FicWad

Gerard could feel his brother’s hand on his shoulder strong and reassuring; tethering him to the ground when he so desperately wanted to go away. He turned to Mikey, a small smile was playing on his face and it confused Gerard. A lot.

Suddenly, he heard Frank’s voice flutter through the doorway, “Come one baby, don’t be shy, they’re not going to hurt you.”

Frank appeared in the threshold, a huge smile on his face and a hand behind his back. Gerard was expecting to see a beautiful woman standing behind him. Someone that would put him to shame; both appearance and personality-wise. Instead his eyes landed on a small child. She came up to just above Frank’s knee as she clung to his leg. Her brown hair was in little ringlets as it framed her young face and soft green eyes.

Gerard’s breath hitched in his throat. Why was she here? Surely she wasn’t Frank’s daughter? It just didn’t seem plausible, of course Frank was very promiscuous in his youth but he never expected a child to be the result of it. She couldn’t have been more than four years old judging by her features and height. Although there was the possibility that she took after her father on that feature as Frank wasn’t the tallest person ever.

Gerard half expected someone else to walk around the corner to accompany them but she never did. He then realised he had been staring at the poor girl and he was probably scaring the living hell out of her. Straightening himself up he walked slowly over to Frank and knelt down in front of him so he was eye to eye with the little girl; trying his best to have a smile that wasn’t frightening on his face.

She slid behind her father a little bit more so all Gerard could see was half of her face and a hand that clinged to Frank’s leg. Frank brought his hand down on to her head and softly ran his tattooed fingers through her dark hair; silently telling her to be brave. “Baby, this is your uncle Gee, say hello.” He urged.

Gerard put his hand up by his face and did a small wave, “Hi there, what’s your name?” He said quietly. He hoped he hadn’t frightened the small child but his worries were put aside when she walked out from behind Frank and held her hand out for Gerard to shake. He took her hand and slowly shook her hand up and down.

“Hello unc-uncle Gee. My name is Leia. You have nice hair.” She said as she looked up at him, she was slowly becoming more confident.

“Thank you, Leia.” He smiled, “I love your sweater!” Gerard pointed to the bright pink sweater she was wearing.

Leia’s eyes seemed to light up at that and she looked up at her father, pulling on his arm. “See Daddy uncle Gee likes my sweater.” She came a few steps close to Gerard and leant forwards to whisper in his ear, “Daddy doesn’t like it because it has cats on. He doesn’t like cats.”

“That is a lie! I like cats, just not glittery ones. I’m finding glitter everywhere lately. She’s going through the stage that everything has to be shiny. You should have seen her face this morning when I told her she couldn’t put glitter in her hair.”

Gerard chuckled, his calves were starting to ache from being down on his hunches for a long time but he couldn’t stop smiling at this little girl. She was so cute. Her dark hair hung around her face and it made her eyes shine incredibly bright. She had Frank’s nose and bowed lips with freckles dotted around her nose and it made her look so innocent. This was definitely better than what he was expecting a few minutes before. Absolutely. He could totally deal with a kid. Kids were easy compared to what he was preparing himself for.

“Daddy can me and uncle Mikey go play?” She asked hopefully. Frank glanced at Mikey who was in the middle of texting on his phone, leaning on the counter behind Gerard. At the sound of his name Mikey did pull his head up from his phone.

“Sure but I think you should ask uncle Mikes first if he wants to play.” She nodded and slowly walked up to Mikey and tugged on his shirt to get his attention. Behind her Gerard stood up straight next to Frank.

“Please uncle Mikey, can we play now please?” She asked. She had got to be the most polite child in the world. How could Mikey even think of saying no to that face?

“Of course, I seem to remember that we had some unfinished business from last time you were here.” With that he took Leia’s hand and followed her back into the sitting room where, Gerard guessed, Leia’s toys were. Donna followed after them a few seconds later saying that she wanted to keep an eye on Leia because last time she knotted Mikey’s hair in an attempt to ‘make it pretty’.

And that was that, they were alone again. Even after meeting up for coffee Gerard was still feeling awkward and that was the last thing he wanted to happen with Frank. So he decided to do what he does best and that was make coffee. He really did need it, his calves were hurting and his mouth was dry.

Gerard walked to the counter where the percolator was and switched it on, “You want a cup?”

He motioned to Frank behind him with an empty mug in his hand. Frank nodded with a quiet ‘please’ added on. Gerard made them both a mug of coffee, black for him and two sugars with a dash of milk for Frank. He hoped that was how he liked; that’s how he used to take it.

“So…” He said while placing the mugs on the counter in front of Frank, “You have a daughter now?” Gerard asked taking a small sip; careful not to burn his tongue on the hot liquid.

Frank took his mug in his hands, softly blowing the steam that was coming from the top of the cup. “Yeah, I sure do. It’s crazy right?” Even through the steam he could tell Frank was smiling softly. “She’s amazing, really coming into herself recently. She’s got a fiery attitude too.”

“Sounds like someone else I know…” Frank gently hit the side of Gerard’s arm with a shocked expression on his face. “What? You’re pretty fuckin’ angry sometimes Frankie. Especially if you’re told ‘no’.”

“What can I say? When I want something I’ll throw everything I have into making sure I get it.” He smirked taking another sip of coffee. Gerard’s face heated up a small blush beginning to form on his cheeks. He had to admit some pretty dirty thoughts went through his mind when Frank said that to him. For some reason he got the feeling that he was talking about something different rather than what he had led on.

“I wish I was as head-strong as you, Frankie. You’re not afraid of what people think of you. I admire that.” He genuinely did. Frank was careless about everything that he didn’t want to pay attention to. Whereas Gerard couldn’t help but take notice of the little things that people did. He couldn’t even sit on the bus without getting paranoid; that eventually led him to getting his old beat up car so he wouldn’t have to endure that any longer.

Frank put his mug on the table and gently put his hand on top of Gerard’s left hand. “Gee, you don’t need to think like that. If people want to be like that then let them, you have nothing to worry about, you’re perfect. They’re just jealous.” They both smiled at each other and something seemed to shift in the air between them. Gerard looked down at their touching hands and Frank pulled his back to cradle his mug again. Gerard had so wished to pull his hand back and entwine them again; it felt so warm and comforting, something he was sorely lacking lately.

“Thank you, Frankie. So uhh…why didn’t you tell me about Leia? When you said you had someone special in your life I thought you meant a significant other, kinda got me worried there.” He put his coffee down and ran his fingers through his hair; did he really just say that? Hopefully Frank hadn’t picked up on it.

“Why would you be worried? Jealous?” He winked over his mug. He really had to stop peeking over his mug again otherwise Gerard was going to explode. It was the way his eyes looked dark and mysterious over the rim of the coffee mug, it made Gerard’s gut swirl with excitement. Gerard’s blush returned bigger and brighter than ever, he could feel it burning on his cheeks down to his neck.

“No,” he lied, “I was just worried for the person you were with. You can be quite a handful sometimes.”

“Oh yeah? But isn’t that half the fun?”

“Yeah I guess it is.” Truthfully, he didn’t know, the relationships he had been in had all been pretty mundane and that’s why they are that-in the past. He desperately needed to inject some excitement into his love life. He had been pretty content when they were actually happening but now he could see he was just lonely and craved that companionship. “So are you still with Leia’s mom?”

Frank shook his head, his mouth still full of coffee. After he had swallowed he answered, “No no no, hell no. Don’t get me wrong I love her, she’s the mother of my child, but god that woman was full on. She just wasn’t ready to be a mother, which I totally get. I wasn’t ready either but I guess I was the best choice for Leia at that moment and I’m thankful I was because I can’t picture my life without her anymore.”

“So, she what? Just left?”

“No we came to an agreement, I would take custody of Leia but she would get frequent updates on her. When she’s in town we have dinner together too. It’s nice. Nicer than what some dad’s get these days that’s for sure.”

Gerard couldn’t agree more with what Frank was saying he had heard plenty of stories of mothers not agreeing to let fathers see their children. It was great that Frank and Leia’s mom could work something out that was pleasant for both parties involved. After all they both wanted what was best for Leia. Gerard voiced his opinions to Frank and he agreed whole-heartedly.

Just as they were finishing up their conversation Mikey came walking into the kitchen with a dozen or so pink clips in his hair. His glasses were lopsided on his face and he was wearing a very flattering shade of red lipstick and eyeshadow. He looked exhausted.

Gerard stopped talking mid-sentence when he walked in, taking a good look at his younger brother now turned sister. He slid his half full cup of coffee towards the edge of the table and Mikey took it in his hands and downed it in one. “Your daughter,” he said pointing at Frank “is a monster.”

Gerard took the mug back from his brother a giggle was slowly rising up in his throat as Frank and Mikey just stared at each other. He could see Frank’s lips starting to tremble trying to suppress a laugh too. They both knew if they had let their laughs out Mikey would tackle them both to the floor.

He stood there staring at Frank for what seemed like hours, challenging him to start laughing when all of a sudden Leia came running into the kitchen and started tugging on Mikey’s hand once more, “C’mon Miss Mikey! You’ve gotta come back your husband is waiting!”

“Husband?!” Both Frank and Gerard said together. Realising they had said that at the same time the situation really got the best of them and they both burst out laughing as Leia dragged Mikey back to the sitting room.

“Don’t you dare say anything. She’s a monster!” He warned them both as he disappeared through the threshold.

The moment Mikey left them they both let out the biggest laugh. Gerard couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed so much in such a small amount of time. Tears were brimming in his eyes and his breath was slowly running out with each laugh. By the looks of it, Frank wasn’t in much of a better state. His shoulders were quickly jolting up and down and his cheeks had gone a bright red colour.

“I haven’t been gone for that long have I? Last time I was here Mikey was a boy and straight!” Gerard laughed out. He had to hold onto his stomach to stop it from hurting as much as he spoke.

“I’ve heard it was a pretty new occurrence, I haven’t met the man yet.” Frank replied as he wiped his eyes and breathed through his mouth to steady out his laughter.

“Maybe we should go and see who the lucky groom is…” with that Gerard took both of the mugs and placed both of them into the sink. Frank nodded and hooked his arm around Gerard’s, pulling him into the sitting room.

What they found there wasn’t exactly what they were expecting. Of course Mikey and Leia were there with Gerard’s parents but what they didn’t expect was Mikey to be sitting on the floor opposite Leia who was standing up holding the family cat in her arms trying her very best to ‘marry’ them both with her limited knowledge on the subject.