Dawning Midnight

"Hand in mine, into your icy blues

I'd end my days with you

in a hail of bullets"

Gerard's POV

I stared at Frank for a moment in silence. "Your biological parents?"

Frank sighed. "Alright, are you ready for a story, Gerard?"

I nodded. Frank sat down on the cement, and tapped the ground, motioning for me to sit beside him. I sat down, and watched him. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts and memories together, and his eyes were old pain and sorrow. I felt a wave of sympathy wash over me.

"Well, it all started when I was just thirteen. I remember my biology teacher loving me. I couldn't tell you why he taught biology but he loved wolves, so much. I always wondered why. He wore wolf shirts, had wolf stuff all over his room—I always thought it was interesting. I caught him watching me during gym class a lot."

"Well that summer I was walking in the woods with my grandfather. He was talking to me about nature…and a pack of wolves ambushed us. I don't remember most of it, but my grandfather turned to me and told me to run. Told me to run as fast as I could. So I listened. While I was running, one of those stupid wolves bit me."

"I remember it being the worst pain I had ever experienced, they were unmercifully attacking me. I watched them tear at my grandfather… It was terrifying. My Grandfather threw a piece of silver at the one that was attacking me, and it pierced the wolf's. I did my best to escape, but I ended up fainting just as I heard the dying scream of my grandfather."

"I don't know what happened, but I woke up to a man standing over me. I recognized him. It was my biology teacher. I remember jumping up and shifting. It was a painful experience the first time ever shifting. I don't remember much, since the wolf had taken over me, but my teacher shifted to his wolf form himself and calmed me by talking to me through thoughts. After calming me down and letting me return to my normal self, He told me I had fainted and he had saved me from those wolves. He explained to me the werewolf and vampire world, all of that stuff. He then told me terrifying news—I had been turned into a werewolf by those wolves." Frank began to cry now, and I held him against me, rocking him back and forth soothingly and rubbing his back. He sobbed for a bit before continuing his story.

"I cried for so long, especially when I found out I would never see friends or family ever again. He said I wasn't allowed to see my parents, because, they being humans, and me being a new pup, it was dangerous. As a new pup if I got even semi angry I could lose it and shift into my wolf form and, without proper training, the wolf would take over and kill anyone in sight. He also told me that they needed to accept the fact I was gone and dead and let them mourn and get over it. I understood that was fair, I mean, my parents were human and they wouldn't be able to grasp the fact about werewolves. He explained to me later on that it wouldn't be fair to expose them to this world and that knowledge can destroy your life. I remember my life as a human, I was so innocent, and I lived happy, not knowing that vampires and werewolves and demons and shit lived among us, and could attack us at any moment." There was sadness in Franks eyes now as he spoke, but he had stopped crying. He took in a deep breath of air, letting himself breathe finally after saying all that. I could tell he felt great pain, and I could tell he missed being human. My stomach churned. I felt so bad for him. My poor Frankie had been through so much… and I had no idea. All this time I thought he was born into being a werewolf.

"My new father became my alpha, and he introduced me to the pack. There were about 20 of us altogether, and I thought it was nice. But I never stopped missing my family, you know? But anyway, its kinda weird one of my former teachers is now my father." Frank laughed a bit. Seeing him smile slightly I was able to let myself smile for a moment. "I guess he saved me because he recognized me in the woods or something. Dunno, whenever I asked he said it was out of kindness and honor. He wouldn't leave me to die. But…I dunno. Sometimes I feel like he has another reason. But anywho," Frank smiled a bit. "That's my story, basically."

I hadn't interrupted once, even though my head was swarming with questions. I didn't know exactly what to say. His story was so sad. I had no idea what he had gone through.

"Frank… I…I'm so sorry…" I felt like that was such a lame response. But I literally couldn't form any other sentence in my head, I was trying to process this all in it.

"It's okay. I just…I'm happy they're still alive. They seemed quite happy, so I'm happy too." Frank nodded at me.

I smiled at Frank and kissed him. "You're such a sweet, selfless little mutt, you know that?" I giggled and brushed his hair behind his ears. He grinned at me. "C'mon Frank, the past is the past. I say we leave it all behind. Forget about it. You have me now."

Frank smiled at me. "I know. When I'm with you I could never be happier." He snuggled against my chest, and I wrapped my arms around him. He closed his eyes and leaned into my embrace.

We remained like this for who knows how long, before I told him we should head back home. He nodded. "Can I sleep at your place tonight?" He looked up at me, his eyes swollen from crying. His pupils big…how could I say no?

"Of course Frankie, you're always welcome at my house." I took his hand and helped him up, and we began our walk home.

I woke the following morning, Frank on my chest. He was sound asleep, snoring even. Our naked bodies had kept each other warm, no need for blankets.

And no, we hadn't done anything other than cuddling last night, thank you very much.

I slipped him off of me gently, and he hummed in his sleep, but didn't wake. I put some covers over him, even though he probably had enough heat in his body, being a werewolf and all.

I walked to my desk and sat down. I opened a drawer, grabbing some pencils and my sketchbook, pushing aside all my comic books I had shoved in there. I placed the sketchbook on the desk and flipped through the entire collection of super hero's I drew. Some were vampires, some were demons… most of them were usually seen as villains, but I had turned them into the good guys.

Putting in some headphones and blasting some music, I began sketching my new idea of a superhero, a vampire/werewolf hybrid. I sketched out a wolf head, and I was so involved in the drawing I didn't hear Frank wake up.

"You're a good artist."

I jumped at the sound of his voice, nearly falling over.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." Frank backed away.

"No, its fine." I smiled at him. "I just get too involved in my work sometimes."

Frank's eyes flickered from my face to my sketchbook. "May I see your sketchbook?"

I shrugged. "I-Uh…"

Frank didn't wait for an answer, he just grabbed it and started flipping through it.

Sighing, I stood up and looked through it with him.

He flipped through it, stopping and looking at the superhero's. Finally he stopped at my newest sketch.

"That's going to be a wolf and vampire hybrid hero. He feeds on blood of killers, those villains that deserve to die. He saves others from other mean villains too. That's the character design so far."

"You draw a lot of hero's, Gerard." Frank commented.

"Yeah, I read too many comics." I laughed.

"No, but all of them have a common theme, you know? They're all… supposed to be villains. But they're heroes in your sketchbook."

I swallowed, but didn't say anything.

Frank walked over to the bed, flipping through the pages once more. I sat beside him.

"I want to be a hero, that's why." I whispered suddenly.

Frank's POV

I looked at Gerard, thinking about what he had just said.

"You want to be a hero?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, the vampires are always the villains. It's not fair. I didn't choose this. I want to be a hero, Frank. I want to make people proud; I want people to love me. I want to do something good for this world. I want to save lives." Gerard looked at me.

I didn't answer at first. I continued flipping through the pages and pages of drawings.

I had never really thought about that. Becoming a vampire or a werewolf basically made you the villain of mankind, and so many wanted to kill you and make sure none of your kind ever walked earth again. It wasn't really fair, either. We would never be considered heroes, ever. We would live our life being hunted by the hunters, those stupid humans that are trained to kill us demons, to get rid of the evil in this world.

"Gerard?" I looked up at him.

He looked at me, meeting my eyes. We were locked in each other's gazes for a moment.

I spoke softly and sincerely. "You're my hero."

Never before had I seen Gerard smile so wide. He hugged me tightly, and I could tell he was fighting back tears. "Thank you." He whispered.

And it was then that I realized I was truly in love with Gerard.

Later that day Gerard and I were sitting on the couch, eating cheetos while watching TV, when the door unexpectedly opened. Mikey was out at the music store for new bass strings, Gerard's mother was at work, along with Gerard's step father.

Gerard panicked instantly, jumping to his feet.

A tall man entered the room, one I didn't recognize. He was limping, obviously injured.

"Oh my God, father, what happened to you?" Gerard gasped, helping him to the couch.

He sat down, and I got a strong whiff of vampire off of him. This must've been Gerard's actual father. This was bad, for me.

"Werewolves…they jumped me." He mumbled, looking at Gerard. "I don't know why they're on vampire territory…it's against the law."

I swallowed. This was my fault. All my fault.

"They just, jumped you?"

Gerard's father nodded.

"Who's your friend?" Gerard's father turned to me.

"I-uh.." Gerard hesitated. "Father, meet Frank. Frank, meet my father, Billy."

"Billy Corgan." Billy held his hand out for me to shake, but paused. He must have noticed now. His eyes dilated to small slits, and he flashed fangs at me.

"You're one of them, aren't you!?" He snarled.

"Father…Father please wait—" Gerard reached out for Billy, but Billy shoved him roughly aside, despite being injured on that arm.

"I will kill you." Billy launched himself at me.

I shifted, snarling. Billy made the mistake to attack me when I was prepared, and I had the advantage. I quickly used his strength against him, and while he tried to pin me I was able to push him underneath me in the air, so I pinned him. I lunged for his throat.

"Frank, no!" Gerard screamed, looking at me with desperate eyes.

I paused, looking at Gerard, and whined. I knew I couldn't kill his father.

Suddenly Billy kicked me hard in the ribcage, shoving me aside and into the wall. I yelped as I made contact with it roughly, injuring my paw in the process.

I attempted to lift myself up, but my legs wouldn't respond. I was in the process of healing.

"Father, please, wait, he's not like the others, please listen to me." Gerard pleaded, on his knees now.

Billy spun around and faced his son. "You love him. I'm not an idiot."

Gerard was in shock. "h-how do you know?"

"I can see it in the way you looked at him."

Gerard didn't answer.

Gerard loved me? He hadn't denied it… Suddenly I remembered what my father had said. He had said the same about Gerard… the way he looked at me was with love.

That's when I realized why Billy got ambushed.

Oh God, this was all my fault…

Gerard's POV:

My father was glaring at me.

"Father… please… forgive me. I can't help—"

"Frank, I need you to leave." Billy turned to face Frank, ignoring me.

Frank shifted to his human form. "I-"

"I understand you want to protect Gerard from me, and I promise I won't hurt him, okay? I just need to speak to him."

Frank was shocked by Billy's words, I could tell it was like he just spoke his mind. Frank dipped his head, giving me one last worried glance before leaving.

After hearing the door close, I spoke. "Father—"

"Gerard, look, I know I can't stop you from being with Frank." He interrupted me, looking me deep in the eyes.

"No, you cannot." I whispered, looking down at my feet, not having enough courage to meet his gaze.

"But take my advice. Werewolves are different. They're tricky sometimes. Yes, they're known to be loyal. But usually more so to their pack. He could be tricking you. This could be a trap or something. Gerard, you never know."

I thought about it for a moment. God, thinking about that was ridiculous. I had saved Frank in the first place. He wouldn't pretend to love me.

"And even if he does love you, in the end, he'll have to choose between his pack or you. And you need to know he'll pick his pack and leave you." Billy spoke those words, injecting venom into them. His eyes seemed to be full of pain.

"How do you know?" I looked at him.

"I've lived longer then you." He looked down.

Wow, what a lame response, Dad.

"Just, Gerard, be careful. Don't say I didn't warn you." With that he left, leaving me alone in the vacant house.