Scraps of Pattern - Frank/Gerard - [1/1].
Title: Scraps of Pattern.
Prompt: 050. Draw
My Prompt Table
Author: littleladypunk
Beta: alles_luege
Pairing: Frank/Gerard
Words count: ~2,200
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Sometimes persistence pays off.
Disclaimer: This is purely a work of fiction. Never happened in real life. All men belong to themselves and their respective wives.
Warnings: Language, teenage awkwardness, fluff.
A/N: Sort of high school AU. Both boys are 15 in this story.
“Show me.”
“No.”
He tried to peak at the drawing, but Gerard placed his arm protectively over his notebook, effectively blocking his view. Then he attempted to yank the notebook from his friend’s vice-like grip and the only thing he earned was a glare.
“Please.”
“No.”
“Pretty please?”
“No.”
“Fine.” Frank huffed and folded his arms in front of his chest, sulking. If Gerard could be a bitch, he could be as whiny as he wanted. He kicked off his shoes and threw his body on the bed, purposely facing away from Gerard.
Gerard sighed, a little exasperated, and span in his desk chair, turning towards Frank.
“Frank, don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“You’re showing up in my room unexpected, trying to steal my sketchbook, then playing all offended.”
Frank sat up abruptly, unfolding his arms and pointing an accusatory finger at Gerard. “Hell, I am offended! I am your best friend, don’t I?”
“Sure you are.”
“Then why don’t you wanna show me your drawing? You sketch plenty at school, and you have no problem with showing me those.” Frank’s glare was sharp, piercing.
“This is different. This is personal stuff.” Gerard cradled the blue covered notebook closely to his chest.
It could have break into serious argument and maybe end with the boys falling out with each other, if not for Mikey who unexpectedly burst into his older brother’s room.
“Gee, Frank, Mom’s made a cake! Come and help me eat it all!” Mikey chirped cheerfully, completely oblivious to what had happened.
Frank bit his lip thoughtfully, obviously torn. He was determined to see what it was Gerard was so secretive about, but he wasn’t the one to deny cake. And Mrs. Way made delicious cakes.
Mikey cast them a bewildered look. “What’s up with you guys? You aren’t coming?”
“Of course we’re coming, Mikes. Why don’t you take Frank and go ahead? I’m gonna join you in a few minutes.” Although Gerard was talking to his brother, he kept his eyes focused on Frank, as if he though Frank would jump him any second to retrieve the bone, that is, the notebook of contention.
“Come on, Frankie!” Mikey tugged at his sleeve, eager to go. Frank laughed; the enthusiasm of twelve-year-old could be contagious. He rushed after the boy, knowing that Gerard would take advantage of that and hide the sketchbook somewhere.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
As the days passed, Frank almost forgot about the whole thing. He remembered sometimes, when he saw his friend drawing something at school, or when they were in Gerard’s room and he looked at various pictures and half-ended sketches, covering the walls of the room. But he never mentioned it aloud. He knew too well that if anything, it would only make Gerard angry, and he wouldn’t see the drawing anyway.
The opportunity arose a couple of weeks later, when he showed up at the Way’s house one Saturday. His mom had said he could stay the night and Frank was excited. Sleeping over at Gerard’s meant a lot of cheap horror movies, junk food and staying up until the dawn. Mrs. Way didn’t really care about things like curfew.
He rang the doorbell and when the door opened, he was faced with Gerard’s smiling mother, who ushered him inside.
“Gerard is not home, I asked him to do groceries. He’ll be back in half an hour, though. You can wait for him in his room, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Or go pester Mikey,” she giggled in that way completely inappropriate for the woman in her late thirties.
Frank smiled and thanked her, then headed downstairs to the basement. He plopped down on Gerard’s bed and grabbed some random comic book to busy himself until his friend was back. The comic book didn’t hold his attention for too long. He had read it so many times he almost knew it by heart. A little bored, he turned over on his back and stared at the ceiling. Then he remembered about the sketchbook. He sat up abruptly. Gerard had had to hide it here, in his room. Frank knew it was at least impolite, to dig in someone’s belongings without prior consent. Gerard would have been mad and he’d probably never speak to Frank again. But... He didn’t have to know. One glance at the clock sitting on the bedside table told Frank he had at least twenty minutes until Gerard came back. That was plenty of time.
Curiosity taking the better part of him, Frank started to rummage in Gerard’s desk drawers, under his bed, scanning shelves covered with books, comics and action figures. Nothing. He almost gave up, when he spotted a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room. Gerard wasn’t the neatest guy in the world and apparently couldn’t be bothered with putting them into the laundry basket. His mother tried to inculcate better cleaning habits into him, but the only thing in which she succeeded was making Gerard bring her his dirty clothes every two weeks when she did laundry.
Frank didn’t have much hope, when he slipped his arm under the pile. Then his hand met something solid. He put it out and for the next several seconds he just sat there staring at the familiar blue cover disbelievingly. Because, seriously. Who hides their drawings under dirty socks? Gross.
Shaking his head, Frank moved back to the bed, sat on the comforter and opened the sketchbook. Through the first few pages he didn’t spot anything extraordinary. Just random sketches of various body parts, mostly eyes, lips and noses. Then he turned the next page and froze. He blinked several times, gazing at his own face, which was looking back at him from the paper. The proportions were a little bit fucked up, and Frank was perfectly sure his nose didn’t look like that. But it was unmistakably him. He kept turning pages, only to reveal even more pictures of him in various poses, with different faces, but mostly smiling. He picked up a few that looked like they had been drawn from some photographs, but mostly they looked like drawn from memory. The further he went the better they kept getting, as if Gerard had been practicing over and over again, until the picture was perfect.
Engrossed in his discovery, he didn’t hear someone walking down the stairs and pushing the door open. It wasn’t until he heard the indignant “What the hell are you doing?!” that his head shot up and his eyes met the view of a very furious Gerard.
“I...,” he stuttered, not sure what to say.
Gerard took two swift steps towards the bed and snatched the notebook out of Frank’s hands.
“How dare you? I fucking trusted you! Fuck!” His face was all red, cheeks heated up with anger, chest falling and raising rapidly with ragged breathing. A bag of food lay next to his feet, abandoned. But when Frank’s eyes met Gerard’s, a bit reluctantly, what he saw in there wasn’t the anger. It was more like the other boy tried to cover a lot more vulnerable emotion, like... fear?
He didn’t understand. There wasn’t any reason for Gerard to be scared of Frank. He extended his arm, attempting to place it on his friend’s shoulder, but Gerard took a step back. “Gee, please, calm down...”
“How the fuck can I calm down?” he retorted sharply, but much quieter this time. Frank took it as a tiny win.
“I’m gonna explain,” he promised and grabbed Gerard’s forearm pulling him forward and making him sit next to Frank. “I am awfully sorry. That was very stupid of me. I shouldn’t have snoop around your stuff. I... I was just curious why you wouldn’t let me see it, and I guess it took over. Sorry. Don’t be mad, please?” He made his best pleading face, hoping it would work on Gerard.
The other boy didn’t even lift his head, staring stubbornly at his lap and the notebook placed on it. His cheeks had still the color of brick. “Gee?” Frank asked quietly, cautious.
Finally Gerard looked up, eyes wide and Frank realized it wasn’t annoyance which painted his face red. It was pure embarrassment. “It’s okay,” he said, eyes glued to the wall behind Frank. “You can get out of here. Let’s not make it more awkward than it already is.”
“Why would I want to go away?” Frank asked, astonished.
“Because you’ve seen it!” Gerard exclaimed, as he slapped his palm over the blue cover to indicate what he was talking about. “And I’m a fucking creep, that’s why.”
“You’re not a... Okay, you kinda are. You’re a total nerd, and a bit of a creep, too. But it’s not like I didn’t know about this before. What, you think I’m gonna stop hanging out with you because of this?” Frank felt almost offended.
“But... It’s you! Here, on my drawings!”
Frank smirked. “Noticed, kinda.”
Gerard risked looking his friend in the eyes. “You’re not grossed out by this?”
Shrugging, Frank replied. “Nothing to be grossed out by, dude. This stuff is really good.” When Gerard still didn’t look convinced, he added: “I’m amazed you got my face this good. It’s almost like looking in the mirror!” A bright smile was shoot in Gerard’s direction.
The other mumbled a soft thanks and ducked his head, resuming staring at his lap. Frank seemed to ponder something for several seconds, then he leaned in and quickly pressed his lips to Gerard’s.
When he pulled back, Gerard was looking at him with wide eyes, visibly flabbergasted. “What was that?”
This time it was Frank’s turn to turn pink. “Um... I thought you might appreciate it. You looked so stressed, I wanted to ease you a bit. And... I just wanted to do it. Sorry.”
Slowly, Gerard put the sketchbook aside, fixing his eyes on Frank’s face. “Do you... Do you think you could do this again?”
Frank nodded. “Okay.” He shuffled closer and put his hand on the side of Gerard’s neck, tentatively, looking in his eyes for confirmation. When Gerard nodded back, he closed the space between them, pressing their mouths again, this time more firmly. He felt the other boy kissing back, his arms curling around Frank’s waist and pulling him closer. Smiling into the kiss, Frank tangled the fingers of his other hand into Gerard’s loose strands of hair, as he let his tongue slip out of his mouth and lick at Gerard’s lower lip. Gerard’s mouth parted eagerly, and Frank didn’t waste any time. He heard a small noise when their tongues touched, not sure which one of them made it, but that didn’t matter. He pushed lightly at Gerard’s shoulders, guiding him to lie down, as he partially laid next to him and partially atop him, feeling the other’s hipbone jabbing him in the stomach. Frank moved to a more comfortable position, letting an appreciative hum into Gerard’s mouth, as he felt his arms wrapping more firmly around his waist and their legs intertwined.
They both lost track of time, as they lay there, exchanging kisses and touches. Suddenly, they were interrupted by loud rumble. Frank snorted and hid his face into Gerard’s neck, laughing breathlessly. Finally, he emerged, a little red faced and said: “I wouldn’t mind to explore the bag you brought in.”
Gerard rolled his eyes, but he was smiling nonetheless as he got up and emptied the content of the bag on his comforter. It contained a few bags of chips, Oreos, four cans of coke and two DVDs. Frank picked one up and smiled at the title. “ ‘The School That Ate My Brain’. Is this movie night still on?”
“I guess it is.” Gerard replied, taking the disc and heading towards the TV set. He turned it on and put the compact into the DVD player. After he tossed the remote to Frank, who managed to devour half a bag of chips by this time, he stood there unsure, like he didn’t know what to do next. “Turn the light off,” Frank supplied helpfully. Then he added, encouragingly, patting the spot next to him. “Come here.”
Gerard did as he was told, switching off the light and sitting down close to Frank. The movie started; flicking glow from the TV screen the only thing illuminating their faces. Gerard didn’t move for a few minutes, sitting stiffly. When Frank nudged him with his shoulder, indicating he should take a bag before Frank would eat it all, he asked: “Does that mean... You know.”
Frank snorted. “You’re a dumb-ass.” Then he turned his head and pecked Gerard on the mouth.
A smile slowly formed on Gerard’s face. He leaned in and returned the kiss, keeping his lips against Frank’s a little longer. Then it was Frank’s turn to ask: “Does it mean you’re not mad at me?”
Gerard shook his head, still smiling. “Not anymore.”
“Good”. Frank snuggled a little closer into Gerard’s side, placing his head on the other’s shoulder. Something pressed against his lower back uncomfortably. He reached for it and retrieved the sketchbook. “And this,” he said, pushing the item into Gerard’s lap, “should find a better place. I don’t wanna see pictures of me under your dirty undies ever again, do you understand?”
Gerard just laughed.
Prompt: 050. Draw
My Prompt Table
Author: littleladypunk
Beta: alles_luege
Pairing: Frank/Gerard
Words count: ~2,200
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: Sometimes persistence pays off.
Disclaimer: This is purely a work of fiction. Never happened in real life. All men belong to themselves and their respective wives.
Warnings: Language, teenage awkwardness, fluff.
A/N: Sort of high school AU. Both boys are 15 in this story.
“Show me.”
“No.”
He tried to peak at the drawing, but Gerard placed his arm protectively over his notebook, effectively blocking his view. Then he attempted to yank the notebook from his friend’s vice-like grip and the only thing he earned was a glare.
“Please.”
“No.”
“Pretty please?”
“No.”
“Fine.” Frank huffed and folded his arms in front of his chest, sulking. If Gerard could be a bitch, he could be as whiny as he wanted. He kicked off his shoes and threw his body on the bed, purposely facing away from Gerard.
Gerard sighed, a little exasperated, and span in his desk chair, turning towards Frank.
“Frank, don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“You’re showing up in my room unexpected, trying to steal my sketchbook, then playing all offended.”
Frank sat up abruptly, unfolding his arms and pointing an accusatory finger at Gerard. “Hell, I am offended! I am your best friend, don’t I?”
“Sure you are.”
“Then why don’t you wanna show me your drawing? You sketch plenty at school, and you have no problem with showing me those.” Frank’s glare was sharp, piercing.
“This is different. This is personal stuff.” Gerard cradled the blue covered notebook closely to his chest.
It could have break into serious argument and maybe end with the boys falling out with each other, if not for Mikey who unexpectedly burst into his older brother’s room.
“Gee, Frank, Mom’s made a cake! Come and help me eat it all!” Mikey chirped cheerfully, completely oblivious to what had happened.
Frank bit his lip thoughtfully, obviously torn. He was determined to see what it was Gerard was so secretive about, but he wasn’t the one to deny cake. And Mrs. Way made delicious cakes.
Mikey cast them a bewildered look. “What’s up with you guys? You aren’t coming?”
“Of course we’re coming, Mikes. Why don’t you take Frank and go ahead? I’m gonna join you in a few minutes.” Although Gerard was talking to his brother, he kept his eyes focused on Frank, as if he though Frank would jump him any second to retrieve the bone, that is, the notebook of contention.
“Come on, Frankie!” Mikey tugged at his sleeve, eager to go. Frank laughed; the enthusiasm of twelve-year-old could be contagious. He rushed after the boy, knowing that Gerard would take advantage of that and hide the sketchbook somewhere.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
As the days passed, Frank almost forgot about the whole thing. He remembered sometimes, when he saw his friend drawing something at school, or when they were in Gerard’s room and he looked at various pictures and half-ended sketches, covering the walls of the room. But he never mentioned it aloud. He knew too well that if anything, it would only make Gerard angry, and he wouldn’t see the drawing anyway.
The opportunity arose a couple of weeks later, when he showed up at the Way’s house one Saturday. His mom had said he could stay the night and Frank was excited. Sleeping over at Gerard’s meant a lot of cheap horror movies, junk food and staying up until the dawn. Mrs. Way didn’t really care about things like curfew.
He rang the doorbell and when the door opened, he was faced with Gerard’s smiling mother, who ushered him inside.
“Gerard is not home, I asked him to do groceries. He’ll be back in half an hour, though. You can wait for him in his room, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Or go pester Mikey,” she giggled in that way completely inappropriate for the woman in her late thirties.
Frank smiled and thanked her, then headed downstairs to the basement. He plopped down on Gerard’s bed and grabbed some random comic book to busy himself until his friend was back. The comic book didn’t hold his attention for too long. He had read it so many times he almost knew it by heart. A little bored, he turned over on his back and stared at the ceiling. Then he remembered about the sketchbook. He sat up abruptly. Gerard had had to hide it here, in his room. Frank knew it was at least impolite, to dig in someone’s belongings without prior consent. Gerard would have been mad and he’d probably never speak to Frank again. But... He didn’t have to know. One glance at the clock sitting on the bedside table told Frank he had at least twenty minutes until Gerard came back. That was plenty of time.
Curiosity taking the better part of him, Frank started to rummage in Gerard’s desk drawers, under his bed, scanning shelves covered with books, comics and action figures. Nothing. He almost gave up, when he spotted a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room. Gerard wasn’t the neatest guy in the world and apparently couldn’t be bothered with putting them into the laundry basket. His mother tried to inculcate better cleaning habits into him, but the only thing in which she succeeded was making Gerard bring her his dirty clothes every two weeks when she did laundry.
Frank didn’t have much hope, when he slipped his arm under the pile. Then his hand met something solid. He put it out and for the next several seconds he just sat there staring at the familiar blue cover disbelievingly. Because, seriously. Who hides their drawings under dirty socks? Gross.
Shaking his head, Frank moved back to the bed, sat on the comforter and opened the sketchbook. Through the first few pages he didn’t spot anything extraordinary. Just random sketches of various body parts, mostly eyes, lips and noses. Then he turned the next page and froze. He blinked several times, gazing at his own face, which was looking back at him from the paper. The proportions were a little bit fucked up, and Frank was perfectly sure his nose didn’t look like that. But it was unmistakably him. He kept turning pages, only to reveal even more pictures of him in various poses, with different faces, but mostly smiling. He picked up a few that looked like they had been drawn from some photographs, but mostly they looked like drawn from memory. The further he went the better they kept getting, as if Gerard had been practicing over and over again, until the picture was perfect.
Engrossed in his discovery, he didn’t hear someone walking down the stairs and pushing the door open. It wasn’t until he heard the indignant “What the hell are you doing?!” that his head shot up and his eyes met the view of a very furious Gerard.
“I...,” he stuttered, not sure what to say.
Gerard took two swift steps towards the bed and snatched the notebook out of Frank’s hands.
“How dare you? I fucking trusted you! Fuck!” His face was all red, cheeks heated up with anger, chest falling and raising rapidly with ragged breathing. A bag of food lay next to his feet, abandoned. But when Frank’s eyes met Gerard’s, a bit reluctantly, what he saw in there wasn’t the anger. It was more like the other boy tried to cover a lot more vulnerable emotion, like... fear?
He didn’t understand. There wasn’t any reason for Gerard to be scared of Frank. He extended his arm, attempting to place it on his friend’s shoulder, but Gerard took a step back. “Gee, please, calm down...”
“How the fuck can I calm down?” he retorted sharply, but much quieter this time. Frank took it as a tiny win.
“I’m gonna explain,” he promised and grabbed Gerard’s forearm pulling him forward and making him sit next to Frank. “I am awfully sorry. That was very stupid of me. I shouldn’t have snoop around your stuff. I... I was just curious why you wouldn’t let me see it, and I guess it took over. Sorry. Don’t be mad, please?” He made his best pleading face, hoping it would work on Gerard.
The other boy didn’t even lift his head, staring stubbornly at his lap and the notebook placed on it. His cheeks had still the color of brick. “Gee?” Frank asked quietly, cautious.
Finally Gerard looked up, eyes wide and Frank realized it wasn’t annoyance which painted his face red. It was pure embarrassment. “It’s okay,” he said, eyes glued to the wall behind Frank. “You can get out of here. Let’s not make it more awkward than it already is.”
“Why would I want to go away?” Frank asked, astonished.
“Because you’ve seen it!” Gerard exclaimed, as he slapped his palm over the blue cover to indicate what he was talking about. “And I’m a fucking creep, that’s why.”
“You’re not a... Okay, you kinda are. You’re a total nerd, and a bit of a creep, too. But it’s not like I didn’t know about this before. What, you think I’m gonna stop hanging out with you because of this?” Frank felt almost offended.
“But... It’s you! Here, on my drawings!”
Frank smirked. “Noticed, kinda.”
Gerard risked looking his friend in the eyes. “You’re not grossed out by this?”
Shrugging, Frank replied. “Nothing to be grossed out by, dude. This stuff is really good.” When Gerard still didn’t look convinced, he added: “I’m amazed you got my face this good. It’s almost like looking in the mirror!” A bright smile was shoot in Gerard’s direction.
The other mumbled a soft thanks and ducked his head, resuming staring at his lap. Frank seemed to ponder something for several seconds, then he leaned in and quickly pressed his lips to Gerard’s.
When he pulled back, Gerard was looking at him with wide eyes, visibly flabbergasted. “What was that?”
This time it was Frank’s turn to turn pink. “Um... I thought you might appreciate it. You looked so stressed, I wanted to ease you a bit. And... I just wanted to do it. Sorry.”
Slowly, Gerard put the sketchbook aside, fixing his eyes on Frank’s face. “Do you... Do you think you could do this again?”
Frank nodded. “Okay.” He shuffled closer and put his hand on the side of Gerard’s neck, tentatively, looking in his eyes for confirmation. When Gerard nodded back, he closed the space between them, pressing their mouths again, this time more firmly. He felt the other boy kissing back, his arms curling around Frank’s waist and pulling him closer. Smiling into the kiss, Frank tangled the fingers of his other hand into Gerard’s loose strands of hair, as he let his tongue slip out of his mouth and lick at Gerard’s lower lip. Gerard’s mouth parted eagerly, and Frank didn’t waste any time. He heard a small noise when their tongues touched, not sure which one of them made it, but that didn’t matter. He pushed lightly at Gerard’s shoulders, guiding him to lie down, as he partially laid next to him and partially atop him, feeling the other’s hipbone jabbing him in the stomach. Frank moved to a more comfortable position, letting an appreciative hum into Gerard’s mouth, as he felt his arms wrapping more firmly around his waist and their legs intertwined.
They both lost track of time, as they lay there, exchanging kisses and touches. Suddenly, they were interrupted by loud rumble. Frank snorted and hid his face into Gerard’s neck, laughing breathlessly. Finally, he emerged, a little red faced and said: “I wouldn’t mind to explore the bag you brought in.”
Gerard rolled his eyes, but he was smiling nonetheless as he got up and emptied the content of the bag on his comforter. It contained a few bags of chips, Oreos, four cans of coke and two DVDs. Frank picked one up and smiled at the title. “ ‘The School That Ate My Brain’. Is this movie night still on?”
“I guess it is.” Gerard replied, taking the disc and heading towards the TV set. He turned it on and put the compact into the DVD player. After he tossed the remote to Frank, who managed to devour half a bag of chips by this time, he stood there unsure, like he didn’t know what to do next. “Turn the light off,” Frank supplied helpfully. Then he added, encouragingly, patting the spot next to him. “Come here.”
Gerard did as he was told, switching off the light and sitting down close to Frank. The movie started; flicking glow from the TV screen the only thing illuminating their faces. Gerard didn’t move for a few minutes, sitting stiffly. When Frank nudged him with his shoulder, indicating he should take a bag before Frank would eat it all, he asked: “Does that mean... You know.”
Frank snorted. “You’re a dumb-ass.” Then he turned his head and pecked Gerard on the mouth.
A smile slowly formed on Gerard’s face. He leaned in and returned the kiss, keeping his lips against Frank’s a little longer. Then it was Frank’s turn to ask: “Does it mean you’re not mad at me?”
Gerard shook his head, still smiling. “Not anymore.”
“Good”. Frank snuggled a little closer into Gerard’s side, placing his head on the other’s shoulder. Something pressed against his lower back uncomfortably. He reached for it and retrieved the sketchbook. “And this,” he said, pushing the item into Gerard’s lap, “should find a better place. I don’t wanna see pictures of me under your dirty undies ever again, do you understand?”
Gerard just laughed.