MURDER MACHINE;; Mikey Way, 004

"'Morning, my gorgeous homocidal brother. Are you going to get coffee?"

Gerard ruffles my hair as Frank and I are about to leave the apartment. Gerard, he's still in his black pajama pants and a t-shirt. Homocidal. I can't say I'm impartial to the nickname, because it is clever. The kind of clever that could only be crafted by Gerard.

"Yeah," I respond, reaching up to touch the greasy hair on my forehead, but then I just flick it away instead.

"Get me my usual?"

I sigh. "Yeah. See ya."

In the car, Frank and I don't say much. He keeps looking over at me, especially at stoplights. I finally glance back at him and ask him what he's doing and he just laughs.

"You're so funny, Mikey."

I suck my teeth and laugh. "I didn't say anything!"

He smiles back at the road as we continue to drive again. "Nah... You're just funny."

"Well, thank you for making me self-conscious before I've even had my coffee."

"Sorry. It's nothing, it's just... Am I the only one that finds this amusing?" I look at him questionably and he continues, "I mean, you're a serial killer." He says it mathematically, and I suddenly grin, suddenly knowing where it's all going. "And...you can just go along with the everyday routine, driving to Starbucks to get coffee-"

"What do you expect me to do, Frank?" I laugh, glancing in my rearview mirror. "I fucking need my coffee. I'm not gonna run around town acting like the scariest thing in the world 24/7." I pause. "Because I'm not."

Frank nods and says, "I know."

And with that, I park in the parking lot, a bit too close to a nicely-polished Mercedes. A bit too close for neither my comfort nor theirs. But my car is a piece of metal trash anyway. I hold the coffee shop door open for Frank.

He laughs graciously and steps in gracefully, obviously feeling the way he should: like royalty, a prince, like my everything.

Starbucks has a distinct smell, a distinct smell that hasn't dawned on my senses in a while. I've been busy lately, with "business" and such, for absolutely no reason. But now that Frank's here, the tables have kind of turned. I look at things in a little bit of a brighter light.

Gerard used to say that when you fall in love, it's like you've spent all your life wearing sunglasses. And when someone walks in and takes them off, you see the world in a whole new shade, a new contrast, a new light. Something you never knew was there before.

But me, in love? No way.

As Frank pulls out my chair for me in return of my earlier politeness, I rethink the sarcasm in my thoughts.

I rethink everything I've done up to this point. Never, not once, have I felt guilty. Not until now, when I realize Frank's eyes have shades of every color. All except the ruby red that I've grown used to washing off my hands. I see none of that in Frank. In his eyes, I can't help but collapse to my scarlet sins, while he is as white as snow.

Frank's tracing the rim of his cup of coffee and watching me intently, with that concerned expression. The one I've gotten uncomfortably accustomed to. Frank's always worrying about me. The only thing that throws me off is how much.

I cough nervously, remembering what I have to do today. But he looks at me and I melt again.

I sigh and look away. I can't look in those innocent eyes while I say, "I need to go beat the shit out of someone tonight."

He sighs and I can tell he's about to crack a joke. "Violence is not the key, Michael James..."

And I can't help but laugh, but it's in the way we read each other like books that Frank looks at me through his eyelashes and knows he has to ask if I need him. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. But things usually turn out better when he comes; less blood, less scattered organs for the coroners to find. Frank adds a few teaspoons of rationality into my normally so hostile house calls. He spits out a few words and his optimism radiates over even the worst of people. And trust me... I've seen the worst of people.

Frank, he's an angel for sure.
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Thanks for reading =] Expect more. Well, don't expect, but...look forward to.
xD <3