FicWad

After several more minutes of walking, Shannon stopped at a small vegan take-out restaurant on a street corner, and asked the group to wait for him, whilst Sam moaned about Jared's dietary preferences and fear of germs as he walked alongside him. Shannon walked up to the counter, read a little menu, which was printed on a piece of pink, laminated card. He ordered Jared something as the younger brother was still a few minutes down the street, trying to avoid the drunken men. He really didn’t look happy down there, his hands in his pockets, his head down.

"He's so skinny, it's because he only eats leaves. It's rabbit food." Sam whinged, as Shannon rolled his eyes and waited for the food to be made.

"We all tried to tell him that. He still thinks that milk is cow’s piss. Besides, he’s kinda depressed… being alone in rehab for a while changed him. He’s not the same guy he used to be."

Shannon had warned Jared about all of this, in fact he warned him all the time; he'd get sick from not eating from one day to the next. Sometimes he cheated and ate things that weren't vegan when he felt like it, but that wasn't the point. He was underweight, and he didn't care. He was wasting away, throwing his life away, he didn’t care about himself, he had no hope left. Without the drugs, he looked and sounded suicidal.

"That's cute... Is he still scared of germs?"

"It’s not cute, and he is not- he just doesn't want to get ill when we go on tour. You can understand, he used to be so energetic, running around on stage… and now he does nothing. All of the songs are about death and destruction, and I have to help him snap out of it."

Shannon was passed a foil container filled with some of Jared's 'rabbit food' in, and then paid with a ten dollar bill. He collected the change and turned back to Sam, who had his arms folded and a frown upon his face. He wasn't impressed. He didn’t particularly want to wait for Jared, he was like a burden to Shannon and their party plans. He wasn’t allowed to drink, he didn’t do drugs and he was as miserable as sin. Someone had to get rid of him.

"How do you know that he wanted that? He's still halfway down the street!"

"We come here all the time and he always gets the same thing... hummus." Shannon sighed, putting the spare change back in his pocket.

"You know, if people didn't know that you're brothers, they'd think you're gay. You're too overprotective of Jared and soon he won't need you."

"He's just overcome a serious drug addiction and he won't listen to anyone but me. I know that I'm treating him like a kid, but he needs me right now. Besides-"

Shannon cut himself off before he could say any more. He was dating Tomo, but no one knew apart from Jared. He couldn't tell anyone, as he was scared that they wouldn't approve, or it would get out to the media. He loved Tomo more than anything, and would have proposed already if it weren't for Jared needing help all the time. He was busy looking after Jared; he just never got the chance.

"That's fair enough... Come on, I want to go to McDonalds."

Everyone traipsed after Sam and Shannon, and into a McDonalds on the side of a road. Jared had caught up and was following slowly behind them, the same sad look on his face. He entered the double doors and looked around; he could have sworn that he had seen Frank Iero sitting in the corner of the room, drinking a strawberry milkshake. The younger man was accompanied by someone, but he couldn’t see who it was. It might have been Jamia or some other friend that he hadn’t met before. Jared noticed him from the piercings in his lip and nose, and the jet black hair, his side bangs covering one of his eyes.

"Hey Frank." Jared flashed a false smile, walking over to them.

Frank looked up quickly, to see Jared standing beside him, an uneasy smile on his face. He had wondered where Jared had been for such a long time; ignoring phone calls and text messages... he had literally vanished from the face of the Earth. Maybe he was just sick, or he was having a bad time. He knew that one wouldn’t want to answer their phones if they were having a rough couple of months.

"Oh, hey Jared! Long time, no see! How are you, buddy?"

"I'm good. I'm following Shannon and his friends around town, actually."

"That sucks. I'm here with Gerard."

The person that sat with him was Gerard, who on the other hand, was hidden behind the newspaper he was reading. A scalding hot cup of black coffee stood by his hand, steam coming from the little hole in the top of the lid. Jared knew that he loved coffee more than anything; it was like a drug to him, he drank it every morning and throughout the day to keep him going.

"Hi Gerard." Jared smiled again.

Gerard looked up from the newspaper, his green/brown eyes meeting Jared's tired looking face. He kept silent and continued to read his paper, completely ignoring the fact that he was being spoken to, and the fact that the man before him even existed. His hair was no longer a jet black, but a fire truck red, he would definitely stand out in a crowd now. Jared was the last person he wanted to make conversation with, so he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You changed your hair."

He ignored Jared again, rolling his eyes. Frank didn't like his attitude, so he kicked him forcefully in the shin from underneath the table. Gerard hissed as Frank’s foot made contact with his leg, the pain aching and reverberating through the bones. For such a small guy, Frank’s strength was almost similar to that of a boxer.

"So, how was rehab?"

"Good. I managed to get clean."

"Yet, you're still an arrogant little prick." Gerard mumbled.

Frank glared at Gerard for a few awkward moments, and then decided that telling him off would be a good idea. He was always so pessimistic, and could never sort out his problems with drugs, so why was he treating Jared like crap for actually succeeding in becoming sober? He had to sort him out, since nobody else would, Lyn-Z was always too busy looking after Bandit, and she was too scared to confront the issue.

"For fuck's sake Gee!" Frank shouted, banging his fists angrily against the table.

Gerard looked up at Frank with a glare, his stare turning evil and venomous. Shit, this would no doubt be explosive. His anger could sometimes get out of control, and he would cause a fight if he had to. It was obvious that he didn’t like Jared, but why? He had never done anything wrong, or upset him in any way, and that was a shame.

"What?" He shouted, as if he was the innocent one, and had never done anything wrong.

"At least he's tried to sort out his addiction out, which you still haven't managed to do!"

"Oh, please Frankie. He knows nothing! He thinks he knows what addiction is when in fact, he has no idea!"

Shannon noticed that Jared had found Gerard Way, who had always been a bad influence. However, his big blue eyes looked a little confused and a tiny bit saddened. Gerard had obviously upset him, again. He rushed to his little brother's side and rested his arm on his shoulder, trying to find out what had happened.

"Hey Frank... Jared, get away from him. Gerard’s a dick."

Shannon started to take Jared away from the whole scene and back to his friends, grabbing his arm and leading him outside. He knew that Jared didn’t like fighting, he hated any confrontation and he preferred the simple, quiet life.

"That's right. Leave your brother to fight your battles for you. But he won't always be there. You need to learn that-" Gerard snapped.

"Shut up, Gerard." Shannon interrupted, seething.

The older brother turned back to Gerard and curled his fists into balls; no one would talk to Jared that way. Ever. If they did, Shannon would be on them, like a fly on shit. No one would ever hurt his brother, he was fragile and he wouldn’t let anyone break him.

"You know it's true, that's why you're getting defensive. Little Jared... pretty little Jared. You should learn to fend for yourself."

Of course, Jared wouldn't listen. He never listened, just stared into space, ignoring Gerard completely. Shannon did protect him, but that was because he had lost himself. Shannon had picked up the pieces. He didn't want to fight in a public place, he didn’t want to draw attention to himself, there was sure to be some people around him, and he couldn’t defend himself if Gerard decided to try and hit him.

"Listen to me, you stupid, worthless piece of shit!" Gerard screamed, getting out of his seat, facing up to Jared, who just stared in horror with wide eyes.

"Gee-" Frank hesitated.

"No! I'm fed up of him always thinking he's better than everybody else! He is nothing but an idiot. I will show him what the fuck addiction is, he has no fucking idea! And if any of you Letos come near me again, I swear I will-"

"Don't talk to him like that! Get the fuck away from him before I do something that I won’t regret!" Shannon shouted.

"I'm really sorry about him, Shan-" Frank hesitated, trying to stop the fight.

"Never mind. We're leaving anyway. Come on now, Jared... Gerard, I swear if you come anywhere near my brother again, I will rip you to pieces."

"Bye Frank." Jared said quietly, giving a little wave and turning to leave.

Shannon pulled Jared out of McDonalds forcefully by his t-shirt and shoved him into Sam, who was confused by what had happened. Jared seemed confused too, but he didn’t really let Gerard try to get to him. He had never done anything to hurt or offend Gerard and he had tried to be friends with him, but it wasn't working. All he had done was say hi and try to strike up conversation. Gerard was a very bitter, unpleasant person in general, but maybe he was going without his fix and was getting cranky.

"What the fuck happened between you and Gerard?" Shannon asked, putting his arm around his brother, pulling him closer and giving him the food he had bought.

"I started to tell Frank about rehab and-"

"Yeah, yeah. You can tell him later Jared, we need to get home." Sam interrupted, not wanting to hear the conversation. All he was interested in was getting drunk.

"But-" Jared hesitated to reply; he was fed up of Sam taking control, taking the piss out of him and interrupting him when he was trying to talk. He had already taken Shannon away from him, which had ruined his night more than Gerard had.

"Just shut up and eat your hummus. Now, if Jared's finished fucking around with Gerard Way-" Sam replied sarcastically, grinning.

Jared looked up sadly as Sam carried on humiliating him, then sighed and continued to do as he was told, opening the foil container, eating a piece of flatbread and then answering back nervously:

"Y-you know what? I'm finished with him."