mwestbelle | commentfic again

Mikey moves until he can slip his arms around Gerard's waist--going slow, graceful, no sudden moves to spook Frank, remind him that this is strange and terrifying and maybe he should scream for his mother. They're both in profile to Frank, bellies pressed lightly together. Mikey brushes an escaped strand of Gerard's hair behind his ear and smoothes his hand soft over Gerard's neck, far more gentle than he ever is when it's just the pair of them.

He glances out of the corner of his eye at Frank--eyes wide, but cheeks a little bit flushed--then leans down to Gerard's neck. He thinks licking would be a little too much for Frank to handle, but he mouths a little at the pale curve before he bites down, steady yet delicate.

Mikey's fangs slip in easily, and Gerard has to force his eyes to stay open, keep his hands from urging Mikey's mouth in more roughly. He looks at Frank, half-lidded, and isn't surprised to see Frank's face flushing. There's something decidedly intimate about the position they're in, Mikey's arm wound around him, tracing spirals on his back and fangs in his neck, faces inches apart. After a long moment Mikey pulls back with a wet sound and they move apart, looking at Frank to try to gauge his reaction.

Frank's mouth has gone dry, and he has to swallow hard more than once before he can speak. "Like that? I. Um. Wow." His heart is beating faster and he doesn't know why. "I... does it hurt?" Gerard definitely didn't look like he'd been in pain, far from it (and he flushes further at the thought, body feeling oddly hot) but he wants to know for sure.

"It's just a pinch at first but after that, not really."

Frank moves forward so fast they hardly have time to blink. "Then I want to try it. Come on." He tilts his head to the side, baring his neck.

God, Mikey can barely keep himself from bundling Frank into his arms and ripping at that pretty little neck. It would be so good, so sweet--young and tender and innocent, everything he and Gerard love. He doesn't manage to be completely good; one arm still wrapped around Gerard, he pets at the delicate flesh Frank's exposing. "No, Frank."

"No?" Frank frowns, though he leans into Mikey's fingers playing along his neck. "But. Why not? It looked." He bites his lip, swallowing hard again. "It looked nice."

"It's serious," Mikey says, thrilling to the feeling of Gerard not-so warm against him and Frank hot under his hand. "If you decide you want to do this and come with us, it's final. You won't be able to come back here."

"I--why not? Why won't I be able to come back?" Frank frowns, looking up at Gerard and Mikey with wide eyes. He's weighing the thought in his mind even as he asks, because his mother has expected to lose him since he was ten and first started coughing. If she knows that he just can't come back but he's alive and okay and happy, he doesn't think she would mind. He hopes it's at least okay that he tells her.

"It changes things," Gerard says, quietly. "The world moves on but you stop moving with it. Everyone you know gets old and dies but you don't." He doesn't dwell on the people he's left behind, not usually, but he had no choice in becoming what he is. He's not going to lie and say he doesn't remember his friends, though.

"If I. If I decided to go with you. Could I tell my mom? Just, you know. That you knew a way to cure me and that I'd be safe with you."

"Too many questions." Mikey thumbs over Frank's pulsepoint affectionately, with a soft exhale he doesn't actually need to make. "Too much that we can't explain. No one else knows about us. Just you."

Frank's eyes are wide and round, and Mikey can tell he's conflicted. Before he has to grapple with that decision, Mikey figures they might as well give him everything to think about. He's not sure exactly how he can broach the topic of what he and Gerard do to each other, especially since he doesn't know how much Frank actually knows. "Frank, how much do you know about a wife's duties to her husband?"

Frank turns pink. "Enough, why? Unless you're going to make me cook you dinner it doesn't really matter, does it? And um. Don't make me cook you dinner. I'm a terrible cook. I almost burned the house down once." He doesn't understand why they're bringing this up, not now. It's not like he's going to find a wife traveling around the world and he's definitely not old enough to get one anyway.

"Do you remember when I told you that two men can't marry but some... stay together?" Gerard gives Frank a meaningful look, biting his lip.

"Yes, but um. What about it?"

"Gerard and I." Mikey squeezes Gerard's waist gently, then smooth his hand over his side. He watches Frank closely for his reaction--if he knows as much as Mikey hopes he does, even in the abstract, it will be a shock. "It's like we're married."

Frank's eyes bug, and his face feels even hotter for some reason. "I. But you're brothers. Isn't. I didn't think that happened."

"It's not... common," Gerard concedes, glancing at Mikey for reassurance before continuing on. "But we've been like this for a long time. Does it--that, um. Bother you?" If it does, he's not entirely sure how to proceed--he'd be happy to bring Frank along with them even if it was entirely platonic, but--

"Um. Not really? I mean, it's weird. But." But in some way Frank almost saw it coming. What they just showed him seemed even to his inexperienced eyes more intimate than a normal brotherly relationship. "Why are you telling me? I mean, I'd find out--stuff. If I shared your room when you were traveling. I mean, I think." He's not going to admit to them that he doesn't know most details of what goes on when people are married, other than that it's private and all of his older friends are strangely obsessed with it.

"We were..." Gerard frowns, because he has no idea how to put it properly, looking to Mikey to help him explain. "Well."

"Well what?" Frank wrinkles his nose, mystified and more than a little embarrassed. As little as he knows about the matters they're discussing, he knows it's not a subject for polite conversation, something to make his mother pet his hair and promise when you're older (though he'll probably never get to be older).

"We don't want you to make any decisions you'll regret," Mikey says seriously, his grip sliding to tighten a little on the crux of Frank's neck and shoulder. "And if you come with us, you'll be part of that...marriage, too. So if you don't understand, or aren't sure about something, you need to ask before you get into something you don't want."

"Wait, you want me to be a part of that? But... you can't have a marriage with three people. I know that." He looks up to Gerard for confirmation, but Gerard smiles faintly down at him, giving him a look of You can't marry your brother either. Frank sucks in a sharp breath because they're serious and, well. He's confused.

"What do you guys, um. Do?" Frank asks, figuring that if there's any time he can admit to this, it's now. "I don't know how it works, um. Without girls." Or kind of with them either.

"We," Mikey looks to Gerard, a little at loss as to how he can describe this to Frank. He and Gerard learned by doing, experimenting, overhearing snippets of ideas. He has no idea what's too much to explain and what's too little. "We kiss each other. And...touch. And other things."

Frank blinks, still confused. Kissing and touching doesn't sound too different from what everyone does with their family, and he has no earthly idea what these mysterious "other things" could be.

"Not that kind of kissing," Gerard clarifies, seeing the look on Frank's face. "Not like a goodnight kiss. Um. We really can't show the other things here but we could show you that." He scratches the back of his neck, nervous. "I mean. Demonstrate it, you know."

Frank nods, hoping to get some understanding of what they're talking about, and Gerard hesitates for only a split second before pulling Mikey into a kiss, messy and openmouthed. Frank stares.

Mikey brings a hand up to cup the back of Gerard's head, threading fingers through his hair, and runs his tongue over Gerard's fangs, tracing the sharp tips delicately. He keeps his mouth open, and he knows Frank can see everything, hear the wet, needy sounds of them moving together, and the thought of Frank's wide eyes and round, flushed cheeks makes his hips hitch a little, even though they're just supposed to be kissing.

Frank finds that his lips are exceedingly dry, and he licks them and swallows again.

There's a burning in his gut, low and unfamiliar, and he can't stop staring at them, the way Mikey's hand tightens in Gerard's hair and he moves closer, hips shifting into Gerard's, the choked, needy whimper Gerard makes as he rocks back. And he gets to have this, have them.

Mikey has to force himself to pull away, giving Gerard's lip one last quick bite, before this becomes a far more detailed demonstration of what their relationship consists of than he'd planned. He looks over at Frank, takes in the definite flush to his cheeks and has to center himself for a moment to keep from lunging for him. "It's. That's how we are, together. How you would be, if you decide to come with us."

Frank tries to will his heart to stop racing and his breathing to calm, and he thinks for a long moment. On one hand, his mother would worry, but on the other he could be well and travel the world and be married to two brothers who are very quickly becoming his favorite people in the world. He feels a twinge of guilt at how easily he makes the choice.

"So, I wouldn't get any older?" he asks, finally. Gerard nods and he considers before continuing, "Then... okay. My birthday's in a week." He draws another calming breath. "Do it then. I'll come with you."

Mikey wants to smile, maybe pull him close and kiss him soft, just to know how he tastes (he bets Frank's sweeter than anything they've tasted). But he leaves his face blank and ambivalent--he can't get his hopes up, can't celebrate until this is definite. He's still a little unsure how much Frank honestly understands, and how blinded he is by the promise of health and adventures. "Are you sure, Frank? There aren't any second chances, it's forever. Do you want us forever?"

Frank nods determinedly, looking Mikey in the eye. "Yeah, yeah. I want to. And I know. And--" he flushes again, eyes darting downwards. "I want to do that stuff, too. With both of you."

Gerard has to grin at that and he exchanges a look with Mikey. He wants to do it. The entirety of the next week he's going to be a total bag of nerves. "So," he says, trying to figure out how it's all going to work. "If you bring what you're going to travel with to our room after your party we can change you then. Is that okay?"

Frank nods, stomach fluttering and trembling in a way completely foreign to him but filled with resolve. "I can do that."

The week passes in a rush--Frank barely sees the Ways, buried as he is in assisting his mother (and realizing with every hug and smile that these are the last times he'll ever see her)--and All Hallow's Eve is quick upon them. Gerard and Mikey dress to the nines for Frank's part, both of them in their very best, showing without a doubt how aristocrats dress, with Gerard in black and Mikey in deep blue. It is a masqued ball, of course, and they each procured a simple mask (white on black and black on white) for the occasion. And what an occasion it will be.

They enter the Iero home and it's a whirl of color, reds and golds and bright feathered masks but even though the commotion among them they can find Frank easily, the only one unmasked, surrounded by a crowd of people. He looks so happy he's practically glowing. Many of those around him are friends of his parents, who saw him when he was a frail boy of ten. They're celebrating, now, that he's made it to thirteen.

Gerard knows his and Mikey's masks conceal nothing, so he's unsurprised when Frank looks over, leaping up and hugging Gerard without so much as a thought to care about who might be watching. Gerard hugs back, and Frank grins up at him, already excited for the end of the party. He's going to get better tonight. He's going to get to do things with Gerard and Mikey and he's going to never have to worry about damp weather again. He can't think of a better birthday present.

Mikey isn't affectionate with anyone but Gerard, just isn't, especially not in public. But that's all going to change now, and though he's not quite willing to go as far as Gerard, he does reach down to squeeze at Frank's shoulder. Frank looks up at him, surprised for a few moments, then just gives him a sunny smile.

A relative comes over to give Frank her well wishes, and he's soon swept back into the tide away from Mikey and Gerard. But none of the three can summon much unhappiness about that--after tonight, they'll have forever. The party is loud with music and laughter, bright and cheerful. Mikey and Gerard, for how out-of-place they are, never feel it once during the evening. The Ieros and friends are tremendously welcoming, and the brothers might feel a little guilty about taking the community's favorite boy away were they not so anxious to have him for their own.

They leave the party late, nearly at midnight, and before they go Frank comes up to them, leans in and whispers, "I'll come see you once everyone goes to bed. I'm all packed." He smiles, gleeful with a childish "I have a secret" look as he turns away. Gerard nods to Mikey, and they make their way back to their room.

They wait for nearly an hour, Gerard growing steadily more nervous at each passing minute. He begins to consider that maybe Frank has changed his mind, maybe he's been caught by his mother and accidentally told her everything... and then he hears a knock on the door. He springs up to get it so fast he nearly falls to the floor.

Frank stands in the doorway, clutching a knapsack. His face is flushed and he's breathing hard, like he's just run straight here from his house (which he has).

Gerard ushers him in and closes the door quick behind him--any interruption now would be miserable. Frank drops the knapsack and closes his eyes, just breathing, trying to calm his already weak lungs. It's harder than he'd think, especially with that little spark of no more, I'll never cough so hard I can't breathe again lurking in his mind and quickening his pulse.

Mikey rises from where he'd been sitting in a chair, not even pretending to read a book. "No one saw you?" Anyone, a distant cousin or an eccentric neighbor, anyone who might have seen Frank slipping away from his house, coming towards the Ways, is a threat. Frank shakes his head.

"I...I went out the window." He gasps once more, breathing starting to settle. "I. The streets were empty. No one saw."

"Good," Gerard says, sharing a look with Mikey. "Should we--" He doesn't know how they're going to start doing this, and Frank is just standing at the edge of the room breathing hard, awkward in his uncertainty.

"What do I do?" Frank asks, looking around the room. The anticipation is going to drive him mad at this rate, if they don't just get on with it, but they know how this goes and he doesn't.

"Are you still sure?" He nods, and Gerard thinks for a moment before gesturing to the bed. "It'd probably be easier if you were sitting down."

Frank settles himself on the edge of the bed (the one bed and he didn't notice it before, but now that he knows the sorts of things Gerard and Mikey do it makes him blush) and waits, trying to stay calm when he could cry from excitement.

Mikey follows him to stand by the bed, looking down at him--blushing and eager, and soon they'll have him in every way. He reaches down to smooth Frank's hair back, a simple touch, but Frank shudders under it, inhaling sharply. A few moments pass, Mikey's hand resting in his hair and Gerard coming to lean against Mikey, all just experiencing the touch.

"Please." Frank sounds a tiny bit broken, and he's embarrassed by how badly he wants this, with a kind of formless hunger he can't name--he knows that Gerard and Mikey must think of him as such a desperate child. He looks down at his knees instead of up at either brother. "Please, do it."

Far from Frank's worries, Mikey thrills to the note of pleading in his voice. He turns to Gerard, cupping his other hand around the side of his brother's face. "Shall we do it together, brother? Or would you like the first taste?"

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