"Once Gerard takes up reading fantasy novels out loud in his bunk, there is no longer quiet on the bus. Ever. But the thing is, he gets really into it. He starts doing different character voices and makes it dramatic, and the others have just started to go with it. Ray kind of likes listening to it, because it gets him in a creative mood, Bob listens to it to take a break, and Frank is running around anyway."

Part I of the Atypical Anatomy universe. Futurefic Sci-Fi First Time Boarding School fic, oh my.

Frank is a spoiled kid who's pissed about his dog dying, even if she was a football, and Gerard's quite possibly the best 16th birthday present in the history of ever.

Gerard had a funny habit of buying shit from the internet and strangers on the street; "I don't even want to know what your dorm looks like now that you have a whole city to buy from," Mikey had said a few months into Gerard's college career. It had never been a problem, though, not up until Gerard came home for a weekend in his second New York November and woke Mikey up at 3 AM on Saturday morning.

Fucking Marion Zimmer Bradley should come with a warning label.

But then, there’s always been something a little wrong with the two of them.

"Gerard/Mikey, art school shenanigans (crossdressing not necessary but encouraged)"

He's not sure what he expected to find Gerard doing in his dorm room. “Prancing around in a dress” had never even begun to cross his mind.

"Come with me. Just for a little while," Gerard repeats, and this time, Mikey says yes. A roadtrip story.

Gerard thinks all they're going to do is watch old home movies, in honor of Christmas - but there's something a bit off-kilter about one of the tapes.

The first time is a complete accident. Then again, a lot of good things in Mikey’s life have begun that way – accidentally – so who’s he to knock it.

It doesn’t occur to him to ask what helping would entail until Mikey gives him a sideways look. “Don’t think it’s the kind of help you should ask your brother for,” he says. “But thanks.” Gerard tries to think of something he wouldn’t help Mikey do, but there’s nothing. He’d drive a getaway car, bury a body, even give him bone marrow, and he’s seen the needles they use to get at that shit. “There’s no such thing,” he says. Mikey shrugs, picks up an ad for lipstick and starts tearing around the edge of the logo. “It’s kind of a sex thing,” he mumbles.