Chapter Text
"Mikey."
The voice called out next to him, but Mikey didn't look; he didn't dare to.
His eyes draw up from his socked feet, scanning across the white floors, to the barren white walls. He remembers when he got here, he had thought the room was so much smaller. With all his items no longer littered throughout, it felt like the walls were going to swallow him whole.
"Mikey." The voice called again.
"Shut up." Mikey spat out, his foot bounced with nerves, and his eyes looked up to the clock in the corner of the room. His bags have been packed for what feels like hours now. What was taking so long?
"Mikey, look at me."
"I said shut up!" Mikey tensed, his head whipping around to look at the person speaking to him. Air caught in his chest when he saw the familiar halo of curls, the sickening sweet smile.
His head jerked back around at the sound of the door creaking open. The nurse stared at him, eyes furrowed as she scanned her eyes across the room before they fell onto Mikey. The fake smile crinkled on her face as she spoke. "Your brother is here. Grab your things."
The nurse didn't wait up, eyes immediately drawing back down to her clipboard, flipping around to walk in the direction of the waiting room. Mikey couldn't help the way his head drew back around. Eyes locking with the man sitting next to him.
"You're not real." Mikey croaked out, voice small, too scared to speak up now that his door was wide open. And he just smiled at Mikey, like he always did. He brought his hand up to cup Mikey's cheek, and Mikey could have sworn he could feel the heat radiating off his palm.
He drags his thumb across Mikey's cheek, causing Mikey to wince his eyes shut. And when he opened them again, he was gone, vanishing into thin air like he always did. "Mikey!" The nurse's voice broke Mikey out of his thoughts.
Scrabbling to grab his bag as he barreled out of the room, his eyes shot up from the floor to see the nurse standing next to the door, her hand on her hip, free hand holding up the pair of shoes he had been wearing when he first got here, lacking the laces.
She shoves them into Mikey's hand as he approaches, dropping his bag onto the floor to slide them on. The nurse was exiting the door before he even had time to pick his bag back up. The second Mikey went past the threshold, his eyes immediately greeted by Gerard's face, lighting up.
Gerard threw their arms up, a white paper bag was limp in their hands as they wrapped Mikey up in their arms. "Mikey!" Gerard exhales against the side of Mikey's neck. "God, I missed you." He said, not giving Mikey time to respond as he pulled away, their hand shooting out to grab Mikey's hand, dragging him to the exit.
"You saw me last week." Mikey whispers, eyes glued to the ground as Gerard drags him back to their car. "Eight months," Gerard said with a shake of his head, as if they couldn't believe it. "Felt like I was going crazy without you."
A slight laugh rumbles inside Mikey's chest. If Gerard was crazy, then he was completely mental. "You were away at college." Mikey mumbles, despite the smirk on his face that he couldn't wipe away. His brother always had a way of making him feel calm, like he was himself.
"That doesn't mean anything," Gerard said as he let go of Mikey's hand, opening the car door for his little brother before walking over to the driver's side and hopping in along with him.
Mikey immediately felt himself relax, the familiar feeling of Gerard's passenger seat under him, wiggling down deeper into the soft cushion. His toes wiggled under the comforting weight of his bag sitting atop his feet on the passenger's side floor.
He was broken out of his thoughts when Gerard cleared their throat, causing Mikey to look up at him. "I hope you don't mind-" Gerard started, their eyes rolling to the back of the car as their sentence drew off.
Mikey's eyes followed. His shoulders tensed up when he saw a halo of curls. He gulps loudly as Gerard continued. "This is my friend Ray." They said, causing Ray to smile over at Him. Mikey felt like he could be sick.
"I'm Ray, it's nice to meet you Mikey." Ray spoke, raising his hand for Mikey to take. Ray's voice caused Mikey to flinch back around, staring down at his shaky hands in his lap. His shoulders tensed up to his ears. He sounded exactly like Him.
Mikey could feel Gerard's eyes boring into the side of his head with concern, but he didn't look over. He couldn't, not when it felt like he was suffocating. Mikey heard Gerard say something to Ray about dropping him off before all of his hearing went static in his ears.
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The drive was a complete blur. He remembered at some point they had stopped to drop off Ray, and he had said Mikey's name again; he couldn't help the violent flinch that overtook his body. Gerard hadn't tried to talk to him about it the whole drive home.
Only being forced out of his thoughts after the car had already been put into park and turned completely off. Gerard has to shake his shoulder to get him to notice. And when he did, he threw the passenger's door open and ran to the front door before Gerard could even get out of the car and unlock it for him.
He could tell that Gerard wanted to ask him about it. The nervous glances as he slowly made his way up to the door. The looks they gave him before reaching out to put his key into the lock.
The door slowly crept open when Gerard pushed it open. The brothers slowly make their way inside alongside each other. Mikey drops his bag to the side, and Gerard closes and locks the door behind them in silence.
Gerard takes a loud, deep breath in an attempt to spit out something as Mikey cuts them off. "I'm gonna go to sleep." He said, simply turning to glance at Gerard. Their eyebrows were furrowed at him, face Sollom.
"What?" Gerard squeaked out breathily. Mikey knew that he had heard him, but he spoke up once again anyway. "I just feel really tired, long day."
"Right." Gerard breathed out, a small smile on their face. "I guess, I'll see you tomorrow then," Gerard said, reaching out to ruffle his brother's hair, and Mikey just let him.
Mikey gave one final nod before turning away to walk past his brother. "Mikey" Gerard called out before he could get too far, making the younger freeze in his tracks. "I'm sorry about Ray," Gerard said, causing Mikey's shoulders to tense.
"I promised to pick him up today, but I didn't realize that it was the same day as today." Gerard continued. Their voice tight in their chest. "I would have- I know it was probably a lot. And I'm just, I'm sorry."
Mikey could feel the way his hands began to shake at his sides once again; he didn't dare turn around. "It's okay," he choked out even though it felt like his throat was closing in on itself. "Night Gee." He squeaked.
"Sleep well Mikes." Gerard called out to him. As Mikey disappeared into the hallway, he could hear Gerard's feet shuffle on the carpet as he moved around the living room. They watched the back of Mikey's head get enveloped in the darkness of his bedroom, closing the door behind him.