#mychem fic

[ghoulgirlwrites]

So Don’t Hate Me, Trust In Me

Pairing: Frank Iero x Female Reader

Era: Danger Days

Requested by: Anon

Word Count: ~1500

Summary/Request: So I was thinking about a Frank X fem!Reader (she/her) during Danger Days era, where they are really close and it's obvious they like each other, and Frank is more forward with liking her, but she's insecure bc she doesn't have any experience with relationships and intimacy (even just handholing and stuff), and is worried he'd be disappointed, maybe even something like she's not good enough for him. And he gets her to talk about it to him and is really understanding and reassuring, and willing to give her time and space, but she feels better after the conversation and wants to try. So basically angst to fluff?

A/N: I LOVED writing this one. It was one of the first fics I worked on in getting out of my hiatus and it was just everything I wanted in a request (particularly Danger Days Frank). Enjoy!

--

You’d just started a new job as Frank’s guitar tech. It was a dream job for you, since you wanted to work with bands and travel around the world, but you were too shy to get onstage yourself. MyChem were currently on tour promoting their newest album, Danger Days, and you were excited to work for them, since you’d been friends with Frank since shortly before Revenge had come out.

But the best part of the job was getting to work with Frank. The rest of the band was super nice and welcoming, but Frank was so generous and he seemed to care about making your job easier whenever he could. Every time you switched out a guitar for him, he’d grin at you as if you were his personal savior. When you’d first started working for Frank, you’d been nervous that it would affect your friendship, but it had only brought you closer.

However, you were trying to be cautious because you knew you were starting to fall for him. You figured that he was just nice to you because he was nice to the rest of the crew, but you often caught yourself wondering what it would be like to kiss him or to run your fingers through his hair, which he’d taken to wearing longer, down to his shoulders. You knew you couldn’t act on these feelings because you figured he’d never like you back and saying or doing the wrong thing could put you out of a job and you really wanted to keep working with him, not just because of your crush.

--

You were just about finished setting up before MyChem took the stage for tonight. You handed Frank his first guitar and he put his hand over yours on the neck of the instrument, holding you in his hazel eyed gaze.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“You’re welcome.” You felt proud that your voice didn’t tremble and you prayed he didn’t notice your hand shaking beneath his.

He turned to head to the side of the stage, but then ran back to you.

“Did you forget something, Frank?” You asked.

“Yeah. I just wanted to say you look really nice tonight,” he said.

Your cheeks burned as you averted your gaze. “Thanks.”

You watched him play his heart out, still bewildered from the compliment he’d given you. It wasn’t the first time, but usually his praise was about your work. Your stomach fluttered at the idea that he noticed how you looked. You usually dressed for comfort, in jeans, band shirts, and hoodies and you weren’t dressed that differently tonight, apart from the fact that you were wearing your favorite hoodie. You liked it because it was comfortable, but you also thought that it brought out the color in your eyes.

The show was nearing the end, when Gerard started walking around the stage as he spoke into his microphone.

“So before we play our last song, we wanted to give a big thank you to our crew who do such an amazing job at every show. Thank you to our merch, our lights and sound people--”

Frank cut in. “And I just wanted to call my guitar tech, Y/N, to the stage for a minute. Y/N, where you at, girl?”

Your face burned as you shrunk back, but you saw Frank walking over to you, his guitar still slung around his neck. He lifted one hand, beckoning you gently with one finger. “Come on,” he mouthed, his lips curling in a sweet smile.

You sighed, walking onstage to a crowd of thousands, who were all screaming for you. ‘Bet they’d scream for just about anything if Frank told them to,’ you thought bitterly to yourself. But all thoughts went out of your head as Frank took your hand and led you over to his mic so he could talk.

“This is Y/N, my amazing guitar tech, she keeps me in line all night, can we give her a big round of applause?” Frank asked the crowd, lifting his arms up towards the pit. You blushed over his comment about “keeping him in line all night,” and hoped the stage lights didn’t show how red you felt.

The crowd went wild once again and your face burned even more as you felt Frank wrap his arm around you and pull you into a hug, discreetly kissing your cheek. It was such a quick peck that you were almost sure you’d imagined it, but when Frank pulled away from you, he was blushing too, but grinning, the corners of his hazel eyes crinkling.

Frank finally let you go and you escaped to the sanctuary of backstage. You hadn’t wanted to hurt Frank’s feelings by running away, but it made you nervous being in the spotlight. And that kiss on your cheek had made your heart soar, but now you felt nervous. What did it mean?

--

After that night, you tried to keep yourself busy and limit your interactions with Frank. You didn’t know what his intentions were and you were scared you weren’t good enough for him. You had never really dated anyone and you knew he’d had quite a few relationships, so you were also afraid that your inexperience would be a turnoff for him.

It was hard to totally avoid him though, especially since you worked for him and you’d seen his face fall enough to know that he’d noticed and wasn’t happy about it, but you couldn’t help it.

Finally, he cornered you one day backstage while one of the opening bands set up for their set.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he murmured.

Your heart stopped. You were caught. There was no avoiding the conversation now. You swallowed hard. “Frank, I…I’m sorry. Can we talk about this somewhere more private?” As you said this, you saw Gerard out of the corner of your eye, looking over at the two of you, his eyebrows furrowed. Gerard was hard to miss these days, with his bright red hair.

Frank nodded and you let him take your hand and pull you away from everyone else. Once you’d stopped walking, he held your hand in his still, loose enough that you could let go if you wanted to, but tight enough that you could sense that Frank didn’t want to let you go.

He sighed. “Look, I--I’m sorry if I scared you off that night when I called you onstage, but I just--I wanted to show you how special you are to me and how much I like you, I just didn’t really know how. I didn’t plan on kissing your cheek, it just happened, so if you’ve been avoiding me because of that, I’m so sorry. I never want to make you uncomfortable and I want you to know that we’ll do whatever you want. If you want to pretend this never happened, we can do that, if you want to leave tour--”

You’d been listening to him ramble, your heart fluttering in your chest as he said everything you’d hoped to hear from him, but when he mentioned you leaving tour, you had to stop him. “Frank, I don’t wanna leave tour.”

His face lit up with a cautious sort of hope. “You don’t?”

You shook your head, offering him a small smile. “No, I don’t.”

He sighed in relief. “Thank God. So what is it then? I miss you and I want us to be good again.”

You sighed. “I like you too. I like you so much that it scares me. A-and I could tell you liked me too and that scared me even more.”

He frowned. “Why? You never have to be afraid of me, you know that.”

You bit your lip. “I know. It’s not that. It’s just that…you know I’m not very experienced when it comes to this kind of thing. And I’m insecure that I’ll screw it up, or that I won’t be good at…you know.” You trailed off, blushing furiously.

His full lips curved in a slight smile, his hazel eyes full of warmth and love for you. “Y/N, you’re going to be amazing, because you’re amazing. But we can slow things down, I can…I can back off a little if that’s what you need.”

You nodded. “Not too far back though,” you whispered, smiling slightly.

He reached his hand out to yours, linking your pinky with yours. The simple, gentle touch felt amazing.

“Better?” He asked, his eyes searching yours.

You nodded, reaching up with your other hand to brush his hair out of his face. It had grown down to his shoulders and you loved the way it looked, even when it obscured his beautiful eyes. “Thanks, Frank.”

He smiled. “Of course.”

The two of you took things slow over the next few months. Frank was unendingly patient with you, which made you feel brave enough to progress your relationship. You still worked for him, since it gave the two of you the chance to spend a lot of time together and travel around the world. You loved watching him play music and jump around the stage like a maniac. And after every show, he was yours, and that was all that mattered.

[myneuroticromance]

anyone have peterick or frerard fic recs? pls...

[necramoreux]

♱ take me alive. — ch i.: icarus ✶ vampyre!frerard ; (born, not made) — iwtv ; picture of dorian gray ; hannibal ; ethel cain inspired

"frank moan-snarls, pupils flaring to ochre-night, presses his mouth the back of gerard's offered thigh; splits beneath the weight of her foot slipping against the nape of his neck, bends and breaks and breathes; yours, in all things —" ☼

[dilemma-danger]

hii i uploaded the first chapter of one of my fanfics onto ao3 :3 uhhh go check it out pleasee i worked hard on it

They'll Come Looking For Answers (They Might Start Asking You Why)

oh also if you want to be tagged when i upload a new chapter lmk now

[ms-alli]

Happy Frerard Friday!

[k1d1c4rus]

hai hai... will any of cboyz fuck any of mcr ... just a question... cause . im thinking of ray domming trick and ofc pete and mikey but both trick and pete are doing it to make the other jealous...

sawree this is NOT 🙅 a mychem fic therefore the likely answer is no. i don't care for wet rag mikeyway. ray toro i respect u a great deal i dream u will someday get to breed patrick's hole but unforch it won't be in cboyz

[mcrficrecs]

Echoes of Mercy, Whispers of Love

Author: stoplightglow Pairing: Frank/Gerard Rating: R Words: 26k

They say the Lord works in mysterious ways, but Frank Iero has about had it. His band broke up, he's stuck in Belleville, and he's never felt further from his faith. He desperately needs something to believe in.

Enter Gerard Way, the bright-eyed stranger Frank just can't seem to stay away from.

[gghoulishdelight]

"gimme all your poison, and gimme all your pills!"

(pairing: rayrard

genre: h/c? kinda?)

sometimes ray has trouble voicing what he's thinking. sometimes gerard has to hold him til he can talk again.

a/n: this is based on the one vid where gerards laying on the couch and rays playing on his guitar, and gee tries to get him to play it in c and ray refuses. tism moment./j

Ray shifted uncomfortably in the rickety chair he had perched himself on, legs shifting to try and return the blood flow to them so he could focus back on the guitar in his hands and not the pins and needles sensation settling in his limbs. They'd been at this for a few hours now, and he was starting to regret not taking the couch and instead letting Gerard sprawl himself across it as if he were a porn model for a Playboy magazine (as if those models wore clothes that hadn't been washed in three weeks). Ray paused for a moment at that sudden train of thought, eyes widening like a deer in headlights as he glanced at the singer to make sure he hadn't accidentally voiced his thoughts. He had a bad habit of doing that sometimes; blurting out things he hadn't meant to say without even realizing it, only for it to dawn on him seconds later that he had said it aloud. Gerard seemed to be lost in though however, so even if he had said anything he doubted they'd even notice.

"Play it again," Gerard's voice snapped Ray out of his daydream all of the sudden, causing Ray to give them a slightly blank stare as they watched him expectantly. "The song, Ray," they grinned playfully, watching with slightly squinted eyes as the light went on in his head and his fingers moved to play it. It seemed to flow from his body naturally, fingers and hands moving without any hesitation as Ray closed his eyes to focus. Gerard took that time to admire Ray silently from his place across from him, eyes roving over his concentrated expression as the gentle smile still hung on their lips. Ray's eyes fluttered open to look back at Gerard once he was finished playing, surprised by the caring, almost.. loving look on their face. It brought a gentle blush to his cheeks as he looked down at his guitar, unsure of what the look was directed towards. He probably just liked how he played it.. right?

"Hm.." Gerard shifted so he was sitting up more now, his eyes focused back on Ray's fingers. "Add a few more majors in." Ray looked hesitant to start adding to stuff they had already established, the feeling apparently reflecting in his face due to Gerard's words of instruction. "You gotta play more major, okay?" There was a certain tone of soothing that would've normally ticked Ray off, had it not been coming from Gerard. He knew Gerard was simply trying to get him to step out of his comfort zone and break his already-set pattern, and it was already hard to resist their requests when they were giving him the saddest puppy-dog eyes imaginable. He sighed softly and nodded, this time having to watch his fingers move on the fretboard to make sure they were going where Gerard wanted them to go. It felt.. uncomfortable, to say the least, as he played through the song with a slightly more upbeat tone to it, facial features contorting to express the discomfort physically instead of verbally.

"Play it in C." Ray shook his head immediately upon Gerard's next instruction, raising his shoulders defensively but staying steadfast in his decision. "Why?" "Just.. no." "Why not?" Gerard was starting to sound annoyed by his stubbornness, which made Ray just want to give in and play it, but there was a part of him that just wouldn't give it up. He knew it wouldn't sound right without having to try it, yet didn't know how to explain that to Gerard. "Because." "Tell me why not." "Just 'cause."

"Just tell me why!" Gerard's voice rose unintentionally all of the sudden, causing Ray to tighten his grip around his fretboard to feel the rough strings dig into his hands. His leg started to bounce anxiously against the floor, drawing in Gerard's attention and making them take a moment to calm down.

"Can we do it somewhere else?" They questioned this time, receiving a slow nod from Ray, his shoulders still hunched slightly in defense. "That's all you gotta say, man," Gerard grumbled out of frustration, picking at the chipping polish on his nails and missing the hurt look that flashed across Ray's face at their words. They were interrupted briefly by Frank entering the room to drop off some snacks, the shorter looking confused by the scene before him.

"Damn Ray, whaddya do to make Gee look that upset?" Frank teased without really meaning anything by it, though the look of saddened regret that settled in Ray's eyes made him backtrack quickly. He shifted nervously in place, clearing his throat before he spoke again. "Maybe.. maybe it's time you guys took a break. Mikey's still not home yet, and I think you guys have been at it long enough," Frank's voice was gentle yet serious when he spoke again, catching Gerard's eye and glancing pointedly over at Ray's curled up form. They followed his line of sight and looked over at the lead guitarist, immediately recognizing what was going on with Ray and sitting up further.

"Ray?" Gerard's soft voice prompted Ray to tear his gaze away from the floor and back over to the singer, hearing the faint 'click' of the door closing as Frank left. Gerard felt his frustration disappear almost immediately at the sight of Ray looking so apologetic despite having done nothing wrong, motioning for the male to drop his guitar and come closer. "C'mere doll," they murmured sweetly, humming softly in praise as Ray hesitantly sat his guitar against the wall and stood from the chair. His legs wobbled a little as he shuffled over to the couch, muscles not used to moving after having sat for so long and vaguely reminding Gee of a newborn deer.

Gerard sat up fully to pull Ray down in between their legs, forcing him to lay down partially with his head on their chest. It wasn't entirely comfortable, but Gerard knew Ray needed closeness over comfort right now anyway, and they weren't gonna complain. He stroked a warm hand up and down Ray's right arm as the guitarist buried his face into their shirt, taking in a shaky breath of their scent to calm down. Ray's fingers were tangled in the fabric of Gerard's soft shirt now, the thin fabric offering little protection against the feeling of his trembling fingers just barely digging into their stomach. They mentally hoped he found comfort in the texture of his shirt, knowing Ray was even more picky about what fabric he touched with what parts of his body, so Gerard always made a conscious effort to find safe clothes for them both usually.

Gerard let them lay in silence a little while longer before he began his questioning, running his fingers down Ray's neck to prompt him to look up at him. Ray did so after a few seconds of consideration, a deep-set look of vulnerability in his fearful eyes. Gerard wasn't sure how a tall, well-built man of Ray's structure managed to look so much like a little kid who grew up in his brother's shadow whenever he held Ray like this, but he did, and it tugged at their heartstrings in a terrible way. Gerard only knew partially what growing up in someone else's shadow felt like because he and Mikey had talked about it occasionally a few times after they started the band, but (if they had to guess) Ray probably felt worse due to the fact that he had more brothers than Mikey did, meaning there was an even higher expectation for him to do his best compared to them. He isn't used to having all this attention on him, not without a reason behind it, they realized after having thought about some of Mikey's points when they talked previously.

Ray's eyes glittered with tiny tears gathering at the very corners of his doe-brown eyes as he gazed up at Gerard with something akin to shameful wanting, his gentle sniffles bringing Gerard back into the present finally. "What's with the tears, bubba? You're safe here, yeah?" They cooed sweetly and placed a cool hand on Ray's cheek to swipe a pale finger just under his eye, melting internally when Ray leaned into his palm. Ray just shrugged halfheartedly in response to the question about the tears, whimpering quietly in the back of his throat as he leaned closer to Gerard. A soft little sigh left Ray's lips as he allowed his eyes to fall closed again to try and get his emotions reigned back in, a subtle tremble settling in his body as he held on tightly to Gerard. Stability was always something he knew he could rely on with Gerard, ironically enough compared to their own lifestyle, but that was another reason they knew one another so well. Gerard was Ray's constant; something so sporadic and wild that he was comfortable with their self-built insanity, a never-ending stream of consistency that Ray expected and fit with seamlessly. He hated change, unless it was Gerard.

He could rely on Gerard for never changing, and he hoped their love would never change too.

[kylo-skywalkerr]

OK so I rambled a bit about this on a prev reblog of mine but I've been in search of good songs for my Kylo Ren playlist and I'm shocked that Mama by My Chemical Romance isn't on them!! What song is more Kylo!!

The paternal guilt, the angst about being a bad man, being disowned by a mother for your actions but she still cries when she finds out you're dead! The drama!! The regret!!! It's Kylo!

Ohhh I just got a fun idea for a fic. Would that actually be something anyone's interested in? I've beat my writer's block and am itching for prompts.... it just wouldnt be Kylux.

BUT I also did do a Kylux oneshot that I'm posting shortly, it's on the angstier side but I like angsty Kylux.

So much to write, so little time.

[hbbisenieks]

I'm fucking Offended at how many good fic titles there are in industrial/ebm/futurepop/etc song lyrics that just don't get used because the Venn diagram intersection between fic writers and rivetheads is apparently tiny

Like, here's just a small sampling:

"I turn your light off at my will" (Neuroticfish, "No More Ghosts")

"The most fragile of things captivates and embraces you" (VNV Nation, "Endless Skies")

"Last night was never supposed to happen" (Combichrist, "Today I Woke to the Rain of Blood")

"in your troubled eyes I see someone who carried me" (Apoptygma Berzerk, "In This Together")

Like seriously this shit is just as overwrought (complimentary) as any MCR lyric. Fic writers, go fucking Wild please I beg of you

[inlovewithaspiderguy]

one good way to be disappointed really quickly is to look up your favorite emo band on ao3 and search for the French fics CAUSE THERE ARE NONE

[you-will-return]

xo

[fishwithlegsandaheart]

we have to retire the 911 to fifty shades of grey butterfly effect bc theres one right there thats much more compelling which is the 911 to sold to one direction fanfic butterfly effect

( 911 —> mcr is formed —> fans write mychem smut of being sold to them —> the original creator of “sold to one d” seeing those fics —> they write sold to one d )

[thewordworrier]

I Gotta Shout This Out So Everybody Knows

Word Count: 4,247 words. Notes: ~ Title from "Party Poison" by My Chemical Romance. Oh hey, it's August 9th, that must mean it's a fic for Shelly's birthday! And this is a birthday fic, about her birthday. The first time her birthday rolls around while she's working for MyChem.

~~~~~ 9th August, 2004

It was early in the morning and My Chemical Romance were on their tour bus, heading to their next location. They hadn’t long been back in America after playing some shows in Japan. That had been a lightning visit, much to the disappointment of most of the band, Shelly included. The time difference had really taken a toll on them, which is probably why the boys were still sleeping. And Shelly should’ve been, really. She’d been having trouble staying asleep so she’d decided to get up and attempt to do some work.

Shelly was sitting in the room at the back of the bus that she normally used as an office when the boys were at the front - the distance allowed some dampening of noise when they were all awake and entertaining themselves. Now they were asleep, and practically just outside, she didn’t really need the distance so she should’ve maybe taken herself down the front of the bus… But she kept most of her stuff in this room and she didn’t really fancy dragging it all down to the other end just to have to move it back when they woke up. She knew that the door between the room she was in and the rest of the bus did soften any noise quite a lot, and she was pretty quiet anyway so she hoped that this would be enough.

She was in the middle of some paperwork, her hands full of different forms and whatnot, when her mobile rang. Without thinking, or checking the caller ID, she hit the loudspeaker button.

“Shelly Sketcher, just so you know, you’re on loudspeaker.”

“Shell-Belle! Sweetheart, you sound so professional!”

Shelly blinked rapidly at the familiar female voice but she had to check the caller ID just to be sure.

“Mama!”

“It’s not just your mother, we’re all here honey,” the voice of her grandmother, Rosie, came through the small speaker.

The blonde put her papers down and checked both the time on her phone and then on the screen where she had a widget set up that would tell her the time in different zones. It saved her from having to do ‘time zone maths’ because that was hard!

“Isn’t it really late there?” She asked quietly.

“Oh baby, that doesn’t matter.”

“Your mother is right,” her grandfather managed to get some words in. “That doesn’t matter to us right now. Happy birthday Sea-Shell!”

On the other side of the “office” door, Frank’s eyes widened. Quickly and quietly, he moved away to where they had a calendar stuck up on one of the walls of the bus - more for the band’s benefit than Shelly’s - she had her organiser after all, but she liked to write things on the calendar so the guys knew what was going on without having to ask her all the time. She’d written all sorts of things on it - interview dates, show dates, release dates, their birthdays and the birthdays of members of their families (like their moms) and all of that kinda fun stuff. She’d even highlighted special holiday dates to make them stand out a bit more. She was incredibly thorough like that.

But out of all of the things that she’d written on the calendar for them, her birthday wasn’t one of them. And Frank knew because he had just checked, at least twice.

Frank crept back to the door and pressed his ear to it. Shelly was still talking to her family, which meant she might be for a bit longer, so carefully and quietly, he shook the others awake, urged them to be quiet and gestured for them to head down the other end of the bus. He got a little grumbling and a tiny bit of resistance but they all did as he asked eventually. Before heading to join the others, he listened at the door for another moment, just to make sure she was still talking to her family.

“Right,” he said quietly, joining the others.

“This best be good Frank,” Gerard grumbled, still incredibly tired.

“It’s Shelly’s birthday.”

They looked up at him, all equally as surprised as he had been. Without saying anything, Mikey went to check the calendar.

“I’ve already checked that,” Frank said. “It’s not on there.”

“How do you know?” Ray asked.

Frank gestured to the back office. “I heard her on the phone. Her family called her to wish her a happy birthday despite the time difference.”

Ray’s expression softened. “That’s so sweet.”

“But she didn’t tell us,” Mikey frowned. “She didn’t even hint at it.”

“What are we supposed to do?” Gerard asked. “If it’s today, we’re travelling.”

“I don’t think we’re travelling all day,” Frank glanced at the calendar again. “We might be able to get to… Are we heading to a hotel? Get to wherever we’re going and take some time to go and find something for her.”

“She definitely deserves something, she remembered all of our birthdays,” Ray nodded.

“She did something for all of them too,” Mikey added.

“For now,” Frank said, still keeping his voice quiet. “We all need to go back to bed and act like we don’t know.”

Gerard frowned, not really liking the sound of that. “You want us to act like we forgot?”

“Like we still don’t know,” Frank corrected. “Don’t forget, she hasn’t actually told us. I found out by eavesdropping slightly.”

“Slightly?” Mikey raised an eyebrow at him.

“I wanted to see if she was awake and busy! It’s not like I did it intentionally!”

Ray tried to shush Frank, who had gotten a little bit loud in his protesting and Gerard glanced towards the back office door. Thankfully, it stayed shut.

“So,” Frank continued. “Back to bed until we stop moving, then we’ll figure something out.”

That’s what they did. Or at least, they headed back to their bunks. Mikey and Ray managed to fall back asleep, but Frank and Gerard took a little longer. Frank was double checking the itinerary that Shelly always emailed all of them so he could figure out where they would be stopping and what was local to that place so he could make some kind of plan of attack for when they got off of the bus. Gerard, meanwhile, had dug his sketchbook out of his stuff and was absentmindedly doodling as he thought about the girl behind that other door.

Shelly emerged from the back room before the bus stopped, creeping past the still sleeping guys to get herself a bottle of water. She stood in the kitchenette, drinking it and staring off into space as she got a little lost in her head. In the midst of this, her gaze drifted over to the calendar and she frowned. Something didn’t look right. She replaced the cap on the bottle, left the bottle on the side and went to investigate. The calendar was showing the month of April and that confused her, because she was sure that she’d turned it over at the beginning of the month. So why was it back to April?

It didn’t really matter, maybe one of the guys was looking up a show date or something and it got stuck. That could happen. Maybe she had been asleep - normally they asked her for that kinda thing. She shook her head at herself - she was overthinking it a little bit, and turned it back over to August.

When the bus pulled up to the hotel they were staying at, Shelly was no longer the only one awake - the guys had woken up in their own time, which she wasn’t mad about. The time differences had gotten to them a bit after all. She gently ushered them off of the bus before going to check them in.

“Alright,” she said, handing out room keys. “Nothing really to do today, so, feel free to rest as much as you need to. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

The guys echoed a “thanks Shell” before heading to their rooms. Not without helping her with her bags of course, they were still gentlemen, even if she protested that she could handle her own stuff. Naturally, she was affectionately hushed and she “let” them carry her bags for her. When they got to their room, she took her bags from them and they kinda lingered together while she went into her room. Once her door had closed, Frank lowered his voice.

“Right, drop the bags, take a minute and then we should go and see what we can get for her.”

“We’ll have to message her so she doesn’t come looking for us so she doesn’t worry,” Ray said.

“I’ll take care of that,” Gerard said. “I’ll say that some of us are gonna crash and some of us need to go for a walk after being trapped on the bus.”

“Good idea,” Frank nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”

The boys put their plan into action, grateful that Frank had concluded that there was actually a grocery store nearby. They scattered to try and find her gifts (Gerard had the bright idea to look for nail polish - he remembered that she said that she didn’t have anything really album appropriate, so he decided, being good at looking at colour, that he could do that for her. But he also ended up picking a few extras that he thought would suit her). They then joined up in the bakery aisle to see if they could find her a cake or something of the ilk.

When they’d made up their minds, even grabbing a few balloons, they paid and made their way back to the hotel to set up in one of their rooms. Once that was all sorted and they were finally ready, Frank went to get the blonde, leading her back to the other room. He opened the door for her to be gently accosted with a “happy birthday!”

“What… What is this?” Shelly asked, blinking rapidly as Frank gently encouraged her to sit down. 

“It’s not much,” Frank started. “Because someone didn’t tell us that it was her birthday -”

“Because it’s not a big deal,” Shelly mumbled, avoiding making eye contact with them as she fiddled with her earring. She looked an odd combination of embarrassed and guilty.

The band shared shocked looks.

“Not a… Not a big deal?” Ray said.

“How… Can you say that?” Gerard finished.

Shelly squirmed in her spot, starting to feel oddly uncomfortable with all of their attention focused on her this way. “I… Um… Well…”

They waited.

“You guys have other things to think about,” she shrugged a tiny bit, focusing on her nails. “You don’t need to worry about something like that.”

There was a brief moment of stunned silence as the guys tried to comprehend this.

“What do you mean we don’t have to worry about that?!” Frank was quietly outraged. “You’d only been working with us for a few weeks before Mikey’s birthday rolled around and yet you still made an effort there.”

“You hardly knew us and you still made an effort,” Ray added. “How are we supposed to take that knowledge and ‘not worry’ about yours?”

Shelly shifted even more in her spot before she mumbled a soft; “it was just food though.”

“Just food?!”

Gerard gently patted Frank to try and get him to calm down.

“It was my favourite food though,” Mikey chimed in. “My favourite dinner, my favourite cake and you made sure that we were back at the apartment so I could video chat with my family at the right time too.”

“You gave him some new bass strings too,” Gerard added. “And a new strap.”

“You can’t really call those a birthday gift though,” Shelly said with a shake of her head.

“Yes, you can,” Mikey argued. “I always need that kinda thing and I never remember when I’m running low, so to have extras around is a blessing. And the strap is great, you know I still use it.”

“It’s kinda my job to make sure you have the strings and whatnot though -”

“Nope,” Mikey shook his head. “You got the exact right ones and a lot of people might not have picked up on those details like you did.”

“People would normally wait for us to tell them that we needed those things,” Ray said gently. “Plus as musicians, strings and picks and all of that kinda stuff are always considered great gifts. You can’t go wrong with those.”

Shelly went a faint shade of pink.

“Then there were the rest of our birthdays,” Frank continued, a little less enraged now, but still impassioned. “You put effort into those. And, on top of all of that, you made sure that when you got us food, that it was stuff that I could have as well as it being stuff that we liked. Or that there was an alternative for me at least.”

“It’s not your fault that your body is mean to you,” Shelly tucked some hair behind her ear. “It would be a dick move to not take you and that into consideration.”

The light curse word amused them a little bit, actually.

“You also made sure that we had plenty of time with our families over Christmas and Thanksgiving, where you could,” Gerard added.

“Yeah, but that just makes sense. You were all working so hard on the album, you all more than deserved the break there,” Shelly paused for a moment. “It’s better to grab the family time while you can because touring can get really crazy.”

Frank snorted. “Ridiculous. I don’t know who’s said what to you, but you deserve to be celebrated just as much as us Shelly.”

“Yeah,” Ray nodded. “You keep us going, you know.”

“I thought that was what Band Mom’s Day was for?” Shelly said with a slight smile.

“Oh psh,” Frank shrugged and pulled out a lighter. “We’re gonna celebrate you twice, you deserve it.”

“You’re not gonna get a say in the matter now that we know,” Gerard said softly.

Shelly just looked embarrassed by this.

“Be grateful that we don’t have a show for a few days,” Mikey said with a grin. “Because you know that Frank would tell the audience too.”

“Hey, I think I will anyway.”

“No!” Shelly squeaked. “You don’t need to do that!”

“I’m gonna,” Frank muttered, lighting the few candles they’d gotten too. “Now make a wish before I somehow get in trouble for this.”

Shelly giggled softly and paused for a second. “No jokes about blowing?”

“Maybe later if that’s what the birthday girl wants,” Frank winked.

The others groaned, Shelly giggled and held her hair back before blowing the candles out. Ray passed around the disposable cutlery and paper plates (they had agreed that this was a good idea, and they could keep the leftovers/extras on the bus) before Frank took charge of cutting the cake for her, which she didn’t mind.

They sat around, eating cake, giggling when Shelly got frosting on her nose, and laughing properly when some of the food dye turned Mikey’s tongue a different colour. They exchanged childhood birthday stories and eventually, gave Shelly the presents they’d picked up. Although they were apologetic that it wasn’t much, they did genuinely seem to put some thought into what they’d eventually decided on, and Shelly was grateful for that - even if she did scold them for putting their efforts down.

“It’s not like you had a lot of time to do anything in,” she’d said as she’d gone around to hug them. “And you should’ve been resting! Not running around doing something for me! But thank you, so much.”

Shelly spent a little longer with them before giving them more hugs and heading back to her room, starting to feel the tiredness, the jetlag, and the guys could tell, actually, so they were more than happy to encourage her to go back to her room and rest while they tidied up.

She hadn’t been in her room for that long - long enough to change into something comfier at least, before there was a gentle knock on her door. It actually startled her a little. She grumbled to herself, softly, before peeking through the spyhole and then opening the door.

“Gerard?”

He smiled gently at her. “Hey.”

Shelly blinked rapidly for a moment before shaking her head and stepping aside to let him in, shutting the door behind him.

“Are you alright?”

“Mm,” he glanced around her hotel room for a moment; they tended to let her sleep alone instead of having to share with one of them, as often as they could.

“What… Can I help you with?” She asked, tilting her head a little as she watched the vocalist look around her room.

That sentence seemed to remind him why he was actually there because she heard him go “oh!” before he went over to the little table in the room. Shelly watched him open his bag and put his sketchbook down.

“Um, I wanted… I wanted your opinion,” he said quietly, opening the cover and flicking through a few pages.

As soon as he pulled his sketchbook out of his bag, Shelly had lit up - she considered it an incredibly big honour.

“I was thinking about new merch,” he said. “But could do with a second opinion, and as like, our manager and a fan…” He swallowed. “Coming to you seemed like a good idea?”

Shelly went slightly pink but she smiled, deciding that she might as well be honest about this here. “I’m honoured any time you wanna show me what you’re working on Gerard. I like your stuff. Gimme gimme.”

He almost giggled and couldn’t hide his smile at that, going through a few of his pieces with her.

“Definitely the bat,” she said once he’d gone through a few pages. “Not just ‘cause of the whole, people think you’re vampires thing, but also because it’ll tie in with your belt buckle. That seems to be becoming a bit iconic.”

“I... Oh, really?”

Shelly nodded. “It’s pretty neat, take care of it.”

“I… Oh. Okay,” Gerard hummed and looked over his art for a moment before deciding, screw it, he might as well. “There’s one more, but I’m not sure that it’s finished, and I’m not sure what’s missing, so I could definitely do with a second opinion.”

She blinked rapidly at him, a little surprised that he was willing to show her something that wasn’t really finished. She swallowed. “Okay, sure.”

Gerard flicked through a few more pages until he landed on a page with a sketch of a bird in the middle.

“This one,” he said. “I think it’s missing something…”

Shelly glanced at the art and tilted her head as she thought about it. Gerard watched her, trying not to think about how pretty she looked while she was thinking.

“Do you have any tracing paper?” Shelly asked.

“Actually, yeah, I do,” he opened his bag and pulled some out of another sketchbook.

She hummed and wandered over to one of her bags, pulling out a cosmetics case and then pulled out an eyeshadow pallet, which she brought over to the table with her. Gerard watched her, incredibly curious. Until she looked up and caught him looking at her. She smiled at him and he looked away quickly.

“Do you trust me?” She asked softly.

“Yeah,” he said, surprising himself at the lack of hesitation.

“Can I borrow a pencil?”

Gerard nodded and retrieved one for her. She hummed a ‘thanks’ before laying the tracing paper over the bird on his sketchbook page. He watched her lightly, so lightly - he could barely see the graphite marks, trace the basic outline of the bird, but she altered it very slightly so the wings were a bit more spread.

“I don’t wear a lot of red, so I don’t mind doing this,” she continued, opening the eyeshadow pallet and tapping her finger in the red that was there, barely touched. “But it’s one of the album colours, so it makes sense.”

He watched her dab the eyeshadow around the bird, mostly around the wings and tail feathers, and then to the side  in the shape of a gunshot wound and blood drop. She spent a couple of minutes doing that, and when she was happy, she hummed, brushed some hair off of her face and picked up the pencil again, and pencilled the band’s logo between the bird and gunshot wound.

“You’d have the wound on the side,” she said, sketching a tshirt shape around the design. “And the bird sorta on the chest almost? Naturally, it’d be on black because, obviously.”

Gerard moved a little closer to her so he could look over her shoulder a bit better. “That looks pretty cool. What made you think of that?”

Shelly looked up and over her shoulder slightly, raising an eyebrow at him. “Really?”

He blinked rapidly as his eyes scanned her face and he chuckled.

“What?”

“Um, you’ve got…” He hesitated for a moment. “You know what, let me get that.”

Shelly frowned a little bit before he raised a hand and gently wiped the eyeshadow smudge off of her face.

“Oh!”

“You must’ve done it when you moved your hair off of your face earlier,” Gerard said softly. “I think it’s all gone now.”

“Um…” Shelly whispered. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he smiled.

“Um,” Shelly swallowed quietly before clearing her throat and turning back to the art on the table. “Bullets and doves.”

Gerard blinked for a moment before he remembered that he had asked her a question. He looked back at the page and it hit him. “Oh! Yes, of course.”

“I was gonna say,” she grinned at him slightly. “You wrote that, you should know.”

“I write a lot of things!” He protested with a smile. 

“Alright, you sing that every show!”

“Shush, stop exposing the flaws.”

Shelly just giggled before shaking her head and looking back at the art. This gave him a chance to look at her a little more.

“Would you be… Alright if we used this for merch?” He asked softly, aware that he was still standing very close to her, but she didn’t seem to mind.

She looked up at him, almost confused. “It’s your art Gerard, you can do what you want.”

“Yeah but,” he rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, it’s your composition and your idea after all.”

“Hmm, well…” Shelly shuffled in her spot a bit. “I mean, if you like the idea, you’re more than welcome to it, but I don’t really want any credit for it.”

“But -”

“I don’t need credit,” she said softly. “I didn’t really do much, I was just inspired by work that you’ve already done.”

Gerard “hmm’d” and studied her face for a moment before nodding. “Okay, compromise? No official like, printed credit, but if anyone asks?”

Shelly nodded. “Okay. I think I can agree to that.”

“Other than that,” Gerard said, not quite believing that he was just about to say this. “This can just be between us. I’ll resketch it and show you when it’s done.”

“And you know I’ll wear it,” Shelly tucked her hair behind her ear again, getting more eyeshadow on her face.

“Um…” He gestured to where the make-up was. “You’ve done it again.”

“Oh, for -” she sighed, shook her head and moved away from Gerard, heading back to her bag.

He found himself a little disappointed that she’d moved away, but pushed that aside as he watched her pull a packet of make-up wipes out of her bag so she could clean her face.

“We’re sorry we couldn’t do much for you today,” he started, noticing that she’d looked up at him as soon as he started talking.

“Oh, nonsense!” She tossed the wipe in the bin after cleaning her hands. “It’s not like I gave you guys any kinda warning or anything.” Her voice softened and she sounded… Shy? “I think you guys did great with the time that you had.”

Gerard relaxed a little bit. “I’m glad you think so.”

“Of course I think so, you guys didn’t have to do anything at all, let alone what you did,” she glanced at the small pile of things on the bedside table - the things they’d given her as gifts. “I’m just so grateful that you wanted to do anything at all.”

“Why… Why wouldn’t we do anything for you?” Gerard frowned. “Like we said earlier, you did things for ours. And you do so much for us. Of course we’re gonna show you that we appreciate you.”

Shelly studied him for a moment before crossing the room again, stopping in front of him and hesitating. He blinked at her, tilting his head in question. She was a little pink but she leant up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “For appreciating me, for the effort, for trusting me with your art, because that’s an extra special gift too, even if you didn’t intend it to be, or even if you disagree.”

“I…” Gerard decided not to argue with her about that, because he wouldn’t win, and actually? It was nice that she felt that way. Instead, he hummed happily and, after his own moment of hesitation, wrapped her up in a hug, which she more than happily welcomed. “You’re so welcome. Happy birthday.”

[ms-alli]

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[mcrficrecs]

(Mama)

Author: jatty Pairing: Frank/Gerard Rating: R Words: 351k

"She's not crazy, she's just sick." That's always been Frank's argument whenever his mother's behavior is brought into question. Whether she's yelling or hitting, or ignoring him altogether, Frank knows it's not his fault--she's just sick. She's not crazy.

Gerard doesn't see it that way. Working as the loss prevention manager for the local Spend N Save dollar store, Gerard has seen his share of crazies and hoodlums. So when he catches Frank stealing a pair of headphones, he doesn't hesitate to confront him. But what was meant to be a routine procedure turned quickly into a dangerous game when Mrs. Iero enters the mix.

Faced with losing his job if he allows Frank to steal, but knowing Frank will suffer severely if Mrs. Iero sees him being confronted by the staff for his thefts, Gerard becomes caught between doing what's legal and what's right--and things only get harder when Frank gets closer and closer, begging Gerard not to tell the cops about his mother because she's not crazy, she's just sick.