You're So Dark

"Okay, so, you really do have time to think. I told you everything I could reveal, I’ll go around the class now and give you all the guidelines - I just need a clear and neat explanation of the text. The text itself is incredibly short and relatively easy- this is literally me giving away free A’s. I just want your own, genuine interpretation. It shouldn’t be that hard.
Anyways, you have 20 minutes until the bell, use them wisely." Frank walks around the room and hands everyone a piece of paper with necessary guidelines, treating Gerard with an amused smirk as he passes beside him. Their fingers not-so-accidentally brush when Gerard takes the paper from Frank’s hand and Gerard’s face flushes red. Frank bites his lip, fighting off the urge just to kiss him there at the spot, and strolls towards the front of the room.

“Oh, yes, before you start: just a quick reminder. A big part of you here take my Lit class- please don’t forget about your essay on either Lovecraft or Hemingway due Tuesday. I know I’ve said it a billion times already, but it’s really important- and it’ll give you a lot of credit if you do a goodjob. That’s probably the most important grade you’ll get this semester.
It’s practically mid-November, there’s less than a month and a half of school left before winter break. The grade you get on this will influence the one printed on your report card greatly, and you know I would never ask you to do something if I thought you couldn’t do it.
That being said, you can go back to work.”
Then he shoves a CD into the player, just to serve its purpose as some background noise while the class is doing the assignment.
Well, actually, he may or may have not simply made a mixtape with all of Gerard’s favorite songs last night and just really wants to listen to it on repeat until he hates all the songs with a burning passion.
After The Misfits’ ‘Halloween’, The Smiths come on and he can faintly hear Gerard humming absent-mindedly while looking blankly at his paper. He glances around the classroom to assure nobody’s watching, and allows himself to smile at his focused face, but soon gets distracted by a hand raised up in the air at the back of the class.

“Yes, Mr. Urie?” Frank’s sure Brendon’s caught him looking at Gerard, but he knows Brendon knows so it isn’t really a problem.

“Uh, I thought that the principal said ‘no music during class’. I mean, I don’t really care, I love the music, I’m just wondering.”

Frank sighs. Rules are made to be broken, right? Or something like that. “Well, technically, it is forbidden-”

“Morrissey rocks and our principal can go suck cocks,” Gerard’s voice sounds from the second row, appearing amused and careful. The entire class giggles, Frank raising his eyebrow in amusement.

He looks at him, suppressing laughter, but still smirking when he says, “As much as I agree with your statement, Mr. Way, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to stay after class.”

Gerard smirks, looking up from his paper shortly just to look at Frank like he knows something nobody else in the room does. “Sure.”

Frank smirks back and sits on his desk, grabbing his coffee and sipping on it, catching Brendon’s amused head-shake and Patrick’s smug grin from beside Gerard. This is going to be interesting.

*

“Bye, Mr. Iero,” Brendon announces as he’s done helping Gerard pack up, Patrick bouncing on the balls of his feet beside the door and waiting for him, “You music taste is even dorkier than Gerard’s.”

Gerard rolls his eyes, humming along to ‘Restless Heart Syndrome’ and huffing exasperatedly while shooing him out of the classroom, mumbling something to Patrick about throwing Brendon in a trash can.
“Actually, this is Gerard’s music taste,” Frank blurts out, Gerard blushing and Brendon eyeing him carefully while Patrick is ‘aw’ing like he’s stoned and watching a hardcore chick-flick.

“I’m not going to comment,” Brendon sighs, grins and then leaves the room and pulls Patrick with himself down the corridor.

Gerard closes the door and locks it, walking up to Frank and just looking at him. He smiles at him and Frank smiles back before the younger one practically falls into his arms and sighs in pain. “Thank fuck this day is finally over.”

Frank furrows his brow, rubbing Gerard’s back gently. “What happened?”

“Where do I fucking start? Patrick has been freaking out about his date with Hayley on Saturday the entire day today and he thinks he’ll screw it up and he’s been putting himself down ever since he’s asked her out and that really makes me sad and frustrated and ugh.
In other news, I can’t fucking write, my interpretation of this text you gave out is literal shit- you’ll see what I’m talking about when you read it- my essay on Lovecraft will suck and I’ll let you down, I’m so freaking tired because I didn’t sleep well last night and Mikey and Pete are just so cute together and I’m angry because I can’t be cute with you in front of other people because the situation is what it is and argh I hate life.”

Frank makes a noise that’s somewhere between ‘aw’ and ‘urgh’ because he knows exactly what Gerard is thinking of when he’s talking about the shit situation their relationship- or whatever- is in.
He tightens his grip on Gerard’s waist and hopes it’ll comfort him at least a bit, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s enough, so he starts talking.
“Look, about Patrick… just try to make him see how great you guys think he is. It’s really not easy to build self-confidence, especially when you’ve spent a long time pining in silence. I know what it feels like. I was the chubby kid with dreadlocks and a huge pot enthusiasm in high school.” Gerard giggles at that, making Frank smile. “And I promise, you won’t let me down, okay? You’re fucking amazing. Not just because of your writing. But because of you. And heck, writer’s block happens to everyone. If you do badly, fuck it. It won’t change my opinion on you.”

Gerard whines, but lifts his head up and kisses Frank softly. “You really know how to make a guy feel better, don’t you?”

Frank chuckles, “That’s the magic of Iero.”

Gerard rolls his eyes, because seriously, can he get any dorkier but Frank just grins and cups his face with his [gorgeous, tattooed, fecking beautiful] hands; and Gerard suddenly feels a little bit less dead when he kisses him just as the first few verses of ‘Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart’ by HIM are heard wailing from the old CD player behind them.
Gerard totally does not take that as a sign of anything.
T to the O to the totally not.

*

“I want to meet him, like, properly meet him,” Mikey announces and looks over at Pete, probably requesting moral support [as far as Gerard knows, it could be oral support as well, but that sounds way too much as something Brendon would say so Gerard decides not to voice that really awesome pun], then back at Gerard. “Come on, Gee.”

“But it’ll be so weird! Especially with Pete here, like, he’s his form teacher.”

“Dude, that guy made a dick joke in the middle of a Sex ED speech,” Pete rolls his eyes; “I’ll be fine. And he literally treats the entire class as if we’re his friends, not some annoying brats he has to teach how to behave during the entire school year.”

Gerard sighs. “Of fucking course. God Frank, I sometimes hate you for being so awesome.”

Mikey raises his eyebrows, waiting for a response. Gerard sighs again, rolling his eyes and finally huffing in annoyance at the end. Thank fuck his mom isn’t home. She’s always working the right shift at the right time, he can swear to fuck. “Okay, okay. No superhero-boxers jokes, though. Or anything similar to that. I didn’t pull that shit on you when you first hooked up with Pete.”

Mikey snorts. “Dude, don’t worry, I’ll let the man discover all your weird habits and fetishes by himself, thank you very much.” He rolls his eyes while Gerard is facepalming himself, grimacing. “Alright, now when we’ve established that, just call him over.”

Gerard groans, stretching on his bed to get his phone from the nightstand.
He’s still really worried about Patrick and the essay on Lovecraft he hasn’t even started writing yet; but much less than he was earlier. Ugh, he hates the fact ‘the magic of Iero’ has probably proved right. But he will never tell that to Frank. The bastard doesn’t need any more reason to be smug about how he makes Gerard feel.

Patrick’s at Brendon’s right now, probably lying on him and Ryan while pining over how scared he is about the date, while the two are making really inappropriate jokes and just being plain assholes as usual. But in a good way, because it’s them, so he isn’t that bothered by it.
Gerard ushered Pete and Mikey to go to Bren’s too, so he could die slowly in peace, but no avail since they were all like ‘we need some time for ourselves’.

‘Some time for themselves’ Gerard’s ass, they are currently in Gerard’s basement playing videogames and raiding his energy drink stash since they were too lazy to hook the playstation back upstairs.

“Do I really need to do this?” Gerard groans hopefully, twisting the device in his right hand and trying to make his pinky stop twitching awkwardly already because it’s being really fucking annoying and distracting him from, well, everything.

“Yes,” Mikey and Pete sneer at him in unison.

Gerard sighs exasperatedly but dials Frank’s number anyway.

“You know, I’m starting to suspect you can’t live five minutes without missing me,” Frank answers the phone, his grin evident in his voice. Bastard.

“You were literally just complaining how you missed him, dude!” Ray’s voice sounds from somewhere near Frank and an ‘ouch’ follows it.

“Do not be violent to your roommate for speaking the truth, it’s against God,” Gerard wisely comments.

“Dude, you don’t know the difference between Adam and Abraham.”

“Shut up.”

Frank snickers fondly. “Are you calling just because I’m so astonishing and you miss me so bad already or there’s a special reason?”

Gerard sighs. “My brother wants to meet you. Like, properly. AKA, he wants to check your recent blood tests, interrogate you about your past with pets and animal encounters and probably examine your pupils for signs of rodent DNA or something equally unimportant.”

“HEY!” Mikey rebels from his position on the couch. “I JUST WANT TO TALK TO THE GUY, YOU ASSHOLE.”

Frank starts giggling, awkwardly but adorably and Gerard suddenly has the need to smile again and ugh. He hates him. “Okay. Do you want me to come over or something?”

“Yes, please. It’s just me, Mikey and Pete here.”

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes, ‘kay?”

“Okay,” Gerard says and hangs up. He glares at Mikey and sighs, “I hope you’re happy.”

“Very,” Mikey smiles and Gerard just rolls his eyes because he hates him and everything else in the world.

*

After a really harsh debate about leg-waxing, the doorbell finally rings and Gerard leaps upstairs to open it, Mikey smirking at him because, dude, can he get any lamer. But it’s kind of cute so it’s okay. And Mikey really wants to make out with Pete for a few seconds, so.

When Gerard opens the door and finds Frank’s grinning face there, wearing fucking glasses and really, really tight jeans, he suddenly wants to do shit his mother wouldn’t be proud of him for doing and he should really gather himself now because Frank is looking at him with an amused smirk and a quirked eyebrow.

So, instead of doing something relatively normal and rational, like saying hi and kissing Frank’s cheek, he grabs his wrist and pulls him inside, slamming the door in the process. Using Frank. Meaning, he’s currently pushing Frank against the door and holding both of his wrists tightly.

He kisses him desperately, urgently, like it’s the last kiss they’ll ever share. His hands let go of Frank’s and tangle themselves into his hair while Frank’s fingers grip at the collar of his shirt and pull him closer. His lips are soft and his kisses are open-mouthed while he’s breathing through his nose that’s currently brushing against Gerard’s cheek and tickling his skin.
He snakes his arms around Gerard’s neck, tugging him even lower downwards and Gerard is suddenly out of breath, reluctantly parting their lips and panting heavily while softly gazing into Frank’s eyes.

“Wow…” is all Frank can muster up, and Gerard breaths a laugh and smiles awkwardly.

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure where that came from…”

Frank smirks and nudges Gerard’s nose with his. “Did it seem like I minded?”

Gerard laughs, trying to resist the urge to kiss him again. “Not really.”

One corner of Frank’s mouth turns upwards, Gerard cursing him inside his head because, well, he really can’t resist it now, can he. Ugh, that guy should really start playing fair. “Can I kiss you again now?”

Frank rolls his eyes, as if to say ‘why the fuck do you need to ask’ and looks at him expectantly. Gerard gets the message, rolling his eyes and kissing him sweetly again.

“If you two are done making out, I’d like to hang out a bit,” Mikey’s voice sounds from the hallway behind them and startles them both. Frank just chuckles and unhooks Gerard’s arms from his shoulders and grabs his hand, walking towards Mikey. He knows Gerard will be too awkward to do anything about this, so he’s naturally going to go all adult on him and introduce himself to his brother. Because he isn’t entirely freaking out. Not even the slightest.

He reaches out a hand for Mikey to shake, trying to act all polite and shit and hoping his hand isn’t sweaty or something. “Okay, so, uh, Frank.”

“Nice to meet you, Okay So Uh Frank, I’m Mikey,” Mikey grins and shakes his hand and Frank can swear the relief he feels at that moment is bigger than Ray’s fucking fro.

*

“Wait a second, that’s the best fucking idea I’ve heard in my entire life.”

It’s safe to say Mikey adores Frank. Like, hardcore adores him. Like, hardcore hardcore adores him. He’s been talking to him for probably hours now and he’s completely mesmerized. They’re currently discussing something, naturally, but Gerard is just sitting there, leaning his head on Frank’s shoulder and thinking about that issue of Spiderman where Mr. Fantastic fucked something up accidentally and summoned Dormammu and then Dr. Strange fought him and Spidey was all like ‘let’s butt in’ and, well, him and Dr. Strange somehow ended up between time or some shit like that and then Dr. Strange actually made a joke and Gerard laughed at that for three days straight. Which is very important information regarding the fact his brother, his brother’s boyfriend and his own kind-of-sort-or-boyfriend are talking about something completely unrelated to that.

“God, this feels weird,” Frank comments, “I shouldn’t be telling you all this.”

“It’s your fault,” Pete said, munching on his popcorn [which appeared out of nowhere, again] and looking as interested in the subject as Gerard felt, “we wouldn’t be having this conversation if you didn’t hook up with this idiot right here.”

“Oh come on,” Frank coos, pinching Gerard’s cheek, “how would I ever be able to resist this face, please?”

Gerard rolls his eyes, slapping his hand away but taking it in his own immediately and curling up against him. Bad day. Shitty mood. And someone to cuddle. That equals this.

“He’s been like this the entire day,” Mikey says, sounding genuinely concerned while looking at Gerard, “he didn’t even want to talk to grandma about it.”

Frank furrows his brow. “He told me he’s just having a bad day.”

“Guys, I’m right here,” Gerard rolls his eyes.

“We know,” Frank says softly and kisses his cheek, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about you. Don’t act like you’re not giving us any reason to be concerned.”

Gerard groans. “I’m just exhausted, and in a really bad mood and I want to cuddleeeeeeee.”

Frank snickers and opens his arms as if to invite Gerard to snuggle inside. And he does, wrapping his arms around his waist, laying his head on his shoulder and kissing the pretty bug tattoo on his neck softly before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

*

When Gerard wakes up, something is different. The noises are different. He can’t put his finger on it, but it’s different. And he finds out what exactly is different when he opens his eyes, yawning and ungluing his face from the crook of Frank’s neck. It’s the number of people in the room. And the number of voices in the room.

“Brendon fucking Urie, why do you have the need to shout while you’re talking to everyone?” Gerard snarls and Frank chuckles, Brendon rolling his eyes and sighing. Patrick slaps his shoulder because, seriously, can he get any more loud- disrupting people’s sleep is rude, while Ryan just smirks and continues talking to Mikey and Pete about tweezers or dildos or amplifiers or whatever the fuck they’ve been talking about for the past ten minutes.

“Just for your information, though,” Frank smiles and kisses Gerard’s cheek, “Superhero boxers are hot.”

Gerard goes pale and shoots Brendon a glare, who just bites his lower lip and covers his ears at the exact right time before Gerard starts screaming and everyone in the room is suddenly really glad that Frank is pretty muscular because holding Gerard back from ripping someone’s eyes out is really fucking hard.

*

Patrick has been relatively calm for the past two days. But now… well, he’s still calm, if biting his nails and violently scratching his scalp and pacing around the kitchen frantically counts as calm. It’s six pm and he’s really, really had it, Brendon has been advising him to calm down while Gerard is sitting on the couch staring into space and thinking about whales or some shit and Patrick really thinks he’ll lose his mind soon.

“Dude,” Brendon looks at him with warning in his eyes, “if you don’t stop walking around like a fucking maniac, I swear to fuck I’ll-”

“No violence in my kitchen!” Donna scolds, passing by the kitchen table and patting Patrick [get it? get it? no? okay.] on the back. “Honey, it’ll all be okay. You’re literally too kind and cute to get fucked off.”

Brendon starts laughing and Gerard giggles, too, leaving Patrick with a sad face. “Thanks, Mrs. Way.”

*

When Patrick leaves, Gerard decides to spend endless times with Frank on the phone while Brendon and Mikey are watching Harry Potter or some shit in his basement, and his mother throws him a suspicious glance when she overhears the conversation while walking upstairs. Well, fuck it.

“Gee!” Gerard hears someone running up the stairs, “It’s Hayley!”

“Hold on, Frank,” he huffs into the phone and looks at Brendon who’s holding his cell to his ear. “Someone better be dying.”

“It’s Hayley. On the phone. It’s Hayley.” Brendon shoots him a look and Gerard realizes something is very, very wrong.

“Shit, Frank, I have to go. I’m sorry, I’ll text you later, okay?” He mumbles into the phone, reluctant but still kind of rushed, since he’s really eager to find out what’s going on.

“It’s okay, beautiful, I’ll talk to you soon.” Frank's smile is literally audible.

That makes Gerard smile, too, and he huffs a ‘goodbye’ while probably blushing like a madman and hanging up the phone.
“So, what’s up?” He turns to Brendon, and his face turns into an expression of horror when he puts Hayley on speaker. “Oh… shit.”

*

“You should’ve told us, Pete!” Brendon literally yells at him, Gerard still staring in front of himself, wide-eyed. “You’re the one who was there when he got drunk the first, and last, time in his life. You knew.”

Pete raises his hands up in the air in defense. “But what were the odds?”

“I don’t know, okay?” Brendon shouts again, then settles down on the couch beside Gerard, who just wraps his arm around his shoulders and kisses his temple comfortingly, trying to calm him down.

“At least she’s not mad or anything,” Mikey offers, hopeful.

“She’s not even weirded out. She’s just… surprised,” Gerard huffs, thanking God Hayley is a reasonably weird person herself so she isn’t that impressed with his… well, that.

“But who could expect it? Like… I wouldn’t. I bet Patrick himself didn’t. We all know he likes, uh, the show, but… wow.”

What Mikey is trying to say is that Patrick… well, Patrick… likes… My Little Pony. And when he gets drunk… he likes My Little Pony just a little bit too much.
To cut it short, he agreed to have a beer with Hayley because she realized he was tense as frick. And then another. And then another.
And so on until he started singing the MLP theme song and wailing how friendship is magic and how she’s so beautiful and reminds him of Citrus Sweetheart.
And that would be great if he didn’t then break down in front of everyone in the entire bar while crying how Fluttershy is so overrated and all the other ponies are forced to live inside her shadow.

“Well… at least he hasn’t tried to rape a horse yet, so I consider it a sort-of win,” Gerard adds thoughtfully, not making the situation any better despite trying.

But Gerard really does think it’s a good thing he still hasn’t tried raping a horse.

Notes

Hello people, are y'all fine? I'm back, I'm sorry for the ridiculously long wait. I was just really busy [and when I wasn't busy, I was really lazy].

Uh, can anyone here do covers or some shit? If ya wanna, you can try making one for this fic. I'd appreciate it immensely.

And no, I do not know why this story suddenly switched to present tense. Don't question it.

I literally have nothing else to say, except for 'sorry Patrick' maybe. SORRY SPARROW OKAY I PROMISE YOU'RE NOT A BRONY IN REAL LIFE I PROMISE

Whatever, I'll go back to my procrastination party now,

Toodles.