Timeline, chapter 2. Gerard Way x Y/N (female reader)
Author's note: Hiiii!!! Nancy here!!! Well, here's the second chapter. I'm a slowburner so the story will be a little bit long. Anyways, enjoy!!!
READ PART 1 HERE
*check the masterpost for the rest of the chapters
WARNINGS: alcohol consumption, anxiety episode, sudden emotional distress & light body horror elements (non-explicit). Let me know if I you'd like more detailed labels :)
tags: Gerard Way x Female Reader, Gerard Way x Y/N, time-traveling, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge Gerard, slowburn tension, ambiguous romance.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Y/N froze. She was certain it was all a figment of her imagination, yet this Gerard seemed far too autonomous to be merely a dream—especially a lucid one. Normally, in such a state, she should’ve had complete control.
"Why aren’t you answering me?" asked Gerard, visibly irritated and expectant. Y/N felt a knot form in her stomach. She looked everywhere but into the boy’s eyes—until a memory surfaced. At that time, Bob, their later drummer, hadn’t yet joined the band. She found a “simple” way out.
"Don't worry. Everyone—Mikey, Frank, and Ray—will be just fine. Just… be cautious with friendships in general. Technically, you’ll all make it to the top," replied Y/N, her voice trembling from nerves.
"Technically? What do you mean?" Gerard frowned and stepped forward, unsettling her.
"You’re just a dream. You shouldn’t act like this," Y/N whispered, shaken.
"You seriously still think I’m part of your dream? I'm a human being—genuinely scared! Can’t you see that?" Gerard barked, slamming his mug on the breakfast counter.
Y/N began to doubt it was lucid dreaming after all. Gerard seemed out of her control, and more than angry—he was confused. Understandably so. The conversation died right there. Overwhelmed, Gerard returned to the couch, trying to close his eyes.
She wanted distance, so she decided it was time to wake up. Her personal cue for leaving dreams was to wiggle her pinky toe. She tried once. Twice. Three times. Nothing happened.
“This can’t be happening! I have to go back!” she cried, gasping for breath. Her eyes nearly popped out. Gerard jumped slightly at her panic. Frozen, unsure of what to do, he assumed she was having some sort of psychedelic breakdown—something he wasn’t unfamiliar with.
Though dizzy, he hurried to help her from the kitchen to the nearest couch. "Hey—look into my eyes, okay?" he said firmly, holding her by the shoulders. But Y/N was in full panic mode. After a few breathing exercises and finally catching his gaze, she fainted.
For Y/N, only seconds passed. She felt the mattress underneath her, the softness of sheets against her skin. Stretching her feet and arms, she assumed her experiment had ended—she was back in her room. Then, the light pouring through the window dimmed, as voices echoed in.
“Are you sure she didn’t have any ID? Passport, license—anything?” asked one voice.
“No, and I obviously couldn’t leave her alone in some random house. None of us know whose damn house that is,” another voice replied. It was one she recognized: Gerard’s. “Besides, she helped me too… but I think she was just as—or more—messed up than I was. She kept saying it was all some kind of experiment. She looked like someone straight out of Twin Peaks or some weird shit.”
Y/N opened her eyes to find the entire band staring at her. She sat up abruptly, cursing, denying, and rambling nervously. Mikey, the myopic one, seemed the most scared.
“Hey, it’s okay. We’re here to help you,” said Ray, the one with defined curls. “Do you have a cellphone?”
Y/N frantically searched every pocket of her sweatshirt and pants until she finally found her device. It looked ordinary by today’s standards—but for the time they were in, it was advanced technology.
She revealed a sleek rectangle with a large screen and no keyboard. The guys collectively took two steps back.
“What... the hell is that? Is that a phone?” asked Frank, clearly shaken.
“That’s gotta be anything but a damn phone,” Gerard muttered.
“I told you from the start—I come from the future, but things got out of hand!”
Under the pressure of the moment, Y/N fainted again—leaving behind more questions than answers.
They had recording sessions starting soon. The new album was about to be born, but they’d taken a few days off to relax, leading to that wild party. Gerard, seeing the house abandoned, felt it was his duty to look after Y/N until her people—whoever they were—came for her. But as the hours passed and no one showed up, the band decided to take her along to their studio cabin and care for her there.
Ray secluded himself in the studio to test out riffs. Meanwhile, the others were in the cabin’s living room, naturally discussing Y/N.
“Did you see that rectangular thing? It had no keys!” Mikey exclaimed with a mixture of awe and fear.
“I know, right? No way that thing’s a phone. It’s too unfunctional. This feels like a movie, but I’m not sure if it’s horror or sci-fi.”
Y/N eventually woke up—resigned. None of the last few hours had been a lucid dream. It was all real: the guys, the mosquito flying around, everything. She felt guilty for scaring the band and, more than anything, for spoiling Gerard’s future.
Guided by their loud voices, she quickly reached the cozy living room. As she stepped in, they all went silent.
“Umm… can I speak to Gerard alone?” she asked, nearly whispering.
Gerard stood up, while his brother and friends remained quiet. They stepped outside the cabin.
“Feeling better?” he asked, his brows lifted with genuine concern and a trace of warmth.
Y/N blushed lightly. Seeing Gerard in person, she realized he was far more handsome than any photo or video had shown. “Much better, though I’m a bit worried, to be honest. I’m not asking you to believe me… but I might have said too much, and now I’m scared it could mess up the timeline.”
“After seeing that... ‘phone’, I think it’s pretty clear you’re not from here,” he joked to lighten the mood, trying to ease her distress. She let out a small laugh. “And as for the rest—never thought I’d be hit on so boldly. Props to you.”
Y/N almost fainted from embarrassment, but was secretly relieved he thought she’d been flirting. When she’d spoken of his “future wife,” he assumed she meant herself. The conversation seemed over—he reached for the cabin door, but Y/N gently grabbed his shoulder. Once again, face to face, with kind but tired expressions, an air of tension hung between them.
“Thanks for not leaving me alone. And sorry for all the trouble.”
“Pff… don’t worry about it. I’d like to believe none of us are the type to take advantage of someone vulnerable. So… I figured the right thing was to make sure you were okay. Despite my drunken state, I was the most lucid person with you. That made it my responsibility. As long as I’m here, I’ll make sure you’re safe—until you can return to… wherever you belong.”
Y/N couldn’t help but smile like a fool. These moments—where your favorite artist says something sweet and protective—don’t happen every day. They belong to those pre-sleep daydreams, yet here it was… utterly real.
Recording for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge began. They spent countless hours locked in the studio. Most days, Y/N got to watch them lay down tracks for songs that hadn’t even been released yet. It was mesmerizing—helping her forget the anxiety of it all. She could’ve watched for hours, though not always. Especially not when Gerard was recording.
When it was his turn, only the audio engineer and Gerard stayed in the booth. It was widely known that Gerard became someone else during recording—a strange, bizarre, sometimes dirty persona. Though Y/N never saw him do anything improper in front of her, she now knew him in person, making it hard to believe this sweet guy transformed into a beast in the vocal booth.
Sometimes, she’d see him emerge with flushed cheeks, sweat glistening down his neck, and an intense gaze—but the moment he saw Y/N, he softened. Like her presence was his signal to return to being Gerard—the shy and sensitive soul.
