Steven's Untitled Rock Diner
Title: Steven's Untitled Rock Diner
Pairing: Steven/Gerard, miscellaneous data
Summary: Steven owns a diner and pines for Gerard the waitress.
Notes: fmith and I imagined this beautiful world for many hours via text massage/the phone. I can only hope that my execution of the ideas will make dreams come true.
Steven shows up later than he normally does one day and finds some girl standing outside the front doors smoking, waiting to be let inside. She's wearing a stereotypical diner waitress uniform, with the black dress and white apron and that little paper hat thing. He figures the girl wants a job and thinks if she looks the part then she'll get it. He feels bad that he'll have to turn her away, because she went to all that trouble, but he's not even hiring right now.
The girl turns around as Steven approaches and he realizes she's not a girl at all but is in fact the secret love of his life, Gerard. Steven stops walking mid-step, like when cartoon characters get caught sneaking away and they freeze with their leg bent in a walking position. Gerard waves to him with his cigarette hand and then points to his ear where his other hand is cupped around it because he's on the phone.
Steven lifts his arm halfway and means to wave his hand in return greeting but it doesn't work out because he's so struck dumb by Gerard that he can't. Gerard looks pretty in a dress, the apron tied around his waist tighter than normal, accentuating his hips, and he has some rouge and eyeliner and lipstick on. His hair is down like it always is, but it looks like maybe he actually washed it and brushed it. Gerard's never dressed as a woman before and it's confusing Steven sexually, like male figure skaters do. He's always like, am I attracted to this person because they're mannish or because they're girlish? He jerks off to it either way, but it's still confusing. He pictures Gerard in a flowing ice skating tutu thing and drops his keys on the ground while he's trying to unlock the doors to the diner.
He flicks the lights on and weaves around the tables with the chairs on top of them. He can be pretty clumsy in the mornings and he's knocked down chairs a thousand times and it always gives Gerard a heart attack. Gerard doesn't mind loud noises but he does mind them when they're all of a sudden. Brian brought him a bouquet of balloons for his birthday last year, and Gerard really liked them but he was twitchy all day because he was nervous they'd pop without his knowing beforehand. He popped them himself at the end of the day with his lighter, after the helium had deflated from them. Steven got Gerard a Mylar balloon because they don't pop as easily and they last longer.
Steven really loves Gerard a lot. He loves Gerard so much that he'd prefer to ignore him so as not to be totally humiliated whenever he stutters or makes a lame pun and or an odd hand gesture around him. He gives lots of thumbs up around Gerard. Steven really hopes Gerard doesn't think he hates him, because that's always happened to him when he's secretly in love with someone. Gerard doesn't seem to notice that Steven is a complete mess whenever they speak, though; he's friendly and helpful and he always putters around singing softly, which is practically Steven's favorite thing ever in the whole world.
Steven goes to the back office to put his apron on. His waitresses (he employs only one actual woman, but he calls them all waitresses, because what kind of tiny diner has waiters, and also because Gerard thinks it's cool breaking social norms or whatever) don't actually wear the little waitress dresses with the paper hats. They pretty much wear jeans and a t-shirt, so he's not sure why Gerard decided to wear that particular outfit today, but they all do wear aprons. They're protective and the pockets are nifty. He wears one too even though he usually only works the cash register. Sometimes he'll cover for Gerard or Victoria when they go outside for smoke breaks.
The front doors open and close, so Steven leaves his office to give his daily thumbs up to Gerard and to try not to stare at his hips.
"Hi, Steven, sorry I'm late," Gerard says. He pulls away a strand of hair that was sticking to his lips.
Steven turns his right thumb skyward and smiles and nods.
"Well, you were late too, so." Gerard smiles as he continues. Steven's heart beats harder and faster whenever Gerard smiles at him, which is at least four times a day. He wonders if he'll get some sort of heart murmur condition from all the speeding up and slowing down it does. "How do I look?"
Steven looks Gerard up and down. He's pretty sure his legs are shaved, unless Gerard is just natually hairless like that. He really, really wants to touch them and see.
"You look, yeah, you look great," Steven says, nodding. He almost gives another thumbs up but manages to restrain himself. He's limited himself to one a day. Instead he gives an A-OK signal.
"Thanks," Gerard says and smiles. Steven's heart speeds again and he thinks about how embarrassing it would be if he had a stroke or something right in front of Gerard. "I'm trying it out today, you know, to see if I get harassed more as a woman. Plus I look pretty hot like this." He flips his hair and his little paper hat thing falls onto the floor. Steven bends down to pick it up as Gerard does the same and their fingers touch, but Gerard lets Steven hand it to him.
"Uh, yeah," Steven nods. He stands up and watches Gerard fix his hair. "That's really cool. Yeah, I wish I had the balls to do that. Or the no-balls. Because women don't have balls. Physically."
Gerard laughs at this even though it's not funny in a funny way, but funny in a painful and rambling way.
The doors open again and Brendon walks in. He can't control his face, so Steven sees him go through about twelve emotions -- confusion, curiosity, hunger, surprise, etc. -- before he settles on incredibly excited.
"Oh my God. Gerard. Gerard. Oh my God," Brendon says, swatting at Gerard's arm. "Oh my God, you look so beautiful. You're beautiful! Oh my God, Gerard, I didn't think you'd really do it." He grabs Gerard by the shoulders and holds him at arm's length to look at him like a mother would on her daughter's wedding day.
"You really like it?" Gerard says. He flutters his eyelashes and Steven is seriously about to keel over, so he busies himself at the counter but still eavesdrops. He's learned a lot about Gerard through eavesdropping. He used to care that he was slightly creepy, but he doesn't anymore.
"Yes, oh my God. You're gonna get hit on so much." Brendon moves to pinch Gerard's ass, but Gerard slaps his hand before he gets to it. Steven would get ragingly jealous if this were anyone but Brendon. "Nice reflexes. You're gonna get a lot of that today I bet, seriously. Oh my God, do you have like, a girl name? I can make you a name tag!"
"I don't think so," Gerard says. "Unless I could be like, Gerardine."
"Geri!" Brendon yells suddenly. "Like the Spice Girl!" He runs back into the office and comes back a few minutes later with a new name tag that says 'Geri' on it. The 'i' is dotted with a heart.
"Thanks, Brendon," Gerard says as he pins it onto his chest. Steven wants to pin it on for him, because Gerard doesn't like needles and other pointy sharp things, but he manages to do it on his own.
"Don't mention it, Geri," Brendon says, elbowing Gerard in the side and winking exaggeratedly.
Brian and Victoria walk in at the same time. Before anyone can make any comments, Brian announces, "Victoria would like everyone to know that we are not walking in together, we are merely walking in at the same time, and nothing untoward at all is going on between us." Everyone nods and says "sure, yeah, of course not," because nobody wants to get punched in the nose by Victoria even though they don't really believe the lies.
"Hey," Brian says, squinting down at Gerard's name tag, "Geri."
"Hey Brian," Gerard says. He slides his hands down his sides to his hips and Brian nearly needs to excuse himself to the bathroom for a few minutes. Just a few minutes, because Gerard is killing him over here. "You like? You think I'm hotter than Victoria now or what?"
"That's a trick question and I refuse to answer it," Brian says. He makes his way back to the kitchen to do chefly things and glance longingly and unsubtly at Victoria a lot. Steven at least is, if nothing else, subtle. Victoria is really hot though. She always wears cute little dresses which are almost waitress dresses but not quite because they're shorter.
"Hey, Geri, you look really hot," Victoria says as she ties her apron. Steven doesn't know how she can tie the strings so perfectly when they're behind her back. His always come untied. It must come easier when you've had bras to practice with your whole life. Maybe that's why Gerard is so good at it too, although Steven's not sure that Gerard is even wearing a bra. "You look kind of like Chrissie Hynde in that Pretenders video, remember."
"Oh man," Brendon says. Steven winces before Brendon even does anything because he knows what's coming. "I'm special! Special! So special! Special!" Brendon belts it out at the top of his lungs.
Gerard pats the side of Brendon's face. "You sure are, sweetie."
~*~*~
The lunch hour isn't super busy at the diner, but late night is. That's always when Steven has to defend Gerard's honor, because Gerard is pretty even on a normal day and they get a lot of drunken assholes coming in after rocking out at the club down the street or wherever and getting all up on him. Steven is really nervous about tonight, because Gerard is like, aggressively pretty as a woman. He might actually have to punch someone.
The only people who come in during the day are regulars.
"Hey, my favorite diner owner," Cash says after he walks in.
"I'm your only diner owner," Steven says. He's wiping down the counter again and trying not to stare at Gerard wiping down tables.
"Cash!" Brendon yells. He runs over to where Cash is standing with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack still on his back, but stops right in front of him. "Hi."
"Hi," Cash says. They both look like they want to hug each other, but they don't. "Can I -- the usual?" He walks over to his normal booth in the corner and Brendon follows him.
"Yeah, of course. Brian!" Brian's head peeks out from the kitchen window. "Waffles and strawberries, thanks." Brian rolls his eyes, like he hasn't made Cash's order a million times before. Brendon just sits down next to Cash instead of across from him like a normal person might and squishes all against him. "What did you bring in your teenage magical ninja backpack today?
"Let me say this is perhaps the greatest item I've ever procured in my young life, and I'm almost sad to give it away."
"What is it? What is it?" Brendon paws at Cash's backpack like it has catnip in it.
"Hang on, geez, let me get it open," Cash grabs Brendon's hand and pulls his arm across his shoulders so he's wearing Brendon like a mink stole. He unzips his backpack and pulls out a folder.
"Cash. Cash. I'm going to cry. I'm going to weep tears of joy," Brendon says. He runs his fingers over the folder and breathes in and out heavily a few times. "This is so amazing, like I can't even believe you're giving it to me. Steven!"
Steven severs the tether his eyeballs automatically form to Gerard to look at Brendon. He's holding up the folder to show him. It's one of those black velvet pictures that take forever to color because there are so many little detailed pieces, but on a folder. It's all celestial.
"That's awesome, Brendon," Steven says. Steven can appreciate black velvet celestial scenes. "Do you have markers?"
"Never fear, I brought markers," Cash says. He gets them out and he and Brendon get to coloring until Brian dings the order-up bell. Brendon basically sprints to the counter to grab Cash's food and brings it back as quickly as possible so they can continue snuggling and coloring and being generally adorable and making Steven want to hug Gerard really badly, just one hug, that's all.
~*~*~
Steven is grateful that not many drunken assholes come into the diner that night. Gerard gets a lot of leers, but nothing worthy of a punch in the face. Really only one drunken asshole comes in, and objectively he's not even that big an asshole, but Steven hates him because Gerard likes him. His name is Bert and he comes in pretty frequently, and Gerard is always friendly to him like they're friends or something.
Bert sits at a table and Gerard sits down next to him to take his order and also to talk to him. Steven wants to snap something about this not being Hooters, but he doesn't want to be obvious.
"Geri, huh?" Bert says. "Geri, you are one fine lady. You'll make some man a happy husband one day."
"Fuck you, Bert, I'm never getting married," Gerard says, shoving at Bert's shoulder. "Geri can't be tied down."
"Geri's feisty! Are you speaking in the third person?" Bert shoves at Gerard's chest and Steven ponders if that counts as a customer getting fresh with Gerard. He tosses those people out. He shouldn't want to lift Bert above his head and throw him out into the street, because Bert is pretty cool, if a little strange and smelly, but he does. He tunes out their conversation and focuses instead on wiping the counter off again.
Eventually Bert passes out on his table. He's done it enough times that they have his friend Quinn on #4 on the speed dial, so they call him to come collect Bert. Steven's still zoning out and rubbing at the counter when Gerard sits down on a stool across from him.
"This counter's so clean you could eat off it," Gerard says. He smiles at Steven and takes a napkin out of the napkin dispenser to wipe off his makeup. "I think I get harassed more when I'm a guy. I guess our customers are all gay dudes." Steven stares at Gerard's lips as he rubs the lipstick off of them. He can't tell if they're red because it stained or because he's been rubbing at them.
"Yeah," Steven agrees. "There are a lot of gays around these parts."
"That was fun though," Gerard says. He's smudged a little bit of lipstick onto his chin. "I might do it again some time."
"Maybe we'll all do it next time," Steven says.
Then something happens, his balls grow three sizes or something, and he leans across the counter and rubs at the smudge on Gerard's chin with his towel. Gerard just looks at him with his giant eyes and lets him clean his face. Steven wishes Gerard had worn mascara too, because his eyelashes are so long and girlish. "You had some red on your chin."
"Thanks," Gerard says. He smiles at Steven again, and Steven thinks that's a record for times Gerard has smiled at him in one day. He doesn't think it'll ever not cause his heart to palpitate irregularly, unless maybe Gerard gets his teeth removed. Probably even then.
"Is it all gone?" Gerard looks at his reflection in the toaster. Steven doesn't even know why there's a toaster up there, because it's not like he ever toasts anything. It's just a prop toaster. "There's Gerard. Did you miss me?"
"Terribly," Steven says.
~*~*~
The diner's walls are all exposed red brick, and most of them have windows in them or tables against them or framed gig posters from the venue down the street hanging on them, but there's a blank wall in the diner directly across from the doors when you walk in, nothing on it at all. Gerard sometimes says how sad it looks, or how sad it makes him to look at it, and it breaks Steven's heart so he gets an idea one day.
"Hey, uh, Gerard," Steven says. He's pretty sure Gerard will love his idea, but he's nervous about it anyway. "I have an idea."
"What's up?" Gerard asks. He crosses his arms on top of the counter and leans on them to listen closely to Steven's idea. Steven realizes that almost all of his conversations with Gerard occur with the counter between them, but he's okay with that. The counter makes him feel safer.
"I was thinking, you know how you hate that blank wall?" For some reason Steven's arm feels the need to reach all the way out and point directly at the blank wall as if Gerard has no idea where it is. Gerard looks at where he's pointing anyway and then turns back.
"I don't hate it," he says. "I'm just sad sometimes that it's so naked."
Steven tries to ignore Gerard talking about anything being naked and continues on. "Well, I was thinking you could do it up. Paint a mural on it or something if, if you wanted to do that. Put some clothes on it."
Gerard just stares at Steven for a few moments, mouth agape, and Steven's worried that he's somehow offended Gerard's morals until Gerard says, "I would love to do that, thank you." He reaches over and puts his hand over Steven's, curls his fingers under Steven's palm and shakes it a little. Steven is really glad he's behind the counter right now, because his knees quiver. He feels like such a cartoon all the time around Gerard.
~*~*~
Steven thinks Gerard is a most excellent waitress, probably one of the best in the entire country. He always has a sharpened pencil tucked behind his ear, ready to take an order down, and he always calls the customers affectionate endearments, and he hardly ever drops things or gets orders mixed up. He could probably compete in some sort of waitressing Olympics and win a medal, a silver medal at least.
Ray, who runs the venue down the street, comes by few times a week. Sometimes he's by himself, sometimes he brings his special friend Travis. Steven really likes both of them, even though Gerard also really likes both of them. For some reason Steven doesn't feel his love is threatened by Ray or Travis.
"Hey Travie," Gerard says. Steven's mildly depressed that Gerard calls Travis by a cutesy nickname but doesn't call him 'Stevie' or something. Nobody's ever called Steven that before, but it might be cute if Gerard did. "You're an artist type, right?"
"I sure am," Travis says.
"Do you wanna come help me pick out paints? Steven is letting me do a mural on the wall over there, but I haven't bought art supplies in forever."
"Oh, hey, that's cool." Travis finds a near perfect ringlet in Ray's hair and sticks his finger through it like it's a Chinese finger trap. Steven is definitely not worried about either of them stealing Gerard from him. "Yeah, I'd love to help you out."
"Awesome, thank you." Gerard smiles and untucks his pencil from behind his ear. "What can I get for you tonight, honey?"
~*~*~
"Don't you have a home?" Steven asks Cash one day. That kid is seriously here all the time, his notebooks and folders and pencils spread out uselessly all over the same table in the corner every day. If he wants to go on a date with Brendon, he should just ask him. Then they could go someplace a little classier, or at least darker.
"It's too distracting there, I can never get my homework done," Cash says right as Brendon comes out of the kitchen to distract him from his homework.
"Cashhhhhhhh," Brendon says, putting a finger over his lips like he's shushing somebody and setting a plate of bacon and fries on Cash's table. "I brought you snacks! Brain snacks. For your succulent brains." Brendon slowly advances on Cash's head with his hands he's holding out as claws, grabs it, and gnaws on his hair.
"Thanks, Brendon," Cash says. Steven wonders why it's so easy for other people to pretend to be zombies to show their love and also what would happen if he pretended to be a zombie and chewed on Gerard's head. He knows Gerard likes zombies, but he'd probably think Steven had gone insane.
"Hey Steven," Gerard calls out from the blank wall. Travis helped him bring in his supplies earlier today and he's been futzing around with them when there aren't any customers, opening everything and laying down newspaper. "I'm gonna go outside and smoke. Can you watch my stuff? It does tricks, I promise."
"Of course, yeah, go ahead," Steven says and waves Gerard out. Victoria is already out there and they start gabbing about things. Steven really wants to eavesdrop in on those conversations, because it'd be like listening in on girls talking at slumber party, like maybe they talk about boys, but Steven knows when he's crossing creepy lines. They come back in a few minutes later.
"Did it do tricks like I said?" Gerard asks Steven.
Steven feels like a doofus, but he goes along with it. "Oh, yeah. It did back flips. Didn't even spill itself." He thinks he might actually be flirting or something. Victoria stares at him in a shocked manner, so maybe he's not as subtle as he thinks. Gerard just laughs, futzes with his stuff again, and starts singing what Steven is almost certain is a Fergie song.
~*~*~
One of Steven's worst fears, he's stayed up all night some nights thinking about it, is that Gerard will suddenly realize how talented and amazing he is and quit waitressing and go be an artist somewhere romantic and beautiful and meet a hot guy with tattoos and never come back to the diner ever again. Then he feels like an asshole, because he wants Gerard to know how wonderful he is and encourage him in his artistic endeavors, and he sometimes even wants to tell Gerard how much he loves him, just so he'll know, but he wants to keep Gerard here more than that.
The mural takes a few weeks to finish, because Gerard only paints when he's not doing anything else, even though Steven told him he can come in on his off days just to paint. Steven doesn't know much about art, but he knows when something looks awesome, and the mural does look really awesome. It's sort of like a Hawaiian shirt a goth might wear, with vampires and zombies and werewolves bursting out of red and black swirly patterns. Steven even spots a ghostly figure of Wolverine in the background and gets the urge to tongue Gerard so deeply. Everyone loves it, the drunken assholes and the kids who come in to get pancakes after rocking out at Ray's are absolutely marveled, although Brendon is a bit freaked out by it. He gives all the creatures names like Mr. Winkelsas and Aunt Maude to make them less scary.
When Gerard is done he makes Brendon, Victoria, Brian, and Steven all paint something of their own on the wall. Brendon puts a crescent moon up with a little person that he insists is nobody they know sitting on it up in the corner. Brian paints a heart floating between a zombie and a vampire and says something about love in the face of adversity while looking at Victoria. Victoria paints a tiny, fluffy lap dog chewing on a random disembodied leg.
Steven can't really draw and he doesn't want to mar Gerard's art with a smiley face or something stupid. He decides on painting a few daisies in the hand of a zombie.
"I love that," Gerard tells him when he's done with his part. "It's like when hippies put daisies in people's guns."
"His name can be Moon Unit Zombie," Steven says.
"I really like it." Gerard runs his fingers over Steven's painted flowers. "It makes it more peaceful."
"Thanks." Steven will get a thousand bouquets of daisies for Gerard and make daisy garlands for him and everything if it'll make him talk all sweetly and gently to him like that again.
~*~*~
Gerard has been haranguing Steven for forever about the items on the diner menu. He doesn't mind what they serve, but he says the names of the dishes are not distinctive and nondescript or whatever like it matters.
"You can't just call everything Untitled," Gerard says. "'Steven's Untitled Hash Browns', you can't even tell what's in that."
"I think it's pretty clear that it's hash browns," Steven says. He's toweling the inside of a glass probably nobody ever uses. He's not sure why; it just seems like the type of thing a guy behind the counter in a diner would do.
"Denny's uses puns!"
"Denny's is a terrible diner, that's why it uses puns."
"Well, you should still think of some new names," Gerard insists.
Steven doesn't bother to change any of the names except for one. His menus are basically double-sided sheets of printer paper he got laminated, so it's not a big deal to make completely new ones.
~*~*~
Gerard's brother Mikey comes in sometimes and has lunch with Gerard or everyone if they're around. He usually has a cup of coffee from Coby Bean, the place next door to the diner, with him. Steven allows it because the dudes who run Coby Bean are cool, they're not coffee rivals or anything, and also because he loves Gerard who loves Mikey. Steven supposes he loves Mikey vicariously through Gerard, but not in a sexual manner.
"Hey guys," Mikey calls out when he walks in holding his coffee. He always comes in through the kitchen door in the back because he was told he was allowed to so he thinks it's special. "That freaky tall bum who always eats out of your trash was eating your trash just now."
"Oh Jesus, not again," Brian says. He's somewhat insulted that bums don't want to eat the food he cooks unless it's in a dumpster. "That guy and trash is like Santa and cookies, he'll fucking eat it if you leave it out."
"I told him to come in and I'd buy him some actual lunch, and he said he could buy his own lunch, and I was like yeah sure, you have money, but then he asked if he could blow me for five bucks."
"Wait, so you'd give him five dollars to blow you or he'd give you five dollars to blow you?" Brendon asks. He seems not to understand how street hustling works.
"Uh, the first one," Mikey says, wrinkling his forehead questioningly.
"Did you do it?" Gerard asks, his forehead wrinkling the same way.
"No, God." Mikey sighs. "I hate you people."
"Hey, Mikey, while you're here," Steven says. "We got new menus." He clears his throat and reaches under the counter for the menus that he picked up from the lamination place before coming in that morning. He's nervous about this gesture, because gestures are obvious.
"Did you finally think of better names?" Gerard asks. He's pretty enthusiastic about new menus.
"Well," Steven says. "I changed one thing." He hands a menu to Gerard, and Mikey reads it too from the booth behind where he's sitting, over his shoulder. Steven tugs at his apron and waits. He had no idea which thing to change, so he went with the most grandma-ish thing he could think of and changed 'Steven's Untitled Apple Pie' to 'Helena's Apple Pie' for Gerard and Mikey's grandma. He really hopes she didn't hate apple pie.
"Steven," Gerard says, "I can't believe you did this. This is the nicest thing."
"Well, you know," Steven says. Gerard is looking at him and his eyes are so shiny and pretty, they almost look like glass. He doesn't think Gerard has two glass eyes, although he's not going to just assume he doesn't have one. He's pretty sure he doesn't. "Now it's titled."
"Thank you." Gerard stands up and puts his arms around Steven's neck and hugs him. His arms shake with the effort, so he must be hugging as hard as he can, but Steven doesn't feel like he's being crushed at all. His heart is in vague pain, but he hugs back and only hopes his left arm doesn't start tingling soon.
"Thanks, man, this is great," Mikey says. He stands up too and hugs half of Steven and half of Gerard.
"Huuuugs!" Brendon yells. He goes over and clings to Steven's back. Brian and Victoria come over too and find spaces to hug Steven and everyone. Steven thinks group hugs are stupid and sappy, because they are, but he guesses they can be really nice, too.
~*~*~
Later, when everyone else is gone for the night and Steven is finishing cleaning up, Gerard enters the safe zone behind the counter. It's no longer safe.
"Steven, come here," Gerard says. He puts his hands on Steven's hips and pushes him against the back of the counter until Steven gets it and hops up to sit on it. "Your apron's untied again."
"Oh, yeah, it does that," Steven whispers. He can't seem control his voice to make it louder. Gerard is touching his hips still until he moves forward, sliding his arms around Steven's waist, and Steven parts his legs automatically to give him room to be there. He feels like he's being suffocated by a plastic bag, he can hardly inhale or exhale at all, because this is Gerard against him and Gerard's arms around him and Gerard between his knees.
Steven feels Gerard's fingers move on his back for a few moments and then they stop, resting there. Then Gerard leans forward, and Steven could see it coming from a million miles away but he's still surprised by it, and he pecks Steven on the cheek. The plastic bag that was suffocating him feels like it's now clogging his throat. He's pretty sure he's held frightened baby bunnies at petting zoos whose hearts beat slower than his is beating in this moment.
When Gerard moves his face over and kisses him on the lips, though, Steven can breathe again and he feels perfectly fine. He feels great. He almost can't believe what's happening, because he's been so in love with Gerard for so long, so maybe he's having some sort of elaborate hallucination, but he feels great either way.
"There you go, sugar," Gerard says, patting Steven's back where his apron strings must be. "Now it'll never come untied."
"What if I want it to?"
"Then I'll help you," Gerard says, and he puts his hand on the back of Steven's neck and pulls him closer to the edge of the counter.
~*~THE END~*~
Coby Bean and a bum, if you didn't already know.
Pairing: Steven/Gerard, miscellaneous data
Summary: Steven owns a diner and pines for Gerard the waitress.
Notes: fmith and I imagined this beautiful world for many hours via text massage/the phone. I can only hope that my execution of the ideas will make dreams come true.
Steven shows up later than he normally does one day and finds some girl standing outside the front doors smoking, waiting to be let inside. She's wearing a stereotypical diner waitress uniform, with the black dress and white apron and that little paper hat thing. He figures the girl wants a job and thinks if she looks the part then she'll get it. He feels bad that he'll have to turn her away, because she went to all that trouble, but he's not even hiring right now.
The girl turns around as Steven approaches and he realizes she's not a girl at all but is in fact the secret love of his life, Gerard. Steven stops walking mid-step, like when cartoon characters get caught sneaking away and they freeze with their leg bent in a walking position. Gerard waves to him with his cigarette hand and then points to his ear where his other hand is cupped around it because he's on the phone.
Steven lifts his arm halfway and means to wave his hand in return greeting but it doesn't work out because he's so struck dumb by Gerard that he can't. Gerard looks pretty in a dress, the apron tied around his waist tighter than normal, accentuating his hips, and he has some rouge and eyeliner and lipstick on. His hair is down like it always is, but it looks like maybe he actually washed it and brushed it. Gerard's never dressed as a woman before and it's confusing Steven sexually, like male figure skaters do. He's always like, am I attracted to this person because they're mannish or because they're girlish? He jerks off to it either way, but it's still confusing. He pictures Gerard in a flowing ice skating tutu thing and drops his keys on the ground while he's trying to unlock the doors to the diner.
He flicks the lights on and weaves around the tables with the chairs on top of them. He can be pretty clumsy in the mornings and he's knocked down chairs a thousand times and it always gives Gerard a heart attack. Gerard doesn't mind loud noises but he does mind them when they're all of a sudden. Brian brought him a bouquet of balloons for his birthday last year, and Gerard really liked them but he was twitchy all day because he was nervous they'd pop without his knowing beforehand. He popped them himself at the end of the day with his lighter, after the helium had deflated from them. Steven got Gerard a Mylar balloon because they don't pop as easily and they last longer.
Steven really loves Gerard a lot. He loves Gerard so much that he'd prefer to ignore him so as not to be totally humiliated whenever he stutters or makes a lame pun and or an odd hand gesture around him. He gives lots of thumbs up around Gerard. Steven really hopes Gerard doesn't think he hates him, because that's always happened to him when he's secretly in love with someone. Gerard doesn't seem to notice that Steven is a complete mess whenever they speak, though; he's friendly and helpful and he always putters around singing softly, which is practically Steven's favorite thing ever in the whole world.
Steven goes to the back office to put his apron on. His waitresses (he employs only one actual woman, but he calls them all waitresses, because what kind of tiny diner has waiters, and also because Gerard thinks it's cool breaking social norms or whatever) don't actually wear the little waitress dresses with the paper hats. They pretty much wear jeans and a t-shirt, so he's not sure why Gerard decided to wear that particular outfit today, but they all do wear aprons. They're protective and the pockets are nifty. He wears one too even though he usually only works the cash register. Sometimes he'll cover for Gerard or Victoria when they go outside for smoke breaks.
The front doors open and close, so Steven leaves his office to give his daily thumbs up to Gerard and to try not to stare at his hips.
"Hi, Steven, sorry I'm late," Gerard says. He pulls away a strand of hair that was sticking to his lips.
Steven turns his right thumb skyward and smiles and nods.
"Well, you were late too, so." Gerard smiles as he continues. Steven's heart beats harder and faster whenever Gerard smiles at him, which is at least four times a day. He wonders if he'll get some sort of heart murmur condition from all the speeding up and slowing down it does. "How do I look?"
Steven looks Gerard up and down. He's pretty sure his legs are shaved, unless Gerard is just natually hairless like that. He really, really wants to touch them and see.
"You look, yeah, you look great," Steven says, nodding. He almost gives another thumbs up but manages to restrain himself. He's limited himself to one a day. Instead he gives an A-OK signal.
"Thanks," Gerard says and smiles. Steven's heart speeds again and he thinks about how embarrassing it would be if he had a stroke or something right in front of Gerard. "I'm trying it out today, you know, to see if I get harassed more as a woman. Plus I look pretty hot like this." He flips his hair and his little paper hat thing falls onto the floor. Steven bends down to pick it up as Gerard does the same and their fingers touch, but Gerard lets Steven hand it to him.
"Uh, yeah," Steven nods. He stands up and watches Gerard fix his hair. "That's really cool. Yeah, I wish I had the balls to do that. Or the no-balls. Because women don't have balls. Physically."
Gerard laughs at this even though it's not funny in a funny way, but funny in a painful and rambling way.
The doors open again and Brendon walks in. He can't control his face, so Steven sees him go through about twelve emotions -- confusion, curiosity, hunger, surprise, etc. -- before he settles on incredibly excited.
"Oh my God. Gerard. Gerard. Oh my God," Brendon says, swatting at Gerard's arm. "Oh my God, you look so beautiful. You're beautiful! Oh my God, Gerard, I didn't think you'd really do it." He grabs Gerard by the shoulders and holds him at arm's length to look at him like a mother would on her daughter's wedding day.
"You really like it?" Gerard says. He flutters his eyelashes and Steven is seriously about to keel over, so he busies himself at the counter but still eavesdrops. He's learned a lot about Gerard through eavesdropping. He used to care that he was slightly creepy, but he doesn't anymore.
"Yes, oh my God. You're gonna get hit on so much." Brendon moves to pinch Gerard's ass, but Gerard slaps his hand before he gets to it. Steven would get ragingly jealous if this were anyone but Brendon. "Nice reflexes. You're gonna get a lot of that today I bet, seriously. Oh my God, do you have like, a girl name? I can make you a name tag!"
"I don't think so," Gerard says. "Unless I could be like, Gerardine."
"Geri!" Brendon yells suddenly. "Like the Spice Girl!" He runs back into the office and comes back a few minutes later with a new name tag that says 'Geri' on it. The 'i' is dotted with a heart.
"Thanks, Brendon," Gerard says as he pins it onto his chest. Steven wants to pin it on for him, because Gerard doesn't like needles and other pointy sharp things, but he manages to do it on his own.
"Don't mention it, Geri," Brendon says, elbowing Gerard in the side and winking exaggeratedly.
Brian and Victoria walk in at the same time. Before anyone can make any comments, Brian announces, "Victoria would like everyone to know that we are not walking in together, we are merely walking in at the same time, and nothing untoward at all is going on between us." Everyone nods and says "sure, yeah, of course not," because nobody wants to get punched in the nose by Victoria even though they don't really believe the lies.
"Hey," Brian says, squinting down at Gerard's name tag, "Geri."
"Hey Brian," Gerard says. He slides his hands down his sides to his hips and Brian nearly needs to excuse himself to the bathroom for a few minutes. Just a few minutes, because Gerard is killing him over here. "You like? You think I'm hotter than Victoria now or what?"
"That's a trick question and I refuse to answer it," Brian says. He makes his way back to the kitchen to do chefly things and glance longingly and unsubtly at Victoria a lot. Steven at least is, if nothing else, subtle. Victoria is really hot though. She always wears cute little dresses which are almost waitress dresses but not quite because they're shorter.
"Hey, Geri, you look really hot," Victoria says as she ties her apron. Steven doesn't know how she can tie the strings so perfectly when they're behind her back. His always come untied. It must come easier when you've had bras to practice with your whole life. Maybe that's why Gerard is so good at it too, although Steven's not sure that Gerard is even wearing a bra. "You look kind of like Chrissie Hynde in that Pretenders video, remember."
"Oh man," Brendon says. Steven winces before Brendon even does anything because he knows what's coming. "I'm special! Special! So special! Special!" Brendon belts it out at the top of his lungs.
Gerard pats the side of Brendon's face. "You sure are, sweetie."
~*~*~
The lunch hour isn't super busy at the diner, but late night is. That's always when Steven has to defend Gerard's honor, because Gerard is pretty even on a normal day and they get a lot of drunken assholes coming in after rocking out at the club down the street or wherever and getting all up on him. Steven is really nervous about tonight, because Gerard is like, aggressively pretty as a woman. He might actually have to punch someone.
The only people who come in during the day are regulars.
"Hey, my favorite diner owner," Cash says after he walks in.
"I'm your only diner owner," Steven says. He's wiping down the counter again and trying not to stare at Gerard wiping down tables.
"Cash!" Brendon yells. He runs over to where Cash is standing with his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack still on his back, but stops right in front of him. "Hi."
"Hi," Cash says. They both look like they want to hug each other, but they don't. "Can I -- the usual?" He walks over to his normal booth in the corner and Brendon follows him.
"Yeah, of course. Brian!" Brian's head peeks out from the kitchen window. "Waffles and strawberries, thanks." Brian rolls his eyes, like he hasn't made Cash's order a million times before. Brendon just sits down next to Cash instead of across from him like a normal person might and squishes all against him. "What did you bring in your teenage magical ninja backpack today?
"Let me say this is perhaps the greatest item I've ever procured in my young life, and I'm almost sad to give it away."
"What is it? What is it?" Brendon paws at Cash's backpack like it has catnip in it.
"Hang on, geez, let me get it open," Cash grabs Brendon's hand and pulls his arm across his shoulders so he's wearing Brendon like a mink stole. He unzips his backpack and pulls out a folder.
"Cash. Cash. I'm going to cry. I'm going to weep tears of joy," Brendon says. He runs his fingers over the folder and breathes in and out heavily a few times. "This is so amazing, like I can't even believe you're giving it to me. Steven!"
Steven severs the tether his eyeballs automatically form to Gerard to look at Brendon. He's holding up the folder to show him. It's one of those black velvet pictures that take forever to color because there are so many little detailed pieces, but on a folder. It's all celestial.
"That's awesome, Brendon," Steven says. Steven can appreciate black velvet celestial scenes. "Do you have markers?"
"Never fear, I brought markers," Cash says. He gets them out and he and Brendon get to coloring until Brian dings the order-up bell. Brendon basically sprints to the counter to grab Cash's food and brings it back as quickly as possible so they can continue snuggling and coloring and being generally adorable and making Steven want to hug Gerard really badly, just one hug, that's all.
~*~*~
Steven is grateful that not many drunken assholes come into the diner that night. Gerard gets a lot of leers, but nothing worthy of a punch in the face. Really only one drunken asshole comes in, and objectively he's not even that big an asshole, but Steven hates him because Gerard likes him. His name is Bert and he comes in pretty frequently, and Gerard is always friendly to him like they're friends or something.
Bert sits at a table and Gerard sits down next to him to take his order and also to talk to him. Steven wants to snap something about this not being Hooters, but he doesn't want to be obvious.
"Geri, huh?" Bert says. "Geri, you are one fine lady. You'll make some man a happy husband one day."
"Fuck you, Bert, I'm never getting married," Gerard says, shoving at Bert's shoulder. "Geri can't be tied down."
"Geri's feisty! Are you speaking in the third person?" Bert shoves at Gerard's chest and Steven ponders if that counts as a customer getting fresh with Gerard. He tosses those people out. He shouldn't want to lift Bert above his head and throw him out into the street, because Bert is pretty cool, if a little strange and smelly, but he does. He tunes out their conversation and focuses instead on wiping the counter off again.
Eventually Bert passes out on his table. He's done it enough times that they have his friend Quinn on #4 on the speed dial, so they call him to come collect Bert. Steven's still zoning out and rubbing at the counter when Gerard sits down on a stool across from him.
"This counter's so clean you could eat off it," Gerard says. He smiles at Steven and takes a napkin out of the napkin dispenser to wipe off his makeup. "I think I get harassed more when I'm a guy. I guess our customers are all gay dudes." Steven stares at Gerard's lips as he rubs the lipstick off of them. He can't tell if they're red because it stained or because he's been rubbing at them.
"Yeah," Steven agrees. "There are a lot of gays around these parts."
"That was fun though," Gerard says. He's smudged a little bit of lipstick onto his chin. "I might do it again some time."
"Maybe we'll all do it next time," Steven says.
Then something happens, his balls grow three sizes or something, and he leans across the counter and rubs at the smudge on Gerard's chin with his towel. Gerard just looks at him with his giant eyes and lets him clean his face. Steven wishes Gerard had worn mascara too, because his eyelashes are so long and girlish. "You had some red on your chin."
"Thanks," Gerard says. He smiles at Steven again, and Steven thinks that's a record for times Gerard has smiled at him in one day. He doesn't think it'll ever not cause his heart to palpitate irregularly, unless maybe Gerard gets his teeth removed. Probably even then.
"Is it all gone?" Gerard looks at his reflection in the toaster. Steven doesn't even know why there's a toaster up there, because it's not like he ever toasts anything. It's just a prop toaster. "There's Gerard. Did you miss me?"
"Terribly," Steven says.
~*~*~
The diner's walls are all exposed red brick, and most of them have windows in them or tables against them or framed gig posters from the venue down the street hanging on them, but there's a blank wall in the diner directly across from the doors when you walk in, nothing on it at all. Gerard sometimes says how sad it looks, or how sad it makes him to look at it, and it breaks Steven's heart so he gets an idea one day.
"Hey, uh, Gerard," Steven says. He's pretty sure Gerard will love his idea, but he's nervous about it anyway. "I have an idea."
"What's up?" Gerard asks. He crosses his arms on top of the counter and leans on them to listen closely to Steven's idea. Steven realizes that almost all of his conversations with Gerard occur with the counter between them, but he's okay with that. The counter makes him feel safer.
"I was thinking, you know how you hate that blank wall?" For some reason Steven's arm feels the need to reach all the way out and point directly at the blank wall as if Gerard has no idea where it is. Gerard looks at where he's pointing anyway and then turns back.
"I don't hate it," he says. "I'm just sad sometimes that it's so naked."
Steven tries to ignore Gerard talking about anything being naked and continues on. "Well, I was thinking you could do it up. Paint a mural on it or something if, if you wanted to do that. Put some clothes on it."
Gerard just stares at Steven for a few moments, mouth agape, and Steven's worried that he's somehow offended Gerard's morals until Gerard says, "I would love to do that, thank you." He reaches over and puts his hand over Steven's, curls his fingers under Steven's palm and shakes it a little. Steven is really glad he's behind the counter right now, because his knees quiver. He feels like such a cartoon all the time around Gerard.
~*~*~
Steven thinks Gerard is a most excellent waitress, probably one of the best in the entire country. He always has a sharpened pencil tucked behind his ear, ready to take an order down, and he always calls the customers affectionate endearments, and he hardly ever drops things or gets orders mixed up. He could probably compete in some sort of waitressing Olympics and win a medal, a silver medal at least.
Ray, who runs the venue down the street, comes by few times a week. Sometimes he's by himself, sometimes he brings his special friend Travis. Steven really likes both of them, even though Gerard also really likes both of them. For some reason Steven doesn't feel his love is threatened by Ray or Travis.
"Hey Travie," Gerard says. Steven's mildly depressed that Gerard calls Travis by a cutesy nickname but doesn't call him 'Stevie' or something. Nobody's ever called Steven that before, but it might be cute if Gerard did. "You're an artist type, right?"
"I sure am," Travis says.
"Do you wanna come help me pick out paints? Steven is letting me do a mural on the wall over there, but I haven't bought art supplies in forever."
"Oh, hey, that's cool." Travis finds a near perfect ringlet in Ray's hair and sticks his finger through it like it's a Chinese finger trap. Steven is definitely not worried about either of them stealing Gerard from him. "Yeah, I'd love to help you out."
"Awesome, thank you." Gerard smiles and untucks his pencil from behind his ear. "What can I get for you tonight, honey?"
~*~*~
"Don't you have a home?" Steven asks Cash one day. That kid is seriously here all the time, his notebooks and folders and pencils spread out uselessly all over the same table in the corner every day. If he wants to go on a date with Brendon, he should just ask him. Then they could go someplace a little classier, or at least darker.
"It's too distracting there, I can never get my homework done," Cash says right as Brendon comes out of the kitchen to distract him from his homework.
"Cashhhhhhhh," Brendon says, putting a finger over his lips like he's shushing somebody and setting a plate of bacon and fries on Cash's table. "I brought you snacks! Brain snacks. For your succulent brains." Brendon slowly advances on Cash's head with his hands he's holding out as claws, grabs it, and gnaws on his hair.
"Thanks, Brendon," Cash says. Steven wonders why it's so easy for other people to pretend to be zombies to show their love and also what would happen if he pretended to be a zombie and chewed on Gerard's head. He knows Gerard likes zombies, but he'd probably think Steven had gone insane.
"Hey Steven," Gerard calls out from the blank wall. Travis helped him bring in his supplies earlier today and he's been futzing around with them when there aren't any customers, opening everything and laying down newspaper. "I'm gonna go outside and smoke. Can you watch my stuff? It does tricks, I promise."
"Of course, yeah, go ahead," Steven says and waves Gerard out. Victoria is already out there and they start gabbing about things. Steven really wants to eavesdrop in on those conversations, because it'd be like listening in on girls talking at slumber party, like maybe they talk about boys, but Steven knows when he's crossing creepy lines. They come back in a few minutes later.
"Did it do tricks like I said?" Gerard asks Steven.
Steven feels like a doofus, but he goes along with it. "Oh, yeah. It did back flips. Didn't even spill itself." He thinks he might actually be flirting or something. Victoria stares at him in a shocked manner, so maybe he's not as subtle as he thinks. Gerard just laughs, futzes with his stuff again, and starts singing what Steven is almost certain is a Fergie song.
~*~*~
One of Steven's worst fears, he's stayed up all night some nights thinking about it, is that Gerard will suddenly realize how talented and amazing he is and quit waitressing and go be an artist somewhere romantic and beautiful and meet a hot guy with tattoos and never come back to the diner ever again. Then he feels like an asshole, because he wants Gerard to know how wonderful he is and encourage him in his artistic endeavors, and he sometimes even wants to tell Gerard how much he loves him, just so he'll know, but he wants to keep Gerard here more than that.
The mural takes a few weeks to finish, because Gerard only paints when he's not doing anything else, even though Steven told him he can come in on his off days just to paint. Steven doesn't know much about art, but he knows when something looks awesome, and the mural does look really awesome. It's sort of like a Hawaiian shirt a goth might wear, with vampires and zombies and werewolves bursting out of red and black swirly patterns. Steven even spots a ghostly figure of Wolverine in the background and gets the urge to tongue Gerard so deeply. Everyone loves it, the drunken assholes and the kids who come in to get pancakes after rocking out at Ray's are absolutely marveled, although Brendon is a bit freaked out by it. He gives all the creatures names like Mr. Winkelsas and Aunt Maude to make them less scary.
When Gerard is done he makes Brendon, Victoria, Brian, and Steven all paint something of their own on the wall. Brendon puts a crescent moon up with a little person that he insists is nobody they know sitting on it up in the corner. Brian paints a heart floating between a zombie and a vampire and says something about love in the face of adversity while looking at Victoria. Victoria paints a tiny, fluffy lap dog chewing on a random disembodied leg.
Steven can't really draw and he doesn't want to mar Gerard's art with a smiley face or something stupid. He decides on painting a few daisies in the hand of a zombie.
"I love that," Gerard tells him when he's done with his part. "It's like when hippies put daisies in people's guns."
"His name can be Moon Unit Zombie," Steven says.
"I really like it." Gerard runs his fingers over Steven's painted flowers. "It makes it more peaceful."
"Thanks." Steven will get a thousand bouquets of daisies for Gerard and make daisy garlands for him and everything if it'll make him talk all sweetly and gently to him like that again.
~*~*~
Gerard has been haranguing Steven for forever about the items on the diner menu. He doesn't mind what they serve, but he says the names of the dishes are not distinctive and nondescript or whatever like it matters.
"You can't just call everything Untitled," Gerard says. "'Steven's Untitled Hash Browns', you can't even tell what's in that."
"I think it's pretty clear that it's hash browns," Steven says. He's toweling the inside of a glass probably nobody ever uses. He's not sure why; it just seems like the type of thing a guy behind the counter in a diner would do.
"Denny's uses puns!"
"Denny's is a terrible diner, that's why it uses puns."
"Well, you should still think of some new names," Gerard insists.
Steven doesn't bother to change any of the names except for one. His menus are basically double-sided sheets of printer paper he got laminated, so it's not a big deal to make completely new ones.
~*~*~
Gerard's brother Mikey comes in sometimes and has lunch with Gerard or everyone if they're around. He usually has a cup of coffee from Coby Bean, the place next door to the diner, with him. Steven allows it because the dudes who run Coby Bean are cool, they're not coffee rivals or anything, and also because he loves Gerard who loves Mikey. Steven supposes he loves Mikey vicariously through Gerard, but not in a sexual manner.
"Hey guys," Mikey calls out when he walks in holding his coffee. He always comes in through the kitchen door in the back because he was told he was allowed to so he thinks it's special. "That freaky tall bum who always eats out of your trash was eating your trash just now."
"Oh Jesus, not again," Brian says. He's somewhat insulted that bums don't want to eat the food he cooks unless it's in a dumpster. "That guy and trash is like Santa and cookies, he'll fucking eat it if you leave it out."
"I told him to come in and I'd buy him some actual lunch, and he said he could buy his own lunch, and I was like yeah sure, you have money, but then he asked if he could blow me for five bucks."
"Wait, so you'd give him five dollars to blow you or he'd give you five dollars to blow you?" Brendon asks. He seems not to understand how street hustling works.
"Uh, the first one," Mikey says, wrinkling his forehead questioningly.
"Did you do it?" Gerard asks, his forehead wrinkling the same way.
"No, God." Mikey sighs. "I hate you people."
"Hey, Mikey, while you're here," Steven says. "We got new menus." He clears his throat and reaches under the counter for the menus that he picked up from the lamination place before coming in that morning. He's nervous about this gesture, because gestures are obvious.
"Did you finally think of better names?" Gerard asks. He's pretty enthusiastic about new menus.
"Well," Steven says. "I changed one thing." He hands a menu to Gerard, and Mikey reads it too from the booth behind where he's sitting, over his shoulder. Steven tugs at his apron and waits. He had no idea which thing to change, so he went with the most grandma-ish thing he could think of and changed 'Steven's Untitled Apple Pie' to 'Helena's Apple Pie' for Gerard and Mikey's grandma. He really hopes she didn't hate apple pie.
"Steven," Gerard says, "I can't believe you did this. This is the nicest thing."
"Well, you know," Steven says. Gerard is looking at him and his eyes are so shiny and pretty, they almost look like glass. He doesn't think Gerard has two glass eyes, although he's not going to just assume he doesn't have one. He's pretty sure he doesn't. "Now it's titled."
"Thank you." Gerard stands up and puts his arms around Steven's neck and hugs him. His arms shake with the effort, so he must be hugging as hard as he can, but Steven doesn't feel like he's being crushed at all. His heart is in vague pain, but he hugs back and only hopes his left arm doesn't start tingling soon.
"Thanks, man, this is great," Mikey says. He stands up too and hugs half of Steven and half of Gerard.
"Huuuugs!" Brendon yells. He goes over and clings to Steven's back. Brian and Victoria come over too and find spaces to hug Steven and everyone. Steven thinks group hugs are stupid and sappy, because they are, but he guesses they can be really nice, too.
~*~*~
Later, when everyone else is gone for the night and Steven is finishing cleaning up, Gerard enters the safe zone behind the counter. It's no longer safe.
"Steven, come here," Gerard says. He puts his hands on Steven's hips and pushes him against the back of the counter until Steven gets it and hops up to sit on it. "Your apron's untied again."
"Oh, yeah, it does that," Steven whispers. He can't seem control his voice to make it louder. Gerard is touching his hips still until he moves forward, sliding his arms around Steven's waist, and Steven parts his legs automatically to give him room to be there. He feels like he's being suffocated by a plastic bag, he can hardly inhale or exhale at all, because this is Gerard against him and Gerard's arms around him and Gerard between his knees.
Steven feels Gerard's fingers move on his back for a few moments and then they stop, resting there. Then Gerard leans forward, and Steven could see it coming from a million miles away but he's still surprised by it, and he pecks Steven on the cheek. The plastic bag that was suffocating him feels like it's now clogging his throat. He's pretty sure he's held frightened baby bunnies at petting zoos whose hearts beat slower than his is beating in this moment.
When Gerard moves his face over and kisses him on the lips, though, Steven can breathe again and he feels perfectly fine. He feels great. He almost can't believe what's happening, because he's been so in love with Gerard for so long, so maybe he's having some sort of elaborate hallucination, but he feels great either way.
"There you go, sugar," Gerard says, patting Steven's back where his apron strings must be. "Now it'll never come untied."
"What if I want it to?"
"Then I'll help you," Gerard says, and he puts his hand on the back of Steven's neck and pulls him closer to the edge of the counter.
~*~THE END~*~
Coby Bean and a bum, if you didn't already know.