seven: magical coffee

"Gerard, don't do this, I'm telling you one last time, and when he finds out, I promise I will do nothing but sit back and laugh," Ray warned and wrapped an arm around Mikey's middle as Mikey face planted into Ray's chest.

Gerard waved him off. "It's just a love potion, guys calm down. After it works, he'll go on a date with me and then realise that he actually likes me, don't worry."

"And you're doing this because...?" Mikey asked, trailing off and deciding that he didn't know whether he wanted the actual answer.

"Because I know he'd never even consider going out with me otherwise. Yeah, it's creepy, but I dunno... he's just too cute to risk rejection on, you know?"

"I don't think he'd..." Mikey began and then stopped, knowing that if he continued with his sentence, he might fuck this up even more royally.

Ray gave his hand a squeeze of appreciation and Mikey sighed and curled up against Ray's side as he watched sadly. Gerard had a literal cauldron that he borrowed from one of his DnD friends and now he was stirring in little herbs and things into it over his stove, adjusting the flames from time to time and stirring clockwise and counterclockwise methodically.

Ray just shook his head as Gerard added in a little bit of honey and gave it a few stirs.

"There," he said and smiled sheepishly. "I'm such a creep, aren't I?"

Mikey sighed and nodded at his brother, his mouth twisting up awkwardly. "Yeah, this is a little bit borderline uh... like rapey, almost? What are you doing again? Drugging the poor guy so he agrees to go on a date with you?"

Gerard turned the stove off guiltily and pushed some short black hair behind his ear. "Well, when you put it that way, Mikes--"

"Just forget he even said it," Ray huffed. "How the fuck do you even plan on getting him to ingest it?"

"I fucking bring him coffee every day, Ray. I'll go make it, slip this shit in and then bring it to him."

"You aren't his secretary, why do you bring him coffee?" Mikey grumbled.

"Because the room with the coffee machine on the way to our office by the way that I get in, but not for him."

"That's fair," Ray said and Mikey poked him.

"Frank should be able to get his own coffee," he sighed. "You're a little desperate, you know that, bro?"

Gerard blushed and looked at his hands which were folded in his lap. "I might chicken out. If we weren't meant to date, maybe I should just accept that and move on."

"That's the fourth time this week I've heard you say that," Ray said nonchalantly. "Look how fucking far you've come, lover-boy."

Gerard's blush got worse and he nervously tucked more hair behind his ear. "Fuck, I have, haven't I?"

"You know what, just do it," Mikey burst out. "This shit ain't real anyway, so you'll put it in, bring it to him, then he'll drink it, and then nothing will happen, and you'll fucking get... I dunno... Gerard, you might get rejected."

"If this is all bullshit, I will get rejected, Mikes," Gerard said and then sighed. "But I guess you're right. It's worth a shot. Besides, it isn't like this shit is dangerous. It's just edible herbs and honey and sugar and shit."

"Just..." Ray said and then rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Don't get yourself into a lawsuit."

---

"You're the best, Gee," Frank smiled at Gerard and gratefully accepted the cup of coffee.

"No problem," Gerard said nervously and then went to his desk with his own and wiggled his mouse so his computer lit up.

"Ooh, it's sweeter than usual, did you add more sugar?" Frank said, looking up at Gerard.

"Oh, sorry, I--"

"Nah, it's good, don't apologise," Frank said and shot Gerard one of his glamourous smiles. Gerard just smiled back and hid behind the monitor of his computer in order to properly hide the blush that was spreading like butter on his face. He inhaled as he opened up the file he'd been working on the day before.

"Hey, Frankie, can you share the new document with me so I can input the data from yesterday into today's?"

"Sure thing, sugar," Frank said and winked as he clicked around on his computer for a second.

"Sugar?"

"You added extra sugar, so... It's only fitting," Frank said and there was the smile again. Gerard flushed with guilt, but he smiled back anyway. "You okay?" Frank checked.

"Yeah... Sorry, I dunno what's wrong."

"That's okay. Sorry, I'm being weird today, I had a lot of sugar this morning and now I'm getting more and I think it's all hitting me right now."

"That's alright, I don't mind, Frankie," Gerard replied, his heart racing at the fact that Frank had noticed something was off. It was definitely fucking working, and now that it was happening, Frank wasn't sure if he regretted it or not. He did right now, but maybe he wouldn't later.

"You know," Frank began. "Oh, the file's shared. But um... I've been meaning to ask you something for a while," he said distractedly and took a long chug of his coffee.

Gerard held his breath. "Yeah?"

"You wanna like get real coffee together sometime? And this time I'll get it for you," Frank said nervously and took another long drag of the coffee.

Gerard's mouth dropped open. Now, this he wasn't expecting. Realising that he was sitting around catching flies, he shut his mouth and found that couldn't wipe the smile off his face.

"I'd love to," he replied a few beats late, and then Frank smiled.

"Like as a date, just to be clear. Not only because I feel bad about you getting me coffee from the machine every day. I... I like you, like that kinda thing," Frank added hurriedly, and Gerard nodded quickly.

"Yeah! Yeah, that'd be awesome," he said, flashing a small smile at Frank and watching as Frank's lips curled upwards and his eyes got sparkly.

"Great! Um... does tomorrow after work sound good? I'd wanna get home first, but we could meet somewhere?"

"That sounds wonderful," Gerard said and did his best to make his smile seem subdued. It probably didn't work.

"Great. Does around five work for you? There's this amazing coffee shop down the street from here," Frank said hesitantly as if waiting for a delayed rejection.

"I love that place," Gerard replied and passed Frank a comforting smile. "Um... but I should really be working with yesterday's data."

"Oh, yeah, me too," Frank said, seemingly snapping out of a daze and then smiling slightly to himself as he began to clack away on his keyboard. The sound of Gerard's mouse and number keys joined in, and soon enough, the two lapsed into silence, each of them plugging in headphones and working silently until the end of the day.

---

"Mikey, is Ray with you?" Gerard asked as he got into his car that afternoon. He was gonna make a stop before going home.

"Yeah, he just got here, what's up, dude?" Mikey said and his voice got muffled by the speaker and shitty connection.

"I'm... Can I come over?"

"Uh, yeah, sure. But make it quick."

"I'll be there in five," Gerard assurer him, and he was right. Within five minutes, Gerard was at Mikey's door, knocking desperately.

Mikey answered. "What's up, fuckface?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure," Mikey said and then closed the door behind Gerard when he got in.

"Thanks, man."

"Want some coffee?" Mikey asked and waggled his eyebrows.

"Man, fuck you. Oh," Gerard smiled, seeing Ray. "Hey, Ray!"

"Someone's cheery today," he said offhandedly and Gerard just rolled his eyes as Mikey joined them in the kitchen.

"You will not believe what fucking happened today," he said, finally getting to the point.

"What happened? Did you get rejected?" Mikey asked.

"If I got rejected, I wouldn't be this happy," Gerard pointed out. "Frank Iero fucking asked me out!"

"What!?" Ray cried. "How the fuck...? That potion did not work, there's no way."

"Yes way, he totally asked me out to coffee, dude. For tomorrow after work."

Ray grinned and clapped Gerard on the back. "Dude."

"I know right!?"

"Wait, wait," Mikey stuttered, standing at an awkward angle against the counter. "That shouldn't have been able to happen, dude. Here—" he pulled out his phone and pulled up a photo of the book they took the potion from.

"What?"

"It says in here that when they ingest the potion they should not really be capable of forming coherent sentences and thinking straight other than about the giver of the potion, and how infatuated with them they suddenly are. And they would be all touchy and clingy and all this bullshit. Was he... like that?"

Gerard's eyebrows scrunched together. "No, not at all. He was really calm and collected and then we went back to working after that. He didn't even get up from his desk, just like... thanked me for the coffee and did the cute smiley thing he does."

"Dude, he likes you by himself and you didn't even fucking know it you goddamn idiot?!" Ray yelled and then grinned. "This is so perfect. After you've been dating for like a year and a half you've gotta tell him about this."

"That's a long time," Gerard murmured and smiled to himself, thinking about spending that much romantic time with his office-mate.

---

"Hi, Gee," Frank said and smiled warmly as Gerard sat down in across from Frank with his drink clutched in his hands. "How are you?"

"Good, today's report killed me, but I'm more relaxed now that this is happening."

"Awe, were you nervous about this?" Frank cooed, seeing straight through the bullshit Gerard had just spewed. That day's report had actually been fairly stress-free, but the whole day leading up to the date had been unnecessarily stressful for Gerard.

"Very," Gerard admitted, and let go of his coffee cup when he felt it searing into his skin. Frank's hand instantly covered it with his own when it rested on the table and Gerard's cheeks flamed. Frank wasn't supposed to be the confident one, he was supposed to be under a spell or whatever the fuck, but thank god that hadn't worked out, because Gerard was beginning to like this much more.

Frank's thumb gently glided over the back of Gerard's hand, and Gerard looked down at their hands and then back up at Frank.

"Why?" Frank asked, and Gerard furrowed his brow. Frank specified. "Why were you nervous, babe?"

Gerard felt his cheeks got hotter and he looked down at their hands again, squeezing Frank's gently before he replied. "I dunno, I just... I would have never dreamt that my feelings for you weren't one-sided."

Frank raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Yeah," Gerard whispered.

"I guess I'm just that bad at flirting then," Frank giggled and then took a sip of his coffee. As he put it down, his eyes met Gerard's and he smiled softly. "Why do you constantly look down?"

"I'm still nervous I guess. This doesn't feel quite real," Gerard mumbled and then looked up at Frank again, realising his head had dipped again.

"You're so cute," Frank said gently, and then grinned. "Yeah, you're right, this doesn't feel real, does it, babe?"

"You calling me 'babe' is further than I ever thought we'd get," Gerard chuckled, and finally felt himself relaxing into the gentle rhythm Frank's thumb across the back of his hand. Frank's little giggle joined in with Gerard's laugh for a fleeting moment, and then when they settled down, they both took a sip of their coffee and then giggled again because it'd been in unison.

"I can't believe I didn't ask you out earlier," Frank said quietly after their laughs had really calmed down. "I would have if I knew what you were like outside the office."

Gerard's smile was tame on the outside, but on the inside, his heart was racing and butterflies were racing around his chest and stomach. "That's sweet."

"Just like my coffee yesterday. What'd you put in it?"

Gerard shrugged when he failed to come up with a proper lie. "I thought I put the same amount of sugar in as always."

Frank mirrored his shrug. "Well, I guess that's one mystery of the universe that will never get solved."

Gerard chuckled, blushed suspiciously, and then said, "Yeah, I guess so," and then let Frank walk him back to his apartment, where they may or may not have kissed for a few bashful moments longer than was necessary for a first kiss. And when Gerard got up to his flat, he was grinning like a motherfucking school-girl.

---

In fact, in the next few months ensuing, Frank never failed to make Gerard grin like a motherfucking school-girl.

And when Frank knocked on Gerard's door on their six monthiversary, Gerard invited him in and Frank was also doing the same grin thing as he pulled Gerard into a soft kiss and handed him a small flat box wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper even though it was the middle of fucking July.

When they were settled on the sofa in the living room, Gerard pulled out a little box and handed it to Frank too, but Frank just slipped it into his pocket.

"You open yours first," he said and then smirked.

"Okay," Gerard said, a small smile on his face, and ripped the packaging off of a set of the coloured pencils he'd been ogling for the past month. "Oh my god. Frankie, these are so expensive, you little shit!"

"Yeah, but you're worth it," Frank said, smiling softly and accepting the kiss and embrace that Gerard threw at him.

"No, I'm not, but thank you so fucking much, you're literally the best," he breathed and then pressed another kiss to Frank's lips. He set the pencils down gently. "Now you open yours. It's gonna be underwhelming after what you gave me, so I'm sorry about--"

Frank grinned after he tore open the packaging and threw himself so hard at Gerard that he fell backwards on the sofa and was rendered defenceless to the kisses that Frank was peppering all over his face.

When the kisses stopped and Gerard got room to breathe, Frank was grinning that delicious grin at him and squealing, "BABE, WHAT THE FUCK!? How does this even come close to what I got you?"

"I mean... I dunno, I guess I could have put more thought and effort into it, but I didn't really--"

"It's perfect," Frank said and rolled his eyes, placing the Smashing Pumpkins tickets on the table beside them.

"Good, because I didn't really think it was good enough, so I also kinda made something..." Gerard trailed off and then pulled a little tiny booklet out of his pocket. It was about the size of Frank's two palms when he held it gently in his hands.

"Oh my god, Gee," Frank whimpered as he opened it to see a little scrapbook of a few of their best dates and photos of the two of them together accompanied by multiple drawings of Frank and some drawings of them together, and of course, many drawings of cups of steaming coffee.

Because coffee was what brought them together, of course.

"You like it?"

"Tonight, when we make love, I'm gonna make you feel so goddamn special," Frank breathed and Gerard felt his heart (and yeah, maybe his dick too) twinge a little at his words.

Gerard just wrapped his arms around Frank's waist from behind and rested his head on his shoulder as he worked through the little scrapbook and complimented everything on every fucking page until Gerard had to kiss him to shut him up.

---

And yeah, on their year and a half, Ray was right, Gerard finally found the courage to tell Frank what he'd tried to do after of course grinning like a school-girl at the sight of Frank dressed in a batman onesie while he made them both coffee.

He wrapped his arms around Frank's waist as he got out of the bathroom, changed into his own onesie, except it was just a cat one, not a superhero one, which he was kind of jealous of.

"My arse still hurts," he whispered into Frank's ear seductively and Frank snorted out a laugh as he poured coffee into two mugs.

"Baby, we just fucked, of course your arse hurts," he snickered, but he let Gerard place little kisses on his neck anyway.

"Thanks for the coffee," Gerard mumbled and then mentally prepared himself for what he was about to tell Frank.

"I mean, we'll be awake all night, but that's alright, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, I wanna stay up all night talking with you and listening to music, duh," Gerard smiled softly and Frank giggled, pressing his lips to Gerard's, which were still a little swollen from their previous activities.

They settled on the sofa together and Frank was smiling like an idiot, pressing his head into the crook of Gerard's neck and Gerard's arm was wrapped around Frank while he kissed the top of his head, his forehead, lips, whatever he felt like, really.

"You're too happy, what's up?" Gerard said after a few minutes and Frank just shrugged innocently and finished his coffee and set his mug on the coffee table. Gerard did the same, and then Frank crawled onto his lap and tucked his head under Gerard's chin.

"Tell me a story or something, I wanna hear your voice," Frank murmured and Gerard giggled a little bit before beginning.

"Okay, this is one about you that I never told you," he began.

"Oh god, don't tell me one about you jerking off to me," Frank groaned and caused Gerard to laugh again.

"I could, but that's a story for another time," he said and giggled again. "This one, however, I think you'll either enjoy or break up with me over."

"I promise I won't break up with you," Frank whispered and a secretive tone overtook his voice, sending little shivers down Gerard's spine.

"Alright, that's comforting," he said after a few moments. "Well, the day you asked me out to coffee, you remember how your coffee in the morning was far too sweet?"

Frank looked up. "Oh my god, are we about to uncover one of the mysteries of the universe?"

"Yeah," Gerard chuckled. "So Ray and I found this thing and thought it was legit until I was doing it and then I lost hope and--"

"Be specific, arsehole," Frank teased and Gerard chuckled and blushed.

"Uh, so... I was actually planning on asking you out the next day, but I was really confident that you'd reject me, so one day when Ray and I were looking for this book for him in the library I stumbled upon a potions book."

"I really don't like where this is going," Frank chuckled and kissed Gerard's neck and in a fleeting moment, Gerard savoured the way Frank's lips felt on his neck because he didn't know where this story was going to end up doing to their relationship.

"Well, obviously the whole thing was bullshit, but I believed it, so I took it home. And for like a week I was considering doing it, and then when my brother and Ray were over this one time, they kinda talked me into doing it, and then by the time the potion was finished, they were trying to talk me out of it. But Ray said it was probably bullshit and my brother said I was probably going to be rejected anyway, so why not give it a shot, right?"

Frank nodded, signalling for him to go on. He had a little smile playing out on his face.

"Well, the only thing on the page that I'd read were the words 'love potion' and the ingredients and how to make it. So I'm getting ready to ask you out, right? And I put this shit in your coffee even though I knew sugar and honey and basil won't really make someone fall in love, and then you fucking ask me out."

Frank giggled, placing another kiss to Gerard's neck. "And then...?"

"Well, then, I go home and I tell my brother what happened, and mind you," Gerard stopped to laugh again. "I thought that this shit worked right? I mean I didn't even have to risk rejection, and then Mikey tells me that the shit is supposed to like... roofie people and I have this heart attack over the fact that I almost roofied you, and then another one over the fact that we have a date the next day and it's because you genuinely like me," Gerard finished, and felt another kiss being planted on the side of his cheek this time.

"Wow," Frank said after a few minutes. "You really... Is that why you were so nervous on the date?"

"Uh, obviously," Gerard grinned. "You're not gonna break up with me?"

"No," Frank said and then did a little secretive giggle of his own and kissed Gerard full on the mouth while he fumbled with something in his pocket. "I'm actually gonna ask you to marry me."