HAI! This is my side-project until I think of something to do with Drop The Dagger. Nope, it's not a Frerard. =O!

UPDATE: Yeah, i know, it's kind of inconsistent with history, beings as Bob didn't join the band until later, but what's Matt ever done for them, hmm? aside from record some stuff and do two music videos. Really.

DISCLAIMER - This is fiction. Mikey would never, Frankie would never. Married men do not do such things with their friends. Anywho, enjoy!

My alarm clock wakes me up with a furious beeping. I slam my fist onto it, not knowing what button I pressed to silence the damn thing, but I was grateful for the quiet. I rolled out of bed, drumming my fingers on my bare chest as I slunk to the bathroom. The light was already on. I groaned. Alicia could still not, for life of her, remember to turn off a fricking light switch. I look in the mirror. I don't know what good that does, though, because I can't see anything anyway. I take my glasses from their usual spot in my medicine cabinet and put them on. I wish I hadn't.

My hair is everywhere, and it's going wavy from sleeping on it. I turn the light off, silently willing Alicia to take the damned hint. Then I go downstairs where she's waiting for me at the table with a mug in front of my chair.

"Morning," I grumble, sitting down and sipping the coffee.

"Good morning!" Alicia chirps. I don't understand how that girl can be so incessantly happy all the time. I mean, she's dating me. I'm kind of a rain cloud on people's happiness. That is to say, I'm pretty negative all the time.

I muster up a small smile and continue drinking my coffee so I can function. What did I have planned for today? Oh, yeah. I was gonna get together with the guys and go see The Smiths later. I already had my ticket, sitting there in my room. Alicia knew about it, so she was going to hang out with her girlfriends.

"I'm gonna go hang out with Gerard and them soon. Is that okay?" I ask casually.

"It's fine. I gotta meet the girls later anyway."

I nod, finish off the mug, set it in the sink and canter upstairs to the bathroom again in order to take a shower. Alicia left me some hot water; that was nice of her. I hum to myself absentmindedly as I scrub off. Alicia told me once that I sounded good, but I don't really sing. I'm pretty much horrible at it. I can play bass pretty well, though. Bass is my niche. I don't have to shred, I just have to keep a beat. I don't need to move onstage because most of my band's fans could care less about me. I kind of like it that way.

I step out of the shower and get dressed in my usual skinnies and Anthrax shirt. I swear, I wear that thing twice a week. A man obsessed is a man obsessed.

Then comes my stupid hair. I wish I could just shave my damned head and not have to deal with it. I towel it off a little so it's dry enough to flat iron in the front. I do that to give myself a little makeshift devil lock and I muss it up in the back. I take my wallet with me and I'm about to head out the door when Alicia comes up to me. "Wait!"

"What?" I groan impatiently.

"You look handsome," Alicia says, too innocently for the compliment.

My glasses make their way down the bridge of my nose. I push them up and smile at her. "You look beautiful."

Alicia giggles and I kiss the top of her head before I leave.

Gerard's place isn't far from mine. Pretty much a stone's throw, but I drive anyway. My old Misfits CD is in the player, with Braineaters playing. I nod my head along to the melody and pull up into my brother's driveway. Frank and Bob's cars are already there. That means I'm on time, because if you get there after Ray, you're considered late. I get out of my vehicle and lock the doors. I slowly walk up Gerard's driveway, looking at my feet the entire time. Gerard opens the door before I can knock.

"Hey, Mikey!"

"Hi Garry," I tease, knowing full well that he hates that nickname.

"Yeah, yeah. Come on in."

I kick off my boots and see Frank sitting on Gerard's living room couch with his guitar slung over one leg. He was barely ever without it, but the sight of him playing still makes me slightly weak in the knees. And by 'slightly', I mean 'extremely'. Bob is sitting on the other couch, and he says, "Hi Mikey!"

I wave, and Frank turns to face me. I smile involuntarily when he grins at me. "What's up?" he asks.

"Nothin' much. Getting pretty stoked for The Smiths."

"Aw, I know! It's gonna be legendary."

I nod and sit down beside Frank. He's used to it by now, because I always latch myself onto him like a suckerfish. "What're you workin' on, there?"

"Nothing important," Frank says with a frown. "I just can't get this fucking progression right. No matter what chord I play at the end, it always sounds stupid."

"Well," I suggest, "how about you play it for me, and I try and find a sound?"

"Sure, but if I can't, I don't think you'll be able to."

Frank played through a slightly melancholy couple of chords, with a discordant F at the end. "That's the best I can come up with!"

"Asusfive," I mutter. I remembered the chord from my old guitar days back in junior high. I wasn't so great at it, though.

"Sorry, what?" Frank asks, leaning in closer so that our thighs are touching.

I swallow and repeat myself. "You need an Asus chord. Asus five. I could be wrong, though."

Frank plays the chord progression over with my suggestion. To both of our extreme surprise, it sounds good. Really good.

"Thanks, man!" Frank exclaims and claps me on the shoulder. He's obviously excited about the measly little chord I told him to play. I don't mind; it makes me feel important.

Just then, Ray comes in. "Sorry I'm late. Bauer had this-"

"Okay!" Frank holds up his hand in protest. "We don't need to know."

"Alright, then," Ray agrees, sounding a little pleased that he doesn't have to offer another fake explanation. We all know the real reason: he overslept.

"Should we get going to the studio," Bob says, looking at Ray, "seeing as how princess got his royal ass out of bed?"

"I told you! Bauer-"

"Shhh!" Frank hushed Ray, and he didn't try to protest. Ha, definitely overslept.

"But the studio sounds good," Gerard agrees.

"Definitely," I say. "Should we carpool? Y'know, save gas?"

"Good idea! Okay, um, Bob and Ray, you come with me. Frank and Mikey can go together."

"You cool with me invading your car?" Frank asks me. As if I'd mind him invading anything.

"It's all good," I reply as indifferently as I can while slowing down my heartbeat to non-hummingbird levels.

"Awesome, just let me gut my guitar."

I help him load the guitar case into the back seat of my car and open the passenger door for him on the way over to my side. Who says chivalry is dead? Not like the little things I do matter much to him, because I'm just being Mikey, but I still do them. I really enjoy being nice to Frank. In a way, it kind of feels like I'm doing myself a favour.

"Thanks for the ride," Frank says when I come in and get the car moving.

"No worries."

"So," he says a bit uncomfortably, resting his arm next to mine on the little compartment between the two seats, "how's life?"

"Life is fine," I answer and shrug, using the motion to bring my arm closer to his. I can feel the heat from his arm moving onto mine. "Yours?"

"Good, good. It's good. I'm kind of thinking of ending it with Jamia, though."

I'm shocked. Frank loved Jamia. He rarely talked about anything else! And when they were together, the atmosphere between them was so amazingly perfect… like I wish it was with him and I. "What?! Why?!"

"I'm not feeling it anymore, you know? It's gone."

"What's 'it', exactly?"

"It. The spark. It's not like I'm out of love or anything, it's just that I have to work at it. And love shouldn't be work."

"There's someone else, isn't there?" I ask, cutting right to the point.

There is a long pause. Frank looks at me with desperate eyes as we stop for a red light. I stare back, looking over every so often at the light to make sure it hadn't changed on me.

"Yeah," he says, and looks down at his feet.

"Oh," I mutter, revving the engine again as the light flicks to green.