Categories > Celebrities > My Chemical Romance > Soul Purpose
26. Budgies In Love
Seren was a smart girl. She had chosen the day right before the bands’ off day to visit – and that meant they had the whole day to do whatever they wanted to do. So Seren dragged Defne out of bed at 10 am, even though they’d gone to bed at 4 in the morning. That girl was always up and about in the middle of the morning no matter what time she went to bed. Too bad for her friend who loved sleeping till late afternoon…
In the end, the singer agreed to go have breakfast after throwing a medium-sized fit in the small hotel room, chasing Seren around and hitting her with a T-shirt for waking her up so early.
They didn’t bother checking the guys’ rooms to see if they’d awakened yet. Defne was pretty sure her band mates were still peacefully dead to the world. So they went down to the hotel dining hall and sat down, ordering some coffee first things first.
“So, let’s go discover the area today, huh?” Seren asked as they sipped the heavenly light brown liquid.
“Sounds good to me. Besides, there’s nothing else to do when you are woken up at this hour.” responded Defne, pointedly.
The other girl sighed. “It’s 10 am, Deff. For most people, it’s a late hour to wake up.”
“Well, it’s not late for me! I like my sleep. And I’ve only had a little over 5 hours of it!”
Seren shot her a nonchalant look. She was always good at that one particular act so the singer actually shut up.
“I have only one day to spend together with you in a year, so I’m not gonna let you waste it with your precious sleep…” she said after a moment.
Defne grinned. “Hee, so you actually woke me up because you love me!”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever…”
“Hmm, since we’re going out to have fun, I could go up and bug Devon to come with us. He’d love to join us – well, not us, actually, he’d love to join you.” the singer snickered.
“Oh yeah? Then I could go and knock on Gerard’s door. He’d probably love to make out with you in a cozy little alley, wouldn’t he?”
“Ha – what if Mikey opens the door? What would you do then, huh? Blush furiously and duck your head, avert your eyes?” asked Defne, smirking evilly.
Seren’s pale cheeks reddened in a matter of seconds and she glared at her friend.
“Don’t mock me!”
The singer smirked at the other girl.
“It’s okay, Seren. Mikey sure has his own charm, with those innocent eyes and that sweet soft way of talking… Too bad he’s already taken.”
She just continued to glare at her.
Defne giggled.
“You’ve got a crush on him!” she announced happily.
“I haven’t!” Seren objected. “It’s just… it’s just not everyday you see. I mean –”
“Yeah, I know.” Defne nodded, understandingly. “I only got used to the feeling myself after a long while, actually.”
“Says the girl who’s got it on with the front man.”
The singer had the modesty to blush. She also couldn’t stop grinning stupidly.
Seren studied her from across the table and smiled.
“Your whole face just lit up in a flash. It’s unbelievable.” she muttered more to herself, shaking her head and smiling at the other girl.
Defne just ducked her head shyly.
“Hey” Seren called, tapping her on the head to get her attention. “I’m so glad for you.”
The singer gave her a grateful look.
“Thanks.”
Soon after, they ordered breakfast and ate like horses – like they always did.
Then they hit the streets to have the fun that was waiting for them somewhere out there.
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Defne stood with her hands on her hips in the middle of the well-kept park area as she read the writing on the plaque in front of her:
Dedicated to the citizens of Gotham City through the generosity of Bruce Wayne.
She grinned.
“This sure looks promising.” she commented.
Her friend nodded right next to her.
“It doesn’t actually look like Gotham City, though… I mean, where is that dark gloomy atmosphere?” asked Seren, looking around and taking in the pretty green bushes and trees.
Defne scratched the top of her head in confusion.
“I dunno. Maybe if we kept walking, it'll turn darker, huh?”
Seren just shrugged and set off to walk down an unusually bright Gotham City street. They walked together for a while silently, craning their necks from side to side to take in every last bit of beautiful scenery. Then they turned a corner and BAM! There it was the first sign of the true comic book atmosphere: A dirty wall covered with graffiti. And the old gloomy looking buildings everywhere. The two walked further to inspect the wall closer and found that there were criminal tags written on the other side of it.
“Wow, these people have worked really hard to catch the atmosphere.” mumbled Defne to herself.
They moved past the wall further into the heart of the city and Seren started to smile, nudging her friend every now and then to show her something in the dark architecture that caught her attention.
“It gets all the more realistic as we move forward, doesn’t it?” she asked the singer, taking in a few wrecked cars on the side of the road and a block of concrete on the other side, looking like it might crumble any moment. It was a truly thrilling scenery to look at. The fabulous crime ridden and dirty atmosphere of the comic books and the movies were revamped in this amusement park in such a perfect way.
Defne nodded, grinning, thinking along the same lines.
“I definitely like it better in here than the entrance area.” she said, walking closer to a Gotham City police car strewn with bullet holes. She leaned in close to see if there was a waxwork dead police officer behind the wheel but unfortunately, there wasn’t.
Eager to reach the actual area where the roller coaster was, they sped up their steps and continued to walk through the ominous environment.
Soon after, they were at the entrance of the main area. The two girls just stood and stared at the gigantic structure before them for a long while, studying all the loops and the corkscrews (there were two of each actually). Then they noticed the zero gravity roll they had been promised by the brochure and had to pick up their jaws from the floor to be able to talk properly.
“There is only one word that can describe this:” Seren began, she paused for a dramatic moment and then continued. “Awesome”.
Defne’s eyes were huge as she stared at the screaming people on the roller coaster.
“You couldn’t be more accurate.” she said, prying her eyes away from the ride and grinning at her friend.
They both stared at the giant Batman logo placed on a large dirty fan at the other side of the structure. The whole area seemed familiar somehow but she couldn’t name it properly. Then something clicked and she nudged Defne on the shoulder.
“Hey! Hey Deff, doesn’t this place look like Axis Chemicals from The Long Halloween?” she asked excitedly.
The singer inspected the building for a while, scrunching up her face and nodding in the end.
“Yyep!” she said, grabbing the other girl’s hand and starting to drag her towards the entrance.
“Enough geekiness for now.” she muttered, still holding Seren’s wrist even though she was already walking pretty fast to get into the building. “Let’s go have some fun!”
They entered the loading area – and of course it was built like the Batcave. You could almost expect Alfred to show up with that unique expression on his face and ask if Mr. Wayne needed anything. Batman film music was playing in the background.
Defne looked around to see if she could spot the Batmobile. She pouted slightly when she couldn’t.
“But… But where’s the Batmobile?” she cried.
Seren sighed.
“Well, it’s not here.” she said. And then added, muttering silently. “Would’ve been cool if Robin was here, though.”
The singer’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah. Robin…”
“The Dark Knight is coming next year, right? You think they’ll do another Batman and Robin after that?” Seren asked.
“I dunno. I’d like it if they did. Robin’s just…”
“Yeah, he is.” the other girl grinned. “Did you hear who’s gonna play Joker in the movie?”
Defne’s eyes widened with excitement. “Heath Ledger, yess!” she cried.
“It’s gonna be fantastic! I can so vividly imagine him as Joker…” Seren trailed off dreamily.
They chattered on more about the upcoming movie as they waited for their turn to get on the ride. And the rest was pretty much a blur to both of the girls. They got on the roller coaster, belted up themselves safely into place and then the adrenaline fest began.
They screamed shamelessly as the train effortlessly took the loops one after the other. They laughed and hid their faces against each other’s shoulders from time to time. They grinned like maniacs as they felt “the unbearable lightness” of being weightless at the zero g-roll. It was a whole different kind of an adrenaline rush, which they experienced. It wasn’t like being on stage all worked up or meeting someone famous… It was more like being at the wrong end of a loaded gun but knowing that your friend would never squeeze the trigger. Safe terror. For adrenaline addicts. There was always a risk, but people wanted it too much to care about the risk.
Neither Defne nor Seren could walk properly for sometime after they got off the machine. They leaned against each other, doubling over with laughter and trying desperately to stay standing. It was almost like being drunk or high. No sense of public awareness. No sense of self-balance. But an undying urge to just laugh forever.
They sat down on the ground together to be able to come down from their adrenaline-highs. A phone rang as they had finally cooled down enough to be able to not-laugh.
It was Defne’s. She checked the caller ID and smiled at the little device in her hand, flipping it open.
“Hey, what‘s up?” called the unmistakable cheerful voice of Gerard from the other end.
“Heeyy!” she cooed, gasping slightly to catch her breath. “I just got off of Batman: The Ride”
“What?” Gerard cried, dumbfounded.
She could almost see those brows raised so high in surprise that they could almost get lost in all that beautiful messy hair.
“Yeah… We’re at Six Flags. Wow, that was one hell of a ride!”
“Oh, really? You betrayed us, you traitors! This is Batman we’re talking about… Oh, no, Frankie’s gonna be so disappointed…” Gerard whined.
Defne giggled.
“Yeah, well, at least you got to sleep till noon, stupid! I was up in the middle of the fucking morning…”
“But it’s Batman!” objected the front man, still.
“Okay. Yep. It’s Batman. And it’s awesome. Though there’s no Batmobile… or Robin, for that matter.”
“Robin?”
Now she could see one of those brows rising up in curiosity.
“Uh-huh. Robin. ‘Cause, you know, he’s all hot and stuff.” she said grinning.
“You know what? I’m not gonna talk about this with you because I am so not jealous of a comic book character.”
She could hear the laughter in his voice.
“Okay.” she responded good-naturedly.
“So, when are you planning on coming back here?” Gerard asked.
Defne caught Seren’s gaze and they had a silent conversation with looks. And she finally came to the conclusion that they were really tired to do any more rides today so they’d better get back.
“Umm, I guess we can take off right now.” she muttered. “We’re both exhausted. We also rode Tony Hawk’s Big Spin before this and it was amazing! But, yeah like I said, exhausted now.”
Gerard chuckled at the other end of the phone.
“You’re crazy.” he muttered, and then added. “Did you eat any cotton candy?”
“Yepp!” she chirped happily.
“Well, pick up your ass from the ground and go get me some, too!” he exclaimed.
She paused before saying anything and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“How do you know I’m sitting on the ground?” she asked.
“What?” Gerard asked, surprised.
“I said, how do you know I’m sitting on the ground?” she repeated, her eyes searching her surroundings.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and then some hasty whispering went on. Defne listened patiently.
“Oh, I… I don’t. Know that. That y-you’re on t-the ground. I mean i-it was totally random of me s-saying that… ‘Cause that’d be like. But that’s hilarious, don’t ya think? You actually sitting on t-the ground?” he stammered.
Her mouth set in a firm line as she strained not to smile.
“You jerk, you’re here, aren’t you?” she asked slowly but surely.
“What, no! No no no!”
She stood up in one swift motion and turned around. Her eyes spotted a figure about 25 feet away, leaning against one of the dark dirty buildings. He was wearing a pair of those huge shades of his – she was at a loss at why he always wore them, if you’d ask her they had become signaturized, and hence not really the way to go incognito.
He wasn’t even alone. She recognized Frank and Mikey. And as her eyes wandered, she saw Zack and Devon were also a few feet away from them.
The singer grinned and flipped off her phone. She gestured for Seren to come along and they walked up to the guys.
“What the hell are you all doing here?” Defne asked.
“Well, we couldn’t let you have all the fun now, could we?” responded Frank with a sparkling grin.
“How did you know we were gonna be here?”
“Seren sorta told me last night that she was gonna drag you here first thing in the morning.” answered Devon as the other girl blushed slightly.
“Hmm…” she said, folding her arms under her breasts. “I suppose you haven’t experienced The Ride yet, then, huh?”
“Nope.” It was Gerard who answered this time.
“Go get on the damn thing then, it’s so much fun!” she exclaimed, flailing her arms around like a mad person.
“Yeah, you guys go. We’ll get the cotton candies ready for you.” Seren said, chuckling.
----------------
After the guys’ ride, Defne left Seren with Devon and fled the scene in a matter of seconds, muttering something about the restrooms. And Gerard caught her from the arm at that exact moment.
“You’re sneaky.” he whispered in her ear. “Leaving those two alone together like that…”
“They’re gonna thank me someday.” she said, chuckling. “Where’re the other guys?”
“I ditched them.” he answered, smirking as he wrapped his arms around her, turning her body to face him.
“Oh yeah?” she wondered.
“Yeah… So, where’s my candy, huh?”
She rose on her tiptoes to peck his lips. He leaned in closer to let the kiss linger. Then she drew back and smiled up at him.
“Let’s go get ourselves some candy.” she said, taking his hand and dragging him towards where she had gotten her sweets from.
By the time they were finished with the cotton candy, both of their hands and lips were sticky with sugar so necessarily, they had to lick each other clean.
It felt good. Standing in the middle of hundreds of people and just not caring about them at all. Not caring about who saw them kissing and giggling. Hands wrapped around each other tightly, devouring, drinking the other in, starting from the lips.
It felt natural.
Casual.
Beautiful.
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They were back at the city as the afternoon started to slowly fade, clearing up the stage for the evening. Mikey, Frank and Zack – the poor ones with the long-distance relationships – went back to the hotel to have quality phone-time with their respective fiancées. So it was only Defne, Seren, Gerard and Devon left to walk aimlessly in the city streets.
The two singers fell back on purpose to leave the other two to their cozy little conversation and of course to have a little bit of privacy themselves.
“So, what’re you gonna do, now?” asked the bassist silently.
“Ummm, I’ve got a few campuses to check out, then I’ll be going back home.” Seren answered, wrapping her arms around her own body as if suddenly chilled.
“But you’re gonna come back soon, right?” He tried to keep the hopeful tilt away from his voice.
The pale skinned girl smiled, looking up at him.
“Yeah. In about… two months’ time.”
“That’s good. Though we’re still gonna be touring, then… So I guess I won’t be seeing you for a while.”
Seren’s heart leaped with bitter joy. Did that mean he wanted to see her and was sad that he couldn’t?
“Maybe I’ll come crash in the tour bus before classes start, who knows? But I need an invitation, first.” she said, smiling a little.
He turned to lock his eyes with hers and she gave a tiny sigh as she gazed into those childish sparkling green orbs of his. There was just something about Devon… He was surely charming, he had the lucky genes. The chestnut hair and the big greener-than-green eyes, the full lips along with the cutest dimples ever. Not to mention the shapely body. But there was more to it than all of those. He was usually so straightforward and sincere, yet at the same time playful and impudent. And there were times he would flash a grin and melt the person in front of him into a squashy mess of hormones. And then, there were times he could be so shy and introverted to the degree that he’d avert his eyes or duck his head. He was so lively, he made you wanna jump around, flailing your limbs wildly. And he was geeky, with all his comic book and FRP background. Seren decided she liked it. She liked the confident, hot man along with the shy little child inside. She wanted the whole package.
And as the bassist stared into the shiny light brown eyes of the girl in front of him, he saw the genius inside. He remembered her previous visit and the deep technical conversations she’d had with Zack and Defne. They were all engineers, literally, and the other ones who didn’t understand what the hell “torque” was or what the significance of electromagnetic induction was, were at a complete loss listening to them. But Devon had liked it. He’d started adoring her after she’d fixed some technical problem with his bass amp in a matter of minutes. She was different, somehow. Defne had went through the same education she had, they had basically grown up together to be the women they were today and still… Seren had this interesting spark to her, with that cute way she smiled and the caring sympathy she approached people with. Of course, she had her violent moments, usually under the influence of a certain lead singer, but she was normally calm, silent and good-natured, shy even. She was solid. Like a rock. He felt like he could trust her to keep him from getting lost.
Devon realized he never said anything back to her so he suddenly felt the need to speak up.
“Umm, I think I can manage to persuade Frank invite you over. It. It’d be nice if y-you… could, ya know.”
Seren nodded as she noticed they had stopped walking and were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, now. She took a little step towards him and smiled.
“That’d be nice.” she parroted.
The bassist’s hand shot up to hesitantly touch his fingertips to her cheek. When she didn’t do anything to signal a rejection, he covered her hand with his other one as he slowly leaned forwards in search of her lips.
She suddenly moved her head away and stared at him. They had near-perfect eye contact. She was almost his height.
“You’re leaving tomorrow.” she whispered miserably.
Devon just stood there for a moment without answering and then he smiled sweetly in response.
“That’s not a valid excuse for me to not kiss you. ‘Cause, ya know, I’m still here right now.” he whispered, his tone inviting.
She chuckled silently, suddenly fascinated with the toes of her trainers.
So he leaned in once again, holding her chin softly and bringing her lips to press against his in a sweet, lingering kiss.
“I can wait for you.” he said silently once they broke the kiss, as he was stroking her hair adoringly.
Her eyes shone with happy-wetness she tried to hide. She had found someone who could wait.
“Thank you.” she murmured, moving closer and wrapping her arms around his shoulders hesitantly. “I can wait for you, too.”
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Neither Defne nor Gerard knew how, but somehow, they had ended up in a pet shop. Yes. A pet shop. Full of fish, birds, hamsters, rabbits, kittens and puppies.
Gerard had never seen Defne like that before. The kickass girl had suddenly morphed into a motherly woman in front of his very eyes. He knew there had gotta be something to make her behave like a normal girl. He wondered why he hadn’t thought of animals. After all, she didn’t eat chicken or fish. Actually, she consumed just a tiny portion of red meat products – she could be a vegetarian if she wanted. Gerard suspected the half-vegetarian status of her, depended solely on the large appetite she possessed. There was no way she could stop eating something she liked the taste of – sausages, for example.
So he watched as his psyched up girlfriend ran around the store from cage to cage, cooing over the pets and smiling a gleaming smile all the time like a little girl.
She went over to talk with a Golden Retriever puppy, which responded her with squashing his face against his glass cage and giving her excited puppy-dog eyes. Then she moved onto the hamsters, watched them run around in their cage, spinning their wheels and jumping around, nibbling on little pieces of food. She admired the white fluffy rabbits for a while, peacefully lying together, all snuggled up like that.
She stared at a giant threatening-looking king parrot as the bird chewed on a piece of apple it held with one of its feet.
She talked to the little love birds and budgies as they chirped at her all together. She laughed until her face got flushed pink. Gerard went to stand next to her as they gazed at the tiny colorful birds hop around in their cages.
“I used to have budgies when I was little.” Defne said nostalgically.
“Really?”
“Yeah. But one of them was fantastic…” she went on as Gerard listened silently. “His name was Rocky. Me and my brother had named it after Rocky Balboa.” she said, and he couldn’t withhold his laughter.
“Why would you name a bird after him?” he asked, amused.
“Well, because we were watching Rocky 3 when my mum came home with him in a little cage. And he was so beautiful, with his tiny white head and sky-blue feathers.” She smiled fondly at the memory. “He was such a clever bird. We taught him to talk and he was perfect. He would whistle and say my name over and over again…”
“Hmmm… The bird was clearly in love with you.”
She laughed out loud.
“Yeah. He’d start screaming from his cage when my dad kissed me in front of it.”
“Ooo, jealous type!” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and leaned his head against hers.
“Then he died.” she muttered silently. “I came home from school and found out that he… I don’t think I ever cried so hard before that. It was my first loss.”
Gerard stroked her hair and placed a gentle kiss against her temple.
“I know the feeling.”
As they stood watching the little birds, Defne leaned closer to one of the cages, smiling to herself. She gestured for Gerard to look at where she was pointing and his mouth opened with awe at what he saw.
Two little budgies, one with a blue chest and the other completely white, were snuggled up against each other affectionately. Then the white one moved away on the perch. The blue one followed her and rubbed his tiny little head against hers, closing his eyes. She responded with a half-hearted preen at his feathers and then moved away slightly, once more. He followed her again, this time touching his beak to hers and they had a weird beak-make-out session for sometime. Then they snuggled up again, the white one rubbing her tiny body against the others affectionately. They both fluffed up their feathers and cuddled together all warm and comfy. It was the most adorable scene in the world at that moment.
Defne squeaked in delight, she couldn’t help it. She searched for words but they didn’t come to her so she just settled down for watching the obviously-in-love birds.
Gerard leaned over her shoulder and hugged her tighter as he whispered.
“They’re so cute.”
She nodded excitedly.
He reached over to turn her face towards him and kissed her lips softly. She sighed into his mouth and turned in his arms to be able to keep the contact of lips permanent for a little longer.
As they stepped outside into an alleyway in the dark evening air, hand-in-hand and not caring about someone spotting them, Defne was still smiling like a little kid with an ice-cream truck on a hot summer day.
“That was pure love.” she said, fondly.
“Yeah.” the front man responded, nodding. “I love you like that blue budgie loves the white one.”
They slowly came to a stop and Defne turned her head to look at him incredulously.
“Huh?” was the only word she could come up with.
Gerard blushed furiously and looked away. He noticed he had been swinging their joint hands a little and he stopped the action in mid-motion. Then he took a deep breath and continued like the grown up man he was.
“I love you.” he said, staring in the solid dark brown of her eyes as fireworks adorned them at his declaration of his feelings.
She gasped a little and held onto his hand firmly, studying his swimming honey orbs.
“I love you, too!” she said helplessly and threw her arms around his neck, literally jumping him.
He giggled childishly as he caught her tightly around the waist and tried to maintain his balance.
“You want me to spin you around?” he asked, still giggling.
She kissed him on the cheek sloppily.
“I don’t care! Do whatever you want to do…” she cried as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Being the hopeless romantic he was, Gerard spun her around and she caught him by the mouth as they laughed and giggled like drunken high teenagers. She placed her forehead against his and cupped his face in her hands, her hair falling around both of their faces, concealing their kisses from the world like a veil.
They wandered on the streets whole evening, not knowing where they were going, but just walking. The point was to be together. With each other. Kissing and touching at every chance they got.
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Gerard woke with the sound of his phone ringing furiously, the next morning. He picked it up from the little bedside table and didn’t even bother checking the caller ID before answering.
“ ‘lo?”
“Gerard? Did I wake you?” asked the unmistakable voice of his manager.
“Brian? Yeah, actually… L-look. If it isn’t ur-urgent or anything, can I jus –”
“Are you in a relationship with the lead singer of Soul Purpose?” he asked, out of the blue. He sounded slightly irritated.
It was too early in the morning for that.
“W-what?”
A/N: :O What’s gonna happen?
Pretty long one. Whoosh. But I got it done, yeah! Love declarations, too. Hmm, so guys, tell me what you think about this one. By the way, that budgie scene: actually happened. I melted down to the pet shop floor when I saw that.
Hmm, and I also apologize if there’s something wrong with Batman: The Ride scene, because I really have never ridden one of those and that was pure imagination and internet. But my mouth watered as I wrote it, I really wanna ride that roller coaster now!!!
And Heath Ledger… I’m so sorry he died so young. I'd been shocked when I'd first heard the news, I couldn’t believe it. He would’ve been able to do much more amazing things if he lived… I believe so many people would have if only they’d lived… So, I guess that’s why I included him in a tiny bit of this chapter. Yeah.
So, ummm, review and/or rate me! And I’ll love you because I’m really all fluffed up right now, hahahaa xD
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Seren was a smart girl. She had chosen the day right before the bands’ off day to visit – and that meant they had the whole day to do whatever they wanted to do. So Seren dragged Defne out of bed at 10 am, even though they’d gone to bed at 4 in the morning. That girl was always up and about in the middle of the morning no matter what time she went to bed. Too bad for her friend who loved sleeping till late afternoon…
In the end, the singer agreed to go have breakfast after throwing a medium-sized fit in the small hotel room, chasing Seren around and hitting her with a T-shirt for waking her up so early.
They didn’t bother checking the guys’ rooms to see if they’d awakened yet. Defne was pretty sure her band mates were still peacefully dead to the world. So they went down to the hotel dining hall and sat down, ordering some coffee first things first.
“So, let’s go discover the area today, huh?” Seren asked as they sipped the heavenly light brown liquid.
“Sounds good to me. Besides, there’s nothing else to do when you are woken up at this hour.” responded Defne, pointedly.
The other girl sighed. “It’s 10 am, Deff. For most people, it’s a late hour to wake up.”
“Well, it’s not late for me! I like my sleep. And I’ve only had a little over 5 hours of it!”
Seren shot her a nonchalant look. She was always good at that one particular act so the singer actually shut up.
“I have only one day to spend together with you in a year, so I’m not gonna let you waste it with your precious sleep…” she said after a moment.
Defne grinned. “Hee, so you actually woke me up because you love me!”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, whatever…”
“Hmm, since we’re going out to have fun, I could go up and bug Devon to come with us. He’d love to join us – well, not us, actually, he’d love to join you.” the singer snickered.
“Oh yeah? Then I could go and knock on Gerard’s door. He’d probably love to make out with you in a cozy little alley, wouldn’t he?”
“Ha – what if Mikey opens the door? What would you do then, huh? Blush furiously and duck your head, avert your eyes?” asked Defne, smirking evilly.
Seren’s pale cheeks reddened in a matter of seconds and she glared at her friend.
“Don’t mock me!”
The singer smirked at the other girl.
“It’s okay, Seren. Mikey sure has his own charm, with those innocent eyes and that sweet soft way of talking… Too bad he’s already taken.”
She just continued to glare at her.
Defne giggled.
“You’ve got a crush on him!” she announced happily.
“I haven’t!” Seren objected. “It’s just… it’s just not everyday you see. I mean –”
“Yeah, I know.” Defne nodded, understandingly. “I only got used to the feeling myself after a long while, actually.”
“Says the girl who’s got it on with the front man.”
The singer had the modesty to blush. She also couldn’t stop grinning stupidly.
Seren studied her from across the table and smiled.
“Your whole face just lit up in a flash. It’s unbelievable.” she muttered more to herself, shaking her head and smiling at the other girl.
Defne just ducked her head shyly.
“Hey” Seren called, tapping her on the head to get her attention. “I’m so glad for you.”
The singer gave her a grateful look.
“Thanks.”
Soon after, they ordered breakfast and ate like horses – like they always did.
Then they hit the streets to have the fun that was waiting for them somewhere out there.
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Defne stood with her hands on her hips in the middle of the well-kept park area as she read the writing on the plaque in front of her:
Dedicated to the citizens of Gotham City through the generosity of Bruce Wayne.
She grinned.
“This sure looks promising.” she commented.
Her friend nodded right next to her.
“It doesn’t actually look like Gotham City, though… I mean, where is that dark gloomy atmosphere?” asked Seren, looking around and taking in the pretty green bushes and trees.
Defne scratched the top of her head in confusion.
“I dunno. Maybe if we kept walking, it'll turn darker, huh?”
Seren just shrugged and set off to walk down an unusually bright Gotham City street. They walked together for a while silently, craning their necks from side to side to take in every last bit of beautiful scenery. Then they turned a corner and BAM! There it was the first sign of the true comic book atmosphere: A dirty wall covered with graffiti. And the old gloomy looking buildings everywhere. The two walked further to inspect the wall closer and found that there were criminal tags written on the other side of it.
“Wow, these people have worked really hard to catch the atmosphere.” mumbled Defne to herself.
They moved past the wall further into the heart of the city and Seren started to smile, nudging her friend every now and then to show her something in the dark architecture that caught her attention.
“It gets all the more realistic as we move forward, doesn’t it?” she asked the singer, taking in a few wrecked cars on the side of the road and a block of concrete on the other side, looking like it might crumble any moment. It was a truly thrilling scenery to look at. The fabulous crime ridden and dirty atmosphere of the comic books and the movies were revamped in this amusement park in such a perfect way.
Defne nodded, grinning, thinking along the same lines.
“I definitely like it better in here than the entrance area.” she said, walking closer to a Gotham City police car strewn with bullet holes. She leaned in close to see if there was a waxwork dead police officer behind the wheel but unfortunately, there wasn’t.
Eager to reach the actual area where the roller coaster was, they sped up their steps and continued to walk through the ominous environment.
Soon after, they were at the entrance of the main area. The two girls just stood and stared at the gigantic structure before them for a long while, studying all the loops and the corkscrews (there were two of each actually). Then they noticed the zero gravity roll they had been promised by the brochure and had to pick up their jaws from the floor to be able to talk properly.
“There is only one word that can describe this:” Seren began, she paused for a dramatic moment and then continued. “Awesome”.
Defne’s eyes were huge as she stared at the screaming people on the roller coaster.
“You couldn’t be more accurate.” she said, prying her eyes away from the ride and grinning at her friend.
They both stared at the giant Batman logo placed on a large dirty fan at the other side of the structure. The whole area seemed familiar somehow but she couldn’t name it properly. Then something clicked and she nudged Defne on the shoulder.
“Hey! Hey Deff, doesn’t this place look like Axis Chemicals from The Long Halloween?” she asked excitedly.
The singer inspected the building for a while, scrunching up her face and nodding in the end.
“Yyep!” she said, grabbing the other girl’s hand and starting to drag her towards the entrance.
“Enough geekiness for now.” she muttered, still holding Seren’s wrist even though she was already walking pretty fast to get into the building. “Let’s go have some fun!”
They entered the loading area – and of course it was built like the Batcave. You could almost expect Alfred to show up with that unique expression on his face and ask if Mr. Wayne needed anything. Batman film music was playing in the background.
Defne looked around to see if she could spot the Batmobile. She pouted slightly when she couldn’t.
“But… But where’s the Batmobile?” she cried.
Seren sighed.
“Well, it’s not here.” she said. And then added, muttering silently. “Would’ve been cool if Robin was here, though.”
The singer’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah. Robin…”
“The Dark Knight is coming next year, right? You think they’ll do another Batman and Robin after that?” Seren asked.
“I dunno. I’d like it if they did. Robin’s just…”
“Yeah, he is.” the other girl grinned. “Did you hear who’s gonna play Joker in the movie?”
Defne’s eyes widened with excitement. “Heath Ledger, yess!” she cried.
“It’s gonna be fantastic! I can so vividly imagine him as Joker…” Seren trailed off dreamily.
They chattered on more about the upcoming movie as they waited for their turn to get on the ride. And the rest was pretty much a blur to both of the girls. They got on the roller coaster, belted up themselves safely into place and then the adrenaline fest began.
They screamed shamelessly as the train effortlessly took the loops one after the other. They laughed and hid their faces against each other’s shoulders from time to time. They grinned like maniacs as they felt “the unbearable lightness” of being weightless at the zero g-roll. It was a whole different kind of an adrenaline rush, which they experienced. It wasn’t like being on stage all worked up or meeting someone famous… It was more like being at the wrong end of a loaded gun but knowing that your friend would never squeeze the trigger. Safe terror. For adrenaline addicts. There was always a risk, but people wanted it too much to care about the risk.
Neither Defne nor Seren could walk properly for sometime after they got off the machine. They leaned against each other, doubling over with laughter and trying desperately to stay standing. It was almost like being drunk or high. No sense of public awareness. No sense of self-balance. But an undying urge to just laugh forever.
They sat down on the ground together to be able to come down from their adrenaline-highs. A phone rang as they had finally cooled down enough to be able to not-laugh.
It was Defne’s. She checked the caller ID and smiled at the little device in her hand, flipping it open.
“Hey, what‘s up?” called the unmistakable cheerful voice of Gerard from the other end.
“Heeyy!” she cooed, gasping slightly to catch her breath. “I just got off of Batman: The Ride”
“What?” Gerard cried, dumbfounded.
She could almost see those brows raised so high in surprise that they could almost get lost in all that beautiful messy hair.
“Yeah… We’re at Six Flags. Wow, that was one hell of a ride!”
“Oh, really? You betrayed us, you traitors! This is Batman we’re talking about… Oh, no, Frankie’s gonna be so disappointed…” Gerard whined.
Defne giggled.
“Yeah, well, at least you got to sleep till noon, stupid! I was up in the middle of the fucking morning…”
“But it’s Batman!” objected the front man, still.
“Okay. Yep. It’s Batman. And it’s awesome. Though there’s no Batmobile… or Robin, for that matter.”
“Robin?”
Now she could see one of those brows rising up in curiosity.
“Uh-huh. Robin. ‘Cause, you know, he’s all hot and stuff.” she said grinning.
“You know what? I’m not gonna talk about this with you because I am so not jealous of a comic book character.”
She could hear the laughter in his voice.
“Okay.” she responded good-naturedly.
“So, when are you planning on coming back here?” Gerard asked.
Defne caught Seren’s gaze and they had a silent conversation with looks. And she finally came to the conclusion that they were really tired to do any more rides today so they’d better get back.
“Umm, I guess we can take off right now.” she muttered. “We’re both exhausted. We also rode Tony Hawk’s Big Spin before this and it was amazing! But, yeah like I said, exhausted now.”
Gerard chuckled at the other end of the phone.
“You’re crazy.” he muttered, and then added. “Did you eat any cotton candy?”
“Yepp!” she chirped happily.
“Well, pick up your ass from the ground and go get me some, too!” he exclaimed.
She paused before saying anything and her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“How do you know I’m sitting on the ground?” she asked.
“What?” Gerard asked, surprised.
“I said, how do you know I’m sitting on the ground?” she repeated, her eyes searching her surroundings.
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and then some hasty whispering went on. Defne listened patiently.
“Oh, I… I don’t. Know that. That y-you’re on t-the ground. I mean i-it was totally random of me s-saying that… ‘Cause that’d be like. But that’s hilarious, don’t ya think? You actually sitting on t-the ground?” he stammered.
Her mouth set in a firm line as she strained not to smile.
“You jerk, you’re here, aren’t you?” she asked slowly but surely.
“What, no! No no no!”
She stood up in one swift motion and turned around. Her eyes spotted a figure about 25 feet away, leaning against one of the dark dirty buildings. He was wearing a pair of those huge shades of his – she was at a loss at why he always wore them, if you’d ask her they had become signaturized, and hence not really the way to go incognito.
He wasn’t even alone. She recognized Frank and Mikey. And as her eyes wandered, she saw Zack and Devon were also a few feet away from them.
The singer grinned and flipped off her phone. She gestured for Seren to come along and they walked up to the guys.
“What the hell are you all doing here?” Defne asked.
“Well, we couldn’t let you have all the fun now, could we?” responded Frank with a sparkling grin.
“How did you know we were gonna be here?”
“Seren sorta told me last night that she was gonna drag you here first thing in the morning.” answered Devon as the other girl blushed slightly.
“Hmm…” she said, folding her arms under her breasts. “I suppose you haven’t experienced The Ride yet, then, huh?”
“Nope.” It was Gerard who answered this time.
“Go get on the damn thing then, it’s so much fun!” she exclaimed, flailing her arms around like a mad person.
“Yeah, you guys go. We’ll get the cotton candies ready for you.” Seren said, chuckling.
----------------
After the guys’ ride, Defne left Seren with Devon and fled the scene in a matter of seconds, muttering something about the restrooms. And Gerard caught her from the arm at that exact moment.
“You’re sneaky.” he whispered in her ear. “Leaving those two alone together like that…”
“They’re gonna thank me someday.” she said, chuckling. “Where’re the other guys?”
“I ditched them.” he answered, smirking as he wrapped his arms around her, turning her body to face him.
“Oh yeah?” she wondered.
“Yeah… So, where’s my candy, huh?”
She rose on her tiptoes to peck his lips. He leaned in closer to let the kiss linger. Then she drew back and smiled up at him.
“Let’s go get ourselves some candy.” she said, taking his hand and dragging him towards where she had gotten her sweets from.
By the time they were finished with the cotton candy, both of their hands and lips were sticky with sugar so necessarily, they had to lick each other clean.
It felt good. Standing in the middle of hundreds of people and just not caring about them at all. Not caring about who saw them kissing and giggling. Hands wrapped around each other tightly, devouring, drinking the other in, starting from the lips.
It felt natural.
Casual.
Beautiful.
----------------
They were back at the city as the afternoon started to slowly fade, clearing up the stage for the evening. Mikey, Frank and Zack – the poor ones with the long-distance relationships – went back to the hotel to have quality phone-time with their respective fiancées. So it was only Defne, Seren, Gerard and Devon left to walk aimlessly in the city streets.
The two singers fell back on purpose to leave the other two to their cozy little conversation and of course to have a little bit of privacy themselves.
“So, what’re you gonna do, now?” asked the bassist silently.
“Ummm, I’ve got a few campuses to check out, then I’ll be going back home.” Seren answered, wrapping her arms around her own body as if suddenly chilled.
“But you’re gonna come back soon, right?” He tried to keep the hopeful tilt away from his voice.
The pale skinned girl smiled, looking up at him.
“Yeah. In about… two months’ time.”
“That’s good. Though we’re still gonna be touring, then… So I guess I won’t be seeing you for a while.”
Seren’s heart leaped with bitter joy. Did that mean he wanted to see her and was sad that he couldn’t?
“Maybe I’ll come crash in the tour bus before classes start, who knows? But I need an invitation, first.” she said, smiling a little.
He turned to lock his eyes with hers and she gave a tiny sigh as she gazed into those childish sparkling green orbs of his. There was just something about Devon… He was surely charming, he had the lucky genes. The chestnut hair and the big greener-than-green eyes, the full lips along with the cutest dimples ever. Not to mention the shapely body. But there was more to it than all of those. He was usually so straightforward and sincere, yet at the same time playful and impudent. And there were times he would flash a grin and melt the person in front of him into a squashy mess of hormones. And then, there were times he could be so shy and introverted to the degree that he’d avert his eyes or duck his head. He was so lively, he made you wanna jump around, flailing your limbs wildly. And he was geeky, with all his comic book and FRP background. Seren decided she liked it. She liked the confident, hot man along with the shy little child inside. She wanted the whole package.
And as the bassist stared into the shiny light brown eyes of the girl in front of him, he saw the genius inside. He remembered her previous visit and the deep technical conversations she’d had with Zack and Defne. They were all engineers, literally, and the other ones who didn’t understand what the hell “torque” was or what the significance of electromagnetic induction was, were at a complete loss listening to them. But Devon had liked it. He’d started adoring her after she’d fixed some technical problem with his bass amp in a matter of minutes. She was different, somehow. Defne had went through the same education she had, they had basically grown up together to be the women they were today and still… Seren had this interesting spark to her, with that cute way she smiled and the caring sympathy she approached people with. Of course, she had her violent moments, usually under the influence of a certain lead singer, but she was normally calm, silent and good-natured, shy even. She was solid. Like a rock. He felt like he could trust her to keep him from getting lost.
Devon realized he never said anything back to her so he suddenly felt the need to speak up.
“Umm, I think I can manage to persuade Frank invite you over. It. It’d be nice if y-you… could, ya know.”
Seren nodded as she noticed they had stopped walking and were standing in the middle of the sidewalk, now. She took a little step towards him and smiled.
“That’d be nice.” she parroted.
The bassist’s hand shot up to hesitantly touch his fingertips to her cheek. When she didn’t do anything to signal a rejection, he covered her hand with his other one as he slowly leaned forwards in search of her lips.
She suddenly moved her head away and stared at him. They had near-perfect eye contact. She was almost his height.
“You’re leaving tomorrow.” she whispered miserably.
Devon just stood there for a moment without answering and then he smiled sweetly in response.
“That’s not a valid excuse for me to not kiss you. ‘Cause, ya know, I’m still here right now.” he whispered, his tone inviting.
She chuckled silently, suddenly fascinated with the toes of her trainers.
So he leaned in once again, holding her chin softly and bringing her lips to press against his in a sweet, lingering kiss.
“I can wait for you.” he said silently once they broke the kiss, as he was stroking her hair adoringly.
Her eyes shone with happy-wetness she tried to hide. She had found someone who could wait.
“Thank you.” she murmured, moving closer and wrapping her arms around his shoulders hesitantly. “I can wait for you, too.”
----------------
Neither Defne nor Gerard knew how, but somehow, they had ended up in a pet shop. Yes. A pet shop. Full of fish, birds, hamsters, rabbits, kittens and puppies.
Gerard had never seen Defne like that before. The kickass girl had suddenly morphed into a motherly woman in front of his very eyes. He knew there had gotta be something to make her behave like a normal girl. He wondered why he hadn’t thought of animals. After all, she didn’t eat chicken or fish. Actually, she consumed just a tiny portion of red meat products – she could be a vegetarian if she wanted. Gerard suspected the half-vegetarian status of her, depended solely on the large appetite she possessed. There was no way she could stop eating something she liked the taste of – sausages, for example.
So he watched as his psyched up girlfriend ran around the store from cage to cage, cooing over the pets and smiling a gleaming smile all the time like a little girl.
She went over to talk with a Golden Retriever puppy, which responded her with squashing his face against his glass cage and giving her excited puppy-dog eyes. Then she moved onto the hamsters, watched them run around in their cage, spinning their wheels and jumping around, nibbling on little pieces of food. She admired the white fluffy rabbits for a while, peacefully lying together, all snuggled up like that.
She stared at a giant threatening-looking king parrot as the bird chewed on a piece of apple it held with one of its feet.
She talked to the little love birds and budgies as they chirped at her all together. She laughed until her face got flushed pink. Gerard went to stand next to her as they gazed at the tiny colorful birds hop around in their cages.
“I used to have budgies when I was little.” Defne said nostalgically.
“Really?”
“Yeah. But one of them was fantastic…” she went on as Gerard listened silently. “His name was Rocky. Me and my brother had named it after Rocky Balboa.” she said, and he couldn’t withhold his laughter.
“Why would you name a bird after him?” he asked, amused.
“Well, because we were watching Rocky 3 when my mum came home with him in a little cage. And he was so beautiful, with his tiny white head and sky-blue feathers.” She smiled fondly at the memory. “He was such a clever bird. We taught him to talk and he was perfect. He would whistle and say my name over and over again…”
“Hmmm… The bird was clearly in love with you.”
She laughed out loud.
“Yeah. He’d start screaming from his cage when my dad kissed me in front of it.”
“Ooo, jealous type!” he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and leaned his head against hers.
“Then he died.” she muttered silently. “I came home from school and found out that he… I don’t think I ever cried so hard before that. It was my first loss.”
Gerard stroked her hair and placed a gentle kiss against her temple.
“I know the feeling.”
As they stood watching the little birds, Defne leaned closer to one of the cages, smiling to herself. She gestured for Gerard to look at where she was pointing and his mouth opened with awe at what he saw.
Two little budgies, one with a blue chest and the other completely white, were snuggled up against each other affectionately. Then the white one moved away on the perch. The blue one followed her and rubbed his tiny little head against hers, closing his eyes. She responded with a half-hearted preen at his feathers and then moved away slightly, once more. He followed her again, this time touching his beak to hers and they had a weird beak-make-out session for sometime. Then they snuggled up again, the white one rubbing her tiny body against the others affectionately. They both fluffed up their feathers and cuddled together all warm and comfy. It was the most adorable scene in the world at that moment.
Defne squeaked in delight, she couldn’t help it. She searched for words but they didn’t come to her so she just settled down for watching the obviously-in-love birds.
Gerard leaned over her shoulder and hugged her tighter as he whispered.
“They’re so cute.”
She nodded excitedly.
He reached over to turn her face towards him and kissed her lips softly. She sighed into his mouth and turned in his arms to be able to keep the contact of lips permanent for a little longer.
As they stepped outside into an alleyway in the dark evening air, hand-in-hand and not caring about someone spotting them, Defne was still smiling like a little kid with an ice-cream truck on a hot summer day.
“That was pure love.” she said, fondly.
“Yeah.” the front man responded, nodding. “I love you like that blue budgie loves the white one.”
They slowly came to a stop and Defne turned her head to look at him incredulously.
“Huh?” was the only word she could come up with.
Gerard blushed furiously and looked away. He noticed he had been swinging their joint hands a little and he stopped the action in mid-motion. Then he took a deep breath and continued like the grown up man he was.
“I love you.” he said, staring in the solid dark brown of her eyes as fireworks adorned them at his declaration of his feelings.
She gasped a little and held onto his hand firmly, studying his swimming honey orbs.
“I love you, too!” she said helplessly and threw her arms around his neck, literally jumping him.
He giggled childishly as he caught her tightly around the waist and tried to maintain his balance.
“You want me to spin you around?” he asked, still giggling.
She kissed him on the cheek sloppily.
“I don’t care! Do whatever you want to do…” she cried as she wrapped her legs around his waist.
Being the hopeless romantic he was, Gerard spun her around and she caught him by the mouth as they laughed and giggled like drunken high teenagers. She placed her forehead against his and cupped his face in her hands, her hair falling around both of their faces, concealing their kisses from the world like a veil.
They wandered on the streets whole evening, not knowing where they were going, but just walking. The point was to be together. With each other. Kissing and touching at every chance they got.
----------------
Gerard woke with the sound of his phone ringing furiously, the next morning. He picked it up from the little bedside table and didn’t even bother checking the caller ID before answering.
“ ‘lo?”
“Gerard? Did I wake you?” asked the unmistakable voice of his manager.
“Brian? Yeah, actually… L-look. If it isn’t ur-urgent or anything, can I jus –”
“Are you in a relationship with the lead singer of Soul Purpose?” he asked, out of the blue. He sounded slightly irritated.
It was too early in the morning for that.
“W-what?”
A/N: :O What’s gonna happen?
Pretty long one. Whoosh. But I got it done, yeah! Love declarations, too. Hmm, so guys, tell me what you think about this one. By the way, that budgie scene: actually happened. I melted down to the pet shop floor when I saw that.
Hmm, and I also apologize if there’s something wrong with Batman: The Ride scene, because I really have never ridden one of those and that was pure imagination and internet. But my mouth watered as I wrote it, I really wanna ride that roller coaster now!!!
And Heath Ledger… I’m so sorry he died so young. I'd been shocked when I'd first heard the news, I couldn’t believe it. He would’ve been able to do much more amazing things if he lived… I believe so many people would have if only they’d lived… So, I guess that’s why I included him in a tiny bit of this chapter. Yeah.
So, ummm, review and/or rate me! And I’ll love you because I’m really all fluffed up right now, hahahaa xD
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