It was the night before the Summer Sonic Festival was supposed to start, and while the rest of the band was busy rehearsing, Gerard was at the hair salon. "Are you sure about this?" the hairdresser, a petite woman with a heavy Japanese accent, asked him as soon as he was done telling her what he wanted.

"I'm sure," Gerard said.

"But are you sure?" she asked.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

The hairdresser shrugged and said, "If you say so." Then, she started working on Gerard's hair. "I will have to bleach this and then dye."

"That's fine," Gerard said. "I bleached my hair a couple of years ago, when we were working on The Black Parade."

"You are one of the American musicians, yes?" the hairdresser said as she started bleaching Gerard's hair.

"Yeah. My band is here for Summer Sonic."

"Which band are you in?"

It was refreshing, meeting someone who didn't recognize him immediately. "My Chemical Romance," he said.

"Oh, the friend of my daughter likes your band a lot," the hairdresser said. "And you will go on stage with hair like this?"

"No, I'll be back here tomorrow to dye my hair black again," Gerard said.

"So why are you dyeing it now?"

Gerard sighed and said, "This is a big day for me. I'm coming out to my band."

"I see," the hairdresser said. "I will make sure that your hair is perfect."

"Thank you," Gerard said.

The hours went by, and Gerard's mind raced. Most of it was normal - ideas for comics, ideas for the new album - but there were some nagging thoughts in the back of his head, telling him about all the horrible things that could happen if the other band members knew that he was dating Frank. There were so many reasons why he had kept it from them for so long, and now, he was about to give his secret away. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was making a mistake.

He knew that he had no reason to be worried. They had already been through so much together, and if they were going to turn their backs on him, they would have done it a long time ago. Besides, Mikey already knew that he was bi, and he didn't think that his brother would care that he was dating Frank. He doubted that Ray or Bob would react badly either, and even if they did, he always had Frank. No matter what happened tonight, he would always have his kind, talented, impossibly beautiful boyfriend, and he couldn't be more thankful for that.

"Your hair is done," the hairdresser said. Gerard looked in the mirror, and for the first time in a long time, he liked what he saw. There was a stripe of red, a stripe of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Every color in the rainbow.

It was perfect.

Gerard thanked the hairdresser, gave her an extra large tip, and then headed to the rehearsal space. As soon as he got there, Frank ran over to him. "Gerard!" he exclaimed as he embraced his boyfriend. "Where were you?" All of a sudden, he noticed Gerard's hair. "That's rad," he said.

"You like my new hair color?" Gerard said. He didn't hear any music - the band must have finished rehearsing, but he didn't think that they'd left yet.

"I love it," Frank said. "Then again, I think I've said that every time you've dyed your hair. You always look amazing."

Gerard blushed. He was thirty-two - really too old to be getting so flustered - but it had been like this ever since he and Frank had gotten back together. Being with Frank made him feel young again, like the two of them were recapturing a lost spark. He thought back to when Lindsey said that he couldn't be happy without Frank, and he was starting to think that she was right all along.

"Thank you," Gerard said as he gazed into Frank's eyes. "You look great too."

"Thanks," Frank said. "So are you ready to go talk to them?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Gerard said.

"Don't be nervous," Frank said. "It's just Mikey, Ray, and Bob. They're our friends."

"I know," Gerard said, still more anxious than he had any right to be.

"Come on, Gee!" Frank exclaimed. "You can't chicken out now! You dyed your hair for this!"

"You're right," Gerard admitted. "I did."

"What's the worst that could happen?" Frank said. Gerard didn't answer, but he still seemed scared. "Here, I'll give you a kiss for good luck." Frank gave him a quick peck on the lips and then took his hand. "It's going to be okay, I promise. Let's go talk to them."

They walked into the next room, where Mikey, Ray, and Bob were packing up their instruments. "Nice hair, Gerard," Mikey said as he put his bass away.

"Thanks," Gerard said. "So...uhh...Frank and I wanted to talk to you guys about something."

"What is it?" Mikey asked.

All of the band members turned to face Gerard and Frank, and for a moment, Gerard panicked. "I don't think I can do this," he whispered as he squeezed Frank's hand.

"I told you, it's going to be okay," Frank said to Gerard.

"Can you tell them?" Gerard asked.

"Sure, babe," Frank said. He then turned to the rest of the band. "Gerard and I are dating."

"Yeah, we know," Ray, Mikey, and Bob all said at once.

Gerard looked at Frank, confused. They had been so careful not to tell their bandmates about their relationship. When they were together the first time, the rest of MCR had never said anything. They had never shown any sign of knowing that he and Frank were hopelessly in love with each other. How could they possibly know?

"You guys have been together at least as long as I've been in the band," Bob said.

"No, it's been going on much longer than that," Ray said. "You two have probably been together almost as long as the band has." He shrugged and added, "I'm not mad about it. I just wish you'd told us earlier."

"If I'm not mistaken, you got together after the album release party for I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, broke up sometime during the Projekt Revolution tour, and then got back together again...two weeks ago maybe?" Mikey said.

Frank and Gerard were baffled. "How do you know all of this?" Gerard asked.

Ray, Mikey, and Bob all exchanged a look. "Do you want to tell them?" Bob asked.

"We probably should," Ray said.

"Let's be honest, we should have told them on that tour back in 2003," Mikey said, sounding rather disenchanted. "So the walls of the tour bus..."

"They're not soundproof," Ray finished.

"They're not?" Frank said, confused.

"They're not," Bob confirmed.

"We can hear everything you guys are doing," Ray said.

"And I mean everything," Mikey said. "It's horrible."

Frank and Gerard were absolutely shocked by this revelation. While Gerard played with a strand of his rainbow-striped hair, trying to process all of this, Frank said, "So last night...when Gee and I said that we were going to practice DESTROYA..."

"Yeah, we know that's not what you were really doing," Bob said.

"Unless you were working on the moaning part," Mikey joked.

There was an awkward silence, and then Ray said, "Listen, I think I can speak for the whole band when I say that you're not just our bandmates. You're our friends, and we love you no matter what."

Mikey and Bob both nodded. "Maybe just find somewhere else to 'practice DESTROYA,' okay?" Mikey added.

"Okay," Gerard and Frank said simultaneously. Talking to the band had gone much better than Gerard expected. He felt like a huge weight had finally been lifted.

"Let's get back to business," Ray said as he took his guitar out again and quickly tuned it. "We don't have time to run through the whole setlist again, but now that Gerard's here, we should probably at least rehearse our new song. That's the one that needs the most work."

"Which new song are we doing?" Frank asked. "Make Room, right?"

"MAKE ROOM!!!! MAKE ROOM!!!!" Gerard screamed. "Down on the coffin,​ there's a coffin or two!"

As Gerard sang, Frank pulled out his guitar. Gerard smiled as he watched his boyfriend run around, aggressively strumming and shouting the lyrics. Frank jumped into the air, like gravity didn't mean a thing to him, and when he landed, he kept on rocking out, letting the music overtake him.

"No, we're not doing Make Room," Ray said.

"Aww, why not?" Gerard said as Frank played a sad-sounding riff on his guitar.

"Because we agreed that we were going to play Kiss The Ring instead." Gerard frowned, and Ray said, "Don't worry. We'll play Make Room another time."

"Also Frank, maybe don't wear yourself out before the show tomorrow?" Mikey said.

"The only thing wearing me out around here is you," Frank said.

Mikey was about to say something quite rude, but Gerard interrupted him. "Is everybody ready?" he asked.

"Fuckin' ready," Mikey said.

They started playing, and when Gerard leaned in to the microphone, his rainbow hair falling in his face, he thought about how thankful he was: for Bob, for Ray, for Mikey, for Frank. They were what made playing in a band worth it, what made his whole life worth living.

Frank came closer, and he took one hand off of his guitar for a moment and ran it through Gerard's hair. "The rainbow hair really suits you," he whispered. "Are you sure you're not going to keep it for the show?"

"We'll see," Gerard said with a smile.

He kept on singing, and the rest of the band went absolutely crazy, with Ray playing wild guitar solos, Frank jumping and running around like a madman, Mikey playing perfect bass rhythms, and Bob banging on the drums. There was nobody else in the practice space, but if there was, the whole damn room would have been on the edge of a blade. It was a magical moment, and it was even better now that Gerard could finally be honest with the four people in the world that he loved most: his bandmates. 

A/N: The art is by ghostie_is_reading / zero.ghosts on Instagram, who has been reading this fic and decided to make some fabulous fanart of Revenge and Poison. So thanks to ghostie_is_reading , and thanks to everyone who has supported Calibrations so far! Your votes and comments always make my day! :D