{^AMBIENCE INCLUDED^}

Requested by SkylarWay

(PRESS PLAY)

I sat in the passenger seat, gazing out at the familiar, snowy streets of New Jersey. It was loud and busy, but still beautiful in the wintertime. This old city held so many memories for Gerard, his friends, and I. 

This weekend, we were going to spend time with the Way family. Gerard and I were both pretty excited, because we hadn't seen them in a long time. It was a relief to finally settle down, now that The Black Parade tour was over.

I wore a black cardigan with a maroon tank top under it. Black skinny jeans and vans completed my look. It wasn't too fancy, but it wasn't too sloppy. I knew that I didn't have to worry about my appearance though. Mr. and Mrs. Way were very accepting, no matter how I looked. I remembered the first time that I met Gerard's parents. I dressed up, making my appearance as nice as I could. Gerard didn't like that too much. It wasn't "me", he had said. He wanted me to dress as I normally did.

"They've been wanting to see you again." Gerard gave me a cute grin. "They said that you're the perfect match for me."

"Well, they're not wrong," I said with a laugh. "Your parents are awesome."

He was laughing with me now. "Mikey is excited to hang out with you, too. I know you guys haven't seen each other in a while."

"How's he doing?" I asked, fiddling with the radio stations on the car.

"He is doing a lot better. He just needed some time. I'm sure he'll be acting more like himself this weekend," Gerard replied.

We arrived around five o'clock. I was nearly tackled in a hug by Mrs. Way, getting only halfway through the door. No wonder why Gerard was such a hugger, because he clearly got it from his mom. Even Mr. Way hugged me too, with a huge smile on his face.

Mikey stood near the door, leaning his side against the wall. He gave a fake pouty lip. "Hey, no love for me?"

I giggled and walked over to hug him. He was nearly a head taller than me, as usual. "Nope. No love for Mikey."

"It's great to see you again," he said into my shoulder, pulling his hoodie sleeves over his palms. His voice was quiet and gentle.

"You alright?" I asked quietly.

He nodded. "I'm doing just fine. I've been here for a few days now."

"Good," I replied and let go of him. I was glad that he wasn't alone after a rough time.

Gerard got his share of embraces too. It was nice to see everybody so happy and together again.

Mrs. Way smiled at us. "Dinner will be ready in five. We're making spaghetti. Yeah, I know, it's generic. We'll have to deal with it."

"It's not generic." I shrugged. "I'll eat anything."

Gerard then took my hand as I grabbed our bags of stuff for the weekend. "Hey, come on, let's go see my old room. We've got five minutes."

I set our stuff down on the bed. His room just made me chuckle. There were posters on the walls, and desks with canvases and paint everywhere. The shelves in the corner of the room were stacked with comic books. There was one patch of sunlight, coming from the tiniest window on the wall. This was definitely his type of bedroom.

He sat down on his bed and laid back, pulling me into his chest. "It's always refreshing to come back in here. I feel so much younger than my old self."

I laughed. "Oh shut up, you're not old." I jokingly hit his arm. "You're only thirty, and you look very good for your age."

"Yeah, for sweating off all my calories onstage in a wool parade jacket," Gerard snickered.

"You're too cute," I said and playfully rolled my eyes. "I can't stand it."

"You're too funny." He let out a chuckle and planted a kiss on my head. "Anyways, this bed is kinda small. I kinda assumed that you wouldn't mind. I'll just have to hold you closer..."

I burrowed into his chest as the same warm smile lit up Gerard's face. Just as I was getting comfortable, Mr. Way called us to dinner.

"Dang it," I mumbled into his grey, denim jacket.

Gerard smirked. "Come on, you." He lifted me up and threw me over his shoulder. "Let's go eat."

I squirmed and giggled as he walked over to the dinner table and set me down.

"Well that was quite an entrance," Mrs. Way said with a small laugh. "There's plenty of food here, so eat up."

"That means you, Mikey," Mr. Way added and elbowed him in the side. "Skin and bones, that's all you are. We'll have to fatten you up again this weekend."

Mikey gave half of a smile and propped his elbows up on the dinner table. "Maybe you guys are generic."

The meal was great. I thanked the Way parents and helped clean up afterwards, even though I was "the guest" and Mr. and Mrs. Way insisted that I sit and relax. Mrs. Way scouted out to talk to me as soon as she got the chance to. She pulled me to the living room while the guys were still cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen.

"I just wanted to say thank you so much for all that you do for Gerard," she started and sat me down next to her. "You make him so much happier. Everyone can see it. I don't think you realize exactly how much you have done for him, because he's talked to me about it. He gushed about you over the phone once. I know he's got bad anxiety and has had some rough patches... I didn't think that he'd move on, let alone want to make it that far..." She started to tear up.

"Mrs. Way, look at him now. He's a lot happier. It's much better to move on from the past. We've both had our dark moments, but they made us closer and stronger people," I told her.

She blinked tears away. "I'm so proud of him. And you, too. It's amazing how far you guys have come. You're so good with Mikey, too. Sometimes it's hard to tell what he's really thinking. He's a lot quieter about his feelings. He was pretty shaken up after tour, and he came right here when we mentioned something about a get-together. You're just extremely caring, and that's something that the world is missing."

"It's out of love, I guess," I started. "Gerard and I, well, we just clicked. His calm nature is something that I latched onto. He's not your typical guy. He's different, and I admire that about him. Everything that he does has got to have some brilliant meaning behind it. And Mikey is really soft-spoken, too. We've been talking a lot recently. He'll open up to me once in a while. But Gerard and Mikey are both very kind-hearted guys. You clearly raised them well. I love them to death."

"Me too." She laughed. "Thanks, again. Just keep being you. You know, it's really something."

The rest of the evening consisted of chatting and evening coffee. I really got to know the Way family better. We sat at the fireplace, because it was the middle of January and still freezing outside. I was sitting in Gerard's lap as we talked about interesting tour stories. He wrapped his arms around me as we laughed about Mikey and his jokes.

We got into bed at eleven. Gerard and I were so tired, and so freezing. We laid on our sides, as close as we could be. I fell asleep with my ear pressed to his heart, and our arms and legs entangled.