Chapter Text
DAY 15 (Epilogue)
Ray had been able to play guitar for hours yesterday without any distractions, only occasionally stopping to eat and check on his family. This is too good to be true, he had thought to himself as he tore out note after note, chord after chord, and song after song. When he finally finished and looked at the clock on his practice studio’s wall, it was well past midnight.
As he lay in bed now, the afternoon light refusing to let him sleep any longer, he thought about what made the previous day so… blessed. Had the rock n’ roll planets aligned or something? That would be awesome. But no, I think it’s more simple than that, he pondered, slowly summoning the strength to get out of bed. Let’s see…
Yesterday, there had been no grocery store drama because his wife managed to find a secret stash of toilet paper, and she’d bought enough food for a month. That meant they didn’t need to go anywhere or do anything for a while. To make things better, the kids had downloaded some new games to play which kept them busy and out of Ray’s enormous hair - at least for the time being.
Things were calm with the family, but… oh.
But what brought Ray the most peace, what fueled his wonderful guitar-filled solitude, he realized, was the fact that no one from MCR contacted him yesterday. Thank fucking goodness. No calls about missing band members, no aggravated texts from Mikey, no more cryptic, carefully worded messages from Gerard, and no more sickeningly sweet, lovey dovey rants from Frank about you know who.
It’s not that Ray didn’t like talking with his bandmates and giving them advice. He’d been the parent figure since the beginning of the band and had been secretly trying to get those two morons in a real relationship for years. He just wanted to concentrate on playing guitar by himself for once! Was it too much to ask?
Apparently not because maybe the planets had aligned. After all, everything was as it should be. Ray got to play his guitar, but more importantly, Gerard and Frank were FINALLY together FOR REAL. About time. Two days earlier, Mikey told him that Frank planned to sabotage Gerard’s quarantine efforts by showing up out of nowhere. Ray assumed it had worked; it was the only explanation for his phone’s silence. With their meetup a success, Mikey had probably brooded by watching Sesame Street on repeat and throwing his phone to the side to revel in his misfortune. As for Gerard and Frank, god knows what those two were doing yesterday (probably each other). But he was happy for them, as long as they kept their interactions strictly PG (maybe PG-13 at most) when they were around him.
As he walked into the kitchen and prepared coffee for himself, he wondered if today would go just as well. His wife and kids were busy doing whatever, which meant more peace and quiet. He’d also managed to sleep in - that was a miracle in of itself. Actually… where is my phone? My alarms didn’t wake me up, and I didn’t see it on the nightstand…
He shrugged, feeling no need to rush since he’d made a ton of progress the day prior. Ray slowly ambled to his practice studio, coffee in hand. His phone was exactly where he expected it to be: on a table next to his favorite spot to play guitar. As he grabbed it, the phone flashed, indicating it had just received a new notification.
When he took a closer look, there were a couple unread messages and notifications. Do I dare open these? It could be more drama.
The first text was from Mikey. I hope he’s not upset still, Ray thought.
Mikey, 10:57 am: Im so bored @ my parents. G is a no show again.
Mikey, 10:59 am: Do u want to have a jam session later? Just the 2 of us?
Mikey, 10:59 am: Bc we probably won’t hear anything from G & F 2day.
He seems a little annoyed but neutral overall. Good ol’ Mikey is back! Ray typed out, “Sure!” He was tempted to also add, “We’ll have a full band jam session if we ever hear from them again,” but then he noticed an unread text notification from the very man that had been MIA.
Gerard, 11:38 am: Hey Ray, sorry I didn’t answer your text the other day. I was busy.
Yeah, busy screwing our rhythm guitarist, Ray snickered. “No problem, I understand,” he wrote, meaning it sincerely.
There was one more unread message from Frank, an image attachment with no caption. However, Ray couldn’t see the picture until he opened it. Please, PLEASE do not be a X rated picture like that time Frank sent one by mistake… Ray silently prayed, his thumb shaking as he downloaded the attachment.
His prayers were answered. Maybe rock n’ roll planets did exist because, for whatever reason, someone up there above the sky had decided to grant Ray’s wish, the one that involved his band mates, not his guitar.
The picture was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Gerard (who wasn’t naked thankfully) was kissing Frank on the check, his eye crumpled up the way they always were when he was laughing. Frank (who also wasn’t naked, thank goodness) had the biggest, happiest, most lovestruck, idiotic smile to ever grace Ray’s phone, if not the entire East Coast.
Ray laughed to himself and typed, “You cute motherfuckers.”