The mood in the car was sombre that night, and with the rain lashing against the windows, the four men found it hard to sleep. Ray eventually drifted off, long after the sun had set, and Bert was in one of those exhausted-but-will-wake-at-the-slightest-noise stupors.

Frank and Gerard, however, were kept awake by the sound of the rain and the thoughts rushing through their heads. Gerard couldn't stop thinking about Ryan, and his gun, and zombies, and Mikey. He reread Brendon's diary while Frank leant against him, eyes wide open and staring ahead.

Frank didn't want to admit it, but he was scared.

"I don't think Brendon was completely at fault." Gerard spoke quietly, making the younger jump.

"What?" He blinked, looking up at Gerard, who shrugged. "He cheated on Ryan. He walked into a horde of zombies in order to kill himself. He lied to everyone."

"No, but...if you read the entire book, from start to finish, it's obvious how much he loved Ryan."

"Not a lot, by the sounds of it."

"He loved him more than anything."

"So you're saying that if you got cheated on, you'd believe that they actually love you?"

Gerard frowned, trying to process the tone of the conversation and failing. It was a stupid thing to think, because everyone looked down on cheating, but there was more to it than that. There was Dallon Weekes, who was manipulative and sexy, and Brendon's boss. There was the fact that he was new and exciting, despite Ryan being safe, and home, and comfortable.

"Well...people have worked through it before..."

"If you're cheated on, that person does not love you. They stopped thinking about you long enough to be with someone else, and if it happens again, they continued to stop thinking about you. They stopped making you their number one. They stopped caring."

Gerard frowned even further, lines almost permanently stitched into his forehead. "Frank - were you cheated on?"

The younger turned away, folding his arms. "No, I just...have a problem with people throwing away their relationships and betraying those that love and trust them."

Gerard curled his fingers under Frank's chin, pulling his face around so that their eyes met. Leaning closer, he smiled, whispering, "Hey...I would never betray you."

And there it was, that treacherous lump in Frank's throat, the one that told him to tell Gerard everything, absolutely everything, stop being a damned liar! He opened his mouth, and his words died on his lips as he leaned forward, with Gerard meeting him halfway.

It was slightly awkward and a little sloppy, due to the fact that neither had kissed anyone in a long time, but soon Frank was holding onto Gerard's shirt like it was his lifeline, and in reality it was. Gerard seemed to be the only thing stopping himself from running and doing exactly what Ryan did, except he didn't have a gun, just his knife, and...

They broke apart, and unbeknown to either of them, Bert had been watching, waking at the wrong moment to see them with locked lips, and he turned away as it ended, closing his eyes. He'd never really felt heartache before, not like this, not from seeing his beloved Gerard kissing someone else, someone whom he couldn't decide whether he liked or not. He didn't want to hear them whispering to each other. He didn't want to hear them kissing again. He didn't want to hear them shifting in the back or think about them holding each other as they waited for the sun to rise.

And unbeknown to any of them, Bert McCracken cried for the second time since finding Gerard again.

~

"You've been crying."

"Fuck off, Ray."

"But you have - why have you been crying?"

"I said, fuck off."

Their bickering had gone on for the best part of an hour, only Gerard didn't want to say so, because Gerard didn't want his head bitten off by Bert McCracken. If he was honest, he was only really concerned about Frank, who had only been asleep for four hours at most. Neither of them needed to be groggy from lack of sleep, especially when they were driving around in the middle of nowhere.

And surely they should've gotten to New Jersey by now? Normally it took a few hours, not nearly a week. Though most of the freeways were blocked up with cars and bodies and shit, and other roads were out of use, and everything was fucking broken, but still. Each minute wasted on the road was a minute past seeing Mikey, and he didn't want to be too late.

Lord only knows what he'd do if he was too late.

He forced himself to stop thinking about it and concentrated on Frank, who was warm and safe in his arms, more asleep than he'd been all night. And he could've sworn that they'd kissed last night, though he was so tired it could've been a dream. But the feeling of Frank's lips touching his felt so real, it was like it was happening all over again.

"Just shut up, Ray, or I swear to God I'm gonna throw you out of the car." Bert snapped, bringing Gerard back to the situation at hand - which was a very pissed-off Bert for reasons unknown and an annoying Ray, also for reasons unknown.

"That wouldn't be ideal." He said, and Bert exhaled so hard he thought there was going to be a hurricane.

"It'll be the best thing to happen since this fucking apocalypse." Ray turned around and both he and Gerard raised their eyebrows, opting to say nothing. "I see you back there."

"Calm your fucking tits, dude." Ray said, as Bert pulled into an empty-looking gas station.

"I'll let my fucking tits be as free as I fucking want, thank you very much." He replied, before getting out the car and slamming the door so hard it almost fell off.

Gerard sighed, unbuckling his belt and carefully pushing Frank off of him, so he could get out of the car and go after Bert. "Look after him." He told Ray, who nodded, and then he went and caught up with the angry best friend, who was in the shop, glaring at packets of potato chips like they'd personally offended him.

"What's wrong?" He asked, and Bert simply scoffed. "What?"

"He's bad news, Gee." He said quietly, running his over packets of salt and vinegar, packets of cheese and onion (the worst kind of potato chips, in Gerard's opinion). "The kid. Frank. He's bad news."

"No he isn't. He's nice."

"You don't want nice in the fucking apocalypse."

"I'd rather have nice than nothing at all." He folded his arms, and the elder snorted.

"Yeah, right. How can be sure you trust him?"

"Will you stop this? He says he can take me to Mikey, of course I trust him!"

"But what if he's just leading you to this psycho Lindsey person?"

"If she was hunting you down, would you go to her?!"

Bert whirled around to face him. "He's not right in the head, Gerard! Think about it: he's just this stranger that tries to kill you, and then as soon as you mention Mikey, bam -" he slapped his fist into his other palm. "He suddenly knows all about the guy!"

"That's not fair, Bert!" Gerard protested. "The way he is isn't his fault! We're all a little screwed up these days!"

"He's more than a little screwed up, Gee, and you know it." The younger stalked off, through the aisles, though there wasn't really anywhere else to go due to the store being so small. "Don't walk away from me, Gerard Way - just because I'm right -"

"You are not right!" Gerard yelled, stopping and turning around so fast that Bert almost crashed into him. "You know nothing about him! Nothing at all! Yet you think you have the right to judge him based on nothing!"

"I care about you! I love you!"

"Well maybe I don't love you anymore!"

Exhaling hard, Bert stepped forwards and crushed his lips against Gerard's, hard enough to make them both stumble back a little. Actions spoke louder than words, that much was definite, but Gerard hated himself because the actions he wanted weren't the actions he made, and even after all this time, he was still into Bert, even if it was just a little bit. Or maybe he was just kidding himself because he was lonely, and even if kissing Frank was just a dream, he doubted it would happen again - seriously, who would want to kiss him?

Apart from Bert, of course.

Was this what Brendon had felt like when he was cheating on Ryan? But he wasn't cheating, not technically - he and Frank weren't even dating, Frank didn't even like him like that, he never would, it was just a kiss, just a -

The door was thrown open and they broke apart, listening to the running footsteps coming their way.

"Gerard!" He heard Frank call, and he immediately took off to find the teenager, his heartbeat speeding up.

"Frank!" He called back, meeting him in the freezer aisle. "What's happened? Are you okay?"

"Ray's gone."

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