of love and superpowers - part three
Part One | Part Two | Part Three
When someone shakes his shoulder and reality calls him back he imagines he's going to wake up in a hospital bed, because heaven doesn't feel like this.
But the red, dirty carpet is rough against his face and it's Paige standing over him.
"Frank, Frank! You need to walk, I can't carry both of you. And you need to hurry!" Her arm sneaks under and around his chest. "Okay, on the count of three. One," Frank doesn't know if he'll actually be able to, but his eyes focus and he sees Gerard on the floor, completely still. "Two." He tries to say something but his mouth is dry like sandpaper. "Three." He puts all his will into moving his legs. His right hand hurts with every move he makes and when he's standing up, the world is spinning like crazy, he has to lean against Paige's side for a second so he won't pass out again.
Paige lets him stand alone on shaky legs and walks over to Gerard, cupping his face carefully. Frank watches as she checks his pulse and lifts his eyelids, and he shudders, suddenly cold. Mikey is sitting against the wall, watching as well, blood smeared all over his face and clothes. He's shivering, pale as a ghost and their eyes meet for a second, and Frank nods. He doesn't know why exactly, but Mikey nods as well.
Gerard isn't responding to anything Paige does and she sighs helplessly and takes his limp arm, looping it around her shoulder. "Is he okay?" Frank asks, his voice so raspy he can barely make out his own words.
"He's completely out." Paige says in a frustrated tone. "But he's got a pulse. You need to help me get him to the emergency room."
Frank walks over on shaky legs and takes Gerard's other arm, something inside him stinging when he touches him and he grinds his teeth, looking over his shoulder to make sure that Mikey's following.
After a while of dragging Gerard between them he starts moving his legs, doing tiny but more than helpful steps on his own. His head is still hanging loose on his shoulder, bobbing from side to side with their movements.
The walk feels like forever, and Frank is just running on sheer willpower as they get him down the stairs, his heart hammering in his chest and his crushed fingers screaming for his complete attention.
Gerard opens his eyes and makes a couple of noises when they push the curtain in front of the emergency room aside. Frank squeezes his side carefully with his good hand and Gerard turns his head, looking at him, dazed and confused.
Frank helps Gerard in, then climbs after him, his fingers aching from holding him steady. He says "Come on, sit." But Gerard's already sunk down against the wall, head resting on his knees.
"Don't let anybody out, Iero, ya' hear me?" Paige says over the noise and slams the door shut.
And it's dark.
When Frank's eyes have adjusted, he sees that Gerard's stare is locked with Mikey's. They stay like that for a while, Gerard's hands twitching on his knees, and then Mikey nods, wiping a hand over his bloody cheek, looking away. Frank swallows and gathers himself up, slumping down beside Gerard's tense figure.
*
"Did you do that?" Frank asks later, when Gerard has been breathing evenly for some time. He adds, "To the guy that was holding you down?"
The crease between Gerard's eyebrows deepens for a second and he looks down. He says, hushed, "I don't know."
Frank takes his hand, like an impulse, curls his fingers around his sweaty palm and leans closer.
But they both know, they do, because who else, right?
"What happened?"
Frank sees Ray's stern expression from the other side of the room. At his words, a dozen kids turn to look at them, and Frank doesn't know what to say. He looks from Mikey's bloody face, to Gerard's hands and back at Ray. "Later," he says.
It feels like they're in there for days, and the fighting seems to have died out long ago. Frank wonders briefly if they're all dead, and for a second he sees Paige's limp body thrown over one of the humans' shoulders, but he forces himself not to think that, forces himself to calm down.
Gerard is kind of leant against his side, looking absentmindedly at the opposite wall, his breathing is deep and irregular, and Frank wonders if he's hurt. His eyelids are heavy and he looks so pale, his skin is almost grey.
"Are you okay?" Frank finally asks, shifting a little. Gerard’s distantly picking at a loose thread in his jeans.
*
Gerard is asleep against his side, most of the students are and Frank is dozing off too when the door creaks open. He doesn't have time to get scared before he sees Professor Fenris' furry head.
"Everybody okay?" he asks.
There's a low murmur from the crowd and people are shaking each other awake. Fenris pushes the door fully open and Paige is there, along with some of the other teachers. "Get everybody out, it's over," she says, climbing in and helping some of the younger kids to their feet. "Is anybody hurt?" she asks over the mumbling.
"Mikey is!" A girl says, Frank doesn't know her, and he sees Mikey protest furiously while Fenris pushes him out the door.
Everybody's packed at the exit, Gerard pressed hard up against Frank's side. His limbs are heavy and he seems to have trouble standing so Frank carefully sneaks an arm around his waist, holding him up. "Should we get you to the nurse?" he whispers in Gerard's ear.
Gerard shakes his head, blinking a couple of times. "No, I just need... I need to lie down." he says, and Frank swallows, strengthening his grip around Gerard's waist.
All of the students are immediately sent up to their rooms to rest, and Frank is doing his best to get Gerard up the stairs to their floor. Gerard makes a confused noise when Frank leads them both into his and Ray's room, flipping on the light switch.
"Mikey is in the nurse's office, and there's no way I'm letting you sleep alone like this," he explains, pushing a couple of books and bundled up socks off his bed, then he helps Gerard to lie down.
They're both lying as far from each other as possible on the small bed when Ray comes in, grunting in displeasure.
"My mom wants me home for the weekend," he explains, and then stops to look at them for a second. "Huh." he says, then slumps down on his own bed, kicking his shoes off.
All three of them have been quiet for a while when Ray breaks the silence. "Dude, what happened?" he asks into the dark.
Gerard's breath hitches in his ear and Frank looks at the bleak ceiling for a second. "Uh. Gerard went looking for Mikey and we just... we just kind of ended up in the middle of everything," he says. Gerard lets lose a breath and their hands brush under the sheets.
"Oh." Ray doesn't sound entirely convinced, but he doesn't say anything, and it takes no more than five minutes before Frank can hear his deep, even snores.
Frank tries to not think too much about how Gerard has moved closer and how warm he is against him. He tries to close his eyes and slow down his heartbeat because it's so stupid and he doesn't know why he has to feel like this now. He turns his back to him and looks at the door, waiting for sleep to overtake him and the constant pulses in his hand to crease.
It doesn't happen though, and he finds himself thinking about his Mom. He wonders if she'd want him home for the weekend, too, if she knew what had happened.
Frank is shaken from his thoughts when he feels three, separate spots of pressure on his back, and it takes him a minute to realise that it's Gerard's fingers, and they're moving over his t-shirt, creating gentle patterns, circling his shoulder blades and up to the nape of his neck, so slowly, and so carefully it doesn't make a sound.
Frank hums, and Gerard freezes behind him.
"It's good." Frank slurs, and the fingers move again, soothing his skin until he finally falls asleep.
*
He wakes up with Gerard's arm around his waist and his clammy body pressed up close against his back and it takes him a while to put the pieces together. He blinks against the sharp rays of light filtering through the window.
"Finally," Ray says from the other side of the room. Frank turns his head, not really awake and he hasn't been able to completely process the fact that Gerard is sleeping next to him and holding around him on the bed. Ray is stuffing clothes haphazardly into a bag, seemingly unfazed.
"My Mom's picking me up in half and hour," he says dully, studying a pair of boxers. He sniffs them, and then drops them into the bag as well. "You wanna go down and get something to eat?"
Frank sighs and closes his eyes. His body feels like it weighs a ton, but he's hungry as hell, too. "Sure, man," he says and carefully wiggles out from under Gerard's arm. He gets up on shaky feet and runs a hand through his hair a couple of times, rubbing at the sleep in his eyes.
He yells out and stumbles backwards, landing ass-first on the bed again. The pain in his fingers had come crashing back into him, hitting him like a slap across the face, and he has to take a couple of deep breaths just so he won't pass out. Gerard makes a mumbling noise behind him.
"Dude, are you okay?" Ray asks, walking over to him. "Are you hurt?"
Frank waves his good hand around a little and shakes his head. "I think some of my fingers are broken," he says, grinding his teeth until the pressure lightens a little and turns into a dull beat from his knuckles and up instead. He holds the hand as high up as he can and studies his red and swollen fingers. They look like sausages, he thinks, and tries to move one of them. He can't though, it's like they're paralyzed.
"Jesus." Ray looks honestly terrified. "We have to get you to the nurse."
"Ray, calm down, I have to eat first. I'll go after you've left." he says, standing up carefully. Gerard is still sound asleep between the warm sheets, his hair sticking out everywhere. Frank can feel the ghost of his arm on his waist. He picks up a pillow lying on the floor, it had probably fallen out of the bed during the night, Frank moved around a lot in his sleep. He puts it down by Gerard's head and steps into his shoes, holding back a gasp when there's a white spark of pain all the way up to his fucking shoulder.
"Crazy." Ray says, but he swings the bag over his shoulder nonetheless and follows Frank out.
During breakfast Professor Cado speaks to the students about what had happened the night before. He doesn't go into detail, but he explains that it was the HSA, and that they are definitely not coming back. Miraculously, none of the students had been severely hurt, and he has a proud edge to his voice when he says his thank-you to the older students who had helped their friends and classmates, and the teachers who had risked their lives for this school and the people in it.
"Thank god no one was killed." Ray says around a pierce of bread.
Frank is standing outside, watching Ray roll his eyes so hard Frank thinks they might fall out of his head when his Mom hugs him and kisses his cheek, then hugs him again, saying sad-sounding words in Spanish. Frank grins and waves as Ray slides into the car and yells "See you Monday!"
He drags himself up the long stairs and tries to ignore the pain in his fingers. When he pushes open the door to his room Gerard is sitting on the bed.
He snaps his head up when Frank enters and frowns. "How y'feeling?" Frank asks and sits down beside him.
Gerard shrugs and looks anywhere but at Frank, rubbing his hands together. "Okay."
"Good. I was just downstairs, Cado said no one was killed."
Nodding, Gerard sucks his lower lip into his mouth. He glances up at Frank then, all innocent and fragile and Frank feels his stomach swoop and turn like crazy and he lets out a quick breath, drumming his fingers against his thigh.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah." Gerard says, his voice is morning-hoarse, and Frank smiles, curling his good hand around one of Gerard's.
"You wanna come with me to the nurse? I gotta go get this hand checked out."
*
Mikey is looking a little too happy about the bad-ass bruises around his neck as he, Frank and Gerard exit the Nurse's office. She had healed one of Frank's fingers completely, but two of them she had to roll into a cranky looking bandage. Frank thinks he's looking pretty bad-ass himself with a faint outline of a black eye forming and a dark, knotty cut on his lower lip.
Gerard was fine, the nurse had poked him here and there and asked if this hurt or that hurt, and then given him a couple of aspirin and told him to get some more sleep.
*
The weekend passes quickly and before Frank knows it, Monday has rolled around with a new school day.
He doesn't see Gerard in any of the classes and when the bell rings after a really long theory lesson, he collects his books and hurries up a floor, until he gets to Gerard and Mikey's room.
He has to knock five times, really hard, before there's any kind of response.
"Yeah, what, come in." Gerard's groggy voice is heard from the other side of the door.
He looks terrible, eyes red and bloodshot, curled up in his bed. "Hi." Frank says. "You weren't in class today, I got worried."
Gerard smiles a small, stupid smile and coughs into his pillow. "I'm sick," he croaks.
Frank sits down on the bed gently. "I see that. Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm fine." He coughs again, deep in his lungs and moans, rubbing the corner of his eye as he sniffs heavily. "Could you just… stay with me a little? We could watch a movie. I'm bored to death."
"Of course." Frank says and toes off his shoes, climbing closer on the bed.
They don't watch any movies, but Frank sits against the headboard and listens while Gerard talks about this comic he wants to make. The story is simple, but heartfelt, about a young superhero boy who is thrown out on the streets to live alone. Frank doesn't ask, but he thinks that maybe some parts of the story are more personal than others.
He wakes up to Mikey turning on the TV and yawns, rubbing neck. He had fallen asleep against the headboard. Gerard is snoring lightly to his right, fingers dug into his pillow and his hair covering most of his face.
"Hey dude." Frank says, rolling out and wincing at the pain in his hand. Mikey gives him a faint nod, not looking up and Frank grabs his backpack saying a quick good-bye before heading out the door.
*
Gerard snorts and Frank can't look away from that smile.
They're sitting in the library, the dusty smell of old books is comforting and Gerard is looking happy and bubbly, pulling out book after book on the shelves to show him. He's still a little pink around the eyes, and his voice isn't back to normal yet, but he's definitely better.
"This one is amazing," he says and hands Frank a heavy, leather bound book. It reads The Dragon and His Friend.
Frank blushes. "I've read it. It's really good."
They sit in the couch down by the window in between the fantasy and science fiction aisle, Gerard leaning against Frank's side and pointing and explaining as they flip through different comics. Frank listens carefully and grins whenever Gerard's voice cracks. He's talking about the characters with such passion, Frank is left tongue tied, feeling stupid because he has no input on anything. When Gerard takes a break to breathe after an especially long explanation of Wolverine's character traits and background history, Frank leans in and kisses him.
He can't remember how to breathe when he feels their lips touch, and it's so soft, softer than he'd thought it would be. Gerard is completely still, and his mouth was slightly open when Frank had leaned in, so he can taste the moist from his breath on his tongue.
"Oh." Gerard says when Frank pulls back. He's wide-eyed and looking straight at Frank, his breathing a little shallow. He touches his lower lip gingerly.
It hits Frank then, and he claps a hand over his mouth. "Oh god. I, wow, I'm so sorry."
"No, it's okay... I just--"
But then Frank kisses him again, and Gerard kisses back almost immediately, sighing when Frank lets his tongue come out to stroke the center of his lower lip and slide inside, all slow and warm. Gerard's hand comes up to touch his bicep and Frank smiles at the tickle of his nose against his cheek.
A book slides from Frank's lap and hits the floor and they jump apart.
"I --Yeah..." Frank says, a little breathless and a lot giddy. Gerard is looking pretty dazed himself, so it's okay. Frank brushes some hair out of his face. "I really like you."
Gerard's smile is so bright that Frank has to pull him in for another kiss. It's not working properly though, they're both grinning too wide, and Gerard laughs against his lips. Frank slides a hand over his jaw and says, "You want to get out of here?"
They walk in zig-zag between the aisles and bookshelves, Gerard balancing a bunch of books with one arm, and the other one pulling on and flattening his hair, and he sneaks glances over at Frank all the way up the stairs and Frank is just smiling and smiling and smiling and he doesn't care that his jaw is starting to ache.
The second the door is shut behind them, Frank drags Gerard close with a hand on his lower back. Gerard says, "wait, wait," and drops the books on Frank's nightstand. They tumble over to the bed, Frank's hands everywhere on Gerard's chest and arms. Gerard makes a noise into his mouth and clings to his shoulders, and Frank doesn't think anymore, just pushes him back into the pillows. They lie there kissing, tongues coming out to slide against each other shyly and everything is awesome, Frank doesn't give a shit about his aching arms or how his fingers are screaming Please Stop Now Pain.
He's getting really turned on too, and he should maybe be freaking out, but he's not, not in the domenating part of his brain at least, and he shifts a little and experimentally pushes his dick down against Gerard's thigh.
Gerard's whole body stiffens up and he drops his arms from Frank's shoulders, circling them around his waist, pushing back up against him. He breaks away from Frank's mouth, and they lock eyes, hips grinding against each other slowly.
"Mmh." Gerard says, and lets his head fall back, pressing up hard, and his fingers dig into Frank's sides.
The shelves next to Frank's bed shudder and something tips over, falling to the floor. Frank can't even be bothered to check what it is, he just presses his face into Gerard's neck, kissing the tender skin softly and dragging in his smell.
Gerard makes a strangled sound, his hips pushing up against Frank faster, heavier, and the shelf shudders again and more things fall to the floor.
Frank slows down his movements and leans down to rest his lips against Gerard's neck as he speaks. "Are you doing this?" he asks.
"I'm sorry." Gerard says breathlessly. "I just can't help it, I -- um."
Frank grins and kisses his ear, his temple, and runs a hand through his hair. "No, no it's fine." He laughs against Gerard's damp skin, low and effortless. "I knew you were telekinetic."
"Barely." Gerard snorts, and he's gone tense under Frank again.
They fall silent, Frank thinking about that one time in class he'd seen him move a pencil, fingertips white against his desk and eyes closed in concentration.
He slides down to lie beside him and touches his cheekbone, the freckles there, and then Gerard says, "I actually can't control it much." He pauses, eyes not meeting Frank's. "It's just when I… feel things. When I'm scared or angry or... you know, things like that." He turns to face Frank, and takes his hand into his, running his finger over Frank's knuckles delicately. "It's funny," he says, "when I was younger, I used to dream about being a superhero, and saving the world and stuff."
"You can do that." Frank says, looking at Gerard's pale hands, his thumb grazing over Frank's skin slowly. "What you can do is a gift, Gerard. And it doesn't matter that you can't control it, that's what you're here for."
Gerard smiles at Frank's good hand, sliding his thumb down between his index and middle finger ticklishly, half his face sunk down in the soft pillow. "I should go." he says. "I promised Mikey I'd help him with some homework."
Frank curses inwardly, but can't help crack a smile. "Yeah. I'll see you later, then?"
Pressing close again, Gerard kisses him, deep and just a little bit dirty. He smiles proudly when he pulls back. "Yeah."
*
They've been holding up forced small talk for a while when she drops the question.
"So, how's school?" his Mom asks in a light tone.
Like you care, he thinks bitterly. He worries the nail of his index finger between his teeth. "Fine. It's okay."
It's quiet, her breathing slow and sad against his ear. "Would you want to come home for a weekend? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. We could rent a movie or something?"
Frank feels something painful twist inside the pit of his stomach. He wants to have a reason to just hang up and not miss her, to be angry with her because she never calls. Instead he sighs and blinks away the prickle behind his eyes. "Yeah, we could do that. I guess."
"Okay, honey." Her voice is so familiar, and he thinks, for one second, about giving her a hug and dragging in her smell. She smells just like a mom should smell, warm and caring and soft. "I'll talk to you later." she says.
"Yeah, bye Mom."
He keeps the phone close to his ear until she hangs up.
*
Frank throws his backpack over his shoulder, and the second his right foot hits the doorstep, Professor Cado coughs.
"Iero, could I have a word with you?"
Cursing under his breath, Frank turns on his heel and slumps down in the chair in front of Professor Cado's desk. He didn't get why the Professor had been so hard on him this year, Frank had been good. He had done his homework and stayed behind to practice every time he'd been asked to, and he couldn't even remember the last time he skipped a day.
He grinds his nail against the old wood of the desk irritably. The classroom smells like used air and people and it's giving him a headache, a dull thud somewhere under his forehead. He winces and gives Professor Cado a long look of obvious annoyance, because the Professor takes his time with absolutely everything he does.
He stands in the doorway and nods and smiles to all the students filtering out, and when the door is closed behind the last one, he stands for a minute, looking at nothing in particular. He takes a couple of echoing steps closer to Frank, his hands behind his back, and studies some of the documents lying around.
"Frank," he says finally. "I know we didn't get along very well when you were new at the school." He sits down in his chair. "But you have showed me that you can!" He waves a hand at what’s left of Frank's little tester box from earlier, he had kept the fire alive for a long time. Frank nods, unsure of where this is all going. "Summer is only weeks away, and as you may know, I am the supervisor of the Leader training try-outs this year." He inhales deeply and gives Frank a serious look. "The judges will be here next Monday, and I do not think you are a class three. However, I am to bend the rules for students I believe should get the chance based on natural talents and effort, and I think you could learn a lot if you got into the Leader programme."
Frank blinks. "So what you're saying is that my class doesn't matter as long as I nail it at the try-outs?"
Professor Cado smiles. "Yes."
"I..." Frank blinks some more. When he collects the brainpower to think again, he grins so hard that he almost can't see and shoots a hand out over the desk to shake Professor Cado's warm, dry one. "Thank you. Thank you so much, Professor!"
Professor Cado smiles, the lines under his eyes deepening. "Now, off you go." he says, shuffling some papers around.
When Frank is outside and the door as clicked close, he does a little happy-dance and runs with light steps all the way up to his room.
*
Gerard is breathing heavily, touching Frank's face in between kisses, cold fingertips against his chin, cheeks and down his neck. He looks concentrated and maybe a little desperate, and it makes Frank even more eager, pushing down against him on the mattress.
It had started with them watching a movie on Frank's bed that night, innocently enough. Frank had smiled and touched Gerard's wrist, asked him if he wanted to watch a movie they had both seen too many times. His eyes were shifty and stomach jumpy when Gerard nodded, flashing him a smile.
They had barely gotten the door locked before they were kissing against it, slowly at first, but after a couple of minutes of roaming each other's bodies and trying to kiss at the same time, they stumbled over to the bed.
"Mh, Frank..." Gerard says, taking Frank's head in his hands to hold him still. "What if Ray comes back?"
"Whatever." Frank says, moving down to suck on Gerard's soft neck. "The door's locked."
"But he has a key." Gerard gasps, fingers tightening in Frank's hair. "Right?"
"He won't bother if it's locked, he knows I'm --" he slides his tongue into Gerard's mouth again, smiling against him as the bed shakes and the bookshelf on the other side of the room creaks, Ray's tiny tin soldiers tipping each other over like domino bricks. "-- that I'm busy." he finishes, licking Gerard's upper lip. "Maybe we should get everything out of the shelves."
Gerard blushes harder, glancing over at the bookshelves. He catches Frank's mouth with his before he gets the brain power to do anything about it, though, and they stay busy kissing. The wet, slippery noises, and the small hitches in Gerard's breath is enough to make Frank's skin tingle all the way down to his toes, and he chuckles silently as a couple of the tin soldiers roll over the edge and hits the floor, thump, thump, thump.
"Frank. Oh, uh. Frank?"
"What?" sitting back on his heels, Frank peels off his t-shirt and drops it to the floor.
Gerard smiles carefully, all flushed and beautiful. He looks up at Frank, eyes gliding carefully over his body, then back up at his face. He pushes himself up so he's sitting against the headboard, pulling Frank closer on his lap, sneaking his fingers around his middle, face pressing against his neck. Frank sighs and hugs him back, playing with the soft, wavy hair against the side of his throat.
"I can't believe you're real." Gerard says, wonder in his voice, his lips buzzing against Frank's skin.
Frank breathes out a laugh, "me neither." Gerard takes a deep breath against his body, and something inside him feels like it's going to explode. He pushes his face into Gerard's hair and giggles, unable to help himself, tracing small circles down under his shoulder blade.
"I just gotta..." he says, disentangling himself from Gerard. He puts all his books and movies on the floor, along with some of Ray's stuff before he climbs back under the sheets with an embarrassed Gerard, grinning and trapping his lower lip between his teeth.
As their hands get bolder and kisses hotter, Frank wonders how far they're going to take this and how they're going to do it. He feels himself harden even more as he thinks about touching Gerard, putting his mouth on him, and something jumps and twists inside the pit of his stomach. He makes a low sound against Gerard's cheekbone. He places a hand carefully over his belt buckle and pulls back, raising an eyebrow in a silent question, his heart hammering in his chest.
Gerard nods, eyes following Frank's fingers as he works the pants open.
Before he thinks about doing anything more, Frank kicks his own jeans off, pushing them back to the foot of the bed. He doesn't have any time to freak out or look or touch at all, because the next thing he knows, he's on top of Gerard again, and they're almost naked and it feels so good, his mind goes blank.
"Oh god." Gerard breathes, and his thigh is between Frank's legs, warm and firm and new.
Frank suddenly wants the underwear off too, fast, and he slides his fingers under the waistband of Gerard's boxers before he even has the time to think, feeling the smooth skin there, moving a hand to the front, suddenly a lot braver than he thought he was. He feels the hair and the damp skin under his fingers and then, Gerard's dick. He curls his fingers around him and feels him twitch inside his hand, making them both gasp.
Frank holds his breath as he moves his hand and tries to remember what feels good, and he's so turned on he thinks he could actually pass out. He leans down and kisses the base of Gerard's throat and as he starts getting a little more into it, he licks his way lower, down over salty, smooth skin and it should probably be gross, he thinks, but it's not, it's amazing. What's even better is feeling Gerard's rapid breath under his tongue, knowing it's him that's doing it, making Gerard's breathless and twitching, pushing up into his hand.
It's when he drags his tongue over Gerard's hip bone, hand loose around his dick, he thinks that maybe he's actually going to do it. He's a little dizzy and a lot turned on as he peels Gerard's boxers down past his knees, kissing his hip wetly. He looks up at Gerard, blood rushing in his ears. Gerard's eyes are clouded with want and his cheekbones are still smeared with a deep, pink blush. His fingers curles in Frank's sheets.
Frank licks the underside of Gerard's dick, a long swipe up to the tip, before taking him into his mouth. He has to close his eyes when Gerard's thighs fall open and a hand slides hesitantly over his shoulder. He wants to say 'hey, it's okay', but his mouth is kinda full, so he does his best to concentrate on moving and not gagging.
Gerard is making noises and kind of petting his shoulder desperately, so he must be doing something right. He doesn't really know what to do with his hands, the bandaged one ended up somewhere over Gerard's knee, and the other is trapped under him, twisted in a way that should be painful and distracting, but isn't because hey, he's pretty busy being so turned on me might just die. He manoeuvres the trapped arm down under himself and palms his own dick. He hums, unable to help himself.
Apparently, that was a good thing because Gerard whines, his nails digging into Frank's shoulders.
He curls his good hand around the base of Gerard's dick, and hums again, pushing down against the mattress for friction and Gerard's fingers are clawing at his shoulders and up the side of his neck. "Frank, I, uh-- Frank..."
But before Frank has any time to figure out what that might mean, Gerard is coming in his mouth, warm and salty. Frank swallows some of it, blinking, surprised with himself and looks up, meeting Gerard's gaze.
"I'm sorry." Gerard says, touching the side of Frank's face with trembling fingers.
Frank crawls up on the bed, wincing a little at the taste echoing in his mouth. He pulls the covers up over them, and lies down, facing Gerard, trailing a soft pattern down along his bicep. Gerard squirms and blinks, smiling.
He protests lightly when Frank kisses him, but melts against him fast enough and Frank groans, sneaking a hand down over his boxers and pressing the heel of his palm against himself. And if he wasn't so busy having his tongue in Gerard's mouth and his fingers scrabbling at his sides, his hand would be wrapped around his own dick in seconds, but Gerard beats him to it, dipping a hand into his underwear.
Frank’s startled at how overwhelming it is when Gerard squeezes him at the base and moves up with hurried, perfect strokes, flicking his thumb under the head, making Frank press closer. Gerard is panting against his ear and Frank can't see, kind of, he wonders if it's because he's closing his eyes or blacking out from the pleasure, he's not sure, but he feels his way to Gerard's face, guiding it to his own and kissing him hard, pushing into his hand.
He rides it out into Gerard's tight fist when he comes, every muscle in his body tensing, teeth clenching until his jaw hurts. When the wave has passed he's left with tingling and heavy limbs. He smiles with his tongue licking lazily into Gerard's mouth, vaguely noticing that he's is drying his hand off on the sheets.
After, they lie close together under the sheets, tired and stunned. Frank digs small half-moons into the skin of Gerard's shoulder with his short nails, watching it whiten, and then rubbing his thumb over them. They blossom into raw pink, a stark contrast to Gerard's milky skin.
"That kinda hurts." Gerard complains effortlessly.
Frank presses his tongue over the marks. He curls a hand around Gerard's wrist and slides it down until their fingers are laced.
Gerard turns his head so his nose slides along Frank's cheek and squeezes his hand. Frank squeezes back.
*
"So you guys are like, together?"
Frank had woken up to the very unpleasant view of Ray's face two inches from his own, his expression an impressive mix of confused, embarrassed and amused.
Frank feels his stomach drop and his ears redden and before he stops himself, he's glancing over at Gerard who's desperately trying to get his pants on under the blankets. "I... I think so?"
Gerard goes still and the blanket, which he has pulled up right under his chin, slides down a little over his bare chest. They have, like, a moment, eyes meeting and tiny, uncertain smiles all over the place.
Ray still looks confused and embarrassed and a little amused and Frank tries to shrug all casual, but the look on his face comes out pained. Gerard manoeuvres himself completely under the sheets, and Frank hears the fast drag of a zipper.
Ray quirks an eyebrow at him and picks up a comic book from his nightstand. "It's not like I care." he says, nose already buried between the pages.
Frank smiles down at his hands.
*
Frank falls asleep with Gerard a lot. Sometimes it's because they sit and talk for hours, Frank finds that he can talk to Gerard about almost anything, from his relationship with his mom to his bad habits and his deepest, darkest thoughts. It feels safe to have someone who really listens and doesn't zone out just to wait for their turn to speak.
But mostly though, it's because they have a lot of sex. Frank is having a lot of sex, with another person, who is real and it's amazing! Sometimes he wonders if it's normal, how he's turned on all the time. He can be sitting outside with Gerard and listen to him talk about how awesome snails are, maybe he licks his lips or touches his neck and Frank is suddenly there. Gerard isn't any better though, he's more shy and reserved, but when they're alone, he'll slide his fingers up behind Frank's ear, just where he likes it, and they're good to go.
He supposes they're lucky that they haven't scarred Ray or Mikey yet, but lately, Mikey has been spending a lot of time not being in his room, which might be a coincidence, Frank doesn't really care as long as he and Gerard has somewhere to be when Frank wants to have sex. Sex!
It's raining outside, thick and heavy drops crashing against the windows, echoing through the whole school. Frank wakes up halfway out of the bed with his face smushed into Gerard's hair.
"Gerard," he says, and Gerard grunts.
He hauls himself fully up on the bed and clings to Gerard's side, blowing on his ear affectionately. Gerard opens one eye and makes a grumpy noise, rolling over so he's facing the other way. Frank pushes himself up and leans over his body, whispering, "Gerard, wake up."
"No. Tired." Gerard says, but he's smiling.
Sneaking a hand down to the front of Gerard's sweats, Frank rubs slow, light circles. "How tired?"
"Very tired." Gerard assures him, but he pushes up into Frank's hand. "Frank…"
They end up with their hands down each others pants, just groping and moving and kissing when Gerard pulls back and gives Frank a strange look. "Frank, you're on fire."
Snorting at the pun, Frank leans in to kiss him again, but Gerard stops him with a hand on his chest. "No, I mean, you're actually on fire. And you're boiling hot!" Gerard turns Frank's head to the side with a hand on each side of his face. Frank gulps when he sees that there is indeed a thin, yellow flame licking its way up his shoulder. He cups his hand and kills it, blowing away the smoke.
"That has never happened to me before," he says.
And Gerard is a freak because he looks more than a little flattered when he ducks closer to Frank between the sheets.
*
Gerard is sitting under their usual tree with his knees drawn to his chest, his face just a couple of inches away from the book he's reading. There are leaf-shaped shadows cast all over his figure, and when Frank falls to his knees beside him, he smiles. Frank shuffles close and kisses his neck.
"I'm reading." Gerard says happily.
"I'm kissing." Frank replaces the book in Gerard's lap with himself, placing a knee on each side of his body.
A wind cast whips Gerard's hair around his face and he flattens his palm against Frank's belly, then his thigh. "Frank, there a people here."
Frank rolls his eyes and kisses his nose. "I came to ask if you wanted to come inside and eat with us, loner. Besides, Ray is hanging out with Mikey later, so we're all alone."
Blushing, Gerard touches Frank's belly again, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "Yeah, I'll come inside," he says.
Mikey has a new friend, who is a girl. Gerard is giving her suspicious looks as they eat, everyone’s sat around one of the heavy oak tables in the enormous dining hall. Frank slurps on his soup and touches Gerard's knee under the table, making him cough and wiggle closer. Mikey is absolutely not looking at them, and Frank wonders how he's able to appear so completely bored but at the same time get his point across.
When Mikey looks up, Frank makes kissy faces at him and kicks him under the table.
It's a warm and quiet Saturday, all the windows are wide open and there's a rich smell of food coming from the kitchen. Frank feels at home there, he thinks, at the school. He leans against Gerard's side and listens to him and Ray talk about a new video game that's coming out sometime during the summer.
It's just how it should be.
END.
When someone shakes his shoulder and reality calls him back he imagines he's going to wake up in a hospital bed, because heaven doesn't feel like this.
But the red, dirty carpet is rough against his face and it's Paige standing over him.
"Frank, Frank! You need to walk, I can't carry both of you. And you need to hurry!" Her arm sneaks under and around his chest. "Okay, on the count of three. One," Frank doesn't know if he'll actually be able to, but his eyes focus and he sees Gerard on the floor, completely still. "Two." He tries to say something but his mouth is dry like sandpaper. "Three." He puts all his will into moving his legs. His right hand hurts with every move he makes and when he's standing up, the world is spinning like crazy, he has to lean against Paige's side for a second so he won't pass out again.
Paige lets him stand alone on shaky legs and walks over to Gerard, cupping his face carefully. Frank watches as she checks his pulse and lifts his eyelids, and he shudders, suddenly cold. Mikey is sitting against the wall, watching as well, blood smeared all over his face and clothes. He's shivering, pale as a ghost and their eyes meet for a second, and Frank nods. He doesn't know why exactly, but Mikey nods as well.
Gerard isn't responding to anything Paige does and she sighs helplessly and takes his limp arm, looping it around her shoulder. "Is he okay?" Frank asks, his voice so raspy he can barely make out his own words.
"He's completely out." Paige says in a frustrated tone. "But he's got a pulse. You need to help me get him to the emergency room."
Frank walks over on shaky legs and takes Gerard's other arm, something inside him stinging when he touches him and he grinds his teeth, looking over his shoulder to make sure that Mikey's following.
After a while of dragging Gerard between them he starts moving his legs, doing tiny but more than helpful steps on his own. His head is still hanging loose on his shoulder, bobbing from side to side with their movements.
The walk feels like forever, and Frank is just running on sheer willpower as they get him down the stairs, his heart hammering in his chest and his crushed fingers screaming for his complete attention.
Gerard opens his eyes and makes a couple of noises when they push the curtain in front of the emergency room aside. Frank squeezes his side carefully with his good hand and Gerard turns his head, looking at him, dazed and confused.
Frank helps Gerard in, then climbs after him, his fingers aching from holding him steady. He says "Come on, sit." But Gerard's already sunk down against the wall, head resting on his knees.
"Don't let anybody out, Iero, ya' hear me?" Paige says over the noise and slams the door shut.
And it's dark.
When Frank's eyes have adjusted, he sees that Gerard's stare is locked with Mikey's. They stay like that for a while, Gerard's hands twitching on his knees, and then Mikey nods, wiping a hand over his bloody cheek, looking away. Frank swallows and gathers himself up, slumping down beside Gerard's tense figure.
*
"Did you do that?" Frank asks later, when Gerard has been breathing evenly for some time. He adds, "To the guy that was holding you down?"
The crease between Gerard's eyebrows deepens for a second and he looks down. He says, hushed, "I don't know."
Frank takes his hand, like an impulse, curls his fingers around his sweaty palm and leans closer.
But they both know, they do, because who else, right?
"What happened?"
Frank sees Ray's stern expression from the other side of the room. At his words, a dozen kids turn to look at them, and Frank doesn't know what to say. He looks from Mikey's bloody face, to Gerard's hands and back at Ray. "Later," he says.
It feels like they're in there for days, and the fighting seems to have died out long ago. Frank wonders briefly if they're all dead, and for a second he sees Paige's limp body thrown over one of the humans' shoulders, but he forces himself not to think that, forces himself to calm down.
Gerard is kind of leant against his side, looking absentmindedly at the opposite wall, his breathing is deep and irregular, and Frank wonders if he's hurt. His eyelids are heavy and he looks so pale, his skin is almost grey.
"Are you okay?" Frank finally asks, shifting a little. Gerard’s distantly picking at a loose thread in his jeans.
*
Gerard is asleep against his side, most of the students are and Frank is dozing off too when the door creaks open. He doesn't have time to get scared before he sees Professor Fenris' furry head.
"Everybody okay?" he asks.
There's a low murmur from the crowd and people are shaking each other awake. Fenris pushes the door fully open and Paige is there, along with some of the other teachers. "Get everybody out, it's over," she says, climbing in and helping some of the younger kids to their feet. "Is anybody hurt?" she asks over the mumbling.
"Mikey is!" A girl says, Frank doesn't know her, and he sees Mikey protest furiously while Fenris pushes him out the door.
Everybody's packed at the exit, Gerard pressed hard up against Frank's side. His limbs are heavy and he seems to have trouble standing so Frank carefully sneaks an arm around his waist, holding him up. "Should we get you to the nurse?" he whispers in Gerard's ear.
Gerard shakes his head, blinking a couple of times. "No, I just need... I need to lie down." he says, and Frank swallows, strengthening his grip around Gerard's waist.
All of the students are immediately sent up to their rooms to rest, and Frank is doing his best to get Gerard up the stairs to their floor. Gerard makes a confused noise when Frank leads them both into his and Ray's room, flipping on the light switch.
"Mikey is in the nurse's office, and there's no way I'm letting you sleep alone like this," he explains, pushing a couple of books and bundled up socks off his bed, then he helps Gerard to lie down.
They're both lying as far from each other as possible on the small bed when Ray comes in, grunting in displeasure.
"My mom wants me home for the weekend," he explains, and then stops to look at them for a second. "Huh." he says, then slumps down on his own bed, kicking his shoes off.
All three of them have been quiet for a while when Ray breaks the silence. "Dude, what happened?" he asks into the dark.
Gerard's breath hitches in his ear and Frank looks at the bleak ceiling for a second. "Uh. Gerard went looking for Mikey and we just... we just kind of ended up in the middle of everything," he says. Gerard lets lose a breath and their hands brush under the sheets.
"Oh." Ray doesn't sound entirely convinced, but he doesn't say anything, and it takes no more than five minutes before Frank can hear his deep, even snores.
Frank tries to not think too much about how Gerard has moved closer and how warm he is against him. He tries to close his eyes and slow down his heartbeat because it's so stupid and he doesn't know why he has to feel like this now. He turns his back to him and looks at the door, waiting for sleep to overtake him and the constant pulses in his hand to crease.
It doesn't happen though, and he finds himself thinking about his Mom. He wonders if she'd want him home for the weekend, too, if she knew what had happened.
Frank is shaken from his thoughts when he feels three, separate spots of pressure on his back, and it takes him a minute to realise that it's Gerard's fingers, and they're moving over his t-shirt, creating gentle patterns, circling his shoulder blades and up to the nape of his neck, so slowly, and so carefully it doesn't make a sound.
Frank hums, and Gerard freezes behind him.
"It's good." Frank slurs, and the fingers move again, soothing his skin until he finally falls asleep.
*
He wakes up with Gerard's arm around his waist and his clammy body pressed up close against his back and it takes him a while to put the pieces together. He blinks against the sharp rays of light filtering through the window.
"Finally," Ray says from the other side of the room. Frank turns his head, not really awake and he hasn't been able to completely process the fact that Gerard is sleeping next to him and holding around him on the bed. Ray is stuffing clothes haphazardly into a bag, seemingly unfazed.
"My Mom's picking me up in half and hour," he says dully, studying a pair of boxers. He sniffs them, and then drops them into the bag as well. "You wanna go down and get something to eat?"
Frank sighs and closes his eyes. His body feels like it weighs a ton, but he's hungry as hell, too. "Sure, man," he says and carefully wiggles out from under Gerard's arm. He gets up on shaky feet and runs a hand through his hair a couple of times, rubbing at the sleep in his eyes.
He yells out and stumbles backwards, landing ass-first on the bed again. The pain in his fingers had come crashing back into him, hitting him like a slap across the face, and he has to take a couple of deep breaths just so he won't pass out. Gerard makes a mumbling noise behind him.
"Dude, are you okay?" Ray asks, walking over to him. "Are you hurt?"
Frank waves his good hand around a little and shakes his head. "I think some of my fingers are broken," he says, grinding his teeth until the pressure lightens a little and turns into a dull beat from his knuckles and up instead. He holds the hand as high up as he can and studies his red and swollen fingers. They look like sausages, he thinks, and tries to move one of them. He can't though, it's like they're paralyzed.
"Jesus." Ray looks honestly terrified. "We have to get you to the nurse."
"Ray, calm down, I have to eat first. I'll go after you've left." he says, standing up carefully. Gerard is still sound asleep between the warm sheets, his hair sticking out everywhere. Frank can feel the ghost of his arm on his waist. He picks up a pillow lying on the floor, it had probably fallen out of the bed during the night, Frank moved around a lot in his sleep. He puts it down by Gerard's head and steps into his shoes, holding back a gasp when there's a white spark of pain all the way up to his fucking shoulder.
"Crazy." Ray says, but he swings the bag over his shoulder nonetheless and follows Frank out.
During breakfast Professor Cado speaks to the students about what had happened the night before. He doesn't go into detail, but he explains that it was the HSA, and that they are definitely not coming back. Miraculously, none of the students had been severely hurt, and he has a proud edge to his voice when he says his thank-you to the older students who had helped their friends and classmates, and the teachers who had risked their lives for this school and the people in it.
"Thank god no one was killed." Ray says around a pierce of bread.
Frank is standing outside, watching Ray roll his eyes so hard Frank thinks they might fall out of his head when his Mom hugs him and kisses his cheek, then hugs him again, saying sad-sounding words in Spanish. Frank grins and waves as Ray slides into the car and yells "See you Monday!"
He drags himself up the long stairs and tries to ignore the pain in his fingers. When he pushes open the door to his room Gerard is sitting on the bed.
He snaps his head up when Frank enters and frowns. "How y'feeling?" Frank asks and sits down beside him.
Gerard shrugs and looks anywhere but at Frank, rubbing his hands together. "Okay."
"Good. I was just downstairs, Cado said no one was killed."
Nodding, Gerard sucks his lower lip into his mouth. He glances up at Frank then, all innocent and fragile and Frank feels his stomach swoop and turn like crazy and he lets out a quick breath, drumming his fingers against his thigh.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah." Gerard says, his voice is morning-hoarse, and Frank smiles, curling his good hand around one of Gerard's.
"You wanna come with me to the nurse? I gotta go get this hand checked out."
*
Mikey is looking a little too happy about the bad-ass bruises around his neck as he, Frank and Gerard exit the Nurse's office. She had healed one of Frank's fingers completely, but two of them she had to roll into a cranky looking bandage. Frank thinks he's looking pretty bad-ass himself with a faint outline of a black eye forming and a dark, knotty cut on his lower lip.
Gerard was fine, the nurse had poked him here and there and asked if this hurt or that hurt, and then given him a couple of aspirin and told him to get some more sleep.
*
The weekend passes quickly and before Frank knows it, Monday has rolled around with a new school day.
He doesn't see Gerard in any of the classes and when the bell rings after a really long theory lesson, he collects his books and hurries up a floor, until he gets to Gerard and Mikey's room.
He has to knock five times, really hard, before there's any kind of response.
"Yeah, what, come in." Gerard's groggy voice is heard from the other side of the door.
He looks terrible, eyes red and bloodshot, curled up in his bed. "Hi." Frank says. "You weren't in class today, I got worried."
Gerard smiles a small, stupid smile and coughs into his pillow. "I'm sick," he croaks.
Frank sits down on the bed gently. "I see that. Can I get you anything?"
"No, I'm fine." He coughs again, deep in his lungs and moans, rubbing the corner of his eye as he sniffs heavily. "Could you just… stay with me a little? We could watch a movie. I'm bored to death."
"Of course." Frank says and toes off his shoes, climbing closer on the bed.
They don't watch any movies, but Frank sits against the headboard and listens while Gerard talks about this comic he wants to make. The story is simple, but heartfelt, about a young superhero boy who is thrown out on the streets to live alone. Frank doesn't ask, but he thinks that maybe some parts of the story are more personal than others.
He wakes up to Mikey turning on the TV and yawns, rubbing neck. He had fallen asleep against the headboard. Gerard is snoring lightly to his right, fingers dug into his pillow and his hair covering most of his face.
"Hey dude." Frank says, rolling out and wincing at the pain in his hand. Mikey gives him a faint nod, not looking up and Frank grabs his backpack saying a quick good-bye before heading out the door.
*
Gerard snorts and Frank can't look away from that smile.
They're sitting in the library, the dusty smell of old books is comforting and Gerard is looking happy and bubbly, pulling out book after book on the shelves to show him. He's still a little pink around the eyes, and his voice isn't back to normal yet, but he's definitely better.
"This one is amazing," he says and hands Frank a heavy, leather bound book. It reads The Dragon and His Friend.
Frank blushes. "I've read it. It's really good."
They sit in the couch down by the window in between the fantasy and science fiction aisle, Gerard leaning against Frank's side and pointing and explaining as they flip through different comics. Frank listens carefully and grins whenever Gerard's voice cracks. He's talking about the characters with such passion, Frank is left tongue tied, feeling stupid because he has no input on anything. When Gerard takes a break to breathe after an especially long explanation of Wolverine's character traits and background history, Frank leans in and kisses him.
He can't remember how to breathe when he feels their lips touch, and it's so soft, softer than he'd thought it would be. Gerard is completely still, and his mouth was slightly open when Frank had leaned in, so he can taste the moist from his breath on his tongue.
"Oh." Gerard says when Frank pulls back. He's wide-eyed and looking straight at Frank, his breathing a little shallow. He touches his lower lip gingerly.
It hits Frank then, and he claps a hand over his mouth. "Oh god. I, wow, I'm so sorry."
"No, it's okay... I just--"
But then Frank kisses him again, and Gerard kisses back almost immediately, sighing when Frank lets his tongue come out to stroke the center of his lower lip and slide inside, all slow and warm. Gerard's hand comes up to touch his bicep and Frank smiles at the tickle of his nose against his cheek.
A book slides from Frank's lap and hits the floor and they jump apart.
"I --Yeah..." Frank says, a little breathless and a lot giddy. Gerard is looking pretty dazed himself, so it's okay. Frank brushes some hair out of his face. "I really like you."
Gerard's smile is so bright that Frank has to pull him in for another kiss. It's not working properly though, they're both grinning too wide, and Gerard laughs against his lips. Frank slides a hand over his jaw and says, "You want to get out of here?"
They walk in zig-zag between the aisles and bookshelves, Gerard balancing a bunch of books with one arm, and the other one pulling on and flattening his hair, and he sneaks glances over at Frank all the way up the stairs and Frank is just smiling and smiling and smiling and he doesn't care that his jaw is starting to ache.
The second the door is shut behind them, Frank drags Gerard close with a hand on his lower back. Gerard says, "wait, wait," and drops the books on Frank's nightstand. They tumble over to the bed, Frank's hands everywhere on Gerard's chest and arms. Gerard makes a noise into his mouth and clings to his shoulders, and Frank doesn't think anymore, just pushes him back into the pillows. They lie there kissing, tongues coming out to slide against each other shyly and everything is awesome, Frank doesn't give a shit about his aching arms or how his fingers are screaming Please Stop Now Pain.
He's getting really turned on too, and he should maybe be freaking out, but he's not, not in the domenating part of his brain at least, and he shifts a little and experimentally pushes his dick down against Gerard's thigh.
Gerard's whole body stiffens up and he drops his arms from Frank's shoulders, circling them around his waist, pushing back up against him. He breaks away from Frank's mouth, and they lock eyes, hips grinding against each other slowly.
"Mmh." Gerard says, and lets his head fall back, pressing up hard, and his fingers dig into Frank's sides.
The shelves next to Frank's bed shudder and something tips over, falling to the floor. Frank can't even be bothered to check what it is, he just presses his face into Gerard's neck, kissing the tender skin softly and dragging in his smell.
Gerard makes a strangled sound, his hips pushing up against Frank faster, heavier, and the shelf shudders again and more things fall to the floor.
Frank slows down his movements and leans down to rest his lips against Gerard's neck as he speaks. "Are you doing this?" he asks.
"I'm sorry." Gerard says breathlessly. "I just can't help it, I -- um."
Frank grins and kisses his ear, his temple, and runs a hand through his hair. "No, no it's fine." He laughs against Gerard's damp skin, low and effortless. "I knew you were telekinetic."
"Barely." Gerard snorts, and he's gone tense under Frank again.
They fall silent, Frank thinking about that one time in class he'd seen him move a pencil, fingertips white against his desk and eyes closed in concentration.
He slides down to lie beside him and touches his cheekbone, the freckles there, and then Gerard says, "I actually can't control it much." He pauses, eyes not meeting Frank's. "It's just when I… feel things. When I'm scared or angry or... you know, things like that." He turns to face Frank, and takes his hand into his, running his finger over Frank's knuckles delicately. "It's funny," he says, "when I was younger, I used to dream about being a superhero, and saving the world and stuff."
"You can do that." Frank says, looking at Gerard's pale hands, his thumb grazing over Frank's skin slowly. "What you can do is a gift, Gerard. And it doesn't matter that you can't control it, that's what you're here for."
Gerard smiles at Frank's good hand, sliding his thumb down between his index and middle finger ticklishly, half his face sunk down in the soft pillow. "I should go." he says. "I promised Mikey I'd help him with some homework."
Frank curses inwardly, but can't help crack a smile. "Yeah. I'll see you later, then?"
Pressing close again, Gerard kisses him, deep and just a little bit dirty. He smiles proudly when he pulls back. "Yeah."
*
They've been holding up forced small talk for a while when she drops the question.
"So, how's school?" his Mom asks in a light tone.
Like you care, he thinks bitterly. He worries the nail of his index finger between his teeth. "Fine. It's okay."
It's quiet, her breathing slow and sad against his ear. "Would you want to come home for a weekend? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. We could rent a movie or something?"
Frank feels something painful twist inside the pit of his stomach. He wants to have a reason to just hang up and not miss her, to be angry with her because she never calls. Instead he sighs and blinks away the prickle behind his eyes. "Yeah, we could do that. I guess."
"Okay, honey." Her voice is so familiar, and he thinks, for one second, about giving her a hug and dragging in her smell. She smells just like a mom should smell, warm and caring and soft. "I'll talk to you later." she says.
"Yeah, bye Mom."
He keeps the phone close to his ear until she hangs up.
*
Frank throws his backpack over his shoulder, and the second his right foot hits the doorstep, Professor Cado coughs.
"Iero, could I have a word with you?"
Cursing under his breath, Frank turns on his heel and slumps down in the chair in front of Professor Cado's desk. He didn't get why the Professor had been so hard on him this year, Frank had been good. He had done his homework and stayed behind to practice every time he'd been asked to, and he couldn't even remember the last time he skipped a day.
He grinds his nail against the old wood of the desk irritably. The classroom smells like used air and people and it's giving him a headache, a dull thud somewhere under his forehead. He winces and gives Professor Cado a long look of obvious annoyance, because the Professor takes his time with absolutely everything he does.
He stands in the doorway and nods and smiles to all the students filtering out, and when the door is closed behind the last one, he stands for a minute, looking at nothing in particular. He takes a couple of echoing steps closer to Frank, his hands behind his back, and studies some of the documents lying around.
"Frank," he says finally. "I know we didn't get along very well when you were new at the school." He sits down in his chair. "But you have showed me that you can!" He waves a hand at what’s left of Frank's little tester box from earlier, he had kept the fire alive for a long time. Frank nods, unsure of where this is all going. "Summer is only weeks away, and as you may know, I am the supervisor of the Leader training try-outs this year." He inhales deeply and gives Frank a serious look. "The judges will be here next Monday, and I do not think you are a class three. However, I am to bend the rules for students I believe should get the chance based on natural talents and effort, and I think you could learn a lot if you got into the Leader programme."
Frank blinks. "So what you're saying is that my class doesn't matter as long as I nail it at the try-outs?"
Professor Cado smiles. "Yes."
"I..." Frank blinks some more. When he collects the brainpower to think again, he grins so hard that he almost can't see and shoots a hand out over the desk to shake Professor Cado's warm, dry one. "Thank you. Thank you so much, Professor!"
Professor Cado smiles, the lines under his eyes deepening. "Now, off you go." he says, shuffling some papers around.
When Frank is outside and the door as clicked close, he does a little happy-dance and runs with light steps all the way up to his room.
*
Gerard is breathing heavily, touching Frank's face in between kisses, cold fingertips against his chin, cheeks and down his neck. He looks concentrated and maybe a little desperate, and it makes Frank even more eager, pushing down against him on the mattress.
It had started with them watching a movie on Frank's bed that night, innocently enough. Frank had smiled and touched Gerard's wrist, asked him if he wanted to watch a movie they had both seen too many times. His eyes were shifty and stomach jumpy when Gerard nodded, flashing him a smile.
They had barely gotten the door locked before they were kissing against it, slowly at first, but after a couple of minutes of roaming each other's bodies and trying to kiss at the same time, they stumbled over to the bed.
"Mh, Frank..." Gerard says, taking Frank's head in his hands to hold him still. "What if Ray comes back?"
"Whatever." Frank says, moving down to suck on Gerard's soft neck. "The door's locked."
"But he has a key." Gerard gasps, fingers tightening in Frank's hair. "Right?"
"He won't bother if it's locked, he knows I'm --" he slides his tongue into Gerard's mouth again, smiling against him as the bed shakes and the bookshelf on the other side of the room creaks, Ray's tiny tin soldiers tipping each other over like domino bricks. "-- that I'm busy." he finishes, licking Gerard's upper lip. "Maybe we should get everything out of the shelves."
Gerard blushes harder, glancing over at the bookshelves. He catches Frank's mouth with his before he gets the brain power to do anything about it, though, and they stay busy kissing. The wet, slippery noises, and the small hitches in Gerard's breath is enough to make Frank's skin tingle all the way down to his toes, and he chuckles silently as a couple of the tin soldiers roll over the edge and hits the floor, thump, thump, thump.
"Frank. Oh, uh. Frank?"
"What?" sitting back on his heels, Frank peels off his t-shirt and drops it to the floor.
Gerard smiles carefully, all flushed and beautiful. He looks up at Frank, eyes gliding carefully over his body, then back up at his face. He pushes himself up so he's sitting against the headboard, pulling Frank closer on his lap, sneaking his fingers around his middle, face pressing against his neck. Frank sighs and hugs him back, playing with the soft, wavy hair against the side of his throat.
"I can't believe you're real." Gerard says, wonder in his voice, his lips buzzing against Frank's skin.
Frank breathes out a laugh, "me neither." Gerard takes a deep breath against his body, and something inside him feels like it's going to explode. He pushes his face into Gerard's hair and giggles, unable to help himself, tracing small circles down under his shoulder blade.
"I just gotta..." he says, disentangling himself from Gerard. He puts all his books and movies on the floor, along with some of Ray's stuff before he climbs back under the sheets with an embarrassed Gerard, grinning and trapping his lower lip between his teeth.
As their hands get bolder and kisses hotter, Frank wonders how far they're going to take this and how they're going to do it. He feels himself harden even more as he thinks about touching Gerard, putting his mouth on him, and something jumps and twists inside the pit of his stomach. He makes a low sound against Gerard's cheekbone. He places a hand carefully over his belt buckle and pulls back, raising an eyebrow in a silent question, his heart hammering in his chest.
Gerard nods, eyes following Frank's fingers as he works the pants open.
Before he thinks about doing anything more, Frank kicks his own jeans off, pushing them back to the foot of the bed. He doesn't have any time to freak out or look or touch at all, because the next thing he knows, he's on top of Gerard again, and they're almost naked and it feels so good, his mind goes blank.
"Oh god." Gerard breathes, and his thigh is between Frank's legs, warm and firm and new.
Frank suddenly wants the underwear off too, fast, and he slides his fingers under the waistband of Gerard's boxers before he even has the time to think, feeling the smooth skin there, moving a hand to the front, suddenly a lot braver than he thought he was. He feels the hair and the damp skin under his fingers and then, Gerard's dick. He curls his fingers around him and feels him twitch inside his hand, making them both gasp.
Frank holds his breath as he moves his hand and tries to remember what feels good, and he's so turned on he thinks he could actually pass out. He leans down and kisses the base of Gerard's throat and as he starts getting a little more into it, he licks his way lower, down over salty, smooth skin and it should probably be gross, he thinks, but it's not, it's amazing. What's even better is feeling Gerard's rapid breath under his tongue, knowing it's him that's doing it, making Gerard's breathless and twitching, pushing up into his hand.
It's when he drags his tongue over Gerard's hip bone, hand loose around his dick, he thinks that maybe he's actually going to do it. He's a little dizzy and a lot turned on as he peels Gerard's boxers down past his knees, kissing his hip wetly. He looks up at Gerard, blood rushing in his ears. Gerard's eyes are clouded with want and his cheekbones are still smeared with a deep, pink blush. His fingers curles in Frank's sheets.
Frank licks the underside of Gerard's dick, a long swipe up to the tip, before taking him into his mouth. He has to close his eyes when Gerard's thighs fall open and a hand slides hesitantly over his shoulder. He wants to say 'hey, it's okay', but his mouth is kinda full, so he does his best to concentrate on moving and not gagging.
Gerard is making noises and kind of petting his shoulder desperately, so he must be doing something right. He doesn't really know what to do with his hands, the bandaged one ended up somewhere over Gerard's knee, and the other is trapped under him, twisted in a way that should be painful and distracting, but isn't because hey, he's pretty busy being so turned on me might just die. He manoeuvres the trapped arm down under himself and palms his own dick. He hums, unable to help himself.
Apparently, that was a good thing because Gerard whines, his nails digging into Frank's shoulders.
He curls his good hand around the base of Gerard's dick, and hums again, pushing down against the mattress for friction and Gerard's fingers are clawing at his shoulders and up the side of his neck. "Frank, I, uh-- Frank..."
But before Frank has any time to figure out what that might mean, Gerard is coming in his mouth, warm and salty. Frank swallows some of it, blinking, surprised with himself and looks up, meeting Gerard's gaze.
"I'm sorry." Gerard says, touching the side of Frank's face with trembling fingers.
Frank crawls up on the bed, wincing a little at the taste echoing in his mouth. He pulls the covers up over them, and lies down, facing Gerard, trailing a soft pattern down along his bicep. Gerard squirms and blinks, smiling.
He protests lightly when Frank kisses him, but melts against him fast enough and Frank groans, sneaking a hand down over his boxers and pressing the heel of his palm against himself. And if he wasn't so busy having his tongue in Gerard's mouth and his fingers scrabbling at his sides, his hand would be wrapped around his own dick in seconds, but Gerard beats him to it, dipping a hand into his underwear.
Frank’s startled at how overwhelming it is when Gerard squeezes him at the base and moves up with hurried, perfect strokes, flicking his thumb under the head, making Frank press closer. Gerard is panting against his ear and Frank can't see, kind of, he wonders if it's because he's closing his eyes or blacking out from the pleasure, he's not sure, but he feels his way to Gerard's face, guiding it to his own and kissing him hard, pushing into his hand.
He rides it out into Gerard's tight fist when he comes, every muscle in his body tensing, teeth clenching until his jaw hurts. When the wave has passed he's left with tingling and heavy limbs. He smiles with his tongue licking lazily into Gerard's mouth, vaguely noticing that he's is drying his hand off on the sheets.
After, they lie close together under the sheets, tired and stunned. Frank digs small half-moons into the skin of Gerard's shoulder with his short nails, watching it whiten, and then rubbing his thumb over them. They blossom into raw pink, a stark contrast to Gerard's milky skin.
"That kinda hurts." Gerard complains effortlessly.
Frank presses his tongue over the marks. He curls a hand around Gerard's wrist and slides it down until their fingers are laced.
Gerard turns his head so his nose slides along Frank's cheek and squeezes his hand. Frank squeezes back.
*
"So you guys are like, together?"
Frank had woken up to the very unpleasant view of Ray's face two inches from his own, his expression an impressive mix of confused, embarrassed and amused.
Frank feels his stomach drop and his ears redden and before he stops himself, he's glancing over at Gerard who's desperately trying to get his pants on under the blankets. "I... I think so?"
Gerard goes still and the blanket, which he has pulled up right under his chin, slides down a little over his bare chest. They have, like, a moment, eyes meeting and tiny, uncertain smiles all over the place.
Ray still looks confused and embarrassed and a little amused and Frank tries to shrug all casual, but the look on his face comes out pained. Gerard manoeuvres himself completely under the sheets, and Frank hears the fast drag of a zipper.
Ray quirks an eyebrow at him and picks up a comic book from his nightstand. "It's not like I care." he says, nose already buried between the pages.
Frank smiles down at his hands.
*
Frank falls asleep with Gerard a lot. Sometimes it's because they sit and talk for hours, Frank finds that he can talk to Gerard about almost anything, from his relationship with his mom to his bad habits and his deepest, darkest thoughts. It feels safe to have someone who really listens and doesn't zone out just to wait for their turn to speak.
But mostly though, it's because they have a lot of sex. Frank is having a lot of sex, with another person, who is real and it's amazing! Sometimes he wonders if it's normal, how he's turned on all the time. He can be sitting outside with Gerard and listen to him talk about how awesome snails are, maybe he licks his lips or touches his neck and Frank is suddenly there. Gerard isn't any better though, he's more shy and reserved, but when they're alone, he'll slide his fingers up behind Frank's ear, just where he likes it, and they're good to go.
He supposes they're lucky that they haven't scarred Ray or Mikey yet, but lately, Mikey has been spending a lot of time not being in his room, which might be a coincidence, Frank doesn't really care as long as he and Gerard has somewhere to be when Frank wants to have sex. Sex!
It's raining outside, thick and heavy drops crashing against the windows, echoing through the whole school. Frank wakes up halfway out of the bed with his face smushed into Gerard's hair.
"Gerard," he says, and Gerard grunts.
He hauls himself fully up on the bed and clings to Gerard's side, blowing on his ear affectionately. Gerard opens one eye and makes a grumpy noise, rolling over so he's facing the other way. Frank pushes himself up and leans over his body, whispering, "Gerard, wake up."
"No. Tired." Gerard says, but he's smiling.
Sneaking a hand down to the front of Gerard's sweats, Frank rubs slow, light circles. "How tired?"
"Very tired." Gerard assures him, but he pushes up into Frank's hand. "Frank…"
They end up with their hands down each others pants, just groping and moving and kissing when Gerard pulls back and gives Frank a strange look. "Frank, you're on fire."
Snorting at the pun, Frank leans in to kiss him again, but Gerard stops him with a hand on his chest. "No, I mean, you're actually on fire. And you're boiling hot!" Gerard turns Frank's head to the side with a hand on each side of his face. Frank gulps when he sees that there is indeed a thin, yellow flame licking its way up his shoulder. He cups his hand and kills it, blowing away the smoke.
"That has never happened to me before," he says.
And Gerard is a freak because he looks more than a little flattered when he ducks closer to Frank between the sheets.
*
Gerard is sitting under their usual tree with his knees drawn to his chest, his face just a couple of inches away from the book he's reading. There are leaf-shaped shadows cast all over his figure, and when Frank falls to his knees beside him, he smiles. Frank shuffles close and kisses his neck.
"I'm reading." Gerard says happily.
"I'm kissing." Frank replaces the book in Gerard's lap with himself, placing a knee on each side of his body.
A wind cast whips Gerard's hair around his face and he flattens his palm against Frank's belly, then his thigh. "Frank, there a people here."
Frank rolls his eyes and kisses his nose. "I came to ask if you wanted to come inside and eat with us, loner. Besides, Ray is hanging out with Mikey later, so we're all alone."
Blushing, Gerard touches Frank's belly again, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "Yeah, I'll come inside," he says.
Mikey has a new friend, who is a girl. Gerard is giving her suspicious looks as they eat, everyone’s sat around one of the heavy oak tables in the enormous dining hall. Frank slurps on his soup and touches Gerard's knee under the table, making him cough and wiggle closer. Mikey is absolutely not looking at them, and Frank wonders how he's able to appear so completely bored but at the same time get his point across.
When Mikey looks up, Frank makes kissy faces at him and kicks him under the table.
It's a warm and quiet Saturday, all the windows are wide open and there's a rich smell of food coming from the kitchen. Frank feels at home there, he thinks, at the school. He leans against Gerard's side and listens to him and Ray talk about a new video game that's coming out sometime during the summer.
It's just how it should be.
END.