2: Smile

*A/N: so I'm going to start updating more regularly now so that I can finish this (starts crying because I don't want to end it just yet) and enter the Watty Awards. I thought I would give a little insight to how I write- I start with a basic outline then I go into detail and then gradually write the dialogue then fill it in and the picture with this chapter is just an example of how far The Blind Artist has come over the past year! (sorry for my belly in the pic hehe) anyway enjoy the second part and don't forget to vote, comment and share! Xx

2: Smile

Gerard's P.O.V.

"Do I look okay?" I ask nervously fiddling with the crooked tie around my neck, I hated dressing up but Frank insisted, I would love to just wear my skinny jeans and a baggy grey shirt out but instead I was made to look twice my age in a black shirt and red tie.

"You look perfect to me," Frank saves me by coming over to where I'm stood and starts my tie over again. "I'm so proud of you, now it's your turn to get your message out." He beams up at me, his green eyes twinkling as he brushes my shoulders, straightens my collar and makes a fuss like a mother on her child's first day of school.

But I didn't care how stupid it made me feel because above all I felt loved and cared for, him doing things like this- helping me shave, doing my tie and shoelaces, anything that seems mundane tasks now have purpose when he does them. I just wish they weren't because I was left in a mist that made me feel like I was watching everything through a camera lens.

"Do you think they will offer me a drink... Like champagne or something?" I bite on my bottom lip, it had always worried me, what if they don't have anything non-alcoholic and I crack under the pressure. I had tried so hard after the little incident with the wine over a year ago.

I see Frank tense a little but then I hear him sigh as he takes both my hands. "Of course there will be. But with every temptation it takes a great strength to deny them, in doing that it's trusting yourself to say no- to stop and think be for picking up that glass. You let it beat you once, this time it won't beat you again."

His words give me strength, a burst of energy, which is why I felt even worse by the fear of slipping up. Because I had so much to lose this time. "I can't. Frank, what if I lose control? What if-"

He cuts me off with a soft hand to the cheek, stroking my flushed skin with his thumb soothing me with a gentle "Shhh. It's going to be okay I'm here, and I promise you I'll always support you, I trust you to follow your heart."

And my heart said that Frank was the one, the one who would be with me till the end and through thick and thin. The only person I would let down was myself. With a content hum and a soft loving kiss to his forehead I tug on his hand as I will up the courage to do this. "Let's go."

We walk into the gallery our fingers clutched around each other's as we take it all in. It's amazing, looks so beautiful, I can't believe so many people came, who knew there was so many art fans out there. They are all holding a glass of champagne in their hands, filling the glass walled and white interior of the gallery with critical eyes, they all look too sophisticated it makes me feel insecure. It makes me want to hide, put on my glasses to stop the bright light from burning my eyes, I just wanted to see my work and go. No hello's and no goodbye's.

"Can we just go now?" I ask as I realise we were all looking around, trying to find a place to fit, somewhere to go to. But we don't. We don't fit in, no matter how much I wish we did and how much time had changed the world and the way people looked, we were still outsiders.

"No. We'll stay; just think they are here for you, it's your time to shine." Frank places his hand on my shoulders, well does his best to look intimidating but instead just looks tiny by the way he stands slightly on tip-toes to reach up to me.

"Okay." I whisper, bending down to kiss the top of his head before he tucks to my side once again and we make our way to a small canvas with a rose on it, it was stylish and classical- not like the other painting's dotted around that were a mixture of paint splatters and what I think to be where someone's just rolled around in paint and then on the paper. Art must be art and that can be anything you want it.

We hear a clinging or chine of glass and a small tapping on a microphone, "Excuse me." a small thin man in a full piece navy suit stands on the stage, he looks nervous and he twitches a little with embarrassment as the whole gallery stills with only the soft noise of some classical music. "I just wanted to welcome you all to the opening tonight, we have many artists here and a few new artists to join our little family. But I also wanted to say thank you to my lovely girlfriend who helped me get this event together... and hopefully something else." With a small gasp from the crowd he brings a blonde headed shy girl to the stage where he kneels in front of her taking this moment to announce his love and devotion. "Will you marry me?" he asks hopefully and the room is held on that one breath of waiting for an answer.

"Yes." She chokes up and cries, he hand to her mouth and the other held out for the ring to be slid on her finger.

"Do you ever want to get married?" Frank sighs as he presses his head to my arm in a light rest after the commotion settles down, we begin to circle the gallery, not looking for anywhere to go or do but to simple be there. The presence of others, no matter how isolated always made me feel crowded and tight, but just walking made me feel better- made me not focus of the pressure of the people in the space around me.

"No. We don't need to get married right?" I ask with a raised brow because I didn't need to get married to Frankie, I may have wanted to but in seeing the big hooha over it didn't seem worth it. I lied. I did want that, I wanted that but never thought I would have it, I always thought that was what I wanted but now I didn't need it.

"You don't need a piece of paper or a ring to show that you love someone. We don't need to share a name to be connected." He shrugs as he runs his hand lightly down to join to mine, connected, that's what we were. And I loved that. I loved waking up to him every morning and going to sleep next to him every night; even just looking in my direction we were so in sync- he looks at me for a moment and I look at him a moment after. "Because I'm already yours." He raises up whispering in my ear, we stop our pacing of the floor as he pulls my hand up between us. My open palm still stained in paint, as we watch his guitar playing fingers draw a perfectly imperfect heart, and he closes my fingers over it. It's like I can feel it there, I can feel the love that it holds and the power that it gives me- it shows that I care and am cared for. "Don't break it."

"Gerard!" a voice snaps me out of my trance from my hand where I stared at it in Frank's small ones, but upon the startled gasp he lets it go and my hand just falls to my side, still balled in a fist. We turn to see the guy who had convinced me to put up a few canvases out to show and sell. "Your first one has been sold! They love your story! A blind artist with a comic background and a goore affect. People love it. Why don't you step up and say a few words." He tells me pointing to the stage.

But I shake my head in fear, "No, I think I'd rather just see the painting and go home." Trying to look around to see any that I recognise to be mine but my eyes aren't clear enough to see any detail.

"It's that one." The man smiles and sighs, patting my arm in acceptance and pointing over to the one in the corner, hardly anyone around it but a guy stood taking a picture. As we walk over I smile up at the haloed canvas with a small caption of my name and a bit about the piece that I had made a few days before. It looked unreal, like I couldn't believe it was actually mine.

"Isn't this piece amazing." The guy sighs, settling the camera against his chest and just looks up with only a flicker in our direction. "It's so unique, I love the traditional tattoo style swallows over more modern style art. Whoever this Gerard Way guy is, he is one hell of a guy." I had never seen someone so taken with my work, apart from Frank, the guy's eyes scanned every inch of the covered board with such admiration it knocked me back a step. Wow, I had fans. I raise a brow with disbelief but am quickly grounded by the small poke of a sharp elbow into my side causing me to snap my head down to my boyfriend's eyes as he nods over to the guy as if telling me to say hello. "You're him aren't you?"

My attention turns back to the guy, about my height with slightly curly brown hair and dark brown eyes, he seems almost plain in comparison to the passion he shows with his camera. He seems unappreciated which makes me value his appreciation to my work too. So with a small voice that comes out in a quiver I hold my hand out to introduce myself. "The one and only. Do you do any?" gesturing to the art.

He just picks up his camera and shakes his head as he cradles it like an extension to his arm. "No just photography for now. Would you like to celebrate this moment with a picture?" he asks pointing to us two.

"Please." Frank jumps in pulling me over so we stand dead centre of the canvas but hopefully so we can still see the art behind.

"Smile." He says to us, but it's the feeling that makes me do it- the way that I feel in front of my piece. In front of 'The Angel and The Devil', the piece that was taken from the work of art that decorated my love's body, the swallows that were there when I closed my eyelids and the ink that my hand would fall on when I held him to my side. That was what made me smile.

And that's all I had to do. In that moment it didn't matter that my eyes were starting to fade, that my days were starting to be numbered in the time I would still be able to see Frank's face, to see my art and my passions. Because all I needed to do was breathe. Love. Live, and Smile. As every smile is shared with the one person I love. Every time I smile, I know he will be smiling back, and that's the biggest most beautiful gift of all.