Chapter Text
A cold wind blew through New Jersey, but inside (YN)’s childhood home, it was cozy and warm. She was home for a few weeks before My Chem would be setting out on one of their most intense touring schedules ever, traipsing back and forth around the world, in support of The Black Parade. (YN) had been so busy and away for so long, the break for the holidays was a welcome reprieve. She was curled up on the couch under a heavy blanket, mug of coffee in hand when her mom rushed into the room.
"I almost forgot! You’ve gotten mail!”
“Don’t I get all my mail here?” (YN) laughed lightly, still not fully awake.
“Yes, but I set this one aside because it looks like your handwriting on the envelope," (YN)'s mom said, handing her an envelope that looked old, and she was right, it was her handwriting.
"What the hell," she muttered, tearing it open carefully, suddenly feeling more awake. When she pulled out the folded sheet of notebook paper, her eyes went wide. "Now I remember!"
"What is it?" Her mom asked, trying to glance at the paper.
"In 10th grade our English teacher had us write letters to our future selves and then he would put them in the mail 10 years later so we could see what we achieved."
"What does your letter say?" Her mom pressed.
(YN) started to read over the letter. "Stuff about becoming a better musician, starting a band with Frank, seeing the world. I got a lot of this done!" Then her eyes reached the next paragraph about how she expected to be in a happy relationship, preferably with a hot musician, who 'understands my soul '. She cringed at the teenage angst before the self awareness hit, reminding her of how painfully single she was. Sure she’d been in a few relationships, but they never lasted as it seemed even the hot musicians couldn't handle her long touring schedules, or that her band was more famous than theirs.
Continuing on she reached the next line and her eyes went wide. ' If by the time me and Frankie are 25 and aren't married, we will marry each other so we don't become sad, old, lonely people.'
"Oh… oh my god," she stammered.
"What? What is it?" Her mother asked, concerned.
"It would appear I'm overdue to be getting married... To Frank."
Her mom burst into laughter. "Frank? Frank Iero?! Why on earth would you ever marry Frankie?"
A blush started to creep up her cheeks. "I mean, there are worse guys! Hell, I’ve dated them already. But I remember it now, we agreed back in sophomore year, I guess neither of us thought it would happen. Besides, 25 seemed so far away back then.”
"Are you going to mention it to him?"
"I dunno. He probably got his letter too, but I can't remember what he wrote in his," she replied before carefully refolding the letter and tucking it back in the envelope.
There was absolutely nothing saying she had to do this, it wasn’t like they were engaged. It was nothing more than a silly promise made between two teenagers, and those were made to be broken, she reasoned with herself. Then she remembered that the band was scheduled to rehearse later that day to prepare for their New Year’s Eve performance and she felt anxiety churning her stomach. Shaking her head she got up to get ready for what was suddenly lining up to be an eventful day.
~
Frank mindlessly sorted through the mail that had accumulated since he was last home when his attention was caught by familiar penmanship on an old looking envelope.
“The fuck is this?” He muttered to himself, dropping the rest of the mail to open the strange letter. But it only took a moment for him to remember once he had the paper unfolded. As he read the letter to himself, he felt overwhelmed by how resolute he was in the goals he had set to achieve in the next 10 years of his life, and how successful he’d been at almost all of it. Except for one thing.
He pulled out his phone and opened up a new text message. ‘ Hey Becky, I gotta cancel tonight.’
Frank had gotten lost deep in thought rereading the contents of the letter over again when he got a reply. ‘ Boo :( can we reschedule?’
Glancing up at the clock on the microwave he saw he was already running late for rehearsal with the band. ‘No’ he replied before turning off his phone and stuffing it back into his pocket and hurrying out.
"'Bout time," Gerard griped when Frank burst through the door. "We thought you weren't coming."
"You know I'd never miss an opportunity to annoy you," Frank smirked, getting his guitar out so he could quickly tune it before they got started.
“Hey, can we talk after practice?” (YN) asked softly.
Frank jumped, not hearing her come up behind him. “Yea, why?” He asked, feeling his heart rate going up, but he tried to maintain a calm exterior.
“Nothin, it’s no big deal,” she smiled reassuringly.
He nodded in agreement, but his mind started to race, wondering what she wanted to talk about. The anxiety ate at him until Gerard wrapped up the rehearsal, and everyone started to head out.
“So what’d you wanna talk about?” Frank asked, as he put away his guitar, unable to wait any longer.
"Umm, weird question, but did you get your 10 year letter from Mr. Hardin's class?"
Frank hoped he wasn’t blushing as much as he felt like he was. “Oh, umm, I dunno, I haven’t checked my mail.”
“You haven’t checked your mail in two weeks? Frank, I swear,” she shook her head in exasperation.
“If it’s important, they’ll call,” he shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant.
“Your phone was off when we called trying to find out if you were running late!” She retorted.
“I got voicemail,” he shrugged.
"Anyway, I got my letter," she said with a tone that sounded like she wanted him to ask more.
"What'd it say?" He would have asked, even if she hadn’t been playing coy.
She reached into her bag and pulled out the now slightly crumpled letter and handed it over. Frank scanned over her neat handwriting and a smile formed on his face as he read about how badly she wanted to be able to travel and make music, specifically with him. Then he got to the part about their pact and he had to fight for a moment to maintain his composure.
"Oh yea, we were gonna get married! I forgot about that," he said with a nervous laugh.
"Me too!" She laughed as well.
Frank steeled up his nerves and before he could realize it, the words were tumbling out of his mouth. "So you wanna?"
(YN)’s laughter stopped. "What?"
"You still wanna get married?" He asked again, feeling less nervous the second time he asked.
"Seriously?"
"I mean, you're one of my closest friends, have been forever obviously. We're already around each other like every day, I dunno,” he shrugged, but he wondered if he had pushed things too far.
"Why does it sound like you've thought about this before?" She teased and he prayed silently that she didn’t notice the slight blush forming on his cheeks. "But you're right. Plus it'd probably annoy the guys."
"Even more reason to do it," Frank laughed.
"And we don't have to like, consummate it or anything,” she mumbled
"You mean again?" Frank smirked.
(YN) rolled her eyes. “Think about that night fondly, Frankie?”
“Almost every night,” he joked, suddenly feeling a lot lighter than he had all day.
She sighed. “Anyway, let's sleep on it, and discuss it again on New Year's?”
Frank nodded in agreement. But he already knew what his answer was.