Chapter Text
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autumn leaves
Seeing the crimson and burnt orange, crinkly leaves fall from above and become scattered foliage on the ground, made him smile. The incoming rain and the necessity to take out his old umbrella lifted his spirits, reminding him that summer was over.
He could recall groaning and moaning when summer ended since it meant being thrown back into waking up early, daily homework, and the usual teenage angst. Now that he was an adult with his own apartment and schedule, he appreciated the end of summer even more since it meant autumn was on its way.
Ray tugged on the sleeves of his army green sweatshirt while he was welcomed by the rich aroma of coffee as he entered the nearby Starbucks. There was a small line waiting in front of him, so he patiently stood and fished out his Sidekick when it rang.
"Coffee. I need coffee," a familiar groggy voice came from the other line. He could picture a lanky boy with a crazy bedhead while lying like a starfish. "I will die without it."
Ray snickered, moving two steps forward as someone got out of line. "Dramatic much, Mikey, don't you think?" He never understood the obsession both Way brothers had with coffee.
"You'd never understand," Mikey said, Ray picking up the shuffling of the blankets. The younger male must have been trying to get more comfortable. "I'd ask for coffee through an IV if that were possible."
Ray laughed out loud, earning a look from the older woman in front of him. He covered his Sidekick with one hand and said, "Sorry." When the old woman turned back to face the front, he moved his hand. "You sound like Lorelai Gilmore."
"One thing I can get behind with that show is the love of coffee." The bed began to squeak loudly. Ray imagined Mikey sitting up in bed now, his back leaning against the headboard of their queen-sized bed. "Other than that, it isn't my cup of tea."
"In your case, more like isn't your cup of coffee," Ray teased, cheering quietly with a raised fist when the old woman was at the cash register.
"Ha, ha, ha," Mikey said, inhaling and exhaling. "So coffee?" the younger asked with a soft voice.
Ray hummed. "I don't know..."
"Please??" Mikey begged. If the younger Way brother was in front of him, Ray knew he'd have his palms pressed together in a pleading motion. "I will do anything if you get coffee."
"Oh really?" Ray snickered, his eyes panning up at the Starbucks menu. He has heard that deal from Mikey before. "Last time we made a trade like that, you passed out during our last marathon."
Mikey gasped. "You can't blame me! I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by Rory by season four!" Ray didn't argue at that opinion since he shared it like the rest of the world. He couldn't believe the sixth season was airing now. "She is insufferable, Ray!"
Ray gave a little nod. "I stayed up all night during the Stephen King movie marathon, remember?" He preferred Misery to The Shining or Carrie due to the coziness of Annie Wilkes' home, and the snow reminded him of Christmas. But he knew how much Mikey worshipped the Stephen King movies.
"Who doesn't like Stephen King movies?" Mikey argued.
Ray couldn't disagree with that, but he was making a point. "Anything for coffee?"
"I'll go down on you when you get home?" Mikey offered.
He felt his face go warm. You already do that, Ray nearly said into the phone. He cleared his throat when it was his turn to order.
"Hi! What can I get for you?" the girl behind the cash register chirped.
"... Where are you?"
"Cat's out of the bag," Ray said, smiling at the girl. It was fun teasing Mikey. It seemed like that fun was done for now. "I'll see you later."
"Asshole!"
"Love you too," Ray said, chuckling as he shoved his Sidekick into his jeans pocket. "An Americano and a double chocolate chip Frappuccino creme." He waited patiently as the girl typed out the order on the screen in front of her. "And two breakfast sandwiches, please."
The girl typed out the remaining order and bounced a bit. "That'll be $21.17!"
"Thank you," Ray said, taking out his wallet from his distressed dark brown messenger bag. After giving the girl the necessary money, he added, "It's for Ray."
He went to stand on the side and waited for his order. Ray began humming the tune of The Cure's Lovesong that had got stuck in his head when Mikey and he were listening to Disintegration last night. Right when he got to the third verse, his name was called.
Taking the two drinks and two pastry bags in a flimsy paper cupholder, he left Starbucks and made his way back home. He eyeballed the different pumpkins sitting near the front doors of establishments. He never understood the desire for using the blue or green pumpkins when autumn felt so orange.
Every year, when they carved pumpkins, they always went for the traditional orange ones.
If Mikey were with him, the lanky boy would be telling him, "They're not called blue pumpkins, Ray, they have an actual name," because Mikey just knew things.
When he turned a corner, he jumped when he spotted a creepy looking scarecrow being wheeled away on a dolley by some guy into a van. It reminded him of Frank's costume last year. Gerard had even made him look creepy with face paint. Ray wasn't going to think about the heart attack the short maniac nearly gave him when he scared him outside of the townhouse he shared with Gerard.
There were people who would question why guys in their twenties still dressed up for a "child's holiday," but Ray knew Frank would still dress up until he was an old man on his deathbed. It was just one of the ways the crazy little maniac celebrated his birthday. And since he was best friends with said maniac, it meant he was lassoed into dressing up as well. He was already odd himself—not dressing up for Halloween wouldn't make him any less odd.
Speaking of Halloween costumes, the four of them would likely be planning out what they were going to go as soon as possible. "It's better to be prepared before the beginning of October," Gerard once advised him when Ray waited the longest time to decide what he was going to be two years ago.
Mikey had added to Gerard's point, "If you wait for October, everything you could use will be snatched by everyone else." The younger Way had said this while Gerard was painting a gnarly gash wound on his throat. Ray had gone as a simple zombie that year. Someone at the Belleville Haunted Corn Maze complimented the oozing gashes on his face.
He didn't mind doing something simple when it came to Halloween. Last year, he just put on cat ears and had Gerard paint whiskers on his face. He wouldn't have done that when he was in high school, but teenage embarrassment differed from adulthood shame. Tripping on his own feet was more embarrassing nowadays than a simple cat costume that had Frank calling him "cute" all night long. Besides, Mikey liked the costume, too.
Soon, kids would be dragging their parents into the closest Walmart or Spirit Halloween for costumes and props. It made him think of when his brothers and he would dress up, bouncing on their feet, excited to see all the options. Even as a kid, something as simple as a ghost made from a white sheet or a cowboy costume only consisting of a cowboy hat and boots was enough for him. It was nostalgic going with Mikey or Gerard and Frank into the store searching for costume ideas through the aisles.
He wondered what ideas were going through Mikey's head this year.
When he made it to his apartment complex, all he could think of was Mikey.
"Honey, I'm home!" he called out to the nothingness within the living room. He set the drinks and pastry bags on the counter and made his way down the tiny hallway and into the room on the left. The one on the right was the bathroom with a closet right next to it.
Whenever Frank and Gerard decided to sleepover, they took the couch or floor. Sometimes, they fought over the couch, and other times, they shared a single sleeping bag on the carpeted floor. Ray didn't mind how they figured out the arrangement. All he knew was he wasn't giving up his comfortable bed.
Ray found Mikey in his usual starfish sleeping position with one pillow underneath his stomach, and the second one had his head resting on it. He knew one of those pillows was his. Ray laid down right next to the lanky Way brother until his chest was touching Mikey's back.
Gently, Ray shook Mikey's shoulder. "Mikey, babe, I'm back," he said, earning an annoyed groan from his boyfriend.
Mikey opened his eyes slowly, looking up at Ray with a tiny frown. "Coffee?"
"I see someone isn't as happy to see his boyfriend," Ray teased, pouting playfully. When Mikey snuggled closer towards him, he moved a few strands of hair that were in Mikey's face.
Mikey buried his face into the pillow. "Mmm trrrd eztha ded," his boyfriend said, incomprehensible words taking place for ones that made sense.
"Repeat that again, babe?" Ray sat up a bit.
Mikey picked up his head. "I'm tired as the dead," sounding as he did on the phone.
Mikey's shift at Barnes & Noble didn't clash with his classes at Belleville Community. Mikey had considered another job, and Ray recalled a colorful hour-long phone call with his parents. Ray could see their point—they wanted Mikey to get an education. It wasn't a bad idea. Mikey would have something to fall back on, at least.
Perhaps all the classes and his shifts were burning him out. "Maybe you need a day off," Ray suggested.
“From school or the job?”
“Maybe both.”
"Or maybe I just need caffeine," Mikey grumbled, finally sitting up.
Ray took Mikey's arm and began tugging it. "Let's go get your coffee," he said, getting off the bed. He stood at the doorframe, glancing at his boyfriend. "I got you breakfast too. I imagined you'd be hungry."
Mikey rubbed at his eyes with clenched fists. "Your imagination would be correct."
Ray made his way back into the main room and grabbed the cupholder and pastry bags, placing them onto the worn-out coffee table his parents gifted him before turning on the TV to a random channel.
The edges of the coffee table looked like someone had taken bites out of them, but it suited the apartment.
The carpet wasn't as white as his mother would have preferred, or the walls were too thin (complained by Gerard or Frank), yet it was his place. Mikey’s and his place. He didn't plan on living there for the rest of his life, but it suited them for the moment.
It was just the two of them. What use would they have with more than one bedroom?
With a hand shoving strands of hair out of his face, Mikey came walking in like a zombie waving around his BlackBerry. “Gee has bad timing. He called me when I was brushing my teeth!”
Ray clenched his teeth. “The bastard,” he commented, taking the Americano and holding it out for his boyfriend.
Mikey took the hot cup, setting his BlackBerry on the coffee table and adjusting his glasses with his free hand. “Halloween costumes! Now? He's gotta be kidding me!”
Ray chuckled, stealing a glance at the landscape calendar near the door. “It's September 1st, babe. Gee's up to schedule.”
Mikey took a long sip from his cup—Ray sending him a concerned look. He was always shocked how the Way brothers could guzzle down hot coffee like that.
Setting the cup down on his lap, Mikey shook his head. “September 15th is when we discuss it!”
Ray's eyes crinkled.
Like other September 15ths, he sat at a table with the Way brothers at the Way household. Mikey asked his parents what they were getting Frank while Gerard drew up a list of all the things that Frank had been wanting. Gerard took the first pick of what he wanted to get Frank out of the options he laid out. Mikey and he took the longest to decide what to get Frank since they never could decide together.
One year, they decided to start playing rock-paper-scissors on who got to make the final decision if they couldn't agree. He won two years ago, and Mikey won last year.
“Nah, babe,” Ray began, grabbing the pastry bags. “The 15th is planning gifts for Frank, ‘member?”
Mikey set down his coffee and took the bag Ray offered him. “No. That's September 16th.”
“Uh no,” Ray set down his own pastry bag. He remembered waiting in line with Gerard last year to get the corn maze tickets that day. A prissy woman gave them odd looks for some reason and held her son closer to her as she bought her tickets. “We buy the corn maze tickets that day.”
“Can't be!” Mikey insisted, taking a large bite out of his breakfast sandwich.
“Can be,” Ray corrected. He gestured at the calendar with his thumb. “I do it every year, too. It's the day they start selling them.”
“No way…” Ray began eating his breakfast sandwich when Mikey abandoned his food and drink, jumping over the couch to approach the calendar. When he turned his head, Mikey had a finger on September 1st.
From where he was, even without his glasses, Ray knew what the little square said. “September 1st - PLAN HLLWN CSTMES W/ GEE” in Mikey's cute chicken scratch handwriting.
“It really is…” Mikey placed a single finger on his bottom lip. The younger Way was frozen right there in front of the calendar like it had betrayed him.
Ray got off the couch, leaving his sandwich and Frappuccino on the table too. He placed his hands on Mikey’s shoulders to turn his boyfriend to face him. “Mikey, baby,” he called out softly, those hazel eyes looking up at him.
“How… how could I forget, Ray?” Mikey asked, his eyes going downward. Ray hated seeing the sad look on his boyfriend’s face.
Ray wrapped his arms around Mikey’s small frame. “You're overworked.” He gently stroked Mikey’s hair. “You can't blame yourself for forgetting. Gee doesn't.”
“We do this every year, though.”
“And we'll continue to, even if you forget or not,” he said, placing a small kiss on top of Mikey’s head. He led his boyfriend back over to the couch. “Eat and drink your coffee, babe. You probably just need to recharge.”
Slouching his shoulders, Mikey took his breakfast sandwich and coffee. While Ray took a sip from his Frappuccino, he observed his lanky boyfriend. He could see dark circles underneath Mikey's eyes, and his skin was a little pasty.
Some nights, Mikey stayed up late studying for tests. A few nights ago, he overheard Mikey reiterate Thorstein Veblen's “Leisure Class Theory” without looking at his textbook. Last night, Mikey had passed out when he had—so he knew his boyfriend wasn't studying for a test.
Maybe it's just work, school, and the upcoming events, Ray took a bite from his sandwich. Besides school and work, there was Halloween while including Frank's birthday celebration, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, too.
Mikey set his sandwich next to him and held his cup. “I wonder what we'll come up with this time.” He took another long sip from his Americano.
Ray was curious, too. Gerard and Mikey got creative when it came to Halloween costumes. “I know whatever you both come up with, it'll be amazing as always.”
Mikey's lips curled a little bit, blushing at the compliment. “We both are pretty good at that, aren't we?”
Ray gave a long whistle. “You guys are the best. Frankie thinks so, too.” Frank just loved looking as creepy as he could on his special day. Thanks to Gerard's artistic face paint skills, Frank could terrify anyone. “You'll both come up with something great.”
“Thanks, Ray.” He turned to Mikey. Seeing the cute little smile that Mikey hid from the rest of the world made him feel warm.
He intertwined their hands. “Anytime, babe,” he said, kissing Mikey's knuckles two times before letting them go. He sighed softly when Mikey leaned his shoulders against him.
Ray eyeballed his guitar and Mikey’s bass resting next to each other near the television.
It was all perfect.