The next time Frank babysits Gerard is when the kid's down with the flu and his mom can't afford missing another shift. Donna gives him a full diagnosis on her son's condition and tells Frank all he needs to know. Donna's out the house in a flash telling Frank to call if anything and so on. Frank just nods,smiles and waves her off.

He heads up to Gerard's room and boy he can really relate to the poor state the kid's in. He's only peering in so Gerard doesn't notice that he's there. Frank gets sick all the time and he's not even exaggerating, he totally knows how shit Gerard must be feeling. It kinda makes his heart hurt a little watching Gerard try to sleep but not be successful at it.

Gerard sits up making an impatient huff clearly annoyed, crossing his arms together with a tight scowl on his face. Frank takes it as an opportunity to announce his presence. "Hey kid."
Gerard's face lights up and his arms reach out for a hug before his whole posture fricking changes in less than a second- back to his arms-crossed-scowl-look.
"That's not a nice way to greet someone Gerard." Frank says curious as to why Gerard's mood had changed so suddenly."You never visit me!" The boy says glaring hard at Frank.
Frank's doing his best not to laugh. Gerard is too adorable. He takes a seat on Gerard's bed as far away from him as possible though cause he's so not trying to get sick. "I'm sorry," Frank says with a sincere face and shit he does feel bad. "I'll visit you more next time okay?"
"Promise?"
"Heck yeah little dude." and Frank does mean it.
Gerard smiles and opens up his arms for a hug again which Frank returns not caring about getting sick germs anymore. He can deal with it he guesses.
"Try taking a nap again, I'll be right in the living room if you need me okay?" Frank looks at Gerard with a stern but soft expression.
"Okay Fwaankie!" Gerard says with a huge grin on his face.
Frank pats the kid on the head before leaving. He actually wonders off to the kitchen in search of junk food or anything equally good. He settles on making himself a sandwich with a side of chips and a can of coke.

Literally just as he's gotten himself comfortable on the couch, found something good to watch and is about to take the first bite of his sandwich, Gerard calls his name and it sends a small wave of panic through his body. He races up the stairs and into Gerard's room. "What's wrong?" He asks, calming down when he realizes Gerard's okay.
"Can't sleep..." Frank inwardly groans. He doesn't really know what to do. "Wanna watch tv with me then?" Gerard nods fast and races out the room in a blink.

Frank ends up sharing his food with Gerard on the count that he doesn't tell his mom.
Gerard is oddly quiet while they watch tv. It doesn't take long for Frank to start dozing off until he's awoken by constant tugging at the end of his hoodie. His eyes open and he stares down at Gerard.
"I-m cold!" Gerard whimpers, hand still holding onto Frank's hoodie.
Frank's lips tug up into a small sleepy smile "Wanna go back to bed?"
"No, wanna s-stay here with you!"
"I'll go grab your blanket then." When he returns, Gerard's already fallen asleep. Frank has to hold back his 'aww' and covers up Gerard with the blanket before carefully sitting himself by Gerard's head to run his hand through the kid's hair gently .
Frank falls asleep pretty fast after that.

---

Frank’s eating his bowl of cereal when his mom comes into the kitchen and says “Gerard invited you over to the park.”
“You’re joking right?” Frank asks, mouth full of chewed up lucky charms (he doesn't care if they're for kids, they’re the best whatever) and earning a whack on the head. “Ow! I could have choked and died.” Frank tries to glare but his mom’s narrowed eyes look is more threatening so he goes back to focusing on his breakfast.
“I’m being a hundred percent serious Frank” she says, “at the park at three.” She kisses Frank on the head before leaving for work. Frank groans as soon as he hears the front door shut because what the hell? He’s too grown to be out at a park playing with a little kid. Worst of all what if someone from school see’s him? He’s not even that cool or anything but it’d really hurt his image.



Gee and Donna are already at the park when Frank show’s up, having stopped at his house first to drop his school stuff off. Donna spots him first and whispers something into Gee’s ear. Gerard comes running to him in the next minute and Frank’s worried he’ll fall but Gee makes it and Frank lifts him up, holding him with just one arm. “Hey bud, how you doing?”
“Good!” Gee grins, kissing his cheek. “Monkey bars!” Gerard points over to the playground and Frank gives Donna a wave before heading over to the bars with Gerard on his shoulders.
Frank helps him get across 132456 times and then he pushes Gerard on the swings for a while talking to him about comics (because Gerard totally understands, sarcasm intended). Donna’s busy chatting on her phone, cheering Gerard on when he does something like go down the slide all by himself. When Donna tells them that they’ll be leaving soon, Gerard begs Frank to go down the slide with him and Frank gives in when Gerard looked like he was a minute away from a tantrum except other little kids where there and they said Frank was too big to go on the slide and then Gerard tried to defend him and called Frank his 'best fwiend' but ended up crying into Frank's shoulder because all the other kids had ganged up on him. Donna got into an argument with one of the parents and then she insisted on buying the both of them ice cream. Frank didn't deny because hey free food.

As they're walking back home, Donna chatting away on her phone once again, leaving the two boys just a few feet behind, Gerard accidentally drops his cone onto the ground and Frank just sighs and hands him his.

Frank lives two blocks away from the Way's so when they get to their house first, Donna thanks Frank again for going to the park with them and Gerard gives him a sticky, gross kiss on the cheek before running into his house, giggling.

Notes

sorry if there are any typos, this was sitting around my files for a verrry long time so i decided to finish it and im thinking about posting another chapter and then possibly doing a huge time gap so gerard will be in his teens and frank probably an adult??? i dont think i mentioned their ages in the first chapter but frank's like fifteen and gerard is about five so it'd basically be a ten year difference. idk i've always thought about it so yea i might actually end up writing it and if i were to g would most likely be seventeen or possibly even eighteen???? bc i dont rly want to write him any younger than that if he and older!frank are gonna have a thing ya know. or is it a bad idea?