FicWad

Title: Strangers From Within
Author: Catching_Revenge and PixieIsAGeneral
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Frank Iero/Gerard Way, Ryan Ross/Brendon Urie
P.O.V: Third Person’s
Summary: Frank Iero grew up in what he considered a fairly normal town, as far as he knew West Grayton wasn’t anything special, just a dreary valley with not much to do and too many bored dickheads. He definitely never thought something interesting finally happening would be this dangerous, but when his best friend’s brother returns home from college, people all over the town begin unearthing mysteries that should never be solved and uncovering secrets whose truths should never be told. Armed with less weapons than your average American Football team, Frank seems to be going up against the amassed armies of hell. As you do.


OR

That summer everyone went punk ass and Frank had to fix it.

Chapter Word Count: 3651
Disclaimer: Complete and utter fiction, you’d be silly if you think this actually happened anyway.


Chapter Three

It turned out that the footsteps weren’t nearly as exciting or frightening as the boys had originally suspected, they were especially unworthy of causing the massive (and potentially life-threatening) scuffle they endured trying to get Ryan’s house key out from under the porch swing. In fact, instead of belonging to a dark and mysterious soul-eating Way brother who had just returned from the other side of the country for some unknown reason, the footsteps’s owner actually came in the tiny, hyperactive form of a bass player that went by the name of Pete Wentz.

Dammit Pete.

The boys had known Pete from the beginning of Sophomore year when he’d beaten the crap out of Evan Carlyle- the Captain of the Baseball Team- and Gabe had pretty much stopped the two boys from killing each other right there in the courtyard.

Pete had moved to the valley because his dad had switched jobs after being offered a pay that was significantly higher than his original, so for the first few months of living in the town, Pete had been the angriest, wildest and definitely the most rebellious teenager the townspeople had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He’d get sent to the Principal’s office multiple times everyday, they’d also eventually had to stop suspending him when they realised it was doing nothing but giving him more reasons not to do his homework and, as Carlyle had found out fairly quickly, he detested being underestimated by people just because he was short.
It hadn’t taken him long to befriend the majority of the school (excluding the super-clichéd groups of Jocks that hated his guts).

So that night, when Pete had finally managed to make the boys on the porch aware of his existence, the reaction to his appearance had been a mixture of delight and pure frustration.

Frank had not been hoping it would be the incredibly sexy Mr Gerard Way. Definitely not.

After getting over the initial shock of not being stabbed to death by some crazy psycho-stalker, the group had settled down in Ryan’s bedroom to watch old movies and lust after a young Audrey Hepburn.
Even with these distractions at hand, Frank couldn’t quite shake the feeling it wasn’t supposed to be Pete who turned up at the doorstep.

*

By the time Friday had rolled around, Frank and Mikey had just about had enough of the football player’s shit. They had suffered through the week hearing the usual comments and remarks about their clothing or music or sexualities and whatever else the heteronormative conformists of the school could come up with to insult them about, and just before lunch they’d been walking out of English, chatting about how the school’s population might as well have just been made up of fish for all the intelligence it collectively has, when a group of football players came out of nowhere and shoved both of them into lockers.
Frank was now stuck staring at an extremely revealing photo of Melissa McCartney, Kyle Ritchie’s girlfriend.

“Mikes?” Frank’s voice echoed around the constricting metal space.

“Yeah Frambkie?” Frank was momentarily distracted from his train of thought by Mikey’s voice.

“Why d’you sound like you’ve got a nasal infection?”
“Ib gotta peg on by mose,” Came the muffled reply.

“You’ve got a peg on your nose?”

“Yeah.”

“…Why?”

“It sbells in here.”

“Right… where the hell did you find a peg?”

“By pocket.”

Frank wasn’t sure he wanted to know why Mikey had a peg handy.

“How long d’you reckon it’ll be until they let us out?”

“I dunno.”
Frank sighed.

An hour later, when the final bell had gone and most people had left, Frank tumbled out of his containment, gasping for air and almost cheering out loud with joy… until he saw the entire football team stood in front of where he was kneeling.

Seconds later, Mikey fell out of a locker to join him looking greatly relived, but as Frank’s did, his face fell when he spotted the gang of fierce looking sociopaths who seemed ready to beat the shit out of them. Weirdly, Urie wasn’t with them. Probably studying with Ryan, Frank felt pity for his friend who had to put up with a weekly dose of dickhead.

“’Sup fags,” Chris Lee’s gravelly voice was too loud in the tense silence of the hallway. The second he stepped towards Frank and Mikey, they were up and sprinting, thus the great chase began.

Down the halls, around the corners, through the library (greatly upsetting the chess team when Frank actually jumped over their table and knocked down all the pieces, and once they were all set up again one of the Jocks following the pair also leaped over the table in a haste… knocking them down once more), through the cafeteria and scaring the cleaners, out around back, through the courtyard, taking a quick breath under the bleachers when the Jocks were far enough behind.

They might have been scrawny, and Frank’s lungs might not have been great, but Mikey and Frank both had practise with running from bullies. When they saw the Jocks reach the field it was time to start running, across the field and through the halls again, then finally out into the parking lot. They were about to run straight for the forest line (they knew the forest much better than the Jocks and were a heck of a lot less likely to get lost), when a voice called out and they both froze.

“Mikes?!” Gerard Way was leaning against one hell of a beautiful car. It was sleek, black and sexy, matching Gerard’s stance perfectly. The sun shone brightly from the dark paint of the Mustang. It was a 1967 Fastback and Frank absolutely loved it.

“Uh… hey Gerard, what are you doing here man?” It was quite a relief to hear Mikey’s normal voice; the peg must’ve of left his nose at some point during their great escape.

“I came to pick you up… why is your nose all red?”

Frank and Mikey exchanged glances, and just as Mikey opened his mouth to explain, the footballers burst out of the front doors and headed right for them.

Only they stopped. Frank looked around in confusion, was Gabe brandishing a banana somewhere nearby and distracting them like last month when they’d been after Ryan? Did Pete have his Super Soaker again? Nope, it was all clear.

“Oh look, we’ve got another fag to deal with boys,” Chris laughed, his friends guffawed behind him. It took Frank a moment to realised they were looking at Gerard. He did not look pleased, in fact he looked a little more than angry. Okay, a lot more than angry, he looked freakishly calm, but his eyes man, his eyes. Holy shit, it was like they had thunder in them. His knuckles were even whiter than the rest of him when he clenched his fists and oh God. Frank took an involuntary step back, so did everyone else, even Mikey.

“Fag the best you can come up with?”
Oooooh.

“Excuse me?”

“What? Are you deaf? I asked you a question.”

Chris didn’t move, but he did open his enormous mouth, and that probably wasn’t the greatest idea.

“Oh wow, got a hardass over here,” Gerard’s jaw hardened, but he ignored him while the rest of the Jocks laughed.

“Come on Mikey, Frankie, let’s go,” Gerard motions for them to get in the car, and as the two go to, Chris calls out again.

“Watch your back Way, we know where you live!”
Gerard rolled his eyes and muttered, “Like I haven’t heard that one before.”

Mikey climbed into the car and Frank waited to slide into him, he was ridiculously excited about getting into such a badass car, even under the current circumstances.

“Oi Iero, is it nice to have another real fuck up around? Gotta be good having one of your people with ya, I mean you got someone who might actually care if you kill yourself now!”
Oh crap, they’d heard about Gerard’s reputation then. Frank was going to make a retort about Chris and the general potato shape of his face, when Gerard lunged.

Chris was on the floor in seconds, pinned down by the throat with Gerard crouched next to him.

“Don’t you dare speak to him like that you little son of a bitch, Frank is ten times the kid you ever will be. You might wanna get in touch with that ignorant brother of yours and get him to teach you some manners” Gerard was practically growling.
Frank wasn’t turned on by that, pfft, no. This was a serious matter, he definitely wasn’t thinking about Gerard using that tone in his bed… scraping his teeth down Frank’s bare skin… ha no…

If you get a boner right now, you might actually get more than one odd look. Okay Frank, think of the things that most definitely are not Gerard Way… uh, naked Gabe… oh God ew why no no- oh. Boner gone.

During Frank’s little zone-out, something appeared to have happened that he’d missed because Chris was now sat up, looking extremely frightened and as if he was about to run away crying. Gerard stood up and stepped back with folded arms.

“Now run along.”
And Chris Lee did, fast, taking the entire team with him.

Frank looked at Gerard in awe. How could one person be that wonderful and terrifying all at once?

“What did you do? Can you teach me to do that? Oh my God, he just ran away! Just like that! He’s like, one of the scariest kids in school, next to Urie of course, but oh man you just made him look like a little girl who’s scraped her knee! That was so cool!” Frank’s gestures got wilder as he spoke, and at one point he almost hit himself in the face from sheer excitement. Gerard looked amused.

“Nah man, just told him how it was, c’mon get in the car. There’s gonna be a lynch mob out for me tonight.”

*

Frank had not realised just how literal Gerard had been when he’d mentioned the mob.
They’d been having a relatively good time with Gerard’s friends Ray and Bob, they treated Frank and Mikey like they treated each other and had no problem buying beer for them. The music was beating through Frank’s veins like acid and song after song, he collected more and more sweated, yet he was unable to tell whether it belonged to him or the people almost crushed up next to him. By the bar with Gerard they’d made fun of a girl doing the slut-drop in little to no clothes, and was still having a hard time getting anyone to pay attention to her. Out on the dance floor they’d ended up pressed close together, so tight that you couldn’t get a blade of grass between them as they grinned and danced wildly. Frank could still feel the sensation of Gerard’s entire body pulsing against him in time with the bass, it had been riveting.

Until the doors burst open and a big ass group of graduated Jocks entered, that is. How they’d tracked Gerard down, Frank had no idea, but they did not look happy.

Now he was stood there at the edge of the dance floor with most of the others from the crowd, the music had stopped and people were either silent or whispering eagerly. This would be front-page news, well not really because that would be weird, but tomorrow everyone would have heard about this. Frank wasn’t sure that anyone had actually noticed Gerard until the group had shoved their way over and demanded he ‘Get the fuck out of our town, bitch!’ Gerard had just looked amused through the entire confrontation.

“You think you can just come back here and threaten our kids! Hell no you bastard, no one wants you here, clear off!”

“You don’t belong here!”

“You’re a freak, you’re unnatural!”
One of them shoved Gerard, he didn’t even flinch.

“Looky here, big guys,” Gerard said, dusting off his jacket a bit from where they’d tried to shove him, “I’m just here tonight to have fun with my friends, I don’t want no beef.”

“You don’t got no friends, Way! You’re worthless, a freak of nature, go back to worshipping Satan or whatever it is you do, and take your gang of arm-cutting weirdos with you!”
Frank and Mikey looked at each other, neither of them had ever self-harmed in any way, but that entire sentence had been incredibly insensitive. What if someone else in the room had depression or self-harmed? No, that was in no way funny, that only angered them.

It also angered Gerard apparently, because he stepped forward.

“That wasn’t a pleasant thing to say, Anderson, I really think you should apologise. Right now.”

“Or what?”

Gerard grinned and inspected his nails, “Or I’ll have to crush that tiny ‘lil brain of yours with your own skull.”
Oliver Anderson, Chris Lee’s older cousin, sneered, “Bring it, Way.”

“If you insist,” Gerard shrugged, stepped forward calmly and promptly threw the man into the opposite wall.
Everyone gasped, someone screamed and then people were piling out of the club. The mob went running and within seconds, Frank and Mikey were outside with Gerard, who just casually leant up against a wall and lit up a cigarette.

“Dude…” Frank said, “That was awesome!”

“I know, I know,” Gerard did a little bow and grinned through the smoke.

“Gee, how did you throw a guy into a wall exactly? ‘Cos I remember when we were kids and you weren’t exactly the walking entity of strength, y’know?” Mikey asked awkwardly.

“Oh, look, a penny!” Gerard completely avoided the question and bent over, giving Frank a wonderful view of his ass.


*


“Mikey, move over, you’re taking up the entire bed again!”

“Fuck off Frank, you’re the one all curled up awkwardly!”

“Well I wouldn’t have to if there wasn’t a fucking pineapple in your bed!”

“You leave Mr Spike out of this.”
Frank scowled in the dark. Trust Mikey to have a pineapple plush doll that was actually spiky on top. Mikey had already warned Frank that if he threw it out of the bed, Hell would ensue.

“Do you still think your brother’s got something wrong with him?” Frank asked after a few moments of shifting until they were both comfortable.

“Dude, he literally threw a guy into a wall, do you not think that tells us something?”

“Yeah I guess…”

“Even Gabe couldn’t do that.”

“Hm… maybe we should investigate?”

“How would we even do that?”

“With a lot of sneakery.”

“That’s not even a word dumbass.”

“It is now.”


*

The boys started their ‘Sneakery’ the next day when Gabe and Ryan came over, Gerard had long since gone out and his room laid ready to be turned inside out for clues. That is, if they ever got the damn door open.

“I don’t get it,” Mikey scratched his head, “There isn’t even a lock on his door.”

“Maybe we could blow it open?” Ryan suggested, “I’ve still got some of those flash-bombs.”

“I think there might be an issue with blowing up his door, Ry,” Gabe said, stuffing his face with a handful of Cheetos.

“Why?”

“Well for one,” Mikey began, “He might actually, y’know, notice a giant gaping hole in the wall.”
Then he slapped Ryan on the back of the head.

“Well there’s no reason to be rude,” Ryan whined.

“There’s no reason to be stupid either!” Mikey argued back.

“I wasn’t being stupid, it was just a suggestion.”

“Yes, a stupid suggestion.”

“If you guysh don’t shu’up right now ima shtab you in the eyesh wiv my food,” Gabe warned throw a mouthful of orange snacks.

“Don’t speak with your mouthful Gabe, it’s not polite,” Ryan said.

“Oh my- Ryan, would you shut up about manners?!” Mikey almost yelled.
Frank rolled his eyes and leaned against the door ready to watch the shouting match he was sure was about to go down, but at that moment the door decided ‘Oh yes, it sure would be nice to open for these young gentlemen now, yes, oh good I shall be a good door and open for them, yes.” And Frank went crashing to the floor. When he sat up, groaning and rubbing his head, the others had already stepped past him and were staring with horrified looks at the wall.

“What? No helping me up? Wow, what a fine group of youths you are guys,” Frank said, standing up and straightening out his shirt, but when he lifted his head to look at the wall, he understood.

It wasn’t an awe-inspiring wall of posters or an incredible piece of artwork (several of which were dotted around the house and made by Gerard apparently), but instead it was quiet a scary sight.

It was a giant ass pentagram drawn in what looked like blood, that’s what it was.

“Holy-“ Gabe said, accidentally dropping the bag of chips in shock.

“Mikey…” Ryan’s voice was weak.

“…Yeah?” Mikey replied, not looking away from the wall.

“I think your brother’s…”

“Crazy?” Frank suggested. And hot, but he wasn’t going to mention that fact, mostly because it wasn’t the right time, and partly because it probably didn’t need t be pointed out anyway.
Gabe got out a banana and began peeling it.

“I think we need to reassess all of our opinions on Gerard Way,” He said, biting into the soft yellow fruit.
The all murmured noises of agreement.

Then the front door slammed. Everyone jumped.

“MIKEY! I’M HOME AND I BROUGHT ICE CREAM AND THE NOTEBOOK, I HOPE YOU’RE READY TO CRY!”
There was a mad scramble to get out of the door and down the hall to Mikey’s room, where they all sat and ‘acted natural’ in the most unnatural ways possibly. Around a monopoly board.

Just as Gerard appeared in the doorway, Frank let out a rather squawking cry of “HA! TOP HAT WINS ALL!”

“Uh…” Gerard raised an eyebrow, “You guys having fun?”
They all nodded stiffly.

“Why so quiet.”

“We were just in your-“ Gabe began, before Ryan promptly dived on him and planted a kiss smack bang on his mouth.

“...Monopoly board,” Mikey finished awkwardly. Ryan sat up looking thoroughly disgusted and Gabe bitched at him never to do that again.

“Right… I didn’t even know we owned that game,” Gerard said.

“Okay, yes, good, bye now,” Mikey shoved his brother out of the door and closed it quickly. They let out sighs of relief as his footsteps gradually faded down the hallway.

“So…” Frank began right before a shout came from the other end of the house.

“WHY ARE THERE CHEETOS ON MY FLOOR?!”

Oh crap.


*

Walking through the halls of school is a dangerous thing, it will get me killed one day, one day it will get me killed.

I don’t think you understand, no you’re not listening to me, I might die. That would be GLORIOUS.

But no, no, no, there is some reason for me staying isn’t there? Yes, no.
No there isn’t.

Maybe.

Walking down the street is a horrible thing, it will get me seen one day, one day it will get me seen.

I don’t think they get it, no they can’t see me, I might die.
That would be FABULOUS.

But maybe, maybe, maybe, there is some reason for me staying isn’t there? No, maybe.
Maybe there is.

Yes.

Running through the forest is a terrible thing, it will get me caught on day, one day it will get me caught.

I don’t think he is there, no he is not there, I might die.
That would be TERRIBLE.

But yes, yes, yes, there is a reason for me leaving, isn’t there? Maybe, yes. Yes there is.

No.

Then I see it, red flash, blue flash, red again. They’re coming, they think they can help.

Crimson, crimson everywhere. No.
He is there.

Don’t touch him. You can’t have my brother, I swear to God I will kill you.

I said God, I said it. I can say God. That’s new. Oh look, I finally understand my own head. Well look at that, what is that taste? Oh, I see. It. Is. Sanity.

Get the fuck away from my brother, get away now. Alright then, if you won’t.

That was so messy, urgh gross, now there are guts on my shirts, choose a less-likely-to-explode body next time. Make sure there’s not a next time. Don’t come near him again, don’t you dare come near him again.

Now we’re both gone. I’m gone, he’s gone, if I stay gone he can’t hurt my brother.

But he’s returned, so I’ve returned. I hate it here, the memories, oh lord the memories, someone save from my own head will they?

That boy, that boy though, the one with the cheeky grin and the brown eyes. His hair, the red and the black, he’s kind of rad for a kid.
What if I hurt him? I won’t hurt him. I’ve got a consciousness. I have to remember I’ve got a consciousness.

Club. Music. Dance. He’s so close to me.
They insulted my brother.
Bones crunching against a wall, I shudder in pleasure at that sound. No, that’s bad, don’t do that.

Dreams, dreams, nightmares, dreams.

I want him.

This insanity is horrific, I HATE IT. Someone take me away from here? We should have never played in the woods, why were we allowed in the woods? It was dangerous, HE got me, now I’m at least half dead. My soul is shredded and torn, ragged around there edges, I’m damned. I have no chance in Hell at getting into Heaven.
I want him, I want life, I want sanity.

Cheetos?