Folie à Deux (Frerard)

Chapter Nine - Gerard's POV

"You seem to enjoy gifts, though. That cardigan is practically your skin now."

"Yeah, because it's warm and fuzzy... Much unlike you."

I pouted at him. "Oh, what? I'm not a sufficient supply of body heat?"

"Your soul is ice, Gerard," he declared.

"Ah, yes, but that had nothing to do with body temperature."

"Well, how am I supposed to know what your body temperature is?" he said haughtily, trying to sound smart.

I threw my arms around him suddenly, making him stumble a bit.

He laughed, getting the message. "Okay, okay, you're warm, I get it." He reached up, peeling one of my arms off of himself and allowing me to leave one arm over his shoulders.

I sighed, resting my head on top of his. "It's nice having a short friend," I decided. "You make a good armrest."

He glared at me but grinned, knowing I was just teasing. He had stopped blushing quite some time ago about height, and it was getting harder and harder to make him blush.

"Hey, Frank?"

He looked up at me, eyebrows arched slightly. "Yeah?"

I quickly leaned forward before he could protest and placed a sloppy kiss on his cheek, making him let out an annoyed squeaking sound. He was fifty shades of embarrassed and adorable.

"You're blushing," I sang.

"Ge-rard," he whined, dragging the individual syllables of my name out. He was wiping his cheek with his sleeve, nose scrunched up.

"Mission accomplished!"

"But-"

"Nope, as long as I keep a record of once a day, I'm succeeding, Frank. Making you blush is getting hard but it's worth it."

He just glared at me playfully again. "One day you're going to run out of things to do and the whole cheek-thing won't work anymore."

"Oh, I'll find something," I assured him. "I promise now that there won't ever be a day in your life again when you don't blush."

He sighed. "Gerard, what on earth am I going to do with you?"

I slung my other arm around him again, crossing past his chest and lacing my fingers together on the other side of his body, resting my palms against his shoulder. "Keep me around forever and continue to steal my clothes and food?" I suggested.

Frank just looked up at me, smiling. "Forever?"

"Yep."

"You know that that'll never be long enough."

I grinned and we walked on, falling into silence for seven seconds too long.

"Gerard?" Frank said seriously.

"Yeah?"

"This is nice."

I raised an eyebrow, not sure if I was understanding. "Wh-"

He was turning pink again. "Just, having a friend and all."

I grinned. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

It had been so long since I had had someone like Frank around me. The most social I got was hanging out with Mikey, but that was never for too long, anyways. As much as I enjoyed being around my brother, we've been slowly growing apart for years now. He's still the same kid he always has been, but I've been growing and changing and I don't think he's noticed that I'm not the same kid I was four years ago.