Loner

“Gee, baby. I’m heading out to work now.”

Gerard turns a content, sleepy smile to his boyfriend, only resulting in Frank to giggle at the adorable sleepy male.

“Mmm, okay, Frankie,” he murmurs, pulling Frank closer by the back of his head for a quick
kiss.

Frank allows his eyes to slip shut, and lazily kisses his sleeping beauty for a few sweet moments. He’s not really quick to admit it, but sometimes he enjoys these lazy, sleepy kisses better. No rush to reach some invisible goal. Neither one trying to pull out a list of tricks to impress or please the other. Neither one being selfish or greedy, but neither one being too generous either. It’s more like their own little universe of bliss where they’re allowed to take their time, and they can just be content knowing the other one is there, loving them, regardless of anything the world outside their little pink bubble might offer.

“You ready for today, baby,” he whispers when he pulls back from the kiss.

He’s not too worried. He knows Gerard’s pieces are awesome, and the client will be a complete nutcase not to fall in love with it immediately.

Gerard is slightly nervous under the surface, though.

“I think so,” he nods. “It’s still a little scary, though. I mean, putting in so much effort, allowing little glimpses of your soul to bleed into the work, telling so many stories-,“ he trails off slightly.

“-leaving yourself so open and vulnerable to rejection,” Frank finishes for him, the phrase barely
audible above their breathing.

Gerard smiles genuinely at his boyfriend, smiling that smile that first made Frank fall in love with him, leaving his face open and honest under Frank’s loving gaze. He bends down for one final peck, because he simply has no other choice.

“She’ll love it,” he assures him.

Even as the words leave his lips, he knows it’s not a lie. He’s heard so much about this particular client from his boyfriend, he’s even met her fleetingly a few times. She’s the sweetest, most eccentric little thing. He also knows for a fact that Gerard was particularly careful to only dwell within the lines of her specific requests. Even so, every time Gerard’s creativity took flight with him, and he feared he’d been trailing off from her desired path, he’d called her immediately in a state of nervous panic. She’d always just laughed and encouraged him to continue, though. No, Frank knows the words he’d spoken weren’t anything but the truth.

“I hope so, Frankie.”

“She will. Alice is a honey, and she can’t get enough of your work. Call me after, yeah? I think I might get off work a little early.”

“Mmm, romantic night in?” Gerard smirks.

“Yes,“ Frank feels his own lips curve into a smirk. “You can buy me champagne with the money you make today, and we can make love to celebrate.”

“Mmm, sounds like a plan, Mr Iero,” Gerard replies lazily.

Chuckling softly, Frank places a quick kiss to Gerard’s forehead, checks that the scatter-brained artist actually set his alarm for later, then leaves the room quietly.

----

Gerard is pulled out of his sleep by the rousing sound of his alarm. He grumbles as he kills it as quickly as possible. Almost instantly, his nerves twinge a little at the thought of his approaching meeting with Alice. He’s pleased to find that it’s generously overruled by a potent excitement, though. He always gets such a high out of sharing his thoughts and emotions like this, in the most honest form of his art. There is simply no way he can even begin to imagine spending his life any other way. This – his art – it’s just what he is.

It’s without much difficulty that he pulls himself from the comforts of bed, stretching exaggeratedly, scratching the back of his left thigh beneath his boxers.

He takes in position in front of the mirror, posing and debating washing his hair, pulling faces at his reflection for a while, before he goes to relieve his bladder. As he washes his hands, he finally decides that he does, indeed, want to wash his hair – if only to steal some of Frank’s intoxicating new grape conditioner.

Feeling increasingly positive about the day ahead, he makes his way to the kitchen for some coffee. He’s not even going to attempt consuming anything more solid than that, because he knows his nerves won’t ever tolerate it. He gets his favourite mug (a black one with “FIGW” written on it in bright red) which Frank had given to him with his breakfast (and coffee) in bed last Valentine’s day, only to find a folded up note inside. He can’t help his lips twisting into a sappy grin as he unfolds and reads it.

Gee, Baby…
Good luck, today, my love.
I know she’ll love it!
Today, when you see her delighted
smile,know that you caused it by
presenting her with tiny, beautiful pieces
of your gorgeous soul.
Also remember that I’ll be there
to celebrate with you tonight.
I love you!
xoFrnk

He’s pretty sure he feels his heart flutter, not completely able to fully comprehend the amount of love it holds for his boyfriend. He carefully smooths out the note, and sticks it to the fridge with magnets. With thoughts of a painting of a black heart overflowing with multi-coloured blood running through his mind, he prepares and drinks his coffee. He thinks it might be the perfect description of his love for his Frankie, and is mentally pencilling it into his calendar to start on it as soon as possible.

----

Showered and dressed, Gerard, feeling satisfied with his appearance, makes his way out the front door of the apartment; the client’s pieces in check. He still has time for a trip to Starbucks, which is usually his routine when delivering to a client, anyway.

As Gerard walks the familiar route to the nearby Starbucks, he allows the world around him to fill his senses. He inhales the feeling of the sun’s morning rays on his skin; the distinct sounds of the rushing city; and the vivid colours of life, mingling in an almost mechanical manner, all around him deeply into his system. Art. Everything, all around him, is just pure, undiluted art.

Two little children catch his eye; trying to give their nanny the slip, it would seem. The giggles that these two children exhale on their runaway are like musical bells to his ears. The little girl drags the younger boy, unmistakably her little brother, by the hand, around the corner of a building to hide from their nanny. Gerard’s smile roots from deep within his heart at the whimsical behaviour of the two children.

He turns to look over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of the nanny chasing after them. She’s young, he notices; probably in her middle to late twenties, but she looks tired. His best guess is that those two children are probably a hand full; indicating that this is most likely a reflection of their normal behaviour. He catches the nanny’s eye, giving her a warm, genuine smile. She returns it sincerely, and Gerard is hopeful that his smile had touched her, making her day just a tad brighter.

Reaching his destination, Gerard enters Starbucks with still enough time to order some glorious caffeine.

As he stands in the line to order his drink, he takes careful notice of everyone else in the shop, trying to figure out their stories. There’s the usual stereotypical cute couple, still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship; with the girl clinging to her boyfriend for dear life. There are a few people clearly on quick coffee breaks from their office jobs, judging by their professional outfits and business-like conversations. In the one corner, there is a young guy, who can’t possibly be older than twenty-three, reading what looks like a Stephen King novel. His raven bangs are covering his left eye. He’s wearing a black band t-shirt, and has a pierced lip. The earphones he has plugged in are effectively cutting him off from the world around him.

Gerard smiles, understanding the young male’s need to escape into a world of solitude for short periods of time. He considers himself blessed to be graced that type of outlet from his art, deeming the fact that it’s also his occupation a pleasant bonus.

His time comes to order, and the girl serving him is friendly and efficient. He receives his order in basically no time at all, offering her a bright smile along with her tip, before he heads back towards the exit of the shop.

As he’s making his way out the door, someone bumps into him on their way in, causing about half of Gerard’s drink to spill.

“Shit, man! I’m so sorry!” the stranger exclaims.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gerard assures him. “You didn’t get any of it on my clothes or on my
pieces, so…”

He can’t really deny the fact that he’s a little bummed about the waste of perfectly good coffee, but it was an accident, after all.

“Let me buy you a new one, at least?” the guy asks, sounding very hopeful.

Gerard declines politely, explaining that he’s about to run late for a meeting with a client, and that he’s got at least the other half of his coffee left anyway. The guy looks mildly disappointed, and like he still feels immensely guilty, but simply states that they’d run into each other again.

Gerard doubts it very much, it’s New York City after all, but only smiles wordlessly in response, completely missing the look in the stranger’s eyes as he walks away.

----

“It’s absolutely perfect!” Alice exclaims, her entire being radiating her intense excitement over the pieces Gerard had done for her.

She thanks and kisses him, swearing that, if she weren’t tied down to her boyfriend already, he’d be in big trouble. He smirks at her in response, promising that she’d be his first choice in a relationship, were he attracted to females at all.

They exchange some gossip over chicken salad (something Gerard never gets to eat at home, with his vegetarian boyfriend) and Sangria. Gerard’s heart swells with joy, as he feels all nerves spilling away from him, knowing that his Frankie was right. He’s also beyond ecstatic about his plans with his boyfriend this evening.

----

Frank’s barely made it inside the apartment, about an hour earlier than usual, before Gerard has him pinned to the wall. They kiss lazy and passionately, accompanied by a lot of smiles and loving touches. When they’ve been caressing, and all but inhaling, each other for about half an hour, they head to the kitchen together with the ingredients Frank brought for stir fry. They sing and dance along to some of their favourite music as they turn dinner into something resembling a group effort.

Over dinner they drink some champagne, filling one another in on the events of the day.

“She actually flirted with you?” Gerard laughs. “She really didn’t know you were gay?”

“Guess not,” Frank chuckles.

The new women working in their department, Jessica, had been learning the ropes from Frank. Today she had, not quite so discreetly, flirted with him; and had turned a very attractive shade of rosy pink when Frank, not so subtly, mentioned his amazing boyfriend.

Gerard, in turn, tells Frank about the two children and their nanny, this adorable little puppy he saw some lady walking on his way to his meeting with Alice and the unfortunate spilling of his coffee outside Starbucks. He also mentions how, towards the end of his meeting, he had some trouble controlling his thoughts of their plans this evening.

They postpone clearing the table after dinner, in favour of making love. Life is basically perfect.

Notes

Here it is. Please let us know what you think :)
xoxo