

“You’re really good at that!” the boy told Gerard, turning his head so his large eyes were directly in front of Gerard’s – their noses practically touching. “Will you draw me a picture?”

Gerard sighed, leaning back a little more. “Look, kid-“

“I’m not a kid!” the boy huffed, face scrunching up in a ridiculously adorable way. “I’m a big boy!” Gerard blinked a few times, unable to form a response to that, sighing again in defeat of forming a reply.

“Shouldn’t you be with your mom or something?”

The grumpy look on the boy’s face vanished, with another giant grin taking its place in seconds as his candy-clad hand flew out to the side towards the line of people. “She’s right there! Talkin’ on the phone to my daddy.” If he expected Gerard to know who exactly in the sea of people the boy was pointing to, well, that wasn’t happening. “My parents are d’vorce-ed so they’re always fightin’ ‘bout who imma spend time with.”

Again Gerard was kind of speechless. The boy securely returned his lollipop to his mouth and shoved it to one cheek so he could use the hand for balance. When he wobbled Gerard quickly grabbed onto his waste, a technique he’d mastered with his clumsy brother over the years, to keep them both from toppling over. Once the threat of going down passed, Gerard let go and held onto the rip of the fountain while the boy decided to climb entirely into his lap.

Gerard frowned but accommodated him by dropping his leg down so the boy had a flat seat. The boy settled easily on Gerard, legs dangling on either side of Gerard’s and continued to stare Gerard down before stating, “I like you,” as he popped his candy out again.

“Thanks?”

“I’m Frankie,” the boy said after, pushing his hat up out of his way.

Gerard contemplated keeping silent but found himself answering, “Gerard,” before he could stop himself. Frankie grinned impossibly wider at that, tiny white teeth all shining perfectly at the older boy.

“Will you draw me a picture now?” Frankie asked, leaning forward further into Gerard’s space.

“I don’t have any paper…” Gerard tried to detour the thought. His drawings were kind of private.

However, Frankie bit his lip in determination and began tugging at the sleeve of his coat until his tiny pale arm was exposed from wrist to elbow. “There!” he chimed, holding his arm towards Gerard.

“I can’t draw on you,” Gerard said, “You’ll get in trouble.”

The grin never left Frankie’s face and he shook his head, the puff balls on the strings of his hat smacking Gerard as he did so. “Nu uh! My mommy says she rather me color on m’self than on the walls or floor!” And Gerard really couldn’t contain the snort of amusement that escaped him. “’sides, there’s lotsa people with pictures all over ‘em!”

“Those are tattoos,” Gerard told Frankie with his older boy knowledge.

“I wanna tattoo!” Frankie exclaimed, voice managing to echo over the already noisy crowds. “Gimme a tattoo, G’ard!” Gerard never understood why little kids couldn’t say his name. It’s why Mikey had just taken to calling him ‘Gee’ or ‘big brother’. But he smiled a little when the single syllable came from the boy in his lap. “I wanna pretty picture on me!”

“If I draw you something, will you leave me alone?” Frankie shook his head with a look of pure innocence, Gerard managing to get a hand up in time to shield himself from the little balls coming at him. “Fine.” A quick glance at the line told him it was almost Mikey’s turn to get on Santa so in a few minutes he’d be rid of Frankie anyway.

Gerard took Frankie’s wrist in one hand, the boy’s skin warmer than his own, and held it down against his leg so it was straight. “You gotta stay still, okay?” Frankie nodded, hat sliding down and pushing his bangs against his face. Gerard thought for a moment what to draw before uncapping his marker and starting a few small lines.

Frankie squirmed, softly giggling, other hand clawing at Gerard for balance. “It tickles,” he stated, his forgotten lollipop almost sticking to Gerard’s clothes.

“Well you gotta stop moving or I’ll mess up,” Gerard told him without taking his eyes off his drawing.

“’Kay,” Frankie giggled out, still fidgeting. Gerard tried to be quick about it before Frankie’s fingers broke through his skin. He decided to draw a jack-o-lantern because out of all the holidays, Halloween was his favorite. Plus, Frankie smiled just as widely as all the faces of pumpkins he’d seen.

It didn’t take Gerard long to finish the image, Frankie’s eyes large and glued on the every movement of Gerard’s marker with immense fascination as he subconsciously continued to twitch about. Gerard gave it a huge, somewhat evil, grin, and big eyes since Frankie had some of those too. He could have done a lot better if he was actually trying and if Frankie wasn’t squirming around with every line, but Gerard didn’t think it was all that bad either.

“There,” he said when finished, recapping the marker and waving his hand over Frankie’s arm to dry the ink.

“Wow!” Frankie inspected it. “That’s so cool! Thanks!” A moment later his small arms were wrapped around Gerard as far as they would go with his head against Gerard’s chest. “Y’er my bestest friend!”

Gerard put one arm awkwardly around the boy, easing into the action after a few seconds because it was okay that Frankie was hugging him. Frankie was like Mikey and Mikey hugged Gerard. Ray was Gerard’s friend and even he’d hug Gerard sometimes – Gerard trying not to get eaten by the boy’s hair when he did.

“Frank Anthony Iero!” suddenly echoed out and Frankie pulled back, shoving his sleeve down and giggling.

“I gotsta go,” he told Gerard before cramming the lollipop back into his mouth and scooting off Gerard’s lap. Frankie ran to the woman in the front of the line who had a look of panic on her face until she saw her son, Gerard unable to hear their words as he watched her scold Frankie before ushering him towards Santa.

Gerard was distracted as Mikey came bounding towards him right as Frankie headed for the fat man in the white chair. “Gee! Santa said he’d gimme the new Spiderman ‘cause I was a good boy all year!” Mikey bounced excitedly.

“That’s good, Mikey,” Gerard smiled, standing. He once again straightened Mikey’s hat then bent down to tie his laces that had managed to somehow come undone in the past ten or so minutes. “Let’s go find Ma,” he said, taking his brother’s hand and pocketing his marker, looking back once to see Frankie staring at him before leading his brother towards the store they’d left their mother in.


Now (~20 years later)

Christmas was Frank’s favorite holiday. Well, actually Halloween was. But since that was also his birthday, Frank didn’t count that one. There was something about Christmas that was just awesome to him. The lights, decorations, presents, the way people got mostly friendly all of a sudden – Frank couldn’t really decide. All he knew was that he loved Christmas and had for about twenty years, if not more.

He just remembers loving it since he was four.

Frank stood in the living room, finishing the last of the decorations for the holiday. There were some stockings taped to the top of the entertainment center since they didn’t have a fireplace (because certain people didn’t trust Frank around open flames). Strands of sparkly garland ran along the upper panelings of the walls and random figurines he’d collected over the years were placed throughout the living room and surrounding areas.

But the best part in Frank’s opinion was the tree. It rested in the corner right by the windows, covered in bright lights, tinsel, and more ornaments than any one tree should probably have. Frank didn’t care though because each one was special in some way and he didn’t want to neglect any by being picky. Of course Frank’s favorite piece was the special made zombie Santa that sat on top holing a bag of body parts, which to some would seem morbid but to Frank it was what made the tree perfect.

When Frank heard a car pull into the driveway he threw the blanket he had wrapped around his shoulders onto the couch, wasting no time rushing into the wintry world outside. Gerard barely got out of his car before Frank tackled him down into the soft snow that collected into an impressive pile in their yard, grinning madly. “You’re home!”

Gerard, lying on his back with his arms thrown to the sides, blinked up at the man seated on his abdomen before replying, “Hi?” Actually, the blinking was more from the snow falling into his eyes, but the shock was there all the same. He was thrown off guard (and off balance) every time Frank decided to climb and tackle him.

“I missed you,” Frank said as he bent forward to hug the other man.

Gerard, blowing Frank’s and no doubt some of his own hair aside, replied, “Frankie, I’ve been gone an hour, two tops, “ and continued to stare into the grey sky.

Frank nuzzled him. “Still missed you.”

Gerard snored and used his hands to try and level himself enough to sit up, struggling as Frank refused to let go of him. “Will you get inside before you catch a cold?” he chided. “It’s like zero degrees out here and you’re in a t-shirt, you dumb fucker.”

“I wanted to greet you,” Frank mumbled into Gerard’s chest.

“Well greet me inside,” Gerard told the younger man as he shoved him to the side. “I don’t need you sick on Christmas. Ma would kill me.” Frank giggled, lying in the snow until Gerard stood and offered a hand down to help him up. “Go turn the heat up,” he instructed, waving Frank off towards the house.

Frank practically skipped inside, proceeding to wait just inside the door for Gerard to come in – the man carrying a few bags up the porch steps moments later. This time he was prepared for the bundle of energy that he lived with and side-stepped as he walked over the threshold, lifting the bags up and dodging Frank’s attack.

“Where is it?! I wanna see it! How big is it?! Is it colorful?!” Frank eagerly spewed out as he tried to peer into the bags Gerard was holding.

“Nice try,” Gerard said as he removed his shoes and started up the stairs with Frank right on his heels. “You don’t get to see until tomorrow.”

“But I want to see it now,” Frank whined. “Can’t I see tonight and get it done tomorrow?” he tried bargaining.

Gerard smiled and shook his head. “You try this every year, Frankie, and every year it’s the same. You can whine and beg all you want, but this is our tradition. You can’t change a tradition.” He reached their bedroom and used his foot to shove the door aside, dropping their bags on the edge of their bed and undoing his coat as Frank began tearing through the bags.

“It’s not in those,” Gerard said, heading for the bathroom. “IT’s locked away.” Frank sighed and collapsed backwards onto the bed, biting his lip.

Every year on the same day, Frank got a tattoo. One that Gerard designed just for him. It was like a Christmas present for both of them. Frank started doing it when he was sixteen and had a blatantly obvious obsession with his best friend’s brother. Of course he’d kind of been attached to Gerard since that day in the mall, befriending Mikey in school the following year and close to the whole Way family over the past twenty, only realizing that he was actually in love with Gerard when he decided the man’s drawings should be a permanent part of him.

At least half, if not more, of the images adorning Frank’s body were works of Gerard’s- several being the previous years’ Christmas tattoos. Every year Frank tried to guess or find out what it would be that year, but Gerard never gave in.

No matter what other presents Gerard gave him, the tattoo was always Frank’s favorite.

Gerard came back into the bedroom in a pair of pajama pants and a too-large shirt, falling lazily onto the other side of the bed and sighing. “Have I ever mentioned how I hate the mall around Christmas?”

Frank snorted. “That’s what you get for waiting until last minute.”

With a light hum, Gerard said, “It must run in my blood.” Frank rolled over and crawled the short distance to his boyfriend of about six years, swinging an arm over Gerard’s chest and using him as a pillow.

Gerard smiled, bringing a hand up to play with Frank’s hair. Frank closed his eyes, smiling, listening to the rhythmic beating of Gerard’s heart accompanied by his steady breathing. “Y’know,” Gerard quietly started, “Every time I go by that fountain I think about the year I took Mikey to see Santa and got pestered by this tiny kid drowning in his winter clothes and continuously invading my personal space.”

“Oh yeah?” Frank smirked, lifting himself to climb entirely on top of Gerard, their bodies parallel, and lying down again with Gerard as his bed this time. “Your lap is still pretty comfy.” Frank rested his head on Gerard’s shoulder and pushed his hands into Gerard’s sides until Gerard arched his back enough to accommodate him.

Gerard softly laughed, going back to playing with Frank’s hair with one hand and wrapping the other arm securely around Frank’s waist. His hand trailed through Frank’s hair then onto Frank’s neck, finding the spot where he’d gotten his first tattoo of a re-vamped version of the jack-o-lantern Gerard had drawn in sharpie on him years before. Frank stretched his neck, face falling into Gerard’s neck and heart fluttering at the touch.

“I’m glad you bothered me that afternoon,” Gerard said after, voice hushed and tired. “I’m glad that you got in my space and made me draw on you. Glad you and Mikey are friends. M’parents love you…” He yawned, eyes falling shut. “Glad you’re mine now…” Gerard yawned again.

Frank shifted enough to kick the bags off the bed – they were only books for Mikey and games for Ray and nothing too breakable – then grabbed at the blanket beneath them to fold awkwardly over their bodies before snuggling back into Gerard.

By the time Frank settled, Gerard had already fallen asleep so Frank kissed his cheek and sleepily muttered, “’m glad too,” before his breathing fell in sync with Gerard’s and he too was peacefully asleep.

~=~=~=~=~=

”So, Frankie, what do you want for Christmas this year?” Santa asked.

The four-year-old, tugging his lollipop from his mouth, pointed towards the boy with dark hair and pale skin by the fountain bent before another boy in a pink unicorn hat. With determination, the boy confidently demanded, “Him."





A/N -- another drabbly christmas fic! :D One more in mind, more adult and more risque! haha.

Happy holiday's errbody