Finding Iero (My Chemical Romance/Frank Iero Love story)

Chapter 7 - Here to Stay

Natalie’s POV

I woke up the next morning totally exhausted, well I say morning it was about 01:30pm but I was still tired. When I woke everybody else was still asleep, so I just lay on the couch awkwardly hoping that somebody would wake up soon so that I could start moving around the hotel room without having to be completely silent. I would go and help myself to food and coffee but I don’t want to be rude seeing as this lot have been so good to me.
I told Frank everything last night. Literally everything. That realization hit me harder than a tonne of bricks. I’ve never actually told anybody before apart from to Zoe, Luke and Tom. I was surprised that he had the time to sit and listen to it actually, apart from just getting bored half way through and making an excuse to leave. Not that I thought of Frank as a type of person who would actually do that to me, but that he is a band member and he has better things to do other than listening to a 17 year old girl going on about her pathetic excuse of a life. I could see the tears in his eyes as I was talking him through it, I can’t really imagine him being the kinda guy who would cry but yet he managed to hide it pretty well, much better than me, His shirt must have been drenched with my tears, that made me feel actually awful, I spose I would have to buy him a new shirt because I knew my eyeliner wouldn’t come out of a grey shirt like that.
Also did Gerard really mean what he said about me staying with them? I kinda hope he meant it to be honest but then will all the others want me to stay? Also if I stayed with them wouldn’t that make me more public and Bill's more likely to see me? Either way I’m kinda screwed.
Frank started to stir then, slowly and groggily opening his eyes. He turned over onto his back and gave the room a confused look, then he must have remembered that he was in the living room and that I was there as he turned and looked at me, he smiled showing his perfect white teeth, I gave him a quick smile back and could tell I blushed.
“Morning Natalie” He said, his voice still sounding sleepy and husky
“Morning” I replied quietly, god why do I have to be so awkward? Oh yeah, because I’m me.
“How long have you been awake?” He asked, looking confused as to why I'm still lying on the sofa
“Uhh, about half an hour?” I think I’ve been awake much longer but didn’t want to admit it, one because it’s embarrassing being around Frank Iero and two because I didn’t want to admit that I’ve been worrying about things... But he saw through my little lie and got up and came over to my couch, I scooted up a little so he could sit down next to me.
“Why didn’t you wake me up if there was something wrong?” Jesus, is he a mind reader?
“Because it was nothing anyway and you really needed to sleep, you didn't exactly get much sleep these last couple of days because of me and to be honest you still could probably go back and sleep for the rest of the day by the looks of the dark circles under your eyes” I said, I probably said it too quickly for him to understand
“Listen Natalie, I’m never too tired to listen to you, or anybody for that matter, I just want to know that you’re okay” He said, he said that in a caring voice and a small smile broke across his face and his smile is contagious, a small smile that broke onto my face very quickly, this meanf Frank smiled even more at the fact I was now smiling.
“Come on, lets get something to eat” He said, and then grabbed my hand and pulled me to the kitchen area.
 I chose to have some toast, whilst I was making sure my toast didn’t burn a half naked Gerard, Mikey and Ray came walking in. I blushed straight away and looked back at my toast, hoping nobody saw my tomato face. Too late I heard them all sniggering, even Frank, well so much for sticking together...
“Morning Natalie” Gerard said, yawning in the process
“Uh, Afternoon?” I said looking at the clock, they all gave me a weird look and looked at the clock and smiled to themselves at my comment
“Good afternoon Natalie” Gerard said correcting himself, I half smiled and looked back at my toast, I could see the edges starting to burn so I quickly pressed to button and the toast popped out, I buttered it but decided not to have anything else, probably because I wasn’t actually sure what else they had in the kitchen without being nosy.
“Natalie, do you want coffee?” Gerard asked, from what I’ve heard about the band apparently Gerard was the best at making coffee
“Yes please” They all smiled, maybe they were happy we all had something in common, especially something like coffee, it seems to be a big part of their lives. Gerard walked over with a cup for me and put it down on the kitchen unit
“Thanks” I mumbled, and looked away quickly still eating my toast.
“So what are we all doing today?” Ray asked everybody
“I think we should go shopping” Mikey said out of the blue, everybody gave him a weird look, including me “I mean... I.... Natalie will defiantly need more clothes... She probably feels uncomfortable in Franks...” I blushed but smiles at his cuteness but just then I realized he used me as an excuse to go shopping and that I actually had forgotten I was wearing Franks clothing...
But they smelled of him, which is an amazing smell, wait, what? I just said Frank Iero smelled good, I’m wearing his clothes and I’m sat in a kitchen with the whole of MCR, what has happened to me? Since when was good things meant to happen to me?
“Natalie?... Nat-” Shit, I zoned out when they were speaking to me, when I focused back in they were all giving me worried looks
“Yeah? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention” Ray and Mikey had small smiles on their faces now, but Gerard and Frank still looked sorta worried
“So do you want to go shopping and get you more clothes?” Frank asked me
“Uhh sure, I need to go get my money in a minute” I said, I’d completely forgotten how much I packed, great, that means I’m going to have to count it in a minute
“You don’t have to do that” Frank and Gerard both said unison
“We’ll pay for it” Frank finished the sentence that both of them started
“Fra-” He cut me off by putting his hand over my mouth
“Sh, don’t start saying you want to pay” He said and then sniggered, obviously amused by the way he stopped me from objecting, I felt a smile creep up onto my face beneath his hand
“Okay fine!” I said, though my voice was muffled as he still had not moved his hand away, he slowly moved his hand away now, I think he was doing it slowly in case I started to object again and had to cover up my voice. I decided there was no point in trying to convince them that I was gonna pay and just sneakily pay whilst they won't notice.
“So you defiantly don’t mind staying with us?” Mikey asked, they all stared at me again, but this time they had a different look on their faces that I couldn’t quite place
“Yeah!” I said quickly, which I then regretted “I...I mean, as long as you don’t mind me being here” I said much slower and quieter, all of their faces eased up and they all smiled, yet again, they never let the smiles fall off of their faces
“Of course we don’t mind, why would we even ask you to stay?” Ray said, I’m surprised Ray wanted me to stay, I can’t really imagine him wanting me here
“I don’t know” I said awkwardly “Maybe you were just trying to be nice?” I say a small smile creeping onto my face again, It’s weird I don’t normally smile this much.
“Well we want you to stay” Gerard said, these guys were nice, much more down to earth than you probably would expect for a band “Okay so if we leave here at about 3, then we will have plenty of time to go shopping in the mall down the road” Everybody nodded and went off to get changed, or just to put more clothes on seeing as they're still half naked
Me and Frank walked into his room and I quickly went to my bag to get our fresh underwear and a clean shirt, I decided to wear a Green Day dookie one, but decided to keep my jeans from yesterday on, they were comfy and still clean, and I doubt anybody else would actually notice that I have the same jeans on. I looked up to see Frank grabbing clothes from his suitcase just like I was.
“Um Frank?” I said breaking the non-awkward silence
“Yeah” He didn’t take his eyes away from his suitcase
“Can I have a shower?” I asked, I sounded like a 4 year old asking their mum for a bag of sweets
“Yeah, of course you can! You don’t need to ask” He said with a sort of shocked expression on his face but their was still amusement in his eyes at what I just asked
“Thanks” I said awkwardly not knowing whether to actually finish what I was gonna say or just make it seem like I’m thanking him for letting me use his shower
“That’s okay” He said
“No really... Thank you” I said, A smile came across both of our faces “I mean, if it wasn’t for you and everybody else I don’t know where I’d be today...” I didn’t get to finish what I was saying, I was crushed in a bear hug he gave me, I hugged back not feeling as awkward as I probably would of 2 days ago
“I really need a shower now though... I probably stink” I smirk, then the smile disappeared and worry replaced it
“No you don’t smell” He laughed to himself “You smell amazing” I looked up to his face he looked shocked that he’d even thought that let alone said it out loud...
I laugh a little bit, I looked back up at the blushing Frank “Frank Iero, are you blushing?” I laugh again
“Maybe I am... Maybe I’m not” He smirks and turns back to his suitcase
“Okay! I’m off for my shower” and left him in his room alone, I didn’t take much notice last night but the bathroom is really nice here, actually the whole hotel is nice. I turn on the shower and start to get undressed, and step inside, the shower feels amazing on all of my bruises, sorta soothing actually...
Once I’m done in the shower, I get out and start to dry myself, and get dressed. It feels nice to be in clean clothes, but a shame I no longer smell of Frank. I walked back into the bedroom to see Frank straightening his hair, I shoot a quick smile at him before grabbing 2 hair bands and all of my makeup.
I apply a thick layer of black eyeliner and a tiny bit of eye shadow, topped off with 3 thick coats of mascara, my makeup went really well today, I’m surprised. I then separated my hair so that I have 2 thick bunches on either side of my head, I started plaiting the long hair quickly before it dried and went curly, I hated when that happened because then it doesn’t go wavy instead.
I then left the bathroom yet again to see Frank turning off the straighteners and putting a thin layer of eyeliner on, he saw me looking and smiled into the mirror at me
“You ready so soon?” He asked
“Yeah – you aren’t?” I smirk a little bit
“No It takes me a while to look this beautiful” He said mockingly and I laughed and walked out of the room into the living room, where Mikey and Ray were both sat on the sofa and Gerard in the chair, all of them ready and dressed
“Frank taking his time again?” Ray asks and laughs afterwards
“Yeah” I say “Does he normally take this long?” I ask curious whether it was just because I was kinda hogging the bathroom
“Normally he’s much longer” Gerard said out loud and the others laughed, with that Frank walked out then and smiled at them as he could tell they weren’t exactly happy they were going to be late for their little shopping trip
“Okay, are we all ready to go?” Gerard asked, everybody nodded but me “Natalie what are you unsure about?”
“I’m confused; do I need money for anything? I feel bad about spending other people money” Kind smiles broke out across all of their faces
“You don’t need money for anything, we’ve got the money situation covered” Gerard said
Well I guess it's official, I'm one of them now and I have to say, I really like the sound of that.