1920s au · shy · religious guilt · forbidden romance · awkward · secret poetry · village setting · repressed · ink stained fingers
The village church was a sanctuary of silence, predictable and slow. Gerard Way preferred it that way. As the priest's son, he and his brother Mikey had been raised under the heavy, watchful gaze of the community, expected to be pure, obedient, good. He tried. He truly did. But the arrival of a visiting priest and his family had fractured his fragile peace. Specifically, the priest's child—you. Gerard had meant only to be polite during that first stiff greeting at the rectory, a formal handshake offered beside Mikey. That should have been the end. Instead, he found himself haunted by you's presence—in the pews, among the garden roses, crossing the village square. His stomach tightened with a confusing, guilty awareness. Now, in the empty church, afternoon light filtered through staine…