Whoa. A whole day without Manson even looking at them. He'd walked past them in the hallway on the way to their Music class with his head down. Manson had been too scared to look at them and not the other way around. Gerard had a lot to thank Bert for. Bert. Bert was awesome. Gerard smiled as he pushed his front door open, Frank and Hayley were trailing behind talking about that new 'Pretty. Odd' album, apparently it was kick ass.

Gerard dropped his rucksack and headed into the living room.

"Mikey?" He called. Where the hell was the kid? He usually came to meet Gerard as soon as he opened to front door, gushing about his school day with Pete. Pete was Mikey's best friend he was a little weird, Gerard thought. He was constantly hyperactive and wore a lot of eyeliner for a 12 year old boy. Not that Gerard could criticize him for that since he worse just as much now, but he was 14. He was clearly more mature.

"Gee? Wait! Don't come in here and keep your voice down. Dad's asleep" Mikey called.

"Okay," Gerard said. He cast a glance over to his two friends. They looked as baffled as he felt.

Frank raised his eyebrows questioningly at Gerard who shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay you guys can come in now!" Mikey called.

The three of them made their way into the kitchen and were met by Mikey, who was covered in cake mix. Well Gerard hoped it was cake mix, which was more than likely since his little brother was holding a giant orange cake. Frank let out a snort and was biting back a laugh when Gerard looked at him.

The words 'For Hayley xx' were scrawled in white icing across the top.

"I…uh…made this for you, Hayley."

Gerard grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Frank

"Oh Mikey, you're such a romantic" he giggled, and Mikey shot Gerard a death glare, blushing a little but still holding the cake out hopefully to Hayley.

Gerard and Frank took pleasure in teasing Hayley over Mikey's outrageous crush on her. The first time he's pulled a stunt like this was when he was nine. He'd locked himself up for days in his bedroom, only emerging for food and to use the bathroom. When Gerard had asked why he'd reply with "I'm working on something."

When Hayley's birthday had come around a week later Mikey had handed her his present from him. She had squealed when she'd opened it. Gerard hadn't seen her smile that much in….well, he hadn't.

Turns out his younger brother was a real Romeo. Mikey had spent the last 10 days, as he's so kindly made clear in the note on the front, "Pouring his heart and soul" into his own comic. He'd hand drawn every picture and even invented his own characters. They were awesome superheroes and were totally in love with each other, and their names were Nicole and James. Figures.

Mikey was still standing awkwardly in front of the three of them holding the cake and not saying a word.

"I think…this is really sweet of you Mikey Way." Hayley replied, shooting Gerard a warning glare as she stepped forward and kissed Mikey's cheek.

"You do?" His nervous expression turned into a huge smile.

"I do, it's awesome" she replied taking the cake from him and putting it down on the counter.

"Mikey, did you make that by yourself?" Gerard asked. He was pretty sure the answer was going to be yes, judging the state Mikey was in. He even had flour on his glasses.

"Yeah…"

"Where's Mom?" He asked.

"She went out and before you ask where Dad is, I already told you he's asleep."

"Mikey. You should have woken Dad up, You could have hurt yourself, your history with kitchen appliances isn't exactly brilliant. Remember the toaster?" Gerard raised his eyebrows at his younger brother.

"He has work tonight and do you always have to bring that up?" Mikey scowled.

"Oh right. Yes, I was making a point. " Gerard rolled his eyes.

"Mikey, you destroyed your kitchen." Frank piped up. He'd been surprisingly quiet. Gerard would have to talk to him about his lack of picking on Mikey later.

Gerard looked around and sighed. There was mess everywhere. Flour on every inch of the counter, icing all over the floor and tons of egg shells- at least five more than necessary. Gerard dreaded to think how bad that cake tasted.

"How the hell did you get flour on the ceiling?" Frank asked, sounding slightly appalled. He hated any kind of mess.

"I….I fell" Mikey looked at the floor sounding defeated.

"Okay," Hayley clapped her hands "Enough of the chit chat boys. We are going to make this place look like something from cribs by the time you're Mom gets home."

"Aww, jeez." Gerard sighed. He really couldn't be bothered to clean up Mikey's mess, again.

"Gerard Way we will have none of that." Hayley replied sternly. "You and Frank will take this half of the kitchen. Mikey and I will take the other. Now get cleaning!"

Hayley pushed Mikey towards the sink and began to sweep some flour off of the counter with one hand while Frank and Gerard were running around the table picking up mixing bowls and random utensils.

"Hey Gee, wanna' spoon?" Frank asked.

"Wha…'scuse me?" Gerard panicked for a moment and began to turn an unattractive shade of red. He looked up to see his friend waving a ladle in his face.

"Frankie. That's a ladle."

"I know" Frank smirked "I meant what I said." He waggled his eyebrows at Gerard and sauntered over to the sink placing a few bowls down to be washed.

Gerard laughed silently and shook his head. Frank was so weird.

"Less talk, more cleaning" Hayley replied waving a wooden spoon at them as Frank returned to the table.

"Jeez," Frank muttered "She's getting more like her Mom"

"What was that? Iero" Hayley turned to face them, giving Frank a look that made Gerard wonder why he hadn't dropped dead.

"Um…nothing" he took a step back.

"Oh really, because I'm sure I heard you say something" Hayley picked up one of the bowls Frank had placed next to the sink.

"Nah...I was just talking to Gerard, right Gee?" Frank looked at him, his eyes pleading with him to say the right thing.

"Uh...yes?" Gerard replied, trying not to laugh at how scared Frank looked.

"Don't you lie to me too, Way!" Hayley warned.

"We're being honest, Haylz!" Frank said innocently.

"Only cowards lie, don't make me come over there and shove this goddamn spoon up your goddamn nose!" Hayley waved the wooden spoon she was holding around to prove her point.

"I'd like to see you goddamn try!" Frank retorted

Gerard didn't know how it had happened, but before he could move, Hayley had dipped her hand inside the bowl and thrown a wad of left over cake mix at Frank. He didn't even have time to duck. Frank stood there completely still for a second with cake mix dripping down his face.

Gerard covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"Oh, so that's how you wanna play this, Williams?" He grinned

"Take cover!" Mikey called, as each of the kids grabbed a handful of cake mix and prepared for war.

The next day was the most uneventful day the gang had ever had in their school life.

Manson didn't even dare look at them, meaning they went through the whole day without getting taunted, punched, kicked or slammed into a locker- Frank couldn't have asked for anything better.

His smug mood did drop a little at lunch time when everyone was eating and chatting happily, because Bert appeared and sauntered over with that sneering grin Frank was already sick of.

"Hey guys" he grinned, and Gerard's face immediately lit up.

Frank's face immediately darkened.

"Hey Bert! Wanna sit with us?" Gerard chirped, motioning for Frank to move closer to Hayley so Bert could sit in between them,

Bert happily obliged and immediately began a seriously in depth conversation with Gerard about everything Gerard loved; which was pretty much just comics and music.

How does he know what Gerard wants to talk about? Frank thought. Maybe he was stalking Gerard?

That would make Gerard realize how much of a creep Bert was, Frank could bet all his allowance that Bert was plotting something.

"Yeah I'm in a band" Frank heard Bert say proudly, and Frank rolled his eyes in disgust, he heard Gerard gasp and could imagine the face he was making without even looking.

"We're called the Devil Beside You, I'm the singer"

Gerard pretty much collapsed on the table and Frank resisted the urge to punch himself, or Bert, in the face.

Frank knew Gerard had wanted to sing in a band since forever, he was a pretty damn good singer too, better than Bert, Frank was sure.

"That's freakin' awesome" Gerard said.

"Will you sing a part of one of your songs?" Hayley asked excitedly. Ugh, not you too Hails. Frank thought.

"Sure" Bert said calmly, and cleared his throat once, twice, three times, and when Frank was ready to strangle him he began to sing.

Bert's voice was a little croaky and rough with a nasal type edge to it, but even though Frank hated to admit it, he was pretty damn good; Frank sincerely wished he wasn't so him and Gerard could have laughed in his face.

Frank turned to see Gerard staring at Bert with adoring eyes as he sang, and suddenly felt violently sick. He didn't like that; Gerard wasn't supposed to look at anyone else that way.

He jumped up from his chair, mumbled an excuse to whoever was listening and hurried out of the hall, his hands shaking.