He's Not Dead He Only Looks That Way

Gerard and Frank don’t venture back inside until past 5 a.m. when everyone’s gone home, save the boys spending the night at the Ways’.
Frank follows Gerard into the house and down to this room, where he offers, “Do you want to borrow pajamas? I know, skinnies are cute, but such a bitch to sleep in.”
“Um, sure,” Frank decides. He’s immediately tossed a pair of camouflage sleep pants, and Gerard’s pulling down his pants already, leaving him in his shirt and grey underwear. He steps into some plaid bottoms and waltzes over to his bed, gazing at Frank absently.
Frank blushes and tries to make himself as small as possible as he slithers out of his tight jeans, balling them up and leaving them on the floor. He really wishes that he hadn’t worn his Batman briefs, but there’s really not much he can do about that at the moment, so he just slips into the lounge pants as fast as he can. He sits on the floor, asking, “Can I have a blanket and a pillow?”
Gerard raises a brow, inquiring, “You want to sleep on the floor?”
“Well there’s no other option, is there? The couch is all taken up with Mikey’s friend,” Frank reasons.
Gerard pats the space on the bed next to him, responding, “But there’s room in the bed.”
Frank does his best to hide his red cheeks as he slides into bed with Gerard, tucking the end of the covers beneath himself. He rolls over so his ass is towards Gerard, mainly because it’d be way too awkward to sit there and fall asleep facing each other. Frank can’t sleep; it’s hard to with Gerard breathing all heavy on his back just a few inches away. Frank peeks over to see that Gerard’s out cold, his mouth even hanging open a little. Frank stifles a giggle and turns back over, closing his eyes. The mere fact that Gerard is comfortable enough to share a bed with Frank and fall asleep is enough to get Frank to finally doze off.
Frank wakes up feeling really hot, so he goes to pull off the covers when he realizes that he can’t even move. He looks in the corner of his eye to see Gerard completely wrapped around him, tightly, too. Frank blushes out of secondhand embarrassment and tries to slide out from beneath Gerard, but it’s no use; the older boy has a death grip on Frank. Frank groans as he tries once more to squirm from Gerard’s grasp, but this time, Gerard’s eyes shoot open.
Frank has to suppress a sigh of relief. He was never much for cuddling in the first place, but pair it with heatstroke, and it goes from slightly annoying to unbearable really fast.
But the thing is, Gerard doesn’t let go of Frank. He just kind of lies there, blinking slowly. He looks down Frank’s body, then at himself, almost as if he’s processing what exactly is going on. He yawns and closes his eyes once more, and Frank resorts to shoving Gerard off, insisting,
“I’m fucking sweating like crazy, I need some space.”
Gerard pouts, asking, “You don’t like to snuggle?”
Frank’s hard expression softens, and he begins to feel guilty over the doe eyed idiot even though he knows he shouldn’t. Frank sighs and ducks his head, mumbling, “I’m just really warm, that’s all.”
Gerard nods and crosses his arm, gazing up at the ceiling. “What time is it, Frankie?”
Frank leans over to the nightstand and grabs his phone, squinting to read the time. “2 p.m.”
Gerard nods sleepily, and Frank can’t help but wonder how Gerard still manages to be tired right after all that sleep. He doesn’t question it, however, and just gets out of bed, reaching his arms as high as he can to stretch.
Gerard flops out of bed, stamping clumsily over to his dresser where he grabs a pair of Calvin Kleins, skinny jeans, solid black socks and a cutoff tee. He moves past Frank, calling once he’s out the door,
“I’m going to shower.”
Frank groans, because he doesn’t want Gerard to leave him alone. What does Gerard expect Frank to do with himself at another person’s house? Frank supposes he can hang out with Mikey, so he starts up the stairs towards Mikey’s room.
Frank knows that Mikey’s on the cross country team, which means he’s been up before the hour of six on numerous occasions. He enters his room, surprised to not see him leaned back in his gaming rocker. His eye eventually catches the bed, where Mikey is completely wrapped up in his duvet like some sort of blanket burrito with only his eyes down to his chin peeking out. Frank sighs, and tiptoes his way out so not to wake him.
As Frank passes through the living room the second time, he sees Mikey’s friend Pete sound asleep on the couch, naked spare a pair of boxer briefs and sunglasses. “So that’s the little shit,” Frank says softly to himself.
Pete stirs in his sleep, a stray leg almost kicking Frank. Frank moves by carefully and goes back down the stairs to Gerard’s room.
Frank lies on the bed, just staring up at the ceiling. His mind is on bigger things, for instance, why the fuck Gerard refused to stop cuddling Frank this morning. A big part of Frank is telling him that Gerard obviously has feelings for him, which Frank returns, and that he should go for it. But the smallest little sliver tells him that maybe there is such a thing as platonic snuggling, because no way anyone would ever be dumb enough to fall for Frank.
He lays there, pondering his situation and feeling remorse for himself and everyone involved. There’s obviously been much more terrible tales of love, but Frank doesn’t care, all he knows is that he cares about Gerard more than he does himself and it fucking hurts.
Eventually Gerard reappears, hair wet and clinging to his face. He asks, “Frank, do you want us to drive you home?”
Frank shrugs. “Can I actually hang out here?”
“Why don’t we hang out at your place,” Gerard suggests. “I really like your mom.”
“Um…” Frank hesitates. He knows that his mom will only embarrass him, and surely that Gerard and Mikey will get a kick out of it. “Great, let’s go!” Gerard declares, heading out the door. Frank sighs and follows somewhat reluctantly, praying to himself that his mom won’t completely humiliate him.
Gerard goes upstairs, Frank in tote, only to wake up Mikey, who retaliates by chucking a pillow at Gerard’s head. Gerard manages to duck and dodge it, and adds, “C’mon, we’re going to Frank’s.” Mikey responds by in turn waking up Pete, who only grins sleepily and steps into some clothes.
They all head outside and pile into Gerard’s car, Frank being forced to share the backseat with Pete since Mikey refuses to give up shotgun.
Frank sits there, twiddling his thumbs, but Pete keeps trying to strike up a conversation, almost as if he can’t tell that Frank clearly isn’t interested. “So, what’s your favorite class?” Pete questions.
Frank eyes him, telling flatly, “Art.”
Pete nods, replying, “I like vocal. I like art too, but I’m just inherently bad at it.”
Frank can’t hide his smile, and giggles, responding, “Yeah.”
Gerard pulls into Frank’s driveway, stopping the car suddenly. He turns around in his seat, questioning, “Frankie, what do you want to do once we get inside?”
Frank shrugs, answering honestly, “I don’t know, I really didn’t want to go here, actually.”
“We can… watch a movie?” Gerard suggests.
Mikey groans, “All we do is watch movies.”
“We can play Monopoly,” Frank mentions. “We have the board game.”
“Sounds fun!” Pete chirps, hopping out of the car. The rest of the boys follow him up the porch and inside, where Frank’s mom immediately pounces on all four of the boys with tucking in their shirts and pinching their cheeks and fixing their hair. Frank has to practically shove her out of the way just to set up the board game at the kitchen table.
“Do you boys need snacks?” Frank’s mom asks once they’re all seated.“No I think we’re-” Frank begins.
“Actually, I’m starving,” Gerard informs. “That’d be awesome, Mrs. Iero.”
Mikey and Pete nod enthusiastically, so just like that Frank’s mom is whipping up her famous brownies as they’re just starting their game.
Frank chooses the dog being his animal loving self, Mikey chooses the car, Gerard goes for the top hat, and leave it to Pete to choose the absolute worst piece and play as the fucking thimble, willingly too.
Frank is glad that his mom isn’t being as potentially embarrassing as she usually is, and he starts to breathe easy just as she remarks,
“Frankie, who’s your friend playing as the thimble?”
Pete perks up at being mentioned, and he displays his front row of teeth in a wide smile.
“That’s Pete,” Frank answers. “He’s Mikey’s friend.”“Well Pete, aren’t you just the sweetest thing?” Frank’s mom gushes. “You know, you remind me of Frankie when he was little.”“Do I really?” Pete questions.
“Oh, yeah, sure!” Mrs. Iero continues. “You know, big doe eyes, dark hair, all that.”
“What was Frank like when he was little?” Mikey wonders.
Frank braces himself as his mom tries to find the words to answer Mikey’s question.
“Well, Frankie was a very shy little boy, but such a sweet baby. Hardly ever cried.”
“Mikey screamed his head off for most of my younger years,” Gerard growls, glaring at Mikey, who seems pleased with his infant self.
“You know, Frank was actually a bit mischievous,” Mrs. Iero continues. “He went through a phase when he was four where he was constantly taking his clothes off-”
“Mom!” Frank protests.
“It’s rude to interrupt,” Pete reminds Frank.
“Tell me more,” Mikey smirks.
Frank buries his head as his mother proceeds,
“Well there was one incident where we were grocery shopping and Frank had taken his pants off while we weren’t looking. So imagine that, a little four year old boy walking around the store in his Hello Kitty underwear. He wore girls’ underwear at that time, and his father was livid when I bought some for him, but it was what he liked. I think it was the glitter waistbands that drew him in. Frankie, you still like glitter, don’t you?” Frank’s mom asks, squeezing Frank’s shoulder. “Shoot me in the head,” Frank grumbles.
Frank’s mom kisses the top of his head, realizing, “Oh, he’s all bashful now. We only pick on you because we love you.”
Frank rolls his eyes, his face scarlet. “Yeah, that must be it.”
The stories subside once the brownies are done, and for the next fifteen or twenty minutes, not a second of it is spent without a boy having his mouth full.
They never do get to finish their game; Pete flips the board when Gerard lands on Free Parking for the fifth time. With that, Mikey wants to go home, and of course Pete tags along. Gerard just says, “Well, walk, because I’m hanging out with Frank.”
Mikey sticks his tongue out at Gerard, but nonetheless says goodbye to Mrs. Iero before leaving.
Frank raises an eyebrow, asking, “You want to hang out with me?”
Gerard smiles, asking, “Where’s your room?”