The show was going great for My Chemical Romance; they had begun the second leg of their new tour for The Black Parade, and excitement was in the air.
The fans were all bouncing and screaming along to every new lyric that they had memorized the day that album had come out. Make-up was smeared because they kept wiping the sweat that covered their brow. Later, they would get upset because they had wanted to look perfect when they met their heroes. Oh well.
The band was excited as well. Mikey had been drinking red bull like crazy and his leg was jittering as he popped open a new can. He was nervous. They all were. It was still a new feeling to him, being able to not have a panic attack on stage.
Bob was tapping his drumsticks on his leg, silently praying to some deity about how it was wonderful that he didn’t have to clean out his burn anymore. He stopped the beat to scratch at an itch on his knee and wonder what it would be like if he got drumsticks that had a plastic coating on the top, a heavy, metal-like material. He’d have to talk to Brian about that.
Ray was playing a form of air guitar using his leg and a pick. The chords didn’t quite sound the same though; corduroy not being as good as the strings on his guitar. He wasn’t allowed to use his joy because they were setting it up outside on the stage.
Gerard was chain smoking in his chair, looking peaceful even when he was just as anxious as everyone else. He usually didn’t smoke before a show, because it wasn’t good for his lungs or his voice, making it more rusty then usual. Today was a sort of exception, for no apparent reason though. He just felt like sitting there and smoking.
Now Frank, he was the most nervous of the bunch. He couldn’t even sit still and had taken to bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, shifting his weight constantly. He wanted to get back out there, he wanted to play in front of thousands of kids but no, there was a tech problem. So he had to wait, tapping a tune like the rest of them on his legs with calloused fingertips.
He, Frank, was also anxious because it had been a counting 1 day, 2 hours, and 13, no 14 minutes since he had last kissed Gerard. They had had interview upon interview and even more plane flights to get to their present destination and not once at he and Gerard been able to steal a kiss from the other. He wondered if Gerard had been itching for a lingering one just as badly as he had. There was an itching in his heart for just some contact, and not the occasional side to side bump.
No, he wanted intimacy.
He opened his mouth to ask Gerard to help him with something outside so that he could touch him, but one of the sound crew people told them that they could go on now, that they could start the show. His mouth closed and his stomach dropped but flew right back up when he remembered that they were about to play a show.
Instruments were picked up and microphones were turned on. The curtain opened as Ray began to do the opening cords for The End. It isn’t a necessarily speedy song but boy, were they all so excited. Poor Frank, he just couldn’t contain himself.
The rest of the band joined in and he just lost it. His excitement seemed to bubble over and he just ran. No, he didn’t just run, he turned around and without noticing it, ran straight into Bob’s drum set. He hit the ground with a thud and the wind was knocked out of him. Bob gave him a look before returning to the song.
With a blush on his face, Frank walked back over to his spot, suddenly not feeling so bubbly. That was until Gerard came over and reached a hand out to his forehead. When his hand withdrew, Frank could see a red coppery liquid coating his hand and slightly staining the silver buttons on Gerard’s sleeve. Funny, he didn’t even feel the cut. Gerard winked at him before going back to continue on with the show. Leaving Frank feeling very embarrassed and a bit lightheaded. He wasn't sure if the lightheadedness was because of Gerard's touch or the sudden loss of blood to his head.
The show was over much to fast for any of the members liking, but there are only so many encores a band can do. Plus they still had to go and do a signing with the fans. They were all sticky from sweating during the show and probably didn’t smell too good. Frank’s cut had bleed quite a bit during the show, sometimes blocking his sight and he’d have to whip it with his sleeve. The black material of his sleeve and some of his collar turned a deep burgundy color.
He took off his jacket as soon as he got off of the stage, leaving him in a thin white t-shirt. Gerard didn’t do anything to cool off but instead grabbed Frank by the arm and pulled him towards the bathroom. He sat Frank down on the toilet and took some tissue to wet with water and wipe Frank’s brow with.
The water stung as it touched his open skin and he flinched. “You have to hold still.” Frank was fidgeting because of the close contact, yet it was still lacking the type of contact that he wanted. He pushed Gerard’s hand down and pulled his collar to connect the two sets of lips.
The jittering stopped. No more angry butterflies were beating their harsh wings on the inside linings of Frank’s stomach. The butterflies were now gently and barely fluttering. His chest unclenched and everything seemed to come back into focus. It was almost like his withdrawal symptoms had vanished. With one more slow kiss, the symptoms vanished completely.
“Better?” Gerard asked as he began to clean out the wound for real this time.
“You have no idea how hard that was,” Frank sighed, giving in to Gerard's touch.
After Gerard was done cleaning out the cut, he put a blue band-aid over it. Frank didn't want to have one on his forehead and opened his mouth to argue. Gerard then opened another band-aid package and slapped a sparkly pink one on his own forehead. Frank's upset expression turned to one of fondness as he looked at the pink.
"Thank you," he grinned, referring to Gerard cleaning out his cut and him (but secretly he also meant Gerard letting him be childish and giving him a kiss before).
"Don't worry about it, sugar," Gerard replied before bending down to give what was supposed to be a feathery kiss to his boyfriend, but ended up making them both late to the signing.
