Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > The Seven Days of Christmas
Okay, I don’t usually do author’s notes before the chapter, but this one’s kinda important. A huge thank you to xXemoxninjaXx for letting me use her 'abusive girlfriend' idea on Bob. I would just like to say that I have her permission to use it, and for that I'm extremely grateful. I’ve put that bit in bold, so you can see what’s mine and what’s hers.
Also, she gets the dedication for this chapter, since she is amazing and I love her writing. Go and read it, you fools!!
Disclaimer: I don’t own the artists or the music. Just the storyline, which is mostly mine, apart from the bit by xXemoxninjaXx
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Ray had always been a light sleeper and he could get by on not much sleep. He knew from experience that when you’re asleep if when people are most likely to try and pull a prank on you, like writing I LIKE MEN on your face in permanent marker, or putting a dirty magazine in your hand and taking a picture then passing it round. So over the years Ray had learnt to sleep enough to get rest, and still be conscious enough to realise what was going on around him.
Frank, on the other hand, needed his sleep. He could get by for a few days without it, living on coffee, cigarettes and sugar (and as a result of that being extremely hyper and annoying most of the band) but eventually he would come crashing down. At times like these he would sleep for about twenty four hours straight, completely out of it. Gradually that’s what his sleeping pattern grew to be – just a few hours of sleep but completely zoned out. It took a lot to wake him up, and he was never happy when he was.
So that’s why he was not pleased when he was rudely awakened by Gerard and Mikey crashing through his door, armed with a video camera.
Here’s Ray and Frank’s room.” Gerard grinned at the camera, which was being held by Mikey. “Come on guys, get up!”
This wake up call was lost on Ray, who had woken up as soon as they had entered. He stretched, and then was magically fully alert. Giving a smile and a nod to the camera, he walked over to Frank’s bed and shook the bleary eyed man’s shoulder gently.
Frank gave a tired moan of complaint and swatted lazily at Ray’s hand, burying his head down underneath his covers.
“G’wayI’msleepingyoubasterd”
“Frankie, they’ve got the camera. You have to get up and say hi.”
“Tell’m’tofuckoff” Frank grumbled.
Ray turned to the camera with an apologetic grin.
“Sorry about this. As you may be able to see, Frank’s not a morning person.” He looked up at Mikey. “Give it ten minutes, I’ll get him up.”
Gerard and Mikey looked at each other, obviously disappointed, and Gerard looked like he was about to protest, but Mikey herded him out the door.
Ray had another go at shaking the quilted lump that was Frank, but he got no response. Smiling fondly and shaking his head, he realised that he’s have to go to extremes. Hoping that Frank wouldn’t kill him for it later, he gritted his teeth and pulled the duvet off Frank’s bed. Bracing himself, he retreated to the sofa and waited for the inevitable. Frank twitched as the cold morning air hit him. He mumbled inaudible curses as he solely came to. Consciousness finally hit him and he sat bolt upright, lashing out with his arms.
“RAYYOUSONOFABITCH!”
When Frank had stopped flailing his arms, Ray cautiously approached his bed.
“Frankie? Time to get up, or Mikey and Gerard are gonna get all stroppy.”
Frank huffed moodily and turned over so he was facing away from Ray.
“Look, I'm sorry. But it was the only way to get you up.” Ray pleaded.
“You know I hate it when anyone does that.”
“I know, I'm sorry.”
Ray walked round to the other side of the bed so he could see Ray’s face. Frank glowered and turned over again.
“Fine.” Sighed Ray. “If you’re not going to co-operate, I see what I have to do.” He climbed onto Frank’s bed and sat on the younger man’s legs so that Frank was stuck in a position facing forwards.
“Look, I'm sorry Frankie baby, but you’ve gotta get up.” Ray made his best puppy face. Frank had to laugh at just how ridiculous it was.
“Okay, okay, I'm getting up. But Ray, no pulling off the covers ever again, all right?
“All right.” Ray promised. He gave Frank a small kiss on the nose and stood up. “Now, up.”
~*~
“Mikey, why did we have to go?” Gerard complained. “I bet we’re missing out on something right now!”
“Oh, grow up Gee. There’s gonna be loads of other opportunities today, and besides, if we follow them around all day they’ll get suspicious. Trust me. And anyway, Brian wants us too meet up in the coach at nine and it’s five to.” Mikey said.
Brain and Bob were already in the coach when Gerard and Mikey arrived.
“Oh good, you’ve brought the camera. Cheers Mikey.” Brian greeted them.
“Morning, Brian.” said Gerard.
Brian smirked at him.
“Yes, Gerard. You really are big on being polite, aren’t you? Anyway, Bob and I were talking about what we’re doing filming-wise today. I recon that if I’ve got the camera and you guys go around like normal, I’ll just get random bits every now and then.”
“That sounds great.” Ray said as he and Frank came through the door.
“Hi guys!” Gerard smiled, sending a purposeful look towards Brian, who shrugged it off and rolled his eyes.
“Hey.” Frank and Ray both replied.
“Hang on Brian.” Mikey cut through the greetings. “Does that mean we’re not getting a go with the camera?”
“Yeah, it would. But if you want to have a go, then how about I’ll do some filming in the morning and you can have the camera for the afternoon and evening, and then we’ll edit tomorrow?”
“Cool.” Agreed Mikey.
“Okay, we’re all sorted. So let’s give Brian the camera and go, yeah?” said Bob.
“And where are you so eager to get to, huh?” Gerard asked, eyebrows raised.
“Could it be anything to do with a certain Jess?” Enquired Ray.
“It so is.” Grinned Frank. “Come on guys, let’s go and see Bob’s girlfriend!”
“Guys.” Brian softly reprimanded them. Everyone shut up and looked at him. “Leave it.” He gave Bob an encouraging smile. “We’ll meet up here at one to have lunch and do a camera swap. Go have fun.”
Bob’s highly pissed off glare softened slightly at Brian’s words. He gave a small smile and a grateful nod, then left. Mikey pulled a confused face.
“Brian, is there something we’re all missing?”
Brian struggled with himself for a minute.
“Okay, Bob asked me not to tell anyone, so you can’t go around saying anything. And I'm only saying this to you because I think it will help you as a band and as friends, yeah?”
They all nodded.
“Bob was abused by his last girlfriend. This is before he joined the band. Ages ago. Anyway, he told his friends and they just laughed at him for being weak and getting beaten up by a girl. Then they told her that he had told them, and she beat him up even worse than before.
“Another time he had a girlfriend and his friends didn’t like her, it was the whole ‘us or her thing’. He chose his friends, and lost the girl he loved.”
Frank made to interrupt, but Brian held up a hand to stop him.
“I know that you’re his friends now, and you wouldn’t ever even think about doing that to him. But mixing up friendships and relationships hasn’t served him well in the past, so he’s trying to keep the two groups separate.”
A sombre silence hung in the air as Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Frank processed what they’d been told.
“But, Bob?” Ray eventually questioned. “Just, he’s the last person I’d expect this to happen to. He’s the strong one, he’s like our rock. He’s the one who refuses to take any crap.”
“That’s what he wants you to think. He doesn’t want to come across as weak because he’s been rejected for it before. That’s why he gets angry instead of upset.” Brian explained.
“But we wouldn’t…. why didn’t he tell us? Doesn’t he know that we would never reject him, whatever his past? It’s not like we’ve never screwed up.” Gerard said, more thinking out loud than actually asking a question.
“Yes, he knows that. He knows that you guys care and that you’re really friends, but he doesn’t want to risk it. He’s softer than you think.”
There was another silence.
“Anyway, that’s why it would be best if you guys left him to it, at least for the time being. And I didn’t tell you anything, okay? You’re not meant to know.”
“Yeah, sure.” Mikey answered for everyone.
“Okay then. Right then, go and act like nothing happened. I’ll catch up with you later. Beware!”
~*~
“Come on Matt, there’s only a one in four chance that it’ll be you.” Tomo argued.
“Yeah, and it’s not event hat bad a forfeit. Plus, we all promise not to take pictures or anything. Besides, you’ve had the most practise out of all of us. Jared backed him up.
“No.” Matt stubbornly replied. “I am not joining in. Because I will lose, and I do not want to propose to Spencer Smith.”
“Aww, come on Matt!”
“No.”
“Please?”
“I said no!”
Shannon sighed, seeing he would, once again, have to be the voice of reason in the conversation.
“Matt, Spencer’s up for a joke. And, I have your FIFA 2006. If you ever want to see it again, I suggest you play the game, and take the small chance that you might lose.
“…Fine”
“Okay!” cheered Jared, throwing Matt a controller. “Let the Mario Kart Competition commence!”
~*~
The coffee machine in Panic! At The Disco’s dressing room only ever seemed to work for Jon. Whenever Brendon, Spencer or Ryan tried to use it, it would work, but never easily. In Jon’s hands, however, it worked as smoothly as the life saving liquid it produced. Thanks to this, Jon had unofficially got the job of ‘personal coffee maker’. He grumbled about is but he didn’t really mind. It came with the added bonus of being able to control how much coffee the others had, especially Brendon. Jon always had to be careful giving coffee to Brendon because it didn’t take much to get him jumping around like an idiot.
There were other rituals that came with this coffee machine too. Like the order everyone got their coffees in. It always went Ryan, Spencer, Brendon if he was going to have any, and then Jon. This was mainly because the machine only made two cups worth at a time, and Ryan always got the first cup. It was another unspoken agreement that had always just happened. The second cup went to Spencer because putting the machine on a second time gave Jon a chance to work out whether or not he should let Brendon have any. And he always got the last cup because he always made it, and being a gentleman, he thought it was the polite thing to do.
Today was one of the times he wasn’t sure whether or not to give Brendon any. The singer had been a bit energetic for most of the morning, and Jon didn’t fancy him being hyper for the next hour or so. Starting up the machine for Ryan and Spencer, he tried his best to ignore the puppy eyes Brendon was making at him.
When the machine was done he handed Ryan and Spencer their drinks. With one last look at Brendon he had to give in, and he started up the machine for both of them, much to Brendon’s delight.
Collecting his cup, Ryan was hit wit a sudden a sudden urge to be spontaneous and romantic. Smiling, he decided to write a love song for Mikey. He went and sat on the sofa with his notebook and a pen, and started to write. When Spencer walked over and joined him he couldn’t help but grin at how Ryan chewed o the end of his pen when he didn’t know for what to say.
“Whatchya writing?” he enquired. Ryan blushed a little.
“A song for Mikey.” He replied a defensively. Spencer felt himself melt a little.
“That’s so cute Ry!! He’ll love it! Though… you look a little stuck for ideas.”
“Yeah, I’m having a few problems. I wanted to write something about him being like the sun, like is essential for life, you get stuck looking at it even though it’ll blind you, that kind of thing.”
Brendon laughed from the other side of the room.
“Mm hmm, I’m sure he’ll appreciate being compared to a big flaming ball of gas. That could actually be offensive. Very cute idea, but maybe you should go for something else. I don’t know, maybe rain? No, then it’ll sound like you’re calling him wet. Oh, I don’t know. You’re the lyrical genius, I’m sure whatever you do it’ll sound great. Keep writing, he’ll love you even more for it.” With that, Brendon started to drink his coffee, leaving Ryan feeling complimented, offended, and completely unsure of what he though was a great idea just a few moments ago.
“I think it’s a great idea. Ignore him, he wouldn’t know romance if it bit him on the butt.” Spencer said, shooting Brendon a disapproving glance. “So, is this wishful thinking or are you two together now?” He asked.
Ryan blushed a little but smiled happily.
“I'm pretty sure we’re together.”
“Ah! Did Prince Mikey Charming find his beautiful princess, sweep him off his feet, and carry him away to be happy ever after?” Jon teased. Ryan’s blush deepened, but his smile grew.
“Shut up.” He mumbled, pretending to be cross. Jon laughed fondly.
“Aww, I'm happy for you Ry.”
“Thanks Jon.”
“So.” Brendon interrupted. “Just what did you and your prince get up to yesterday? You’ve practically been glowing ever since.”
“Well, some of it is a bit private.” Ryan said, giving Brendon a look almost identical to the one Spencer gave him earlier. “But I can reveal that the blond man that Mikey was with was, in fact, Gerard way. And me and Mikey might have kissed.”
There was a collective ‘aww’ as Brendon, Jon and Spencer all piled together on the sofa to give Ryan a massive group hug. After a minute, however, Jon realised that they were actually suffocating him. He got up and went back to making his and Brendon’s coffees, taking Brendon with him.
“So, that man was Gerard then?” he asked, having just dumped Brendon in a chair and handing him a cup. “I suppose we really should have known that.”
“Yeah.” Ryan replied. “It’s a bit embarrassing. But it’s not like you guys have ever met him.”
“We haven’t met any of My Chemical Romance actually.” Spencer commented.
“Yeah, let’s meet Ryan’s boyfriend!” Brendon shouted.
“Mmm. I’ve only ever met Mikey actually.” Ryan thought out loud. Maybe we should all go bowling together or something.”
“Yay! Bowling!” cheered Brendon, getting up and starting to dance on the spot.
Jon sighed, and shaking his head, took away Brendon’s empty coffee cup.
~*~
“I hate you guys.”
“Aww, Matty, you love us really.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Fine, but you’re stuck in it anyway.”
Matt groaned in protest, wondering why he had agreed to take part in the first place. Why? Why would he play a game where the loser had to do a forfeit when he knew he would lose?
“Yeah, you can complain all you want, but it wont change anything.” Jared smirked. Naturally, he had won the game. “If I were you I’d get it over and done with. Besides,” he laughed. “Spencer is quite good looking.”
Trying not to crack up, he neatly dodged the remote Matt threw at him.
“Matt? Don’t throw the remote. We need that. Use something else if you feel you have to.” Shannon warned.
“Or, even better, you could just go and do the forfeit!” Tomo chipped in. Matt groaned again.
“I’ll do it later.”
“Fine.” Said Shannon. “But you will.”
~*~
“You know, Mikey,” Gerard said, “You still haven’t filled us in on what happened with Ryan yesterday.”
“Ryan?” Ray asked, sitting up a bit straighter on his chair. “Who’s Ryan?”
“Hey Mikey, you better start filling in now.” Frank demanded.
“Wait, you guys don’t know? Oh yeah, I guess I never told you.”
“Well tell us now!”
“Okay, okay. Ryan Ross, the guitarist from Panic! At The Disco. You know him?”
There was a pause as frank and Ray searched their brains.
“Yeah, I think so.” Ray replied.
“No idea.” said Frank.
“Umm… oh, you’ll meet him sometime. Anyway, he and I are kind of together now.”
Ray looked at Mikey expectantly.
“You’re not planning on leaving it there are you?” he asked. “There’s got to be more than that. Come on, spill.”
Mikey grinned.
“Okay, I met Ryan on Sunday, through Jared. He introduced me at Panic! At The Disco, and Ryan was just… amazing. Just to sound clichéd, like love at first sight. He’s gorgeous, blue eyed brunette, funny, and just really nice.
“Yeah, and… well he liked me too. But we didn’t say anything. So on Monday when I was in Starbucks with Gerard, he saw and assumed that we were dating.”
Gerard made an odd noise.
“And how did he figure that one out?” he asked.
“He hasn’t had a great past, it’s made him really pessimistic.” Mikey explained.
“Okay, so what happened yesterday?”
“Well, I met him in Starbucks and we had a talk, I found out that he thought gee and I were dating, and some stuff about why he’s a bit insecure. I told him why me and gee were hugging and stuff. And, to over dramatise, we then declared our undying love for each other and kissed.
“Aww.” Ray cooed. “So cute!”
“Hang on.” Frank interrupted. “Brian’s coming. Grab an instrument!”
Ray and Gerard stopped smiling fondly at Mikey and all four scrambled to pick up their various instruments, Gerard using one of Frank’s spares that he had brought along for backup. When Brian entered, camera in hand, they were playing (and singing) To The End and pretending to be half way through a conversation about he first thing that popped into Gerard’s mind. Sighing, he silently wondered why it had to be 30 Seconds To Mars.
“Guys, you’re being boring. I can film you sitting on the coach and playing almost any day. For God’s sake, you’re on a holiday. Do something different!”
“So, what happened to ‘act like any other normal day’?” Gerard asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I changed my mind.” Brian defended himself. “Anyway, what are you talking about?”
“Oh, 30 Seconds To Mars. We were just saying we should meet up with them sometime.” Ray said, maybe too airily. Brain accepted the answer though.
“30 Seconds To Mars? Are you friends with them or something?”
Mikey look at Gerard and then, smiling, replied.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Gerard sent him a glare to warn him against saying anything else. Mikey just made an innocent face back.
“Then why don’t you go and see them now? That’d be something good to film.” Brian suggested in exasperation. Frank, ever enthusiastic, smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, lets! I wanna see Tomo and Matt again. Let’s go!
“Yeah.” Gerard sighed. “Why not?”
~*~
“Hi guys.” Jared greeted as he opened the door of the 30 Seconds To Mars dressing room and found My Chemical Romance plus manager outside. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Mikey said, realising he would have to take over as spokesperson since Gerard had clammed up and was looking away with his fists clenched and a faint blush on his cheeks. “Umm, do you wanna hang out?”
“Sure.” Jared replied, slightly bemused. “We’re not really doing anything, but if you want to.”
“Thanks.” Mikey smiled gratefully. “Oh yeah, this is Brian.”
“Oh, okay. I'm Jared, hi.”
“Hey.” Brian smiled.
“Come on in then.”
The dressing room was pretty full by the time everyone was inside. Matt, Shannon and Tomo were a bit surprised by the arrival, but soon everyone settled down – Tomo and Ray teaching each other guitar parts and Matt and Bob trying their best to play Guitar Hero II without the proper controls while the others cheered them on.
As Bob failed Heart Shaped Box and the controls were passed over to Frank and Shannon, Mikey took the opportunity to drag Jared off to the other side of the room and have a chat.
“Cheers for this Jared.”
“Not at all, it’s good spending time with you guys. Though I will admit I'm a bit curious. Is this a spontaneous visit and Brian wanted to come too?”
Mikey laughed, a little embarrassed.
“Well, we’d decided we wanted to meet up with you guys, and Brian insisted on coming with his camera. We’re aiming to make another DVD and get some stuff filmed here, but we’re just not interesting enough on our own.” He sighed melodramatically.
Jared snorted and smirked.
“Oh you guys are interesting enough, believe me.” Mikey looked at him closely and frowned.
“I don’t like that knowing look. What does it mean?”
“Well, you guys are quite busy.” Jared replied. “First, your guitarists clearly have something going on.”
“I know! We all know, but they refuse to tell us and we have no proof yet!” Mikey interrupted.
“I walked in on them cuddling yesterday. Believe me; you’ll have your proof soon enough,” smirked Jared.
“I goddamn hope so.”
“Anyway, secondly, there’s the thing you’ve got going on with Ryan. You might not want to agree with me, but that is exceptionally cute and it’s really interesting to watch you two progressing. All the twists and turns, it’s a bit like watching a soap opera. No offence.” Mikey tried to interrupt but Jared ignored him and carried on. “Then there’s that redhead that Bob’s seeing. Jess, isn’t it? I don’t know that much about her though.”
By now Mikey was astounded at Jared’s inside knowledge. Jared smiled. Like all good actors, he delighted in getting a reaction from his audience. He also revelled in creating suspense and saving the best till last.
“And then there’s you and Gerard. Fucking around with each other. I have to admit, that’s the bit I find the most interesting.”
Mikey’s jaw actually dropped in wonder and shock.
“How? H-h-How?” HOW?”
“Don’t worry, I wont tell.” Jared smiled charmingly. “And I don’t think that you’re sick and twisted because of it.”
“No, but how the fuck do you know all that?” Mikey demanded.
“Observation and good listening skills.” Jared said wisely. “And I suppose I'm just naturally talented.”
“Yeah, and ever so modest.” Mikey sarcastically replied, starting to recover.
“Well, my modesty is one of my best features,” smirked Jared. Mikey rolled his eyes.
“Okay, change of subject. How are you getting on with Gerard?”
“Oh, we’re progressing slowly. Your brother really is a challenge, he’s obsessed with denial.”
Mikey smiled and was about to say something back when they got called by Tomo, who had just been playing against Ray.
“Hey Mikey! You and Jared are up next!”
Jared and Mikey rejoined the others, took their controllers, and began to play Madhouse. Mikey ended up wining and Jared shrugged it off good naturedly.
“Okay, I shotgun next turn and then I’m going to get some food.” Matt called.
“Oh no you don’t!” Shannon shot back. “You’re not going anywhere until you’ve done that forfeit. Don’t think I’d forgotten about it.”
“What forfeit?” Frank perked up.
Matt groaned. Shannon smiled.
“Matt here lost a game, so now he has to propose to Spencer Smith of Panic! At The Disco. Don’t you, dear.”
Matt glared at Shannon in reply.
“Hey, go do it now!” said Frank.
“Yeah!” Mikey couldn’t help joining in. “I really want to see this.” Everyone else shouted encouragement until Matt gave in.
“Fine! Fine, I'm going now. Okay?” he reluctantly left the dressing room and picked some daisies that were growing by the door. He arranged them into a small bouquet and then, being closely followed by all the others, made his way over to Panic! At The Disco’s dressing room.
Spencer opened the door. He stopped in shock and shut it again. Closing his eyes and mentally shaking himself, he re-opened the door to make sure that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.
It wasn’t.
Matt Wachter was kneeling down on the grass outside the door, holding a bunch of daisies. Okay.
“Uh, hi.” said Matt.
“Hey.” Spencer replied.
“Who is it Spence?” Jon called from inside the room.
“Matt.” Spencer called back, not taking his eyes off the kneeling bassist.
“Ooh, Matt!” Brendon exclaimed, running up to the door to say hi. Seeing mat, he also froze.
“What’s up?” asked Jon. He and Ryan came to have a look too, and all four band members were clustered around the door, astonished.
“Anyway, can we help you?” asked Spencer.
Matt sighed and gathered all his mental strength, and then launched into the speech that Jared had prepared for him.
“Spencer Smith, you are the reason I'm alive. You make my world turn round. My life is meaningless without you. I love you more than anything else in the world. Will you marry me?
Badly concealed laughter came from behind him where all he others were badly hidden so they could watch. Still, despite their lack of stealth, none of the Panic! members noticed them. They were all too busy staring at Matt. The hiding members of 30 Seconds To Mars and My Chemical Romance waited with baited breath for Spencer’s reaction.
Matt winced as Spencer stepped forwards, hoping against hope that he was not going to become a laughing stock for the next month. Spencer stopped in front of him, and then to his surprise, he knelt down so they were both at the same height. Everyone was shocked by his next words.
“Oh, Matt!” he cried, taking the daises. “Of course I will! You’ve made me the happiest man in the world!” And with that he flung his arms around Matt’s neck in a passionate embrace.
“What? What the fuck?! Ahh, get off!” Matt panicked, struggling to remove Spencer’s arms from his neck as everyone cracked up.
“No, no I mean it, get off!” Matt demanded. Spencer wasn’t about to go anywhere though. He collapsed against Matt, unable to hold himself upright because he was laughing so hard. Matt’s knees buckled under the unexpected dead weight and the two men sprawled out over the floor, Matt being unintentionally pinned down by Spencer, who still couldn’t move.
“That was…” Brian began, coming out of his hiding place. He broke off and laughed, then composed himself and continued. “That was great! We’re definitely putting that on!”
Jared’s laughter doubled.
“You filmed that?” Matt asked in alarm. Brian nodded in response. “What? Jared, you promised!”
“I promised we wouldn’t. I can’t help it if Brian’s camera happy.” Jared laughed in response.
Matt blushed, and then blushed more because he had blushed, which wasn’t a very manly thing to do. Closing his eyes and groaning once again, he wondered just how long it was going to take o live this one down.
After a while everyone calmed down and busied themselves with introductions, delighting in meeting Mikey (Panic! At The Disco), and Ryan (My Chemical Romance). Jared took the chance to lead Gerard off for a little talk.
“Hey, you. Have you been avoiding me?” he asked. Gerard kept his eyes diverted and didn’t reply.
“Now that’s just rude. Look at me when I'm speaking to you, honey.”
Gerard still refused to budge. Jared sighed.
“Look, this can go two ways, but we both know that you’re going to end up doing what I ask, so you can either make it hard or painless. It’s up to you.”
Gerard turned to face Jared, glaring. Jared had to congratulate himself. Okay, so Gerard may be glaring, but to a certain extent he was learning to do as he was told.
“That’s better. Now I can see your pretty face.”
“What do you fucking want anyway?” Gerard scowled.
“Tut, tut, language,” chided Jared.
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you right back if that’s going to be your attitude.”
“You see? You’re such a hypocrite!”
Jared smiled and wrapped his arms around Gerard’s waist, giving him a fond little cuddle.
“Yeah, but that’s why you love me.”
Gerard squirmed out of Jared’s embrace, glowering.
“Don’t!” He looked round to check that no one had been watching. “You are Goddamn lucky that no one saw that.”
“Aww...” Jared was obviously disappointed. “You’re embarrassed to be seen with me? We’ll have to work on that one then. Anyway, I want to see you tomorrow. Meet me up on that hill, just next to this field at 7am.”
“I thought you said it would be suspicious?” said Gerard.
“I think the rest of our band is a bit too preoccupied to notice. And mine already knows. It won’t be a problem.” Jared waved his hand dismissively.
“And what if I don’t want to come?” asked Gerard, feeling as though he was losing his pride, and so becoming defiant. Jared just laughed.
“Say that if you want, but I think we both know you’ll be there. I would repeat details, but you’ve memorised them already, haven’t you? You’re that eager. You can’t stay away.”
Gerard realised, with a surge of humiliation, that Jared had gotten the truth. And that once again, he had lost. There was no point even trying to fight back.
“Whatever.” He mumbled, looking away. He turned on his heel and walked off to join the others, but his mind wandered back to what Jared had said.
‘That’s why you love me.’
And he did. And, he realised, he would have to come to terms with it. Everything he felt, the hidden admiration for the way Jared made everything work to his advantage, the silent jealousy of how Jared didn’t seem to have any flaws, the frustration at how Jared always won. The open hatred that he showed every day was genuine, but it was also a cover up. And it was weakening.
Because he was in love with Jared Leto.
And that’s what disturbed him the most.
~*~
Lunch in the My Chemical Romance coach was an awkward affair. Despite the cheerful talk, there was uncertainty clouding the air. Neither Mikey, Gerard, Ray or Frank were quite sure how to treat Bob now that they knew but weren’t meant to. The conversation was jumpy, and there were embarrassing pauses in between subjects. Frank even ate the pickles in his burger because it didn’t feel right to complain, despite his passionate hatred for the little green things.
Needless to say, everyone was glad when it was over and they left with the camera to return to more normal activities, such as writing music.
“So.” Gerard began the session. “I’ve got some more lyrics that we can put music to, or if you want we can work in a cover of something.”
“I’d quite like to do a cover” said Mikey. “Just for a change. How about some Iron Maiden?”
“Nah, I reckon we should do Dust To Dust.” Ray said.
“Yeah.” Frank agreed. “Mistfits would be good. Or, actually, Black Flag.”
“How about Nervous Breakdown?” suggested Bob. The others all nodded thoughtfully and there was a moment of silence as they all ran through their mental playlists, trying to select the best song to cover.
“Killer Queen.” Gerard eventually said.
“What, by Queen?” Mikey questioned.
“Yeah. Either that or Don’t Stop Me Now. That would be a blast to cover. But I think Killer Queen would be best”
Mikey raised his eyebrows but nodded.
“I think Killer Queen would be good. It would be fun.” Bob spoke up, surprising everyone.
“Well well Bob.” Ray smiled, laughing a little. “I never had you down as a Queen fan.”
“Shut up. We’d do it well, that’s all. I think Gerard’s voice would really work.” Bob defended himself. Luckily he didn’t notice Frank, who was mouthing “His girlfriend likes Queen!” to Ray behind his hand. Ray fought a smile and sent Frank a warning look before speaking.
“Yeah, you’re right. Gerard does suit songs by Queen. And it shouldn’t take me and Frank too long to work out the chords for it. Let’s have a go.
“I’ve got an idea.” Said Mikey “why don’t we ask Tomo and/or Ryan if they want to be in it as well?” he paused, looking closely at Gerard. “And how about Jared, doesn’t he play too?”
Gerard’s relaxed face tightened ever so slightly at the mention of Jared’s name.
“No.” he said. “We did that with Bert and Quinn last time. This time it should jut be a My Chemical Romance thing.”
Bemused, the others agreed and they set to work figuring out their various parts. It didn’t take Bob long to work out the drumming patterns, and Gerard didn’t really have anything to do, so they sat in a corner having a serious looking discussion. Meanwhile, Frank and Ray were having a problem with a few chord changes, and rewound one section of Killer Queen so often that Ray was afraid his laptop would break. Mikey was absorbed in his work, slowly and quietly plugging away at his bass. After a while he was done too, and putting his bass away, he joined Gerard and Bob. Thy broke off their conversation and Gerard looked up, eyes gleaming.
“You done then Mikes?”
Mikey nodded self satisfactorily.
“Good.” Grabbing the camera from next to his chair, he sized the chance he had been waiting for and jumped up.
“Hey Ray, Frank, d’ya mind if we go and film some of the dressing rooms and where the stage was?” he called.
“Sure.” Replied Ray. “We’ve got most if the chords; we’re just working on the timing. We shouldn’t be too long.”
“Awesome!” Gerard, Mikey and Bob quickly left, but instead of going off to the empty field where the stage ad been and clowning around, they sat down against the side of the coach, making sure that they weren’t visible
“So what now?” Mikey whispered, well aware that Gerard had opened the window above them before they left. And while this meant that they could hear Frank and Ray, it also meant that thy Frank and Ray could hear them.
“Well, we can either wait here and until something happens and say that we didn’t get anything filmed, or we can go and film something really quickly and then we can just hope that we didn’t miss anything.” Gerard whispered back.
“You know, I think we should all go and film some stuff, then come back.” Mikey said as quietly as he could. “That way we’re covered if they ask us what we got. And if they’re going to do anything, it won’t be for a while anyway.”
“Yeah, I agree with Mikey.” Bob hissed.
“Okay then.” Gerard said, in his normal voice now that they were actually going to do what they had told Ray and Frank, so they didn’t have to worry about being overheard. “Let’s go!”
Mikey had unofficially become the ‘camera man’. He stood at the side of the field and filmed as Gerard shamelessly threw himself around, singing into a pretend microphone and playing air guitar. Bob stood a little behind him, looking awkward.
“Come on Bob, have fun!” Gerard yelled. He ran over to Bob and jumped on his back. Bob staggered around, adjusting himself to giving Gerard a piggyback.
“Giddy up!”
Bob couldn’t help smiling. Abandoning his tough guy show, he let the rare inner child take over and charged around the field pretending to be a bull. After a while of feeling left out, Mikey set the camera on the ground and joined in the fun.
Meanwhile, Ray and Frank had finished working out their playing and were just ironing out their performance. They finished their run through and looked up, satisfied with their work.
“Think we deserve a break now, huh?” Ray smiled.
“Definitely. Don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted from the stress of the day. And from not getting enough sleep this morning.” Frank’s sentence started out sarcastic and jokey, but it finished in an accusing tone. Ray sighed.
“Don’t keep dragging that up, it’s not fair. When you’re like that it doesn’t give me a lot of option. You make me feel like a boring old man.” Ray complained.
“Aww, don’t worry Ray, I forgive you for it.” Frank made the most of having the chance to be the one being patronising instead of patronised for a change. “And as for you being a boring old man, well, you may be old-” Ray snorted in offence “- but you’re certainly not boring.”
“Yeah, and don’t you know it.” Ray smirked. Frank put his guitar down and squeezed onto the seat with Ray, usually he hated being small, but it sometimes had its advantages, snuggling closer to Ray, he smiled happily. Ray laid his guitar to the side and put an arm round Frank, placing a gentle kiss on the younger guitarist’s dark hair.
“Love you Frank.”
“Love you too Ray.”
They stayed like that for a while, just taking comfort in the other’s presence and affection, until Ray decided to bring up a long standing argument that they continued mainly for amusement.
“I still know that my guitar is better than yours.”
“No way!” Frank shot to his guitar’s defence straight away. “Your Gibson can never match up to Texas!”
“It’s way cooler.”
“Nuh-uh” Frank jumped up and picked his guitar up by the neck. Unfortunately, in his excitement, he gripped it too tight, at an odd angle, and put fatal pressure on the E string. With a resounding ‘ping!’ it came loose and flew off, scratching Frank’s hand on it’s way.
“Ow!” Frank cried, more because he was surprised than because it hurt. Ray burst out laughing.
“Are you still sure that yours is better than mine? ‘Cos at the moment it’s not looking so great.”
“Oh, shut up.” Said Frank, as he looked at the broken string in despair. “Don’t worry Texas, I’ll fix you right away.” He gave the guitar a reassuring pat and turned to Ray, who was still laughing. “Hey, can you chuck me the spare E string from my case?”
“Sure.” Chuckled Ray, fishing around in Frank’s guitar case, finding the string packet and throwing it to the distressed younger man. “Do you need any help with that or can you do it all by yourself like a big boy?”
Frank spent a few seconds struggling to undo the tight seal on the packet before replying.
“Just get your butt over here and help.”
Bob had to be the most relaxed Mikey had seen him in a long time. He had let himself go, and they had all been messing around like young children that had been given sugar. When Gerard eventually looked at his watch and declared that they should probably head back if they wanted to catch anything, they were all reluctant to leave.
Flushed from laughing and running about, Bob felt strangely loose. As Gerard and Mikey chatted, he kept thinking about the conversation he’d had with Gerard earlier. Gerard had said that whatever Bob wanted to keep private was fine with all of the other members and they respected his decisions. He had also assured Bob that if he ever wanted to tell them anything, they would listen and keep it strictly confidential.
Although a little voice in his head was asking why Gerard had chosen that time to say something, he pushed it out the way and measured up the pros and cons of telling his friends. On the plus side, he wouldn’t have to worry about covering all his tracks all the time. On the negative side, he might get kicked out if something bad happened between jess and his bandmates, even though he knew deep down that it wouldn’t.
It might be because it was the first time in a long while that he had allowed himself too be properly happy, but for some reason today the pessimistic voice in this head that usually dictated what he did concerning relationships wasn’t being as loud today. It was still there, nagging away but Bob could ignore it for a change.
“Will you guys still be my friends, whatever?” he randomly asked.
“Of course.” Mikey replied, breaking away from his chatter with Gerard.
“We’ll be there for you and love you no matter what has or will ever happen.” promised Gerard. Mikey got the distinct feeling that his brother had been expecting Bob to say something similar to what he had and had prepared his answer. Still, he had said what Bob wanted to hear, and the drummer retired back into his thoughts.
When hey got back to the coach they became silent and hid against the side, underneath the open window. Gerard listened carefully to what was happening inside and his eyes widened in a mixture of shock and disbelief.
“Hang on, can you just… yeah that’s good.” Frank’s voice came through. There as a short time of silence and then, “Oh, come on Ray, don’t be so slow!”
“This is as fast as my hand goes, Frankie.”
Mikey withdrew his ear from the side of the coach in astonishment.
“You don’t think…” he whispered.
“I think we may have hit jackpot.” breathed Gerard. “Come on, let’s go in. and don’t act like we’ve been listening, just be like any other normal time.”
As they entered, however, their excitement quickly disappeared. Frank and Ray were crouched over a guitar that could vaguely be recognised as Frank’s Texas, and they were changing a string.
“Still can’t change your own strings yet huh?” Gerard smirked, but he had to work to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
Frank pouted and went back to changing the string. Gerard, Bob and Mikey looked at each other, feeling deflated. Maybe this was going to take longer than they thought.
~*~
Ryan and Spencer were sitting in their motel room chatting about nothing when they were disrupted by a sudden low quality rendition of ‘Macho Man’. After taking a second to get over the shock, Ryan realised that it was, in fact, his mobile.
Cringing at the dodgy ringtone and resolving never to let Brendon near his phone again, Ryan got up to answer the call, but realised he didn’t know where his mobile actually was. He followed the direction of the noise to the pile of bags in the corner which held all of his stuff. Ryan groaned in disbelief as he wondered how he could’ve forgotten to take the phone out of what ever clothes he had been wearing when he used it last. Now he had to find it amongst all his clothes, and got knows how long that would take.
A while and two bags of clothes later, Ryan had found his phone in the pocket of one of his numerous pair of trousers. He fished it out triumphantly and turned to grin at Spencer. His grin sagged a little when he saw the mess he had made by spewing his clothes around the place. He threw his phone on the nearest bed and scrambled to pick up his red waistcoat with velvet roses on it, which was in a rumpled pile on the floor
“Damn, this get messed up so easily! And I spent ages trying to fold this so it wouldn’t crease!” he said in frustration as he frantically began to smooth out the wrinkles that had appeared in the fabric.
Spencer sighed.
“Ryan, you’re panicking too much. They’re only clothes. Look, I’ll help you pack your stuff back up, and then you can check your phone and hope that the poor person trying to call you left a message.”
With Spencer’s help, everything was soon back to normal, and they sat down on the sofa to check Ryan’s mobile. Turning on the loudspeaker setting, Ryan dialled the voicemail number. It rang a few times before a smooth female voice answered.
“Welcome to the Virgin network answer messaging service. You have one new message. To hear he message, please press one. To go to the main menu, press two.”
Ryan pressed the one button and a voice began to speak. It was fuzzy and hard to make out, only just recognisable as a male’s.
“Hello Ryan, this is Bill. It’s been ages since I saw you last. I hope you’re having a good time. I am, but I miss you. We’re definitely going to meet up sometime. Call me back with when you’re free, and I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
There was a beep and the message finished. Ryan and Spencer both stared at the mobile, shell shocked. Ryan turned to Spencer, alarm clear in his face.
“Bill? No, it can’t be Bill. He – he’s with The Academy Is… on a tour now. He… it just can’t be him. Oh, god, what if it is? I don’t want… I don’t….”
“Shhh.” Spencer soothed, giving Ryan a reassuring hug. “I'm sure it’s just someone playing a practical joke.”
“It’s not funny!”
“I know, trust me. But don’t worry. I’m sure it’s not him. The voice was all messed up, its got to be someone pretending so you couldn’t tell it was them.”
“But…” Ryan stuttered, still in distress. “But was…was it him? It could’ve been him. You don’t know him, he would have easily done that!”
“Ryan.” Spencer gave his friend a little squeeze. “Relax. Someone decided to pull a prank on you. And sure, it was a sick thing to do, but it’s not Bill, he’s not coming back ever again. And if he dares to even try, I will kill him.”
Those were unusually strong words to be coming from Spencer’s mouth but they reassured Ryan. His worried shaking died away and he hugged Spencer tightly back, letting a few tears that he hadn’t even noticed gathering in his eyes fall.
“It’s okay.”
~*~
Mikey was beginning to doubt his skills as a prankster. Over the course of the afternoon he, Bob and Gerard had tries every single thing they cold think of to, but nothing had worked. They had even come close to being discovered, but thankfully Frank had taken that moment to become excited by a butterfly that was fluttering around on a nearby bush. Mikey thanked the creature solemnly for its rare winter appearance and saving their skin, but it still left the problem that they were out of ideas. In an uncharacteristic move, they decided to leave it for the day.
Frank and Ray just didn’t seem to want to be caught out. In fact, if he didn’t know better, Mikey would swear that someone had tipped them off. Either that or they were just naturally controlled and elusive beyond measure.
Gerard was feeling the same. Their fruitless efforts had left him really quite pissed off, but as usual he hid it and hoped that no one would notice.
Bob seemed to be the only one who wasn’t too fussed about the whole thing, but then he had been acting distantly and distractedly for most of the day.
They wound up playing Killer Queen all together in the coach. It was awful at first, but after a few attempts it was slowly and progressively clicking into place. They gave it one more run through, and then called it a day. Gerard, Mikey and Bob stood up to leave.
“Hey guys, me and Frank’ll catch you up, okay?” Ray called.
“Sure, whatever. We’ll be in the dressing room.” Replied Gerard. “Oh, Bob, seeing as the camera’s right next to you, could you make sure it’s turned off?”
“Maybe I should…”Mikey began, moving towards the camera. He stopped when Bob glared at him.
“I can do it.” He fiddled with the buttons until it made a little beep and fell silent. Mikey cast a doubtful glance at the camera, but he shrugged and left it. With a cheerful ‘See ya!’ he, Bob and Gerard left.
Frank looked at Ray, slightly confused.
“Did you want to tell me something or…something? I don’t get it.”
“No.” smiled Ray. “We’ve just not had much quality time today, since the others have been pretty much stalking us.”
“Quality time?” asked Frank, smirking slightly.
“Oh, shush, you.” Standing, Ryan grabbed Frank hand and pulled him up too, then pushed him over to the side of the coach and began to attack his mouth. Frank gave a tiny moan and kissed back hungrily, burying his hands into Ray’s afro.
Off in their own little world, they were too absorbed in each other to notice a quiet beep as the camera came out of the two minute standby that Bob had accidentally set it to, and turned itself back on to filming mode.
Unseen by the two men, it whirred on.
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Woah. That has to be the longest piece of writing I’ve ever done. Sorry it took ages, I really didn’t mean for it to come out quite this long! Thanks to mychemicaldream0201 for the comment, you made me get myself in gear and finish. Right, hope you like this one, please read and review!
P.S. I don’t actually know if Ryan is on Virgin, I just made it up.
Beta’d by Michiko
Also, she gets the dedication for this chapter, since she is amazing and I love her writing. Go and read it, you fools!!
Disclaimer: I don’t own the artists or the music. Just the storyline, which is mostly mine, apart from the bit by xXemoxninjaXx
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Ray had always been a light sleeper and he could get by on not much sleep. He knew from experience that when you’re asleep if when people are most likely to try and pull a prank on you, like writing I LIKE MEN on your face in permanent marker, or putting a dirty magazine in your hand and taking a picture then passing it round. So over the years Ray had learnt to sleep enough to get rest, and still be conscious enough to realise what was going on around him.
Frank, on the other hand, needed his sleep. He could get by for a few days without it, living on coffee, cigarettes and sugar (and as a result of that being extremely hyper and annoying most of the band) but eventually he would come crashing down. At times like these he would sleep for about twenty four hours straight, completely out of it. Gradually that’s what his sleeping pattern grew to be – just a few hours of sleep but completely zoned out. It took a lot to wake him up, and he was never happy when he was.
So that’s why he was not pleased when he was rudely awakened by Gerard and Mikey crashing through his door, armed with a video camera.
Here’s Ray and Frank’s room.” Gerard grinned at the camera, which was being held by Mikey. “Come on guys, get up!”
This wake up call was lost on Ray, who had woken up as soon as they had entered. He stretched, and then was magically fully alert. Giving a smile and a nod to the camera, he walked over to Frank’s bed and shook the bleary eyed man’s shoulder gently.
Frank gave a tired moan of complaint and swatted lazily at Ray’s hand, burying his head down underneath his covers.
“G’wayI’msleepingyoubasterd”
“Frankie, they’ve got the camera. You have to get up and say hi.”
“Tell’m’tofuckoff” Frank grumbled.
Ray turned to the camera with an apologetic grin.
“Sorry about this. As you may be able to see, Frank’s not a morning person.” He looked up at Mikey. “Give it ten minutes, I’ll get him up.”
Gerard and Mikey looked at each other, obviously disappointed, and Gerard looked like he was about to protest, but Mikey herded him out the door.
Ray had another go at shaking the quilted lump that was Frank, but he got no response. Smiling fondly and shaking his head, he realised that he’s have to go to extremes. Hoping that Frank wouldn’t kill him for it later, he gritted his teeth and pulled the duvet off Frank’s bed. Bracing himself, he retreated to the sofa and waited for the inevitable. Frank twitched as the cold morning air hit him. He mumbled inaudible curses as he solely came to. Consciousness finally hit him and he sat bolt upright, lashing out with his arms.
“RAYYOUSONOFABITCH!”
When Frank had stopped flailing his arms, Ray cautiously approached his bed.
“Frankie? Time to get up, or Mikey and Gerard are gonna get all stroppy.”
Frank huffed moodily and turned over so he was facing away from Ray.
“Look, I'm sorry. But it was the only way to get you up.” Ray pleaded.
“You know I hate it when anyone does that.”
“I know, I'm sorry.”
Ray walked round to the other side of the bed so he could see Ray’s face. Frank glowered and turned over again.
“Fine.” Sighed Ray. “If you’re not going to co-operate, I see what I have to do.” He climbed onto Frank’s bed and sat on the younger man’s legs so that Frank was stuck in a position facing forwards.
“Look, I'm sorry Frankie baby, but you’ve gotta get up.” Ray made his best puppy face. Frank had to laugh at just how ridiculous it was.
“Okay, okay, I'm getting up. But Ray, no pulling off the covers ever again, all right?
“All right.” Ray promised. He gave Frank a small kiss on the nose and stood up. “Now, up.”
~*~
“Mikey, why did we have to go?” Gerard complained. “I bet we’re missing out on something right now!”
“Oh, grow up Gee. There’s gonna be loads of other opportunities today, and besides, if we follow them around all day they’ll get suspicious. Trust me. And anyway, Brian wants us too meet up in the coach at nine and it’s five to.” Mikey said.
Brain and Bob were already in the coach when Gerard and Mikey arrived.
“Oh good, you’ve brought the camera. Cheers Mikey.” Brian greeted them.
“Morning, Brian.” said Gerard.
Brian smirked at him.
“Yes, Gerard. You really are big on being polite, aren’t you? Anyway, Bob and I were talking about what we’re doing filming-wise today. I recon that if I’ve got the camera and you guys go around like normal, I’ll just get random bits every now and then.”
“That sounds great.” Ray said as he and Frank came through the door.
“Hi guys!” Gerard smiled, sending a purposeful look towards Brian, who shrugged it off and rolled his eyes.
“Hey.” Frank and Ray both replied.
“Hang on Brian.” Mikey cut through the greetings. “Does that mean we’re not getting a go with the camera?”
“Yeah, it would. But if you want to have a go, then how about I’ll do some filming in the morning and you can have the camera for the afternoon and evening, and then we’ll edit tomorrow?”
“Cool.” Agreed Mikey.
“Okay, we’re all sorted. So let’s give Brian the camera and go, yeah?” said Bob.
“And where are you so eager to get to, huh?” Gerard asked, eyebrows raised.
“Could it be anything to do with a certain Jess?” Enquired Ray.
“It so is.” Grinned Frank. “Come on guys, let’s go and see Bob’s girlfriend!”
“Guys.” Brian softly reprimanded them. Everyone shut up and looked at him. “Leave it.” He gave Bob an encouraging smile. “We’ll meet up here at one to have lunch and do a camera swap. Go have fun.”
Bob’s highly pissed off glare softened slightly at Brian’s words. He gave a small smile and a grateful nod, then left. Mikey pulled a confused face.
“Brian, is there something we’re all missing?”
Brian struggled with himself for a minute.
“Okay, Bob asked me not to tell anyone, so you can’t go around saying anything. And I'm only saying this to you because I think it will help you as a band and as friends, yeah?”
They all nodded.
“Bob was abused by his last girlfriend. This is before he joined the band. Ages ago. Anyway, he told his friends and they just laughed at him for being weak and getting beaten up by a girl. Then they told her that he had told them, and she beat him up even worse than before.
“Another time he had a girlfriend and his friends didn’t like her, it was the whole ‘us or her thing’. He chose his friends, and lost the girl he loved.”
Frank made to interrupt, but Brian held up a hand to stop him.
“I know that you’re his friends now, and you wouldn’t ever even think about doing that to him. But mixing up friendships and relationships hasn’t served him well in the past, so he’s trying to keep the two groups separate.”
A sombre silence hung in the air as Gerard, Mikey, Ray and Frank processed what they’d been told.
“But, Bob?” Ray eventually questioned. “Just, he’s the last person I’d expect this to happen to. He’s the strong one, he’s like our rock. He’s the one who refuses to take any crap.”
“That’s what he wants you to think. He doesn’t want to come across as weak because he’s been rejected for it before. That’s why he gets angry instead of upset.” Brian explained.
“But we wouldn’t…. why didn’t he tell us? Doesn’t he know that we would never reject him, whatever his past? It’s not like we’ve never screwed up.” Gerard said, more thinking out loud than actually asking a question.
“Yes, he knows that. He knows that you guys care and that you’re really friends, but he doesn’t want to risk it. He’s softer than you think.”
There was another silence.
“Anyway, that’s why it would be best if you guys left him to it, at least for the time being. And I didn’t tell you anything, okay? You’re not meant to know.”
“Yeah, sure.” Mikey answered for everyone.
“Okay then. Right then, go and act like nothing happened. I’ll catch up with you later. Beware!”
~*~
“Come on Matt, there’s only a one in four chance that it’ll be you.” Tomo argued.
“Yeah, and it’s not event hat bad a forfeit. Plus, we all promise not to take pictures or anything. Besides, you’ve had the most practise out of all of us. Jared backed him up.
“No.” Matt stubbornly replied. “I am not joining in. Because I will lose, and I do not want to propose to Spencer Smith.”
“Aww, come on Matt!”
“No.”
“Please?”
“I said no!”
Shannon sighed, seeing he would, once again, have to be the voice of reason in the conversation.
“Matt, Spencer’s up for a joke. And, I have your FIFA 2006. If you ever want to see it again, I suggest you play the game, and take the small chance that you might lose.
“…Fine”
“Okay!” cheered Jared, throwing Matt a controller. “Let the Mario Kart Competition commence!”
~*~
The coffee machine in Panic! At The Disco’s dressing room only ever seemed to work for Jon. Whenever Brendon, Spencer or Ryan tried to use it, it would work, but never easily. In Jon’s hands, however, it worked as smoothly as the life saving liquid it produced. Thanks to this, Jon had unofficially got the job of ‘personal coffee maker’. He grumbled about is but he didn’t really mind. It came with the added bonus of being able to control how much coffee the others had, especially Brendon. Jon always had to be careful giving coffee to Brendon because it didn’t take much to get him jumping around like an idiot.
There were other rituals that came with this coffee machine too. Like the order everyone got their coffees in. It always went Ryan, Spencer, Brendon if he was going to have any, and then Jon. This was mainly because the machine only made two cups worth at a time, and Ryan always got the first cup. It was another unspoken agreement that had always just happened. The second cup went to Spencer because putting the machine on a second time gave Jon a chance to work out whether or not he should let Brendon have any. And he always got the last cup because he always made it, and being a gentleman, he thought it was the polite thing to do.
Today was one of the times he wasn’t sure whether or not to give Brendon any. The singer had been a bit energetic for most of the morning, and Jon didn’t fancy him being hyper for the next hour or so. Starting up the machine for Ryan and Spencer, he tried his best to ignore the puppy eyes Brendon was making at him.
When the machine was done he handed Ryan and Spencer their drinks. With one last look at Brendon he had to give in, and he started up the machine for both of them, much to Brendon’s delight.
Collecting his cup, Ryan was hit wit a sudden a sudden urge to be spontaneous and romantic. Smiling, he decided to write a love song for Mikey. He went and sat on the sofa with his notebook and a pen, and started to write. When Spencer walked over and joined him he couldn’t help but grin at how Ryan chewed o the end of his pen when he didn’t know for what to say.
“Whatchya writing?” he enquired. Ryan blushed a little.
“A song for Mikey.” He replied a defensively. Spencer felt himself melt a little.
“That’s so cute Ry!! He’ll love it! Though… you look a little stuck for ideas.”
“Yeah, I’m having a few problems. I wanted to write something about him being like the sun, like is essential for life, you get stuck looking at it even though it’ll blind you, that kind of thing.”
Brendon laughed from the other side of the room.
“Mm hmm, I’m sure he’ll appreciate being compared to a big flaming ball of gas. That could actually be offensive. Very cute idea, but maybe you should go for something else. I don’t know, maybe rain? No, then it’ll sound like you’re calling him wet. Oh, I don’t know. You’re the lyrical genius, I’m sure whatever you do it’ll sound great. Keep writing, he’ll love you even more for it.” With that, Brendon started to drink his coffee, leaving Ryan feeling complimented, offended, and completely unsure of what he though was a great idea just a few moments ago.
“I think it’s a great idea. Ignore him, he wouldn’t know romance if it bit him on the butt.” Spencer said, shooting Brendon a disapproving glance. “So, is this wishful thinking or are you two together now?” He asked.
Ryan blushed a little but smiled happily.
“I'm pretty sure we’re together.”
“Ah! Did Prince Mikey Charming find his beautiful princess, sweep him off his feet, and carry him away to be happy ever after?” Jon teased. Ryan’s blush deepened, but his smile grew.
“Shut up.” He mumbled, pretending to be cross. Jon laughed fondly.
“Aww, I'm happy for you Ry.”
“Thanks Jon.”
“So.” Brendon interrupted. “Just what did you and your prince get up to yesterday? You’ve practically been glowing ever since.”
“Well, some of it is a bit private.” Ryan said, giving Brendon a look almost identical to the one Spencer gave him earlier. “But I can reveal that the blond man that Mikey was with was, in fact, Gerard way. And me and Mikey might have kissed.”
There was a collective ‘aww’ as Brendon, Jon and Spencer all piled together on the sofa to give Ryan a massive group hug. After a minute, however, Jon realised that they were actually suffocating him. He got up and went back to making his and Brendon’s coffees, taking Brendon with him.
“So, that man was Gerard then?” he asked, having just dumped Brendon in a chair and handing him a cup. “I suppose we really should have known that.”
“Yeah.” Ryan replied. “It’s a bit embarrassing. But it’s not like you guys have ever met him.”
“We haven’t met any of My Chemical Romance actually.” Spencer commented.
“Yeah, let’s meet Ryan’s boyfriend!” Brendon shouted.
“Mmm. I’ve only ever met Mikey actually.” Ryan thought out loud. Maybe we should all go bowling together or something.”
“Yay! Bowling!” cheered Brendon, getting up and starting to dance on the spot.
Jon sighed, and shaking his head, took away Brendon’s empty coffee cup.
~*~
“I hate you guys.”
“Aww, Matty, you love us really.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Fine, but you’re stuck in it anyway.”
Matt groaned in protest, wondering why he had agreed to take part in the first place. Why? Why would he play a game where the loser had to do a forfeit when he knew he would lose?
“Yeah, you can complain all you want, but it wont change anything.” Jared smirked. Naturally, he had won the game. “If I were you I’d get it over and done with. Besides,” he laughed. “Spencer is quite good looking.”
Trying not to crack up, he neatly dodged the remote Matt threw at him.
“Matt? Don’t throw the remote. We need that. Use something else if you feel you have to.” Shannon warned.
“Or, even better, you could just go and do the forfeit!” Tomo chipped in. Matt groaned again.
“I’ll do it later.”
“Fine.” Said Shannon. “But you will.”
~*~
“You know, Mikey,” Gerard said, “You still haven’t filled us in on what happened with Ryan yesterday.”
“Ryan?” Ray asked, sitting up a bit straighter on his chair. “Who’s Ryan?”
“Hey Mikey, you better start filling in now.” Frank demanded.
“Wait, you guys don’t know? Oh yeah, I guess I never told you.”
“Well tell us now!”
“Okay, okay. Ryan Ross, the guitarist from Panic! At The Disco. You know him?”
There was a pause as frank and Ray searched their brains.
“Yeah, I think so.” Ray replied.
“No idea.” said Frank.
“Umm… oh, you’ll meet him sometime. Anyway, he and I are kind of together now.”
Ray looked at Mikey expectantly.
“You’re not planning on leaving it there are you?” he asked. “There’s got to be more than that. Come on, spill.”
Mikey grinned.
“Okay, I met Ryan on Sunday, through Jared. He introduced me at Panic! At The Disco, and Ryan was just… amazing. Just to sound clichéd, like love at first sight. He’s gorgeous, blue eyed brunette, funny, and just really nice.
“Yeah, and… well he liked me too. But we didn’t say anything. So on Monday when I was in Starbucks with Gerard, he saw and assumed that we were dating.”
Gerard made an odd noise.
“And how did he figure that one out?” he asked.
“He hasn’t had a great past, it’s made him really pessimistic.” Mikey explained.
“Okay, so what happened yesterday?”
“Well, I met him in Starbucks and we had a talk, I found out that he thought gee and I were dating, and some stuff about why he’s a bit insecure. I told him why me and gee were hugging and stuff. And, to over dramatise, we then declared our undying love for each other and kissed.
“Aww.” Ray cooed. “So cute!”
“Hang on.” Frank interrupted. “Brian’s coming. Grab an instrument!”
Ray and Gerard stopped smiling fondly at Mikey and all four scrambled to pick up their various instruments, Gerard using one of Frank’s spares that he had brought along for backup. When Brian entered, camera in hand, they were playing (and singing) To The End and pretending to be half way through a conversation about he first thing that popped into Gerard’s mind. Sighing, he silently wondered why it had to be 30 Seconds To Mars.
“Guys, you’re being boring. I can film you sitting on the coach and playing almost any day. For God’s sake, you’re on a holiday. Do something different!”
“So, what happened to ‘act like any other normal day’?” Gerard asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I changed my mind.” Brian defended himself. “Anyway, what are you talking about?”
“Oh, 30 Seconds To Mars. We were just saying we should meet up with them sometime.” Ray said, maybe too airily. Brain accepted the answer though.
“30 Seconds To Mars? Are you friends with them or something?”
Mikey look at Gerard and then, smiling, replied.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
Gerard sent him a glare to warn him against saying anything else. Mikey just made an innocent face back.
“Then why don’t you go and see them now? That’d be something good to film.” Brian suggested in exasperation. Frank, ever enthusiastic, smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, lets! I wanna see Tomo and Matt again. Let’s go!
“Yeah.” Gerard sighed. “Why not?”
~*~
“Hi guys.” Jared greeted as he opened the door of the 30 Seconds To Mars dressing room and found My Chemical Romance plus manager outside. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Mikey said, realising he would have to take over as spokesperson since Gerard had clammed up and was looking away with his fists clenched and a faint blush on his cheeks. “Umm, do you wanna hang out?”
“Sure.” Jared replied, slightly bemused. “We’re not really doing anything, but if you want to.”
“Thanks.” Mikey smiled gratefully. “Oh yeah, this is Brian.”
“Oh, okay. I'm Jared, hi.”
“Hey.” Brian smiled.
“Come on in then.”
The dressing room was pretty full by the time everyone was inside. Matt, Shannon and Tomo were a bit surprised by the arrival, but soon everyone settled down – Tomo and Ray teaching each other guitar parts and Matt and Bob trying their best to play Guitar Hero II without the proper controls while the others cheered them on.
As Bob failed Heart Shaped Box and the controls were passed over to Frank and Shannon, Mikey took the opportunity to drag Jared off to the other side of the room and have a chat.
“Cheers for this Jared.”
“Not at all, it’s good spending time with you guys. Though I will admit I'm a bit curious. Is this a spontaneous visit and Brian wanted to come too?”
Mikey laughed, a little embarrassed.
“Well, we’d decided we wanted to meet up with you guys, and Brian insisted on coming with his camera. We’re aiming to make another DVD and get some stuff filmed here, but we’re just not interesting enough on our own.” He sighed melodramatically.
Jared snorted and smirked.
“Oh you guys are interesting enough, believe me.” Mikey looked at him closely and frowned.
“I don’t like that knowing look. What does it mean?”
“Well, you guys are quite busy.” Jared replied. “First, your guitarists clearly have something going on.”
“I know! We all know, but they refuse to tell us and we have no proof yet!” Mikey interrupted.
“I walked in on them cuddling yesterday. Believe me; you’ll have your proof soon enough,” smirked Jared.
“I goddamn hope so.”
“Anyway, secondly, there’s the thing you’ve got going on with Ryan. You might not want to agree with me, but that is exceptionally cute and it’s really interesting to watch you two progressing. All the twists and turns, it’s a bit like watching a soap opera. No offence.” Mikey tried to interrupt but Jared ignored him and carried on. “Then there’s that redhead that Bob’s seeing. Jess, isn’t it? I don’t know that much about her though.”
By now Mikey was astounded at Jared’s inside knowledge. Jared smiled. Like all good actors, he delighted in getting a reaction from his audience. He also revelled in creating suspense and saving the best till last.
“And then there’s you and Gerard. Fucking around with each other. I have to admit, that’s the bit I find the most interesting.”
Mikey’s jaw actually dropped in wonder and shock.
“How? H-h-How?” HOW?”
“Don’t worry, I wont tell.” Jared smiled charmingly. “And I don’t think that you’re sick and twisted because of it.”
“No, but how the fuck do you know all that?” Mikey demanded.
“Observation and good listening skills.” Jared said wisely. “And I suppose I'm just naturally talented.”
“Yeah, and ever so modest.” Mikey sarcastically replied, starting to recover.
“Well, my modesty is one of my best features,” smirked Jared. Mikey rolled his eyes.
“Okay, change of subject. How are you getting on with Gerard?”
“Oh, we’re progressing slowly. Your brother really is a challenge, he’s obsessed with denial.”
Mikey smiled and was about to say something back when they got called by Tomo, who had just been playing against Ray.
“Hey Mikey! You and Jared are up next!”
Jared and Mikey rejoined the others, took their controllers, and began to play Madhouse. Mikey ended up wining and Jared shrugged it off good naturedly.
“Okay, I shotgun next turn and then I’m going to get some food.” Matt called.
“Oh no you don’t!” Shannon shot back. “You’re not going anywhere until you’ve done that forfeit. Don’t think I’d forgotten about it.”
“What forfeit?” Frank perked up.
Matt groaned. Shannon smiled.
“Matt here lost a game, so now he has to propose to Spencer Smith of Panic! At The Disco. Don’t you, dear.”
Matt glared at Shannon in reply.
“Hey, go do it now!” said Frank.
“Yeah!” Mikey couldn’t help joining in. “I really want to see this.” Everyone else shouted encouragement until Matt gave in.
“Fine! Fine, I'm going now. Okay?” he reluctantly left the dressing room and picked some daisies that were growing by the door. He arranged them into a small bouquet and then, being closely followed by all the others, made his way over to Panic! At The Disco’s dressing room.
Spencer opened the door. He stopped in shock and shut it again. Closing his eyes and mentally shaking himself, he re-opened the door to make sure that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.
It wasn’t.
Matt Wachter was kneeling down on the grass outside the door, holding a bunch of daisies. Okay.
“Uh, hi.” said Matt.
“Hey.” Spencer replied.
“Who is it Spence?” Jon called from inside the room.
“Matt.” Spencer called back, not taking his eyes off the kneeling bassist.
“Ooh, Matt!” Brendon exclaimed, running up to the door to say hi. Seeing mat, he also froze.
“What’s up?” asked Jon. He and Ryan came to have a look too, and all four band members were clustered around the door, astonished.
“Anyway, can we help you?” asked Spencer.
Matt sighed and gathered all his mental strength, and then launched into the speech that Jared had prepared for him.
“Spencer Smith, you are the reason I'm alive. You make my world turn round. My life is meaningless without you. I love you more than anything else in the world. Will you marry me?
Badly concealed laughter came from behind him where all he others were badly hidden so they could watch. Still, despite their lack of stealth, none of the Panic! members noticed them. They were all too busy staring at Matt. The hiding members of 30 Seconds To Mars and My Chemical Romance waited with baited breath for Spencer’s reaction.
Matt winced as Spencer stepped forwards, hoping against hope that he was not going to become a laughing stock for the next month. Spencer stopped in front of him, and then to his surprise, he knelt down so they were both at the same height. Everyone was shocked by his next words.
“Oh, Matt!” he cried, taking the daises. “Of course I will! You’ve made me the happiest man in the world!” And with that he flung his arms around Matt’s neck in a passionate embrace.
“What? What the fuck?! Ahh, get off!” Matt panicked, struggling to remove Spencer’s arms from his neck as everyone cracked up.
“No, no I mean it, get off!” Matt demanded. Spencer wasn’t about to go anywhere though. He collapsed against Matt, unable to hold himself upright because he was laughing so hard. Matt’s knees buckled under the unexpected dead weight and the two men sprawled out over the floor, Matt being unintentionally pinned down by Spencer, who still couldn’t move.
“That was…” Brian began, coming out of his hiding place. He broke off and laughed, then composed himself and continued. “That was great! We’re definitely putting that on!”
Jared’s laughter doubled.
“You filmed that?” Matt asked in alarm. Brian nodded in response. “What? Jared, you promised!”
“I promised we wouldn’t. I can’t help it if Brian’s camera happy.” Jared laughed in response.
Matt blushed, and then blushed more because he had blushed, which wasn’t a very manly thing to do. Closing his eyes and groaning once again, he wondered just how long it was going to take o live this one down.
After a while everyone calmed down and busied themselves with introductions, delighting in meeting Mikey (Panic! At The Disco), and Ryan (My Chemical Romance). Jared took the chance to lead Gerard off for a little talk.
“Hey, you. Have you been avoiding me?” he asked. Gerard kept his eyes diverted and didn’t reply.
“Now that’s just rude. Look at me when I'm speaking to you, honey.”
Gerard still refused to budge. Jared sighed.
“Look, this can go two ways, but we both know that you’re going to end up doing what I ask, so you can either make it hard or painless. It’s up to you.”
Gerard turned to face Jared, glaring. Jared had to congratulate himself. Okay, so Gerard may be glaring, but to a certain extent he was learning to do as he was told.
“That’s better. Now I can see your pretty face.”
“What do you fucking want anyway?” Gerard scowled.
“Tut, tut, language,” chided Jared.
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck you right back if that’s going to be your attitude.”
“You see? You’re such a hypocrite!”
Jared smiled and wrapped his arms around Gerard’s waist, giving him a fond little cuddle.
“Yeah, but that’s why you love me.”
Gerard squirmed out of Jared’s embrace, glowering.
“Don’t!” He looked round to check that no one had been watching. “You are Goddamn lucky that no one saw that.”
“Aww...” Jared was obviously disappointed. “You’re embarrassed to be seen with me? We’ll have to work on that one then. Anyway, I want to see you tomorrow. Meet me up on that hill, just next to this field at 7am.”
“I thought you said it would be suspicious?” said Gerard.
“I think the rest of our band is a bit too preoccupied to notice. And mine already knows. It won’t be a problem.” Jared waved his hand dismissively.
“And what if I don’t want to come?” asked Gerard, feeling as though he was losing his pride, and so becoming defiant. Jared just laughed.
“Say that if you want, but I think we both know you’ll be there. I would repeat details, but you’ve memorised them already, haven’t you? You’re that eager. You can’t stay away.”
Gerard realised, with a surge of humiliation, that Jared had gotten the truth. And that once again, he had lost. There was no point even trying to fight back.
“Whatever.” He mumbled, looking away. He turned on his heel and walked off to join the others, but his mind wandered back to what Jared had said.
‘That’s why you love me.’
And he did. And, he realised, he would have to come to terms with it. Everything he felt, the hidden admiration for the way Jared made everything work to his advantage, the silent jealousy of how Jared didn’t seem to have any flaws, the frustration at how Jared always won. The open hatred that he showed every day was genuine, but it was also a cover up. And it was weakening.
Because he was in love with Jared Leto.
And that’s what disturbed him the most.
~*~
Lunch in the My Chemical Romance coach was an awkward affair. Despite the cheerful talk, there was uncertainty clouding the air. Neither Mikey, Gerard, Ray or Frank were quite sure how to treat Bob now that they knew but weren’t meant to. The conversation was jumpy, and there were embarrassing pauses in between subjects. Frank even ate the pickles in his burger because it didn’t feel right to complain, despite his passionate hatred for the little green things.
Needless to say, everyone was glad when it was over and they left with the camera to return to more normal activities, such as writing music.
“So.” Gerard began the session. “I’ve got some more lyrics that we can put music to, or if you want we can work in a cover of something.”
“I’d quite like to do a cover” said Mikey. “Just for a change. How about some Iron Maiden?”
“Nah, I reckon we should do Dust To Dust.” Ray said.
“Yeah.” Frank agreed. “Mistfits would be good. Or, actually, Black Flag.”
“How about Nervous Breakdown?” suggested Bob. The others all nodded thoughtfully and there was a moment of silence as they all ran through their mental playlists, trying to select the best song to cover.
“Killer Queen.” Gerard eventually said.
“What, by Queen?” Mikey questioned.
“Yeah. Either that or Don’t Stop Me Now. That would be a blast to cover. But I think Killer Queen would be best”
Mikey raised his eyebrows but nodded.
“I think Killer Queen would be good. It would be fun.” Bob spoke up, surprising everyone.
“Well well Bob.” Ray smiled, laughing a little. “I never had you down as a Queen fan.”
“Shut up. We’d do it well, that’s all. I think Gerard’s voice would really work.” Bob defended himself. Luckily he didn’t notice Frank, who was mouthing “His girlfriend likes Queen!” to Ray behind his hand. Ray fought a smile and sent Frank a warning look before speaking.
“Yeah, you’re right. Gerard does suit songs by Queen. And it shouldn’t take me and Frank too long to work out the chords for it. Let’s have a go.
“I’ve got an idea.” Said Mikey “why don’t we ask Tomo and/or Ryan if they want to be in it as well?” he paused, looking closely at Gerard. “And how about Jared, doesn’t he play too?”
Gerard’s relaxed face tightened ever so slightly at the mention of Jared’s name.
“No.” he said. “We did that with Bert and Quinn last time. This time it should jut be a My Chemical Romance thing.”
Bemused, the others agreed and they set to work figuring out their various parts. It didn’t take Bob long to work out the drumming patterns, and Gerard didn’t really have anything to do, so they sat in a corner having a serious looking discussion. Meanwhile, Frank and Ray were having a problem with a few chord changes, and rewound one section of Killer Queen so often that Ray was afraid his laptop would break. Mikey was absorbed in his work, slowly and quietly plugging away at his bass. After a while he was done too, and putting his bass away, he joined Gerard and Bob. Thy broke off their conversation and Gerard looked up, eyes gleaming.
“You done then Mikes?”
Mikey nodded self satisfactorily.
“Good.” Grabbing the camera from next to his chair, he sized the chance he had been waiting for and jumped up.
“Hey Ray, Frank, d’ya mind if we go and film some of the dressing rooms and where the stage was?” he called.
“Sure.” Replied Ray. “We’ve got most if the chords; we’re just working on the timing. We shouldn’t be too long.”
“Awesome!” Gerard, Mikey and Bob quickly left, but instead of going off to the empty field where the stage ad been and clowning around, they sat down against the side of the coach, making sure that they weren’t visible
“So what now?” Mikey whispered, well aware that Gerard had opened the window above them before they left. And while this meant that they could hear Frank and Ray, it also meant that thy Frank and Ray could hear them.
“Well, we can either wait here and until something happens and say that we didn’t get anything filmed, or we can go and film something really quickly and then we can just hope that we didn’t miss anything.” Gerard whispered back.
“You know, I think we should all go and film some stuff, then come back.” Mikey said as quietly as he could. “That way we’re covered if they ask us what we got. And if they’re going to do anything, it won’t be for a while anyway.”
“Yeah, I agree with Mikey.” Bob hissed.
“Okay then.” Gerard said, in his normal voice now that they were actually going to do what they had told Ray and Frank, so they didn’t have to worry about being overheard. “Let’s go!”
Mikey had unofficially become the ‘camera man’. He stood at the side of the field and filmed as Gerard shamelessly threw himself around, singing into a pretend microphone and playing air guitar. Bob stood a little behind him, looking awkward.
“Come on Bob, have fun!” Gerard yelled. He ran over to Bob and jumped on his back. Bob staggered around, adjusting himself to giving Gerard a piggyback.
“Giddy up!”
Bob couldn’t help smiling. Abandoning his tough guy show, he let the rare inner child take over and charged around the field pretending to be a bull. After a while of feeling left out, Mikey set the camera on the ground and joined in the fun.
Meanwhile, Ray and Frank had finished working out their playing and were just ironing out their performance. They finished their run through and looked up, satisfied with their work.
“Think we deserve a break now, huh?” Ray smiled.
“Definitely. Don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted from the stress of the day. And from not getting enough sleep this morning.” Frank’s sentence started out sarcastic and jokey, but it finished in an accusing tone. Ray sighed.
“Don’t keep dragging that up, it’s not fair. When you’re like that it doesn’t give me a lot of option. You make me feel like a boring old man.” Ray complained.
“Aww, don’t worry Ray, I forgive you for it.” Frank made the most of having the chance to be the one being patronising instead of patronised for a change. “And as for you being a boring old man, well, you may be old-” Ray snorted in offence “- but you’re certainly not boring.”
“Yeah, and don’t you know it.” Ray smirked. Frank put his guitar down and squeezed onto the seat with Ray, usually he hated being small, but it sometimes had its advantages, snuggling closer to Ray, he smiled happily. Ray laid his guitar to the side and put an arm round Frank, placing a gentle kiss on the younger guitarist’s dark hair.
“Love you Frank.”
“Love you too Ray.”
They stayed like that for a while, just taking comfort in the other’s presence and affection, until Ray decided to bring up a long standing argument that they continued mainly for amusement.
“I still know that my guitar is better than yours.”
“No way!” Frank shot to his guitar’s defence straight away. “Your Gibson can never match up to Texas!”
“It’s way cooler.”
“Nuh-uh” Frank jumped up and picked his guitar up by the neck. Unfortunately, in his excitement, he gripped it too tight, at an odd angle, and put fatal pressure on the E string. With a resounding ‘ping!’ it came loose and flew off, scratching Frank’s hand on it’s way.
“Ow!” Frank cried, more because he was surprised than because it hurt. Ray burst out laughing.
“Are you still sure that yours is better than mine? ‘Cos at the moment it’s not looking so great.”
“Oh, shut up.” Said Frank, as he looked at the broken string in despair. “Don’t worry Texas, I’ll fix you right away.” He gave the guitar a reassuring pat and turned to Ray, who was still laughing. “Hey, can you chuck me the spare E string from my case?”
“Sure.” Chuckled Ray, fishing around in Frank’s guitar case, finding the string packet and throwing it to the distressed younger man. “Do you need any help with that or can you do it all by yourself like a big boy?”
Frank spent a few seconds struggling to undo the tight seal on the packet before replying.
“Just get your butt over here and help.”
Bob had to be the most relaxed Mikey had seen him in a long time. He had let himself go, and they had all been messing around like young children that had been given sugar. When Gerard eventually looked at his watch and declared that they should probably head back if they wanted to catch anything, they were all reluctant to leave.
Flushed from laughing and running about, Bob felt strangely loose. As Gerard and Mikey chatted, he kept thinking about the conversation he’d had with Gerard earlier. Gerard had said that whatever Bob wanted to keep private was fine with all of the other members and they respected his decisions. He had also assured Bob that if he ever wanted to tell them anything, they would listen and keep it strictly confidential.
Although a little voice in his head was asking why Gerard had chosen that time to say something, he pushed it out the way and measured up the pros and cons of telling his friends. On the plus side, he wouldn’t have to worry about covering all his tracks all the time. On the negative side, he might get kicked out if something bad happened between jess and his bandmates, even though he knew deep down that it wouldn’t.
It might be because it was the first time in a long while that he had allowed himself too be properly happy, but for some reason today the pessimistic voice in this head that usually dictated what he did concerning relationships wasn’t being as loud today. It was still there, nagging away but Bob could ignore it for a change.
“Will you guys still be my friends, whatever?” he randomly asked.
“Of course.” Mikey replied, breaking away from his chatter with Gerard.
“We’ll be there for you and love you no matter what has or will ever happen.” promised Gerard. Mikey got the distinct feeling that his brother had been expecting Bob to say something similar to what he had and had prepared his answer. Still, he had said what Bob wanted to hear, and the drummer retired back into his thoughts.
When hey got back to the coach they became silent and hid against the side, underneath the open window. Gerard listened carefully to what was happening inside and his eyes widened in a mixture of shock and disbelief.
“Hang on, can you just… yeah that’s good.” Frank’s voice came through. There as a short time of silence and then, “Oh, come on Ray, don’t be so slow!”
“This is as fast as my hand goes, Frankie.”
Mikey withdrew his ear from the side of the coach in astonishment.
“You don’t think…” he whispered.
“I think we may have hit jackpot.” breathed Gerard. “Come on, let’s go in. and don’t act like we’ve been listening, just be like any other normal time.”
As they entered, however, their excitement quickly disappeared. Frank and Ray were crouched over a guitar that could vaguely be recognised as Frank’s Texas, and they were changing a string.
“Still can’t change your own strings yet huh?” Gerard smirked, but he had to work to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
Frank pouted and went back to changing the string. Gerard, Bob and Mikey looked at each other, feeling deflated. Maybe this was going to take longer than they thought.
~*~
Ryan and Spencer were sitting in their motel room chatting about nothing when they were disrupted by a sudden low quality rendition of ‘Macho Man’. After taking a second to get over the shock, Ryan realised that it was, in fact, his mobile.
Cringing at the dodgy ringtone and resolving never to let Brendon near his phone again, Ryan got up to answer the call, but realised he didn’t know where his mobile actually was. He followed the direction of the noise to the pile of bags in the corner which held all of his stuff. Ryan groaned in disbelief as he wondered how he could’ve forgotten to take the phone out of what ever clothes he had been wearing when he used it last. Now he had to find it amongst all his clothes, and got knows how long that would take.
A while and two bags of clothes later, Ryan had found his phone in the pocket of one of his numerous pair of trousers. He fished it out triumphantly and turned to grin at Spencer. His grin sagged a little when he saw the mess he had made by spewing his clothes around the place. He threw his phone on the nearest bed and scrambled to pick up his red waistcoat with velvet roses on it, which was in a rumpled pile on the floor
“Damn, this get messed up so easily! And I spent ages trying to fold this so it wouldn’t crease!” he said in frustration as he frantically began to smooth out the wrinkles that had appeared in the fabric.
Spencer sighed.
“Ryan, you’re panicking too much. They’re only clothes. Look, I’ll help you pack your stuff back up, and then you can check your phone and hope that the poor person trying to call you left a message.”
With Spencer’s help, everything was soon back to normal, and they sat down on the sofa to check Ryan’s mobile. Turning on the loudspeaker setting, Ryan dialled the voicemail number. It rang a few times before a smooth female voice answered.
“Welcome to the Virgin network answer messaging service. You have one new message. To hear he message, please press one. To go to the main menu, press two.”
Ryan pressed the one button and a voice began to speak. It was fuzzy and hard to make out, only just recognisable as a male’s.
“Hello Ryan, this is Bill. It’s been ages since I saw you last. I hope you’re having a good time. I am, but I miss you. We’re definitely going to meet up sometime. Call me back with when you’re free, and I’ll see you soon. Love you.”
There was a beep and the message finished. Ryan and Spencer both stared at the mobile, shell shocked. Ryan turned to Spencer, alarm clear in his face.
“Bill? No, it can’t be Bill. He – he’s with The Academy Is… on a tour now. He… it just can’t be him. Oh, god, what if it is? I don’t want… I don’t….”
“Shhh.” Spencer soothed, giving Ryan a reassuring hug. “I'm sure it’s just someone playing a practical joke.”
“It’s not funny!”
“I know, trust me. But don’t worry. I’m sure it’s not him. The voice was all messed up, its got to be someone pretending so you couldn’t tell it was them.”
“But…” Ryan stuttered, still in distress. “But was…was it him? It could’ve been him. You don’t know him, he would have easily done that!”
“Ryan.” Spencer gave his friend a little squeeze. “Relax. Someone decided to pull a prank on you. And sure, it was a sick thing to do, but it’s not Bill, he’s not coming back ever again. And if he dares to even try, I will kill him.”
Those were unusually strong words to be coming from Spencer’s mouth but they reassured Ryan. His worried shaking died away and he hugged Spencer tightly back, letting a few tears that he hadn’t even noticed gathering in his eyes fall.
“It’s okay.”
~*~
Mikey was beginning to doubt his skills as a prankster. Over the course of the afternoon he, Bob and Gerard had tries every single thing they cold think of to, but nothing had worked. They had even come close to being discovered, but thankfully Frank had taken that moment to become excited by a butterfly that was fluttering around on a nearby bush. Mikey thanked the creature solemnly for its rare winter appearance and saving their skin, but it still left the problem that they were out of ideas. In an uncharacteristic move, they decided to leave it for the day.
Frank and Ray just didn’t seem to want to be caught out. In fact, if he didn’t know better, Mikey would swear that someone had tipped them off. Either that or they were just naturally controlled and elusive beyond measure.
Gerard was feeling the same. Their fruitless efforts had left him really quite pissed off, but as usual he hid it and hoped that no one would notice.
Bob seemed to be the only one who wasn’t too fussed about the whole thing, but then he had been acting distantly and distractedly for most of the day.
They wound up playing Killer Queen all together in the coach. It was awful at first, but after a few attempts it was slowly and progressively clicking into place. They gave it one more run through, and then called it a day. Gerard, Mikey and Bob stood up to leave.
“Hey guys, me and Frank’ll catch you up, okay?” Ray called.
“Sure, whatever. We’ll be in the dressing room.” Replied Gerard. “Oh, Bob, seeing as the camera’s right next to you, could you make sure it’s turned off?”
“Maybe I should…”Mikey began, moving towards the camera. He stopped when Bob glared at him.
“I can do it.” He fiddled with the buttons until it made a little beep and fell silent. Mikey cast a doubtful glance at the camera, but he shrugged and left it. With a cheerful ‘See ya!’ he, Bob and Gerard left.
Frank looked at Ray, slightly confused.
“Did you want to tell me something or…something? I don’t get it.”
“No.” smiled Ray. “We’ve just not had much quality time today, since the others have been pretty much stalking us.”
“Quality time?” asked Frank, smirking slightly.
“Oh, shush, you.” Standing, Ryan grabbed Frank hand and pulled him up too, then pushed him over to the side of the coach and began to attack his mouth. Frank gave a tiny moan and kissed back hungrily, burying his hands into Ray’s afro.
Off in their own little world, they were too absorbed in each other to notice a quiet beep as the camera came out of the two minute standby that Bob had accidentally set it to, and turned itself back on to filming mode.
Unseen by the two men, it whirred on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Woah. That has to be the longest piece of writing I’ve ever done. Sorry it took ages, I really didn’t mean for it to come out quite this long! Thanks to mychemicaldream0201 for the comment, you made me get myself in gear and finish. Right, hope you like this one, please read and review!
P.S. I don’t actually know if Ryan is on Virgin, I just made it up.
Beta’d by Michiko
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