Despite the lack of family members and the overall monotony in the atmosphere, Gerard Way thrived on making this the best damn Christmas that he and his friends had ever experienced. Even though there was a massive snowstorm outside, causing the occasional thrash against the windows and freaking everyone the fuck out, he would ensure that they all had a good time and no one ended up completely wasted to the point of aggravation, or bored out of their minds. He had a few ideas to make the day much more interesting than everyone would have expected, which mostly consisted of various games to play that involved throwing food manically at a variety of objects.
Somehow everyone was able to make it to Gerard's house without either being eaten alive by the mountains of snow towering over everything, or without even the smallest case of frostbite. It wasn't long before everyone who was expected had arrived, each immediately requesting beer, despite it being roughly 6 PM. Gerard could tell that his plans for making this Christmas great were going to go along perfectly.
Nearly everyone was in the kitchen, mauling Gerard's fridge in search of alcohol, except for Frank, and Gerard himself. Gerard happily approached him, a permanent smile on his face as he greeted Frank with a hug.
They exchanged casual conversation, mostly about their shared hatred of the bleak substance that is snow. Frank complimented Gerard on his Christmas decorations, and in turn Gerard commented on Frank's newly dyed brown hair with "it suits you." As their uninterrupted conversation continued, it became deeper and dove into more serious matters.
"You still with that Karen chick?" Gerard questioned, trying as hard as humanly possible to appear nonchalant, when really he was dying to know, and secretly had been cursing her with some form of fungus that would scare Frank off for weeks now. He had no such luck with that, though, as it appeared he wasn't blessed with the ability to curse people with mold infections.
Frank shook his head, to Gerard's utter relief.
"Things just... didn't work out," Frank admitted, with what Gerard noticed to be the slightest frown. Gerard sympathized, knowing the feeling of something you desperately wanted to blow up right in your face. Or rather, in Gerard's case, not even happen.
Frank explained the situation to Gerard; that it was Frank who had done the dumping, for reasons he refused to state--although Gerard didn't directly ask, it was pretty much obvious he wanted to know, anyway. He said that she took it badly; she threw some things--most directed at Frank himself--and called him many obscene terms, as well as keeping many possessions which weren't hers in the first place when she moved out a week ago.
"Yeah... she may have been a little insane," Frank laughed, although his proclamation sounded more like a statement rather than a joke. And just as Gerard was about to question why Frank had broken off what seemed to be a perfectly good relationship with someone he seemed to care about, Mikey and Bob decided to emerge from their places in Gerard's kitchen. Bob immediately ran to jump into Gerard's lap, and by the smell of his breath, he had no doubt been drinking a fair bit.
"Hey Bob," Gerard grinned, pushing said person off of his lap, to his discomfort. Bob grunted, instead using Mikey, who was sitting beside Frank, as a headrest.
"Geee," Bob sung, pulling his head up from Mikey's shoulder momentarily to look at Gerard properly. "You need more beer, man. I want to get totally smashed tonight. So like, when I open my presents, and they turn out to be twelve pairs of socks, I can be happy about it. Y'know?"
Gerard never was fond of the stupidity that came along with drunkenness. Thankfully, he'd given up his feud with alcoholism and was able to get over that stage in his life years prior. Bob, however, didn't seem to care what it did to him.
"I think you've had enough to drink already, Bob..." Mikey stated, giving him a somewhat scolding look. "And it's only like, 6:30. And you aren't even making sense, and—hey, are you listening to me? No--Bob, leave the tablecloth alone--Bob!"
Frank giggled at the childish sight before him: Bob reaching to toy with the tablecloth covering the coffee table, and Mikey restraining him. He turned to Gerard, who was laughing as well, and asked, "Wanna go outside for a smoke?"
Gerard had no problems with smoking inside, but there was no way he was going to refuse Frank's offer, so he nodded. They stood simultaneously—looking at each other briefly and sharing a secret smile that held more meaning than either of them could comprehend—before they left Bob and his thrashing about to Mikey, who was very displeased.
Before the back door was closed, Mikey's shout of "BOB LEAVE THE CANDLES ALONE!" was heard, followed by a smash of what Gerard could only hope wasn't a candle on anything flammable. Frank shut the door behind him, giggling, and took a seat on the step, with Gerard following suit.
"You know," Frank began, taking a long drag of his cigarette and exhaling into the cold air. "They'd make a cute couple."
Gerard turned to him, a curious look crossing his face. "Who?"
Frank smiled. "Bob and Mikey. I swear they have a thing for each other. It's so obvious Mikey cares for him a lot."
Gerard considered it, and had to admit Frank's theory did hold a lot of truth. And besides, contrary to what both his brother and Bob must have thought, he did notice the way they looked at each other, and the looks they gave. And of course, considering Gerard was gay himself, he found this adorable.
He grinned, stubbing out his cigarette and directing his attention purely to Frank, and the assumption they were discussing. "Should we try hooking them up?"
Frank grinned a mirroring smile, and nodded, slurring a "for sure."
They shared another smile, before re-entering the house to set their devious plan into motion. For the first time since Gerard had seen Frank that day, he was thinking of something other than a way of getting them together. He was quite looking forward to this—and for all he knew, maybe during their evil little scheme of getting the other two together, he could work out a way to get himself hooked up with a certain 5'4" brunette.
Of course, now there was a small distraction, in the form of a large afro. Bob was sat on Ray, admiring his hair, and tugging at the roots, giggling at Ray's expressions of discomfort. Frank and Gerard looked toward each other, both rolling their eyes at Bob's utter immaturity that was admittedly really cute, but they needed Bob off of Ray and back onto Mikey, stat.
Frank contemplated, his arms crossed and a thoughtful look on his face to indicate this. Gerard smiled at him, almost tempted to just get the desire to kiss him out of his system, but refrained from doing so, because this was about his brother and his obvious crush, not Gerard and his obvious crush.
And so began Frank's plan of getting Mikey and Bob closer together.
Frank approached Ray, muttering something quietly to him that no one but Ray could hear; not even Bob seemed to be able to listen in, not that he was trying. Ray nodded in agreement to whatever Frank had said, or asked, or whatever, and carefully slipped out from under Bob, heading to the stairs of Gerard's basement and descending them.
Gerard walked up beside Frank, and asked, "What's he going down there for?" to which Frank merely smirked.
Frank sat beside Bob, forcing he and Mikey to be closer beside each other, because hell, Frank was so obviously taking up more space on the couch than he should have had to. But, naturally, neither of them said anything to protest the contact, which only further proved Frank and Gerard's suspicions that they, secretly or not, had feelings for each other.
Minutes later—in which Gerard hadn't moved from his standing position in front of the couch—Ray returned from the basement, green plant—adorned by a red ribbon and matching berries—in hand. Gerard raised an eyebrow as the mistletoe came more into view, and laughed softly to himself when he realized what Frank must have been up to.
Ray handed it to Frank, smiling, which signified that Frank must have quickly clued him in about what they were planning on doing. Mikey eyed Frank curiously, evidently having not seen the object now concealed in Frank's hands, as Ray and Gerard grinned.
"So guys," Frank said, holding his fist up atop Bob's head. "We all know you two have wanted to do this for, like, ever. And it's so obvious. It's about time you did something about it. So here, I'll initiate it."
His grip on the plant loosened, letting it dangle freely from his fingers. Mikey's eyes widened, while Bob's expression continued to stay practically as casual as ever, a mere hint of surprise surfacing. An almost unnoticeable smile was seeping through both of their serious expressions.
"Go on," Frank urged, shoving Bob's shoulder toward Mikey slightly to impel him. Bob half-shrugged, leaning forward, his hands on either side of Mikey, and placed a chaste kiss to his lips. Mikey was dazed, and a flushed mess, yet found the ability to kiss him back after a moment of stillness.
The others grinned in accomplishment, and offered to give the two time alone, to hopefully make things between them official. Mikey, obviously quite embarrassed at the public display of unexpected affection from Bob, shook his head, asking to open presents, instead.
"Ooh, presents!" Frank exclaimed, springing forward to dive into the pile of wrapped gifts placed sloppily around the tree. Everyone else laughed, seating themselves beside Frank on the floor; Gerard next to Frank, of course, and Bob in Mikey's lap, most probably crushing him.
They all exchanged gifts, most much too extravagant and expensive for their liking, but no one was complaining, really. Everyone's gifts to each other were quite cliché—mostly clothing, as gay as that was, and as Bob had guessed earlier, socks—until Gerard came across Frank's present to him, which happened to be the last one unopened. He sent Frank an appreciative smile, which Frank gladly returned, before he began ripping off the paper, revealing a picture frame. None other than Frank, with that ridiculous, cheesy, fucking adorable grin plastered across his gorgeous face was the picture presented, and Gerard had to laugh at the irony of that.
"What's this about? I've already got like, a million pictures of you around here."
Frank grinned in almost the exact way he was in the picture clasped in Gerard's hands, and inclined closer to him, his breath warming Gerard's neck.
"The picture is supposed to represent something much more valuable than what it seems," Frank stated; his voice, if Gerard was reading it right, seductive. This caused an unexpected blush to spread across Gerard's usually pale face, and another completely different change to take place somewhere else on Gerard's body.
Frank smiled, his arm reaching behind Gerard and resting on the opposite side of him. He rested his head on Gerard's shoulder, looking into his eyes and grinning.
"Gerard. I'm giving you me."
To say this shocked Gerard would have been a major understatement; he was stunned. Stunned, amazed, and just completely confused.
"What do you—"
He was cut off by Frank's lips crashing into his own, sending Gerard into a moment of immobility. He was frozen in place, the ability to concentrate on anything except his own disorderly thoughts and the way Frank's lips were moving so proficiently against his leaving him. The fact that there were three other sets of eyes staring at them also didn't register, as the only thing Gerard could manage to remember at that moment was to kiss him back.
When Frank reluctantly pulled away—a blush of his own extending along his face—he smiled sweetly at Gerard and interlaced their hands, squeezing lightly. Gerard was still in a state of shock, but was able to control the fact that he wanted to scream out of pure contentment by just smiling at Frank.
The rest of the night was a blur of random events; there were few things that Gerard did remember, one of them being that Bob had poured eggnog gracelessly all over Mikey's head, ruining his new band shirt that Ray had spent more money than necessary on, and in turn, that started an argument about who was to buy Mikey a new one. And then it was 9 PM, and Mikey had borrowed one of Gerard's old way-too-big plain black shirts and was currently throwing different types of food at Bob's head, just as Gerard had predicted would happen earlier.
Bob and Mikey were clung to each other on the couch—Bob no longer completely piss drunk, as the fact that he and Mikey were now an item seemed to eradicate any drunkenness that he had. Ray was sat on the floor, watching some hockey game that no one else was interested in, while Frank and Gerard were cuddled up on the only available chair, Frank in Gerard's lap.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" Frank asked, randomly. Gerard tilted his head to the side for a better look at the man in his lap.
"Tell you what?" he asked in reply, pulling Frank closer to him and leaning his head on his shoulder.
Frank smiled, leaning back into Gerard's warm chest, and saying, "How you feel about me."
Gerard thought about it, despite already knowing the answer. He'd known it for months. "Thought I'd freak you out," he admitted.
Frank giggled, leaning further back to kiss Gerard, shyly. Their kisses were simple and sweet, as it would take some time before they could be completely comfortable with it, and go any further than that. Frank had never before been with another guy after all, so this was a new and rather different experience for him. But so far he liked it, and the feeling he got when he was around Gerard.
They spent hours after that simply talking and occasionally kissing—just enjoying each other's company. They would frequently "aww" at the adorable sight of Mikey and Bob sharing timid glances and gentle kisses every few minutes, to which they'd receive a playful "fuck off" from Bob. This Christmas truly was turning out to be the best one for each of them, ever.
Before long it was nearing midnight, and Ray announced he had to get home before his dogs starved to death and used his bed sheets as an alternative for food. He hugged everyone goodbye, gathering up the presents he'd received, and yelled out a loud "bye!"—which was returned—before he left, leaving the other four to stare awkwardly at each other.
It was Bob who broke the silence with, "Fuck this. I'm going to bed."
He stood up, much to Mikey's protest, as he was using him as a pillow. Bob laughed softly, reaching out his hand—which Mikey took—and began dragging him upstairs with him. Frank grinned, shouting out "no sex!", which had Mikey blushing an insane shade of red.
Mere moments after they had disappeared up the stairs and out of view, Frank yawned, proving that he, too, was tired. A yawn from Gerard soon followed, which he realized was his indication that he was ready for bed also, which had honestly sounded good all day. Frank understood Gerard's thoughts, as he forced himself out of Gerard's arms, and ran upstairs before Gerard even had the chance to stand up.
Once he did, he shut off the TV and lights, not bothering to clean up any of the wrapping paper or food sprawled across everything, because he was too damn tired. And besides, he had Frank waiting upstairs for him—Frank, of all people. There was no way he was going to make him wait.
He ran up the stairs, two at a time, and collapsed onto his bed, where Frank was already lying under the covers, his head not even visible. Gerard realized this was because of the undoubtedly cold temperature in the room, and not because Frank was just playing a childish game.
He slipped in beside him, pulling the blankets over himself and shyly wrapping an arm around Frank's unclothed waist. He shivered when he felt how cold his skin was, but smiled when Frank rolled over to face Gerard, almost immediately pressing their lips together.
Frank rested his forehead against Gerard's, smiling brightly as he looked into the other man's hazel eyes. The weak light escaping through the room's curtains showed just how much Gerard was glowing, which proved to Frank how content he truly was, and that very thing was what made his Christmas complete.
"Gerard?" Frank interrupted the silence, in which they were merely staring into each other's eyes, an unspoken conversation occurring.
Gerard smiled, whispering a "yeah, Frank?" in response.
Frank smiled back, pressing a prolonged kiss to Gerard's slightly parted lips.
"Merry Christmas, baby."
