Chapter Text
Frank knew Mikey had an older brother. His name was Gerard, and apparently he was out of art college and working for a comic book company. Frank never expected to meet him, and he guessed he was alright with that. He didn’t have many friends and didn’t especially like meeting new people. He was always curious to meet Gerard though because Mikey talked about him constantly.
One weekend, when Frank was staying the night with Mikey, he caught Mikey scrutinizing him over his glasses. They had put on some classic horror movies and kicked back with various snacks and chatted away with the movies in the background. When Mikey caught Frank staring back, he narrowed his eyes and stared hard for several seconds, then abruptly said, “I think it’s time you met Gee.”
“What?” Frank blurted. That was a non sequitur if he’d ever heard one. One moment, they were talking about how modern music was ‘overly simple and mind numbing’, in Frank’s opinion, and now Mikey was getting off the couch and beckoning Frank to a door under the stairs. It was one Frank was always curious about, but he was always brushed off when he asked about it, being dismissed as a broom closet or something of the like. The door was heavier than most and had a foot long cane bolt lock attached to it. It was never locked when Frank noticed, but why would someone need to lock the door from the outside anyway?
Mikey stopped in front of the door and did some sort of special knock, waited three seconds, and opened the door. When Frank peeked around him to see the room, he only saw a set of stairs that descended into pitch blackness. Mikey knocked again on the right side of the stairwell next to a light switch, waited three seconds once more, then flipped the switch on. The stairwell lit up with a dim yellowish light, just enough to see to the end of the stairs. Mikey took a couple steps down the stairwell, then motioned for Frank to follow. When they reached the bottom, Mikey stopped and Frank halted abruptly, waving his arms a bit and trying not to knock into the other. The room opened up to the right of the bottom of the stairs, and was equally as heavy with lack of light as the flight of stairs had been.
Mikey cleared his throat delicately and said in a small voice, “Hey Gee. Can we turn on a light? You got your glasses with you?”
There was a small grunt in reply, which Frank looked to Mikey to interpret. Mikey moved to the wall and flipped on a switch, revealing a rather large and messy room. A bed pushed into one corner, a mini fridge and microwave with an abundance of mugs on and around them, and various clothes, comic books, and art supplies strewn about the floor. There was a large drafting table with countless sheaves of paper stacked on it, and more books scattered around the desk.
While Frank was busy gawking at the room, he failed to notice a pale arm dart out of the nest of blankets on the bed and grab a pair of dark glasses before retreating back into the pile. Mikey noticed however, and said, “Come on out Gee, there’s someone I want you to meet. He’s cool, but he doesn’t exactly… get it yet, so go easy on him.”
Frank stiffened at Mikey’s odd comment and shot him a questioning look. What did he have yet to understand? He was just meeting another member of the Way family. He knew they were a little eclectic, but it was charming.
Suddenly, a black mass appeared in front of him without so much as a sound. Frank squeaked and stumbled back into Mikey, who scoffed and pushed Frank away from him.
“Gee, honestly? Could you bother to make some noise every once in a while?” Mikey huffed. The pale figure crossed his arms and mumbled back, “Well yeah, but it wouldn’t be any fun…”
Mikey crossed his arms right back and said, “It’s not about fun, it’s about not scaring people shitless.”
Gerard giggled and relaxed his posture, seemingly giving in to the argument. He pivoted towards Frank and said with a small upward twitch of the lips, “So you gonna tell me who this is, Mikes?”
“Oh, right,” Mikey said. “Frank, Gerard. Gerard, Frank.” Gerard grinned at the newly acquainted boy and said, “Pleased to meet you, Frank.”
“Uh, hi…” Frank said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. He raised his head enough to look through his eyelashes at Gerard. He had a disheveled halo of shoulder length black hair, a pallid complexion, a small batlike nose, and little teeth, but… were those fangs too?!
“Holy shit!” Frank yelped. Mikey and Gerard snickered at each other, as if sharing a private joke.
“What the fuck is going on here?!” Frank stuttered. He looked to Mikey and asked, “Is this some kind of weird ass joke? Because I’m not too amused if it is. Are you guys for real?”
Gerard nodded earnestly, and Mikey said, “Yeah dude. That’s why not too many people get the privilege of meeting Gee. Well that and he’s not allowed outside anymore.”
“So you keep him down here to rot in the dark? And what the hell do mean he’s not allowed to go outside? He’s a fucking adult, why does he need monitoring?” Frank asked incredulously.
Gerard peeped, “Well, I like it down here. Not a lot of noise, no light, the fridge… I’ve got a pretty good deal here.” He wrung his hands a bit, shifting from side to side. Frank squinted at him and asked, “So what is the deal here exactly?”
The brothers exchanged a quick glance, and Mikey cut in for Gerard, saying, “Listen. We’ll give it to you straight. You’ve been my best friend for a long time, Frank, and I already talked to Gee and he’s okay with me telling you.”
Mikey heaved a large sigh and said, “Listen, you gotta believe us when we say we’re not jerking your leg here. Gerard… Well, he’s a vampire.”
Frank scoffed and said, “Yeah, and I’m a leprechaun. What’s the real deal?”
“You dumbass!” Mikey said, smacking Frank’s arm. “This is the real deal! Why would we set you up for some dumb prank? That’s Pete’s shit, not mine.”
Frank covered his face with his hands and moaned, “Oh my God, you can’t be serious. Vampires aren’t real!”
Gerard shuffled some more, and volunteered, “I could, uh, show you? If you want?”
Frank’s head shot up from his hands and stared at Gerard with wide eyes. “How’re you gonna do that?” he asked warily.
“Just look,” Gerard said, pointing to his mouth and opening up. Frank peeked into his mouth, gawping at the four sharp incisors on Gerard’s upper and lower jaw. The bottom ones were sharp and pointy, but not nearly as threatening looking as the top teeth. They were almost an inch long, curved lightly to fit in Gerard’s mouth. They looked absolutely deadly, and frighteningly real.
Frank paled, and weakly said, “Well, I mean, I guess that’s uh, one way to prove it.” He was all the sudden a little more aware of all the blood rushing through his body, and his heart accelerating in shock and possibly fear. He looked at Mikey, and swallowed a little thickly.
Mikey saw his slight discomfort, and tried to alleviate Frank’s fear by saying, “Gee wouldn’t hurt a fly, you know. He still cries and shit when the dog dies in a movie.”
Gerard gasped and said, “I’m not heartless! I’m just not human anymore, that doesn’t make me immune to emotion!”
Mikey laughed, “Of course it doesn’t, Gee. I didn’t say anything of the sort.”
Frank was still a little off kilter. He kept looking between Gerard and Mikey, wishing that maybe this was a joke after all. But on the other hand, a real life vampire? That’s the coolest thing that’s ever happened to him! Hell, it was probably the coolest thing to happen to anyone, meeting a vampire. Frank floated back into the conversation and abruptly asked, “So what’s with the glasses then? Sensitive eyes?”
Gerard stopped talking suddenly, and adopted a slightly defensive stance. He looked a little embarrassed at the same time, for some reason. “Yeah, about that…” he said.
“What? Was that offensive or something? Oh Jesus, I’m sorry, just ignore what I said,” Frank stammered. Five minutes into meeting the most awesome dude ever and he was already fucking up.
“No! You’re fine,” reassured Gerard. “It’s just a little humiliating, that’s all.”
“He looked at the sun too long and literally went blind,” Mikey butted in. “The extra sensitivity to light just fucking fried them.”
“Mikes! What the fuck! My cool mysterious persona is fucking gone, man!” Gerard sighed, exasperated.
Frank giggled and said, “That totally sucks dude, but it doesn’t take away from your tall, dark, and mysterious vibe, I promise.”
Gerard elbowed Mikey. “I like this guy, why didn’t you bring him down here sooner? He’s a real ego booster,” he said while smirking at Frank.
Frank blushed, and unfortunately for him, Mikey caught it. Mikey pointed to Frank’s quickly reddening face and said, “That’s why! Right there! I knew he was gonna get fucking enamored or whatever! How can you do that without your goddamned eyesight?!”
Gerard put his hands in front of him in a placating manner and said, “It’s not me dude, I swear! I can’t do that shit anymore!”
Mikey rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Thank God for that…” while Gerard cackled.
“It’s not my fault I couldn’t control it when I was newer! I don’t regret any shenanigans that ensued, but I didn’t make anyone do anything terrible!” he said, tilting his head upwards with a small smile as if reminiscing.
“So you could mind control people and shit?” Frank asked with awe in his voice.
“Sure could, Frankie,” Gerard drawled. “One time I got Mikey to chug a gallon of lemonade outside in his underwear, and I told him couldn’t come inside until he drank it all. And if someone asked him what he was doing, he had to tell them he was the ‘lemonade man’. During Halloween,” he added.
“Shit dude!” Frank snorted. He could see himself becoming fast friends with Gerard.
“Yeah yeah yeah,” Mikey muttered darkly. “I got him back for it though,” he said.
After the chatter died down, Frank asked timidly, “So, can I like, see your eyes? Are they really fucked up or something? Are they burned out of your sockets?!”
Gerard scrunched up his nose and sniffed, “They aren’t burned out of my sockets, Jesus. Take a look.”
He took off his sunglasses and leaned down a bit. Frank gasped in wonderment, lifting his hand a little towards Gerard’s face. Underneath the glasses were the most entrancing eyes he’d ever seen. They were a pearlescent white, milky and spellbinding. They looked like a pale galaxy colliding in crystal balls, and Frank was in love with them. All too soon, Gerard leaned away and replaced his glasses on his face.
Frank shook his head, clearing the fog that crept into his mind. And Gerard said he didn’t even have powers of suggestion anymore! Frank could only imagine how strong the pull of his eyes were before he went blind.
“So? Not gross?” Gerard asked, snapping Frank completely out of his daze.
Frank shook his head again rapidly. “Oh no, of course not! I didn’t really think they were going to be bad in the first place,” he said adamantly.
“Well thanks sugar,” Gerard tittered. He was really getting to like this little snack Mikey brought downstairs. He was quite entertaining. At the small term of endearment, Frank’s face promptly caught fire. Or, that’s what he felt happen. In reality his face just exploded into red like a firework. Gerard noticed the smaller man’s propensity to blushing, and made internal note to make it happen as much as possible.
“Anyway,” Mikey said, “If you tell anyone about Gee I will kill you, burn you, and dance on your ashes.”
Frank looked at Mikey for a second, then said, “You’ve probably been told this before, but wow, you are intense, Mikeyway.”
“We look out for our own,” Mikey said with a shrug.
“’Our own’?! Are you a vampire too?!” Frank shrieked.
“No you stupid shit! Family!” Mikey slapped the back of Frank’s head lightly.
“Jeez Mikes, you’re awful handsy today,” Gerard chuckled.
“Just trying to knock some sense into this boy,” Mikey said nonchalantly.
“Well, I think he’s mine now, so hands off,” Gerard said as he clutched Frank’s shoulder and drug him under his arm, making the smaller man erupt into a blush again.
A little sick of the manhandling, but definitely not sick of Gerard’s arm around him, Frank said, “I wanna go back to watching those movies… You wanna come up, Gee?”
“Only if you keep calling me Gee,” Gerard giggled.
With that, the three guys trooped upstairs to finish the horror movies Mikey and Frank started.