FicWad

A raven haired man sat in his bleak office, biting his nails, contemplating whether he would ever be truly alone in the next two years. He glanced over to the Herculean man sitting in the corner of the room, whose eyes hadn't left him since they both had walked into the room. He sighed and readjusted himself in his maroon leather chair, fidgeting and squirming at the same time.
"Sir. Mr. Toro said you weren't supposed to bite your nails..." For someone so big his voice was meek, he had said it while closing his eyes, almost preparing for the inevitable. The raven haired man scoffed at him and quickly retorted, as was expected.
"Toro isn't my mother Bryar. I will do whatever I damn well please!" The blonde man cringed when he heard his boss take that tone with him, he had been doing so often lately, and this job was his only source of income, he didn't know what would become of him and his family if he were to lose it. He quickly decided it would be best to stay quiet the rest of the time, for the sake of his job. His pale boss sighed and slouched in his pristine chair, giving a look of scorn to the other man.
"Don't you have a family?" Despite the bitterness in his voice, Bryar nodded eagerly, taking whatever break he was able to get.
"Yes Sir. My wife and I have a daughter and a son." The raven haired man stared coldly at him, through hazel eyes that long ago had lost the meaning of life and love.
"Go fucking home. Now. I don't care what Toro says. I need to be by myself. So go fucking home!" Bryar stood up without hesitation. He knew who the main man in charge was. He left the ominously cold office room without a farewell. He continued to grumble down the hall, and worrying about his job, and his future with his unstable boss. An elevator tip later he found himself in the lobby of the office building he ran into a rather tall tanned man in slacks and a starched white dress shirt and a red "power tie", despite his professional appearance he had a warm smile on his face.
"Hey Bob. Did it happen again?" The blonde man nodded and took a large gulp, trying to explain, but all that came out of his mouth was a small grunt. His boss shook his head, motioning that he wouldn't be held responsible. "Don't worry about it Bob. I'll talk to him. You have a go have a night, eh?"
"Will do Mr. Toro..."
"I already told you to call me Ray. We're all friends here. I'll see you for the press conference tomorrow." Bob nodded and practically ran the rest of the way out of the building. The sooner he got out, the better. Ray sighed and continued down the empty and dark lobby, wondering whether he would ever gain his close childhood friend back, or if he had lost him to this election, or if he had lost him before that. He grudgingly made his way to the elevator, where he pressed the button for the thirty-second floor, thankful for the time that it would take to make it up there. The problem was, it worked. His friend had become a "politician". Exactly what they had wanted. He shivered.
He sighed as the pale yellow lights at the top of the elevator went from thirty, to thirty-one and finally thirty-two. He quickly made it to the office that made up most of this floor; the sooner he got this over with the better. He opened up the door, expecting to be yelled at immediately, or given a look of venom, but instead he found the raven haired man flung over his desk, quietly sobbing, with a small glass of scotch in one hand. He cleared his throat making his presence known, and the other man leapt up, looking around the room wildly before resting his eyes on Ray. He gave him a lopsided smile.
"Am I a bad person?" Ray was shocked at this question. Of course his friend wasn't a bad person, although you wouldn't know it by the way he had been acting lately.
"You're not Mr. Way." He had said it coyly. Gerard had been forcing everyone to call him "Mr. Way" lately, even Ray, who he had known since high school. Ray sat down at the table as his friend looked at him with disbelief.
"That bad, huh?"
"Yeah. You've been pretty shitty lately to everyone." Gerard looked as though this had defeated him and took a big gulp of his drink, then shuttered slightly.
"I just need some down time. All this election shit is making me a bit haywire... Look. I'm going to the press conference tomorrow, just to show Schecter. But after that I'm going to take this week off. We still have two months. I just have to. Otherwise I'll lose it." Ray nodded and stood up.
"Don't worry about it man. I'll take care of it, and get you a hotel room uptown. You just turn off all your phones and stay the hell away from the computer and you can have a week off. I'll keep things under control here. And I'll put everything under an alias, so the press won't find you." Gerard looked up disbelievingly at the prospect of a break.
"Thanks so much Ray..." Ray shook his head and headed towards the door.
"No problem. Just make sure you don't drink too much tonight. And get home at a decent hour, if that's even possible now. And leave Bob alone. He's the best body guard we could ever ask for."
"Yeah yeah." Gerard gulped as Ray gave him a warning look. Apparently his friend wouldn't deal with this behavior for much longer. Ray walk out of the room and Gerard looked down tentatively at his glass. It seemed that alcohol was his only solace lately. It was just a matter of time till the press got a hold of that to. They certainly didn't spare him and his cheating wife before. They had found out about Mikey too. Gerard's younger brother, who had slipped into a cocaine addiction, and was now in a rehab in upstate New York. Gerard shuttered at the thought. The only reason why he had gone to college was so that he could make a better life for Mikey and himself, especially after his mother had passed on. He had tried to help Mikey, but it had gotten to out of control. He had to let him go. Just like so many other things in life.
He shook off the cold that had engulfed him that had nothing to do with the temperature. It would be a few months till the grimy New York streets would be snow covered anyway. He closed the office door, glad to be rid of it for the next week. To be rid of all this pressure. He never had wanted to become a politician. He had always been taught that they were untrustworthy, and vile, and yet he had become one himself. It seemed that it was the only thing that he could do to make a difference. That's all he had ever wanted to do. Now all he was doing though was helping the elite rich and powerful, and not broken beaten or the damned. He wanted to help, but it just seemed so hard to do. He found himself in the front of the office building, looking at the street that was still busy despite the fact that it was 2 in the morning He smiled to himself and leaned against the building wall, his car would be there to pick him up shortly. He would finally be able to get a break. He felt his eyelids getting heavy and started drift off into a dreamlike state. He knew he was an asshole. To him, acceptance was the first step to recovery. They only problem is he didn't know where to turn next. Or how to get the young, hopeful, star filled eyed, Gerard back. He worried that he had lost him forever. He heard someone breathing near him. He lazily pried open his eyes and saw a man, not much younger from himself standing a few feet away from him. He knew that this was New York, he had lived here since he went to college, so he didn't take the fact that some stranger was now standing near him lightly. Although he was cautious he couldn't help but staring at the stranger. The man was of short stature, his clothes were frayed and tattered, he looked relatively clean though. He had a cigarette perched on his pink lips, which were pieced on one side, and was trying to light a match to no avail. He got frustrated and started to run his fingers through his dark hair when he noticed Gerard staring at him. He looked Gerard up and down, and if he had noticed him from the brightly colored election posters plastered around the city he didn't let it show. He nodded at him and carefully lifted the cigarette out of his lips and let out a long breath, even though it wasn't lit.
"You got a light man?" Gerard was startled, and was shaken out of his small daze. He nodded and quickly retrieved one of his lighters and handed it over to the shorter man. Gerard heard a clear honk, which was odd with the hustle and bustle on the busy city street, and turned his head to see his car pull up, his driver getting out quickly and apologizing for his tardiness.
"Thanks Gerard. You're a good person. Don't forget that." Apparently the stranger did know him; he turned his head when he noticed that the stranger wasn't there. His lighter was on the ground, and the spot where he was before was eerily vacant. He shook his head, as though that would make sense of the odd occurrence. His driver cleared his throat and Gerard turned around to make his way to the car, still thoroughly creped out. He gave his driver a concerned smile.
"Matt. Did you see someone standing here when you drove up?" Matt shook his shaggy brown hair back and forth.
"Sorry Mr. Way. I didn't." Gerard got into the back of the car nonplussed. He wasn't one to be superstitious, well at least not lately. He shook his head yet again as his driver closed his door. He kept on telling himself that he would be fine. That he would get a break soon and that hopefully he would be less of a politician, and more of a human being.