FicWad

Author's note: I'm not even going to pretend there's an excuse for this update taking as long as it has. However, I got into the university I wanted to go to and I'm leaving next Saturday. I'm scared and excited all at the same time and it's very conflicting! >:D I hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry again for the wait! :)

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“Gerard?”

The man in question looked up, lips instantly curving into a breath-taking smile. Oh, there was no way he could not relax when Gerard looked at him like that.

Jumping up from his seat, the older man noted with relief that Mikey looked exactly as he had on webcam. He only hoped the same could be said for him.

“Mikey, hi!” Ignoring the hand which had been stretched out for him to shake, he gently pulled the other into a somewhat tentative hug. Something in the back of his mind warned him about being over-enthusiastic, though when the hug was returned, albeit a little shyly, he decided that maybe a little enthusiasm wasn’t such a bad thing. He stepped away from Mikey, letting his arms drop to his sides, and pulled out the seat opposite the one he’d been sat in. “Are you alright?”

Blinking a couple of times, suddenly somewhat overwhelmed by the whole situation, Mikey managed to compose himself and gave a small nod, sitting down in the seat Gerard had pulled out for him. “Great, thank you. How about you?”

“Good, thanks. Really good actually. You look awesome, by the way.” Gerard briefly wondered how he’d managed to find someone as genuinely attractive as Mikey was in amongst the sea of complete freaks which had been on that website...himself probably included in that.

The pair easily fell into small talk, the conversation kept light and simple, up until their food was brought to them. Once the meals were in front of them and the glasses of wine were poured, Gerard took a sip and watched Mikey over the rim. “So, I feel like I don’t know much about you at all. Fancy enlightening me to the world which is Mikey Williams?” The look which he received made it painfully obvious that Mikey had absolutely no clue what to say. A hopefully reassuring smile curved to his lips. “You haven’t got to worry about impressing me or anything, y’know. You’ve already got me out on a date. Unless you say something completely shocking, like you’re actually a woman, I’m not going anywhere.”

Laughing softly, Mikey shook his head in amusement. “You never fail to amaze me, you know that right? Honestly, sometimes I wonder where your brain comes up with this stuff.”

That earned a smirk. “Only sometimes? Mikey, I always worry about where it comes up with such utter crap. But no more avoiding the question. I want to know about you, so, go!”

“Errr, well if you ever wondered whether I’m as lame as I keep saying I am, I can officially prove that I am – I only moved out from my mum and step-dad’s house a year and a bit ago. How sad is that?!”

“That’s not sad as much as it makes me feel really old. I moved out eight years ago.”

Brown eyes widened at that as Mikey quickly did the maths. “You moved out at eighteen? How did you manage that? I was saving constantly during and after university and it still took me until I was twenty-two to be able to afford a place which wasn’t completely disgusting.”

Taking another sip of his wine, Gerard laughed. “You see, there were two mistakes you made there. One; you went to university. That stuff is expensive! Secondly, you waited until you could afford somewhere nice. Then again, I don’t think I could have gone to university even if I wanted to. I didn’t do all that great in school, mainly because I was working every hour I could so I could move out as soon as I graduated. Me and Frank – you know the one who made me join the website? – moved into the worst flat I’ve ever been in. Honestly, the place was barely habitable.” At the horrified look he saw Mikey giving him, he shook his head. “Don’t worry, we had a great time! It was so badly cared for we literally destroyed it. But eventually I got my shit together, got a job at the music shop and saved up enough money to get a much nicer flat in town where I didn’t kind of fear for my life every time I stepped outside the front door. Frank did a similar thing and...yeah. That’s basically my life from graduation until now.”

Content with the fact he seemed to have managed to distract Gerard from asking about his own life, the younger man had no intention of letting that go too quickly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Gerard about himself, more that he had absolutely no idea what to say. Relief that Gerard actually seemed to like him rather a lot flooded through him, it being the only thing which stopped his shyness from completely getting the better of him. “How come you moved out when you were so young?”

Gaze flickering down to his meal, a piece of pasta was popped into Gerard’s mouth as he shrugged some. “I didn’t get on with my dad that well. I mean, I love him to bits, but when you’ve got an eighteen year old who wants to go out all the time, living with a man who has to sit by and watch his only son making bad choice after bad choice, there’s bound to be a little tension. As soon as I moved out we got on so much better, so it was definitely the right thing to do, even if I was probably living in a complete health risk.”

Mikey nodded and a comfortable silence settled over them as they began to munch their way through their meals, giving a somewhat cheeky smile when Gerard spoke again.

“I haven’t forgotten, y’know. You still need to tell me about your life.”

“I thought I might have distracted you.”

“You’ll have to do a sight more than that to distract me, love.” He watched with quiet interest as an adorable blush coloured Mikey’s cheeks, filing that little nugget of information away for use at a later date. Smirking, he gave the other a playfully stern look. “Get your mind out of the gutter and tell me about yourself.”

Taking a couple more mouthfuls of food, mind whirling as for something interesting to say, he decided to take the same path as Gerard. “Well, lack of money wasn’t the only reason it took me so long to move out. I was so close to my mum I couldn’t imagine her not being there all the time. I mean, my step-dad’s awesome too, but my mum’s sort of been the only constant in my life.”

“Dad not on the scene, then?” The softness of his tone instantly took away any sting the words might have held.

“Never remember meeting him,” Mikey explained simply. “Mum always said that things just stopped working out and that they had a sort of mutual break up when I was tiny. It’s alright though. She met John when I was six and he’s awesome so...” Trailing off, he gave a small shrug and smiled at Gerard, eyes searching the other’s face for any hints of him boring him.

“Well, I’m glad that everything worked out. My parents split up when I was pretty young as well, except I stayed with my dad. I vaguely remember a lot of crying, which I guess must have been me, and I haven’t seen my mum since. I’m not too bothered by it either, to be honest. It bugged me when I was little, but I guess these things happen.”

The conversation continued in a similar vein, both men sharing titbits of information about themselves in between mouthfuls of food and sips of wine. Gerard thought it was somewhat of a shame that both of them were driving, making more than one glass of wine out of the question, though at the same time it was probably a good thing – the last thing he needed to do was get drunk and scare Mikey off, not when he liked him as much as he did.

Before long the meals were finished, the glasses empty, and Mikey and Gerard were left awkwardly sitting opposite each other wondering where they were to go from there. It seemed a shame to end the night so early which was what prompted Gerard to suggest what he did.

“There’s a really nice park a few minutes away from my house. We could go for a walk if you want...as long as you don’t mind driving there and back?”

Teeth worried his lower lip for a moment and for one fleeting second Gerard wondered whether Mikey was going to turn down the offer. Just as he opened his mouth to apologise, a small smile curved to the other’s lips. “I don’t mind driving. Lead the way.”

Grinning, Gerard paid the bill, having insisted that the meal was his treat no matter how much Mikey had tried to convince him otherwise, and they made their way out of the restaurant. “I guess I’ll see you in a few minutes then?”

Mikey nodded and stepped forward to nervously wrap his arms around Gerard, as though expecting him to start screaming at him at any moment. “See you soon.”

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It appeared that luck was on Gerard’s side, virtually no traffic meaning that he was able to get to the park considerably quicker than he expected. Pulling up at the side of the road, he watched in the mirror as Mikey parked behind him a few minutes later, smiling despite himself. So far the night had gone considerably better than expected; though his ever confident demeanour would never let it show, he’d been almost convinced that Mikey would have decided he wasn’t attractive enough or was too weird or any other number of things which would send him running. None of that had happened though, leaving him feeling strangely happy.

It was a feeling he intended to hang on to for as long as possible.

Climbing out of the car, he strode towards Mikey, genuine smile dancing across his lips. “Should we get walking?”

A question which should have been incredibly simple to answer was made considerably more difficult by the hand which Gerard stretched towards him. Dark eyes flickered from his face down to the hand and back again and he frowned some when Gerard’s face fell as he began to retract his hand. Deciding that he didn’t want this potential relationship to be ruined by his nerves just like so many before it had, Mikey took a leap of face and reached out, linking their fingers together. Gerard’s hand felt surprisingly warm in his, causing him to briefly wonder whether the other man was a little more nervous than he was letting on.

An adorable smile and a gentle squeeze was the only response Gerard gave before they began to walk at a ridiculously slow pace around the park. Neither of them said anything, though it was mainly because nothing needed to be said. The silence which settled over them was a content one, something which didn’t need to be ruined by idle chit-chat. A small nod towards a bench from Gerard had them moving over to it, ending up with them sat so close that their shoulders and thighs brushed together.

It felt rather intimate to Mikey and it was only the fact that Gerard had been nothing but a gentleman which kept him from scooting further away. He glanced towards Gerard, just as the other man did the same.

“I had a really nice time tonight. I know that sounds so cliché and cheesy and a whole bunch of other stuff, but I really did.” Gerard’s tone was uncharacteristically abashed, something which could have caused Mikey to smile on its own. The words which came with it were just a bonus. When Gerard leant towards him and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek, the younger man felt the blush spread across his skin and was suddenly very thankful that there was only a dim glow coming from a nearby street light.

What Mikey did next surprised them both.

When Gerard went to pull away, the hand which wasn’t still linked with his reached up, fingertips resting gently on his jaw. The movement caused Gerard to freeze, eyes widening a little as Mikey closed the distance between them, lips seeking out his in a gentle kiss. Somehow succeeding in thinking through the haze which seemed to have settled over his mind, Gerard brought his free hand to rest ever so lightly on Mikey’s knee.

The whole thing was awkward, tentative and utterly wonderful.

It wasn’t a scene from a movie though. They didn’t jump up and disappear back to one of their houses, to spend a night rolling between the sheets. It was fair to say that Gerard wouldn’t have been completely adverse to the idea, but he knew it would have ruined things. Cheapened them to the point where Mikey would have lost all interest and that wasn’t something he was prepared to risk. Instead, he pulled back a minute or two later, shifting some to press a kiss to corner of Mikey’s lips.

Sighing softly, the brown haired man moved to rest his head against Gerard’s shoulder, wearing a small and content smile which he was sure would remain there for several hours yet. Reality sunk through his joy though, causing him to pull away from Gerard completely.

“I should probably go. I don’t want to but I’ve got work and stuff in the morning.”

Gerard nodded, despite being painfully aware of the fact he would have been prepared to have minimal sleep if it meant he got to spend a little longer with Mikey. “Yeah, me too.” Standing up, gently tugging Mikey up with him, he turned and smiled albeit a little sadly. “I’ll text you soon, yeah? Or ring you or..something.”

“I’d be upset if you didn’t.” Stepping forwards, placing both hands on Gerard’s shoulders, Mikey pressed a small kiss to his lips. “I’m really glad I agreed to meet you.”

With one last smile and a small wave, Mikey turned and walked to his car, leaving Gerard staring longingly after him.