The Light Behind Your Eyes

Frank slumped at his desk, hand fiddling with Gerard's under the table as they dragged themselves through an hour of history, listening to the meaningless mumbles of Mrs Parker they could hear through their discrete earphones. The day had been that of an uneventful one so far, but Gerard found himself hanging onto a last thread of doubtful thought as the bell sounded for last period.

The last lesson for Frank was Art, and Chemistry for Gerard, so they would have to part ways. Like every time they left each other for lessons, and even more so since school life had worsened amongst the other students, they exchanged their farewell ritual, even though they would be seeing each other in an hour. But Frank and Gerard suddenly wished they'd endured that hour of being apart, to avoid what had happened next.

To steer clear from the prying eyes of the dawdling freshman in the corridors, they had squeezed themselves between the lockers in the far corner of the hallway, which was excluded from view by another set of lockers facing directly where they stood. The only way someone would glimpse them would be if they needed to go into the janitors closet, and even the school care taker wouldn't bat an eyelid at their youthful gay make out sessions.

As they had 5 minutes to transfer to their next and final period, Gerard pulled Frank up against him and lifted a hand to his boyfriend's cheek, cupping his face for a moment and just looking at his beautiful, anxious eyes, before leaning in for a kiss. At first, their lips just resting against one another, both males just enjoying the peaceful company, but eventually they were frenching. Frank stood on his tiptoes to wrap his arms around Gerard's neck, humming into his mouth as a warm wet tongue made its way past his lips. Just as Gerard reached a hand down to hold Frank's ass, a sickly sweet wolf whistle, dripping sarcasm, swam through the air.

They sprang apart, Frank clattering against the lockers, Gerard backing up against the wall.

"Well well, couldn't keep your hands off each other, huh?" A new face, obviously of a jock, greeted them, an ugly sneer stretching his tan skin.

"I'm sure you do the same with your girlfriend. Oh, wait, or that guy you couldn't help but blow behind the bike shed" Gerard flinched at the comment made by the jock, but wasn't slow on a witty comment to talk some sense into the heartless muscle machine.

"Don't you fucking talk to me like that. You, the small fag, come here" Jock-face ordered, anger seething in his mud brown eyes. Not at all like the mesmerizing hazel orbs Frank possessed, Gerard thought.

"No" Frank arched an eyebrow, determined not to let that douche bag bully him into getting his own stomach punched in.

"Come here, or the emo gets it" Jock-face moved threateningly towards Gerard's stiff form, whilst Frank paused momentarily before giving in and stepping reluctantly forwards.

The jocks didn't wait. The leader was throwing a fist at Frank's face before he could say Gerard's name, and he felt his head tilt backwards with agonising force which made his neck crack.

"Get the fuck off him!" Gerard growled, hurling himself at jock-face, and with surprising strength, knocking him backwards onto the tile floor, tackling him over.

"We'll deal with him!" A mousy looking guy, who looked somewhat new to the gang, loomed over Frank, skinny but with a menacing glint in his eyes like he knew how to make someone gag and cough up blood. He did. Frank was caught off guard, too busy watching Gerard straddle the scrambling jock and scratch at his face like a bitchy school girl. Before he knew it, a bony fist was knotted in his stomach and he felt his body arch into the metal lockers behind him in pain. He doubled over, clutching at his lurching gut for a moment. His throat burned raw, his whole body surging with pain like it never had before. Shit, this guy sure did know how to wind someone. He coughed, wincing as it felt like daggers were threading their way under his skin, which once taste like Gerard, but now the irony tang of blood, which splattered into his hand as he wretched.

The jock sniggered and Frank felt his stomach lurch again, but not with pain, which it still held, but anger. Anger that they got away with this. Anger that they were hurting Gerard. Anger that they treated them like nothing. Like a small canon ball, Frank shot forwards, not caring if he was struggling to see through the throbbing pulse in his forehead after the punch, nor the burning pain spiralling through his abdomen. He gripped the jock by the shoulders and head butted him, hard, but balancing the force just enough to not feel the full surge on his own head. The mouse-jock stumbled backwards, cursing, and slipped on the wet tiles, slick from the morning clean by the care takers. He tumbled onto the ground, head hitting the floor with considerable force before his eyes closed, his mouth still slightly parted as he passed out.

Meanwhile, Gerard was squirming on the floor, now pinned underneath the grip of jock-face, who held him by the throat and raised a fist to punch him again. He brought his knuckles down full force on Gerard's cheek, sending surges of pained energy rippling through his spine and a strangled whimper escaped his lips. Frank darted about behind him, falling backwards as a knee came into contact with his stomach, tears starting to streak down his cheeks in fear.

"You're disgusting. You're a fucking worthless little bastard, Gerard. You're a faggot. Shame you won't be able to split your little fuck buddy's ass in two after today's injuries" Jock-face spat, also physically, sending saliva flying into Gerard's locks, which were matted with dry blood from a nasty graze on his upper head from jock-face's shoe. All he could do was lay there and gasp for air, muttering Frank's name desperately because he knew he couldn't do anything, yet he could see his boyfriend laying limply beside him.

"You're a good for nothing emo fag, y'know" Mouse-jock hissed, sniggering at Frank's pained expression as he pressed his foot into his shoulder, making him writhe with agony.
Frank twisted his head all that he could without crying out in pain, to see the jocks strolling off in the direction of their bunk off area, bumping each other on the arm with a sick triumphant congratulations.

After a useless few minutes of simply laying in the deserted corridor, which had cleared before the fight broke out, Gerard and Frank had heaved themselves up from the floor, leaning up against the lockers to prevent themselves from falling again. Frank's head pounded, his stomach lurched every time he flexed a muscle in it, his legs strained to keep him up, his hands stung to clench with the open cuts on his knuckles and his eyes watered with tears. Gerard's head too, pounded, due to the swollen lump on the left of his temple, and the weeping graze near his hairline, his arms throbbed with effort from punching and wrestling and his legs trembled beneath him. What a fucking mess.

Lucky for them, the nurses office wasn't too far from their make out cubby hole, so it wasn't that much of a pained limp to arrive at the door, open it and step into the sanitised atmosphere. Frank had never liked the smell. It was clean, but mingled with the smell of teenagers. Teenagers scared the living shit out of him, that was certain.

"Oh lord! Gerard, Frank, what happened?" Teresa frantically flapped about them, bumbling out of the small office in the corner and fussing over their state. They were well known customers in the office, as even before they knew each other, they had both been prone to accidents, injuries and beat ups.

"Jocks" Frank croaked, collapsing onto the blue leather bed, shortly followed by Gerard.

"Oh not again! What this time?" Teresa busied herself with unrolling a tangled heap of bandages she kept by the soap dispenser.

"They...er...caught us..." Gerard flushed a deep red, aware of the fact that they hadn't shared their relationship with any of the teachers at school. Teresa seemed to catch the gist though, and she beamed and clapped a hand to her mouth, eyes watering with tears of happiness.

"Oh boys! That's wonderful, that you're a thing I mean!" She forced herself to stop, focusing back on the fact that she had two bleeding students before her. "But of course, that's awful that they found you"

"Thank you, anyway. At least someone excepts it" Frank sighed, weakly. Teresa just smiled sadly and set about mopping blood off both of their faces with an alcohol soaked cloth.

------Time lapse. They're now home-----
After they had been cleared up in the nurses office, Teresa had had no choice but to send them home together, knowing all to well that they couldn't deal with harassment after that morning's ordeals. Gerard's mother had picked them up, tentatively helping them into the back of the car, coaxing them on to tell her all about it. Frank had wound up flat out on his back next to Gerard, beneath the duvet on his bed, neither of them paying much attention to the horror film that buzzed in the background. They were both deep in thought.

"I just don't get it" Frank finally spoke up "Why don't people accept it, Gee?" He turned very slowly, as not to cause pain, to face Gerard, who still lay flat, staring up at the ceiling.

"I don't know, Frankie" Gerard sighed sadly, shaking his head in puzzlement "It's like they looked past the good and automatically focus on what they think is bad. Society has been trained to see what is supposedly normal. It's like everybody just turn out to be robots who malfunction at the sight of something they're not programmed to see as normal. I don't know" Gerard turned to face his boyfriend, smiling at the sight of his grinning face, though it was littered with bruises.

"You're too clever for your own good, ass hole. I love you" Frank moved closer to Gerard, cautiously tangling their legs together and sliding his aching arms around the older boy's shoulders.

"I love you too" Gerard closed his eyes and snaked his own aching arms around the younger boy's waist, pulling them close enough so he could plant a soft kiss on Frank's nose in the dark, relishing the peace as the movie credits rolled and the film came to an end.

"Goodnight, Gerard" Frank sighed in content, even though he was throbbing in every area possible. Yet, he couldn't help but imagine that it would be much worse if he didn't have Gerard here to soothe him.

"Goodnight, Frank" Gerard traced patterns with the tips of his fingers on the exposed skin at the small of Frank's back "And you know what? As long as I'm with you, who cares what anyone else thinks of us"

Frank smiled into the dark, knowing Gerard couldn't see him, but he was sure he could feel him grin. He could practically taste his partner's glowing smile.

Notes

I have been a total let down to this fan fiction! I am so sorry I haven't updated. I hope this makes up for it. It kind of sucks.

Maisie-Summer xxx